Newsletter - 24 February 2023

This year, we have welcomed a number of new students to Mahora School and will introduce them during the term.

This week we introduce Kenneth Cao, Treyton Climo, Hunter Roper, Amaia-Rose Aramoana, Ava Hinton, Manan Bhandari, Ellie Wuntanee and Tane Karauria who have all started this term. We hope you have all enjoyed your start at Mahora School.

Piki Haere,

Rohan.

The tamariki in Pōhutukawa have been working very hard on their mahi toi/artwork. The tamariki have shared their ideas, feelings, and stories through their own images, to represent the whānau, interests and taonga that are special to them. It is wonderful to see how each of the tamariki added a whakataukī/proverb that resonated with them to best describe their journey here at Mahora.

We have had some stellar kākano tamariki showing off their printing and even some of their amazing story-telling skills. The link between spoken and written language for our tamariki is supported by improving our children’s phonological and phonemic awareness, letter-sound knowledge and oral language. Through the Better Start Literacy Approach our tamariki are building a strong literacy foundation. Ka pai tamariki mā!

National State Of Emergency: Gabrielle

by Luka Plester

20.2.23

Last week we had a serious incident. The 7th Cyclone this year named Gabrielle had hit the country of New Zealand and caused severely effective damage. People had so much flooding that all they could do was either hide inside their roof or on top of their roof. Just huddling together for warmth. If alone, praying or maybe even hugging themselves. Helicopters flew overhead and landed on roofs. The people had gotten in the helicopters and were taken care of. They all got flown to civil defence centres. Many civil defence centres are now littered around New Zealand, full of survivors.

More than 30,000 people had no power for days. Some for 3 hours. Others for 2, 3, or even 4 days. Rissington Bridge collapsed. Brookfields Bridge, collapsed. Almost any bridge you can think of, collapsed. All the roads out of Hastings are flooded. Many fields and others are flooded. The A&P Showgrounds are ruined. Tons of trees are down in the field. We won’t have any A&P Shows for a while.

Not to mention, roofs off of houses are also blown off. People came out injured and some even dead! Not so fun fact: The Hastings sports centre got changed to a civil defence centre. My family had no power for 2 days and we donated 2 big cans of spaghetti to a shelter called Spaceship which had no internet and power at the time. Still doesn't.

We lost internet for the whole week. But straight after, our settlement day for our new house on Duke St came. It was a bit of a struggle. But we did it. We now reside there.

At our old place, we had to use a camping gas cooker and kettle. We had a big tank of fresh water because the tap water was infested with sewage. We went shopping just before the event so we were fine with food. But not entertainment. Our family survived and others have too, but some are injured, and some are dead. Our family decided to make a plan to take off for the more south side of New Zealand. But we scrapped it. We could not move anywhere. All the roads and bridges out of Hastings were flooded. And we never dared to drive through the water. Chances were that we would get stuck.

We survived without problem. Winds were severe and rain was menacing. We knew it would happen to us. But we were prepared.

In short: We survived with little worries. Many others might have not, or came out hurt. Let’s hope nothing like this happens again.

Due to the disruption we had last week, we will be holding our Māhuri and Whanake Swimming Sports next week on Friday 3 March. The tamariki have been practicing very hard and even the commitment with them swimming in the rain has been extraordinary. We are looking forward to celebrating all of the tamariki and their amazing swimming skills they have developed during the beginning of the year.

This week our kura have been supporting all of the kapa haka groups throughout Aotearoa by watching their performances and supporting them by doing pukana, cheering and applauding. It has been wonderful to see our tamariki acknowledge the groups from Ngāti Kahungunu and across the regions.

To book a time simply –

1. The options to book a hui is either through the Mahora SchoolApp, Click on the ‘School Interview’ button at the bottom of the front page on the app, then click on 'School Interview Booking' or click on this link

2. Find your child’s teacher and click on the ‘Book a Time’ and this will give you all the available timeslots, select the time you want and then fill in your details and then save

For classes with more than one teacher (Room 7, Room 14, Room 16) – No teachers names will be listed. It will say Teacher 1, Teacher 2. It does not matter which you choose, just select the time and day that suits you. Once teachers have all the times they will divide the group between them and you will meet with one of them.

Our gardening club has been doing some wonderful work around the school grounds. Today they were restoring the bike track after Cyclone Gabrielle.

We found ourselves short of a few items and were wondering if the Mahora community had any of the following items in good condition at home, they would be happy to donate.

• Children’s gardening gloves

• Leaf rakes

• Gardening grabbers for leaves

• Garden trowels

At this stage, these are the only items we require.

• Māhuri and Whanake orienteering - Monday 27 February
• Māhuri Swimming Sports - Thursday 2 March
  
• Whanake Swimming Sports - Friday 3 March
  
• School Assembly - Friday 3 March
• Piki Haere Hui - Tuesday 7 and Wednesday 8 March
• Optimist Yachting - Monday 13 March - Friday 17 March
• Life Education caravan visiting - Monday 27 March - Friday 31 March