COMMUNITY NEWSLETTER TERM 1/2 2013

In March, the PTA held their major fundraising event – a

Monster Garage Sale in the school grounds. We raised a

profit of over $8,200. Many thanks to everyone who attend-

ed the event. Thank you also to all the family, staff and

friends of Tiritea School who assisted in so many ways to

make the event happen. Special thanks to several key people

who spent many, many hours organizing before, during and

after the event. The PTA has taken a key role in supporting

many events at Tiritea which helps to maintain that friendly

community sprit our school is known for, and also provide

additional resources to assist student learning. This year,

profits from the Garage Sale have gone towards the purchase

of ICT equipment to support student learning.

The first two terms at Tiritea School have been action packed and the roll is currently

sitting at 143 students, the highest it has ever been at this stage of the year in the

history of Tiritea School … and there are still New Entrants yet to arrive.

This year triennial elections for Boards of Trustees were held throughout New Zealand schools. We had seven people standing for election and we welcome our new Board: Chrissy Severinsen (Chairperson), Janene de Ridder, Julie Macdon-ald, Ralph Springett, Kiri Symonds, and Trish Molloy (Staff Trustee). I am looking forward to working with you. One of our out-going Board members, Pete Murphy, was recently presented with a certificate from the N.Z. School Trustees Association for 23 years of continuous service to the Tiritea School BOT, many of those years as Chairperson. Many thanks Pete, for your commitment and dedication to our students and for your wise counsel.

Welcome to the first of two biannual Community Newsletters from Tiritea School in 2013.

Tiritea School has achieved well in the Fitzherbert Cluster Events

so far this year.

At the Cluster Swimming Championships, we gained 10 first

placings, 4 second placings, and 7 third placings.

We won the shield for the Touch Rugby Tournament

First and third placings in the Speech competition – congratu-

lations to Aimee and Riley

At the Cluster Cross Country event,

nine students were placed in the top

three in their races.

Here is an exerpt from Aimee’s speech: You know that strange feeling in your stomach when you know you should

be doing something else? Well, that is called your gut instinct and you need

to listen to it.

We all know that the gut’s function is to process our food and it even makes

gurgling sounds to let us know it is hungry. You know those sounds that

sound like a lion roaring from the depths of the jungle, or is that just mine?

Those are the sounds we can hear but I’m talking about the gut’s feelings

we feel.

The gut is helpful for when you know you just shouldn’t eat that last donut

or you would spew it out again. Another thing is disobeying it like when you

really want that last cookie in the jar but your mum told you not to have it

and you do.

There are times when you try to ignore your gut like when you are really

nervous, like I am right now but all you have to say to your gut is “Don’t

worry gut. The rest of my body is nervous too.”

CROSS COUNTRY

CLUSTER

TOUCH

SPEECH

On February 21, the Tiritea School grounds turned into

tent city for our annual overnight camp for the whole

school! I never cease to be amazed at our fabulous stu-

dents and the level of support they and the school re-

ceive from our families. Many thanks to everyone for

their help and support. As the camp was held a little

earlier this year, it was a great chance for new families

to get to know each other, and the staff.

Professional Development for the staff is focused on

Numeracy facilitated by Advisers Plus with five of the

six schools in the Fitzherbert Cluster; and Literacy

(Written Language) with a Teaching as Inquiry focus,

and facilitated from the Massey University Centre for

Educational Development.

Highlights: Dressing in red and black to support our colleagues and friends in Christchurch as

they face radical changes to their education scene.

Hosting students from Meisei University in Japan.

Our Dress-Up Day for the PTA Monster Garage Sale. Students and staff came to

school dressed as something beginning with a letter in the work MONSTER.

Receiving $1,155 from New World Aokautere for our participation in the Anchor

Products promotion. This money has been used to purchase two IPads.

YMCA Sports Stars – our four more junior classes are having lessons once a week with two tutors from the

YMCA. This is wonderful support for our Physical Education programme and also learning for our teachers who

are out there with them each week.

As part of the school-wide Inquiry Learning focus “The Place Where I Belong,” each class visited Te Manawa to participate in programmes relating to the special features of the Manawatu.

Involvement in the Relay for Life.

48 students participated in the Weetbix Tryathlon. 70 students participated in the Kids for Kids Concert at the Regent Theatre, with Abbie

being chosen to sing one of the solos.

Laying a wreath at the Cenotaph on ANZAC Day.

Kauri Room’s participation in the Coastal Seeds Programme – they visited Foxton Beach

and planted pingao grass on the sand dunes with Kelly from DOC.

Participation in the iBike 4 Kids at the Esplanade and the I tri’d the Tri Series.

Kauri Room’s enrichment reading group raised money (Orang-utan Day) to “adopt” an or-

phan baby orang-utan called Monti.

The Keeping Ourselves Safe programme, with support from Constable Emily McMellon,

School Community Officer; and Firewise – the junior rooms visited the Fire Station at the

culmination of this topic.

Visit from Olympic Ambassador Trevor Shailer.

Two students were filmed for the T.V. programme “7 Days.” Congratulations Georgia and Mackenzie – you were

awesome!

The P.T.A. movie night in Tane Mahuta

Visit from New Zealand author and illustrator Fifi Colston

Glenys Edmonds, Principal

Some of you will remember shopping at Aokautere New World last year and being given a red token when you purchased An-

chor products. The money donated has been used to purchase two IPads, which arrived at school on Friday Anchor Grow-

ing Communities has begun a new funding project, and once again Tiritea School has been selected as one of the organiza-

tions eligible for funding! A huge thank you to Aokautere New World who have chosen us as one of four charities they will

represent in store.

Anchor has allocated funds to local supermarkets around New Zealand, to be distributed among local community projects of the super-

market’s choice. Over a three month period, customers who visit the supermarket are given the choice of these four local causes to donate

to. When a shopper purchases Anchor Milk they will be given a token, which they then place in a specially designed token box for the

relevant cause they wanted to support (our poster is above our box). At the end of the period, the money is distributed proportionally

according to the number of tokens each cause received.

Please get behind Tiritea School again.

Do you have pre-school children and are still to enroll them at Tiritea School? To help with our planning we would appreci-ate hearing from you. Please contact the school office to en-roll or find out more. We welcome visitors to Tiritea School. Many thanks to members of the community who have sup-

ported Tiritea School with collecting Colgate toothpaste car-

tons (we received $400 worth of sports gear), and Anchor

tokens (we purchased two IPads), and a special thank you to

Aokautere New World for making the collections possible. We

really appreciate everyone’s support