61 Waller Street

Murchison 7007

Phone 03 5239 072 Fax 03 5239 588 enquiries@murchison.school.nz

Murchison Area School

26th February 2016

Kia Ora Koutou Dear Parents/Caregivers This week we have had Life Education (Harold the giraffe) at school. The students have certainly enjoyed their learning in the truck and some of them have been quite challenged by some of the information they received. It is great that teachers have then continued the learning in their classrooms with further activities connected to the ideas they had been discussing. We seem to have a problem with hats. Secondary students are pushing boundaries, but telling us it is because they can’t go to Nelson to buy one. So we have arranged to hold caps at the office and these are available for $20 each. Based on the Ministry of Education’s Student Safety requirements, and our Sun Safe policy, students do need to wear a hat in the sun. Our school has a uniform, that everyone attending our school has agreed to in the enrolment process, and therefore students are required to wear hats at breaks and when outside for sport on sunny days in Terms 1 and 4. We thank parents for supporting our efforts in this regard. It is all about keeping your children safe. We will let you know through facebook as soon as the caps arrive and are available. Our new Primary Resource Room is finally almost ready to be used. In fact it is looking rather flash – right now I’d have to say it is the freshest room in the school! The planning, sorting and arranging of the resources that have to be transferred from the old (condemned) resource room to the new one is a huge undertaking. One that needs to be done by teachers, and can’t be done in an evening or two. The best way we can see to handle this is as a full day of hard work by all Primary staff, so we will be holding a “Primary student free” day on Friday 18th March. Year 9 to 13 classes will run as usual. Our school swimming sports are rapidly appearing on the horizon, and we hope as many of you as possible have set aside the 10th March to be at school to support our students on that day. It is always a huge day for our stu-dents and an incredibly busy one for our staff, and I know they really appreciate your support. Thank you to all of those who completed the survey on the characteristics you consider important in a Principal. The Board tells me that your replies will now be taken into account in developing their application pack for the new position. My thanks too – I definitely want to see the best possible person take over my role! The weekend is here. Enjoy the two days with your children.

Kia kaha Tina Johnson Principal

Term 1 School Wide Value — Respect

Mobile Community Oral Health Clinic — 22nd February to 4th March; Board Meeting — 29th February at 7pm, School Meeting Room; Whole School Swimming Sports — 10th March; Primary Teacher’s only day—18th March; Top of the South Area School’s Tournament — 20th to 24th March; Sexwise visit — 7th April; Whole School Athletic Sports — 8th April; Defence Force Visit—14th April; Last day of Term 1 — 15th April; Teacher Only Day — 6th May.

Currently we are taking advantage of a Robotics Course that is being offered by The Ministry of Inspiration in Nelson. We have three Year 8 & 9 students enrolled and they travel to Nelson each week to attend a course teaching them how to build and programme robots. All three of the boys have been very enthusiastic about the course and are enjoying the challenge. We hope to offer more of our students opportunities through the Ministry of Inspiration, so watch this space!

Left to Right: Felix Harper, Shaemyn McDonald, Will Bowe

SMART WORD BOOKS The primary schools’ smart words program is up and running again this term, with all students from Years 1 to 8 having been tested, and have now received their new smart word books. These books cost $11.00 each, and have been charged to your child’s school account.

SHARING PAPERS Our Sharing Papers will be coming home for all parents today. Sharing Papers are an opportunity for communication between home and school, early in the year. They allow both parents and teachers to share interests, positives and areas for future focus for our students. Keep an eye out for them, complete and return them to the office; your feedback is appreciated.

DID YOU KNOW OUR SCHOOL HAS A FACEBOOK PAGE? If not, check it out:-

www.facebook.com/murchisonareaschool. Keep up to date with all the latest events happening in our school.

And while you are at it, have you seen our website?

www.murchison.school.nz This site contains all our newsletters in colour, details of school uniform and other useful information.

Mobile Community Oral Health Clinic is visiting again! The Mobile Community Oral Health Clinic will soon be in our area once again. As in the past it will be sited at Murchison Hospital from Monday 22nd February – Friday 4th March 2016. The brightly decorated Mobile COHC houses two fully equipped clinics each staffed by a dental therapist and a den-tal assistant who are supported by modern x-ray, computer and sterilsation facilities on board. The Community Oral Health Service operates from 8 am to 5 pm five days per week, and fifty weeks per year giving parents more choice as to when they can accompany their children. Nelson Marlborough District Health Board Oral Health Educator Esme Palliser said “Parents have also enjoyed the ability to group book all their children to be seen at the same visit, and talking directly to the dental therapist about good oral health care for their family”. The Mobile clinic makes two visits a year to our area and parents will be contacted by telephone to arrange appoint-ments for their children. If families need to change these appointments or they have recently shifted or changed their phone number they should phone 0800 833 849 or 03 520 9922. The Mobile clinic will also be visiting from the 29th August—2nd September 2016.

2015 Field Day and Step Up Concert We still have some DVD’s available for sale from the 2015 Field Day and Step UP Concert. If you would like to purchase either one or both of these CD’s, please see Kathryn at the Office. They cost $3.00 each.

SCHOOL BUSES

Could all Parents/Caregivers (of children who use the school bus service) please remember to let the School Office and bus driver know if their child/ren are not going home on the school bus at 3pm. This avoids confusion at 3pm if there is a change from the normal bus routine. Thank you!

Thank you to TRUBET HOLDINGS

who gifted a beautiful pair of recycled timber chairs for our staff seating area.

What a considerate gift!

NEXT BOARD MEETING

The first Board Meeting of the year will be held on Monday, 29th February, at 7pm in the

Board Meeting Room (the old dental clinic).

ABSENCES If your child/ren are not going to be at school, please ensure you let the office know as soon as possible on the morning they are going to be away. We are also required to know the reason why they are away. It is imperative that we know where our students are, so your assistance with this would be appreciated.

It’s that time of year again…. With the warmer weather here, we are implementing our NO HAT, NO PLAY rule. This is for ALL STUDENTS. Secondary students must also now follow this rule.

There are 3 different styles of school sunhat available from The Warehouse in Richmond:-

∗ A cap with our logo; ∗ A bucket hat with our logo, and

∗ A plain navy wide brim hat.

Also a reminder to all secondary students. You must wear uniform hats from now on e.g. winter beanies and summer sun hats. There will be no exceptions.

Oh dear! There is a tummy bug going around.

Just a reminder, PLEASE DO NOT send your child to school for 24 hours after the last time they vomited! We want as many of our children (and staff) to avoid

this lurgy as we can!

Thank you!

Murchison Netball Club registration forms are now available from the school office. These MUST be returned by 3pm on March 4th.

First practice will be 10th March. Coaches will contact players with times.

We also have Fun Ferns again this season. This is open to ALL children aged 5+ for $10 per family for the entire season from 3.15pm-4pm on Tuesday. A notice for this (and any other

pertinent information) will be in local and school newsletter and also on the Murchison Netball Club facebook page .

Calling all Rugby Stars - Its time to register for the 2016 Season!! Firstly, Murchison Rugby Club (MRFC) would like to thank all the parents (and kids!) that turned up to our information evening on Tuesday. Key information that came out of this meeting was:

• MRFC would like to register a team for Ripper rugby - a great chance for your child to have a run around, be social and learn some basic Rugby skills like Ball Handling, Teamwork and FairPlay. If we can get a Ripper team, travel for these children would be halved as they would play at home and away. We only need about five more children aged 5-7 to make this happen!

• Due to lack of numbers in other JAB and Age Grades, MRFC will be approaching Wanderers to take players in grades up to 14 years and Marist to take players 14+. Our attempt is to keep our players in the same clubs wherever possible to ease the load on Parents for practices/games. Also, it is much easier for the Club to support these players if they are split over 2-3 clubs rather than 8-9 like other years.

• Female players Intermediate and High School aged will be put into the Girls School Rugby Competition, which plays Wednesdays at 4pm. Team options to be advised. MRFC would be looking to assist with fuel costs (amount TBC) for vehicles travelling each week, however in return we will be asking families to go on a roster to assist in the Kitchen during the Senior Rep Games hosted in Murchison at the end of the season. Approximately 7-8 weeks of games, so one or two kitchen shifts per family. NEXT STEP FOR PARENTS Please register your child under Murchison Rugby Club before Tuesday, 8th March:

• If your child was registered with MRFC last year, you will have received an email with a link to re-register them for the 2016 season. Please read this form carefully, make any appropriate changes and then click Submit. If your child was not registered with Murchison Rugby Club then you can go to the following page to register them - www.sporty.co.nz/viewform/5303 If your child is Intermediate/High School aged, female and you were not at the information evening, please contact Julia Sara on 0223446208 NEXT STEP FOR MRFC Once we have collated all registrations, we will be able to confirm what teams we have and who your child will be playing for. Any issues with registration or other questions, please contact Julia Sara on 0223446208.

From the Board of Trustees to everyone that completed the Principal Survey. The survey has now closed, and the results will be handed onto the

Board for their consideration.

Drawings by the students in Room 1

FOR SALE - $150.00 Reid has made these very artistic chainsaw table and chairs, and has very kindly

offered to give the sale proceeds to our school. If you would like to purchase these, please contact Reid on 0221 564568.