Term 3 Newsletter
Dear Parents and Caregivers,
I hope you all had a relaxing break and some quality time
with friends and family.
Thank you to everyone who came along to our Celebration of
Learning evening (and those who made it to the science fair sharing!) at the
end of last term. It’s always good to touch base and celebrate the successes
students have made. All the teachers were thoroughly blown away with the
outstanding effort put into the science projects. It certainly was a massive
process and we were very proud of many of the students and very appreciative of
the support received from home. It is excellent to see some sound work ethic
developing and students continuing to strive to reach their potential. A big
congratulations to the following students who received a placing.
1st: George Travers
2nd: Yasmin Kerr
3rd: Emma Littlefair
And also to our other 5 finalists who will all be
representing our school at the NIWA Science Fair next month.
Nina Owles
Lea Pummer
Dan Walker
Tilly Potter
Chloe Bothwell
We will keep you posted on their achievements.
This term we are saying ‘Au Revoir’ to Miss Coton who has
won an exciting opportunity to undertake a Royal Society of New Zealand science
fellowship working with Zealandia and who (although she will still be around
from time to time) will be back on board properly next year to share some of
her learning with us!
In the meantime we are delighted to welcome Robyn Wellwood
to our team. She will be taking care of
Room 22 in Miss Coton’s absence and has written a little introduction for us…
Hi. My name is
Robyn Wellwood and I’m originally a kiwi from Whangarei but have spent most of
my time living in Wellington. I’m coming home to New Zealand after 7 years of
living and working in Bali. I’m married to a Balinese composer called Wayan
Yudana and we run a small home gallery for emerging artists as well as teaching
here in Bali. I have a 14 year old son and 5 year old daughter. I’m easy going
and quietly enjoy life. I love writing about travel and art and have skipped my
way through parts of South East Asia, teaching and writing as I go. I’m really
excited to be returning home to New Zealand despite hitting the mid-winter
chill. Feel free to pop in and say hello. See you all very
soon.
wellwood@ muritai.school.nz
We are now ready to head full swing into Term 3 and as
usual, it’s set to be a busy one! Below is a run down of what your child will
be focusing on.
Inquiry: The Internet – keeping ourselves
safe & participating positively online.
Thank you to those who attended our session on the
Wednesday evening before the holidays.
Your thoughts and suggestions about key issues of cybersafety we should
consider in our planning for this term were most welcome and helpful. We aim to tailor our programs to suit the
specific needs of the students in front of us.
This term’s inquiry is a health / social related inquiry into
the internet and digital citizenship. We
will explore the benefits and the risks associated with our increasingly digitial
world, looking at how to participate positively in online communities while keeping
ourselves safe. As part of this focus,
students will also work through elements of the New Zelaand Police’s ‘Kia Kaha’
program which is aimed at teaching students about the impact of bullying and
the skills and strategies they may need to prevent or deal with it.
Last term we were exceptionally fortunate to have several
parent experts visit with our team to share their wealth of knowledge around
respiratory systems and we all learned heaps!
If there is anyone who feels they may be able to talk to or work
alongside our students in this term’s Inquiry, please contact your classroom
teacher or myself borgonje@muritai.school.nz . It is SO valuable for the students to see the
relevance of what they are learning in their own local community.
Literacy:
As always our literacy will have strong connections with
our Inquiry studies. We will be reading and writing persuasive texts, working
to understand bias and the benefits of being a critical reader with information
in both print and digital form. The
persuasive genre is also a good springboard for creating oral presentations for
debating. It is the term for our debate competition! Our best debater will be awarded with our
Year 7/8 Speech Competition Cup at the end of the year.
Mathematics:
Maths will continue to build on students’ flexibility with knowledge and
strategies from Term 2, with a particular focus on developing number
(multiplication and division, fractions, decimals, proportions and ratios)
alongside geometry – specifically position and transformation. Students are continuing to focus on building
positive mathematical mindsets and working in groups where they practise exploring
strategies, explaining, justifying and questioning mathematical concepts . Students will also explore elements of
financial literacy.
School Production:
Of course Term 3 is always the ‘Production’ term. This year
the theme is musicals and each syndicate will adapt a popular musical. We will be looking at Les Miserables. As usual the Year 7 and 8 students will have
the opportunity to take a major involvement in the show from acting to prop
design, lighting and backstage work. In fact, we have a group of students who
have already been hard at work developing the script! There will be more information coming home
regarding the school production throughout the term. This will encompass much of our learning in
the arts also – music, dance, perfomance and visual art.
Once again, if there is anyone in our community who has
expertise with performance, prop design or costume making and may be able to support
our students with this, please do let us know!
Physical Education:
The focus for the first half of this of this term is ‘Games
from around the world’. Coinciding with
the Olympic Games, we aim to give students a ‘taster’ of many different sports
to encourage them find what they are passionate about. The second half of the term will see us begin
training (wether permitting) for our Term 4 athletics which always comes upon
us rather quickly in Term 4! We will also be entering teams in the upcoming
HRSA Netball and Hockey Tournaments (numbers dependent). Our sport
rotation programme will continue on Wednesday afternoons.
We will be continuing with our fitness programmes in the
mornings every day. As always we ask the students to ensure they are wearing
appropriate clothing and footwear for these sessions. We also suggest that they
may want to bring a change a clothes for exercising in as they can often work
up quite a sweat in these sessions. Using roll-on deodorant may also be
beneficial.
Heading into Term 4 – Advance Notice!
At the beginning of Term 4 we are keen to have a ‘looking
into my future’ focus on Careers Education.
We are hoping to find some parents who would be willing to come in and
talk with our students about their careers; what is their career, what they actually
DO everyday, how they got there, and any tips or advice for students making the
most of their next steps at school. The
more varied the career pathways the better! If you would be willing to be part
of this, please get in contact this term as we know that with our camps coming
up and the end of the year we will need to make the most of this in the first
half of Term 4.
Other things to note:
Homework:
Now that our Science Fair is complete we will be going back
to a more structured programme for homework for the first few weeks. This will
usually include, spelling, grammar (proofreading), reading, mathletics and a
small inquiry task. Please remind your child they should be reading for at
least 15-20 minutes a night and they will have at least 2-3 mathletics tasks to
complete each week. Around the middle of
the term, students will begin to prepare for the debating competition also
through their homework.
Microwave:
Many thanks to Sam McRobbie and family for organising a
replacement microwave as our microwave cooker was recently been returned to its
rightful owner. We are conscious that,
with the colder weather, students are keen to warm their lunches so that a
microwave is a most useful commodity! Please
bear us in mind should you be thinking of getting rid of an old one!
Waste Free Lunches:
Just a reminder that as a school
we are working towards waste free lunches – as much as possible! When your child is making their lunch, please
remind them to consider ways in which they can keep the packaging to a minimum. This link:
http://www.wastefreelunches.org/parents.html has some good ideas!
Wet Weather:
While we are still stuck in the winter months, many of us
start to get a bit hairy being stuck indoors all day! Wet lunchtimes can often
be difficult so we welcome students bringing to school indoor games, such as
board games or cards.
Finally if you have any concerns or questions regarding our
classroom programme or your child's learning, please don't hesitate to make
contact with us. Feel free to pop in before or after school or the easiest way
to touch base with us is email:
Robyn: wellwood@ muritia.school.nz
Carl: woodhams@muritia.school.nz
Annette: borgonje@muritai.school.nz
Thank you again for your support,
Annette Borgonje
Associate Principal
