Kia ora koutou!
Welcome to Term 4 of 2018. It’s hard to believe we are now in the final term of the year. It was wonderful to see so many of you at our Production at the end of Term 3 - thank you for coming along to celebrate the wonderful creativity of our students.
With this term being only 9 weeks and 2 days and including Abel Tasman, Year 7 EOTC and the Year 8 Formal, it is certainly set to be a busy one!
Below is a run down on the term. Feel free to contact your child’s classroom teacher if there is anything you wish to discuss further.
Literacy
Our writing focus for this term is poetry, where we will be exploring exploring a variety of figurative language using this context to consolidate through reflection the years spent at Muritai for our Year 8s and the ambitions of the Year 7s as they enter their final year. We will also be continuing our focus of persuasive language, using what we learnt last term to assist us with our debates. All students will participate in a debate at the class level with 2 students from each class at each year level being promoted to enter the finals across the syndicate.
We are continuing to develop comprehension skills through our reading programme, where we will be exploring poems, and looking at novels using reciprocal reading strategies. Reading is also integrated across our inquiry topics.
Numeracy
We start the term revising some key concepts from the year. We will be focusing particularly on fractions, decimals, place value and operational strategies. In addition to this students will be covering the strand of Algebra. We also aim to give students some experience of open ended mathematical inquiry within our programs this term, while building their knowledge and flexibility with strategies.
Inquiry / Integrated Studies
Sexuality Road continues in Term 4. We have our last 4 sessions to complete our unit called ’Discovering Me’ Throughout these sessions we will be discussing communication and decision making, reproduction, what support networks do I have? and then a session to round up all 10 previous sessions and allow for any final questions. Once again, if you have any questions regarding this unit, please don’t hesitate to get in touch.
***Integrated Inquiry- Careers and Personal Passion Projects
We start the term with a focus on careers with a focus on ‘Developing Passions to Career’. We have a variety of people coming in to talk around their careers, 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. Students will be booking into career workshops delivered by our own community- this should be exciting. We will be offering the opportunity of Personal Passion Projects with our senior students to delve into their passions once more during the last half of the term. We were very impressed by the efforts of the students in Term 2 and how the vast majority were confident at directing their own learning. We will be asking students to think about how their passion could be developed into a career in the future or how their passion could direct them towards something fulfilling that may already exist. The students will be completing their proposals during Week 4 of the term for homework and start these at the beginning of Week 5. They will have 3-4 full sessions a week over Weeks 5, 6 and 7 or 8 (depending on EOTC arrangements) of the term to work on these, but it is likely that they will also need to use some of their own time at home to complete it. This will be the major component of homework at this time. We will share to our school community at the end of this period and invite you in for celebration night at the end of the term.
Physical Education
An exciting term for PE is planned, starting off with Athletics. The children will be taking part in Long Jump, High Jump, Vortex, Shot put, Discus and Sprints. This leads in nicely to our school athletics day on Thursday 25th of October. We end the term with Swimming starting again down at the local pool. For swimming we are focusing on instruction and stroke correction and for many swimming fitness and distance. Each session will have a water safety focus as well, with the final session being totally focused on water safety. We will be having 6 instructed lessons over a two week period from the 12th of November to the 2nd of November.
EOTC
Planning is well underway for the Year 8 Abel Tasman adventure and the first full parent meeting is being held this coming Thursday at 6:30pm in Room 22. The purpose of this meeting is to explain how the camp runs, the reasons for going and the equipment your child needs to be warm, dry and well equipped for all activities. We leave on the 2nd of December and arrive back on the 7th of December. The Year 7 EOTC week planning is also well underway and is going to be conducted over Week 7 of the Term (26th of November to the 30th of November)
We will be meeting with the students regularly to ensure they are fully prepared for the exciting week at the end of the term.
We are also planning on taking advantage of our stunning local environment by utilising the Eastbourne bush tracks. This is excellent preparation for the EOTC week, especially for the Year 8s, as they will be walking long distances each day of the Abel Tasman.
Other opportunities
This term brings the opportunity for our two teams of students to participate in the Epro 8 engineering challenge. This event will be held at Wainuiomata Intermediate School from 5pm on Wednesday 7th November.
Reporting to Parents
Teachers will very shortly start writing academic reports for each student. This is a summative assessment on the progress and achievements your child has made throughout the year. These reports will be coming home at the end of the term. Also at the end of the term, students will bring home their clearfile with work samples from throughout the year. Along with this hard copy, students will also have work samples in their Google Drive account. We will be encouraging our Year 8 students to download their samples to a personal account before the end the of the year.
Stationery Check
Many students are now missing pens, pencils, rulers, plastic pockets and calculators. These are necessary for everyday class work. Can you please ask your child if they need any items and replace them. Thank you.
Sun Hats, Sun Block and Drink Bottles
It’s term 4 and each child must bring a hat to wear everyday. Students not wearing hats have to stay in the shaded area. It is also recommended the children apply sunblock and have their own named drink bottle at school. As the days get warmer it’s important they are fully hydrated.
Footwear and clothing (personal hygiene)
All the children will be a lot more active this term and when the weather starts to get warmer we all start to sweat (and smell) more. We are recommending that students bring a spare change of clothes and suitable footwear for exercising at school. For many students it is time to start using roll-on deodorant (please no spray deodorant, on their own they smell nice but 30 plus different fragrances wafting in the air can be a bit overpowering)- we are more than happy for them to use this at school. Please ensure your child wears shoes that they can comfortably run in. Jandals and boots are not appropriate.
Finally, if you have any concerns or worries (or indeed if you can support us with any of the activities for the term!) please contact your child’s teacher by leaving a phone message at the office or by email: teachers surname @ muritai.school.nz.
Jon Mackie- mackie@muritai.school.nz
Carol Algar- algar@muritai.school.nz
Jenny George - george@muritai.school.nz
Thank you as always for your continued support,
The Year 7 and 8 team
