Welcome to 2013!

Dear Parents and Caregivers,

Welcome to another exciting year at Muritai School. It is hard to believe that already we are in our fourth week of learning. The children have all settled well into their new classrooms and are working happily on many new activities. At the beginning of the year we know some children take a little longer to get used to any changes especially after the long holiday break but rest assured once they are in their classrooms they are happy and fully engaged with their learning and friends. If your child is anxious please discuss this with their teacher so that a strategy for you, the parent to leave can be worked out if necessary. 

Welcome to the new children and families who have joined our Junior School. We hope that you have met lots of other people already and are enjoying being part of our school family. It was lovely that so many parents and caregivers took the opportunity to come along and meet their child's teacher and share important information about them with them.

This year our teaching team for the Junior school is as follows - 
Room 1 - Mrs Ryan, who will be staring the next Year 1 class later this term.
Room 2 - Mrs Mills, who has a Year 1 class
Room 3 - Mrs Buckley and Mrs Sullivan who have a Year 1 class
Room 4 - Mrs Cody who has a Year 2 class
Room 5 - Mrs Saker who has a Year 1 and 2 class
Room 6 - Ms Roberts and Mrs Salisbury who have a Year 2 class. 

We also very lucky to have Mrs Murphy, Mrs Anderson, Mrs Charlton and Mrs Blair who are our teacher aides that support our children's learning. 

A warm welcome to Mrs Sullivan who teaches in room 3 two days each week while Mrs Buckley is released to do her deputy principal role. 

Our Junior gardens outside in the quad area are looking lovely. The children from each classroom are taking responsibility for each of these gardens and are involved in their care. Special thanks to Mrs Ryan for overseeing this. 

Our teaching team has planned some really exciting and varied learning experiences for the students this term.  We have a school wide theme which is Kia Kaha this year. In our Junior classrooms we will be focusing upon NED - Never give up, encourage others and do your best along with "I can if I try".

We will also be taking part in the Konfident Kidz programme. 

Our Inquiry unit entitled "Here's our history" well underway with the children learning about how the past is important to people along with belonging to groups is important to people as understanding that people have different roles and responsibilities as part of their participation in groups. We are currently focusing upon how each child is special. Following this the children will learn about how items have changed over time and have the opportunity to share what they have been learning with their grandparents or a special older adult. 
A visit to school by our Grandparents and Grandfriends is scheduled for Thursday April 4th. Parents please let your child's grandparents or another adult who could join us know about this date. You will be given a notice confirming times and the programme for the visit next week. 

Our focus for writing this term will be on recounts. The children will be taking part in a range of language experiences and try and write about them in the recount format. This involves learning how to sequence events and add interest to their stories by using adjectives and similies. They will also be focusing on using the correct punctuation and spelling.

Reading programmes are working well and all children should be bringing home a book to read with their parents each Monday to Thursday night and a poem to enjoy on Fridays. Please continue to read aloud to your child every day so that they hear good quality literature being role modelled to them. 

Mathematics continues too on a daily basis with a large focus on Number with the children learning how to recognise different numbers, counting forwards and backwards  as well as addition and subtraction. They have been working on statistics and will also be learning about two and three dimensional shapes in geometry. Mathletics as part of the homework programme will be underway in the next week once passwords have been assigned.

Our Visual art topic for this term involves drawing. Some classes are already exhibiting some wonderful colourful self portraits. 

Performing Arts this term involves a wonderful trip to be the audience in three shows that are featured in the Capital E National Arts Festival. All children will be going by bus to Wellington and will see the following shows - "Like it or Loop it", The man the Sea Saw" and "Kaput' on Thursday March 21st. Teachers and support staff will be the only adults able to go on this trip to supervise the children. We booked these last year and unfortunately we are unable to take parents with us on this occasion. The cost for all three shows will be $20 and will be coming out of the children's activity fee. 

We have been so lucky with the weather and been able to have swimming most days. Swimming is a very important part of the Physical Education programme. Living in an island nation it is imperative that everyone knows how to survive in and around water. We have been fortunate to have the swimming tutors in the pool alongside the children giving them expert attention and advice. We are delighted that next Tuesday March 5th we will be having our Junior School fun Swimming Festival. This is a great opportunity for families to join us at the Eastbourne pool so that the children can share with you their water skills. We hope that the weather will be fine as there will not be a postponement date. Rooms 4, 5 and 6 will be going to the pool at 9.20 for their fun events while the children from rooms 2 and 3 will join them at 10.45 a.m. for their turn. Jumpjam continues each Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday morning at 8.40 a.m. under the sunshade and we will be focusing on improving ball skills for the rest of the term.

This term the children will be learning their mihi and also greetings in te reo. They will also be having kapahaka and learning some new waiata.

Each classroom has a blog. Please have a look at what has been happening in our Junior School and feel free to leave a comment on the learning that you see. The children love to read these. 

DIARY DATES

Tuesday March 5th - Junior School Swimming Festival
Wednesday March 13th - Teacher's union meeting - 1.30 p.m. - school closed 
Wednesday March 20th - Starting School at five' evening for parents of preschoolers
Thursday March 21st - Capital E shows
Friday March 29th - Good Friday 
Monday April 1st - Easter 
Tuesday April 2nd - Easter
Thursday April 4th - Grandparents and Grandfriends day 
Wednesday April 17th - Parent and teacher interviews
Thursday April 18th - Parent and teacher interviews

If you have any questions about your child and their learning please do not hesitate to contact your child's teacher. An email to them is the best way to do this and they will get back to you. 

Have a lovely week! 
Maureen Buckley
Deputy Principal