Welcome to Term 4 2015!

Dear Parents and Caregivers,
Welcome to Term 4 and a warm welcome to new families who have joined us since the last newsletter. I do hope you have all had a lovely holiday with your children and that they are well rested and excited ready to return to school on Monday. 

Last term they achieved many goals and this term we will continue to build on those. It was great to discuss your child's progress with you on the last week of term 3 so thank you for taking the time to do this.  I do hope you now have a clearer understanding of how your child is working towards meeting the National Standards. If you have any questions about your child's progress please do not hesitate to ask your child's teacher. 

We were delighted with the progress that the children also made in their skipping skills and they were so proud to share this on the Jump Rope 'Skipathon' in September. Thank you to all those who supported this and sent along sponsorship money. We were able to send $230 to the New Zealand Heart Foundation to be used in further research. 

There are a few changes to staffing this coming term. Mrs Liz Sullivan will be starting our next New Entrant classroom in room 2 on Monday. Mrs Sue Steele will be teaching in room 3 on Thursdays and Fridays and Mrs Sally Ingram will be working in room 5 on a Friday. 

The term ahead -
A myriad of wonderful learning experiences have been planned for your children for the next ten weeks. 

moveMprove
All children in the Junior School will begin this amazing physical programme this Wednesday. We have got outside providers coming in to run these sessions as they were so successful and enjoyed by the children last year. We have subsidised some of the cost for this but can you please send along $10 to the school office towards the rest of the fees for this eight week course?

E.O.T.C. (Education outside the Classroom) November 30th - December 4th 
A wonderful array of activities have been planned for this week and full details will be sent home closer to the date.

Christmas Concert and Party 
We will be having our annual Christmas concert and end of year party on Wednesday December 9th from 1.30 p.m. in the hall. All families and friends of the Junior School are invited to join us. 

Curriculum areas

Literacy
A range of learning situations which encourage oral language development occur daily in each classroom. It is very important that each child takes part in a variety of discussions as well as develop their listening skills. Please ask them what the best thing that they did at school during the day. 
Our focus in writing is poetry and letter writing. The children will be learning how to enhance their writing and use wow (adjectives) words. They will also be working on improving the structure of the writing by writing an interesting beginnings, middle and exciting ending. Letterland and Smartphonics programmes will continue. 
Children will continue daily reading and read widely in a variety of ways. They will bring home a reading books on Monday to Thursday and a poem on Fridays. Year 0 and I will have reading rockets and Year 1 and 2 will have spelling rockets also. 
Handwriting is also a big focus as it is very important that each child holds their pencil correctly and accurately forms all upper and lower case letters with ease. 

Numeracy 
Daily programmes will continue to build the number and strategy knowledge of the children. They will also cover strand topics about mass and volume. The daily practice of Mathletics at home is also encouraged. The basic facts carriages will continue so that the facts are able to be recalled instantly and used in problem solving activities. 

Our Inquiry entitled 'Safe in my World' focuses upon being safe. At the end of last term we began this by having Virginia speaking to the children about how to stay safe around dogs. Throughout this term they will learn about sun safety, fire safety and personal safety.Each child will be taking part in the 'Knowing what to do' unit which is part of the personal safety programme Keeping Ourselves Safe. The programme has been designed to provide children with the skills to cope in a range of situations. For this programme to be successful parents also need to support the related activities. If you are interested in finding out more about what the programme involves and what your child will be doing I will be holding a brief parent meeting in room 3 at 3 p.m. on Thursday October 22nd. 

The Physical Education programme continues with the children learning a range of athletic skills and then improving their aquatic skills when the pool opens later in November. The moveMprove programme will be each Wednesday. Please ensure your child wears suitable clothing and shoes on a Wednesday and Thursday for these programmes. Fitness programmes will still include Jumpjam on Mondays, Tuesdays and Wednesdays with relays and ball skills on Thursdays and Fridays.  
Throughout the term the children will be doing Visual Art working with clay and plasticine to create 3D objects.  

Sun hats, sunglasses and sunblock 
We operate a 'no hat, no play' policy which means every time your child goes outside in terms 1 and 4 they need to wear a bucket shaped hat (no caps!) which covers their head, back of the neck and ears and shades their eyes. If your child does not wear a hat they need to stay under the sunshade in the Junior School courtyard. Please ensure that your child has a named hat at school each day. Please administer sunblock to your child before they come to school each day. Your child is able to bring along their own sunblock (named) to school to be re-administered throughout the school day. Their sunblock will not be shared with other children. Children are encouraged to wear sunglasses too so please also name these. 

Reporting to Parents
Nearer the end of the term your child will be bringing home a written report and will inform you of their progress towards meeting the National Standards in reading, writing and mathematics. Children in rooms 1,3,4,5 and 6 will have a written report while the children in room 2 will have a six week at school conference instead.

Looking towards 2016
I am about to begin the arduous and thorough process of placing children into classes for next year. If your child has a birthday during February, March or April and you are considering them staying longer in the Junior School could you please email me as soon as possible so that I can make an appointment with you to discuss the pros and cons of this? 
Along with this, if you are considering moving out of the area and your child will not be coming back to Muritai next year I also need to know this. If you have a preschool child who will turn five next year and possibly be coming to Muritai school or know of a neighbour in your area that does can you also let me know that too please so that their name is on the list?

Diary Dates
October 12 - School re opens for term 4
October 14 - moveMprove programme begins
October 15 - The great New Zealand Shake out day
October 20 - East Harbour kindergarten visiting
October 22 - Parent meeting about Keeping Ourselves Safe
October 23 - Full School Assembly
October 26 - Labour Weekend 
October 27 - Teacher only day - school closed
October 30 - School photos for rooms 2 and 3
November 3 - visiting performance
November 10 - Hearing and Vision testing of some New Entrant children
November 16 - swimming programme begins
November 17 - East Harbour KIndergarten visiting
November 25 - Starting school at five information evening
November 30 - Junior School EOTC
December 1 - Junior School athletics sports 
December 9 - Christmas concert and party
December 14 - visits to new classes
December 17 - Last day of term 

If you have any questions regarding the Junior School please do not hesitate to contact me or your child's teacher.

Yours in partnership
Maureen Buckley 
Deputy Principal