Yo 'Wsup' Term three happenings

Mower donated by Les Bloor of Bloor's Mechanical Services. Thanks Les!


What's up in term three at Moanataiari


The phrase ‘Wsup’ is one that we hear a lot of from some of our younger students. It simply means “What’s up?”. For older people, this can be translated as “How are you going?” or ‘What’s going on?’ Mrs Saunders and I like to think we know what’s going on. Last term, one of our students raced past the classroom we were in and yelled ‘Wsup’. We looked at one another, eyes bulging, thinking that this child had just sworn at us. We poked our head out the door and said “Hey, what did you just say?” And the child, repeated, “You know - ‘Wsup’”.


So what is up this term - with people


Mrs Leach
Well, we begin this week with Mrs Saunders and Mrs Leach teaching in Room seven. Mrs Saunders takes on the primary role of teacher, and Mrs Leach provides the additional release. We welcome back Mrs Leach, who was previously deputy principal at our school and also in 2016 acted as principal while I was on study leave.


There are no other changes to staffing.


As a matter of interest our office administrator, Joanne is doing a parachute jump for the SPCA. The initiative is called ‘Jump to the Rescue’ and is a fundraiser for our local SPCA branch.


So what is up this term - with learning


St John in schools - Sue Lowry


This week we have a visit to the three senior rooms from St Johns. The three rooms with older students are learning how to do basic first aid.


We, of course, are continuing to work in the kitchen and garden but this week has been quite miserable, cold and wet. Te Reo Māori continues with Mrs Dines on a Wednesday.


Next week On Wednesday we are working with Mike Wilkes here at Moanataiari in the Res-Kids programme. Some of our senior students will be working alongside students with St. Francis school students. Permission forms have already been returned.


Later in the term, some of the classes will be engaging in speeches, while the juniors look at carrying out poem recitals.


The three youngest classes would also like to go to the zoo. A newsletter is going to go home about this. The problem with this is that we need to cover our basic costs and have sufficient transport with car seats. If we can make it work, we will. 


Some of the other classes are running exciting programmes engaging with robotics and technology. Room six and seven are running ‘genius hour’. The year three and fours are running ‘think like a scientist’, and Room eight are looking at the water quality in streams (possibly the Karaka).


One programme that has taken my fancy is what is taking place in Room six. A group of students have had a ride-on mower donated by Mr Les Bloor and are going to pull it apart and fix it up with Mr Burczak.



In the next two or three weeks, we will be sending home information about a school-wide Spelling Bee. The PTA is sponsoring this, and we hope to raise a little bit of money to spend on literacy resources in classrooms while at the same time giving the children a boost with their spelling.


Towards the end of the term, we will take part in the Māori Language week. There will also be a camp for the two senior classes. This camp was postponed from earlier this year as a result of you know what, and we want it to go ahead. Unfortunately all the term four bookings had gone.


Last year one of our teams did exceptionally well with E-Pro eight getting to the regional finals. E-Pro eight has been rescheduled because of Covid-19 and now takes place during our mid-term break. Regardless we have entered a Year 7 & 8 team for Thursday 27th from 5.00 p.m to 8.00 p.m. and on Friday 28th August (mid-term break) a Year 5 & 6 team from 9.30 a.m. to 12.30 p.m.


This term, our ‘Kauaeranga’ Kahui ako is also finalising the direction it will take over the next couple of years. Did you know that ‘Kauaeranga’ is the Māori word for Thames? ‘Kauaeranga’ as a word for Thames, is reasonably new learning for me. I was under the misunderstanding that the name was Pārāwai. I will be endeavouring to use it correctly from now on.


So what is up this term - with sports


We would like to thank Mrs Saunders for taking the time to organise sporting events going forward. She starts with a bang getting $1,000 worth of sponsorship for our rugby jerseys.


At the moment we are collecting in the permission slips for the tackle rugby day in Ngatea. The tackle day is for our older students. We have Scott Day the rugby development officer coming to school to work with our children on Tuesday 28th July. Children will need to wear mouthguards.


This term, the other key event is cross country and there are three levels to this: a school event, an inter-school event and a regional event. The juniors only take part in the school event. What we have noticed since lockdown is that our children still have a little way to go to get their fitness levels up. Being unable to play sport with your mates does make a difference.


Monica running along the sea wall.

Aryan at the beginning of training.


We would like to thank Jordan Powell for offering to coach our netball teams. Unfortunately, Moanataiari School were the only school to enter teams so the Thames Netball club could not run junior netball. This is the first time since my coming to Thames nearly twenty years ago that netball has not happened in this way. Mrs Saunders has said that when the weather warms up, she will run lunchtime games, probably in term four.


I’m not sure whether you could call it a sport but the juniors have started folk-dancing so don’t be surprised if you get invited to take part in a dancing event later this term or early next. Mrs Bain has got her dancing shoes on, so lookout.


Juniors practising folk dancing


Later in the term, we would also like to take part in the gym festival. I know in the past our students have really enjoyed this, and one or two enthusiastic parents have well supported us. If you are interested in helping this programme get underway, please contact Mrs Saunders. We will train at lunchtimes and the event is on Thursday 17th September.


So what is up this term - in general

Well, there are some key events.


In the middle of August, there is an open evening at Thames High School for Year eights. This open evening will be followed later in the term with interviews at Thames High for those students who are leaving us at the end of the year.


The 24th of August is the mid-term starting date for cohort entry. At the moment we are the only school in Thames who has adopted this practice. We find it very helpful for student learning and social development.


The 10th of August is school photos with Photolife studio. Make sure that you have your uniform all ready to go on this day.


On the 27th of August the PTA is running a mufti day. Please dress as your favourite sports team or player. The proceeds will go towards sports equipment.


Over the 27th and 28th we have the EPro8 competition. As we indicated earlier, there is a clash with a mid-term break. If you are having a short holiday spell to do something with the kids, please plan to do it over this mid-term break to reduce the time your children are away from school.


The mid-term break is Friday the 28th of August and Monday the 31st of August.


On the 24th of September, we end with learning interviews with our parents and students. It is essential to get along to these if you can. If you can’t, and there some exceptional circumstances, we will try and book you another interview time.


If your children have any hearing difficulties, please take advantage of the free ear clinic service for children. The clinic is being held on Friday the 14th of August and Friday the 25th of September. Please make appointments by phoning 07 8383565 ext 22094.


This term, there will be no whakatau. We held one on the very last day of term two when we hosted Rowandale School to fly kites for Matariki.


Junior kites on display

Kai for the whakatau


One thing that I am excited about is our new website. The website is being designed at present and will make a difference in the way we communicate to our community. It will be operational before the end of the year.


During term three you will be invited to take part in a couple of surveys. One survey will be about my role as (principal), and the other survey will take place at interview time, near the end of the term.

So what is up this term - with those computers promised by the Ministry of Education

I would like to say they have arrived and that the Ministry have delivered on what was trumpeted as Government policy through the lock-down, BUT it hasn’t happened. Other priorities have taken over.


The school received five of the 126 devices that we identified we needed. We received no Ipads. After the first few devices were delivered the devices then stopped coming. No one from the Ministry of Education informed us as to what was happening until the school started to investigate.




The programme called 'Digital equitable access' was simply a misnomer. A small number of families will receive modems that the school has not asked for. We have been told there is no more funding at the moment. The last reason we were given was that computers were being accessed overseas. Reminiscent of George Orwell’s book ‘Animal farm’ - there is a tinge of truth and certainly room for scepticism. With this in mind, I trust that we have no further outbreaks of Covid soon.


Hey MOE, Hey Chris and Jacinda ‘Wsup’?



Comments