Wednesday 15th June 2022 No. 9

Term 2 : ‘WHANAUNGATANGA’ – ‘Culture & Identity’

‘We are proud of who we are’

Te Kura o Tōtara Grove

Tōtara Grove School

Rāapa 15 ō Pipiri, 2022

Kia Ora e te Whānau,

Kamusta, Bula Vinaka, Suostei, Goeie dag, Hallo, Kia orana, Fakalofa lahi atu, Sawubona, Talofa lava, Namaste, Xin chāo,
G’day & hello.

I hope this newsletter finds you and your whānau safe, warm and well. Winter is here and we can see and feel this in the wet and cold weather of late.

We are busy at kura preparing for our Matariki me Puanga celebrations being held next week. Save the date if you can, we would love for you to join us in the early morning gathering or through the morning, celebrating your child and their learning. Thursday 23rd June, nau mai, haere mai, kuku mai e te whānau.

A big part of the Matariki me Puanga celebration is to unveil, bless and celebrate the new pieces of artwork that depict our school narrative. Each art piece represents a manu (bird) that have been beautifully created by a talented local artist, Shane Hansen. The manu connect to our school narrative, Rata & The Tōtara Tree. The manu play a significant role in this purakau (story) in helping Rata build a waka after a much learned lesson. We have alikened this part of the narrative to our kura, with all of the native manu helping build and support our kura and working together as one. Each classroom has a manu as their kaitiaki (guardian). He Kura, He Tōtara!

Before hanging the manu up, we needed to tidy up and paint a few walls around our kura.
So a couple weeks ago on a saturday morning we held a staff working bee at kura. The staff showed up in numbers and publicly, I would like to thank all our staff who volunteered their time to help prep and paint on this day, the turnout was amazing.
I would also like to thank the Board of Trustees for their support, Michael MCCartain for leading the kaupapa, Mrs Olley preparing lunch and Mike Toi for sharing his painting expertise, skills and guidance on this day, we are grateful.
With the freshly painted walls and new manu art going up, we look forward to sharing this with you all next Thursday morning. It has been a journey we have worked on for sometime now, it is exciting to be part of this with you all. He kura, He Tōtara! – Nau mai, haere mai!

Keep safe, keep warm, stay well

Mauri ora
Kia Mānawatia a Matariki me Puanga
Mānawatia a Matariki.

Whaea Vanessa
Acting Principal

Staff painting working bee and Shane Hansen artwork – Ko ngā manu ātaahua!

TUPU TAHI – GROWING TOGETHER. STANDING STRONG. REACHING HIGH.

Caught Being Good

Winners of books for the previous two weeks were:

Rm 3: Airoe, Artemis

Rm 5: Armani, Nolan

Rm 6: Bailey, Bunny

Rm 10: Delivyryance, Yalaena, Brooke

Rm 13: Dean

Ngā Mātāpono Awards

Rm 3: Amaia-Lee, Lincoln, Naima, Roman

Rm 5: Riya, Rivaan, Jacoby, Luca

Rm 6: Roman, Rangipotiki, Ava, Jack, Haimona

Rm 10: Kutana, Tynneal, Moroni, Jimmy

Rm 11: Manawairua, Cherish, Jordin, Amara, Ajay

Rm 13: Pearl, Shannon, Caleb, Chase, Dallas

Staff Pepeha

Ko wai mātou ? Who are we as a staff at Tōtara Grove School.

Introducing four more staff members this week and their pepeha.

Matariki

Te Kura o Tōtara Grove – Matariki Celebration of Learning

Matariki me Puanga 2022

*Don’t forget Friday 24th June is a public holiday

Scholastic Book Club

Any orders for the current scholastic book club brochure (issue #4, 2022) need to be back in to school by Monday, 20th June. Please return the order form with the child’s name, room number, selected books and the correct money owing. Orders past this date can be made directly online, however they won’t be delivered through the school and postage costs will be added to your order.

https://www.scholastic.co.nz/parents/lucky-book-club/

Celebrating our Student Librarians

I would like to thank and acknowledge a group of hard working dedicated librarians who have achieved different levels of awards in the library so far this year. These children are dedicated to sharing their love of reading with other students, promoting books at Whanau Hui, doing library duties during their break times and assisting with the running of the library with Mrs Irene. Thank you for your hard work and dedication. Congratulations to you all on achieving these awards.

Free school lunch programme

Please see attached the menu for the next fortnight. A detailed ingredients list is published on the lunch by libelle website: www.lunchbylibelle.co.nz/current-menu.html (click here).

This Fortnights lunch menu:

Te Manawa Tahi Timetable

If you have a concern about your child’s language development, learning progress, social and emotional wellbeing, or behaviour, TeManawa Tahi have specialists available so you can discuss your concerns directly with them.
This is a free service and each site will be identified by a Te Manawa Tahi flag. Drop into a hub or make an appointment by phoning 0800 5248 4256 or emailing TT.Support@education.govt.nz.