Wednesday 26 April 2023 No. 6

Kia ora koutou, Namaste, Talofa Lava, Konnichiwa, Ni hao, Kia orana, Malo e lelei, Chao, Hallo, Zdravstvuite, Fakaalofa lahi atu, Salam, Suostei, Hola, Annoyong Haseyo, Caio, Nei hou, Suoday, Ni sa Bula, Kamusta, Xin chào, Gutentag, Bonjour

It is wonderful to welcome our tamariki back at school today. Welcome to all of our new whānau as well, it is great to have you as part of our Totara Grove School whānau. I hope everyone had a good holiday break and a restful ANZAC day. ANZAC day is such an important part of our Aotearoa history and I love that we still have a commemorative day to honour those who sacrificed so much for our country all those years ago. I remember from a very early age the significance of the dawn parades held here in Te Tai Tokerau and it was awesome to see our dawn parade at Laurie Hall park being acknowledged in the New Zealand Herald yesterday.

Over the holidays, some of our roofing was replaced and you may have noticed some scaffolding around our school. I would like to thank the contractors for getting this all completed before our students came back to school today. What was supposed to be a three day job turned into being over 2 weeks because of the unreliable weather conditions we had over the holidays! An exciting project we have coming up is to replace the concrete in our junior area of the school with some new, colourful turf.

As mentioned last term, our NgāMatapono focus value will be Ako ~ we are all learners and teachers, and the theme for the term will be centered around Te Ao o Ranginui – the sky above us and the world of our sky father. We will also be implementing Seesaw for communicating and reporting to whānau and we will share more about this with you in the upcoming weeks. We have some other exciting learning opportunities that will be happening too. Whaea Yvonne will be doing some tāniko with our students and Matua Henare who started with us last term will be teaching some bone carving skills to our tamariki. At the end of the term we will also be looking to have an open morning for all whānau to come along and share in our teaching and learning programmes.

Kia pai to rā!

Mauri Ora

Sharon
Principal Tumuaki

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

Caught Being Good

Winners of duffy books for the previous week of last term were:

Rm 10: Monique

Rm 12: Payton, Boaz

Rm 13: Zhanica

Ngā Mātāpono Awards

Rm 10: Khale, Ryan, Ariska

Rm 12: Johannus, Anabelle, Colin

Rm 13: Jayde, Bosba

Free school lunch programme

Menus and detailed information are published on the lunch by libelle website: www.lunchbylibelle.co.nz/current-menu.html (click here).

This fortnight’s lunch menu:

School Board

The date of the next Board of Trustees meeting is Wednesday 17th May, 6pm

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.

Upcoming School Events

27th April – Term 2 Powhiri for all new families, 10am

17th August – School photos

15-17th Nov – Year 6 camp

School Term Dates 2023

Term 1 1st Feb – 6th April

Term 2 24th April – 30th June
5th June – Kings birthday

Term 3 17th July – 22nd Sep

Term 4 9th October – 14th December

Community Notices

Playball @ Totara Grove School:

Playball is an international multi sport and movement programme

When: Fridays 3:10 – 3:50 (starting 28th April)
Who: 5-9 year olds (boys and girls)
Where: School turf outside the office
Cost: $89 per child (9 week term) – FREE trial available – email dean@playball.co.nz

We are Celebrating 10 years of Sistema Whangarei – Toi Akorangi with an incredible concert

It’s Our Birthday! Sistema Whangarei – Toi Akorangi have been partnering with the Whangarei community for 10 years and we would LOVE for you to come and celebrate with us.

What: Over 150 young people from Sistema Whangarei – Toi Akorangi and their friends from Auckland and Dargaville are performing a celebration concert of epic proportions.

Where: The Exhibition Hall Forum North

When: May 21^st at 2pm

On the 16th April 2013 a small team of teaching artists freely donated their time to teach 16 excited tamariki for Sistema Whangarei – Toi Akorangi’s first holiday program. 40 holiday program’s, 280 weeks of after school program, several workshops and over 100 performances later we have 8 string orchestras, a concert band, a jazz band, a full orchestra and musicianship classes for 8 groups. All of which is supported by the resources of instruments, music and dedicated teaching artists. We are a Sistema inspired program making a difference in our community.

In celebration of this strong foundation we would like to invite you to continue to partner with us in continuing to create joy in life through music. We thank you for your support and would like to offer you the opportunity to make a financial contribution. Together we can continue the legacy.

https://givealittle.co.nz/cause/creating-joy-in-music-for-10-years-its