Term Dates 2020
Term 3 - Monday 20th July to Friday 25th September
Term 4 - Monday 12th October to Wednesday 16th December
Teacher Only Day - Friday 23rd October (School is closed on this day)
Term Dates 2021
Term 1 - Tuesday 2nd February to Friday 16th April
Term 2 - Monday 3rd May to Friday 9th July
Term 3 - Monday 26th July to Friday 1st October
Term 4 - Monday 18th October to Tuesday 15th December (to be confirmed)
Upcoming Important Dates
School Photos - Friday 18th September
BOT Meeting - Thursday 24th September 6pm in the Staffroom
School Disco - Thursday 24th September
Junior School 5-6pm
Senior School 6:30 to 7:30pm
(more information to come)
Remember to check out the Parent Calendar on www.mtprimary.school.nz
for other important events that are happening.
A note from Damien
Kia ora Koutou, how awesome is it to see our days getting longer again? I'm enjoying a bit more time in each day and trying not to spend all of my new daylight working.
As you'll see from our Board update in this week's edition of The Pipeline our Leadership Team shared mid-year progress and achievement data with the Board. This data has been used by staff to refocus our efforts and areas of priority for the rest of this year. It is sadly quite clear Covid and lockdown had a significant negative impact on our mid-year results. Our staff continue to push hard for acceleration of our target learners and progress for all.
Have you logged in to HERO yet? Lots of our community have and are enjoying the up to date information in there. If you have any questions about your child(ren)'s level of achievement or ways you can help at home please have a talk to your child(ren)'s teacher. Please also remember our team are working really hard here to be doing all we can to shift the progress of our learners, it's not as easy as "more effort equals more learning!"
HERO is also now our key means of communication from our team here at Mount Primary so please check on the notifications especially the 'community feed' as this is where you will find updates etc.
Massive thanks from me for the mahi so far on securing support for our Pool enhancement project from Dave at D&B Construction and Leigh from our Board of Trustees. Its great to see we are getting support for this project, it will be so good for our Mounties to be able to get some more use out of our pool come summer.
I know I have been a little quiet on the Covid and Learning at Levels communications lately. I have been carefully reading advice from the Ministries of Education and Health and have been comfortable that our current processes are meeting requirements so have not wanted to add to your inbox. I will stay in touch if and when things change.
Stay well out there.
Nicali, Ben, Warren, Sarah, Leigh, Juliet, Damien
The Leadership team presented the mid-year student achievement data at the last Board meeting. This data provides a general indication of whether students are performing above, on or below expectations so teachers can accurately plan and allocate resources for the rest of the year.
Similar to last year, the data showed that 83% of students are at or above expectation for maths which is positive given the reduced instructional time in classes in Term 1 and 2 due to lockdown. The leadership team attributed this to a change in maths practices and some extra maths support (ALiM/Maths Café) for students who benefited from additional tuition.
Reading, however did not fare so well from the lockdown as the junior and middle school have fallen behind in this subject. Teachers are working extra hard to recapture some of the time lost for these students and would value any support parents can give with extra reading (both reading to your child and listening to them read) at home.
Thank you to those who offered to donate money towards the new sports uniforms. Unfortunately, we did not receive enough support so have instead used operational grants as there was some urgency to getting these ordered.
Dave Merrett from D&B Construction is gaining some momentum and is nearly halfway through fundraising enough money for the school pool project. We have decided to focus our fundraising efforts on this project as our students and parents have consistently given feedback about the state of our pool and we are unlikely to receive any funding for it from the MOE. We are hoping to repaint the pool and install a new heat pump (approx. $17,000 to supply and install) and thermal cover (approx. $3,000) before summer so if you or your family business is keen to support this project please email either Dave dave@dandb.co.nz or Leigh leighs@mtprimary.school.nz.
The next Board meeting will be in the staffroom
on Thursday 24th September at 6pm
Ehara taku toa i te toa takitahi, engari he toa takitini
(Success is not the work of one, but the work of many)
Keeping Ourselves Safe
At the end of this term all classes will be undertaking the Keeping Ourselves Safe programme. Keeping ourselves safe (KOS) is a personal safety programme that provides students with skills to cope with situations that might involve abuse. This programme, developed and supported by the NZ Police, helps students to learn and apply a range of safety skills that they can use when interacting with others, and encourages students who have been, or are being abused, to seek help. The skills that students learn in KOS help them to identify, avoid and report physical abuse, emotional abuse, sexual abuse, neglect, family violence and online abuse.
We have the police School Community officer, Sheryl Fitzgerald, in school during Week 9 and 10 to support teachers in delivering this programme. We hope to hold a parent information session on Tuesday 8th September at 2pm. Due to Level 2 Covid health and safety guidelines we do ask that if you will be attending to RSVP to barbarat@mtprimary.school.nz by Friday 28th August so that we can ensure social distancing for this meeting.
There are a range of resources to support families, further information and frequently asked questions on the police website. In addition if you have any questions or concerns please feel free to get in touch with Damien, Damian or Barbara to discuss these further.
The Tauranga Foodbank has listed some of the food items which they are running low on and always need: Tinned Soup, Tinned Fish, Canned Veges, Long Life Milk, Creamed Corn, Baking Supplies (cocoa, icing sugar, etc), Cereal (Cornflakes & Rice Bubbles), Soap
Any items will be gratefully received and will certainly make a difference!
THANK YOU!
Hi Everyone
School Banking - We have been advised by Credit Union that school banking has stopped and will restart in Term 4 because of COVID. If you have placed a bankbook into the banking box in the foyer you are welcome to collect it - just ask at the office. Otherwise all bankbooks can remain in there until next term when banking starts again.
School Photos -Friday 18th September. A couple of weeks after photos have been taken you will be sent your child's photo key code which will enable you to view your child's photos and place orders online. Please collect a sibling photo request from the office if you would like to have siblings photographed together.
School Donation - Thank you to those who have paid the school donation. (Please remember this is voluntary.)
The Entertainment Book Fundraiser - Order your Memberships online today!
Purchase a 1 year Single City Membership for $69.99 and the school receives $24!
Purchase a 1 year Multi City Membership for $119.99 and the school receives $44!
Purchase a 2 year Multi Plus Membership for $229.99 and the school receives $66!
Scholastic Book Orders close this Friday 4th September at 3pm
Back to the 80’s School Disco
Save the date - Join us for our Back to the 80’s school disco on Thursday 24th September.
New entrants to year 4 from 5.00pm to 6.00pm (gates open at 4.45pm), Years 5-6 from 6.30pm to 7.30pm (gates open at 6.15pm).
Special guest DJ and prizes for best costumes.
If we remain in Alert level 2, we will postpone the disco until Term 4. Due to the risk of needing to postpone this year will be door sales only and no pizza.
Look out for further information on Facebook and teachers emails in the next few weeks.
Calendar Art Fundraiser
Our children have been busy creating some fun colourful artwork, that can be used to create calendars, diaries and cards. Artwork will be available to view on Hero from Friday. These make lovely keepsakes and gifts. Examples are in the school office if you haven’t seen them from previous years.
Order forms have been sent home with children this week and to help the PTA collate these prior to the school holidays we are asking they please be returned with payment by Friday 11th September. If you haven’t received your order form the office have spare copies available.
Order forms should be returned to the PTA box in the school office. Please note that you need to complete one order form per child, so that we can identify the correct order for your child's artwork. Payment details are on the form, payment needs to be made at the time of returning your order form by cash or cheque (payable to Mt Maunganui Primary School PTA) or depositing to the PTA Bank Account 06-0807-0339355-00 with your child’s name and room number as reference. If you are paying into the bank account it really helps us if you can write on your order form the date you made payment.
Hello Sports Fans
All of our Term 4 Sports Registrations, including Volleyball are now open via the school shop on our website mtprimary.school.nz.
Kiwi Volleyball
Open to Years 3 - 6
Played on a Friday at Trustpower Arena, Baypark starting on Friday 6th November
Teams consist of 4 players plus subs
Cost per player $35
Registration closes 14th September
Rippa Rugby
Open to Years 1 - 6
Played on a Friday at Arataki Park from 30th October to 4th December
Cost per player $27
Registration closes 14th September
Flippaball
Open to Years 3 - 6
Played on a Sunday at the Papamoa Community Pools from Sunday 1st November to 13th December
Cost per player $85
Registration closes 14th September
Touch Rugby
Open to Years 3 - 6
Played on a Thursday at Gordon Spratt Reserve from Thursday 22nd October with finals on Sunday 13th December
Cost per player $55
Registration closes 4th September
Check out the Community Notice Board section for more out of school sports opportunities!
House Points
57,352 55,485 56,782 57,083
Rachel Kelly
Sports Co-ordinator
rachelk@mtprimary.school.nz
Fun First Football is back in Term 4!
To book a spot for your child click here
Yummy Stickers
Keep collecting your Yummy Stickers and send them to Mrs Styles in Room 12. We only have this term left to collect them before they are sent away and counted. Remember the more we collect, the more PE equipment we will receive for our school.
Happy crunching and munching!
Here are the week 6 Caught Being a Mountie Awards
from the Year 2 Assembly.
Well Done!
