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Connect Communication
04 December 2024
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It was lovely to see so many of you at our Ararira in the Park last night. What a special time that was made possible by the generosity of many; Chris Seller for providing the sound, the Johnstone whānau for providing the truck and Kelly Shakespeare for taking the beautiful photos below and on our Facebook page.
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Our children were the stars of the evening with so many enjoying their special moment to shine. Thank you to the teachers for the hard work and commitment that went into the event, the THT for the sausage sizzle and all of you for supporting us.
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We are pleased to finalise our teams and classes for next year. Ako classes will be shared by midday Friday. At first, you will only be able to see your child's class, on Monday, you will be able to see their classmates. This is to ensure that the family hear the news firsthand.
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Teretere: Year 0 & 1 Team - Nicky, Lesley and Angela
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Hikuwai 123 Year 2 & 3 Team - Deb, Crystal and April
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Hikuwai 456 Year 2 & 3 Team - Anna, Casey and Brooklyn
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Huarapa 123 Year 4 & 5 Team - Dan, Sarah and Carolyn
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Huarapa 45 Year 5 & 6 - Leonie and Jamie
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Pūrei 1 & 2 Year 5 & 6 - Michael and Megan
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Kaunuku 1&2 Year 7 & 8 - Meeghan and Em
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Kaunuku 3&4 Year 7 & 8 - Kim and Larissa
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For an introduction to the teachers please head to the 'teaching team' page of our website. Here you can see a photo and read a short bio for each teacher.
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On Friday 13th December all comments and progress graphs willl be published on Hero. As this is a digital report, please share these posts with your child. A comment can be made under the post providing feedback to both the child and the teacher. We are yet to be notified about how these graphs will change in 2025. As we have reported, the new curriculum is moving away from curriculum levels to phases of learning. These are likely to necessitate in new progress graphs from 2025. More information about the curriculum can be found in a parent update post Emma Woolford wrote recently.
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Term dates for 2025 have been published on our website and are visible on the Hero App. We have three teacher only days (TOD) planned in 2025. Two of these are provided by the Ministry of Education for work on the new curriculum and the third is our annual Kāhui Ako Conference in August. The first TOD is scheduled on February 7th. We thought this made sense and would allow many of you to get away for a long weekend while the weather was warm.
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Enjoy the warmer weather and we look forward to those of you coming to our hui over the next few weeks. Due to space we need to limit attendance to families of children leaving. There is a lot on over the remaining few weeks, particularly for Year students. Please refer to earlier Hero notifications. If in doubt, contact your child's ako teacher.
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From the Office
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Absences - If your child is going to be absent or late we ask you to please let the school know before 9.00am.
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Sports Shirts - A reminder children in years 5-8 can wear their ASP sports tops to school on Fridays. ASP sports tops can be purchased via Kindo.
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Instead of presents, we would love it if families could donate food items for the food bank, which we will deliver in the last week of term. From Thursday, items can be placed under the Christmas tree in the office.
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A huge shoutout to Springfree who have been amazing in helping keep our ASP Springfree trampoline well maintained. If you are thinking of purchasing a Springfree trampoline, make sure you mention us!
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And another huge shoutout goes to Jo Beck and the team at SFP Projects for so generously donating four whiteboards to ASP.
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Thank you so much - they are already being put to good use!
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Mana Ake is offering an online form to arrange a drop-in at a time to suit. If you would like to meet with Shannon our Kaimahi for parenting advice, or to help your child manage emotions for mental well-being feel free to fill in the form via this link.
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Ka kite anō | See you again
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IMPORTANT DATES
- 04 Dec - THT Meeting, 7pm at The Laboratory
- 06 Dec - Cookie Time approximate delivery date (TBC)
- 06 Dec - 2025 classes shared with families
- 10 Dec - Class Swap Day, 9.10am
- 11 Dec - Celebration Certificates Hui (years 4-8), 2.15-3pm in the Hall
- 11 Dec - School Board Meeting, 6.30pm in Tahuna | Staffroom
- 12 Dec - Year 8 Leavers Dinner, 6pm
- 16 Dec - Water Fight, (afternoon) TBC
- 17 Dec - Year 8 Graduation Hui, 12 noon in the Hall
- 17 Dec - School closes for the year, 1pm
- 31 Jan - Drop-in Day (more info to come)
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School Board
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Next meeting - 11 December, 6.30pm in Tahuna | Staffroom
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It was fantastic to see so many of you supporting our ākonga at Ararira in the Park last night. The year is nearly over, and the school board will hold its final meeting of the year next Wednesday evening. The most important task is to review and sign off the full year student achievement results. Our final policy reviews of the year are still open on the Schooldocs site, for you to have your say on donations, expenditure, property and prevention of corruption. Finally, have a safe and happy summer break!
Ngā mihi,
Andrew McMenamin
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Te Puna o Ararira | Ararira Springs Primary School
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Te Hapori Tautoko (THT)
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THT - Te Hapori Tautoko - providing opportunities to tautoko (support) and connect our school community and fundraising for school initiatives and resources.
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THT wishes to thank all our helpers and wider whanau community for their continued support in 2024. We wouldn’t exist without our parent and staff engagement. Best wishes for a wonderful and relaxing summer.
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Our next THT meeting is 04 December (TONIGHT), 7pm at The Laboratory.
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Please come along and see how you can get involved and support our tamariki.
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Second-Hand Uniforms - THT has a small selection of second-hand uniform items available for purchase. Click here to view a list of the items we currently have available. If you have uniform items to donate please contact Charlotte via charlotte.mcmenamin@ararira.school.nz
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Katrina Robinson has been teaching guitar and ukulele now for a number of years at schools and also from her home. She loves to sing too and is a professional musician playing in wineries and cafés as well as weddings and private functions. Katrina likes to make her lessons fun and really enjoys teaching. You can read more information on Katrina at www.thesingingdiva.co.nz
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Spaces are available for 2025!
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And just like that the sporting year is over. We have had a number of tamariki taking part in the events over the year and they have made us proud. We look forward to seeing what our sports men and women will do next year.
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We would like to say a big thank you and congratulations to our athletes who took part in the Canterbury Athletics Day on the 27th of November. Zoe placed 2nd in the Year 8 girls' 100m sprints and 3rd in the Year 8 long jump. Emme placed 4th in the Year 6 girls' high jump. Seth, Charlie, Clarissa, Oscar, Thomas and Anna all did well in their events representing our school with pride. We are proud of all of them. Thank you to their parents who supported them on the day.
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A bit more about Zoe's recent/upcoming events and achievements - The 100 metres Canterbury Zones final saw Zoe placed 2nd with the electronics timing showing some very fast times.
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On top of this Zoe was hoping to defend her long jump title from last year but we can proudly say she still finished 3rd with a great jump of 4.62m. For 2nd place she was pipped by 1cm with the winner nailing a 4.71m last jump of the day Zoe has managed to juggle her athletics with also recently being selected to represent Canterbury in both futsal and touch rugby.
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The 15th grade futsal team travel to Wellington in a National tournament taking place December 7 to 10 to take on the Nations best which is a fantastic achievement given Zoe is only 13 years of age and has a further 2 years of eligibility in this grade.
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The following weekend Zoe will represent her Canterbury touch team in the 14th Grade South Island tournament where they hope to go all the way after finishing runner-up last year to Otago.
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Well done Zoe in all your achievements and balancing multiple sports with both determination and a smile.
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Weetbix Tryathlon is now open for registration!
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Registrations are now open for the 2025 Weetbix Tryathlon. We have created a school group so you can register your child for the event. Click on this link to register:
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Please note: Race packs WILL NOT be delivered to the school but can be collected on race day.
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Don’t forget to check out the “What's on offer?” page for clubs advertising their sport.
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The closing date for Issue 8, 2024 is 06 December 2024, but we recommend you place your order by 22 November to ensure you received it by the end of the term.
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All orders will be delivered to school in batches and distributed to the classrooms as they arrive. Any orders marked as gifts, we will put to one side and contact you when they are ready to be collected.
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Dream Big Tutoring is an independent tutoring program started in 2024 by founder and leader Tiffany Zhang. Comprised of talented Year 7 students (including one current and one former ASP student), Dream Big offers
mathematics tutoring to all students in years 2-7, aiming to foster a love for learning and helping students to excel.
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At Dream Big Tutoring, we believe that quality education should be accessible to all,
offering our high-quality tutoring services at an affordable rate of just $15 per hour. We are dedicated to creating a supportive, nurturing learning environment that empowers students to reach their full potential in mathematics.
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Our summer holiday package is here! Get four weeks of speech and language therapy support at a heavily discounted rate over the summer holidays. Includes an individualised plan, 1:1 sessions, access to therapist support, and access to our resources. This opportunity is open to both new and current clients, and we have limited spaces available. You can fill out our intake form on our website, or give us a call or email to register your interest or for further information. We can’t wait to spend the summer with you!
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The Ministry of Education has refreshed the curriculum and updated how schools report on student progress. As previously mentioned by the MOE, the benchmark for achievement has increased with the new curriculum. You may see a change in your child’s progress or achievement compared to previous years because of this. At Ararira Springs Primary, our staff have been undergoing professional …
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Berry Street Education Model BSEM at Ararira - Nicky Harding and Claire Howison At Ararira Springs, we are committed to fostering a learning environment where every child feels safe, supported, and ready to thrive. To support this, our kura has adopted the Berry Street Education Model (BSEM) - a trauma-informed, strengths-based framework designed to boost student wellbeing, engagement, and academic …
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Attendance Monitoring at Ararira The government has publicly stated that it wishes to lift attendance rates at New Schools so 80% of all children are attending 90% of the time by 2030. We have set this as a target for our kura|school in 2026. All schools are required to have an attendance management plan (AMP) in place that follows stepped …
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2025 End of Year Progress Graphs The end-of-year progress graphs for students (English Year 0-6 and Maths Year 0-8) will be live on Friday, 12 December. English progress in Years 7-8 will be released in a statement at the bottom of Year 7-8 children's reading and writing comments. The Overall Teacher Judgements (OTJs) regarding progress that your child will receive …
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Te Mātaiaho | The New Zealand Curriculum Curriculum Update - English, Term 3, 2025 Kia ora, Earlier this year, we held a successful whānau hui regarding the refreshed Maths curriculum for Phases 1-3 (Year 0-8). We are unfortunately still waiting on Phase 3 (Year 7-8) of the English curriculum, which is due to be released in Term 4 of this …
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New Parent Portal Released The Ministry of Education has released a parent portal to help whānau partner with schools to support their child's education. From Minister Stanford: "Education is a partnership of what happens in the classroom and what happens at home. Parents, caregivers, and whānau play an important role in supporting their child’s learning and development. The new webspace …
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2025 Reporting Update - What it means for your child As 2025 marks the transition to the refreshed English and Maths curricula, both Ararira Springs and the Ministry of Education (MOE) are closely monitoring student progress to ensure a smooth and effective change. Thanks to our ongoing professional development and early use of structured literacy and maths practices, we are …
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At Ararira we hold mihi whakatau to welcome new staff and students at the beginning of each term. Our mihi whakatau are run according to the guidelines of Te Taumutu Rūnanga. These are outlined in this document, and adapted according to our needs, in collaboration with the Taumutu education team. What is a Mihi Whakatau? - link to slideshow of …
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HERO Update - Locating historical progress graphs We will be using the new English (Year 0-6) and Maths (Year 0-8) curricula to make our judgements about your child's progress and achievement later this term, and these will appear as new graphs on your child's Reading, Writing and Maths pages. Year 7-8 students will not have a Reading or Writing graph: …
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