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Connect Communication
15 November 2023
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Today we farewelled one of our lovely learning assistants, Kathy Kember. Kathy will join her husband in his work at different locations around New Zealand before heading back to the United Kingdom early next year.
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At the end of this year, we will be saying goodbye to a few more team members. Danielle and her family are off to Australia, and Mel looks forward to welcoming her first child. Kelly will be taking some time to consider different education options, working part-time at Ararira, and supporting students training in education at the University of Canterbury.
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In a school setting, goodbyes also mean welcomes. In 2024 we welcome Anna Grigor and Louise Dennis to permanent roles. Casey MacPherson is moving to Ararira from Paparoa St School. Also joining us are Dan Horwell and Emma Murphy as graduates and Emma Woolford as our second deputy principal. You soon will be able to read more about these staff on the staff page of our website.
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We have had a little bit of fun at school this week, dressing up for the races. Tomorrow our staff will be learning more about Te Mātaiaho, our 'refreshed' curriculum.
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I have recently come across wonderful health for families. Both have materials for parents about a wide variety of topics.
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You might have some time to explore these resources over the long weekend. See you Monday!
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Claire and the Ararira Team
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Principal for the Day
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Last week I had the pleasure of hosting Maxi as Principal for the day. Maxi was able to visit classrooms and see children working, make a promotional video for the school, serve birthday ice creams and head to Robert Harris for a very important meeting. He also wrote his Principal post for the newsletter.
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Today I was the principal and it was soooo much fun. I will tell you about it. First I walked into every class and looked at children's work. After that I got my friends Jack and Zack and went to Robert Harris for an important meeting. We got hot chocolate and chocolate brownie and Zack had a muffin with butter on top of it.
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On the way back to school I found a weird shape bouncy ball and Whaea Claire said that we could play with it at school. After playtime I went back to the office to be the principal again.
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I made a cool iMovie with Jack and it was a A to Z of Ararira. I mainly made a plan and took photos. After playtime we went back to making our iMovie it was fun and we got to go down to the Liffey and get a photo of it. We then put the iMovie together. It was a bit hard but I did it. After that I wrote this piece for the newsletter.
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School Board
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NEXT MEETING - 15 November (tonight), 6.30 pm in the Staffroom
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If you know of families moving into the area or with preschoolers, please encourage them to fill out our online enrolment form soon as possible. This allows us to plan ahead and recruit the teachers we might need!
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Impetigo Outbreak
We have recently had about a dozen cases of Impetigo in the school. Most of the cases have been in Kaunuku but we have been notified of cases elsewhere in the school too.
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If you suspect your child has Impetigo, it will need to be treated via antibiotics (cream or medicine). In addition to this, you will need to keep your child home from school until one day after the start of treatment.
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Book Week Dress Up Day
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On Friday 24th November we will be having a Book Day - celebrating a love of reading and our favourite books. We would love for all of our tamariki to dress up as their favourite character and bring along the book if possible or a copy of the cover to show your character.
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Coffee Van
The coffee van will be at school from 8.30-9am on Tuesday.
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In addition to this, the Tallyho Espresso coffee van will be at school from 9am until 12pm on 01 December for Run Jump Throw Day/shared parent morning tea, and the Teretere Sustainability market.
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Cookie Time Fundraiser
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Thank you to everyone who has ordered cookies to help offset our Year 5-6 camp costs. We are very proud to say that in early December we will be receiving a delivery of more than 525 buckets of cookies!
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Ordering is still open until the end of Thursday 16th November - this link will take you directly to the Cookie Time page on Kindo if you still need to place your order.
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Each order will be given to you to distribute after 4th December.
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IMPORTANT DATES 2023
- 15 November - Board meeting, 6.30pm in the staffroom
- 16 November - Cookie Time orders close midnight
- 16 November - Teacher only day (school closed)
- 17 November - Canterbury Anniversary Day (school closed)
- 24 November - Book Week dress up day (see above)
- 24 November - Hui (Whaea Tash/Huarapa 6), 9.15am in the hall
- 29 November - THT meeting, 7pm in the staffroom
- 01 December - Run, Jump, Throw, and THT sausage sizzle
- 06 December - Board meeting, 6.30pm in the staffroom
- 12 December - Class Swap, 9.10-10.30am
- 15 December - Last day of term (school finishes 1pm)
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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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NEXT MEETING - 29 November, 7.00pm in the Staffroom. All welcome.
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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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Enviro Leaders
Recently the Year 5–6 Enviro Leaders presented to a group of 90 environmentalists and scientists about why they value our local awa (stream/Ararira Lll), the long-fin tuna (eels), and how the awa has a connection to our school. This was in partnership with Eco Ecology, Nature Agent, Department of Conversation, and Fonterra (Living Water Project).
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What a fabulous group of future environmental leaders we have!
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The living waters project donated three wonderful environmental books for our school library. Thank you.
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Lincoln Zones Athletics Day
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On Thursday, 9th of November we had approximately 50 children attend the Lincoln Zones Athletics day. We are very proud of how our tamariki represented our school. Some of our athletes did so well they will be representing us at the upcoming Canterbury competition.
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Congratulations to the following athletes:
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Please check the Athletics page on the sports website for details on Canterbury Athletics day (29 November 2023).
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We would also like to say a BIG thank you to Matua Craig (Zoe’s dad), Whaea Donna (Cameron’s mum) and Whaea Louise who helped direct our athletes to their events. Another thank you to all the parents who came to cheer our athletes on! Ngā mihi nui!
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Our Ki-O-Rahi festival has a new date: Thursday, 30 November 2023. We will still be sending two year 5/6 teams but only one Year 7/8 team due to some student not being available for the new date. Priority has been given to Year 8 students first, then girls (as we must have a minimum of 4 girls on the team) and then Year 7 students.
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If your child has not been selected to go this year, they will be first on the list for next year’s festival. Please check the Ki-O-Rahi page on the Sports website for teams, details and draws for the day. Parents of those participating will receive an email in regards to this.
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These are Lincoln Zones (LZ) and Primary Schools Canterbury (PSC) tournaments and competitions.
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Dates for Ararira Springs Primary (ASP) sporting events are also included. Reminders will be sent out individually.
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Check out our What’s on offer page for what clubs in our community are offering over the next few months.
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Have a great long weekend!
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The closing date for Book Club Issue 8, 2023 is 12 December. We recommend you place your order by Friday 24 November to ensure your order is dispatched to you before the end of Term 4.
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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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Mid-Year Reports: Live in Week 11 Reports will contain the following information in Reading, Writing and Maths: A narrative about your child’s learning (what they can do) Next steps How you can help at home A progress descriptor describing your child’s current ability to work within their year level content. Sliders for each element of Reading and Writing, and each …
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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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