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Connect Communication
07 December 2022
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2022 at Ararira is nearly done. Last night was a wonderful way to celebrate the end of the year. It was the culmination of many weeks of work and it was a blessing to be able to share as part of a community event. It felt like our own Christmas in the Park, albeit with a tikanga Māori focus.
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Auahatanga | creativity was showcased through the costumes, choreography and musical compositions. Household goods were repurposed and recycled to create magical costumes representing NZ flora and fauna. Special thanks to ALL the parents who helped with costumes and in classrooms, our staff for supporting their learners, Steve for getting the grounds ready and being on call for last-minute jobs and the Johnstone whānau for the stage truck. A very special thank you to Whāea Sam for believing in her dream to make this happen. Of course, the true stars on the night were the tamariki, their smiles shining brightly and their dance moves slick or improvised.
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You may be aware the NZ Curriculum is undergoing a 'refresh'. This is a large piece of work and the Ministry of Education has given NZ schools two teacher-only days in 2023. The first of these is scheduled for 24th April. We already had this in our planning so this will bring the last day of term forward to Friday, December 15th. We will advise you as soon as we know the date of the second day but this is yet to be made public.
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Enjoy the last days of term and we will be in touch over the summer break with arrangements for 2023. There are a lot of exciting plans with the new building and professional learning opportunities and we can't wait to share them with you.
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From the Office
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Student Absence Notifications/Late Arrivals - When late for school, please come and sign your child in at the office before heading to class as it's likely they will have missed being marked on the roll and you may receive a notification that your child is absent.
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Absences can be reported via:
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- Hero app
- Phone 03 42 00 888, press 1 and leave your message
We really appreciate your help in reporting absences prior to 9 am as it saves us a lot of time following up via texts and phone calls.
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School Gates - We ask that you all please be extra vigilant in keeping the gates closed at all times during school hours, as this will help keep children safe within the school grounds.
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How to Cancel a Kindo Lunch Order - If you need to cancel a lunch order made via Kindo, please click here for instructions on how to do so. Orders need to be cancelled prior to the cut-off date/time, otherwise, they will be automatically sent through to the supplier and delivered to school as usual.
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Covid RAT Kits - The Ministry of Education are no longer supplying RAT kits to schools, so if you need to test for Covid please click here to find your most convenient collection point and place an order.
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Free Period Products in Schools - FREE period products for students can be ordered on Kindo and will be available for collection from the school office.
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Please note: Scholastic cannot guarantee your order will arrive before the end of Term 4.
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If your item is intended as a gift, tick the gift option when you place your order.
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All orders will be delivered to school and distributed to the classrooms. 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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A friendly reminder about being Sun Smart. It is compulsory to wear a navy blue full-brim sunhat in terms 4 and 1 (no caps please). No hat = no play (tamariki will sit in a shady area instead).
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If you know of families moving into the area, please encourage them to enrol with us as soon as possible.
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Click here for further information regarding the types of batteries we can accept.
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Thank you to Selwyn Lions Club for donating some beautiful wooden toys for pre-schoolers of our tamariki for Christmas. These will be well received and appreciated.
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IMPORTANT DATES - 2022
- 07 Dec - Board of Trustees Meeting (tonight), 6.30 pm in the Staffroom
- 08 Dec - THT Meeting/Drinks, The Flaming Rabbit Lincoln, 7 pm (all welcome)
- 09 Dec - Hui (Hikuwai 4/5), 9.10am
- 12 Dec - Scholastic Lucky Book Club issue 8 final closing date
- 14 Dec - Graduation Hui, 1.30-2.15 pm
- 15 Dec - Final Hui for 2022, 11.30-12 noon
- 15 Dec (Thursday) - last day of the term, school closes at 1 pm.
TERM DATES - 2023
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Term 1: Monday 30th January (meet and greet), Tuesday 31st January (first school day) - Thursday 6th April
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Term 2: Wednesday 26th April - Friday 30th June 2023
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Term 3: Monday 17th July - Friday 22nd September 2023
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Term 4: Monday 9th October - Friday 15th December 2023
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Note: 2023 Teacher Only dates are still to be confirmed
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Full list of New Zealand Public Holidays including regional anniversary days
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School Board News
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NEXT MEETING - 07 December (tonight), 6.30 pm in the Staffroom
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Using Our Kiss and Go
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We would like to provide some clarification on the use of the Kiss and Go area. This is designed for you to pull in and out of rather than park. For it to flow we try and encourage you to come a little later so the children can be waiting for you to pick them up. Here is a video provided by the Selwyn District Council as our carpark was their design.
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Our challenge arises when trying to access the kiss-and-go area when it is filled with cars. We can't have you waiting and blocking the entrance to the car park at the top of the drive. If this occurs we ask you to circle around and enter the driveway again.
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Please be patient, our staff are trying to help this area flow. If you have grandparents picking up your children we ask you to remind them not to park in this area. Do consider coming a little later. The car park is virtually empty by 3:10 pm.
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Te Hapori Tautoko (THT) News
Te Hapori Tautoko (THT) - providing opportunities to tautoko (support) and connect our school community and fundraising for school initiatives and resources.
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NEXT MEETING (drinks) - 08 December, 7pm at the Flaming Rabbit, Vernon Drive, Lincoln - all welcome, not just THT members
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Second Hand Uniforms - The THT has a small selection of second hand uniform items available for purchase. We are also looking to increase our selection and would welcome donations of good quality uniform items. All profits are used by THT to improve our school and provide resources for our tamariki. If you have uniform items to donate or would like to see the selection we have, please contact Charlotte via charlotte.mcmenamin@ararira.school.nz
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Tough Kids Challenge (Year 3-8)
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The last event on our sporting calendar will be the Tough Kids Challenge at South New Brighton Domain. We will be travelling via bus to the venue leaving at 11:20am and should be back by 3pm. We are looking forward to a fun-filled day! For more information on the event please click on the link: Tough Kids Challenge
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Click on the link if you would like to register your child.
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What's Been Happening?
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On Friday 25 November, our Year 3 tamariki visited Ngāti Moki marae, Taumutu. They had a fabulous day making connections to our local community. All tamariki presented their mihi beautifully. Māku e whakatika! It starts with me!
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It's finally official - we are a Bronze Enviroschool! On Friday 25 November Liam, Em and Zachary attended the Enviroschools Selwyn-Waitaha Reflection Celebration, representing our kura to formally receive our Bronze certificate. They each presented an aspect of our Enviroschools journey to the audience, and shared our visual timeline with everyone. They were wonderful ambassadors for our kura and we were very proud of them all. Huge thanks to Whaea Andrea and Whaea Larissa who have been our enviro lead teachers.
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Congratulations to our tamariki who graduated from Te Mātāpuna Mātātahi/Childrens University. A special evening at the Christchurch Town Hall in cap and gown walking across the stage, to acknowledge the hours of extra learning at home. Thanks Whaea Andrea for your mahi this year with running the programme.
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Last week Huarapa were lucky enough to use the food science kit from “House of Science”. The tamariki explored where food came from and discovered many things such as how to make cottage cheese, jelly and different popcorn sources. The tamariki also talked about sustainable protein food sources for the future, with one being insects. These brave tamariki chose to try a cricket!
Nicha also kindly brought in some silk worms for us to try. Thanks Nicha.
Thanks to “House of Science” for giving us a wonderful opportunity to become real scientists!
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Christmas Tree - some of our tamariki put up a small Christmas tree in the office this week. If families were thinking of donating gifts to any charity organisations this year, we will be happy to drop presents off at Women's Refuge next week. Items can be left under the tree unwrapped. The only request they have is that there are no toy guns or nerfs, please.
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Te Waka o Aoraki - Wow! What a show! The smiles said it all. Well done to everyone on their amazing performance tonight, you were simply incredible. This is what Ararira is all about! Tamariki creating and sharing their learning, our community coming together to enjoy seeing the product of all the mahi over the term. Thanks to everyone who helped make this night so special.
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Kelly Club
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Next week at Kelly Club our theme is Tinsel Ready! Book in now and let's get Christmassy!
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Summer Holiday Programme bookings are now open. Book in quick and join us for this incredible programme.
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The structured literacy spelling approach involves explicitly teaching tamariki how to encode (spell) the English language. It connects the reciprocal nature of reading and writing together. English is an Alphabetic Code It uses symbols of the alphabet (letters or graphemes) to represent speech sounds (phonemes). There are 26 letters and 44 speech sounds in the English language however there are …
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At Ararira Springs we use the Family Planning programme ‘Navigating the Journey’ to teach Relationship and Sexuality Education. This is taught appropriately to your child’s age and stage by your child’s ako teacher. Relationships and sexuality education sit within the Health and Physical Education strand of The New Zealand Curriculum and is compulsory for students up to year 10. Parents …
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Mana Ōrite / equal status is founded on the principles of Te Tiriti o Waitangi. In our school it is the understanding of mātauranga Māori, Māori approaches to teaching and learning and the Te Ao Māori kete of knowledge, as having an equal value within education. It is also taking action to redress the structural foundations that have previously placed …
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