Week 9

WOW only one more week of term left before the Easter holidays. Looking back over the term we have had our school and interschool swimming and athletics, trips to Opunake to do our beach safety, all staff have completed the first aide course and Professional development in linking Numeracy and Literacy to our integrated curriculum, the children have had several visits from experts in water safety and a visit from the author Diana Neild, as well as completing all of their academic school work. So a very busy but productive term. Next term we have Kissick/Eraio, visits to Lake Rotokare, visits from experts in flora and fauna, Puke Ariki coming to school to talk to the children, ANZAC celebrations, Sponsors night, and reports coming out at the end of term. Our topic focus for next term is Native Flora and Fauna.

Dates to remember:

ANZAC Day 25 April

BOT meetings held in the school library next term are on:

16th May at 7:00pm and 19th June at 7:00pm.

Sponsors Night is 23rd May

Queens Birthday 4th June

Matapu & Districts 125 Jubilee 7-9th February 2014

Week 7

This week and next we have Mr Stoddart in the classrooms teaching the children art skills. Mr Stoddart covers the teachers while they have their CRT (Classroom Release Time) which allow them to catch up on assessment and other paper work duties.

The children had their interschool swimming sports yesterday and did very well. The parents that attended came back buzzing about the children’s efforts and behaviour. Well done guys.

We are due for the Ultras Fast Broadband upgrade at school. You may have seen in the papers recently about what schools can do when they get this Fibre into their schools. Well it’s not the great fix that they are reporting. It is great that we have the fibre at school, however there are no providers the hook into so we can’t use it anyway. We may not have any providers for quite some time as they are all still assessing what they are going to provide and how. It is really frustrating for schools and communities when they are lead to believe that they are getting a service and that service is not delivered. So get hold of your local MPs and voice your concerns about this!!

Stay safe

Rick

Week 6

Another week down and we are steaming along nicely.

Athletics at Kaponga on Wednesday was a great success again. Thanks to the Kaponga Athletics people for putting on the day. WOOOHOOOO Matapu School won the interschool 100m relay. Well done Matapu!!!!!!

We have a brand new notice board for school dates etc erected on the corner of Hastings and Skeet Roads. This is to communicate better with our wider community about dates etc for school and community events. Have already had some good feedback from the wider community, so that’s good!

Please remember that Monday is Taranaki holiday and there is no school!!

We will also be having our school swimming sports next Wednesday. The children will have their

individual races and will be trying to break the school records again this year. Parents please bring along your togs as there are parent, teacher and children’s relays. The children get a big kick out this so please ensure your swimming attire is in your bag next Wednesday.

The preparations for the Matapu and Districts 125 Year Jubilee is starting to come together. We had a meeting last week and will have another on Monday 26th March. Please come down and help with the organization of this special event. Please go to the blog site and become a follower and follow by email. This will give us an indication of interest in the event and keep you updated as things happen. http://matapu-jubilee.blogspot.co.nz/

The wild weather played havoc with our power earlier this week. We had no power for three days because of trees down across power lines on Hastings Road. So we had school the old way with no computers, interactive whiteboards etc

I gave one 6 year old a piece of chalk to take to her teacher, she said "Whats that?" I said 'Chalk" she said "Whats that?", we have come a long way since I went to school!

The school buildings suffered no damage but our fence was demolished at the Skeet Road end by a fallen tree and the fence at the hall was blown over. However we were a lot luckier than some who lost roofs and parts of their house! Beautiful weather at the moment so all good now.