Kia ora koutou,

What a summer – we love seeing classes regularly getting into the school pool, building water confidence, and developing their aquatic skills.  We are lucky to have a school pool, as many schools don’t and with the warm weather everyone is enjoying getting into the water.

In a few weeks, the Rākau Team will be holding their annual swimming sports.  Traditionally, all Year 5 & 6 students travel to the Ōtūmoetai Pools and compete in various races.  These races include lengths of free-style, back-stroke, breast-stroke and butterfly.  There are relays and medleys, and often, a parent/teacher race to wrap up the day.  However, over the last few years we have been observing a rapid decline in the swimming capabilities of our senior swimmers.  While there are still capable and competitive swimmers in our school, the number of students who can confidently swim the length of the pool without stopping to hold the lane ropes for a break has increased significantly.

With many children unable to participate fully in swimming, we plan on splitting the team into two separate events.  Children who can genuinely complete two or more events will travel to the Ōtūmoetai Pool and take part in the traditional swimming event.  Those who can’t participate at that level will stay at school, where a swimming-based event will be run in the school pool.  This different approach will provide more opportunities for engagement and avoid having students sitting on the bleachers for long periods of time.

Our team is increasingly concerned about the declining capabilities of children in the water, as we know that water safety is an important skill for NZ children.  We have a few initiatives happening at school to support swimming development, including class lessons.  However, it could be worth considering as a parent how confident your child is in the water.  While they may be happy splashing in the school pool or the shallows at the beach, how would they go if they found themselves in deeper water, needing to travel a distance using their own strength?

Below is a short survey to gather basic information on swimming at Matua School.  We’d love to hear more, via this survey, about how swimming development happens in your family.

School Donations

Thank you for your patience while we have been preparing the school system to support payment of the 2024 School Donations.  This payment is now able to be made via Kindo.  The school donation for 2024 remains at $130 per child, which is the same as last year.  Part payments can be made within your Kindo account.

School donations are an important part of our school finances.  Matua School is funded by the Ministry of Education, and being a school located in a financially strong community, the funding we receive is on the lower end of the national scale.  Therefore PTA fundraising, community grants and school donations are all critical to us being able to deliver the level of resourcing we desire for our children.  If you would like to learn more about this, please follow THIS LINK to an information sheet on how these donations are used.

Follow THIS LINK to sign into KINDO, or use the link found in the Hero App.

Hero School App

Hopefully, you have downloaded and signed up to Hero, the new school app.  Our goal is that all key communication and information related to school can be accessed through Hero.  If you haven’t connected with Hero yet you can do that now by following these instructions.

There are two ways to sign up for Hero:

1. Download the Hero by LINC-ED App from either the Apple or Google Play Stores.
2. Visit the website: https://our-hero.com/nz/ and sign up via your browser.

Enter the email address that the school has as your contact email, select ‘New User,’ and you will receive a password to activate your account.

Pro Tip
If your child is going to be away from school, please use the ‘Report an Absence’ button in Hero.  This will send a message to both the school office AND your classroom teacher.  We have noticed that a few parents are sending absence notices to teachers through Caregiver Communications, which doesn’t get sent to the office.

Crocs and Jibbitz

At the end of 2023, I sent a survey about Crocs at Matua School.  This survey received one the biggest parent responses to any survey we’ve released…clearly a hot topic!  As highlighted in the graphs below, the support for keeping Crocs as an option for footwear at school was very strong.  The thoughts regarding Jibbitz are more evenly spread, but with the majority thinking, we should allow them.  What I have really appreciated is the strong parent support in recognising that the issues that can arise from things like Jibbitz is a good learning experience for children, and isn’t something that is the responsibility of the school or teachers.  There are occasions where Jibbitz are lost, or even taken by other students – which certainly isn’t acceptable.  However, we have reinforced to children that if something like a Jibbitz is personally valuable, then school isn’t the right place for it.

I am pleased to confirm that Crocs can be worn to school, and Jibbitz are a fun thing that, like other trends, will phase out over time.  Please talk to your children about how valuable their Jibbitz are to them, and about the possibility they could get lost at school.  If it’s not worth the risk, then they could be saved for out-of-school dress wear 🙂

Sponsorship 2024

We are thrilled to have a number of businesses that support Matua School as sponsors.  We are approaching a time when we have opportunities for new sponsors to partner with Matua School.  If you are a business leader and would like to explore these opportunities further, please see the information below and/or contact me at marcusn@matua.school.nz

TŪĪ TALKS – EPISODE 6

The first Tūī Talks episode for 2024 is now available on Spotify.  We have a new group of talented Matua Learners working on great content for parents and children.  The first episode this year has a look at the concept of Service – our Term 1 learning focus.

Please follow the link below to listen, and subscribe to our Tui Talks SPOTIFY channel for future episodes.

SCHOOL INFORMATION

COMMUNITY NOTICES

NATIONAL CHILDRENS DAY

Children’s Day in our city centre is back on Sunday, 3 March and will be bigger and better than ever before! Organised by Tauranga City Council, in celebration of National Children’s Day, this free event will be a hive of activity with performances, face painting, arts and craft activities, superheroes and more.   

With six different activity zones spanning across the waterfront, the Cargo Shed, Willow Street and He Puna Manawa, there will be something for everyone to enjoy. Practice your circus tricks, sit in a police car or take a sneak peek inside the Civic Precinct construction zone, this is one you won’t want to miss!  

The event is on Sunday, 3 March from 10am-3pm. Click on the image below or visit mytauranga.co.nz/citycentre for all the details.  

BLUE LIGHT – KIDS GONE FISHING

The annual Blue light Kids Gone Fishing Competition is being held on the 17^th of March 2024 at Tauranga Bridge Marina.

This event is FREE!

• Free bait
• Free handheld lines
• Free BBQ
• Spot Prizes