Heron Herald Term 2 Week 7

17 hours ago

Kia ora Matua families,

What a wonderful few weeks we’ve enjoyed at Matua School! Our school Cross Country was a brilliant day with families coming together to celebrate running and taking on personal challenges. We love that so many parents and family members come out to support – thank you! Last week was Book Week, where we celebrated reading and all things books throughout the week. This kicked off with our Book Character Dress Up Day and a school parade, followed by the Matua ‘Donate a Book Fair’. A special thank you to Mrs DG, our wonderful librarian, who organised this book-focused week.

MID-YEAR REPORTING

As we head into the second half of Term 2, we are working towards our Mid-Year Reporting. You may be aware that the Ministry of Education has released updates to the Mathematics and English curriculum along with new reporting language and expectations. These changes have a significant impact on our teaching, learning, assessment and reporting processes. Over the next week, I will share information about these refreshed systems via a Hero post. This will highlight the areas of the curriculum where achievement expectations for children have been increased, and what reporting on
these will look like. In the meantime, please take note of the following dates:

Reports published on Hero – Friday 19th June

Learner Conferences (Parent, Child, Teacher Meetings) – Monday 22nd June to Friday 26th June

Bookings for Learner Conferences will be open on Tuesday 9th June. These will be completed via Hero, and a message will be sent out to let you know they are open.

Open Classrooms – Thursday 2nd July (after school hours). This will be an opportunity for parents to walk through classrooms and engage in some of the learning that has been happening this term. More information on this event will follow, but please mark this on your calendar.

We look forward to connecting with you around your child’s progress against the new curriculum.

Marcus Norrish
Principal

SCHOOL CALENDAR

The school calendar is also available in Hero. Please use this calendar to stay in touch with upcoming events.

The Ministry of Education has included two Teacher Only Days in the 2026 school year. Please take note of these dates. They are on Friday, 20th March, and Friday, 29th May. They are listed on the school calendar.

Helen is Matua School’s Premium Sponsor

Want to buy or sell a house? Give her a call – she’s really nice!

CROSS COUNTRY 2026

We saw great competition, chasing of personal goals, along with a celebration of sport and the coming together of a fantastic community. Thanks to everyone for taking part in Cross Country 2026. It was wonderful to have children dressed up, bringing a festival feel to the event and making room for the competitive runners through to the social runners. A shout out to our PTA and Cafe on Levers for supporting the event. Check out this video!

LIBRARY UPDATES

Donate a Book Fair and Book Character Day

A big thank you to our community for your support and enthusiasm during book week. Book Fair purchasing efforts this year went towards non fiction books in particular. Not only do children’s non fiction books hold information in a visual,systematic and orderly layout they also create moments of wonderment. Children discover snippets of information that inspire them and fascinate them which in turn leads to new understanding, interests, and hobbies. From learning new opening moves in chess, to how spider silk was used in telescopes in World War 2…many new fascinating reads in our library!

School Librarians

Another big thank you goes to our Term 1 and 2 Librarians who created flyers for our Book Fair and Character Parade, as well as assisting during the Book Fair before and after school. This group of librarians will continue into Term 3 and help train a new budding group of year 5 and 6 school librarians.

MAHURI NEWS

These wonderful Māhuri students were awarded with certificates at our latest Team assembly. They have been showing courage, resilience, and reliability in their learning efforts. We are all very proud of their achievements.

SCHOOL UNIFORM

Thank you for ensuring your children are in the correct school uniform at the start of the year. We are coming to the end of a three-year transition to our new uniform, and so at the start of 2027 the expectation is that all children will be wearing the new items. Old designs and fabrics will not be acceptable from then.

For this year the older style polos, hats and pants are fine. However, we want to ensure that children are wearing one version of the school’s uniform set. At the start of the year, teachers will ask children to speak with their parents if they are wearing the incorrect uniform. We often see children with dangly earrings, socks with big brands on the side, bike shorts that are for weekend sport rather than school or hats in the wrong colour or style. New uniforms can be purchased from NZ UNIFORMS and some secondhand uniforms are available through the PTA.

ROLL GROWTH CLASS

We are in the process of looking at our roll growth classes.

If you have a child who is turning 5 within the next 12 months, please can you complete an Intention To Enrol Form by clicking on the following link.

https://www.matua.school.nz/enrolment/

KINDY FUNDRAISER

SKIDS

What’s Happening At sKids – Term 2

We are excited to be launching a fun new initiative at sKids called Friday Fry-Yay starting from Friday, 22nd May. Each Friday afternoon, children attending the programme will enjoy delicious air-fried hot chips along with fun activities to finish off the school week.

Check out the sKids website for more details!

SINGING LESSONS AT MATUA SCHOOL

UPTON MUSIC SCHOOL

With this term being a longer 11-week term, we’re excited to offer 3 optional “Music Experience Weeks” for currently enrolled private students, after the completion of our standard 8-week programme.

These weeks are designed to give students extra performance experience, creativity, and confidence in a fun end-of-term environment.

Week 9 – Concert Prep Week
Students will focus on polishing songs, performance skills, stage confidence, and preparation for the upcoming concert.

Week 10 – Recording Week
Students will have the opportunity to record and take home a performance video/audio recording of their chosen song.

Week 11 – Jam Week
A relaxed and fun session focused on jamming, creativity, improvisation, and playing together.

The 3-week programme is offered as a complete package for only $105 ($35 per lesson).

Spaces are limited and bookings will be confirmed based on tutor availability.

If you would like to enrol your child in the 3-Week Music Experience please get in touch.

Thanks,
Upton Music School

Ngā mihi,
Upton Music School

SCHOOL HOURS

A friendly reminder that school is not open until 8.30am. If you require childcare before these hours, please contact SKIDS either by email – matua@skids.co.nz, phone – 027 586 0408, or book online – www.skids.co.nz/Matua.

SCHOOL INFORMATION

LUNCH ORDERS – EVERY FRIDAY

Lunch orders are available for delivery to Matua School each Friday.

SUBWAY

Simply order your SUBWAY lunch online through you myKindo account by CLICKING HERE

Order (or cancel) any time before 9:00am on the day or schedule in advance.

Help? Visit support.mykindo.co.nz or call 09-869 5200 Mon-Fri, 8:00am to 4:00pm.

TERM DATES 2026

Term 1, 2026 – Wednesday 4th February – Thursday 2nd April

Teacher Only Day – Friday 20th March (MoE Curriculum Training Day)

Term 2 – Monday 20th April – Friday 3rd July

Teacher Only Day – Friday 29th May (MoE Curriculum Training Day)

King’s Birthday Public Holiday – Monday 1st June

Matariki Public Holiday – Falls in school holidays

Term 3 – Monday 20th July – Friday 25th September

Term 4 – Monday 12th October – 16th December

Labour Day Public Holiday – Monday 26th October

Last Day of School – Wednesday 16th December

SETTING UP KINDO

Setting up with Kindo

Kindo is our prefered payments system. To help you learn how it works, we’ve added their new help sheet and video. We hope it helps.

Kindo Help