Porritt School Press

Kia ora tātou e te whānau o Te Kura o Porritt

Hope your whānau is well and enjoying the turn toward summer. Our school year is rapidly advancing toward our final day on Tuesday 17 December. Is it just me or has 2024 vanished before our eyes?

This edition of our Porritt School Press features a significant update around our staffing organisation for 2025. See below for news of some staffing news, celebrations, farewells and 2025 welcomes.

Please also stay in the loop with what is ahead by scanning the TERM 4 SURVIVAL GUIDE. That is one busy timetable.

LOCKDOWN SUMMARY

Our recent lockdown was another speed bump that we navigated together. Though there were some certainly some learnings for us from it.

In this instance, we received advice from the Ministry of Education and the NZ Police about a possible firearms incident in our wider area, and we were advised to go into lockdown immediately. There was a concern that children departing school as normal might run into a heavily armed police cordon or a situation where firearms might be present, and be at-risk. While the danger wasn't immediate on our school site, this course of action was advised.

This is where our systems and procedures swung into action, guided by our quality staff. Your tamariki were safe and sound the entire time.

Communication at all times around lockdown will always come through HERO, with Facebook as a back up if possible. HERO is our primary tool of communication here. This is where it is important to have HERO on your mobile device as a whānau member, and receiving notifications to stay in the loop.

The timing in the day added extra considerations - it was near the end of the school day, so normal pick up time was interrupted. When we noticed whānau members on site, that were obviously unaware we were in lockdown, we decided to use the school intercom to provide a third chain of communication to ask whānau and caregivers to wait patiently outside the school gates, and in vehicles if possible. We thank our whānau onsite for your consideration.

We certainly empathise with our whānau having to wait patiently for updates and for the lockdown to be lifted, but our focus was heavily on the safety of your children while we awaited updates from the NZ Police. As father myself, with a child in another school that was also in lockdown at that time, I can appreciate the thoughts and emotions as a parent at that time.

Unfortunately we did have incidents of whānau members coming onto the school site while we were clearly in lockdown, becoming impatient and heightened. We also had people shouting while our children were in lockdown, and attempting to access learning spaces. These actions will only cause to increased tension for our tamariki.

The message here from our Porritt School Board, and myself as the school leader is this - while we are in a lockdown, all whānau and community members must stay offsite. We are tasked with keeping your children safe and calm with the information we have at hand. Your patience is required to avoid disrupting this calm for our tamariki while in a tense situation.

We appreciate the huge majority of our whānau and community members that reached out and supported the kura and expressed thanks. This is a reminder of what a special community we have here at Te Kura o Porritt.

Once again - a huge mihi to our staff for their cool and calm guidance and leadership. The Board shouted us sushi the next day as a thanks!

REO RUA/REO RUMAKI KORERO - WEDNESDAY 20 NOVEMBER

We are holding a hui in the school hall on Wednesday to discuss the potential for one learning space in our school to offer either a bilingual or total immersion language learning pathway in 2025. If you'd like to be a part of this korero, please see the info below! We will share kai and discuss other progress and next steps as well.

Please whānau, once again, keep a close eye on our social media channel via our school Facebook page, and to make sure your HERO app is up-to-date and you're receiving notifications. We can help you link back up with HERO no problem. Make contact with our school office on 8444 620 and we'll get you back up and running with HERO.

As always, if there is anything else we can help with, please do reach out and get in touch.

Mauriora,

Maaka Papuni - Tumuaki

Unfortunately, we'll farewell Matua Karaitiana at the end of 2024 from our team. Matua Karaitiana has been a massive part of our kura whānau for a while now, first as a young teacher aide, and then returning as a registered teacher in 2021.

Our big loss is Australia's gain. Karaitiana is away to pastures green in the first quarter of 2025 with adventure calling, and a chance to experience living overseas.

We look forward to a really fond farewell for Matua K at the end of this term to properly acknowledge Karaitiana's mahi here in our school community. Karaitiana has been an awesome relational personality for our tamariki, he has organised heaps of our cool sports activities and added hugely to our growth in matauranga, reo and tikanga Māori.

We wish you all the best Matua K in the Great Southern Land. We hope one day you find your way back down Lyttelton Crescent and back into the whānau here!

We are on the lookout for a pouako, and teacher, to help us continue to grow in the Matauranga Māori space. If you know of any teachers out there in the wide world that might be interested, tell them to check the link below, to our teaching role application pack!

We have four, yes FOUR beautiful hapū Māmā in our kura right now! The future of the Porritt School New Entrant class in 2030 is looking bright!

Congratulations and best wishes for awesome pregnancies and safe arrivals go to;

1. Pouako/Teacher and Team Rua Leader Emma Woods and her partner Tommy and son Jack on the impending new arrival!

2. Pouako and Teacher Hannah O'Dowd and her partner John, and tamariki Kaiahi and Kahutia on preparing to welcome twins!!!

3 Our Office Manager extraordinaire Tori Anderson and her partner Chad on the happy news of Tori's pregnancy!

4. One of wonder release teacher team, Emma Soffe, and partner Damian on the amazing news of your impending arrival too!

Man...that's such cool news e te whānau! Congrats to you all and to your whānau and partners as well.

With summer in sight, hang in there Mums and prepare for hopefully a little nesting time closer to Christmas!

Recently, the Ministry of Education announced some resourcing for schools to appoint a Structured Literacy Coordinator in 2025, if a school was interested in matching the resource put forward by the MOE.

A Structured Literacy Coordinator is responsible for working with individual tamariki and small groups in Structured Literacy that require additional support in their learning. Another part of the role is working with teachers to improve their practice, and modelling and coaching our teaching team, and supporting professional development as well.

The Porritt School Board was in favour of supporting this proposal. We are thankful to the board for supporting this role in 2025 and excited about the opportunity!

Miss Gail Shine is one of our Structured Literacy expert teachers. With this capability and passion around Structured Literacy, Gail will step away from fulltime teaching in a Learning Space in 2025, and into this role. Gail is currently working alongside our Structured Literacy Lead Emma Woods, and Kirsty Tatere to mould this role. We're keen to see the benefits that will come from this opportunity in 2025 for our tamariki and teachers. Kia ora Gail!

With two maternity leave positions to cover in fulltime teaching roles, and a Structured Literacy Coordinator role to provide cover for, we welcome Clare Peters, Jasdeep Kaur and Mikayla renor into our team for 2025.

Clare is an experienced teacher and has largely worked in the north, most recently at Oromahoe School near Kerikeri.

Jasdeep is also an experienced teacher having most recently taught at Bethlehem College in Tauranga.

Mikayla is a second year teacher nearing full teacher registration teaching at Churton Park School near Johnsonville.

Nau mai, haere mai Clare, Jasdeep and Mikayla! We look forward to welcoming these pouako hou, these new teachers into the fold in 2025.

Kia ora e te whānau whānui o Te Kura o Porritt!

E mihi ana ki ngā tohu whenua o te rohe nei, ko Ōtātāra ki te tonga, ko Kohukete ki te uru, ko Heipipi ki te raki, ko Mataruahou ki te moana. Tēnā tātau katoa!

We as a kura would like to mihi to the mahi and the progress made at our tuakana kura in Tamatea, at firstly Te Kura Tuarua o Tamatea (Tamatea High School), and then Te Kura Takawaenga o Tamatea (Tamatea Intermediate School), in the establishment of reo rumaki spaces and reo and tikanga Māori centric pathways for tamariki and rangatahi.

On Wednesday 20 November, we’d like to call a hui for our whānau to come together to korero around the potential for the establishment of a reo rua, a bilingual space, or a reo rumaki, an immersion space, in our kura in 2025 and beyond.

We call all interested whānau to join us in our school hall on Wednesday 20 November @ 6.00pm

This will be a space to share whakaaro and korero with one another about the potential for opening this pathway here at Te Kura o Porritt.

There will also be time to korero around what you feel has gone well in our kura, and what you’d like to see for your tamariki moving ahead in this space, and in our kura.

Nau mai, hāere mai e te whānau - all are welcome. We will have kai organised. A follow-up expression of interest survey will be shared so we have a sense of numbers for kai.

Tiro atu ki te pae, mauria atu tō korowai.

Look forward into the horizon and prepare.

Mauriora koutou - mā te wā! See you soon!

Monday 14 October: Term Four Commences ✅

Monday 14 October @ 9.05am: Mihi Whakatau to welcome new students, whānau & staff ✅

Wednesday 16 October: Porritt School Board Meeting @ 5.30pm ✅

Thursday 17 October: Team Whā Camp El Rancho Whānau Hui ✅

Tuesday 22 October: Digi Awards Prize Giving @ The Municipal Theatre ✅

Thursday 24 October: School and Porritt Care Closed for Staff-Only Day ✅

Friday 25 October: Hawkes Bay Anniversary Day ✅

Monday 28 October: Labour Day ✅

Thursday 31 October: Year 3-6 School Athletics @ Hastings Sports Park ✅

Monday 4 November - Tuesday 5 November: Team Toru Y5 Marae Noho @ Wharerangi Marae ✅

Wednesday 6 November: Year 0-2 Run Jump Throw Athletics @ Porritt School ✅

Thursday 7 November: Porritt's Got Talent Grand Finale ✅

Friday 8 November: School Photos! ✅

Tuesday 12 November to Friday 15 November: Team Whā @ Camp El Rancho ✅

Wednesday 13th November & Thursday 14th November: Year 5 Road Patrol Training ✅

Thursday 14 November: Team Tahi Rocky Shore trip ✅

Tuesday 19 November: Taradale and Districts School Interschool Athletics

Wednesday 20 November: Whānau Hui - Reo Rua / Reo Rumaki Learning Korero @ 6.00pm

Friday 6 December: 2024 Road Patrol at Splash Planet

Thursday 12 December: Team Rua Kapa Haka performance for whānau and caregivers (Time TBC)

Thursday 12 December: Year 6 Leaver's Dance and Dinner

Monday 16 December: End of Year Learning Summary shared with whānau and caregivers

Monday 16 December: End of Year Celebration Assembly @ 6.00pm

Tuesday 17 December: Final day of the 2024 school year.

Team Whā have just returned from Camp El Rancho in Waikanae! Our tuakana, our senior studnets, have had an amazing week of challenge, growth and fun.

These EOTC (Education Outside the Classroom) opportunities are vital in the experience and development of our tamariki - they grow so much through these opportunities.

A four day school camp is never a small undertaking! We wish to thank our tamariki for taking on and tackling challenges, the awesome whānau members that came along and supported this camp with their time and energy on little sleep. We had so many volunteers and could only take a few. Many thanks to these legends.

A final mihi goes out to Hannah Jones and her Team Whā teaching team in Mel and Karaitiana, and Matua Ben for your EOTC expertise and support, as well as Mrs Keesom supporting also. We have some brilliant staff and whānau making these things possible!

The PhotoLife team were onsite last week taking class photos, individual photos and sibling photos for those families that got in and ordered siblings shots.

Please don't worry if you want to order individual photos and class photos, that is still an option for you, so long as you know what email address you have on file here at school!

You simply need to follow the instructions on the PhotoLife website once our school photos have been loaded into the website portal for our school. We will send a Facebook and Hero post out to our commuity once the photos are ready to view on the PhotoLife website.

A unique keycode will be emailed to you for your child, and you'll be able to view their photos and order from there!

If in doubt, sing out - call the office on 06 8444 620 and speak with Tori.

Our 2025 New Entrant spaces are filling FAST at Te Kura o Porritt.

Please reach out to us on 8444 620 to book a school tour now, or to enrol younger siblings.

You can also email Maaka directly to arrange a school tour or to discuss an enrolment, by hitting the button below;

Wow! What a day! We held our annual Porritt's Got Talent 2024 Grand Finale on Thursday 7 November.

Our finalists were awesome - what diverse skills and talents! Every single one of them did themselves proud. It was such a hard decision deciding on our place getters. YOU ARE ALL AMAZING!

Thank you also to our beautiful Arts Leaders who were our comperes today. Great job team!

At the next available opportunity we will present our finalists and winners with their certificates, medals and a trophy;

Team Tahi winner - Esmé Couper

Team Rua winner - Carter Stevens

Team Toru winners - Kiana Rowden, Willow Welch, Ava Turner, Sky Rickard

Team Whā winner - Abby Koen

Overall champion - Abby Koen!

Congratulations to all tamariki that auditioned, our finalists, and our winners!

A big mihi also to chief organiser Mrs Baker, alongside Mrs McLean, Whaea Libby, Mr Parker and Mrs Keesom for your mahi too. What a cool opportunity for our tamariki. Your mahi is appreciated!

Our awesome Porritt's Got Talent finalists!

Abby Koen announced Champion!

Here's early confirmation of term dates for 2025 at Porritt School;

TERM 1: MONDAY 3RD FEBRUARY - FRIDAY 11TH APRIL

TERM 2: MONDAY 28TH APRIL - FRIDAY 27TH JUNE

TERM 3: MONDAY 14TH JULY TO FRIDAY 19TH SEPTEMBER

TERM 4: MONDAY 6TH OCTOBER TO WEDNESDAY 17TH DECEMBER

BEGINNING OF TERM 1, 2025 INFORMATION;

MONDAY 27 JANUARY - FRIDAY 31 JANUARY: SCHOOL OFFICE OPEN FOR NEW ENROLMENTS

MONDAY 3RD FEBRUARY - KAIAKO CONNECT HUI WITH 2025 KAIAKO

TUESDAY 4TH FEBRUARY - ALL STUDENTS BACK - PŌWHIRI FOR WHĀNAU HOU.

* Please note, we are still in the process of confirming our Teacher and Staff Only Days for 2025.