Porritt School Press

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

We are halfway through Term 1! We have had so many amazing learning experiences to celebrate already.

I'd like to thank our kaiako and kaimahi, our teachers and support staff, for the hard work they have put in to establish strong connections with our learners and their families. Five weeks in, the tūāpapa, the foundations, have been laid to see some brilliant learning progress soar from here. Solid relationships are essential here!

There's heaps in this Porritt School Press! Have a good read this weekend and we'll see your tamariki back on Monday ready for another great week.

Kia pai tō rā whakatā - have a top weekend.

Maaka Papuni - Tumuaki

Since our last Porritt School Press on Friday 14 February, we have welcomed Lucy Steven-Jackson, Journey Ngapera, Amelia Matthews, and Mitara Te Ngahue Cotter to our kura. This brings our school roll to 303. These tamariki and their families have had a brilliant start at our kura!

If you know of a 4 year old out there that might be heading our way, we need to hear from you as soon as possible...our New Entrant spaces are filling fast.

This is the first of a series of posts about our different teams of adults acros the kura.

The first group to profile is Team Rua! Team Rua kaiako and kaimahi pictured here are;

L to R - Felicity Baker, Michelle Wickham, Bryson Ioane, Mikayla Renor, Janice Groom and Paula Nicol.

Felicity, Mikayla, Janice and Paula team teach in Team Rua with our Year 2&3 tamariki. Paula is also the Phase One Leader across New Entrant to Year 3 learners.

They are very well supported by Learning Support Michelle Wickham and Learning Mentor Bryson Ioane. Both Michelle and Bryson also support our PorrittCare programmes, where Michelle is an Assistant Supervisor. As a Learning Mentor, Bryson supports tamariki at break times in focused sports activities and games.

We are very fortunate to have such a great team supporting our Year 2&3 learners in the kura. Kia ora Team Rua kaiako and kaimahi!

At Porritt School in 2025, a major focus for our staff is the development of our Mathematics and Statistics teaching and learning programmes.

It has been awesome to begin our use of rich maths resources to support our teaching and learning. All of our tamariki have been using Maths No Problem textbooks and work books to support their learning. Our tamariki and kaiako love these well put together resources.

Here's what some of our Year 5 tamariki had to say about using the new text books;

"We've been learning place value into the tens of thousands. I love the books. I like using a book better than my iPad for my maths learning." - Ava Turner

"For me the books make my maths learning simple and fun. I find guessing the place value numbers and checking my answers enjoyable." - Ellie Cox

These resources are in use from Year 1 to Year 6. Ask your child today what they have been learning in these text books and in their Maths learning.

Ava and Ellie crunching the sums!

Kyle and Ollie deep in learning

Each week, we have a focus at kura and the Home Group that rises to meet that challenge as a group will receive Porritt Bear for an entire week to stay in Home Spaces and to be cared for.

A huge shout out to Team Tahi for nailing our previous challenge in moving respectfully around the kura. Team Tahi can move around like legends!

Last week, our focus was on lining up our hū, our shoes, nicely in the area we store them. We do not wear our shoes inside.

The best Home Group this week was Team Renor, Miss Renor's Home Group, from Team Rua. Massive mahi Team Renor - Porritt Bear is yours to care for!

Our focus this week is on displaying Respect by using kindness and manners. Home Groups are discussing what this looks like in different ways, and in different areas.

Holly and August rapt with the Porritt Bear certificate and Porritt Bear after being recognised in Assembly.

Last week was a huge week for our Year 6 tuakana! They have been out on the water at Te Whanganui a Orotū sailing these beautiful little Optimist Yachts.

This activity is a bit of a Hawkes' Bay institution - a right of passage for school children in our area!

Our tamariki had to use all of their PRIDE Values and all of their wits in this awesome water-based activity.

Many thanks to our awesome kaiako, kaiawhina and whānau that supported this kaupapa.

Rawe tō mahi tamariki mā!

Best of luck to our awesome Learning Mentor Whaea Duffy, as she continues her professional rugby career after starting her Super Rugby Aupiki season this weekend with the Blues womens team.

Krysten started at Number 10 for the defending champions on Saturday against the Hurricanes Poua, and was part of a first up win - ka rawe tō mahi Whaea Duffy! Ngā mihi nui ki a koe - have a great season!

We've had two great swimming events this week! On Tuesday, we hosted the Team Tahi and Team Rua Swimming Carnival! What a beautiful event for our teina...our younger tamariki.

Today has been a day for our tuakana, our older learners, from Team Toru and Team Whā. Today our Team Toru and Whā Swimming Sports took place. We have seen some outstanding swimming and found our champion swimmers in each year group! Rawe! Big mihi to Whaea Hannah for her Sports Coordination here.

Many thanks to all kaiako and leaders that have planned and delivered these experiences for our kids this week. And well done kids! You have had to show a little resilience and determination too with slightly cooler weather.

For our champions for Team Toru and Team Whā, we will be awarding certificates and medals at an assembly soon.

We welcomed four EIT Bachelor of Education third year candidate teachers to Porritt School at the beginning of the year. We are very fortunate to be supporting the final year of a three year teaching degree course for these young trainee teachers.

Pictured are these tauira hou, these new students in our school - Ruby Williams, Joel Hagen, Abbey Uri and McKenzie Harding-Lowe. Whaea Nic McGrath is our in-school EIT Mentor Teacher.

This quartet has made a fantastic start in the kura. They are getting stuck in straight away! We're excited to support them in their teaching!

Thank you to whānau and friends of the school for your generous contributions for our Easter Raffle. You are still able to donate for the next three weeks.

Raffle ticket sheets will be coming home with your child next week - look out for those!

We had a great iceblock fundraiser yesterday! We sold out in 20 minutes! Thanks for supporting Home and School...much appreciated!

This year we reach a grand age - 50 years! We are planning some celebratory events and activities between Thursday 17 October and Wednesday 22 October. This is the week leading into HB Anniversary Weekend and Labour Day.

More information will be shared soon about specific events. For now...mark the diary and let any old girls and boys and ex-staff know!

It will be awesome to mark our progress together and look ahead to the next 50 years as a kura.

"Titiro whakamua, kōkiri whakamuri" - Look back and reflect so we can move forward.

I recently spoke to my twin brother Johnny. He lives in Australia. Johnny told me he had a great new job in an Italian restaurant as a chef.

I was surprised to her that, I hadn't even seen Johnny making a toasted sandwich before.

I asked Johnny how it was going and he said it was going great! He did say that he got one complaint from a customer for serving fake spaghetti noodles.

I said I had never heard of fake spaghetti pasta before.

He said "Yeah brother...do you know what they call fake spaghetti?. An impasta!"

And that e te whānau...is a true story.