page background

Te Aroha Primary School Newsletter

Spotlight on Te Moananui-A-Kiwa (TMAK)

Te Aroha PrimarySchool NewsletterSpotlight on Te Moananui-A-Kiwa (TMAK)

Introducing TMAK teachers - leaders of learning for Year 6 - 8.

Room 8 - Kirsty Young, Year 6 teacher and Hub leader

Room 9 - Aniwa Armstrong & Linda Gamble, Year 7 & 8 teachers, job share position

Room 10 - Holly Brittenden, Year 7 & 8 teacher and Deputy Principal

Connections to Community

Once a TAPS kid, always a TAPS kid Students in Te Moananui A Kiwa were excited to welcome back past pupil Jack Brittenden for a Q and A session as part of their learning on Connections.

Currently farming at Tahau Jerseys in Tokoroa, Jack is a keen rugby player and diver. He was recently named as one of the six Waikato Dairy Trainee of the Year Finalists and was awarded the Dairy NZ Merit Practical Skills Award.

Key messages from Jack to our students

- work hard and have a plan

- set goals to achieve

- have a willingness to learn

- put yourself out there - try everything!

- have a passion - follow your interests

- give back and help where you can

Thank you for spending time with us today Jack - we loved having you back at TAPS

Connections to Community

Te Moananui A Kiwa were lucky to be visited by Sharon McCoskrie, Communications Partner for Foodstuffs, and Adam Phimester, our very own Four Square Te Aroha owner operator. Our students were able to learn about the different roles and opportunities within Foodstuffs and asked some interesting questions, with both Sharon and Adam imparting some wise words for our students to be inspired by.

Sharon

- be inquisitive

- follow your interests

- team work - everyone has a role to play in the team

- speaking in front of an audience is a valued and important skill

Adam

- set your bar high

- don’t let anyone hold you back

- you can always make something of yourself no matter your background and upbringing

- always be honest

- have a plan, start small and ask for help.

Our students were also given a treat bag from Four Square Te Aroha - super lucky.

Thank you Sharon and Adam for inspiring our students

Connections to Community

Students in Te Moananui A Kiwa were visited by past parent and local police officer and fire fighter, Constable Jessica Clark.

Constable Jessica shared her journey into the police force and the different aspects of her job.

This was amazing, with Constable Jessica sharing these words of wisdom for our students


- you’ll find a way to do something if it’s your dream

- have perseverance and be motivated to achieve what you set out to do

- if you make a mistake, think about what you will learn from it and how it will help you to grow

- always help where you can


An inspiring Q and A session for Te Moananui A Kiwa students. Thank you Constable Jessica

Connections to Community

Te Moananui A Kiwa students were very excited to have a Q and A session with Mr Barker last week. Whilst being well known to our students as a teacher, Mr Barker is also an incredible artist and has led many of our major art projects throughout the school over the last few years. These include our Hub Murals and the Morning Star (at front of the hall)

Mr Barker shared his artwork and explained that everything has meaning and that the symbols and designs he has used represented who we are and where we are from.


Some other key messages for our students were

- Humility is a hard thing to learn

- Don’t be afraid to make mistakes

- We all have aroha - and that is special

- If you have got a dream, hold on to it. Work hard - it will be lots of hard mahi and if you really believe in it, then it will come true.

- Practice, practice, practice …. and persevere

- Commit yourself to what you want to do


Thank you Mr Barker - this was very inspiring for our students.

Problem Solving - testing out Goldbach’s Conjecture that adding any two prime numbers greater than two will always equal an even number. We love using our new whiteboard tables!

Lots of fun eating our school lunches together.

Matua Rawiri is working with these students to support them in their role as kaea or leaders for our kapa haka group.

Rm 10 KORU artwork - inspired by New Zealand artist, Raewyn Harris.

Having fun as a HUB! We love completing challenges in Te Moananui A Kiwa. This is a great way to foster teamwork and to try something new

Enjoying the school pool. It has been amazing to have an extended swimming session and this has been of huge benefit to our students’ swimming skills. Thank you to our BOT for heating our school pool.

Some more art from TMAK students

Goal Setting Evening

GOAL SETTING AFTERNOON/ EVENING

Dear Parents, Whānau and Caregivers,


At Te Aroha Primary School in 2023 we have 4 main areas of schoolwide focus;

  • Strengthening relationships with our community

  • Ensuring the culture* of our kura/school is conducive to EVERYONE achieving to the best of their abilities

  • Teachers, through deliberate acts of teaching, empowering students to be able to demonstrate student agency, which is students taking an active role in their learning, identifying current progress, identifying next steps and having an awareness of how to get there

  • Addressing the disparity between Māori and non Māori academic achievement and overall writing progress across all learners at TAPS

*Culture is defined at TAPS in 4 key areas

  • Well-being (students and adults)

  • Knowing, understanding and living our school values in our daily lives

  • Regular (90% or better) attendance

  • Behaviour - knowing, understanding and demonstrating our expectations through how we conduct ourselves around our kura/school


On Wednesday 3rd May we are going to finish school at 1:30pm and move into Goal Setting meetings with all of you. The purpose of these meetings is to discuss your child in relation to the school goals and their individual learning needs and set goals that we (child, adults, teacher) can work towards throughout the year with a view to your child achieving academic success to the best of their individual ability. The meetings will run for 15 minutes each, if you require more time than that you can arrange extra time with the teacher for a later date.

This meeting will enable us to form or strengthen the relationship between school and home. As parents and caregivers you know your child best and we want to work with you to give all our students the absolute best possible chance of achieving academic success this year.


We ask that you ALL please sign up for a meeting with your child’s teacher.

We must embrace ‘mahi tahi - together as one’ and work in partnership for maximum success to be achieved. We look forward to meeting with you soon.

Kia tu, Kia toa, Kia mau - Accept the Challenge





Justin Bertrand

Principal - Te Aroha Primary School


Below is the link to the booking site, and to the right is a QR code that will also take you to the

booking site https://www.schoolinterviews.co.nz/code/xt3yt

Teacher Only Day

Teacher Only Day, Day 1 - Term 2

Dear Parents, whānau and caregivers,


The start of Term 2 is Monday 24 April, the next day is ANZAC day - which is a public holiday. With this in mind, Te Aroha Primary School, like many other schools in NZ, have decided to use Monday 24 April as a Teacher Only Day and the children will start back for Term 2 on Wednesday 26 April. On Monday 24 April, the majority of our staff will be undertaking either full or half day first aid training as well as other professional development and finishing off preparations for Term 2.


This use of a Teacher Only Day makes sense to us and is a good opportunity for valuable upskilling and professional development to occur.


We thank you for your support and consideration.



Ngā mihi,




Justin Bertrand

Principal - Te Aroha Primary School