Porritt School Press

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

Hope you're all well and enjoying time as a whānau this long weekend.

This is a special school holidays edition of the Porritt School Press. It was a classic huge end to the term at Porritt School. This is a wrap on some of the highlights and events that closed out our first term of 2025.

Notably, we farewelled Matua Karaitiana, as he jets away to Melbourne to enjoy his OE. His poroporoaki last Friday 11 April was a memorable one.

Term 1 was a great start to the school year. I want to thank our hardworking staff for all they have put into the term. Acknowledgements too, to you our whānau and caregivers, for your support of your tamariki and our kura.

Please do take the time to check your HERO app and notifications for the Rich Record of Learning shared with each whānau for every learner in the school. Much reflective thought and effort goes into the posts about each one of our tamariki and there is some really rich information for you about your child.

As a heads-up, we also look ahead to Term 2 and some of the diary dates there for us all. A date of note is our Term 2 teacher-only day. The school will be closed on Thursday 19 June in the lead up to the Matariki public holiday on Friday 20 June.

Kia pai tō whakatā Te Aranga - happy Easter weekend!

Maaka Papuni - Tumuaki

On Friday 11 April, all of our kaiako shared a 'Rich Record of Learning' with you as whānau and caregivers. Our teachers have worked hard to write and share these individualised reports for you all.

A Rich Record of Learning is a snapshot of your child's learning and progress in a particular area of the NZ Curriculum. These snapshots come via HERO - our school app for sharing and celebrating your child and their learning.

The focus for the end of this term, was a post about your child's key competency development in the area of Relating to Others. These Key Competencies are out lined in the NZ Curriculum and we provide feedback about your child in these areas twice a year - in Term 1 and Term 3.

Have a look at this post together...there's some gold to be discussed and celebrated with your child.

Please note - next term, we will be posting Rich Records of Learning in Writing, Reading and Mathematics and Statistics.

Every parent, connected grandparent, and caregiver, needs HERO on your mobile phone.

If you don't, you'll miss out on these Rich Records of Learning, and will be out of the loop with school communications and events.

If you need help to connect, our HERO expert and all around school legend, Tony Parker is here to help.

Just call the school office and ask to speak with Tony, or email Tony at tony@porritt.school.nz and we can help you get sorted, and get you back up and running with HERO.

In 2017, Porritt School employed a fresh faced young man as a teacher aide - Karaitiana Aranui, to support some of our tamariki in the middle school. Fast forward to 2025, and some teacher training and teaching at Maraenui Bilingual School in between, we have been lucky enough to have Matua Karaitiana as part of our teaching team for the past four years.

On Friday 11 April, we farewelled Matua Karaitiana. 'Matua K' has moved to Melbourne, Australia, in search of adventure across the Tasman. We are certain he will make every post a winner in the land Down Under.

He leaves with our gratitude for the significant mahi he has done in our kura, and impact he has had on our tamariki.

Kia pai tō haerenga ki Ahitereiria Matua Karaitiana - enjoy your stay in Australia. We know you won't be a stranger.

Matua Karaitiana was guest of honour at his farewell assembly with a couple of his Year 6 tamariki in Tyson and Rikki.

Whaea Hannah reflects on/roasts Matua Karaitiana in his farewell speech 😀

A school haka for Matua K

Whaea Tori, our vivacious Office manager, is away on maternity leave, having finished up for a while on the last day of Term 2.

We enjoyed a lovely baby shower for Tori, Chad and baby earlier in the term.

Your baby will have plenty of playmates with the other recent additions for several of your colleagues in the past year!

We wish yourself and your partner Chad all the very best in the time to come.

It will be lovely to meet your impending arrival in due course!

We look forward to seeing you back in the office when you return.

Porritt Bear has been absent from kura for the last little while. Mrs Keesom gave us an update on Porritt Bear's whereabouts on Friday. He's freewheeling around the globe.

Luckily, an older cousin of Porritt Bear Jnr's has graced us with his upsized presence. This cuddly taonga, also called Porritt Bear, will be spotting special tamariki and on the lookout for outstanding behaviour next term.

He will be spend time in a learning space each week with the stand-outs...once he takes Mr Papuni's rugby jersey off and finds a school polo shirt!

Earlier this year, Whaea Alana, one of our kaiako in Kōkiri, our Reo Rua bilingual learning space, was gifted some rauemi - resources. These pukapuka, books, were given to our kura with aroha, from our friends at Te Kōhanga Reo o Te Ara Hou. Whaea Alana's youngest daughter attends this Kōhanga Reo.

To show gratitude for this generosity and aroha, we fit as many Kōkiri tamariki as our van could carry, and visited on Tuesday 8 April. We gifted kai and a kapa haka performance to mihi to this beautiful early childhood kōhanga. The babies and toddlers at the kōhanga loved our performance!

We're looking forward to more kaupapa out and about for our Kōkiri tamariki.

Ngā mihi nunui e te whānau whanui o Te Kōhanga Reo o Te Ara Hou! Thank you for your kindness and generosity in gifting pukapuka and resources to our learning space.

Kai and big smiles for our hosts 💛🖤

Sharing waiata to mihi to our hosts

Haka time!

Meeting the tamariki at Te Kōhanga Reo o Te Ara Hou

What a fortnight it has been for our Whaea Duffy! First, Krysten and her Blues teammates won a tight tussle with Matatū to take out the Super Rugby Aupiki title, then the same Blues team dominated NSW, the winners of the Australian women's rugby competition.

We're proud of you Whaea Duffy! It's been great following your progress and the success of your team!

Tino pai tō mahi whutupōro! 🏉🏉🏉

On Tuesday 8 April, we attended the Taradale and Districts Schools Spirit of Anzac Commemoration with some school leaders and Anzac speech makers from our school.

This schools service is coordinated by veterans and servicepeople from the Greendale Services Association, in collaboration with staff and teachers of Tamatea High School, Fairhaven School and Taradale High School.

Porritt School would like to acknowledge and thank Peter, Tig, Frank and others of the Greendale Services Association. We recognise the huge work that goes in to organise this service for our young people.

A huge mihi to our tuakana at Tamatea High School and Fairhaven School for the incredible student leadership we saw from younger leaders in both of these kura. We felt proud of our connections to these rangatahi and their schools.

Porritt School is proud of the school leaders that represented our kura at this commemoration.

Monday 28 April - First day of Term 2 (Pōwhiri at 9.00am)

Monday 2 June - King's Birthday Monday (School closed)

Thursday 19 June - Ministry of Education Curriculum Day (School Closed)

Friday 20 June - Matariki Public Holiday (School closed)

* School Matariki Celebration and Hautapu Dawn Karakia to be confirmed.

Friday 27 June - Last day of Term 2

We are taking one of our two Ministry of Education Curriculum Days in 2025 on Thursday 19 June. This is the day before the Matariki public holiday. School will be closed on this date.

These days are to help our teaching staff come together to be involved in professional learning around the refreshed NZ Curriculum, particularly in the area of Pangarau/Maths and Statistics.

PorrittCare will be open for enrolled tamariki and families. A special day will be available to book soon.

Further reminders will be shared, but please note this date in your diary.

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.