Porritt School Press

Kia ora tātou e te whānau o Te Kura o Porritt

First of all - Happy Diwali! We are blessed at Te Kura o Porritt to have an increasingly multicultural kura whānau. We wish to recognise the significance of Diwali, the Festival of Light, with our Hindu and Sikh community. Diwali, as a festival of light, celebrates the triumph of light over the darkness, knowledge over ignorance, and the power of good. Here's wishing you and your loved ones a Diwali filled with good fortune and joy as this Diwali Festival period comes to an end.

We are well into the final school term for 2024! We have recently enjoyed several awesome school events and learning celebrations, many of which are highlighted in this pānui.

I was a particularly proud Principal at the DigiAwards celebration at the Municipal Theatre back in Week 2. It was so wonderful to see so many Porritt School tamariki take to that grand stage as finalists and even better to see many of those go on to place and indeed win their categories. Amazing mahi from our young digital creatives and their dedicated teaching staff.

Our staff-only day professional development trip to Palmerston North was very worthwhile. We appreciate the disruption to whānau weekday rhythms, and appreciate your support here as we use these Ministry of Education-required curriculum development days to prepare for the rapid change that is the norm in education at present.

We are still in the process of confirming our final staffing organisation for 2025, but we also feature a staffing update here for your info.

In this issue of the Porritt School Press, you'll find a 'Term 4 Survival Guide', with information about all upcoming events and key dates up until the end of the school year. There is so much happening in the lead up to our final day on December 17, that it definitely pays to be organised!

Another tip I can't recommend enough, is to 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

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 Year 5 Marae Noho @ Wharerangi Marae

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

Thursday 7 November: Porritt's 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

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 (TBC)

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.

Your child should have come home with one the photo order forms below on Friday afternoon. If not, please check your child's school bag, or contact the school office and we will arrange another to be sent home.

If you wish to order SIBLING PHOTOS, you will need to fill out the second form (SIBLING PHOTO REQUEST), and return this to the school office before Friday 8 November. PhotoLife will only take sibling photos for those families that have ordered them specifically.

For all other photos, you simply need to follow the instructions on the first form once our school photos have been loaded into the website portal for our school. A unique keycode will be emailed to you if we have your email address recorded on our HERO system.

If you need to update an email address, or ask any questions about photos, please contact Tori in the office on 8444 620.

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.

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;

It was a massively valuable couple of days for us as a staff group in the lead up to HB Anniversary and Labour Weekend.

Our school leadership team departed on the afternoon of Wednesday 23 October to meet with MOE Leadership Adviser Regan Orr to discuss some curriculum change to be as prepared as possible as a kura.

We were then joined by our whole staff on Wednesday evening and on Thursday morning to visit two schools, Turitea School, and College Street Normal School, to discuss coaching and support of kaiako and kaiawhina, teachers and learning support staff, and different ways of delivering the NZ Curriculum and support learner progress.

A huge note of thanks to Matua Regan from the MOE for his support and coordination, and the communities and leaders of the two kura we visited, for their support and willingness to share their mahi with us.

Lastly, many thanks to our school community for supporting this rare opportunity for us to learning together as a whole staff. We very much appreciate your support in our learning here.

Troy Duckworth, Tumuaki at Turitea School sharing parts of his school's mahi with us.

Troy and Chas, a senior student, talking with us about a renaming kaupapa from 2017.

In Week 2, our DigiAwards finalists took the stage at the Napier Municipal Theatre. It was a wonderful celebration of the digi possibilities for our creative tamariki, involving 14 schools from across Ahuriri, Napier.

The categories our tamariki were entered into included;

• Photography
• Coding
• Animation
• Short Film
• Graphic Design

Our award winners from the DigiAwards Finals were;

Photography

Year 1-2

Keira Johnson - 1st place

Chelden Ou - 2nd place

Year 3-4

Marlie Tonga - 1st place

Leo Martin Moimoi - 2nd place

Animation

Year 1-2

Carly Te Whata and Aurora-Lee Te Whata

Year 3-4

Khloe Bryan, Lilah Hape, Blakelyn Fowler and Sienna Peta - 1st place

Short Film

Year 3-4

Maia McIlwaine, Sofia Leite and Dannica Hor - 1st place

Lilah Hape and Sienna Peta - 3rd place

Graphic Design

Year 1-2

Kingston Papuni - 1st place

Year 3-4

Stella Giddens - 1st place

Max Trask - 3rd place

Coding

Year 3-4

Nathan Jamieson - 1st place

Lilah Hape and Sienna Peta also won the Year 3-4 Supreme Age Group gaining the most points out of any Year 3-4 finalists from across all 14 schools.

To all of or finalists - ka rawe tamariki mā - we are very proud of you all! Well done on your achievements.

Huge mihi to Whaea Mel, our DigiAwards leader at Porritt School, and the kaiako in our school for helping to support these awesome and very clever children.

Our DigiAwards finalists after assembly on Friday morning, where we recognised and celebrated their achievements.

At Porritt School, we are blessed to have some awesome Learning Mentors working with our tamariki at break times and inside learning spaces during curriculum time. As well as being fantastic Learning Mentors, assisting our tamariki in many ways, Matua Bryson, Matua Kade and Whaea Duffy are also pretty handy rugby players! 🏉🏉🏉

Matua Bryson was named in the Magpies Squad earlier this year, before getting injured. He's now on the mend!

Tino pai tō mahi whutuporo to Matua Kade on his recent selection in the NZ Māori XV that played the Heartland XV this week (a 47-14 win to the NZ Māori XV), and to Whaea Dufffy on her selection in the defending champion Blues Super Rugby Aupiki team for 2025.

Our tamariki are fortunate to be surrounded by good people and good role models!

We have appointed two permanent teachers following the completion of our appointment processes.

We congratulate Paula Nicol, current Team Rua teacher, on her appointment to one of these permanent positions, following two years of fulltime teaching in our kura, covering various leave positions for us.

We also welcome Kayla Stephens into our fulltime teaching team in 2025 as a beginning teacher. Kayla has been a third year trainee teacher finishing her study through EIT/Te Pukenga's Teaching programme, in our school this year.

We're excited to have you both into the team in a permanent capacity in 2025 and beyond Paula and Kayla!

We are also in the process of confirming some fixed term appointments and classroom release positions for 2025. More staffing updates will follow soon.

Ove the past three weeks, the mahi has gone in, and our tamariki have put themselves out there through the audition process to qualify for our grand finale.

Auditions are now done! Top three acts from across our Learning Teams have been found! We now gather this Thursday 7 November for our grand finale at 9.15am!

Who will be the PGT Champion in 2024?!

It was all about the physical prowess…all of that run, jump, throw goodness down at the HB Sports Park Athletics Track for our Year 3 - 6 tamariki on Thursday 31 October for Te Kura o Porritt!

Our tamariki put it all out there on the track! Rawe tō mahi tamariki mā!

Ngā mihi nui to our wonderful Sports Coordinator Whaea Hannah, our Sports Leaders and our kaiako and kaiawhina, for coordinating our events out there in the sun today.

Many thanks to our awesome Porritt School Board, for supporting us to think big and act big and host our Athletic Sports on a proper 400m track! We were just like the professionals out there! We are blessed to have a Board that sees no barriers for our tamariki.

House points, certificates and medals awarded at assembly on Friday 22 November!