Tēna koutou e te whānau,

I would like to start this fortnight's newsletter acknowledging the awesome fundraising efforts of our parents that are involved with the Friends of School. The Easter raffle has been a huge success and all funds raised are greatly appreciated. Thank you to the Friends of School who put the raffle together and sold the tickets. Thank you to our whānau who donated Easter eggs so that we can have a raffle, and thank you to everyone in our community who has purchased raffle tickets. The raffles will be drawn today, so good luck!

The Friends of School are focusing on two projects this year:

Fundraising for a school van
Improving the play areas in our school

We are looking for help/donations and expertise in these areas:

Stump grinder
Mulch and garden mix suppliers
Building skills
A donation of an old dingy that the children can play in
A donation of a mud kitchen
A donation of a piece of steel mesh that we can use in our garden for climbing plants

If you can help with any of these items, please contact the school office. If you are keen to be involved with Friends of School our next meeting is on Thursday 4th April 7pm in the staffroom. If you don’t have a babysitter feel free to bring your children with you.

Reminder: Tuesday is a holiday for all schools in New Zealand, school is closed.

Overnight Camp

The tamariki in Mauao have had an awesome overnight noho/ camp at school this week. It was so great to see the children’s excitement at sleeping over in their classroom with their classmates. They have also been out and about both days learning about places of significance in our local area. Thank you to all the parents who assisted as parent help, sleeping over and providing transport. Without your support we would not have been able to give the children this experience.

Swimming Sports

I want to recognise our children who represented Arataki School at the Mount Maunganui Cluster swimming sports on Tuesday this week. You proudly represented our school. A special acknowledgement to Robyn Parchomchuk who is now progressing onto the Western Bay of Plenty Cluster swimming sports.

Structured Literacy

At Arataki School we teach children to read using the structured literacy approach. Each fortnight in the newsletter for the next few weeks, we will share with you a little about what we are teaching and how you can help at home. Next term, we will hold a workshop on how you can help your child at home with their reading.

Structured Literacy

Professional Development in Reading

Paula Hastings, our Ideal Learning Matters Consultant, came in earlier this term to work with all of our kaiako over three days. She modelled teaching reading with a group of children using an ‘authentic’ text and planning framework. Language comprehension and vocabulary was the teaching focus.

*Authentic texts are rich language texts which may entertain, inform or persuade.

Scarborough’s Reading Rope, below, is a model of the many strands of language comprehension and word recognition that weave together to enable skilled, proficient reading.