Kia ora e te iwi,
Wow, time flies when you work in a school. Schools are always busy places with a lot going on. Over the past fortnight our students have been involved in many activities. Our students in Mauao participated in an Aquatic Survival Skills module which involved classroom lessons and two lessons at Baywave. We have had Bay of Plenty Rugby union running rippa rugby modules for our students. Our Year 3-5 netball teams participated in the Western Bay of Plenty netball tournament, and all of our netball teams won most of their games at this tournament.
Senior students from Kopukairoa went to Baycourt to watch the Tangi a te Tu production.Today, we had students watch the Bay of Plenty Steamers captains run and other students participate in a Ki-o-rahi tournament at Arataki Park. Our choir is busy rehearsing for their upcoming performance on Monday 25th August at the Tauranga Primary Schools Choir Festival.
These are all additional curricular activities that we offer our tamariki at Arataki School on top of our classroom learning programmes. I want to thank and acknowledge our awesome staff who take these activities or coach these teams, and also to our parents who manage and coach sports teams. Our students appreciate these opportunities.
On Wednesday afternoon we hosted two workshops for whānau on structured literacy. These workshops were in the staffroom and focussed on how we teach children to read and spell through a structured approach. Thank you to the whānau who attended.
On Tuesday 19th August, teachers will be attending a Paid Union Meeting in the afternoon. Please note, school remains open, but we will have a smaller number of teachers onsite for the last hour of the day.
Board Election
We were extremely fortunate to have a number of parents nominated for the 5 parental representative spaces that are available to form our Board of Trustees. Board members are elected and our election is now live. You should have received an email with information about the parents who have been nominated for the Board and how to vote. If you do not have an email address registered with your name, you will have been sent paper copies of the nominations & voting papers. Paper copies of voting papers can either be mailed back to school or dropped off at the school office. Voting closes on Wednesday 10th September.
If you have not received these please contact our Election Officer, Aslyne Blakey, ablakey@arataki.school.nz.
Congratulations to Lee Steer who has been reelected as our Staff Representative on the Board of Trustees.
Arataki Friends of School - BINGO Night
Our first ever BINGO fundraiser event was held in 2024, and it was a huge success. The 2025 BINGO night is next weekend - Saturday 23rd August at Omanu Golf Club. The event has sold out - thank you to all who purchased tickets. Next week our Friends of School are selling raffle tickets for hampers before school and a raffle for a child to be ‘Principal of the Day’. Raffle tickets are $2.00 each. We have also had many amazing prizes donated to be auctioned off. The auction is a silent auction, and these auctions will be available to bid on from next week. More details can be found below.
Kia pai to rā whakatā!
Ngā mihi nunui,
Vicki Hiini
Tumuaki / Principal
