Maungatapere School

This week, we've had the pleasure of welcoming three police constables to our school to run the Keeping Ourselves Safe (KOS) program with our students. It has been a valuable learning experience for everyone involved. After the sessions on Tuesday, our staff discussed how these lessons reminded us that our school community can be a bit sheltered.

A clear example of this came from a session with our Year 5 and 6 students. When asked if they would go with a stranger who had a dog on a lead and needed help finding their pet, the majority of the children said they would. A similar response was given to a question about taking lollies from an unknown adult. These are some of the most basic safety messages, and while we might assume our children have absorbed them, these sessions prove how important it is for us to continue these conversations both at school and at home. I encourage you to talk with your children about the topics they've been discussing to reinforce their learning.

Keeping Ourselves Safe (KOS) Program Overview

Junior School: This week, they covered making 111 calls and responding in an emergency, as well as the 'My Body Is My Own - Physically Me' topic. Next week, their focus will shift to 'My Body Is My Own - Touch'.
Middle School: The focus has been on introductory 111 calls and 'The Real World' safety. Next week, they'll be learning about 'Digital World Safety'.
Senior School: Our senior students have been discussing 'Reporting Abuse'. Their focus next week will also be on 'Digital World' safety.

Vandalism on School Grounds

Unfortunately, our school has been affected by some vandalism over the weekend. We've found broken bottles in the bush area, which is a serious safety hazard for our students. Additionally, our school trampoline has holes melted into it, making it unsafe to use. A trap door has been kicked in under our new deck breaking the timber framing. It is a real shame that our children are the ones who miss out due to this destructive behaviour

It is great that our children/families can use our school grounds outside of school hours. However, given these incidents it is important that children are supervised if they are on school grounds outside of school hours, for their safety around potential unwanted visitors. If you have any information about who may have been on the school grounds over the weekend, please contact me directly.

Council Events this week

Our student council have been promoting combined events this week, with random acts of kindness as a focus. Daffodil Day is on Friday with stickers for sale at the office promoting this event, with proceeds going to the Cancer Society (wear yellow if you can/otherwise your house colours). On Friday they have organised a clean-up day as part of the random acts of kindness focus. In light of the recent disrespect of our school property/buildings from someone, we can counter this by having a real focus on cleaning up our school instead of doing the intended rubbish pick up in our community. I have discussed with Mr Frost our caretaker about the children using buckets and chux cloths to wipe away muddy hand, feet and ball marks from our buildings. Cleaning away cobwebs, picking up rubbish, emptying the bins for the day to help Mr Frost and moving hut building sticks from areas he needs to mow. This will be a great way to help promote pride in our environment and allow our students to fulfil their roles as kaitiaki of our school.

AIMS Games Update

Last weekend, some of our students competed in the AIMS Games, a high-level national intermediate school sporting event.

Lily R competed against over 100 athletes in the Year 8 cross country race, finishing an impressive 89th.
Jake M, Keiran K, and Zeke N competed in orienteering. Keiran finished 33rd, Zeke 39th, and Jake 49th in their individual events. As a team, they placed 18th. These boys put in a lot of hard work learning this new sport, and they should be very proud of their results.
Mia R competed in gymnastics and has since joined the netball team. The team has had some excellent results, including a 28 - 0 win against Eskdale and a 22-3 win against Oakura, as well as a 16 - 16 draw against St Cuths and a 18-25 loss to Highlands Int. Last night’s Saint Kentigern College game 22 – 9 win. We are incredibly proud of all of our AIMS Games competitors, and we look forward to hearing all of their stories when they return to school next week.

Board of Trustees Elections

As of Wednesday, the voting percentage for our Board of Trustees elections is 26.99%. If you haven't already, please take the time to read about the parent candidates who have put their names forward to help govern our school. It has come to my attention that one candidate's information was not included in the hardcopy documents, only the online voting option. To ensure fairness to all candidates, I encourage everyone to try and access the online voting platform.

School Sickness

Like many of you, our school has been hit by some lingering bugs, affecting both students and staff. I have personally been off sick for three weeks, which has put a bit of pressure on some of my planned tasks and participation in events. I want to apologize for missing the school cross country, the Te Horo Cross Country, the Northland Science Fair, and Mathex. I would have loved to have been at these events to cheer on our students, and I am incredibly proud of their attitude, effort, and results.

Consultation Survey – Cohort Entry

Please keep an eye out for an upcoming consultation survey on cohort entry for new entrants in 2026.

Year Book

Due to a lack of sales of last year’s Year Book, we have decided not to produce one for 2025

Ag Day Potato Competition

I hope those who are growing the potato for Ag Day are experiencing success. My seed potato is now 250mm above ground, which is making me quietly confident. Years ago, my result was ‘The Ugliest Potato’, therefore I hope to reach higher accolades in 2025.

Quinn Wright Rm 3 Consistantly striving to achieve her learning goals and being a good leader.

Ruben MacDonald Rm 3 For having an awesome attitude to his learning and being a caring kind person.

Kenedy Wood Rm 14 For her incredible efforts with training for cross country and her end result.

Holley Robertson Rm 13 For your outstanding effort towards your learning and being a great role model.

Gus Attwood Rm 9 For your outstanding effort and achievements this term especially with your art.

Lilly Matson Rm 7 Outstanding efforts in training for cross country! Pushing your limits at whole school and Te Horo.

Vesper Bayerke Rm 4 Fabulous learner and a great role model.

Vivien Templeton Rm 8 Epic effort training for the Cross Country! Well done.

1-5 Sep 2025 Aims Games

1-6 Sep 2025 Keeping Ourselves Safe

8-12 Sep 2025 Keeping Ourselves Safe

10 Sep 2025 Bake Sale

10 Sep 2025 Mangakahia Lions Speech Competition

12 Sep 2025 Year 7/8 Technology

19 Sep 2025 Last Day Term 3

6 Oct 2025 First Day Term 4, Powhiri to welcome new students

10 Oct 2025 Year 7/8 Technology+

17 Oct 2025 Hurupaki Kapa Haka Festival Performance - Year 7/8 Kapa Haka Members

18 Oct 2025 Ag Day

24 Oct 2025 Year 7/8 Technology

27 Oct 2025 Labour Day

28 Oct 2025 Talent Quest Juniors

29 Oct 2025 Talent Quest Seniors

30 Oct 2025 Talent Quest Finals

4 Nov 2025 Senior School Athletics

6 Nov 2025 Gumboot Day (on Thursday due to Tech)

7 Nov 2025 Year 7/8 Technology

14 Nov 2025 Junior School Athletics

19 Nov 2025 Year 7/8 Inter-School Athletics

21 Nov 2025 Year 7/8 Technology

26 Nov 2025 Year 5/6 WPSSA Athletics

28 Nov 2025 School Disco

1-5 Dec 2025 Trip Week

4 Dec 2025 Colour Run

5 Dec 2025 Year 7/8 Technology

8 Dec 2025 Year 8 Graduation Dinner

12 Dec 2025 Prizegiving 1pm

15 Dec 2025 Last Day 2025 (full day)

The 2025 Central Northland Science Fair was held at Forum North from Monday, 26 August, to Thursday, 29 August. Twenty-seven Year 7 and 8 students were selected to participate in the event in a range of science and technology categories. The standard of investigations from the students was excellent, and this was evident in the number of students who received awards at the prize-giving evening held on Wednesday, 25 August. Congratulations to all students who participated and to those who received awards.

Tamsyn Booth - Winner of Whangarei A&P Society Premier Award

Mia Ruawhare - Winner of the Dental and Oral Health Award

Jake Morine - Winner NorthTec Sports Specialist Award

Alexa Vollenhoven - Winner of the Baking Industry Research Trust Award

Billy Turner - Winner of the Almost Made it Award

Jack Avison - Judges Award for Technology

Jacob Attwood - Judges Award for Technology

Aidan Neuhold - Highly Commended in Technology and a Judges Award for Technology

Evie Wright - Highly Commended in the Matauranga Maori Category

Online nastiness can be a real thing for our children. Giving children the tools to deal with this and the skills and steps are important to children navigating online behaviours. Have a read of the article for key steps and ways to help yourself and children navigate the online world.

https://maungatapere.onlinesafetyhub.nz/parent/articles/three-steps-to-navigate-online-nastiness-1

If you have not been able to set the new app up on your phone, give the office a call or pop in and we will help. The app will be used for all communications with parents.

YouTube is the world's most popular video-sharing platform, offering an immense library of content that ranges from educational tutorials and music videos to entertainment, news, and user-generated vlogs. Users can watch, share, and upload videos, contributing to this diverse collection that includes everything from professional productions to amateur recordings

Have a read of the article and familiarise yourself with the ever changing world online.

https://maungatapere.onlinesafetyhub.nz/parent/reviews/youtube

Maungakaramea Cricket Club is gearing up for the 2025/2026 season and wishes to invite any keen cricketers at our school to sign up to play. We have grades catering for those very new to cricket (especially those in Years 1-4 who will learn the skills through soft ball cricket) and players who want a bit more of a challenge and/or are feeling pretty confident to play hard ball cricket (from Years 5 and up).

This season, Maungakaramea Cricket Club would like to approach cricket for players in years 1-4 in a slightly different way. Alongside the fabulous skill-building activities at this level, we want to bring back some inter-school competition through adapted 6 a-side games. Now is your chance to rally teams of 6 keen cricketers from your schools, shoulder tap an enthusiastic parent to help manage them, and bring the teams along to the Cricket Club Hub on Thursday nights from 4 - 5/5.30pm to play! Don’t fret, the Thursday night Hubs don’t kick off until November 6th, but there is some organising to do beforehand.

So, what comes next? Do we you have any Hub-keen tamariki who might like to make a team of 6 for Thursday afternoons? If so contact Anna at the number/email below. Parents do not need to know anything about cricket, they just need to be a keen learner and helper while the Cricket Club organisers run the show!

For all other players at B-grade, A-grade, or Division 1 level, follow the registration link to sign them up. Maungakaramea Cricket Club will have a rally day mid-October (date tbc) to introduce teams and get underway with trainings. All trainings for B-grade and A-grade are on Thursday afternoons from 3.30pm-5pm at the club. The season for B-grade, A-grade and Division 1 begins on Saturday November 1st. Games for these grades are on Saturday mornings from 9am. The venues vary around Whangarei each Saturday.

Please contact Anna Pascoe, junior club coordinator, on 021459510 or email littlepihoihoi@gmail.com for more information. Please also keep up to date by visiting the Maungakaramea Cricket Club’s Facebook page.

https://www.playhq.com/new-zealand-cricket/register/faea61

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