MENPS News

Kia ora koutou

Y5 Camp

The weather may not have turned out as we would have hoped for our Year 5 students, but they’re still smiling through the damp conditions at Motu Moana Camp! Experiences such as these are uniquely valuable - always filled with challenge and a sense of adventure, but also great examples of curriculum in action.

The many varied trips and EOTC activities the children enjoy take a significant amount of organisation and planning, but are invaluable in offering safe, rich, curriculum-based teaching and learning that extends beyond the classroom walls.

Why Trips & EOTC Matter for Your Child's Education

Even in times of spiralling costs, we continue to deliver an EOTC programme as an integral part of the curriculum, allowing the children to work in small groups while navigating outdoor challenges, explore a wide range of places outside the school, learn to communicate more effectively during collaborative tasks, support friends who are finding things hard, build resilience and celebrate each other's successes. While Camp is a paid activity, the wide variety of other memorable class trips and activities are usually paid for in full as part of your family donation (so huge thanks to all those who have already paid this so promptly!).

Experiences like this are not extras bolted onto the curriculum — in some ways they are core principles of the curriculum applied in authentic real-world contexts that help deepen understanding, strengthen wellbeing, and build the kind of confident, connected young people that the New Zealand Curriculum envisions.

We look forward to enjoying Year 5's tales of adventure — and their smiles — when they return on Friday. Our thanks to the amazing teachers and parent helpers who make it all possible!

Kapa Kahui Festival & Arrangements for the Last Day of Term

The final day of Term is next Thursday (due to Good Friday Public Holiday). Please note that this is the day we will be hosting our across-schools Kapa Haka Festival (‘Kapa Kahui’).

On the last day of term, we often have children picked up early throughout the day. Our preference is, of course, for them to stay the whole day, but please note if you intend to pick up early, we can only do so up to 10.30am. After this time, the Office will be busy with Festival organisation and so your child will have to wait until the end of the school day at 3pm.

Please also note that pickup will be from the Valley Rd Gate for all students on the day. Traffic will be even heavier than usual, so it is strongly advised that you plan to park and walk on the day, or arrange for your child to make their own way home/walk with others.

For further information about the day, please see the details below.

Ka kite anõ i a koutou

Alan Jackson, Principal

Monday 30th March:

School Photos
PTA New Entrant Morning Tea - 9:00am - 9:45am - Staffroom

Tuesday 31st March:

School Photos

Wednesday 1st April:

Term 2 New Entrant Cohort Visit 2 - 9:00am - 10:30am
End of Term Whole School Assembly - Mana Awards - 2:15pm - 2:45pm

Thursday 2nd April:

Kapa Kahui Event at MENPS
Term 1 Ends - 3:00pm

Wishing you all a relaxing school holidays and look forward to seeing you all in Term 2!

Term 2 - Monday 20th April

Kapa Kahui Organisation - Thurs, 2 April

Kapa Kahui is a celebration of kapa haka. We warmly invite our school community to come to support and enjoy this showcase of talented students from 6 local schools. The event embodies our school touchstones of Manaakitanga, Whanaungatanga and Kaitiakitanga.

Thursday is a full school day - finishing at 3 pm, however there will be disruption to normal class programmes to enable us to host this festival.
We are welcoming approximately 260 students, their whanau and supporters from our local schools onsite from midday onwards. The performance stage will be on the covered court outside the office. The field will be used for parking and the staff carpark for the PTA "Food Court".
The Kapa Kahui festival begins with a pohiri at 1.00 pm, performances begin at 2 pm and we anticipate finishing at 4.30 pm
Parents who for any reason intend to collect their children early on Thursday must collect them no later than 10.30 am. No later pickups can be permitted, and there will be no access to the school office from 10.30 am onwards. Please let your child's teacher know if you intend to pick them up at 10.30 next Thursday.
MENPS students will be dismissed at 3 pm from the bottom court and exit school from the bottom school gate on Valley Road only. We warmly invite parents who are picking children up at this time to come to the performance area and enjoy some of the performances.
The PTA will have a range of food, drinks and ice-blocks available for purchase in the "Food Court" in the staff carpark beside the performance area.
Car parking will be available on our school field at $4.00 per vehicle. An Eftpos machine will be at the driveway entrance for easy electronic payment.

Kia ora whānau,

Our Kapa Kahui event is just around the corner, and we would love your help to make it a truly special day for our tamariki.

These events only happen because of the amazing support from our school community. Whether you can spare an hour or a few, your time will make a real difference—and it’s also a lovely way to connect with other whānau and be part of the day.

Event Details

📍 Location: Staff Carpark, Mt Eden Normal Primary

📅 Date: Thursday, 2 April

🕙 Time: From 10:00 AM

Where We Need Help

Setup (10:00 AM – 12:00 PM) – getting everything ready behind the scenes

Food & Sales (12:00 PM – 2:30 PM) – preparing and serving before and during the start

Event Sales (2:30 PM – 4:30 PM) – helping during the main performances

Late Help (4:30 PM – 5:00 PM) – supporting as things wind down

Pack Down (5:00 PM – 6:00 PM) – packing up at the end of the day

Key Times

Pōwhiri: 1:00 PM

Event starts: 2:00 PM

Event finishes: 4:30 PM (sales may continue briefly after)

Even just a small amount of time helps lighten the load for everyone—many hands really do make light work 😊

👉 Sign up here:

https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLSfngBpTsNBEATNMckq1-rkpDhX-QtOqcXYwy_PdAdB9BJ1uyA/viewform?usp=header

If you’d like to volunteer your time, baked goods or similar and the link does not work for you, please email menpspta@gmail.com

Thank you so much for supporting our school and helping create a memorable experience for our tamariki.

Ngā mihi nui,

Svantje

PTA Chair

As part of the MENPS Kapa Kahui Festival, we will be holding a Bake Sale Fundraiser on Thursday 2nd April, and we would love your support.

If you’re able to help, please bake your favourite treats and drop them off in the staff room on the morning of Thursday 2nd April. All contributions are very much appreciated.

We are looking for a variety of goodies such as:

cookies, cakes, donuts, cupcakes, brownies and more.

Important reminders:

• Please make sure all baking is nut-free

• If possible, include a small note with the ingredients

To make things easier for families, cake boxes will be available from Monday onwards at the school reception for students to take home and use for their baking.

Thank you so much for supporting our Kapa Kahui Festival fundraiser – we really appreciate it! 💗

MENPS showed up in force at the Weet-Bix Tryathlon on Sunday at Point England Reserve — with a record number of our kids taking part. Huge thanks to our superstar organising crew — Ingi Qie, Stacey Lucas, Carolyn Hoyles and Chantal Brunner - plus the many parent helpers on the day who helped set up, run the BBQ, packed down and hauled gear around in the very hot sun. Most importantly, well done to all our MENPS Tryathletes. We hope you had an amazing day and are feeling very proud of what you achieved!

Colour Run 2026 = Colourful chaos and serious fundraising power! 🌈

A huge thank you to everyone who supported the MENPS Colour Run on Friday 20 March — the kids ran, laughed, got absolutely covered in colour, and together raised more than $20,000 - an incredible amount - for the school.

Top Individual Fundraisers were 🥇 Carter S – Room 23, Tyler Leary – Room 31 and Nyla Wadan – Room 34. Each of these legends takes home a box of Juicies.

Top Fundraising Classes (average per student):Year 1 – Room 14, Year 2 – Room 23, Year 3 – Room 31, Year 4 – Room 36, Year 5 – Room 6, Year 6 – Room 4. Each winning class has earned a pizza party, which we’ll arrange with the school at a convenient time. 🍕

Massive thanks to Sunny Nathu for running point on the organising committee and to everyone who donated, volunteered, and helped make the day such a colourful success!

Annual Menps Cultural Festival& Matariki Celebration

Our annual festival has become a community staple, whether you’d like to perform, dance, sing, share a craft or food from your country, let us know and we will weave it in to the fabric of the

festival.

When: Sunday 21st June 2026

Where: Mount Eden Normal Primary School

Time: TBC

Interested in volunteering your time in any capacity or showcase your culture? Please email the

team on menpspta@gmail.com

Each year, the Yummy Fruit Company runs a sticker promotion for primary and intermediate schools in the North Island. Schools collect stickers and cut out labels from Yummy Fruit, which can later be redeemed for a share of $200,000 worth of sports equipment. Last year, MENPS collected a total of 9, 791 points, earning us $1,175 worth of sports equipment. This equipment is being used by the children both during class P. E. lessons and at lunchtime.

Again this year, we are asking MENPS families who purchase Yummy Fruit from supermarkets and fruit shops to collect the stickers and labels. A copy of the collection sheet was sent home this week with the eldest or only child in each family (please check your child’s bag), or it can be downloaded from the Yummy Fruit website at www.yummyfruit.co.nz. Collection sheets are also available in the office.

Yummy fruit sold individually comes with a Yummy sticker. As long as the sticker on your fruit says YUMMY, it can be used. Mostly this will be from apples but other fruit from the YUMMY Fruit company also count eg nectarines and peaches.

Most of these stickers are worth 1 point, but stickers from the Lemonade, Ambrosia, and SweetTango apple varieties are worth 2 points. These 2-point stickers can be placed on the tree pictures found on one side of the collection sheet. The 1-point stickers should be attached to the side of the sheet with the 100 square grid.

If you buy a bag of Yummy apples, you can collect the cut-out label, and if the label is missing, the barcode from the plastic bag can be used instead. Please glue these cut-out labels or barcodes onto a blank sheet of paper. Each cut-out is worth 10 points.