MENPS News

Kia ora koutou

While the reports will look different, those of you used to our previous format will find many of the essential elements and principles quite familiar.

Alongside comments for reading, writing and maths, reports will include a progress graph (visually similar to the one we've been using for a number of years), indicating if your child is ‘on track’ to meet key indicators for reading, writing and maths at their year level.

As before, the exception to this will be for some children who currently work from an individual learning plan or those who may be very new to learning English, in which case their report will focus on progress towards their individual goals in place of a curriculum level rating.

Put simply, the rating benchmarks for reading, writing and maths have changed, so the ‘goalposts’ for teacher judgements have moved quite significantly. You will also see new wording to describe progress against them ‘Emerging/Developing/Consolidating or Exceeding’.

The teacher judgements are now made against a revised, reduced number of new 'Progress Descriptors' for each subject (set nationally by the Ministry of Education). In effect, the result is that the ratings are significantly ‘narrower’ than in previous years (when we made judgements based on achievement across the whole curriculum for reading, writing and maths). While this does mean the judgements are actually less comprehensive than they were previously, they nonetheless still convey relevant information about essential aspects of your child’s progress in these subjects, and are aligned with common indicators used across all schools moving forward.

This also means, however, that comparisons with achievement in previous years won’t be valid, so historic report judgements will effectively be ‘reset’ (although this will again build up cumulatively over time, tracking progress over the longer term).

It's also important to be aware that the teaching team have made every effort to ensure accuracy of all judgements made, but the reality is that they do so against a maths curriculum that is new (released late last year), and new Progress Descriptors for reporting that were seen for the first time a matter of weeks ago, so this is still very early stages and we appreciate your understanding as we transition to this new system.

Teachers triangulate our usual assessments with in-class observations and progess tracking when making overall 'best fit' report judgements. At the mid-point of the year, the expectation nationally would be for the majority of students to be judged as ‘Consolidating’ to be on track to meet the end of year level benchmarks by the end of the school year.

The reality is, of course that children progress at differing rates and at different times, which can depend on many developmental factors (particularly for younger children), so we would not, of course, expect every child to achieve exactly the same outcome in every subject across each year level.

Depending on the rating assigned to each foundation subject, information on the next curriculum level benchmarks (‘Next Steps’) will be automatically generated in the report, together with an extensive bank of ideas and suggestions about ‘How to Help at Home’, which are drawn directly from the Ministry of Education’s’ home learning ‘Parent Portal’.

As always, there will be time during the Parent Conferences to go over any report-related questions you may have.

Hope to see you on Sunday!

Ka kite anõ i a koutou

Alan Jackson, Principal

Parent Teacher Conference - book via https://www.schoolinterviews.co.nz/code code: 6qwnp

Friday 19th June:

• Cultural Clothing Day - wear item of clothing that reflects your culture.
• PTA Second Hand Uniform Shop - 8:15am - 9:15am
• collection day #2 for donated pj's for Jammies in June

Sunday 21st June:

• 2026 Cultural Festival - 12:00pm - 3:00pm

Monday 22nd June:

• Stardome Trip - Rm 24 & 25

Tuesday 23rd June:

• Stardome Trip - Rm 22 & 23

Wednesday 24th June:

• Term 3 New Entrant Cohort Visit 1 - 9:00am - 10:30am
• PTA Second Hand Uniform Shop - 8:15am - 9:15am
• collection day #3 for donated pj's for Jammies in June
• Parent Teacher Conferences - 3:15pm - 4:45pm

Thursday 25th June: EARLY PICK UP - 2:00pm

• Parent Teacher Conferences - 2:30pm - 6:oopm

Friday 26th June:

• Jammies in June PJ Day - wear your pj's if you have donated pj's - gold coin donatio
• final collection day for donated pj's for Jammies in June

We are getting our MENPS Walking School Bus back up and running and in light of recent petrol prices think this is the right time for it. We have 2 routes that we will be launching. The ‘Henley Route’ and ‘Prospect Route’. Please click on the link below to find out more information about them and to sign your child/ren up for them. Initially they will run in the mornings but we are hoping to extend to the afternoon buses if we can have more parent volunteers.

If you are able to help be a parent supervisor for either of these routes or would like to start one around your area, please email aonel@mteden.school.nz We are looking to expand the routes we have but it all depends on the parent volunteers we can get. Thank you to those who have helped get these walking buses up and running.

Walking School Bus sign up

Our Matariki Cultural Festival is just around the corner, and we're still urgently looking for parent volunteers to help bring this amazing community event to life.

This festival is one of the highlights of the year for our tamariki — a celebration of culture, connection, performance, food, art, and community. But it simply cannot run without enough volunteers.

Whether you can help for an hour or stay for a full shift, every helping hand makes a huge difference.

✨ Help with event set-up

✨ Support activity stations

✨ Assist with food stalls

✨ Help with pack-down

✨ Be part of an unforgettable day for our school community

Right now, we still have volunteer gaps to fill, and we need parents and whānau to step forward as soon as possible. If everyone helps a little, we can create something truly special for our children.

📅 Sunday 21 June | 12:00pm–3:00pm

📍 Mount Eden Normal Primary School

👉 Sign up here:

https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLSeJwXumFORMT5tFNHSvBGFFSp1vaQj2gtaYbr4IehgoNjKa1g/viewform?usp=sharing&ouid=103132425214364039259

❤️ Please don't wait. We need volunteer commitments this week so we can confirm staffing and ensure the festival can run smoothly.

Together, we can make Matariki 2026 a celebration our tamariki will remember for years to come.

#Matariki2026 #MENPS #SchoolCommunity #VolunteersNeeded #ManyHandsMakeLightWork

Cultural festival this Sunday! 12-3pm invite your friends and families! Free and paid activities, lots of fun!

Taiko Drummers, lion dance, Facepainting, bouncy castle, student talent show, yummy yummy Kai, Chinese paper cutting, cultural games and of course our kapa Haka team! Want to volunteer on the day?

https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLSeJwXumFORMT5tFNHSvBGFFSp1vaQj2gtaYbr4IehgoNjKa1g/viewform?usp=sharing&ouid=103132425214364039259

See you all there!

🐉 URGENT: ZONGZI PRE-ORDERS CLOSE SOON! 🐲

Don’t miss out on these delicious handmade Zongzi, available just in time for the Cultural Festival and Dragon Boat Festival celebrations!

Three delicious flavours:

✨ Sweet Date

🫘 Red Bean

🐷 Pork

📱 Order now through the Kindo app!

Every purchase helps support our school community and Cultural Festival. Pre-orders are limited, so secure yours today before they’re gone!

⏰ Order deadline approaching – don’t wait!

Thank you for supporting the MENPS PTA and helping make our Cultural Festival a fantastic community event. 🌏❤️

Preorders to be collected at the festival. If not collected we will keep them aside for your child the following day.

#MENPS #CulturalFestival #DragonBoatFestival #Zongzi #SupportOurSchool #OrderNow #KindoApp

A Sweet or Savoury dish that reminds you of home: We kindly ask for small portions for our food stalls that keep well unrefrigerated. (You can just bring it on the day, like for the Fair bake sale - no nuts please, simply add the name and origin of the dish plus whether VG, Halal, Vegetarian, etc )

Collect your Cake Box at the Office on Thursday and Friday the week of the festival.

simply drop it off at the stall on the day! Thank you for your support ❤️

Our Cultural Festival on 21 June is fast approaching, and we are looking for a qualified electrician (or someone with extensive event power setup experience) to help make the day a success.

What we need help with:

Planning the event power layout before the festival

Setting up power on the morning of 21 June

Connecting and managing our three-phase power supply safely

Ensuring power is distributed correctly across the site

Helping prevent overloads and power issues during the event ( ideal but not a necessity)

Assisting with pack-down afterwards if possible

• 8.15 - 9.15am (19th June)
• In the PTA Room: follow signs from Valley Rd gates OR
• Order by emailing Kitty at menpspta@gmail.com.
• Pay via Cash or Bank transfer

Keep collecting YUMMY apple stickers to help our school earn a share of $200,000 worth of sports gear!

-The more stickers we collect, the more gear we receive!
So keep munching those apples and collecting those stickers!

Thank you for supporting our school!

Email menpspta@gmail.com I Follow us on Facebook

Refer to the PTA website for information on the various fundraising and community activities

Co-Chairs Svantje Reiber and Sunny Nathu

Secretary Chantal Brunner

Treasurers Minaxi Chandra and Victoria Couto

PTA Advisor Chantal Brunner

Communications Gina Miao

School Representative Hilary Edwards

Full team of amazing parents/caregivers listed here