MENPS News

All children must be picked up/given permission to walk home or booked into SKIDs from 1pm

Kia ora koutou

It's that time when we farewell those who will be moving on from our school community, starting with our Year 6 cohort, who we formally acknowledged in our Leavers' Assembly last week.

When Year 6 students complete their primary years with us, it's a familiar mix of pride at what they have achieved, sadness at saying goodbye, but also a sense of optimism for their next steps. I am sure you will join me in wishing them all well as they make the transition to Intermediate School - we know they will be amazing!

On the staffing front, we also send our best wishes to our wonderful Library Manager, Amanda Griffin. It's hard to imagine the library without her infectious literary enthusiasm, but I have no doubt she leaves a little of that magic behind in all that she has done for love of reading (and so much more) at our school over the years. If anyone has earned a blissful retirement with more time for family and catching up on a few good books, it would be Amanda! As a parting gesture of thanks, please return all library books!

We also farewell much-valued members of the teaching team who will be relocating, including Tasmyn van Breda, Saiantha Gopal and also our part-time specialist teacher, Te Awatea. Looking to new horizons are Cassie Zhang and Zoe Murphy who will soon be travelling to exotic places and Christine Adamson, who is embarking on further study.

We are grateful to each of them for the contributions they have made to their learners, colleagues and the wider school, and wish them all the best for the future!

Martina Stevenson will also be stepping back from her current role to work part-time, which means she will not be taking on class teacher (or Team Leader) roles in 2026, but we will certainly still see her around school!

You may have read recently about Auditor General findings questioning use of Principal professional development funds in some schools, which related to a series of tagged payments from the Ministry of Education over a three year period (a total of $18000).

I feel this is worth addressing as it has raised reasonable public interest concerns at a time when schools are grappling with funding constraints and inflationary pressures (not to mention public trust), so I wanted to reassure that this certainly does not apply to our school, which has a long history of exemplary audits. All such funds were used as set out in Ministry Guidelines.

You can rest assured that financial stewardship is a responsibility we take very seriously, and that the Board has very robust policies in place that would actually prohibit any questionable expenditure (such as overseas recreational trips or personal perks) for any staff, as any school community would be right to expect.

On a brighter note, this week brought the joys and challenges of the Y0-2 Athletics - a fun day for the children to participate in the many events on offer while developing fundamental physical skills. All our participants gave it their best effort, and we appreciated the excellent turn out to cheer the children on!

See you in the last week of Term!

Ka kite anõ i a koutou

Alan Jackson, Principal

Friday 12th December:

• Pyjama Day - Wear your PJ's and bring a gold coin for Make a Wish Foundation
• Year 2 Trip to Ambury Farm

Monday 15th December:

• Reports published via HERO - 3:00pm

Wednesday 17th December:

• Whole School Assembly - 9.30am (School Hall)
• Term 4 Ends - Early Finish 1pm
• PTA Ice Block Sale - $2 - 1:00pm - 1:30pm

Wishing you all a wonderful Summer and Festive Season!!!

Monday 2nd February:

• Term 1 Begins

Tuesday 3rd February:

• Whakatau - Welcome new families - 10:00am - 10:30am

As the school year wraps up I'd like to thank all of the volunteers that have consistently turned up with their energy and time this year. The PTA has a roster of events throughout the year designed to bring together our community and fundraise for our annual donation to the school. This year we have continued to fundraise for playground improvements and my co-chair Svantje Reiber has worked tirelessly to make improvements to our PTA space and resources (including a candy floss machine!).

Starting the year with the second annual Colour Run we were able to fundraise an amazing 22k and had a super fun afternoon in the sun. In term 2 we oversaw the transformation of the Dragon Boat festival into an expanded and more inclusive Cultural Festival. Thank you so much to the Chinese community that continue to run so many stalls and activities. And welcome to the new cultures that delighted us with new performances and flavours. We hope the 2025 festival will have ignited other cultures to join us in 2026 with their ideas, performances and culinary delights.

Through to term 3 our ever popular kids art work was a continued success thanks to the PTA coordinators, teachers and kids that made this fundraiser happen. Also in term 3 was our online auction and parent evening fundraiser - we are so grateful to the many local businesses that donate. If the parent fundraiser isn't your thing we hope to see you at the family picnics run in term 1 and 4.

Across all of these activities plus continued success of end of term ice blocks and the second hand uniform shop we were able to reach our fundraising target and raise over 60k this year.

With the end of the year comes the departure of some amazing volunteers who have helped with various activities over the years - some dating as far back at 2016! How lucky we have been to have their time and energy. Many thanks to Paula Tran, Fleur de Vries, Melissa Pass, Kathy Kivell, Melinda Smale, Christina Wang, Anna Dai, Lynn Chen.

Also a special shout out to our fabulous local sponsors this year - without these partners we wouldn’t have had the success at our key events

• Henderson Reeves and Harcourts Mt Eden

• sKids

• Hayley and Roberta along with Bayleys Mt Eden

I am also stepping down as co-chair of the PTA after 4 years in a senior role - stepping aside so new talent from the junior school families can start to contribute to their community. The PTA exec is an awesome group of parents but they need more hands. Please consider how your skills and time could make a difference at our school - you may have recently missed out on a board position or are keen to show your children community in action. Term 1 is just around the corner and we’d like to repeat the success of the Colour Run but we need 2 event coordinators for this - someone who can remotely get the online fundraiser set up and promoted around the school, and a second person who can lead the course set up on the day.

Please reach out today and find out how you can help.

Best wishes for the festive season

Pam Clifford, exiting co-chair

This coming Tuesday the 16th dec, the pta is hosting a thank you morning tea for all Menps staff. It has become a beautiful Christmas themed tradition. If you’d like to do some baking, savoury or sweet, bring some fruit, crackers or cheese, feel free to drop it off on the 16th in the staff room from 8.30 to 9.15am. Please let us know via email menpspta@gmail.com, so we can expect your amazing foody contribution.

Thank you for your amazing support!

• Celebrate Term End with an ice block! Ice blocks are for sale next Wednesday at 1pm under the sports canopy. $2 each!!

• TERM END - Non Uniform Day
  

• We want you to join our team! We need help filling a few roles - please email us at menpspta@gmail.com to nominate yourself for any of the following
• - Colour Run fundraising coordinator - follow everything that worked in 2025 to get this crucial fundraiser set up for promotion in week 2. The fundraising partner/platform does all of the hard work - we just need someone to liaise with them on set up and then promote the event to the school community in the lead up to the run.
• - Colour Run event coordinator - over the first two years the run course has been tweaked, lots of the equipment is in storage to be repurposed. We need a coordinator to own this in the weeks before the run and to lead a team to set up the course, oversee the event and help with pack down on 20 March. This is literally a messy job as you’ll get covered in colour but seeing the kids have an amazing time on the day will make it all worth it!
• - Co-Chairperson - We need a new parent/caregiver to bring their enthusiasm and energy to the role as we look ahead to a new year of events. The team are keen to repeat what has worked before but open to how things can be improved. This role is perfect for a Year 3 or 4 parent and is a commitment that is very flexible around your other commitments - you can lead remotely via whatsapp and the PTA inbox. There are only 5 meetings a year on site.

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+vacant position

Secretary April Alsari

Treasurers Minaxi Chandra+ vacant position

PTA Advisor Chantal Brunner

Communications Gina Miao

School Representative Hilary Edwards

Full team of amazing parents/caregivers listed here

Hi, I'm Evie, an ex MENPS student.

I'm a first year university student and have experience in childcare looking after a family of 2 girls (primary and high school age). Helping with homework, play and meal prep.

I am available day / nights and weekends for ongoing or casual childcare.

Please call Evie: 020 4159 2220

This Christmas morning on Newstalk ZB – it’s The Star of Christmas singing competition on The Crazy Kiwi Christmas Kids Show! The grand prize? A $1000 Prezzy Card!

If you can sing and are under 13, email a recording of yourself singing a Christmas carol to christmas@newstalkzb.co.nz before the 16th December.

If you're selected as one of our three grand-finalists, you'll join us live on Christmas morning for a Christmas carol sing-off. One singer will ultimately be crowned our Star of Christmas.
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*Please note, this year, the competition is open to individual singers only. To qualify, entrants must be under the age of 13 and be available to join us live on air (via phone) on Christmas morning.

If you have any further questions, feel free to contact producer Sam via email (christmas@newstalkzb.co.nz) or call Sam directly on 020 4000 6246.