Tēna koutou e te whānau,

Welcome back to all our tamariki and whānau, and a warm welcome to all of the new tamariki and whānau who have joined our Arataki School community this term. Welcome to Whaea Becks our new Deputy Principal, welcome to all of our New Entrant children who started this term and our new class - Room 16 taught by Mrs Taylor, and welcome back to Whaea Fran who was on leave in term 3.

Arataki school is busy at the moment. We have children outside everyday practising for Athletics, we have children practising Kapa Haka for Rā Whakangahau which is next Friday, and children practising for Pasifika in the Bay which is next Saturday.

I feel incredibly proud of the amazing range of extra curricular activities and opportunities that we provide for our tamariki. We have also had our touch teams start in the Thursday night competition, we have volleyball starting, rippa rugby and 3x3 basketball.

Our building renovations went very smoothly during the school holidays. We now have new carpet in Rooms 11, 12, & 13. Our boys toilets next to Room 2 & 5 were entirely gutted and refitted with new lino, wall linings, toilets, partitions and repainted. We have installed air conditioning in the hall and have a new front door to the office. Our next project will be to install an awning over the front entrance into the hall.

For the next two weeks we have the Life Education caravan at school. Life Education teaches the health curriculum and uses Harold the Giraffe as a teacher. Each class will have two lessons in the Life Education caravan. The lessons will be focussing on food & nutrition, health and wellbeing.

Arataki School is participating in the upcoming Bay of Plenty Garden and Art Festival. This is from Thursday 14th November to Sunday 17th November. Our gardens at the back of the field will be open for viewing. Our gardening club along with Maeve & Clare from PIPS are busily preparing our gardens for the festival.

A reminder to our whānau, please only use the mobility car park if you have a mobility sign hanging in your windscreen. The fine for parking in the mobility car park without a mobility sign has now increased to $750.00. During the school holidays, the council installed a camera above our two mobility car parks on Kaimanawa Street to monitor that only cars using a mobility sign are parking in these spaces.

Please feel free to contact me if you ever have any questions or queries. Enjoy the long weekend with your whānau.

Ngā mihi nui,

Vicki Hiini, Tumuaki

DATES FOR THE DIARY

Term 4 Dates

Mon, 28 Oct - Labour Day - school closed

Tues, 29 Oct- Thurs, 13 Nov - Life Education Van

Fri, 1 Nov - Rā Whakangahau - Mount College

Sat, 2 Nov - Pasifika Festival - Katikati College

Tues, 5 Nov - Team Photos

Fri, 8 Nov - Hui-a-kura - led by student leaders

Tues, 12 Nov - Years 4-6 Athletics Day

Wed, 13 Nov - Years 0-1 Athletics Day

Thurs, 14 Nov - Years 2-3 Athletics Day

Fri, 15 Nov - Teacher Only Day (Teachers learning about new Math Curriculum)

Fri, 29 Nov - Christmas themed Mufti Day

Mon, 2 Dec - Community Ear Nurse Visit

Thur, 5 Dec - Christmas Picnic - 4.30 - 7pm

Fri, 13 Dec - Te Rā tāku Taonga - Prizegiving

Mon, 16 Dec - Year 6 Graduation

Wed, 18 Dec - Last day of school - finish at 12.30pm

Click here for 2024 and 2025 Term Dates

Feet First - Wheels Edition

Article added: Friday 25 October 2024

‘The Beat Station’

- Hopukiore

This term we have a school wide Inquiry into the Visual Arts and our Hopukiore team have chosen a focus in Music. Our Tamariki are lucky to be participating in an awesome music programme at the start of the term called ‘The Beat Station’, which involves participation in a range of music lessons on beat using percussion instruments, and we will be learning to play the ukelele too.

‘The Beat Station’ was created by Adam McLean, a teacher and musician (who used to actually teach here at Arataki 2011-2012). He told us ‘The Beat Station’ was born after the realisation that children’s talent and passion for music is everywhere. The programme of learning he has spent so much time and energy to create, that we are now using, is a highly effective way for ‘all children to access music’.

Check out how much fun we are having in our lessons, ‘locking in the beat.’

We have an exciting term ahead with various sports activities kicking off!

Touch Rugby: The season has started, and so far, everything is going great!
Volleyball: This sport will begin in Week 3.
3v3 Basketball and Rippa Rugby: Both of these sports will commence in Week 4.

All whanau should have been notified about these events already, so please check your emails if you haven't seen the details yet.

There's a lot happening this term, so keep an eye on HERO for updates and posts related to sports and clinics.

Nga mihi maioha for all your tautoko!!