It's hard to believe we are already two weeks into this term. It has been great seeing everyone very quickly get back into routines at school and the new sports equipment has definitely been a hit both during and after school!
A very special welcome to two new families in our community. This week, Olivia started in Kikorangi and Nathan had his first transition visit. Nathan's first official day at Nukumea is Monday 15th May. We got to welcome them both in a mihi whakatau on Monday this week. I know that our awesome community of parents will all introduce themselves to both families quickly over the coming weeks.
This newsletter, I am focusing on the value of Kaitiakitanga. Kaitiakitanga is reciprocal; we care for the land and water and the environment cares for us. Our learners are the champions of Nukumea Stream and beyond.
A simplistic understanding would be that Kaitiakitanga means sustainability. Digging deeper into this, we have learned that this concept takes on a very active role for all of us in taking care of the environment - because the environment will then provide for us. In Māori history kaitiaki were guardians - gods or spirits that cared for their respective realms. You may have heard of the Māori god Tangaroa who was kaitiaki of the oceans. Iwi then had certain spirits who were kaitiaki of their local forests or lakes. In accepting the name of Nukumea for our school, we have also accepted the mantle to act as kaitiaki for Nukumea Stream.
Last term we started this mahi with workshops to learn about what plants belong in our local bush areas and which ones are weeds that can harm the environment. By helping to take the weeds out of the bush, this area will then be healthier and provide a better playing and learning area for us in future. We ended the term with Kakariki taking part in our first water testing workshop to see the health of the Nukumea Stream. Over this term, we are working with Whitebait Connection on biodiversity and healthy rivers. This will see all students getting to check the health of Nukumea Stream and design action projects based on what they find.
This weekend, there is a Wai Care workshop happening in Orewa, where many of the volunteer groups who are helping our local environment will be getting together. If your children have been enjoying the weeding, water testing and whitebait connection workshops, your family may want to get involved. The registration form for this event can be found here.
On Friday June 2nd, school will finish at 12pm. This is so our teachers can spend the afternoon learning and connecting with the teachers from the other schools in the Orewa Kahui Ako: Orewa College, Orewa Primary, Orewa Beach School, Silverdale School, Wainui School, Dairy Flat School and Ahutoetoe School.
If you are unable to pick your children up at 12, we can provide supervision for the afternoon. If this is something that you need, please contact office@nukumea.school.nz so we can plan the supervision.
The Resilience Project is committed to teaching positive mental health strategies to prevent mental ill-health and build young people’s capacity to deal with adversity.
From this term, we are engaging in weekly lessons and activities around the key principles of Gratitude, Empathy, Mindfulness (GEM) and Emotional Literacy to build resilience.
Check out their website for more information: The Resilience Project
And check out TRP@HOME; a place filled with inspiration and activities for the whole family, to help improve your wellbeing and build resilience.
As our main buildings make progress, members of our team are spending more time visiting the site to help make final decisions and check on what is happening. The main structural parts are all now complete and we are now entering the exciting part.
From next week, the steel cladding will be delivered and start to be installed on the outside of the buildings. The signage contractors are also creating all the welcome and wayfinding signs to install from the end of June. You will be able to see stakes all over the field at the moment as they prepare to make our bike and scooter track as well as completing the safety fencing around the perimeter. From the top of Beardmore Rise, you will also be able to see the concrete pathway around the future courts is complete and they have also planted the bank above these. In our next newsletter, I will share images of the playground design which will be installed in Term 3.
Internally, the Gib and insulation material is all being put into place, which has really started to give insight to the real shape of our learning spaces. Final decisions and orders are being made for any extra furniture we need to complete these spaces and the AV system for the Hall has just been ordered as well.
This is all getting very exciting and we are close to having a more concrete answer as to when we are moving in. Within the next month we will be able to share with everyone a moving date, and that is when the countdown will really begin!
A reminder that we use Kindo for all our online payments such as school donations, lunch orders etc. If you have not joined yet, we need you to register with Kindo through this link.
Finally, for this week: how good do the new polar fleeces look?
Have a great and hopefully dry weekend!