This term is positively flying by and it's hard to believe that we are another two weeks into our first year at Nukumea. It has also been exciting to see the scaffolding come down this week from around our permanent building. The next few weeks should see some rapid changes as the brick layers are completed and metal cladding added to the upper part of the external walls. Internally the framing and services are all complete and they will soon start installing the gib board which will mark an important step forward from the structural to the design stage of the build.
One of our values at Nukumea is Manaakitanga: We acknowledge and protect the mana of all in our community. By acting with kindness, being respectful and serving others we nourish and empower each other. In many places manaakitanga is interpreted as being kind to each other. This is a great start but there is also so much more to it. To understand this deeper we can start by breaking the word down into parts. "Mana" is a word that many New Zealanders know that means authority, status, spiritual power, prestige. "a ki" means to give something or motion towards something. "tanga" is a suffix that turns a verb into a noun or derives meaning from a noun. With this knowledge, we can interpret manaakitanga as the acts we do to share our mana with others.
With everyone being new this year, we have had a big focus on this in class to ensure we all settle into life at Nukumea. It has been wonderful to see all of our students acting with manaakitanga towards each other and this has resulted in great friendships being developed in very quick time.
It has also been heartwarming for us seeing these great relationships develop amongst the parents. Whilst we see the kids heading off on playdates and sleepovers after school, we have also heard stories of our parents heading off for coffee, arriving to help with house moves and inviting each other to meet up. We had an aim of becoming a true school of the community and this is definitely happening.
Mr Cowie is planning a series of community events for this year and has started talking with Sarah Dodge, Sebastian's mum who is on our Board, so that we are also getting parent voice in this plan. We look forward to seeing you all at our Celebration Evening next Wednesday .
Every 2 years, schools are required to consult their community on their Health Curriculum. As a new school, we are starting this process now! Click here to view an overview of our Health Curriculum, which we invite you to read, and then at the end you will find a link to a survey that we'd appreciate you completing.
If you have not registered yet for Kindo, this is where all school payments occur and is also where our Friday lunch order system occurs. The link for getting started is here.
Our next Board meeting is on Tuesday April 4th at 5:30pm at school.
Sarah Dodge is our current parent who is on the Establishment Board and she would love to see more of you coming along to get involved with the development of the school. If next week's meeting doesn't work timing wise for you, the meetings next term are on the following dates:
- Tuesday May 2nd
- Tuesday May 30th
- Tuesday June 27th
The meetings are at school and run from 5:30-7:30pm. Please feel free to come along and if you have any questions about this, please talk to Steve at school or email him on stevem@nukumea.school.nz
Our Term 2 Concept is 'Connection' (Tūhononga). Connection is a good way of talking about the way things relate to each other. Connections can be physical or emotional. Any kind of direct relation is a connection.
The first step of our learning process is called 'Framing the Inquiry', which is where we share the understanding of the concept with our students and our school community, to help decide the context the learning will be framed around. We would love you to talk about this with your child using the questions below as a guide. Kaiako (teachers) will be asking these questions in class as well.
What learning could be linked to this concept?
What are you interested in that is linked to this concept?
What is going on in our local community, wider community, nationally and globally that may link to this concept?
You can share your answers with us by filling in this form
Have a great weekend and we look forward to seeing you at the End of Term Celebration next week.