Tena koutou te whanau o Te Kura a Rohe o Whaingaroa, Greetings to all of our whanau and to our students.
The Students Leadership Team will be representing Raglan Area School on ANZAC day in the commemorative speeches. This will be Grace and Joel as head students. Four of the Team are heading to Akaroa with Matua Quenten to the Area Schools Leadership Camp where they will join with other Area School’s leaders from all over Aotearoa. These students are Ryan, Te Kaha, Charlie, and Ngaramai, and we wish them great fun and learning.
School Holidays and Teacher Only Dates. We break for term holidays this Friday 13 April returning to school on Monday 30 April. TODs are Friday 11 May and Tuesday 5 June (attached to Queen’s Birthday weekend).
Ruth Hare took a small group of students to the Sheilah Winn Shakespeare Festival in the weekend and reports that they presented very well with Sequoia getting a special mention by the judges as a standout performance in her roll as Oberon and Hermia. Congratulations to them all. See insert for further details.
WORKING BEE this Saturday 14 April, 10-1pm for all those interested and prepared to give us some time. There are a wide variety of opportunities to share your skills and time with us. Good refreshments supplied!
We are very much looking forward to Aroha Hohepa joining us as Deputy Principal next term. There will be a Powhiri at school to welcome her at 9am on Monday 30 April. We will take the opportunity to also include other new students and staff who have recently started at school this term or who are starting second term, to join with her in being welcomed into the school. Aroha will have a small ope supporting her including staff from her current kura and perhaps some of her whanau.
We have the privilege of having Celeste Cleason joining us next term to support a growing cohort of senior students studying performance music through correspondence school. Celeste will be working closely with Peter Skandera who also supports these students and she will be looking to form choirs across the school. Celeste is a trained music teacher and a talented vocalist. You can google her for more information.
I would like to acknowledge the appreciated and generous contribution of Raglan Supervalue, Sanjay Sharma, in supporting our senior student leadership team and promoting student excellence across the school by providing regular awards for syndicates.
Nga mihi
Malcolm
From the Board of Trustees
Kia ora koutou te whanau o te Kura o Whaingaroa,
Some years ago as an inexperienced, co-opted member of the RAS Board of Trustees, I was engaged in a debate with a knowledgeable person from the community who questioned the value and ‘rights’ of, as he put it, parents with little knowledge of the education sector to have anything to do with school management. One of the tasks of the Board of Trustees is to fulfill the role of ensuring the management of the school is meeting it’s responsibilities by presenting policies that; guide the management of the school and review the performance but not to manage it. Interestingly what my acquaintance probably didn’t acknowledge is the development of community influenced initiatives such as our Charter, the Surf Academy, the new Earthcare programme and a school community with a growing bi-cultural competency, that helped to grow three of his children to great adults.
Within the BOT framework we have committees that oversee finance, personnel, property and review, and at times discipline, to ensure we meet the governments legislative requirements. Our main task though is to focus on student achievement and wellbeing and in particular those students who are at risk (without losing sight of the high achievers). In a nutshell equity, excellence and opportunity, reflecting the Treaty of Waitangi.
Community engagement and communication is a challenge that we are currently working hard at so that we can help to provide simple and effective dialogue between the entire school community and the wider community of Whaingaroa. We would like to know what you think so we as a board can help to respond, develop and support all of our teachers, children, young adults and families to be the best they can be. By the way, I’m loving the extra and fresh content in our newsletter.
Our current Charter is always available to be viewed on this website so I invite you to have a look and acquaint yourself with it. We are looking to develop opportunities for ongoing discussion throughout the year. The first one being our Working Bee scheduled for this Saturday 14 April, 10am to 1pm. A little mahi, a little kai and a bit of korero. Please join us.
The preparation for the election of a student representative to the board is underway and we hope to have a well supported campaign and process for this important position. So to the rangatahi, nominate and vote!
I’m also announcing a reassignment of responsibilities within the Board that has resulted in my current position as the Board Chairperson. I look forward to at least each month presenting a catch up on what’s going on at the Board and hope the holidays are not too stressful, and you enjoy some family time together.
Ngaa mihi
Chris Banks
Board of Trustees Chairperson.
Western Cluster Sports
Last Friday Raglan Area School hosted the Western Cluster Softball and Tee ball Tournament, with a wonderful turn out with seven schools in total participating. Raglan entered a Year 7-8 team into the Softball and a Year 5-6 team into the Tee ball.
With blue skies beckoning we started the day with a karakia and an umpire briefing and we were straight into round one, where the 7-8s met their biggest rivals… the mighty Te Mata. In an impressive demonstration of Whakawhanaungatanga a group of Year 8 students took on the role of field managers, introducing themselves to umpires and making sure things ran smoothly all day.
As the day wore on it was looking as though all Raglans practices were paying off. The final placings were nail bitingly close, but our Tee ball team secured a second place and the Softball team came in first place, equal to Te Mata.
A huge thanks to all the support from whanau and students.
Matua Pete
Anzac Essay Competition
Anzac Day, observed on 25 April every year, commemorates all New Zealanders killed in war and also honours returned servicemen and women.
The date itself marks the anniversary of the landing of New Zealand and Australian soldiers on the Gallipoli Peninsula in 1915. Many New Zealanders feel a strong connection to this event, through family and whānau stories. Anzac Day offers every New Zealander the chance to consider the impact of the First World War and remember those who served.
Each year the Raglan RSA invites all Year 7&8 students from Raglan Area School, Te Mata School, Te Uku School and Waitetuna School to enter an Anzac Essay Writing Competition.
The essays were handed in, I believe the winning essay will be published in the Raglan Chronicle. The students enjoyed a sausage sizzle for lunch before heading back to school.
Raglan Art To Wear
Raglan Art to Wear Workshops with Liz Hoskings. Sundays, April 8, 22 and May 6. For more information contact Liz 027 695 1655
Thank You
RAS would like to thank Alaina Campbell for her generous donation of a practice basketball strip.
Matua Joe
Rainbow Picnic
Thank you to those who attended our ‘Rainbow Theme’ shared kai and those who contributed some kai. We had a great range of healthy options to enjoy with plenty for everyone!
Breakfast Club
Breakfast Club – every Monday and Thursday from 8.20 to 8.40 in The Food Technology Room. Come and enjoy weetbix and a warm milo!
L-R: Betty Diprose (staff), Tuhotu Wharekawa, Carlos Wharekawa, Dizzy Coulden-Lavers, Lennox Lindfield, Kiri Crombie (staff), Ace Ferguson.
Mindfulness
An opinion piece by George Loten
Mindfulness is meant to be a relaxing activity used to calm yourself down and free yourself of bad thoughts.
Personally I think there is no point in mindfulness cause no matter what I am always speedy and thinking of bad stuff. But I could understand why it would work for some people especially the ones that are really stressed out.
Once in Te Reo Māori we tried doing mindfulness before a test and I felt extremely uncomfortable, in fact it even made it worse. So at the end of the day in my opinion it’s a waste of time.
Harvesting Bamboo
Students In E1 headed out to Te Uku to harvest bamboo to use to make survival shelters. Big thanks to Graham Crowhurst for allowing access to his farm!
SGCNZ University of Otago Sheilah Winn Shakespeare Festival
The Year 11-12 drama students had a thoroughly enjoyable day at the Sheilah Winn Shakespeare Festival, held at St Peter’s School in Cambridge over the weekend. It is a day festival with students from schools throughout the Waikato region performing scenes in honour of Shakespeare. The festival finished with an awards ceremony and offers further opportunities for students to progress to the National festival in Wellington, and the SGCNZ National Shakespeare Schools Production if awarded.
Congratulations to Sequoia Gavin-McCabe, Sasha Kirkwood, Lily Bradley, Caitlin Royal and Mason Swann who worked energetically and admirably in performing their extract from A Midsummer Night’s Dream. Drama teacher Whaea Ruth is incredibly proud of the cast and their performance.
In the awards ceremony Sequoia Gavin-McCabe was given a ‘special mention’ by the judges for a stand-out performance for her role as Oberon and Hermia. Well done Sequoia!
The Student Health Team are Preparing for the Year Ahead
Raglan Area School now has a Student Health Team, a team that is devoted to helping students have a sense of safety at our school. The Student Health Team consists of student representatives from classes Year 7 and up, who are eager to make a difference to our school and students.
We have held two meetings so far this year and we are getting started on our first project we chose to cover; SADD, which stands for Students Against Dangerous Driving. SADD is a charity with an aim to help young people keep our roads safe. The Student Health Team all decided that they wanted to step forward to be part of a local SADD group, and we are currently planning some SADD events to run at our school. In the near future we also hope to raise awareness about Manaakitanga and the teasing and judging of other students that is going on amongst some students, and getting in the way of manaaki working well.
The Student Health Team holds a meeting every two weeks on a Wednesday morning during whanau time. Whaea Betty meets us all in the new Student Meeting Space (in the quad area), and helps us figure out new project ideas to try in the future. If any students have any questions or queries, or are interesting in joining, contact Whaea Betty for more information.
Ayla Standley and Whaea Betty
Front Row: Ayla Stanley, Jaime Witters, Ashton Bicknell, Emanual Ringia, Kayla Stockman-Bond
Back Row: Danielle Macdonald, Betty Diprose (staff), Sandra Harris (AOD support person)
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