week 7 Term 1 2023
Kia ora koutou,
Last Thursday, we were very excited to welcome Makuhari Junior High School students to our school for the first time in three years. Our students have looked forward to welcoming them to our school for their two-week stay.
They were welcomed with a formal Powhiri from our whole school. I felt very proud of our Maeroa students at the Powhiri. The following day the Makuhari students spent their day at Maeroa in classrooms and Te Puaawaitanga, enjoying learning from our students.
This week our Japanese students have been horse-riding, to Waitomo Caves, Rotorua and Hobbiton. Today they were hosted for the morning by Endeavour School where they had a wonderful experience with the year 5 & 6 students at that school.
In term 3 this year, I will be taking a group of Maeroa students, along with students from all of the Waikato Intermediates, to Makuhari Junior High School in Japan. This is an exciting trip for our students, and it wasn't easy to choose only six out of the 19 that applied as each school is limited to taking six students, a total of 60 from across the Waikato Intermediates.
Last week our students began their learning with Amy from the Life Education Trust. Students from each class will work with Amy for three blocks focusing on peer pressure, making good decisions and substance abuse. This is a very valuable learning opportunity for our students.
I want to thank all the coaches enabling our students to be involved in a vast range of sporting opportunities this term. Thank you also to parents/caregivers for supporting their children in getting to training and games.
Netball season begins at the start of term 2, so Mrs Taylor and Mrs Carter are busily trialling and organising teams to enable our students to be involved in netball. This is a huge task, and I thank Mrs Taylor and Mrs Carter for the time and effort that goes into this for our students. Thank you to all the parents/caregivers/friends that have offered to coach/manage these teams for the season. This is a big commitment for you, and we certainly appreciate you on behalf of our students and their families.
Ngaa mihi nui
Susan Wood - Principal
Waikato Intermediate Volleyball Competition
Maeroa was well represented again at the Waikato Volleyball competition last by these amazing students.
Our boys' team was undefeated during the day going into a final that saw the scores at a draw. Heading into overtime, a team needed to win by two points. After several minutes of up-and-down scores our boys' team placed second to Matamata in a nail-biting finish.
Our girls' team worked hard to overcome one loss to Fairfield early in the day. They carried on to win their remaining games and headed into the finals to face Fairfield once again. They were down by 7 points with 3 minutes to go. They kept a cool head and clawed their way back up for a remarkable win by one point in the last few seconds of the game!
Even through there were some disappointments during the day, there were more highs than lows. Teams learnt the value of keeping a positive attitude and supporting your team whether you were on court or on the sideline.
Well done teams! A great outcome.
Whaea Karyn.
Waikato Intermediate Swimming Competition
Maeroa sent a small but very enthusiastic team to the Waikato Intermediate Swimming Competition this week. Mrs Banks said they were a fantastic group to take.
Well done, Swim Team and thank you, Mrs Banks.
Gully Restoration
Maeroa Intermediate Gully Restoration Project February Newsletter 2023
Our Gully Restoration Vision
An ‘outdoor classroom’ space for students.
Planting a variety of native trees.
Controlling erosion.
Creating habitats for a wide range of wildlife.
Improving the water quality of the stream.
After School Gully Workshops
During December and January, the wet and warm conditions have been just what the trees in the gully needed- it looks like they have doubled in size! Unfortunately, the weeds have also grown. Thankfully the after-school workshops started as soon as we were back at school and on average, 20 students have been helping each Tuesday or Thursday. They quickly learnt what a weed was and how to untangle the convolvulus vine. The soil is damp so the weeds are coming out easily and we have re-established our meeting zones and many of the walking tracks. The new students were excited to discover an eel in the stream.
Saturday Working Bee
The first Saturday Working Bee on 25 February had 41 amazing volunteers. They tackled many of the weeds that had grown around and over our planting from last year. A frog was discovered near the stream's edge, which is the first one we have seen. We continued to take out old dumped rubbish but were disappointed to find new rubbish dumped by one of the neighbouring properties. We have decided to write a letter to them explaining what we are doing and encourage them to become involved in our project. Students enjoyed cooling off in the school pool at the end of the working bee.
Supporting others
In 2020 many of our students participated in gully awareness workshops the Waikato Regional Council ran. One of the workshops focused on weeds and ways to control them. Students released a beetle which eats a pest plant, tradescantia, that was growing in our gully, and since then, the beetle population has increased. At the beginning of March, Mrs Hollinger’s class took up a challenge of capturing 100 live beetles for St Patrick’s School in Taupo to help them control their problematic tradescantia. This was an amazing learning opportunity, and we would like to thank Adrienne from EnviroSchools and Rachel from Greening Taupo for their guidance. We hope the beetles will flourish in their new habitat!
Water Quality Monitoring
We know the water quality of the stream has improved because we have created water pools, removed rubbish and planted along the edge of the stream but we haven’t collected data to back this up. Whaea Tash and her class will start formally monitoring the stream's water quality this year. Tash will attend the World Water Day workshop at Fairfield College and, with Adrienne Grant’s guidance, will create a long-term monitoring programme for the stream. Seeing the links between our planting programme and the stream's water quality will be exciting.
Key Supporters
This year we are very fortunate to receive funding from 3 different organisations. We really do appreciate their financial assistance, as restoring a gully is expensive!
Waikato Regional Council has given us funding to build a covered Potting Shed.
Te Uru Rakau has funded many trees for this year's planting and kai for the Saturday Working Bees.
Waikato Catchment Ecological Enhancement Trust for funding much-needed mulch, natural weed matting and weed spraying.
If you have any suggestions or are able to support our Gully Restoration Project in any way, we would like to hear from you. The next Saturday Working Bee will be on the 25 March, 9-12pm.
“Ma mahi tahi taatou- mo te oranga o te katoa” We should work together- for the wellbeing of everyone!
Julie Yeoman
Online Safety
We invite you to attend an online safety evening with Rob Cope on 9 May 2023, 7 - 9 pm, in our school auditorium.
We have concerns about some of the students in our school who seem to have unsupervised access to social media. Even though they do not have access to social media at our school, we have to deal with the "fallout" from their activity online out-of-school hours.
We urge all Maeroa parents/caregivers to attend this evening.
School Photos
School photos will be taken on 3 & 4 April by Masterpiece Photography. More information about the ordering process will come out closer to the date.
Teacher Only Day
Maeroa Intermediate will be holding a Teacher Only Day on 24 April.
The following day is ANZAC Day 25 April, so all schools across New Zealand will be closed that day.
Maeroa Intermediate will begin for term 2 on Wednesday, 26 April.
Vision Testing for year 7 & 8
On Monday and Tuesday next week, the Vision Testing group will be here to test our year 7 & 8 students. Usually, it would just be year 7 but because our year 8 students missed out last year due to covid, they are also being tested on Monday and Tuesday.
If you do not want your child tested, please contact the school office either by phoning 07 8475014 or emailing office@maeroa.school.nz
