MBAS Newsletter, Term 1, Week 4, 23rd February 2024

MBAS Calendar

Kia Ora tātou – Greetings to you all

Middle Years Update

What a fantastic week we’ve had at our Kura. 

Our year 7 and 8’s had a fantastic day at their swimming sports on Monday. Great to see parents supporting too! Please encourage your children to attend events like these - there are loads of fun activities they can participate in if they are not competitive swimmers.  

The Careers roadshow was a great success offering our students incredible learning opportunities. Congratulations to Liam Fussel in Yr 9 winner of a pressie card and Ariana  Mitchell in Yr 8 - the winner of a huge hamper which were lucky draws on the day. 

It was great meeting the parents in the afternoon. Please keep in touch with your child’s teachers. Conversations between Teachers, students and parents can uncover student learning needs early as well as let teachers know things about your children they would never know without having these conversations. Parents play such a vital role by being informed about their child's learning and being able to offer advice and guidance - not based on the parent's experience of school but the childs. School is very different today and parents need to keep abreast with changes just as the teachers do. We know that students do better in school when their parents support them. 
 
Thursday was our annual cross the river swim. What a unique Mercury Bay tradition. It was fabulous to see the community come out and support our children - another great day!!!  A huge thank you to Logan Adams our head of PE and Leisa our director of sport for their amazing organisation and to our incredible teachers for swimming with our less confident swimmers and those that were there to make all this happen. 

Lastly, please encourage your child to attend school - don't be the enabler who allows them to stay home. They are only at school for such a short time, let them make the most of it. Give them a good breakfast before coming and ensure they have food to sustain them during the day. Getting enough sleep at night is essential - 8-10 hours enables them to be alert and ready the next day. Remove devices and screens so their sleep is undisturbed. Make sure they come prepared for learning. Please volunteer to help us when you can - we would love to take students out and engage in our local curriculum but we need help - let your child's teachers know if and when you are able to help out. Make time EVERY day to talk about their day! 

Nāu te rourou nāku te rourou, ka ora ai te iwi - with your food basket and my food basket, people will thrive  - working in isolation we can survive, working together we can take people beyond survival and into prosperity 

Jenny Bloom
Deputy Principal - Middle Years 

Uniform Shop Hours 2024

The Uniform Shop are on the hunt for a clothing rack and coat hangers, especially the 'Clip' hangers as pictured below.

If you have any you could donate please drop them in to the office.

Online Canteen Ordering - Make It Easy!

Click here to access kindo ordering.

Specialist Music Lessons

Specialist music lessons are starting next week (Week 5). Our Arts team has emailed timetables for Guitar & Bass, Drums, Keys, Vocals, and Woodwind lessons to parents and specialist music students. Please check your child's time slot and remind them to attend their lessons.

Here are our music tutors for 2024: Stewart Pedley - Guitar & Bass, Leo Magri - Drums, Jani Dennis - Keys, and Paul Lee - Vocals and Woodwind Instruments. Additionally, we will soon offer Ukulele lessons to Years 4 and 5. If you are still interested in enrolling your child in any of these lessons, please email Leo at magril@mbas.ac.nz.

Thank you

Y7-8 Totara Springs Sports Camp Application

Mercury Bay Area School
Year 7 and 8 Sports Camp 2024

This year the 7 and 8 syndicate is offering the opportunity for students to attend a sports camp at Totara Springs. To be selected for this opportunity students will need to have good sporting ability and positive participation in their classes and wider school life. Students will uphold the KAURI expectations that are important to the school culture and being selected for this squad is to be acknowledged for consistently being KAURI kids. The opportunity is a privilege and it can also be life-changing for some. By being involved with different schools in the competition, students will need to step up and push themselves to achieve in a sporting context and then transfer this to classroom achievement. These events are also moments where leaders and role models are developed, and we want the students who are chosen to bring their leadership skills into the classroom and our kura. Students who attend need to be prepared to be future tuakana who will lead, coach and support future teina’s opportunities at sports camp. 

Intermediate Sports Camps have been happening at Tōtara Springs for over 30 years. Each camp can have up to eight teams and they can bring a maximum of 40 pupils each. During the week teams compete in over 30 different sports: Basketball, Croquet, Netball, Petanque, Rugby, Soccer,  Softball, Tennis, Touch, and Volleyball. We also have some one-off events: Athletics, Cross Country, Frisbee Golf, Hole in one Golf, Kayaking, Swimming and Team Triathlon. One of the highlights of camp is after dinner we keep going with night sports including Bowls, Caged Soccer, Chess, Darts, Draughts, Indoor Hockey and Indoor Soccer. Plus unique sports such as Cheer Night, Scramball, Spikeball and Wall Ball. 

This is an extracurricular sports camp and there will be costs associated with attending. This includes food, accommodation and use of sports facilities at Totara Springs. 
We encourage fundraising for those selected, but this must all be discussed with camp organisers and approved by the school.  

If students are interested in this opportunity they need to apply in writing on the following Google form:
https://forms.gle/yHgTBpDqn3AZfqG39

The student must complete the form in their own words. They need to…
     - explain why they wish to be selected
     - explain what sports and other skills they bring to the team
     - say how they will share their new skills and experience with the rest of the students
     - say how they are KAURI kids
     - explain how they put effort into class learning

The students will then participate in trials and a 30 person squad will be selected. When the selection process has been completed the squad will be named and a meeting held for the team and their whanau to begin the next stage of the process. 

Kind regards,
Teresa Shepherd Year 7 and 8 Dean
Leisa McCleery Sports Director 

Room 22 and Room 24

Room 22 and 24 aced it in the pool on Thursday. Thank you to Albie’s mum for coming to help out.

Across The River Swim

Our annual 46th Across the river swim was held on Thursday. This event had our students from years 7-13 swimming from Ferry Landing across the estuary towards the Whitianga Esplanade. The event was well attended by whanau and onlookers.

Well done to everyone who crossed safely and to all of our winners well done!

Buffalo 112
Mercury 109
Tainui 101
Matahaorua 70

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Y7-8 Swimming Sports

Another fantastic day at the pool with wonderful weather and great attitudes.  Well done to Madison Morgan who broke 5 school records!  Sharna Proctor and Neela Sacault also broke a record each.

Attendance was down and I would like to remind Parents that this is a part of the usual school sporting calender  and it is expected that your children participate.

Congrats to Mercury who are in the lead at present with 2 wins at Swimming sports days.

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Level 2 English - Globe Theatre

On Wednesday a group of NCEA Level 2 English students went to the Sky City Theatre for the Pop Up Globe’s performance of Shakespeare’s Romeo and Juliet. The students enjoyed the experience immensely and represented our kura with mana and maturity. 

‘For never was there a story of more woe, than this of Juliet and her Romeo’

Lunchtime Activities

Senior Student leaders have organised some awesome lunchtime activities for the Y7-13's, see below for details.

Tertiary Tidbits

DATES FOR YOUR DIARY

School presentations for any Yr12 or Yr13 interested in:

Otago University
Thursday 11th April 9am-10am (block 1)

Victoria University
Wednesday 1st May 9am-10am (block 1)

Waikato University
Thursday 7th May Yr12’s 9am-10am (block 1)
Yr13’s 10am-11am (block 2)

Open Days
Auckland Saturday 24th August
AUT Live/Online Saturday 24th August (TBC)
Canterbury Friday 30th August
Lincoln Friday 19th July
Massey TBA
Otago Friday 26th and Saturday 27th May
Te Wananga o Aotearoa TBA
Toi Ohomai TBA
Victoria Friday 23rd August
Waikato - Hamilton Campus Friday 24th May
Waikato - Tauranga Campus Friday 21st June
Wintec September - date TBA

Nurse's Notes

Y9 HEEADSSS Assessment 2024

Tēnā koutou parents/guardians/caregivers and students, 
 
Mercury Bay Area School has an agreement with Pinnacle and Te Whatu Ora Waikato to provide free nursing services on site. As school nurses, the health and wellbeing of your child at school is really important to us. The main aim of our clinic is to improve the health of our students so they can learn and thrive within the school environment.
 
As part of this, the school nurse, Sharon (Shaz) Iseli, will complete a thorough wellbeing review for all consenting Year 9 students. This wellbeing review uses the HEEADSSS (home, education, exercise/activities/diet, drugs, sexuality, self-harm, safety) assessment.
 
HEEADDSSS assessment is a holistic tool recognised and used with young people within health settings worldwide. It supports the building of a thorough health plan in collaboration with your child. You can read more about this on the Starship NZ website: https://starship.org.nz/guidelines/adolescent-consultation
 
This wellbeing review is likely to take 30-60 minutes and a referral to other services will be available where needed. It will take place during the school day and there is no cost for the service. You are welcome to attend the review with your child if you wish to.
 
Please note, hearing and vision testing, which is carried out by Te Whatu Ora, will take place on 21st February.
 
If you have any questions, or if you do not consent to your child having this wellbeing review, please contact the school nurse (details below) or the school office.
 
Registered nurse: Sharon (Shaz) Iseli /   Waikato school nurse, Pinnacle
Mobile:  0273273945   Email:  sharon.iseli@pinnacle.health.nz

Community Notices

Mercury Bay Rugby Muster

Monday 4th March 5pm - Mercury Bay Club Rooms, Lyon Park.

Rippa Rugby, Year 3, Year 4, Year 5, Year 6, Year 7 & Year 8.

New & Returning Players Welcome 🏈🏈

Whitianga Lions Family Picnic - 

MB Football Registrations

Blake Inspire - Environmental Leadership Opportunity

Mercury Bay Museum - Seaweek

Mercury Bay Library

Boys Brigade

Anchor section (5-7 yr olds) is full

Still have spaces available for 8-17 year olds