MBAS Newsletter, Term 1, Week 2, 14th Feb 2025
MBAS Calendar
Kia Ora tātou – Greetings to you all
Welcome Back to School - 2025!
Dear Parents/Whānau,
A warm welcome to the 2025 school year. We hope you all had a restful and enjoyable break, and we are excited to see our students back, ready to learn and grow.
The Importance of Attendance
Attendance is one of the key factors in ensuring student success. Regular attendance allows students to fully engage with their learning, build relationships, and participate in the opportunities our school provides. Every day counts, and we are here to support you in overcoming any barriers to regular attendance. Please don’t hesitate to reach out if you need assistance. We saw a degree of improvement in our attendance 2024 and look to further improve. By the end of the year we had 69% of our students attending 80% of the time or more. 80% attendance sounds high but is the equivalent of one day off a week. Our goal and the Ministry of Education's expectations is that students are in attendance at least 90% of the time. We know that attendance equals achievement and we need your help to ensure your children have the best chance of success.
Our Strategic Goals for 2025
As a school, we are focused on three strategic priorities to guide our mahi this year:
- Student Achievement: Our primary goal is to support each student to reach their potential. We will provide high-quality teaching, targeted support, and opportunities to extend learning across all areas of the curriculum. Celebrating success and fostering a love of learning will remain at the heart of what we do.
- Creating a Welcoming and Safe Environment: We are committed to nurturing a school environment where everyone feels safe, valued, and respected. This includes fostering positive relationships, promoting well-being, and ensuring that our school is a place where students thrive socially and emotionally, as well as academically.
- Honoring Te Tiriti o Waitangi: As part of our commitment to honoring Te Tiriti o Waitangi, we will continue to integrate te ao Māori perspectives and tikanga into our school culture and curriculum. We will also strengthen our partnerships with Māori whānau and iwi, ensuring that our practices reflect our shared responsibility to uphold the principles of partnership, participation, and protection.
Looking Ahead
This year promises to be an exciting one, filled with opportunities for our students to shine. I encourage you to stay connected and involved in school life—whether through attending events, volunteering, or simply maintaining regular communication with your child’s teacher. Your partnership is invaluable in supporting student success.
Let’s make 2025 a year to remember, as we work together to inspire and support our tamariki to achieve their very best.
Ngā mihi nui,
Ross Dunn
Principal
Attendance Matters!
There’s a clear connection between going to school regularly and doing well in the classroom. Higher levels of educational achievement can mean better health, higher incomes, better job stability, and more participation in communities. This all makes society stronger and more connected.
Students aged 6 to 16 years old (and enrolled 5-year-olds) are required to attend school every day. It’s everyone’s responsibility to make sure children attend and engage in learning from when they first start school.
It’s important for schools and kura, parents and whānau, iwi, hapū, communities, and government agencies to work together to support and make sure students are attending school regularly. Regular attendance means the student is present for more than 90% of the term.
To increase regular attendance rates, the Government has set a target: by 2030, 80% of students are present for more than 90% of the term.
Year 9 Beach Day
The Year 9 students kicked off their school year with a fantastic Beach Day, filled with exciting team-building and group activities that helped them get to know each other and their KAURI Group teacher. Held at our beautiful Buffalo Beach, the day provided the perfect setting for students to bond outside the classroom and set the tone for a positive, engaging year ahead.
Mihi Whakatau - New Staff and Students
On the 11th we welcomed our new staff and 20 new international students to join our MBAS whanau. This brings us up to a total of 26 international students overall! A great number to start the year. All of our new students have joined us either from Japan or Germany and are now all settled in with their host families. There was a buzz of excitement, and a little nervousness, as they attended the mihi whakatau on the first day. For most of them this was their first engagement with tikanga Maori. Thank you to our tangatawhenua for the welcome and Matua Marcus who was there to tautoko our students. Each and everyone of the students has shared how excited they are about meeting new friends and it is great to see some already making connections. It's going to be a great year!
Y9-13 Swimming Sports
Our annual School Swimming Sports Day was an exciting event filled with energy, competition, and fun. From freestyle to backstroke, breaststroke, and relay races, swimmers of all skill levels had the chance to showcase their talents. The most anticipated events were the house relays and flying squad relays against the teachers, where teams battled it out for the coveted championship title. Congratulations to the students who outclassed the teachers!
Mercury were the winners on the day!
Huge Congratulations to Madison Morgan & Lorenz Mueller who made new records in the following:
Madison Morgan Jnr 100IM 1:32:00 (was held by Emily Adam 2009 1:34:40)
7 Senior records were broken by Lorenz Mueller
100m Back 1:11:47 (held by Andre Adam 2011 1:12:22)
100m Breast 1:12:94 (held by Callum Oliver 2012 1:31:36)
25m Back 14:22 (held by Andre Adam 2010 14:97)
25m Breast 16:75 (held by Sebastian Ross 2022 16:91)
50m Back 31:35 (held by Andre Adam 2011 32:62)
50m Breast 38:43 (held by Sebastian Ross 2022 38:97)
50m Free 28:03 (held by Callum Oliver 2012 28:12)
Full days results can be found here.
Host Families Required
MBAS is seeking interest from families to host international high school students (Years 11-13) in your home.
Hosting provides your family opportunities to learn more about other cultures and enable your children to develop as global citizens through international connections. Your family provides hosted students exposure to the wonders of New Zealand.
If you want to know more, please email (international@mbas.ac.nz); phone Jodie (Homestay Coordinator) on 0272489187.
Wood Tech Request
Kia ora all.
It's that time of the year again when I am on the hunt for any donations of native wood or other types of untreated wood for the Wood Technology department at Mercury Bay Area School. This wood allows students to add visual interest to their learning outcomes. If you have anything around we would greatly appreciate it. Please contact Dean Spyve using the following email address:
spyved@mbas.ac.nz
Or leave a message with the office and I can call you back.
Sports Update
Calling all keen netballers (girls and boys)!!
This year a group of local parents have come together to form the MBAS Netball Committee (with the wonderful support of MBAS), and we are getting ready for the 2025 netball season and excited to be bringing Netball back to the school.
Keen netballers from MBAS can now join a school netball team - from Yr 1 through to College and Senior A/B grades for the 2025 netball season.
Teamwork makes the dream work;
- We need your help! If you are interested in being apart of MBAS netball we are looking for extra committee members, coaches, umpires, team managers. If you are able to help in any of these areas please contact our committee on MBASnetball@outlook.com
- Start thinking about your team – this season we will be allowing friends to play with friends so get your mates together and come join us!
- Each team needs to have up to 11 players, a coach, manager and umpire
Keep an eye out on school newsletters,dojo and facebook pages for registration which will be opening very soon!
Nurses Notes
Tēnā koutou parents/guardians/caregivers and students,
Mercury Bay Area School has an agreement with Pinnacle Midlands Health Network 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 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 nurses, Sharon (Shaz) Iseli or Kate Sedon, will do a meet and greet with all year 9 ākonga (students) and complete a thorough wellbeing review if any concerns are identified. The aim is to complete a full review on all consenting ākonga by the end of year 10.
Our assessments are now following a new framework known as Te Ūkaipō alongside the previous HEEADSSS framework.
Te Ūkaipō was created in collaboration with Te Whatu Ora and rangatahi. Te Ūkaipō is an expression of te ao Māori values and principles, it is strength-based and mana enhancing. Te Ūkaipō includes nine interconnected Kaupapa Māori whanonga pono (values). You can read more about Te Ūkaipō and the pono here:
https://www.tewhatuora.govt.
The HEEADSSS framework (home, education, exercise/activities/diet, drugs, sexuality, self- harm, safety) 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/
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.
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 Student Based Health nurses, Pinnacle Midlands Health Network
Community Notices
Childrens Free Ear Clinic
Mercury Bay Library
Football Registrations 2025
Boys Brigade Kuaotunu
April Holiday Programme - Hockey
Skool Loop - One Stop School Information App
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