MBAS Newsletter, Term 3, Week 9, September 12th 2025

MBAS Calendar

Kia Ora tātou – Greetings to you all

From Our Primary Years

Tōku reo, tōku ohooho
Tōku reo, tōku mapihi maurea
My language is my awakening
My language is the window to my soul
- nā Tā Tīmoti Kāretū

Kia ora rā e te whānau,

Thank you to everyone for your support in our endeavour to keep our students safe, and keeping the staff carpark pedestrian free!

We still need your support to keep the road side yellow lines( by the primary end carpark) clear of vehicles too.  It is really challenging for adults to see oncoming traffic, students have no chance unless they actually walk out onto the road to check.  We also need to keep off the grass on the corner of Cook Drive by Whitianga Community Services:)  Thank you:)

Some dates to remember:

• Last day of term 3 - Friday 19th September
• Also Yr 1-2 Cross Country
• 15-19 September - Te Wiki o Te Reo Māori
• First day of term 4 - Monday 6th October
• Weeks 2-3 Term 4 - Yr 1-2 Whitebait Connection In class sessions
• Week 4 Term 4 - Yr 1-2 Whitebait Connection field trips
• 27th October - Labour Day - NO SCHOOL
• 14th November - Whole School Teacher Only Day - NO SCHOOL

Te Whakatupu Tāngata Ngākaupai - Growing Good People & Te Whakatupu Kaiaratakipai - Growing Good Leaders

Kaitiakitanga is about looking after our environment and the living things within it:)  We are very fortunate in our community that we have so many experts willing to come and share their expertise with us:)

Te Whakatupu Tāngata Ākongapai - Growing Good Learners

So much diverse learning has been happening across our primary years classrooms.

MBAS 2025 Magazine - Order Now!

Please note that below is our NEW MBAS bank account number NOT the previous BNZ one

NCEA Derived Grade Exam Timetable

Uniform Shop

Be prepared for term 4!

Plenty of choice in stock of shorts and skorts in all sizes especially shorts age 8, 10 and 12 plus skorts 6, 8 and 12. 
Some brand new!

Everything $5 ($10 for Canterbury)

Thursdays 2.30pm to 3.30pm

Donations of clean, undamaged uniform items may be taken to the office. Thank you.  

Homestay Families Needed

MBAS Shines at Inaugural Eastern Coromandel Mathex Competition

A group of talented Year 6 and Year 8 students recently represented MBAS at the very first Eastern Coromandel Mathex Competition, held in Tairua — and what a fantastic day it was!

Our students competed in both the Year 5 & 6 and Year 7 & 8 sections, showcasing not just their mathematical abilities, but also their teamwork, strategy, and quick thinking under pressure.

The competition format challenged teams to work through 20 maths questions in just 30 minutes. Only one question could be answered at a time, with a runner from each team sprinting their answer to a marker. Teams could only move on once their answer was correct, making both accuracy and speed essential.

We're incredibly proud to announce that our Year 5 & 6 team won their section, earning the honour of being the very first name engraved on the competition trophy — a brilliant achievement! Our Year 7 & 8 team also performed exceptionally well, finishing third overall in a tough field of competitors.

It was inspiring to see a regional academic competition that not only allowed students to demonstrate their maths skills but also fostered collaboration and resilience.

Well done to all our students who took part — your hard work, enthusiasm, and team spirit were outstanding!

Conservation Week - Take Action for Nature

Last week's Conservation week saw students and parents alike 'take action for nature'.  From rubbish collections and planting, to bird feeders, bug houses and raising  awareness of native species. Congratulations to all the amazing students and whānau who took part in any and all activities.  The primary Envrio-group ran a photo competition and will be announcing the winners next week.  Check out everyone taking action!  Looking after our environment is not just restricted to conservation week, lots of little actions add up to big change.  

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Kiwi Super Hero - Paula, visits our Y3-4 Students

As part of Conservation Week our Year 3-4 students had a visit last week from our very own kiwi super hero Paula. Her job is to track Kiwis and retrieve the kiwi eggs and send them down to Rotorua for hatching. We were able to handle kiwi eggs, hold a skull of a kiwi and learn all about how amazing kiwis are to the environment 

Area School Interaction

Area School interaction Last week M5 were lucky enough to work with a year 12 class. They came down and planned some PE games and played with our class. M5 were very excited to have big buddies to teach games to and the big buddies were just as excited! 

M2 - Floating and Sinking

This week we used some of our knowledge about floating and sinking, and some shared knowledge about boats, to make our own out of tinfoil. They also had to hold objects and stay afloat. After trialing a tennis ball or two, we moved on to whose could hold the most blocks.

The winner in this category was Isla with a grand total of 100.

M4 - Coding

Wednesday morning saw Coding with Jess from the Mercury Bay Library. Jess brought in her little bots which she taught the children to programe. They quickly caught on to how to do this - to get their bot to run over a bar code and then get the bot to follow some instructions. There were three things the bots could do - respond to a clap/double clap, follow a line, and engage in a sumo battle. We had a fantastic time, learned so much and then eagerly wrote about what we had done. Thanks so much, Jess. Jess will be running some very entertaining sessions over the holidays using STEM activities. In case you didn't know this (I didn't), you can book out a bot (different to the ones we used) and take it home to program and work with. Wow!

Room 31 - Science

In science, we are learning about states of matter, reversible vs. irreversible changes, and chemical reactions. This week, we watched yeast grow and react and discussed what reaction heat causes! Then the class then got to eat their science. Yum!

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Y7-8 Broken Hills Trip

By Sophie Veevers Year 8 Hei 7

On Monday the 8th of September year seven and eight students from Hei 7 and Hei 8 went to Broken Hills to explore the old gold mining sites. When I got to school that morning I could see the excitement in everyone's eyes. 

When we got to Broken Hills the weather was just amazing, the sun on my face was amazing. My breath was taken by the sight of all the beautiful foliage and gigantic trees.  

During this trip we went on three walks. These included walking to see the old mining tunnels, stamper battery sites and my personal favourite when we walked along the Water Race track. 

On this path we went up hills, down stairs, through mud, water and tunnels which we later found out had Cave Weta in them, but only little ones.

Mrs Fotheringham said we were going to look into a tunnel with much larger wetas, and sure enough we did. We shone a light in this small tunnel entrance and weta covered the bumpy walls. I was terrified, there were huge Cave Wetas with their babies. I got told that if I screamed, a weta would jump into my mouth. Not on my watch I thought, so I tried being as quiet as a mouse. And guess what, I didn't have a weta for lunch so I was pretty proud. 

Before we went on any of these walks we had to clean our shoes at a station to protect our beloved trees, the Kauri, from kauri dieback. Kauri Dieback is a disease that only affects kauri trees! It can be spread by pigs, people and vehicles. It is only a microscopic thing that we cannot see. It’s in the soil and it disintegrates the tree's roots. It had a major effect on kauri. 

The walk was calm and quiet apart from the sounds of nature. I had a great time and so did everyone else. 

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Sports Results

Football

MBAS Senior Boys (mixed) beat Te Aroha College Senior Boys 1-0.
MBAS won the WSSFA Senior Boys Division 5 title!

MBAS Junior Boys (mixed) drew with Thames Junior Boys 2-2.

NISS - Equestrian

The MBAS Equestrian Team had a great time away at the North Island Secondary Schools Championships Week in Taupo.  The girls and their support crew braved freezing overnight temperatures camping on the grounds but the early foggy 5:30am starts were quickly followed by beautiful sunshine days.

Congratulations to Lexi Ford and her horse Grace who placed 3^rd in their Show Jumping Accumulator Class and Ella Simpson on her pony Nike who placed 4^th in their Show Jumping 2 phase class.  These 2 also competed as a pair in the mounted games and got a 2^nd place.

Some great riding at a tough competition.  By far the biggest event on the school equestrian calendar, all our riders enjoyed some personal successes and achieved some individual goals with their horses.  This isn’t always reflected by a placing, it may be moving up a height, getting a clear round or nailing a move in a dressage test.

Despite being a rider down the three girls combined scores placed them 49^th out of 79 schools.

A big thank you to the parents, without them this opportunity would not be possible.

The team would like to thank the local community for their support with the firewood raffle and sausage sizzle which helped them raise money towards the entry fees and the purchase of 4 rugs for the school equestrian team.

MBAS Netball Prizegiving Results

Mercury Bay Area School Netball

Yr 3/4 Dolphins  Most- Improved – Lily Thonber.  Player of the Year – Bonnie Reilly
Yr 3/4 Stingrays  Most- Imporved – Ellie Cole.   Player of the Year – Summer Anderson

Yr 5/6 Squad Goals  -Most Improved – Ava Connell.   Player of the year – Max Corkill
Yr 5/6 Team Go - Most Improved – Poppy Reilly.  Player of the year – Jake Cleaver-Leddy

Yr 7/8 Te Puritanga o Hei  - Most Improved – Skylar Sullivan.  Player of the year – Harper McGregor
Yr 7/8 Coastal Comets-    Most Improved – Charlotte Van Rooyen.   Player of the year – Frankie Hamilton
Yr 7/8 Tsunami -  Most Improved – Erica McLutchie.  Player of the year – Jessica Allen

College Blue Magic – Most Improved – Ashley Howard.   Player of the year – Lucy James-White
College Mercury Bay Stars – Most Improved – Miranda Coleman.  Player of the year – Angel Scobie
College Panthers – Most Improved – Lily-Ray Threadgold.  Player of the year – Charlotte Allen
College Sharks – Most Improved – Neela Sacault.  Player of the year – Sunny O’Brien
College Senior A – Most Improved – Beth Sharman.   Player of the year – India Percival. Best defence player – Millie Gold. Best Attack player – Isabella White.

Umpire of the year – Lis Laginestra Souza

Junior Umpire of the year – Isla Dundass

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Rugby Prizegiving - New Date

RUGBY PRIZEGIVING NEW DATE!!!!!
To be held after school holidays when the rep program is done
Friday 10th October
5.30pm food followed by 6pm prizegiving
Mercury Bay Rugby & Sports Club

Dress in your number ones
All rugby jackets to be returned on this date too

Basketball Prizegiving Date

Basketball Prizegiving

Monday 15th September

5-7pm in the school Gym

Tertiary Tidbits

https://chiropractic.ac.nz/study-with-us/open-day/

Community Notices

Mercury Bay Junior Cricket

Mercury Bay Junior Cricket is moving away from the traditional time consuming and travel heavy competition model and focusing on a newer, fresher, faster, local style of junior cricket.We're encouraging teams from Mercury Bay, Whenuakite and Te Rerenga to get involved in local 8-a-side cricket in Term 4 2025 and Term 1 2026. The benefits?

• Reduced numbers per side make it easier to establish teams
• Kids play with their school mates
• Faster games - a couple of hours, rather than five hours
• Games played fortnightly
• All games at Moewai Park
• Trainings are optional
• Three different age groups - years 3/4, years 5/6 and years 7/8

Each team will require a parent helper/manager/coach. The year 5/6 team is already sorted with this.
If you're interested, please contact Rob Corkill on 021 923 986, or email mercurybaycricket@gmail.com 

Waikids Children's Free Ear Service - Spetember Dates

Mercury Bay Museum - Spooky Halloween

The Great Pumpkin Grow-Off

Whitianga Art Centre - After School Art Classes

Mercury Bay Clean Up

Game Vault - Holiday Programme

Bring A Kid To Bowls

Thames School of Mines - Holiday Programme

Oscar Explorers - After School Care

Skool Loop - One Stop School Information App