PARENTS NEWSLETTER TERM 3, WEEK 3 10 August 2018

Maranatha Christian School 180 Hill Road, Belmont, Lower Hutt 5010, New Zealand

T 565 0749 F 565 0747 E office@maranatha.school.nz W maranatha.school.nz

Tēnā koutou katoa

What an eventful few weeks!

Students are underway with their learning around our theme God is Holy and Pure. Last week Mr Pham led a devotional session with the school and reminded us that when we accept Jesus as our Lord and saviour, that we are made Holy and Pure through the blood of Christ, and although we may sin, we have redemption through repentance and forgiveness. What reassurance that is for those of us who think we are not good enough! Our swimming programme is also underway at Stokes Valley Pool with students enjoying the opportunity to get in the pool during school time… fun, active learning at its best! Next Friday we plan to conclude our swimming programme with a time of fun and fellowship as students enjoy a free-play swim. The building project continues to gain momentum with more wood arriving at school for the builders to use as they demolish water damaged sections of the lower level buildings and build new walls. My continual gratitude goes to our proprietors, the MFB, who are generously funding this project. This week I announced that Mrs Zondagh will be leaving Maranatha Christian School at the end of this year. Corry has been our School Administrator for thirteen years… and we have been truly blessed by her! Please pray for her as she finishes at Maranatha Christian School, pray for the new season ahead and for our heavenly Father to provide us with the right person to step into the BIG shoes that Corry will leave behind.

Looking Ahead… Next Wednesday 15 August the school is closed for the National Teacher Strike. Keep a look out for the latest Building Special Bulletin coming to you next week. Finally, planning is underway for our visits to Government House, Parliament and The National Library Archives… more information coming about these trips soon! Kia pai tō rā whakatā (Have a fantastic weekend.)

In His love Steve Farrand (Principal)

Psalm 9:10 (NIV) Those who know your name trust in you, for you, LORD, have never forsaken those who seek you.

Maranatha Christian School 180 Hill Road, Belmont, Lower Hutt 5010, New Zealand

T 565 0749 F 565 0747 E office@maranatha.school.nz W maranatha.school.nz

Coming up! Monday, 13 August Swimming at Stokes Valley Pool

Tuesday, 14 August Swimming at Stokes Valley Pool

Wednesday, 15 August Primary School Stop Work Action

NO SCHOOL TODAY

Thursday, 16 August Swimming at Stokes Valley Pool

Friday, 17 August Year 7&8 Technology at Avalon Intermediate School

Friday, 17 August Swimming at Stokes Valley Pool for Years 1—6

Monday, 3 September Staff Only Day

Tuesday, 11 September Trip to Parliament & Government house ( half of

school)

Thursday, 13 September Trip to Parliament & Government House (other half

of school)

Thursday, 20 September Bot meeting at 7pm

IMPORTANT NOTICE!!

PRIMARY SCHOOL STOP WORK ACTION DAY

WEDNESDAY, 15 AUGUST

THERE WILL BE NO SCHOOL TODAY

(Refer to the attached page from Kids on F.o.o.T if you need help with Childcare.)

David Tyler School Update Update Please see the attached Update Number 6 from Chris Dugdale for the latest news and photos. All these uniforms will be heading to Uganda! We’ve been extremely blessed with the donations of both second hand and new uniform items for the David Tyler School in Uganda. Just this week, NZ Post confirmed that they would ship 100kg of items to Uganda for us for just $700! Sending overseas is incredibly expensive and this would normally cost over $2,000. We are going to use some of the fundraising from last term to pay for this and the uniforms will go with the felt books and letters from each classroom. Can you imagine how excited the children will be when all the packages arrive? We would also like to include a toothbrush for each of the children at David Tyler School - so during your weekly shop this week would you be able to purchase a toothbrush for us to send? Please give them to your classroom teacher and we will package them up with the other items. Nadine Kilmister BOT Deputy Chair Mitchell Kilmister is pictured with all the donated items Give a Little Page Don’t forget you and your children are still welcome to continue donating via the “Give a Little” page set up by the Dugdale Charitable Trust for everyone to use. Click HERE to visit the page, and please share this link with your friends, family and church community.

Proposal to close Grounsell Crescent on-ramp The New Zealand Transport Agency and Hutt City Council are proposing to permanently close a State Highway 2 on-ramp for safety reasons. To find out more about this proposal, follow the link below: http://www.huttcity.govt.nz/Your-Council/News-and-notices/Latest-News/proposal-to-close-grounsell-crescent-on-ramp/

Swimming Programme—Week 4:

The swimming programme will be continuing in Week 4, Please note that there is NO SCHOOL on Wednesday, so to make up for the lost day of swimming, we will be holding a fun day at the Pool on Friday instead for all students in Years 1—6. The Year 7 & 8 students will be attending Technology.

Vacant Position: Office Administrator with Financial Respon-sibility: Maranatha Christian School is a State Integrated Christian School in Lower Hutt, Wellington. The school is seeking an Office Administrator to commence in January, 2019. As a Pentecostal School, the successful applicant will agree to the school’s Statement of Faith whereby supporting the ethos of the school, and abide by the Staff Code of Conduct. This is a great opportunity for a person who enjoys working in a school environment as a member of a team, and will embrace the challenges and stimulation that this position will offer.

We are seeking a confident, organised and well-presented person to take responsibility for the day to day financial operations of the school (including payroll & Novopay) and to support the Principal with administration of Human Resources as well as other tasks as detailed in the job description. The successful applicant will need the ability to work under pressure and have excellent relational, financial, communication and organisational skills. Experience and competence with computer systems (particularly Xero, Novopay, Microsoft Office, Google Suite and Databases), together with previous school administration experience will be a strong advantage.

This position is for Monday to Friday (8.00 am to 4.00 pm) during school term time. Additional hours are available during school holidays to perform financial and administrative duties. Salary is on Grade C of the support Staff in School Collective Agreement and will be determined based on previous experience.

If you wish to apply, please request an application pack from: corryz@maranatha.school.nz Closing date for applications is 16 August, 2018.

Leaving Maranatha? We understand circumstances may change suddenly and unexpectedly but if you are planning on leaving Maranatha at the end of the year, please remember that you need to give us a term’s written notice, as per your financial contract with the school. Families who neglect to do so will be liable for a term’s Attendance Dues in lieu of a written notice. Please do let us know if you have plans to move at the end of the year, even if you are not certain. Thank you.

Term 3 School Accounts: A reminder that school accounts for Term 3 were due on Monday, 6 August

(14 days after the start of each term).

These school accounts are mainly made up of the following two components :

Attendance dues: Attendance Dues are compulsory and are charged by the Maranatha Foundation Board, the operating body which holds the school license by virtue of the integration agreement it has with the Ministry of Education. As a consequence of this agreement, the Maranatha Foundation Board is responsible for maintaining the Christian Character of the school, and providing the buildings to facilitate this.

Voluntary Donations: Voluntary Donations are contributions charged by the Board of Trustees and allow us to resource more than the basics provided by Government funding. It contrib-utes towards learning support (teacher aides) in the classrooms, Christian character resources, sports and recreation equipment, library books, ICT and E-Learning equipment such as netbooks and software, stationery and other such expenditure as the board considers necessary. In line with the Ministry guidelines, this payment is discretionary; however, the school does heavily rely on all families to pay these donations, so as to fairly spread the financial burden to all those who benefit from the extra necessities, and avoid placing undue responsibility on those families who do pay. We want to thank our parents for paying their contributions so faithfully, as it

certainly helps us to keep our fees low and affordable. A big thank you!

Trip to Parliament House & Parliament This exciting trip is coming up next week! When: Tuesday, 11 September (half of school); and Thursday, 13 September (other half of school) Cost: Approximately $10 per child to cover transport A CareMonkey eForm will be coming home shortly asking for parent help and other important information.

Term Dates for 2019

Term 1: Thursday, 31 January to Friday, 12 April Term 2: Monday, 29 April to Friday, 5 July Term 3: Monday, 22 July to Friday, 27 September Term 4: Monday, 14 October to Wednesday, 18 December

Cut Off dates for future Enrolments —VERY IMPORTANT

For a child starting school in: Cut Off Date Interview Date Term 2, 2019: 13 August 2018 6 September 2018 Terms 3 & 4 2019: 25 February 2019 21 March 2019

PTA News & Information

Chicken Nuggets Now Available!!! We now have chicken nuggets available to buy for lunch on Fridays, along with our ever popular hotdogs! You are able to purchase these through LunchOnline, 6 nuggets for $3, or 3 nuggets for $1.75. Please ensure orders are placed before 8am each Friday morning.

Hotdogs: This is our ongoing PTA fundraiser for Maranatha! All hotdogs cost $2.60 each (or half for $1.30) and can be ordered in advance through Lunchonline.

Second Hand Uniforms: Don’t forget you can sell and buy second hand uniform via the PTA Second Hand Uniform page on Maranatha’s Facebook page. Check it out!

WANTED: New Members! We would LOVE to have some new members to help us—come along to the meeting and find out how you can help!

Lost Property Come to the office to claim if these are yours!

Uniform Update! We have been notified by NZ Uniforms that there will be a slight increase to their uniform prices to take effect from 1 September. See attached notice from them with their new prices. Please also note that the boys and girls short and long-sleeved shirts/blouses are likely to increase further due to a change in material/style to make them more robust. We will advise when that takes effect.

The half hotdogs and nuggets the PTA is selling now are an absolute hit!

Thank you very much to all the volunteers who help with the preparations for our children!

M.C.S Got Talent

Once again, MCS Got Talent will be starting in Week 5 of this term.

Those who want to perform must follow these guidelines:

All music has to be appropriate, for example the music must not have swearing and should not say

things that offend the School’s Christian character. Once you have registered your song with the

organisers, we will still need to approve the lyrics.

If you are doing a dance act, you should think, would God approve of the dance moves I’m

doing? The point is that any dance moves you do should be honouring God. If you’re not sure that

what you’re doing is appropriate, then you could ask your parents to see what they think. The clothes

you wear should also be suitable for the School’s Christian character.

These are some of the items you may like to perform:

A song with or without backing tracks

Gymnastics

Dance

Play a musical instrument (drums, keyboard, guitar, spoons, kazoo, mouth organ…)

Read or recite a poem

Drama (skit, mime, play)

Comedy

Impersonations

Puppet Show

Song or movie parody

Natalie Murakwani (Head of Student Council)

Tiari Walters (Deputy Head of Student Council)

Public Notices

Thinking of Selling? Talk to Tony! Tony Pitiroi has been gifting $250 from every house he sells to Mara-natha over the past two years—we are truly blessed to have received these gifts. Please give Tony a call on 021 562 564 if you are consid-ering selling. Thank you Tony! Week of Engineering Expo – Come along and get inspired!

Interested in learning more about engineering or just want to learn more about how the world works? If you’re looking for a

fun family day, are considering engineering as a career pathway or wish to answer your child’s tricky questions about how

things work, head along to the Week of Engineering public open day. There’ll be drones, robots and virtual reality to get in-

volved with! Find out more at www.weekofengineering.co.nz/engineer-expos-2018 When and where: Shed 6, 4 Queens

Wharf, Wellington

Saturday & After School Computer Classes For ages 5 – 15 in Minecraft, Learn to Code in Scratch, Python or Java, Create 3D Games, Web Design, Anima-tion, Video Editing or Build a PC and if young the Discovery Computer Class. For further information call 499-2211 or visit www.grandtraining.co.nz We are currently engaging with the NCEA review proposed by the Ministry of Education. On Tuesday 7 August we are hold-

ing an information evening about the review in our school hall, at St Oran’s College at 7pm. We would like to invite parents,

staff and members of our school community to attend along with our whanau. At the meeting we will explain the 6 Big Oppor-

tunities suggested in the review and provide information on how to submit your feedback on the proposed changes (as well as

suggest alternatives).

Please RSVP to Lynda Singleton (lsingleton@storans.school.nz) if you will be attending.

Rail Safety Week (13-19 August, 2018)

To mark Rail Safety Week we wanted to remind students and wha-

nau of the importance of always looking for trains when crossing

railway tracks, and particularly taking care to look for the second

train. The message this Rail Safety Week is back to basics -

‘Look right, look left for trains”. It’s also really important to al-

ways wait until the bells and lights have stopped operating before

crossing. This link to a Drax Project music video is an excellent

way to show how we can all stop, look and think when getting

across a level crossing, and particularly how important it is to not

use headphones around railway tracks. https://www.youtube.com/

watch?v=Ge__TTLAK0k. For younger children, as well as looking and listening before crossing, please make it clear to

them that if bells and lights are going, it’s because a second train could be coming and it’s not safe to cross.