Taihape Area School

Monday 2th December 2013

Term 4 – Newsletter Number 8

Phone: 06 3880130

Email: rmcmillan@tas.school.nz or office@tas.school.nz

Website: http://tas.spikeatschool.co.nz

Principal’s Corner

Tena koutou katoa

Welcome to another busy week

This is the last newsletter for yet another

year. As is the case at the end of every

year, the final bell for 2013 will herald the

end of an extremely busy, but productive

12 months, and the end of another era with

the departure of a wonderful group of

students as they move onto the next stages

of their lives.

2013 has been another big year for Taihape

Area School, a period of change and

consolidation. End of year surveys in the

Primary School have provided very

positive evidence to support programmes

in the key curriculum areas of

mathematics, reading, spelling, and

language – the results in literacy and

numeracy have been encouraging.

Our aim is to continually raise the bar and

provide all students with a pathway to

success and achievement. The commitment

shown by our senior students to academic

success and excellence (attending weekend

and after school classes) has been a

highlight of my relatively short time here.

Taihape Area School has been involved in

a huge number of extra-curricular

activities including:-

Sport - basketball, netball, rugby (boys and

girls), touch, football, softball, swimming, cricket,

volleyball, golf, volleyball, athletics, and hockey;

The Tongariro Sports Exchange;

Winter Tournament (held here);

Secondary Schools Winter Tournament

Week – netball in New Plymouth and hockey in

Ngatea;

7’s Rugby;

Hunterville Year 7/8 Softball Tournament;

A range of School Camps and EOTC

Experiences (the Year 12 Leadership Camp at

Kawhatau, the Year 11 Careers Trip to

Wellington, Room 6 to Sixtus Lodge, Room 4 to

Porangahau, the Year 9 Whakatane Camp);

The Krypton Challenge;

The Young Leaders and Senior Leadership

Days;

The Wearable Arts;

The School Ball;

The Pit Bike Mini Roto Competition at

Manfield (TAS 1st in Small School

Section);

The European Arts Tour.

As well the Option’s and PTP

Programme’s have enabled students to take

part in a very wide range of activities

including skiing, rafting, EOTC,

Agriculture, Arts, Music, Dance, ICT,

Mathematics, and Science.

We also had a number of students selected

in representative sports teams this year,

including players in New Zealand Area

Schools Futsal Team, as well as Manawatu

Rugby, Netball, Soccer, and Touch Teams

for various age groups.

The success of the school this year is

attributable to the efforts, passion, and

commitment of many people:-

Thank you to our staff for providing such

wonderful support throughout what has

been a generally successful and productive

year. There is a saying about “going the

extra mile” – this applies without doubt in

our school. In fact some members of our

team need to realize that there is life

outside school!

Thank you to the Board of Trustees for

their dedicated efforts, and vision for the

future of our school. The development of

Taihape Area School, and the number of

projects completed over the past year is a

tribute to the enthusiasm, vision, and hard

work of the Board.

Thank you to all members of the school

community (e.g. sports coaches, camp

parents) who have helped out in so many

ways through-out the year.

And last, but not least, thank you to our

students, the reason why it all happens. We

are continually reminded by our visitors

what special young people we have in our

school. Best wishes to our leavers – Kia

Kaha!!

The holidays will no doubt pass very

quickly, and we look forward to another

successful year in 2014.

All that remains is to wish you a Merry

Christmas, and a Happy New Year!!

Richard McMillan

Tall Poppies A number of students excelled last week.

This included:

Great results in Year 6

Testing – Khrome Rameka

(Room 1)

For learning the letters of

the Alphabet – Te Ariki Wikitera (Room 1)

For being extra helpful and responsible – Casey Whale (Room 2)

For making good choices – Hinemoa Rolston

(Room 2)

Great participation during Ki O Rahi – Caden Turnwall (Room 9)

Great Rangatiratanga in thanking the

Educator at Te Manawa – Shontae Bennett

(Room 9)

For displaying the TAS Values through

their support for fellow students – Jack

Inwood and Murray McFarlane (Room 6)

For achieving NCEA Level 1 – Robbie

McFarlane

For achieving excellence endorsement at

NCEA Level 1 – Vidya Vijayakumar

Winners of Hunterville Softball

Tournament – Year 7/8 TAS Team

Stephen McLean, Keelan MacLean-

Collings, Murray McFarlane, Kale

McClay, Aden Tapu, Anna Douglas, Reese

McClay, Jade Sullivan, Grace Mallalieu,

Jack Inwood, Te Whetu Witika-Black,

Tyreese Adams

Procedures for the end

of Year

End of School Year The 2013 School Year finishes after

Prize-Giving this Friday.

Lunch: 12pm - 12.45pm

Prize Giving - 1.00pm

Reports Junior School Reports will be sent

home on Thursday - please remember

to check those bags for these!!

It is important that you take time to

talk to your child/children about

their reports, to celebrates their

successes, and perhaps to set goals

for the next year.

NCEA NCEA exams are now over – now the

waiting begins!! A big thank you to those

staff who gave up their evenings and

weekends to provide additional tutoring for

our students. Without doubt this is a very

positive feature of this school.

Procedures for the

Start of 2014

Start of School 2014 The new School Year begins on

Monday 27th January.

Enrolments Deans for Year 9 -13 students will be

taking enrolment interviews for new

students from Wednesday 22nd January to

Friday 24th

January, between 1 and 3 pm.

Acting AP Leah Collings will be available

at the same time for Year 1-8

enrolments.

Course Changes Students wishing to change

their courses following the

release of external results will

need to see their Deans between

Wednesday 22nd January, and Friday 24th

January, between 1 and 3 pm.

School Uniform There are no changes to the school

uniform for 2014 for Years 1-12. Please

ensure that your child is in correct school

uniform at the start of the year –

information on purchasing the correct

uniform can be obtained from the school

office.

Year 13 Students have been informed of

the parameters of their uniform.

Stationery All students should have ALL their

stationery on day one of the school year.

Stationery lists will be included with your

child’s end of year report. This will enable

them to make a fast start to the new School

Year.

Year 7-9 Technology Next Year all Year 7-9 Students will

be taking Technology, and require

covered shoes (not canvas!!). As this

is for safety reasons, this requirement

is non-negotiable.

Return School Resources All school books supplied to students

need to be returned before the end of

the school year.

This is so that these books can be

repaired and counted ensuring we

have enough books for our students

for next year.

Please look through your homes for

any text books, junior school readers,

library books, calculators, English

readers such as “The Hunger games”,

“Whale rider”, Physical education books.

School Grounds We love seeing the School

Grounds used during the

weekends and holidays.

Please remember to leave

them tidy, and respect

School Property.

The School belongs to us all

– please treasure and value that fact!!

Reading – Limit the

Damage!! The holiday break is a long time away

from books, and essential reading

practice, for many children, particularly

our Primary aged students. It would be

wonderful if all children

could spend some time each

day during the holidays

reading, or being read to.

The benefits will be long

term.

The Taihape Library is also

well worth a visit.

It is well known that the reading levels of

most children slip over the holidays, in

particular after the long summer break.

Positive intervention at home can limit this

“damage”, and ensure that your

child/children begin the year in good shape

TAS is getting ready to provide eBooks for

our students

School Magazine Work on the 2013 School Magazine

has finished. The Magazine is a

wonderfully comprehensive history of the

2013 School Year, complete with

individual profiles, class profiles, sporting

and academic results, and a wide range of

interesting articles.

The Magazine is available to be

purchased from the school

office for $15.00.

A huge thank you to Karen Clark who has

put the magazine together this year. This is

a massive commitment in terms of time

and energy, as well as frustration because

plenty of things can (and do) go wrong.

An Exciting Innovation -

eBooks

EBooks are coming to TAS. eBook set up

is with wheelers books and is a web based

system which will be operational for the

start of 2014.

To start with the books ordered will be for

the senior school only i.e. Year 11 up as

these students may be the only ones with

access to an ereader device. Ps don’t go out

and purchase a Kindle because these

readers can only be used for Amazon and

will not work with the wheelers ePlatform

books.

Book lending will be age determined so

anyone under a certain age will not be able

to access the books.

More later once it is set up and operational.

- Robyn Sommerville (Librarian)

Softball On Friday the Taihape Area School

Year 7/8 Softball Team won the

prestigious Hunterville Softball

Tournament. This was an excellent

effort from our team who excelled

all expectations with an excellent

display. They won the final 6-2

against Hunterville A.

A huge thank you to Coach Jude

Hardwidge and Manager Sharyn

Adams for giving up many lunch-

times to prepare the Team. Thank

you also to Warrick Greaves for

driving the bus.

Cricket A very depleted Taihape Cricket Team

suffered a heavy defeat on Saturday to

United 1, in a 20/20 Game played in

Wanganui. Taihape batted first and battled

through to 73. Top score was Ollie Garland

with a hard hit 40.

The United Team had little trouble scored

the required runs in only 8 overs.

This week Taihape play Tech 2 at home.

The good news is we will have a full team

with all players available!! The game

begins at 1.30pm.

Quotes of the week “Fate loves the fearless” ― James Russell

Lowell.

“Forget injuries, never forget kindnesses”

― Confucius.

Coaches 2014 Volunteer Coaches for 2014

Taihape Area School is looking for volunteer coaches in the below sports for 2014,

Athletics Basketball

Volleyball Netball

Girls Rugby 7’s Boys Rugby 7’s

Touch Football

Badminton Ki o Rahi

Futsal

Knowledge and skill for the sport you would choose to coach would be good, but is not a

requirement. We would endeavour to put all our coaches through some type of training if

possible and where funding allows.

If you would like to help out by volunteering in either our Senior School or Junior School,

please contact Loni Martin on 3880130 ext 761 we would love to hear from you.