Thank you from the bottom of my heart:  I would like to take this opportunity to thank all our amazing Staff,  Students, Whānau and wider community for welcoming myself and my  family into the Maihiihi Community.  I have taken up the position of Acting Principal at Galatea School (which is much closer to family and friends) and will start in this new role at the start of term 1 next year. My family and I have made great friends and have many wonderful memories of our time here over the last 2 ½ years - how time flies!  Just like the whakatauki above says “ Great things come in small packages” and Maihiihi School is a beautiful rural school with so much to offer our kids.  I sincerely wish the best for the staff and students moving forward under new leadership - Kia kaha, Kia maia, Kia manawanui koutou!

Senior Camp:  What a great experience this was for our kids!  We had a mixture of weather and emotions as our kids challenged themselves to get outside of their comfort zones. For some of our kids it was the first time away from home and every single one of them was able to try something new.  Thanks so much to our parent helpers who transported, ran the events and provided supervision. Your help is always greatly appreciated.  Also a massive thanks to Mrs Robinson for organising EVERYTHING - there is so much paperwork that goes into planning one of these events and she had all bases covered!

Kia tau te rangimarie,

Room 1 - Yr 0-1 Mrs Ferguson
Room 2 - Yr 2-3 Mrs Albert
Room 3 - Yr 4-5 Mrs Crotty
Room 4 - Yr 6-8 Mrs Robinson

Pool Keys are now available for community use of our school swimming pool.
Due to the increasing costs of power and pool chemicals the BOT have set the fees at $80 for the season ($20 per month) plus a $20 refundable bond.
Please pop in and see Julz between the hours of 8am-2.30pm to organise or flick her an email (office@maihiihi.school.nz) or phone call on 07-8732887.

Room 1
WOW! 2023 has zoomed by and we have had such a successful year in Room 1. It has be great to see the progress each student has made with their learning and their development as very special little people. I have had a wonderful year  teaching in Room 1 and I will miss my darling little students. Oh, and the 'Tickle Monster' will miss them too.
The students have done an amazing job in our school sports events, in our School Production, presenting their work at our school assemblies and becoming dedicated Maihiihi Learners.
I have also seen how each individual child in Room 1 has added something special to our class. They have all helped to develop a kind and caring environment in our class and each student is proud to be a member of Room 1.
Thank you for the wonderful parent / whanau support that you have given your children. The effort you put into you child's education makes a huge difference in their future.
We have created some lovely works of art, become very smart scientists, gained knowledge in Aotearoa Histories and the local area we live in and gained a love for Reading, Writing and Maths.
We have had so much fun and everyday has been a wonderful learning journey for us all.
Have a lovely Christmas and New Year and enjoy lots of special family time together.
See you in 2024!

Roz Crotty
rcrotty@maihiihi.school.nz

As we approach the final few weeks of Term 4 it is important to reflect back on the tremendous achievements all students have made in all aspects of school life. I feel privileged to have taught Room 2 this year and I wish all students, and whānau an fantastic Christmas and New Year!
 
Last week Room 2 learnt to make shortbread biscuits (the old fashioned way with no electric mixers!). Everyone took turns mixing, kneading, rolling and cutting. This was a great opportunity to see the tamariki working collaboratively towards an end goal. And the biscuits tasted amazing too! Kei te pai Ruma 2! 

We have also spent some time in the sun these last few weeks tending to our Sensory Garden! I am hoping for some more sunny days so we can see our beautiful florals blooming again! As they say, many hands make light work...so our garden was looking fabulous in no time!

In our latest science exploration we were learning about heat energy transfer. We tested which surface would melt ice fastest and why..and we also used a device to catch the heat from the sun to warm up cold water. It was a great learning experience for the tamariki to understand how heat energy is made, transferred and stored. 

Thank you all for your continued support during this year. I look forward to seeing you all next year! Meri Kirihimete me te ngā mihi o te tau hou! 
Kayleigh  

Any questions/concerns please contact me at kalbert@maihiihi.school.nz

This is our last newsletter for 2023!! What a year!!

We had SOOOOO much fun at our camp last week (and some of us are still recovering!). I was so impressed with how students worked together and challenged themselves. Our parent helpers - you guys were all amazing. You were all so helpful, proactive and cared about all our students being successful and having fun. So thank you!!

There were so many highlights from camp, it is hard to just share a few. Here are some shots that demonstrate the students' awesome team work in raft building, archery tag and orienteering, challenging themselves and refining skills in rock climbing and slug guns, and having fun!

We learnt about sinking and floating through our House of Science box. There are some common misconceptions that we looked at such as small objects float better than large ones, soft objects float better than hard ones, all floating objects have air in them somewhere and an object floats or sinks because of its weight. One of the challenging tasks was getting a polystyrene ball and adding/ attaching different objects to it so that the students could get it to flinker. This means that the object doesn't float on the top or sink to the bottom, but just ‘flinks’ in the middle of the water. There was a lot of testing, trialing and relooking at our designs. 

I hope everyone has a safe and restful holiday, and look forward to seeing everyone to celebrate and farewell our year 8 students at our prize giving next week!
Katie Robinson - krobinson @maihiihi.school.nz

My dearest whaanau Ruma Wha,

We have arrived. We have succeeded. We have achieved and we have won! We finished another year and we are doing it with a bang!(well, not with fireworks, but just emotionally).

The next two weeks will be such a happy and sad time. Term 4 is ending. 2023 is ending. Along with that, some of our learners are graduating and moving on to Secondary schools. We are so thrilled that we can finally put up our feet and relax. However, we have to say goodbyes to our buddies who we have known for so long and grown up with. 

Over the past week we have gone on an amazing Camp to Totara Springs and had so much fun while pushing ourselves to do our best and be out of our comfort zone. There was Rafting, Bushcraft, Slug gun, Go-karting, Rock-climbing, Burma Trail and Bushcraft.  We learnt the meaning of sore muscles, hunger pangs, sweat, teamwork and most of all, living our life every minute. 

Christmas is around the corner. We hosted Secret Santa and gave our Christmas buddy meaningful gifts that ranged from, stationery, a soccer ball, heaps of goodies, sketchpad and sketch pencils, and someone even got make-up! It was a joyful time seeing what everyone got.

Matua Ron deserves a special mention for adding to the sports aspect now and then, that the learners especially needed. Taking them to compete with other teams from around Waikato in Hamilton was such a huge step for us. What a great coach!

We are now counting days and taking it easy (doing Math is not one of that, though)! 

We wish everyone the best holidays ever!

Signing off - Whaea Vidya and all learners of Ruma Wha - We are a team, we are rockstars, and we will walk out with our hands held together, and heads held high!

This week Room 2 wrote a Christmas acrostic poem. I was so impressed with Gracie and Keira and the detail they both added to their poem. Ngā mihi for your lovely writing girls! 

To view the Maihiihi School Policies please click on the link below, this will take you to Schooldocs where you can find all our school policies.

Holidays and other days off during term time will affect attendance & learning. 

 Ministry of Education require all students to have at least 94% attendance 

 Please download the Skool Loop App to your phone.  From this app you can see all notices, newsletters and important information as they are downloaded. Plus you can leave absentee messages at any time of the day. 

A Huge Maihiihi thank you to the following families for your help on our school BBQ this year.
Without your time and effort our students would not have this opportunity for a Sausage, Mossie & Juicie.