Nga Ringa Awhina - Mangonui Legend

Once long ago there was a Chief Moehuri who after many months out at sea found a beautiful harbour.



A school of sharks lead by a massive shark (Mangonui) lead the chief and his weary tribe into the harbour.

Moehuri said "If anyone hurts the shark they will be banished from our home".

When Moehuri was away his son and a few friends caught the shark and killed it on the beach.

Moehuri banished his son to live at Chunks Cove.

Teacher Only Day

The whole staff had a great day with Dr Barbara Watson. The focus was on literacy and accelerating the learning of our students in this area. It was a full on day where Barbara constantly challenged our thinking in many areas. One of the 'Key' things coming back to was 'UNDERSTANDING'. It so essentail that we are always ensuring our students understand WHILE they are reading, that they are THINKING when they are reading. So our new message to our students is 'you have to think while you read'. Reading is understanding.
Barbara stressed to us that we need to use strategies that allow students to be able to work at new learning rather than struggling showing they can do old learning. She also spoke about that we need to engineer our programmes to the interests of our students to engage, catch and inspire.
We all knew that we where in for a special treat and Barbara did not let us down.

Assembly Week 2

ANZAC poems by Nga Ringa Awhina

Kotuku's waka - Which displays their hopes, dreams and goals

This chair was made from wood collected at the beach. The students made it with guidance from their teacher.

Speedway Rocks the Junior School

The Junior Students have been writing and learning about things to do with wheels. This is part of the Learning Experience initiative that they are focusing on in 2012. As a result Cullen Brott one of our students (who is on one of the speedway team's) asked his boss if he could bring their car along. The students all learnt about speedway cars and got to sit the very cool car.

Fund Raising Pays Off

The students of Nga Ringa Awhina,  Taonga and Tuatara over the last two years have raised funds to purchase an electronic stoat trap. They have been doing this for the Whakaangi Trust land which over the last 9 years has been protecting the kiwi on the Hihi Peninsula.

June Salt showing students the trap

Engaged students!

Duffy Theatre visits our school at least twice a year. They are always excellent with a strong message on reading. One of the key messages was to 'share' your books with your mates. Thanks Duffy books, 10 out of 10!

Kiwisport

Thanks to Kiwisport, Sport Northland, Health Promoting Schools and the Ministry of Education we are able to offer professional sports coaching to our students every week. Each term Lee-Anne (our coach) will focus on 2-3 codes that she teaches our students. This term they have started with Netball to prepare for the tournament in Kaitaia in Week 3. Sport may not be 'nationally standardised' yet but we believe that the social skills and physical skills learnt are just as important as other areas of learning at Mangonui School.