Principal’s Message
Kia orana koutou katoa toa,
I trust you enjoyed the school holidays with the children as seasons change once again and the Winter weather takes its hold over our indoor activities. Thank you parents for ensuring your children were kept home during their sickness in Term 2. This meant that most teachers were well to attend school each day and finish the term strong. TE WHATU ORA, The Ministry of Health has asked us to share the following important messages.
“This winter, between Monday 12 June and Saturday 30 September, participating community pharmacies in Auckland will provide a Minor Health Conditions Service for Māori and Pacific people, children aged under 14 years, and community service card holders.The service allows pharmacists to have a clinical consultation and provide advice as well as medication if needed for a select set of minor health conditions at no cost to the patient.
It also includes whānau members of a child with similar symptoms. For example, if the pharmacist determines your child needs treatment for scabies and they have older brothers or sisters, or you yourself also have symptoms, they may provide advice and medication for all of you.
The following health conditions are included in the Minor Health Conditions Service:
Acute diarrhoea
Dehydration
Eye inflammation and infections
Scabies
Headlice
Pain and fever
Eczema/Dermatitis
Minor skin infections
If your condition needs further support, the pharmacist can tell you the best place to go to get further help.
Let’s spread the word to our friends and whānau about this new service! It’s also important to remember that you can always speak to your local pharmacist for free health advice, even if you are not eligible for this service.
Participating pharmacies can be found by going to HealthPoint and searching “Minor Health Conditions”.
Go well this winter”
Despite all the changeable weather we had a fruitful term with our last Hearts & Minds programme for the year, our National volunteers week and a beautiful farewell for Cecily Taufelila and Emi Solipo (reliever). Cecily will continue as a Contractor for various BLC programmes but will not be at school on a day to day basis. She has been a most valuable staff member over the past 16 years at Rise UP leading the BUILDING LEARNING COMMUNITIES programmes and our Devotional Curriculum. We will miss her presence every day and pray for her next season as she blesses many more in her various ministries.
“Our AGM held in June was another wonderful celebration of our children and whanau successes over 2022. We value all the feedback regarding the application for Alternative Constitution and Decapitation given on the night and during the follow up survey. The outcome of the feedback saw 80% of whanau in favour of the Application for Alternative Constitution whilst 20 % were unsure. The discussion and feedback on Decapitation of the year 7 & 8 was mixed with 50% in agreement 37% DISAGREE whilst 13% are UNSURE. That means their is more discussion required for our board and leadership to work through regarding the Decapitation. It also highlights our community desire to have the values based approach to learning prioritised. We look forward to further discussion with you all soon.
Keep warm and well and enjoy the last week of the holidays.
Kia manuia,
Sita Selupe MNZM
Principal
The Calendar
Recent Events
Term 2: In the Classroom
Room 5
This term we welcomed many new students and their families to Room 5; Akosita Finau, Alyanha Piutau, Filipe Kaufusi, Loimataliu’oli’oli Autagavaia and Breeze Mata Tei. These students have settled well into our class routine. Unfortunately we have had a lot of illness in Room 5 however together we pray for our friends to return to school, recovered and ready for learning.
We celebrated Samoan language week during the term and our students were able to wear cultural attire and the students were able to paint and create their own tapa designs as well as have a taste of the pacific – drink coconut water and eat the flesh straight from the shell. The whole school were also treated to panikeke this week.
Room 5 students all enjoyed the visit to the museum exploring, listening and being able to hold/touch pacific artefacts or see the vaka or waka – the displays of how their ancestors would’ve made their voyage across the seas.
Overall it has been a great term of learning for Room 5 and we continue to pray for good health over our students and whanau.
God bless, Mrs Partsch
Room 4
Kia Ora Whanau,
This term; we welcomed 5 new students into Room 4; Sela-Rose Faleta, Lincoln Henry, Jojo Popata, Harlem Tapara and Charlee Winter. They have embraced their learning environment, expectations and new peers.
In week five of this term, Room 4 was fortunate to have Mr Avi; a student teacher from Laidlaw college. Mr Avi is an experienced teacher from Fiji who has been assigned by the Fijian Ministry of Education to complete a research assignment about the New Zealand, Cook Island and American curriculum and school systems.
He relished the opportunity to work with our Room 4 akonga; taking full control of various literacy and numeracy lessons. Mr Avi was not only proactive within Room 4; but connected with the RUA children out in the playground, during our AGM and partaking in our school assemblies. It was sad to see him go, but we know that he will always be part of our RUA village.
We also farewelled one of our amazing young learners, Israel Latu and his whanau; who have moved out of Auckland. He will be dearly missed by all his peers and teachers.
Room 4 experienced the loss of 3 strong pillars at Rise Up; Ms Sifaeheone, Mrs Key and Ms Taufelila. All 3 lovelies have been involved in our tamariki’s learning journey and they will be hugely missed at Rise Up.
But Faith in Action has been our theme for Devotion. Room 4 learnt about the different challenges that our heroes of faith endured; but also the promises and blessings that came with being faithful, obedient and trusting God. We will put our faith in God and believe that He is always in control over all situations,
Our inquiry context; ‘Local navigators’ have inspired akonga to be wayfinders in life. They have learnt how to utilize the resources God has put before them, to be resilient, to be good stewards and to persevere in our learning.
The excursion to the Auckland Museum-Tāmaki Paenga Hira was engaging and it stirred curiosity and wonderment within our learners. Room 4 were able to gather information to answer their Big and Small questions. They continued to write a recount with Mrs Govender and Mr Avi about their experiences at the Museum using adjectives and various sentence starters to engage their readers.
A massive thank you to all our parent helpers Ms Emma, Ms Olive and Mr Graham for offering their time to support our tamariki; because without parent ratio; we would not be able to attend.
May God bless you Room 4 and whanau during the holidays.
We will continue to pray for Sharper Minds, Stronger Bodies and Good hearts in Term 3.
Blessings, Mrs Faga
Room 3
Term 2 has been a hype of activity for Room 3. The students were privileged to go on two trips,
based around our inquiry topic ‘How the Polynesians navigated to New Zealand.’ The first trip was
at Te Tuhi based in Pakuranga Community Centre, where each student enjoyed their visit learning
about New Zealand history and its wildlife and had an art lesson painting birds and different plants.
The second trip was to the Auckland Museum furthering our inquiry topic with a guest speaker. The
students were amazed at the tools that were handmade and used when there was no modern-day
technology and were shown some of these tools.
Our inquiry this term has built a cultural pride in the students as they have learned about their
Polynesian ancestors. We were grateful for the assistance of our dedicated parent helpers. Without them we would not
have been able to go. Some of the students also participated in team sports such as netball and hockey and played against
other teams. To top it off, the Hunger ball was a great highlight. This was placed on the field and the students participated with great enthusiasm as they burned up all their energy during the wet season. I look forward to next term and wish you all a wonderful and refreshing break away from school.
Ms Bella.
Room 2
Term 2 has seen a change of teacher in Room 2. My name is Heidi Weightman and I started
at Rise Up Academy on the 6 th of June. The students were sad to lose Mrs Sifaheone and I
have made a point to keep the existing class timetable for minimum disruption for the
students. I have felt very welcomed to Rise Up Academy and Room 2. It has been a pleasure
getting to know the students a little in the 4 weeks we have had together so far. I look
forward to working with all the students in the second half of the year to reach their goals
and meet their parents and whanau.
As a class, have continued working on the inquiry project and had a fabulous trip to the
Maritime Museum where the students enjoyed themselves and were wonderful
representatives of Rise Up Academy. In Literacy, we are working on reading out loud,
finding the definitions of words we don’t know, and making inferences from texts we have
read. In Maths the focus has been on fractions and ratios. I wish all the students and their
whanau a happy and safe holiday. Have a wonderful break and return to school ready for
learning in Term 3. God Bless.
Ms Weightman
Room 1
Fakalofa lahi atu to all our families,
One of the highlights this term for room 1 has been our cultural exchange with Jung-anga Girls middle school in South Korea. Our students had 5 online zoom sessions to share knowledge about their culture, language, Te Reo Maori and school life. In these sessions our students were able to use the key competencies – Thinking, relating to others, using text. symbols and language and participating and contributing. The feedback from our Juang-ang Girls middle school was always positive after every session. During our Food Technology classes they made Korean dishes with Mrs Selupe and to end off our term we went on a trip to experience some more delicious Korean dishes.
Another highlight has been learning the piano/keyboard with Ms Ah-Lam. We learnt the basics of the piano which include posture and placing of our fingers and understanding the layout of the piano. We learnt about the history of the piano, music notation and how to read and play music in front of an audience. We are definitely looking forward to seeing more music next term.
The 2023 Careers expo held at the Cloud convention was where we got to explore different careers. The students got to ask questions and gained information on how to lead into different occupations. An important aspect of this trip was to help our students gain an idea of where they may want to go. It will also help our senior students who leave into highschool to select the appropriate options to achieve their career goals.
Finally, our Inquiry learning this term has been around the knowledge of our Polyneisan Ancestors and how they navigated around the Pacific Ocean. We learnt about the different myths and legends, the history of the arrivals to Aotearoa and we even got to build our own waka hourua. To help with our inquiry learning we were fortunate to go to the Auckland Maritime Museum. A lot of fun and learning took place with our awesome facilitators as we got to share and learn more about our amazing ancestors. We are looking forward to next term where we will be looking into Science around our Inquiry.
Have a safe and blessed holiday break and we will see you in Term 3.
[see Room 1 photos with Maritime Museum Photos below]
Maritime Museum – Years 5-8
In week 9 the Senior school was blessed to go to the Auckland Maritime Museum to learn more about our Inquiry. Our senior’s took part in the new Ara Moana programme. We were welcomed in with a powhiri and then we got stuck into it. We had 3 different stations that we rotated around during the day. Station 1. Learning about history, 2. Sailing on the Waka Hourua and 3. Exploring the Museum artifacts and completing activities. We had such a lovely experience there and we even blew the facilitators away with the knowledge that we already had. Their words were “this is one of the best schools we’ve had here with this programme” Some of the new learning for us was learning the different coordinates of the star compass in Te Reo Maori, our connection to Asia, sailing on the Waka Hourua as well as learning that our ancestors created different waka for different purposes. We are grateful to the Auckland Maritime Museum for giving our students this opportunity and for also funding our transport. We would also like to make a special mention to all of our parent helpers who gave up their time to assist us on this day.
Fa’afetai fa’afetai tele lava.
‘Local Navigators’ – Auckland Museum – Tāmaki Paenga Hira excursion, Years 0 – 4
Our Years 0- 4; visited the Auckland Museum – Tāmaki Paenga Hira; to deepen their knowledge base around our inquiry context ‘Local Navigators’.
The settlement of the Pacific was the last and greatest story of human migration carried out by modern humans. Akonga were able to sharpen their understanding of the origins of our Polynesian people and how they navigated across the Pacific Ocean – Te Moana-nui-a kiwa.
Akonga listened attentively to Whaea Matau (archaeology expert). He shared about our Pacific wayfinders and the challenges they encountered on their journey of exploration and survival.
The skillfully crafted tools used to make a waka/vaka were handled by our RUA learners with enthusiasm and respect.
The tūwiri (drill with two chords, adze (axe),and matā (cutting/scraping tool made from obsidian rock). Other tools mentioned that were used to navigate were the constellation of stars, birds, sea swells and weather patterns.
After the one hour session with Whaea Matau; parents explored the various galleries starting in the Maori court where numerous taonga were displayed. This included the gigantic Te Toki-a -Tapiri; the last great war canoe carved from a large Tōtara tree!
There was no doubt that our RUA learners appreciated the experience and were sharpening their young minds as they navigated their way through the different galleries.
The stories and knowledge of our local navigators and explorers will hopefully inspire akonga to navigate through life with traits of resilience, perseverance and resourcefulness in their kete.
Our tamariki were very respectful and engaging. This was hugely contributed to the support of our faithful parent helpers; taking the time to assist and nurture our children on their learning journey. We appreciate you and know without your time; our excursions would not have been possible.
Ngā mihi, Mrs Rona Faga, Mrs Partsch, Whaea Bella, Mr Avi (student teacher)
Term 2 Sport
Year 5 & 6 Netball
Under the skillful coaching by Mrs Faga, we once again represented Rise Up Academy in the MOSA Year 5 & 6 Netball Tournament on Wednesday 7th June at the Auckland Netball Courts in St John.
We took a team of 10 girls consisting of Year 4, 5 and 6, who had been spending their lunch times practicing, getting fitter and learning to play as a team. Our team used all the different skills that they had learnt at practices like quick feet, power chest passes and blocking to help them advance to the quarter finals. We were so impressed with how our girls played and even when we came up against teams that were alot taller than us, they didn’t let that stop them playing with all their heart.
Our girls were proud to represent Rise Up and for some of them it was their first time being a part of our school team. We see the benefits of having sports teams as part of our school, by the smiles on their faces, their determination to play well and the bond that is strengthened by playing in a team.
Huge thank you to the parents that were able to come out and support our girls!
Year 5 & 6 Hockey
This year for the first time ever, we took both a boys and girls team to play in the MOSA Year 5 & 6 Hockey Tournament on Friday 16th June at the Auckland Hockey Fields in Pakuranga.
We had seventeen students participate this year (9 boys and 8 girls) and out of our whole team only one student had ever played hockey before!
During our practices we learnt the basics of hockey – how to hold a stick, which side of the stick you can use, not using your feet to stop the ball and how to hit the ball, passing and stopping the ball with your stick.
Over the practices I saw our students grow in confidence with their new found hockey skills and excitement with being able to try a new sport.
On Friday morning we packed into two taxi vans and headed out to Pakuranga with grey clouds overhead. We were praying for the weather to pass but sadly it followed us there. The teams were excited to see what a hockey field actually looked like and realised that it is very different to playing on grass. We were able to play two games each before the tournament was called off due to the weather. We were so proud of the way that our children tried hard, gave it all they could even in the rain and never gave up. Thank you parents for allowing your children to have a go at Hockey.
Big thank you to Mr Arthur (Knolan’s dad) for joining us as a parent helper. Special thanks also to the Winter Family, Tapuosi Family and the Henry Family that came out to support our teams.
Whanau Notices
AFTER SCHOOL PROGRAMME
Well done to all our tamariki who took part in the After School Programme this term. Our SUPA tutors were very proud of all your learning especially your efforts in the mid year assessments. Special mention to our students who achieved EXCELLENCE: Sam Togiatama, Riley Laulusa and Jasmine Singh and MERIT: Tayna-Marie Papalii-Tiria, Loimata Lilo-Tua Akatea,Matutua Talagi, Skye Suamasi, Josiah Lilo-Tua Akatea, Jordyn Herringer-Tomuli, Bronze Talagi, Ema Langi, Hadassah Peauafi, Arthur Ikihele, Thomas Papalii-Tiria, Isabelle MacGregor, Hannah Muelu, Ulaisi Peauafi, Leilani Langi.
SUPA in Terms 3 & 4 our students will have the choice of 2 out of 4 modules to choose from. Please have a discussion with your children in regards to which modules they opt for – Dance, Drama, Vocals & Guitar. It is preferable if your child wants to take guitar lessons that they have a guitar at home to practice with.
Thank you to our tutors (our kaumatua) who have shared their knowledge and expertise within our Culture & Heritage Programme. We hope you have encouraged and empowered our children to speak their native tongue in your homes. Sadly we farewell our Samoan Tutor Whaea Emi who will be moving on as full time Samoan teacher at the Homai Primary School Bilingual Unit. She will be missed but we are grateful for all her knowledge & resources shared with our Samoan class.
Reminder our After School Programme will start back up Week 2 of Term 3 – Mon 24th Tues 25th July. Have a great holiday!
HEARTS & MINDS
Thank you to our parents; Va’aiga, Clifford, Alex, Summer, Jay and Rosanna for their commitment to Hearts and Minds Programme Term 2. The zoom sessions have been filled with lots of laughter and new learning. Congratulations to our new families applying the tools at home, Sunday school and work. Great to hear testimonies of how the ‘tools’ of H&M have helped with communications with your children/ families.
Thank you to our guest speakers: Laura & Myke Feao, Celia MacGregor and Ms Grace Leulua’i for your continuous applications of H&M in your homes and sharing with our families.
GOOD TO GO VOLUNTEER
Thank you to all our parent helpers during National Volunteer week where we saw a lot of our junior school parents come through our volunteer drive. Special mention to Eliaz Pasha – Kayvaan’s dad who was in every day of the week.
We are grateful to all our parent helpers who tackled all the tasks on our lists, many hands make light work. Our teachers really appreciate the creation of the different resources needed for the classroom. Malo lava faafetai.
As we come to the half way mark of the year we have 52% of our whanau who have started their volunteer journey. Congratulations to our families who have completed their 40 hrs of voluntary service – Titimanu whanau, Talagi whanau, Matamu whanau, Matamaki whanau & Papalii-Tiria whanau.
“O le ala i le pule o le tautua” – “The pathway to leadership is through service”
SYNERGY – “I KNOW WHO I AM” – Programme
Our Synergy family programme starts on Wednesday 26th July 5:30pm-7:00pm for seven weeks. It is a 3-way learning environment where it involves the parent, child and Whanau educator. We will take you through the inquiry learning model and ending with a presentation night on Wednesday 6th September.
Wednesday 26th July 5:30 – 7:00pm
Saturday 29th July 10am -12pm (at Auckland Museum)
Wednesday 2nd August 5:30 – 7:00pm
Wednesday 9th August 5:30 – 7:00pm
Wednesday 16th August 5:30 – 7:00pm
Wednesday 30th August 5:30 – 7:00pm
Wednesday 6th September 6:00pm – 8:00pm
We will also provide pizzas for dinner for our families who participate in the programme.
If you have any questions about the programme or would like to register your family then please get in touch.
PROJECT WY
Save the date: Saturday 26th August – Tough Guy/Tough Gal Mud Run in Rotorua.
These July holidays would be a great time to get back into routine if you haven’t already to prepare for the BIG MUD RUN in August.
There’s also a one day workshop you might want to register your child to attend during the holidays. Please see flyer for more details. All correspondence will be directly with Project Wy Team.
ENROLMENTS
For our whanau who have children turning five next year please complete an enrolment form. These are now available ON LINE via our website. We have spaces available for next year’s enrolment, so please let your whanau know. You can also pick up an enrolment form from the office.
PATH DEBRIEFS
SMALL BUSINESSES WITHIN OUR SCHOOL
PROV-TECH Automotive
Sam is our friendly mechanic who isn’t just one of our Rise UP Dads but he is also very efficient at his job. If your car needs some work done or a service please check out http://provtechauto.com
275KAI
Mary and her whanau make the heartiest burgers and delicious meals like; surf n turf, ribs etc found here too! 60 Vine Street Mangere. https://www.facebook.com/275KAI
MAMAS MEDALS
She and her team create the most stunning pieces and are available to order. You’ll be the talk of the town when you wear one of her numbers. https://www.facebook.com/mamasmedals
*Whanau if you own a small business that you would like us to post up on our newsletters please email [email protected]
ROAD SAFETY & CARPARK RULES
At Rise UP we consider your child’s safety our first priority therefore we ask that you adhere to the rules we alongside Sir Douglas Bader Intermediate have put in place. We have had a few close calls which is too many for our liking. We would like to ask that if you see any of our Rise UP parents/ caregivers parking where they shouldn’t be please kindly ask them to move along. We thank you for your cooperation.
CORRECT SCHOOL UNIFORM
It is important that our students take pride in their appearance. Please ensure your child wears the correct school uniform each day to school.
As you can probably feel the mornings are becoming a bit cooler and more crisp so we encourage you if your child doesn’t already have one please purchase them a school jersey. Size 6-16 $48.00 for Adult S-XL is $52.00 (no hoodies or printed jerseys to be worn at school) Your child can wear the summer uniform: polo and black shorts. If you wish to make an order please pay into the school account and email us proof of payment.
Rise UP Academy 12 3021 0016910 00 Ref: Childs name Code: Uniform Pref: polo or jersey e.g. Ref: SaaneH Code: Uniform Pref: sz14polo
Its Term 4 so its back to plain black shorts but if they are still feeling cold they can also wear: long PLAIN BLACK tracks/pants (no prints on them) these can be brought from the Warehouse or Kmart (prices vary from $10-$20) Hats ARE COMPULSORY in terms 1 & 4.
Please support us by encouraging your child to wear the correct school uniform.
WATER BOTTLES ARE A MUST!!!
Your child must bring a labelled water bottle to school. We have taps available to REFILL bottles but not to drink from to avoid any spread of COVID. We thank you for your support in helping to prevent the spread of COVID in our school community. Should your child forget to bring a bottle the classroom teacher will be making contact with you.
Devotions
Whanau devotions:
Devotion topic: FAITH IN ACTION
Scripture for the term:
Mark 11:22 Have faith in God
Hebrews 11:6 And without faith it is impossible to please God, because anyone who comes to him, must believe that he exists and that he rewards those who earnestly seek Him.
James 2: 17 In the same way, faith by itself, if it is not accompanied by action, is dead.
Scripture for the week: Heroes of Faith – Moses
Hebrews 11: 24 -25
24 By faith Moses, when he had grown up, refused to be known as the son of Pharaoh’s daughter. 25 He chose to be mistreated along with the people of God rather than to enjoy the fleeting pleasures of sin.
Learning Intention: We are learning to activate our FAITH by:
Success criteria:
– Accept God’s plan.
– Make a choice to choose God’s plan.
– Obey God and you will bear fruit.
Prayer requests:
– Protection over the school holidays
– Term 3 planning
– Change management
– RUPT funding
– Staff & Whanau well-being
Print or Save this Post