Merrilands School, New Plymouth

Korowai Presentation

Yesterday we made an incredibly special presentation to our cultural leaders; Celestina Manunui-Kavafolau and Cassius Roberts. They were adorned with korowai in our school colours (blue and green) that encourage them to lead with kindness, respect, and pride.

A huge thanks to Matua Richard Roberts for blessing these korowai (one at the Waiwhakaiho River and one at the Te Henui Stream) and explaining the meaning behind them with a magnificent reference to our local awa and the star of Puanga.

A big thanks to our Home and School Committee for their support and Lois Rushton (Cultural Lead Teacher) for her amazing organisation.

The korowai will be passed on to our 2027 cultural leaders by Celestina and Cassius at the end of the year - the start of a new and ongoing tradition in our wonderful kura (school).

Celebrating Samoan Language Week!

This week, Merrilands School came alive with the vibrant sights and sounds of Samoan Language Week | Vaiaso o le Gagana Samoa. It was wonderful to see our students embracing the culture, learning new phrases, and celebrating the rich diversity that makes our school community so special.

We started the week with a fantastic performance from the NPGHS Pasifika group and ended it with a superb performance from our own students. Thank you to Mrs Rushton for organising this and all of our whanau who supported our initiatives and events this week. Of particular note was Celestial Roberts efforts in supporting our students with their performance and creating some amazing kai for us!

What a fantastic way to wrap up last week!

On Thursday, Julia from the Home and School Committee joined our assembly to announce the big winners of our recent Math-a-thon fundraiser. It was a close contest, but a massive congratulations to Room 5 for taking out the top spot!

We also celebrated a superstar student from every single class, each walking away with a $30 Warehouse gift card for making outstanding progress during the challenge. Way to go!

The Grand Total... 💰 Together, our amazing community raised over $3,000 for our kura (school)! In the current economic climate, this is an incredible achievement, and we are so grateful for your generosity.

A Huge Thank You to Our Sponsors
We want to give a massive shoutout to Kiwispan Taranaki and Sentinel Homes, who kindly sponsored the winning class prize of $500 worth of STEAM resources! Both of these fantastic businesses have supported our school behind the scenes for a long time, and we are very thankful for their ongoing support.

What a fantastic day our Merrilands School rippa rugby teams had yesterday!

Our ākonga (students) showed great sportsmanship and gave it their absolute all - a testament to displaying our SHINE values in every opportunity that they're given.

A massive shout-out to Matua Rick for his work in organising the event and ensuring our players were ready to hit the ground running. We were also very lucky to have Miss V and Ande out there supporting our teams and keeping the energy high—thank you both for your time and dedication!

Finally, to our parent supporters: thank you! It was brilliant to see so many familiar faces on the sidelines cheering on our students.

We're on the home straight with the Math-a-thon quiz taking place tomorrow! This is your last chance to help your class win $500 in STEAM resources! It's not too late to donate or share a team or individual profile page with friends and whānau.

Offline donations (especially if you're doing per answer correct post quiz) will be accepted up until Wednesday next week, May 27th. These can be dropped into the office or acc details are on the donate page of the website.

May the best class win!

Merrilands Math-a-thon! Making maths fun! Support Merrilands Math-a-thon and help us raise much needed funds for our school!

We are delighted to announce that we will be opening our new entrant overflow class early (Room 8) this year. We had planned to open this class at the beginning of Term 3, but due to the amount of new entrants who have recently enrolled, our Board has made the supportive decision to open Room 8 on Monday 25th May (Week 6).

Please join us in warmly welcoming Aimee Wisnewski to our teaching team, who will be the new Room 8 teacher. Aimee brings a wealth of recent experience in the junior school and a high level of energy to the role. Outside the classroom, she is a dedicated sports enthusiast. We look forward to the passion she’ll bring to our school community.

Pink Shirt Day - This Friday!!!

On Friday 15th May we will stand together against bullying by celebrating Pink Shirt Day. We will be promoting kindness, respect, and collaboration!

If your child has a pink shirt at home, please encourage them to wear it on Friday. Please note this is not a m***i day so if they don't have a pink shirt they are expected to be dressed in their normal school uniform top.

Thank you for your support.

We're excited to announce the Math-a-thon, our biggest fundraiser of the year, is kicking off this week! Once again we're competing as classroom teams to see who can win $500 of STEAM resources for their class. Will Matua Rick's room take it out for the third year running or will another class pip them at the post?! To register your tamariki click the 'join a team' and create a profile for them under their classroom. https://merrilandsmathathon.raiselysite.com/

Physical fundraising forms as well as practice sheets will be coming home with your child so watch out for these. The student who is the most improved math-lete as chosen by their teacher will win a $30 Warehouse gift card.

Donations can be made online, in cash at the school office or to the Home and School Bank Acc with your child's name and classroom as the reference so it gets allocated to their team.
15-3957-0510684-000

(Please check you are not donating to the main school bank acc when making online transfers).

We had a truly moving experience in our school assembly last Friday. A huge thank you to our wonderful brass teacher, Ray Farrow, for joining us and delivering such a powerful brass demonstration.

The highlight of the morning was Ray’s performance of The Last Post to commemorate ANZAC Day. You could have heard a pin drop in the hall as our students listened to the incredible sound of the trumpet. It was a fantastic way for our ākonga (students) to see the skill and emotion that can be expressed through brass instruments.

Interested in Brass Lessons for your tamariki (children)?
If your child was inspired by Ray’s performance and would like to start their own musical journey, we would love to have them join our brass program!

How to sign up:
To register your interest or to find out more about lesson schedules and instrument hire, please contact the school office at [email protected].

On Wednesday, the School leaders—Peter, Bianca, Jadson, and Evelyn—were up bright and early to head to Palmerston North for the annual GRIP Student Leadership Conference. They learned about; what leaders should do, using Integrity to lead everyday, challenges leaders face with new ideas, and coming up with new ideas to make the school even better.

Some key qualities of good leaders were:
1) serve the needs of others
2) role model the school values
3) make connections with lots of people
4) aim for high standards
5) act according to your values

Everyone had a fantastic day. A big thank you to Megan Taylor for driving the students and Whaea Tabitha for organising the day.