23 August 2013
Dear Parents / Caregivers.
After the shaky end to assembly last Friday, it
was a relief to finish this morning without having
to evacuate the hall. Hopefully you had a chance
to read the earthquake response update I sent out
on Monday. This basically summarised how well
our staff and students managed in a real event. It
also highlighted the importance of families being
aware that all students will need to stay at school,
after an emergency situation, until they are picked
up by a designated adult.
Quiz Night
The Quiz night is a major fund raising event on the
Korokoro School calandar. I know that the team of
parents who make up our Home & School
Committee have done a huge amount of work to
ensure that next Saturday’s event is another fun and
exciting evening for all the participants. By all
accounts the event is a sell out and our staff team
are really looking forward to it.
School Council
Our Student council have a new initiative where
they select two students per week that they feel
have contributed to the health and well being of our
school. This weeks recipients were Bruce Bargh
and Will Thompson - both for helping other
students in need. Great work gentlemen!
Netball
The last games of netball for the season are this
Sunday. It has been a successful season with all
four teams improving with each game and achieving
some very hard fought victories. This of course
would not be possible without the dedication and
hard work of coaches and managers. A huge thank
you to Nicole Sanderson, Megan Fink, Debbie
Green, Leanne Hendry, Lexie McLachlan, Shelly
Wright, Karen Naish and Jeremy.... for your
involvement in one of the Korokoro Netball teams.
Waterpolo
Term 3 No 2
The waterpolo season has drawn to a close with
both teams putting in some very gutsy
performances. The primary (year 5 & 6) team were
mostly made up of players who had never played
before. Each week they turned up with positive and
determined attitudes and as a result improved a
huge amount. The intermediate team, through some
dominant
performances
in
grading
found
themselves in the 'A Grade' for the first time in a
number of years. Each game was a huge challenge
and all members of the team welcomed this with
determination and vigour. It was fantastic that both
teams were able to finish the season with well
deserved victories. A special thank you to Karu
Shaw for her work coaching the primary team.
Mathswell
Over the coming two weeks we will have a Year
7/8 and a Year 5/6 team competing in the
interschool Mathswell competition. These teams
will answer a selection of problem solving and
multi choice questions in a pressure cauldron
situation. They will race other highly skilled
mathematicians to not only solve these problems
but be the fastest to do so. The Senior team
competes at Raroa Intermediate on August 29
and the primary team at Ainsbury School on
September 5. Both events begin at 7pm.
Tip: - don’t forget the old basic rule guys:
where e is the base of the natural logarithm, i is the
imaginary unit, and cos and sin are the
trigonometric functions cosine and sine respectively,
with the argument x given in radians. 
Have a great weekend.
Martin Hookham
PRINCIPAL
Email: principal@korokoro.school.nz
Room 1 has had a busy couple of weeks. We
have
completed
German
language
assessments with Mr Hookham. Miss Adams
has been in on Wednesdays for Visual Art and
the creation of our Venetian Ball masks. We
have begun working with Google Docs for
Topic, researching and drafting celebration
reports and also for completing Homework. The
week has been rounded off with everyone
participating in the ASB New Zealand Maths
Challenge. This involves solving maths
problems online and challenging other students
to maths battles to gain points and earn
certificates
Room 5 have had another busy two weeks.
This week we have been hard at work making
some
fantastic
painted
collage
art.
Congratulations to all students who handed in
their homework last week and received 15
minutes extra Miss Burns Time! Keep up all the
good work. Room 5 have also been enjoying
the writing warm-up’s we have been doing.
During warm-up time students look at an image
and write a quick passage using the prompts: I
hear, I see, I feel, I wonder. Want to give it go?
Try using the picture below:
Room 2 another two weeks have flown by in
Room 2. We have been busy learning about
Celebrations and particularly looking at how we
celebrate birthdays. Room 2 has enjoyed
delving into lots of crafts. We have made
robots, monsters and papier mache cups. It is
wonderful to see their imaginations at work!
Room 3 have been reading lots of stories about
Celebrations. We really liked “The Cake Girl”
and “The Best Cake”. We did a Google search
on cakes and we were amazed at the different
types of cakes. Next, we brainstormed some
great words to describe cakes and wrote
poems. This made us all feel really hungry.
We have also been learning about the
celebration ‘Diwali’, which takes place later in
the year. Next week we are going to start
making papier mache bowls!
Room 4 like most classes, has been somewhat
depleted by illness over the past two weeks!
That hasn’t stopped us getting stuck into our
learning and giving it all we’ve got though. We
have been working with a new handwriting
programme in Room 4, which follows Casey the
Caterpillar through her life cycle from caterpillar
to butterfly. We are looking at the recognisable
shapes in letters and which letters have similar
shapes. The programme is working really well
and I can see a huge improvement in the way
students form their letters. It’s great to see the
kids grasping a new concept so quickly. Well
done Room 4!
Room Six continues to push forward with new
IT initiatives, this time in the world of Maths. All
children have been registered with an online
site called Khan Academy. This allows them to
receive tutelage on most areas of the maths
curriculum, from single digit addition all the way
through to advanced calculus. The site also
collects very useful data for Mr Hughes,
allowing him to tailor his lessons to the specific
and immediate needs of various groups in his
class. Mr Hughes is hoping to push the ITC
initiative further next term, creating a hologram
of himself, thus allowing him to sleep in until
midday.
COMMUNITY NOTICES:
Lower Hutt Plunket Fundraiser
Positive Negatives Photo Sessions - Family and
Individual Black & White Portraits
Saturday 7 September
To book a sitting, phone Bridgitte on 5689606
or email lowerhuttplunket@hotmail.com
$10 booking fee applies (donation to Lower Hutt
Plunket)
Venue: Maungaraki Community Corner Rooms,
135 Dowse Drive, Maungaraki