Pongo pānui/April Newsletter 2025
Kia ora koutou,
Just like that, we’re nearly through Term One! This year, we’ve decided to continue sending termly updates via email, as this worked well for us last year. With it being termly, there is lots to update you on, so not as much space for photos, however our Facebook page has lots of photos updates. Hanna will still send out weekly emails to keep families informed about what’s happening, and the teaching team has been sharing updates regularly on our private Facebook page. If you haven’t yet requested to join this page, make sure you do—it’s a great way to stay informed and see all the exciting things happening at Moa. Feel free to invite family members to join as well! “Moa Kids Family Page.”
A warm welcome to all the new families who’ve joined us this year! It’s been wonderful seeing everyone settle in so well. We’re so happy to have you as part of the Moa whānau. A big thank you to all the families who attended our first whānau evening. Our annual “Fish and Chips” family picnic is always a fun, relaxed event, providing a great opportunity for new families to meet everyone. The children especially love coming back to Moa after hours—it’s always such an exciting time for them!
As we head into the school holidays, please remember to email us if you’re planning to be away during the first week. Just a reminder that we’ll be closing at 5 pm on Thursday, April 17th, and reopening at 8 am on Monday, April 28th, for a 10-day break. As the winter season approaches, we know many families are planning to travel back to the UK, Ireland, and other places to visit family. If this applies to you, it’s really important that you let me know the dates of your trip, especially if it’s for more than 3–4 weeks. This will help us plan for your return, and if you have any questions, feel free to come and have a chat with me.
With several of our friends starting school next term, we now have a few spaces opening up in the preschool. Before we move to our outside waitlist, please let me know if there’s a specific day you’re looking for, either now or in the near future. I like to prioritize the needs of our current families. Many of our friends will be turning 5 this year. As we have a large waitlist at Moa, our system automatically removes children from the roster when they turn 5. To help us with planning it’s important that we have your child’s last day recorded in our system. If you’re planning to send your child at a later date than the usual cohort entry, that’s perfectly fine—just let us know so we can plan accordingly.
With new families joining us, it's a great time to explain what it means to be a community-based preschool. As a non-profit organization, we have an active Governance Committee made up of parents. We meet once a month, typically on the third Monday, here at the centre at 7:30 pm, or sometimes online. At our AGM in May, we’ll be looking for new families to join this committee. If you’re interested or would like to attend a meeting to learn more please don’t hesitate to get in touch. We have a brochure that explains the roles, and I’d be happy to chat with you about it.
The teaching team has been doing a lot of work in the digital space this year. Margie, Olivia, and Shay have led the way with iPads, and it’s going really well. As a result, we’ve decided to transition all teachers to this system. Additionally, we’ll be moving to an online space for learning journals. This will be done gradually, as we’re waiting for our Apple school account to be set up. Once that’s ready, we’ll start transitioning. Our goal is to have everyone fully moved over by the end of the year, and we’ll keep you updated about what this means for your child. Remember, my door is always open! You can also reach me directly at my personal Moa email: hayley.flanagan@moakids.org.nz if you’d prefer to send me an email.
Ngā mihi maioha,
Hayley
Reminders: •
Kakaio update:
Emily: is slowly returning to Moa under ACC. Until Easter she is doing 4 days and after Ester will move to 5 days a week. She still is on reduced hour. All going to plan we will have back to 8.30am-4pm mid May. We will keep you updated if there is anything else that changes.
Olivia: Olivia is off on adventure and will be back on the 5th May. Sue and Sophie are supporting the nursery over this time Chloe: Chloe heads away for an extended holiday from the 5th May and be back on Wednesday 28th May. •
Lunch boxes:
You have most probably noticed the very full lunchbox shelf in the preschool. We would really appreciate it if all children’s lunch boxes, drink bottles and food containers could be named, as well as food that needs to go in the fridge. There is a permanent marker attached to the basket for the food that needs to be kept in the fridge. •
Nut Free Zone:
Moa Kids is a “nut free” zone. Lately we have been noticing a lot of nut products coming in - cashews, almonds, peanut butter sandwiches etc. Please can you remember that we are a nut free zone when you are making your child’s lunch. We have had children start this year with high allergies to nuts. •
Lost Property:
We have a large amount of lost property. Please come and have a look to see if the treasures and clothing belong to your family. The lost property is in the foyer. Please name all clothing that comes to preschool as this really helps us to return clothing and hats back to the correct person. •
Away sick:
It is that time of the year where winter bugs are upon us. Moa families are always so good and keeping their children off when there are not 100%. This is a good reminder coming into winter to please email or call in the morning if your child is off sick.
Show and tell:
Each child who attends the preschool room has a show and tell day. This is the day where they can bring in something special to show their peers. We know lots of our friends like to bring in toys and often it is the same toy from the week before. We are not saying no toys, but if parents could get the children to have a think of something different each time, this will help their child when they get up to talk about their “show and tell”. Remember that you are most welcome to email in any photos of what they have been getting up to over the weekend. This goes down really well and the children normally have lots to say about it. Can you please remember to take home your child’s show and tell item? The basket seems very full.
Nappies:
Some parents choose to bring a bag of nappies in for their child and we let the families know when they are running low by writing on the daily role sheet. Please make sure when you see “please bring nappies” that you bring them in as soon as you can. We have emergency nappies if children run out, but these need to be replaced if used. We unfortunately are not in the position to be supplying nappies to children.
Bread bags:
Please bring in any used bread bags for the preschool. These are used for toileting and come in very handy.
Going away on holiday:
Please make sure you have emailed through these days. Moa gives each child Three weeks a year Holiday fees, which is 50% off the normal rate. We need to be emailed and informed to put this discount on.
New person picking up:
As part of our policy at Moa if anyone new is picking up your child and they have not been in before, even though they are on the pickup list and your children know them, we will ask them for ID on that first pick up, and match it to the name you have given. This is of course for safety. Please email through and keep us informed if there is going to be someone new coming in.
Governance Committee The next Governance Committee meeting will be the AGM May 19th 2025
Preschool News Welcome back to Moa!
We have really enjoyed seeing all the amazing photos and family holidays you have shared with us. You will see them up on the wall in the classroom as you walk in. It has been a fantastic start to the year! All the tamariki are really engaged and excited about learning. We have had a few five-year-olds start school, and we wish them all the best on their new learning adventure!
We have been working on our preschool project called “All about me.” It is all about the tamariki and what they have been up to with their whānau and on holiday. We have been exploring their interests, learning about themselves and their families, and having a blast doing it. So, come check out the walls and the classroom - the Kaiako have been busy providing lots of fun experiences, and the tamariki are working hard and doing an amazing job. This project has been a great way for us to connect with the whānau. We have had a few whānau come in and share some of their culture with us. Everyone is welcome to come in anytime if you would like to share something from your culture with the families and the tamariki at preschool. Just come and chat with Shay or one of the preschool teachers, and we will set up a time for you to come in. We would love to learn more about your whānau.
After the “All about me” project, we are planning a celebration on the first Monday of the school holidays. We are having a special person afternoon tea from 2 pm onwards. This is a great opportunity for the tamariki to share what they have been up to and share some yummy kai. More details will come soon. This is a great way to celebrate the end of our project before we dive into Matariki. The Kaiako are working on a plan for Matariki, and if you have any ideas or ways you would like to contribute, please let us know. We would love to hear from you!
Sharleen, Margie, and Terehia are running Te Wa Tuakana and are doing an amazing job, thanks to your hard work. We have had an amazing response to the dolphin club, the name change, and the tamariki input. We are meeting their needs while keeping the moa kids’ values and the whānau aspirations. It has been a real hit with the four-year-olds. They can focus on their special mahi without the younger ones interrupting. It is setting them up well for school. While Te Wa Tuakana is running, we have got lots of fun activities planned for the under fours, like sensory play, water play, messy play, and painting. It is great that both age groups get some time to themselves.
Guess what? We have got a brand-new music shelf in our resource room! You might have heard the tamariki buzzing about it. It is packed with all sorts of cool stuff, from shakers to tambourines, bongo drums, and more. We will wheel it out with the kids for music sessions, and it is going to be awesome! We will also teach them to respect our resources and how to use them properly. Oh, and here is something else exciting: we have started a new protocol at Moa. In the morning, when the staff open the preschool, we will say a Karakia together. And at the end of the day, we will say a closing Karakia. The reason for this is to create a welcoming space for all the good learning to come in. And when we leave, we want to close the learning space down and keep all that amazing mahi and learning inside. This way, in a te ao Māori view, we are keeping our place of learning special by keeping the learning in the space. If you want to know more about this, come and chat with Shay or Terehia. They will be happy to explain it to you.
We have had an amazing time in the community so far. We have been to lots of different places, we have had carpentry every day, and the sandpit is always full of tamariki. David even set up a waterfall that we can easily set up for the kids. The tamariki are guiding what we are doing here at Moa, which is incredible! Just a friendly reminder to bring plenty of extra clothes, especially shorts and trousers. We are a bit low on these in the preschool, so if you have any clothes you are not using anymore, we would be so grateful if you could bring them in for us to use.
Winter’s coming, so we will need our jackets, coats, and gumboots. At Moa, we believe there is no such thing as bad weather, just bad clothing. We love getting out in the rain, mud, and exploring the great outdoors.
We also have a pamphlet for whānau about toileting. If you are thinking your child is getting ready, just come talk to one of the lovely Kaiako. They will be happy to give you the pamphlet and share some tips on how we manage toileting here. It might also give you some ideas for things you can do at home to help your child get ready for preschool and toilet training.
Feel free to come and chat with the Kaiako anytime you have questions or want to know more about learning at Moa. We love communication and it is important for our connection with the whānau.
Nga mihi kia koutou Shay
Nursery News
Wow, just like that our first term is coming to an end. I would firstly like to thank all the nursery families for their kind welcome with myself joining the nursery team. It was been an amazing few months finding our feet together and creating such a brilliant atmosphere that we aspire to continue.
It has been a joy building those respectful and trusting relationships with both the tamariki and their whanau. We’ve had quite a few bitter sweet moments the last few weeks as we’ve celebrated some second birthdays and watched some of our nursery tamariki spread their wings and become big preschool tamariki. Romy, Gabe and Aleix, we miss you all already but we can see how well you’re all doing and slowly becoming very comfortable within your new surroundings.
Lola will be our next farewell as she will celebrate her big second birthday closer to the end of the month. However, with the big tamariki on their new adventures, it gives us the opportunity to welcome some new children in to the nursery room. After the Easter break, we will have the pleasure of welcoming Wilbur, who currently has Goldie and Freddie already at Moa, Greer whose big sister is Autumn is in preschool, as well as Hazel, with Ida in the preschool room too.
We will also be greeting Lily and Arthur along with their families into the nursery. These are some new whanau that we can’t wait to welcome in and get to know.
The children have so much aroha at the minute with all the new learning opportunities that have been provided both inside and outside. Over the past few weeks, the nursery team have been trying hard to add new materials to the environment to really capture the children’s learning to further their development. Thank you Moa for providing us with the new equipment, and the fun memories this creates for each child.
With this in mind, we have changed up our display boards and we invite each whānau to have a look at our recent adventures board, where we will be sharing small snippets of your children exploring all the brilliant experiences that have been carried out throughout the week. Our aim is to alter these pictures every few weeks so we can keep the moments alive and show you what fun your child has been up to. We hope you enjoy it just as much as we do.
It’s such a privilege watching each of your tamariki blossom each day they are here with us at Moa. We are just beginning our journey for the year so it’s very exciting to see where the rest of the year will guide us. Have a great Easter break everyone and enjoy the time off with your whānau.
Nga mihi kia koutou
Edel