COMING EVENTS

Friday 23 November Kindy Market Day

Wednesday 28 November C10 Play Performance

Thursday 29 November C10 Play Performance

Tuesday 4 December Prizegiving

Wednesday 5 December Graduation

Thursday 6 December St Nicholas Visits

6-13 December High School Craft Week

Friday 7 December Christmas Market

Monday 10 December Nativity Play

Tuesday 11 December Nativity Play

Friday 14 December Last Day of School

FRIDAY FLYER 23 November 2018

Newsletter 40

Kia ora tatou

Last week I had the pleasure of

meeting the students who will be

joining the school in class 1 next year.

The first meeting was part of an

ongoing process that happens every

Friday with Mrs Mullany where the students leave kindergarten

to visit places and people in the school. The second occasion

was when the class 8 and 9 students performed the Dragon

Play in an assembly for our incoming class. The enthusiasm and

energy of this class will be a wonderful addition to our school

next year.

This week saw the penultimate meeting of the Board of

Trustees for 2019. As was seen at the Fair, with class parents,

on camps, on the Trust, in the College of Teachers and in so

many other ways, the school is blessed that so many dedicated

people volunteer their time. I would like to take a moment to

warmly thank everyone who has supported the school and the

education of the children this year.

Next week the many hours of work that produce the quality

and learning that is the hallmark of a play at Michael Park will

come to fruition. Performances of Lysistrata will take place on

Wednesday 28th and Thursday 29th in the auditorium. Please

note that this production is for an audience of 13 years and

older.

Lastly, the final day of term 4 is Friday 14th December. Please

note that on the last day school will finish at the earlier time of

12:45pm.

Ngā mihi

Terry Storer

Principal

12.45pm finish last day of term

Friday 14th December

CELEBRATORY DATES

Kia ora parents and caregivers

A reminder that we have some celebratory dates swiftly

approaching:

On Tuesday 4th December, we will have High School

Prizegiving in the auditorium, commencing at 9 a.m. Early

next week we will personally invite all families of whose child

is a recipients of awards (or awards!). We also extend a warm

invite to all High School families to attend this celebration of

our students’ successes.

On Wednesday 5th December, we will have Class 12

Graduation in the auditorium, commencing at 9 a.m. We

send personal invites to all Class 12 High School families to

attend this key threshold occasion soon.

On Friday the 14th December, we will hold our Whakatau

ceremony where our current Class 7 students are formally

welcomed into High School. This will be held in the auditorium,

commencing at 8:45 a.m. We invite all Class 7 families to

attend this threshold occasion and personal invitations will be

sent out next week.

Warm regards

Adam Driver

LUNCH BAR 6-13 DECEMBER

The lunch bar will be closed during craft week 6-13 December,

however Akiko will be offering a special Bento box menu to

give to the students in the morning. Please visit the website at

www.michaelpark.school.nz/about-us/lunch-bar for ordering

details.

MPS STAFFING VACANCIES

SPECIAL NEEDS TEACHER AIDE

Michael Park Kindergarten is seeking a special needs teacher

aide. Hours are 9.30 -12.30, Mon, Tue, Wed, Thurs. The ideal

applicant is well organised and practical, has great

communication skills and can build warm and responsive

relationships.

Please send your CV to admin@michaelpark.school.nz

NATIVITY PLAY 2018

The Nativity Play this year will be on Tuesday 11 & Wednesday

12 December at 9 am in the auditorium. On Tuesday, we will

welcome the kindergarten and families with small children,

and Wednesday will be for a more adult audience.

This year I have taken on the directing of this play with its

central theme of the birth of Jesus bringing messages of love

and kindness, changing the script slightly to enhance these

aspects of the story. So that the audience can also take part,

we will provide the words of the songs. To help us create an

atmosphere of quiet reverence and inner focus for the

students, we ask that no parents take photographs or film

during the performances, though Dana will do her usual work

of recording the event for our archives, and you will be able to

access these images. We also ask that there is no applause at

the end, but we follow the example of mother Mary, and hold

this experience in our hearts.

Looking forward to seeing you there.

Jane Patterson

TE AO MĀORI Kia ora koutou,

Tomorrow (Saturday 24th of November) our newly formed Kapa

Haka group are performing at a local Kapa Haka festival at

Ruapotaka Marae in Glen Innes. We would love to see you come

and support our Kapa Haka group as they take the stage at

approximately 1.35pm. Nau mai haere mai ki te tautoko mai.

Ngā mihi nui

Andrea and Amanda

WALKING AND CYCLING SCHOOL BUS

We have been awarded the Silver Award this year as we now

have 2 Cycling school buses and a Michael Park Leadership

team who are helping to educate the students around safety

on the roads. Last year we gained the Bronze Award.

We would like to achieve the Gold Award next year, for this we

need 2 – 3 Walking school buses in addition to our Cycling

school buses. If you are keen to lead a bus please contact me.

donnab@michaelpark.school.nz

Thanks again for your support around this Auckland wide initiative.

Donna Bainbridge Deputy Principal Lower and Middle School

Christmas Kindness

For Advent this year we are supporting

The Salvation Army Christmas Appeal

In reception you will find a box under the Christmas tree

We will happily accept donations that will

go towards their Christmas Hampers

Donations of Food and Gifts would

be gratefully received

Suggestions are: Drink Sachets Orange / Grape Fruit Juice

Canned Fruit Christmas Puddings, Christmas Mince Tarts

Christmas Candy Canes, Lollies Christmas Crackers, Jellies

Chips, Nuts & Raisins Onion Soup and Reduced Cream (to make a dip)

Savoury Biscuits

Gifts For 11-18 year old boys and girls

(Usually these age groups are hardest to supply) Movie passes

Hair gel Lynx body spray

Body products for girls Gift Vouchers eg: for CD’s, The Warehouse,

JB Hi Fi and Chemist

Help repair the shattered lives of Kiwi families in need

See Cathy in the office for more details

Art and Visit to Refugee Centre

On Monday 12 Students from Class 9

helped finish the amazing mural at the

Mangere Refugee Art Centre. What

incredibly talented students we have!

The centre of the mural is a chalkboard

surface so the children at the Art

Therapy Space can add their own pictures. After lunch we were

joined by some of the Charity Team from Class 7 and spent the

afternoon with the students who are staying at the Centre.

What an incredible and special experience we had. This is what

the coordinator of the AUT programme emailed through to us:

“We got feedback from the secondary students yesterday

regarding the afternoon with your students and all the

feedback was so positive! They said they didn’t feel

judged or discriminated against by your students, they

said the students were so friendly, and they especially

loved the haka! For many of my female students seeing

your female students leading the haka, playing soccer

and teaching flax weaving was an eye-opening and

valuable experience for them. All the students said they

wished they could have socialised for longer.

Thank so you much for all the delicious food and the

handballs you brought! I was thrilled to see the AUT

students so happy and comfortable with your students!

This was the first contact the AUT students have ever had

with kiwi students – and your students absolutely shone!“

Coming Up

Christmas Kindness is coming from Monday 3 December.

This Advent we will again be supporting the Salvation Army

Christmas Appeal with festive food and gifts for 11-13 year olds.

Please help us give hope this Christmas. We will have the

decorated box in Reception from Monday 3 December. Please

see the poster attached and consider if you can donate a few of

these items.

www.salvationarmy.org.nz/help-us/appeals-events/salvation-

army-2018-christmas-appeal

DECORATED CAKE WINNER!

The Cake Stall team is pleased to

announce the winner of the best

decorated cake this year was Jacelyn

Hughes for her amazing gingerbread

carousel. Congratulations Jacelyn and

we hope you enjoy your $60 voucher

for Mint Cakery.

There were so many beautiful cakes

this year, we really appreciate the

effort everyone puts in to make cake

stall a wonderful success.

Special mention to our runner up prizes this year:

Sophia and Rosa (Class 7) for their figurine cake Bibi (Class 7) for her croquembouche Tess (Class 7) for her flower insert cake Ella (Class 7) for her brush stroke cake Sienna (Class 6) for her purple spectacular cake Tilly (Class 5) for her chocolate present cake Kirsty Bethell for her marmalade sandwich cake

We can't wait to see what everyone creates next year - and look

out for new categories and prizes in next year's marvellous cake

competition.

Kia ora Alumni Pacifica College of Eurythmy will open its doors for the first time in February 2019. This is a full-time Eurythmy- training and will take place in Queensland, Australia. This training offers not only Speech and Tone Eurythmy but includes a wide variety of supporting subjects like music- theory, speech, astronomy, physiology, pedagogy, and history of literature- music- and art, just to name a few. It is a combined initiative by Australian and New Zealand Eurythmists. Its aims include giving Eurythmy a visible place in the cultural life of our countries and training Eurythmists to ensure that Eurythmy will continue as a core- subject in our Waldorf Schools. Eurythmy as a career takes you where people are. In many different settings such as schools, hospitals, therapy centres, theatres, any social setting from businesses to prisons, where there are people Eurythmy can fulfil a meaningful purpose. If you are interested, or you know of someone who might be interested, you will find the contact details on the poster below. Please pass on this news. With kind greetings, Elien Hoffmans

My name is Allen Gorthy and I have taken over running

biodynamic garden classes at the Steiner House behind

the school. I have changed the day of the week and time

in hopes maybe some of the parents children would like

to join in.

Rudolf Steiner House 104 Michaels Ave, Ellerslie

Tuesdays from 2pm-5pm

Feel free to come for a little time or the whole thing.

Attendance is free!

COMMUNITY NOTICEBOARD

Urgently seeking reasonably priced 2/3 bedroom home

for my boys and I. Alternatively, would anyone be willing

to lend me a caravan for us to use for a few months?

Please contact Roanne Patecki (Class 3 teacher) on 021

160 0653

Contact the editor fridayflyer@michaelpark.school.nz

Guideline 150 characters please. Deadline Thursday lunchtime.

Dear community,

The Class 10 Play is rapidly approaching. Class 10 will be

performing a modern interpretation of an ancient Greek comedy

– Lysistrata.

Lysistrata is a very topical play for these times and tells the story of

a group of women who stand up to the patriarchal powers and go

on a ….’wife’ strike in order to stop a prolonged and ridiculous war.

Ancient Greek comedies were the first political and social satires.

(Think along the lines of Alec Baldwin’s satire of Donald Trump)

We chose this for Class 10 this year, as they are a class with strong

intellect and depth, who could get their teeth into the deeper

themes of the play. The class also felt the need to do a play that

was very outrageous and this play is most definitely that. The

Greeks loved to couch their deep social themes in outrageous

physical comedy, bawdiness and saucy comic banter. This will be a

very satisfying night of Theatre, with rousing songs …dance...ritual

…. broad comedy and very rousing heartfelt oratory. It is very

much a play that will speak to women of all ages and is very topical

in terms of what we see happening in the world today. It is

appropriate for class 7 and above.

Class 10 is currently a small class with many students away on

exchange at this time. This Class of 16 have produced a really

enlivening play that that should not be missed. Whaea Andrea’s

husband, Keith, has built us a striking set and the Auditorium has a

completely unique and individual feel.

For Michael Park Students going into Class Eight next year it is very

important for them to see this play and have an experience as they

will be doing in 2019. A picture paints a thousand words in term of

Drama learning and the more plays they see, the more they will

instinctively understand what is possible for them as well. For

those going into Class 9 it will prepare them well for the Comedy

and Tragedy Main Lesson next year. For those going into Class 10

in 2019, they will see the scale of the Class 10 Play, and for those

doing NCEA Drama, it provides a learning platform for Greek

Theatre. For the rest of you, I promise a very funny, compelling,

enlivening and relevant theatre experience. This will be a high

quality show and one that a group of parents would enjoy as a

night out without their kids. Greek Theatre is a unique Theatre

form. Part Musical/Burlesque/ Physical Comedy/Ritual and Social

Satire…it is really out of the box.

Please make a special effort to come to this Play, as I feel it is

important for this class. If the community turns up in force, then

our Class 10 students get given a unique and thrilling gift of a

bustling, full to the brim audience, and when it is your child’s turn

the community will turn up for them as well. The age restriction of

this play and the fact that so many of this class are on Foreign

exchanges makes it even more important for us to mobilize

numbers for these 16 Class 10 students. Please spread the word,

buy tickets and come along to support us. Please help us to give

these students an awesome experience that they won’t forget to

end the year with a bang. Thank you for your ongoing support.

Please feel Free to contact myself or Jane Patterson if you want to

enquire about the suitability of the play for a particular age group.

We are recommending Class 7 and above (13 years) as the story in

the play is a group of woman going on a sex strike to force their

husbands to stop a ridiculous war, although in Greek times there

were no females on the stage! Our 2018 version is ultimately

about female empowerment, bringing all our outdated way of

doing things into the light, and together creating a better world.

Heartfelt thanks,

Patrice Wilson

For tickets contact Grace at grace@ryan.net.nz

(Tickets on sale before and after school from Friday in the rotunda)

Do you enjoy working with wood? Do you want to get involved in our community

in a practical way?

Come along and help us make things to sell to raise money for the school at the Summer Fair.

We meet in the woodwork room each

Monday from 6:30pm to 8:30pm All parents are welcome (we are not allowed

children, sorry) and no experience is necessary.

For more information contact Doug Cross

021 455 831 douglascross@gmail.com