Martinborough School Update

From The Headmaster’s Desk – August 2024 

We have had quite the busy term. Lots of events on, and some marvellous results from the students.

Many thanks to Amanda Pickering and her wonderful team of helpers who organised the sporting

events. We had about 70 students representing the school at the Cluster Cross Country competition,

and have 15 students representing the Wairarapa at the regional event. The students have certainly put in a lot of work to ensure they are successful.

Sustainable Education

As part of wanting to reduce waste that goes into the landfill, the Middle Syndicate has implemented a recycling system in their classrooms. This consists of organic, paper and hard/soft plastic recycling. Some of the senior classes will start collecting their organic waste for the compost bin next term. This term Garden-to-Table sessions have been running in our year 5/6 classes. These sessions allow children to grow, harvest and share kai. It has been awesome to see tamariki develop their cooking skills as they prepare meals to share with their class from food that they have grown. We could not do this without our parent volunteers who help run the sessions. Thank you very much to those who have enabled this programme to run in our school. … Continue Reading

Inner Wheel and The Ruth Project

Last meeting we had a fantastic speaker – Abby Worthington – founder of The Ruth Project

Four years ago, and inspired by her own experience of miscarriage and postnatal depression, Abby formed the Wairarapa-based charity to help people deal with perinatal stress. 

Having a miscarriage and receiving poor or no advice from medics, such as “do not breast feed,”  she found bonding with her first child difficult. 

She later realised this was wrong for her, especially after seeing how Māori mothers and fathers relate to their babies. Abby and her husband both felt that there was no support for families.

The organisation has 12 volunteers, mainly retired and vetted women and men. 

Project Ruth does not replace medical professionals who deal with serious matters. Instead, Abby’s charity lends a hand by giving practical and emotional support to those who need it.

Plunket, midwives, word of mouth and social media spread the word to would-be client families. The charity is funded by grants, donations and other innovative means.

Caption: Ruth Project’s Abby Worthington speaks to Inner Wheel members.

Help find little Archie from Pirinoa

Archie, a Shih Tzu Cross and beloved pet of the Frost family from Pirinoa, has been missing from home there for six weeks – and the family are desperate to recover him. 

Archie (pictured) was likely last seen by neighbours about 3.5 kilometers from his home on Lake Ferry Rd _ and Teresa Frost thinks it’s likely he walked out the neighbour’s driveway and was picked up by a passing motorist. 

She notes: “He does love the mud, so could be very muddy. And when scared or worried his tail goes down and can look longer. He does have his bottom teeth that sit out over the top a bit and is a little bow-legged.”

“I’m sure he is missing us all. His buddy, Bob (4yr Foxie) is missing ZOOMIES. He is very depressed without his best friend Archie. My daughter and I are completely broken hearted without him.”

“Thank you for everyone keeping an eye out for him,” Teresa said.

Contacts: 0224271517 or 0272414894 or 0212473529. 

Caption: Archie, the missing Pirinoa Shih Tzu X

COUNCIL NEWS

From the Mayor – August 2024

By Martin Connelly

June is the month when councils set rates. July is when the invoices often arrive. 

Unlike governments, which can increase some taxes one month and others in the next month, councils have to set rates all at once, there is no ‘easing the pain’ by gradual increases throughout the year.

This year the Council has done several things to try and make rates fairer for most people. I will

mention two. 

The first is that the Council has set the general rate using a property’s Capital Value rather than its land value. Here are some reasons why I prefer this approach:

* It is simpler to understand. It is easy to estimate the capital value of a property as it’s basically the market value, rather than trying to separately assess land and improvement values;

* For people who do business on their own land, when economic times are tough, their land will not really alter its value very much, but their business value may decrease. Rating on Capital Value takes these sorts of changes into account. … Continue Reading