Kaurihohore School Week Three, Term Four 2025
Kia whakatōmuri te haere whakamua," Let our past guide our future
Manaaki te katoa - be kind to all.
Respect - Empathy - Kindness
Kia ora e te whānau,
Isn’t it great to see the sun! We have enjoyed a fantastic few days celebrating play with Harko Brown and Yvey. Learning traditional Māori games and crafts gives us great insight into how we can include Te ao Māori into our daily classroom routines and timetables.
The children really enjoyed these sessions and we look forward to welcoming Harko back in Term One.
You can see some other great photos on our facebook page. We are very grateful to have received a Tū Manawa Active Aotearoa grant to fund this awesome mahi. A huge thank you to Belinda Lori for her hard work last year securing this for us.
Tomorrow our staff will be on strike. Please note that this means the school will be closed. While the media would have you believe this strike is about pay, this is actually just a very small part of what the strike is about. Yes, we are seeking to renew our contracts, and pay is part of that for any worker. The strike however is about conditions more than anything. Above all, we are advocating for a teacher aide in every classroom and proper support for children that need it.
Every child should be able to be successful at school, at the moment, support is incredibly limited. Children must be seen as a danger to others or themselves to get any sort of support. For most children this means they may be lucky enough to generate funding for an hour a day. This funding will then be cut after several terms as it is not seen as a long-term solution. We don’t have access to experts, we don’t have access to reliable funding, we are doing it on our own. This means teachers are stretched thin, just trying to do their best because every child deserves to feel safe at school and to be in an environment where they can learn.
On top of that we have had three new curriculums in the last three years. The curriculum that we have been using was written in 2024 and we have been working to grow our understanding of this and to be able to report to you on this. Without warning, the government decided to make major changes to this curriculum two days ago. This renders much of our work useless and means we need to start over again. They would have you believe we’ve been an active part of this, but the opposite is true, curriculum changes have been made off shore in stealth with very little input from the actual people teaching our children every day. To make it worse the government is also bringing in new assessments that we are supposed to start using next year, these assessments have again been created overseas and have not yet been published. Teachers and children are not getting a fair deal, we are not supported and our system is at breaking point. We are often really hurt by the negative comments about teachers in the media, telling us to do our jobs, that we get ample holidays and that we are just greedy. In reality, we are just trying to do our jobs and asking to be better supported so that we can help children be successful.
Ngā mihi maioha
Leslee Allen
Our New School Board
Our new school board is :
David Pilkington - Presiding member
Arla Kerr - Secretary
Holly Lucus - Treasurer
Tom Masters - Health and Safety
Joel Lauterbach - Property
I would like to acknowledge our outgoing member Bob Newport for his time and diligence whilst serving on the board, ngā mihi nui!
Recent Property Announcements
The government has recently announced a property top up that will go to all schools. I wanted to advise you that we are receiving $7426 towards upgrading property. While we are of course very grateful, it will only go a small way towards fixing infrastructure around the school.
It is also really important for everyone to understand that the Ministry of Education does not fund outside areas like the playground, turf, seating etc. These are all areas that need to be fundraised for and paid by the school, or funded via grants.
These items listed below have been raised as needing to be on our property priority list, the school board will be seeking input from you in terms of prioritising what we work towards first. All of these items will sit outside of the funding we receive.
Sealing of the lower court.
New P.E shed
Update and complete maintenance to large playground, fill sandpit and top up bark
Build junior sandpit area
Seating - fix current seating outside Room 4 and 5 and add more around the school.
Bike track and native bush track - upgrade
Create outdoor learning/play space behind Room 1 and 2
Maintain gardens and increase planting around the school
New GaGa pit
Getting Ready For Halloween - 31/10/25
We need more parent bakers for Halloween and more help setting up and packing down.
There are less than 40 tickets left in the later sessions if you are still needing a ticket for your child, please share this event, it would be great to get this sold out.
If you have not popped yourself down to help, please do so, many hands make light work and this is a BIG event for us.
https://docs.google.com/document/d/1NED341COERPCRqYS6TJzGwpZCDExkwDuTDC2XdlN4zQ/edit?tab=t.0
Athletics
The year 3 - 6 athletics will be held on the 12th of November between 9am and 11am. The year 1-2 athletics will then follow this at 11.30am.
You are welcome to come along on the day, if you do, please wear a hat.
Teachers Only Day
This will be held on the 17th of November. This day is allocated by the government for curriculum development. Obviously with the ‘refreshed, refreshed’ curriculum that we did not know was coming, we will have a lot of work to do getting our head around any changes. School will be closed for instruction on this day.
Hats
In Term 1 and 4, the expectation is that all children will wear hats when outside. Hats must have a full brim or a flap at the back. We recommend having a school hat that gets left in your child’s bag. If children do not have a hat, they will have to play in the courtyard area of the school. Please support us by ensuring your child knows the importance of wearing a hat.
Fundraising
At our recent school board meeting, fundraising was discussed. We know this can be a very frustrating aspect of being part of our school.
It was felt that we should put out there more often the reason for all this fundraising.
I wanted to point out that this tab is on our blog and answers most of our FAQ about fundraising, please have a read and I hope you find it useful.
Kaurihohore School is a great place to be, it is full of wonderful wairua, thanks to the adults and children who are part of our school currently, those who have gone before us and those who will come after us. We may not have all the fancy bells and whistles, but what we do have is something very special.
Frequently asked fundraising questions
Our target this year is to raise $40 000 to cover learning support needs. This learning support serves to ensure we have people on the ground outside of classroom teachers that can give our children the support they need, when they need it. Unfortunately this is not currently funded by the Government.
Total raised in Term 1 was- $5281.20
In Term 2 we raised: $13 001.76
In Term 3 - $9803.80
Total so far - $28 086.76 (Term one two and three)
Term 4 Fundraisers-
Chocolates
We will continue to sell these towards our fundraising target during Term 3 and 4.
Halloween
To be held on the 31st of October
Christmas Raffle
Dates for 2026
First day back 3rd February. Last day of the school year 15th December.
Contacting Us
You can find all staff emails on our blog page under the tab ‘our staff,’ however the best way to contact your child’s teacher is via seesaw message. Teachers will endeavour to answer when they have time during the day, however please don’t expect replies to messages or emails after 5pm. We will respond the next day as soon as we can. Please refrain from using Facebook messenger, or our personal phone numbers to contact us.
Our school blog is kaurihohoreschool.blogspot.com
Office emails are:
Shelley- admin@kaurihohoreschool.co.nz
Dianne - reception@kaurihohoreschool.co.nz
Chelsea/Enrolments - kaurienrolments@gmail.com
Leslee - principal@kaurihohoreschool.co.nz
Reporting Absence - kauriabsences@gmail.com
If you have questions or concerns, please direct these to your child’s teacher as soon as you can, so we can nip anything in the bud before it becomes a bigger issue.
KINDO
Kindo is an app that allows online payments for items at school like pizza days etc. If you go to the links below to either create an account, or log in. These links are also at the top of our school blog site.
Create and account.
https://shop.tgcl.co.nz/shop/flow_join.shtml
Log in
https://shop.tgcl.co.nz/shop/index.html
Term Four
23rd October - Strike (school closed)
27th October - Labour Day
31st October - Halloween Event
12th November - Year 3 - 6 Athletics 9-11am and Year 1 - 2 11.30am - 12.30pm
17th November - Teacher Only Day (school closed)
19th November - Class swap #1
25th November - Class swap #2
2nd December - Class swap #3
4th December - End of Term Awards 2.00pm
10th December - Junior Prizegiving 1.30pm (Year 1 - 3)
11th December - Senior Prizegiving 1.30pm (Year 4 - 6)
Last day of the year - 16th of December 12pm finish
2026 Dates - 3rd February to the 15th December
School Bank Account Details -
Account 12-3093-0200709-00
Kaurihohore school board of Trustees
