Wednesday, April 2, 2025

Week Nine School News

Kaurihohore School Week Nine, Term One 2025

Manaaki te katoa - be kind to all.

Respect - Empathy - Kindness

He aroha whakatō, he aroha ka puta mai

“If kindness is sown, then kindness is what you shall receive”

Kia ora e te whānau,

It was really rewarding to spend a couple of hours outside as a school on Monday, cleaning up the school grounds. Each class had decided on areas they wanted to take ownership for. It was great for the children to see how their efforts, in such a short time, could make such a great difference. Going forward we want to keep up this approach, embedding up to 30 minutes in our week where we go out, weed, tidy, plant, whatever it may be, to keep on top of our enormous grounds. We are really grateful to those that were able to come along and help out, your efforts really assisted us!

We hope this big effort will help children develop a sense of responsibility and ownership for our place as kaitiaki. In turn, hopefully they will develop more respect for this place that they call home between 9am and 3pm during the week.

We have long been very proud of our Kauri kids, they punch above their weight and this is often seen evidenced in intermediate and high school prize giving. For such a small school, we are very well represented during these times of celebration. This couldn’t have been more evident than it has been recently with three of our children competing at the Northland Swimming Championship, they were competing against the best 9 year old swimmers in Northland, from Wellsford to Kaitaia.

Belle 1st Place in 25 Breaststroke

Kye 7th Place in 25 Backstroke

Kaley 10th Place in 25 Freestyle

Well done guys.

Another example of this is our EPR08 teams, representing us so well at the heats. Then after winning last week's heat, Liam, Levi, Adam and Will represented our school at the EPRO8 Grand final at Whangārei Boys High. They boys made us proud by coming first equal!

A big thank you to Cathy, the effort you put into these events really is outstanding, our children are very lucky.

Next week is the last week of term, Term 1 has been a very busy one and it has seemed to fly by. We will see everyone back on the 28th of April for the beginning of Term 2.

A reminder that teacher only day is this Friday.

If you have not returned a form letting us know how many chocolate boxes you would like for our fundraiser next term, please see or message Dianne by tomorrow. This is a big fundraiser for us and we’d love to sell as many as possible.

Thank you for your support this term, in particular, thank you for taking the time to read this newsletter, I do take a lot of time to ensure it contains information that you need.

Leslee Allen

Moving Post Peelings

We managed to get through some of this pile on Monday. If you have any time at all there is still a lot to move. The post peelings are going along the fenceline between the school and the cemetery, 10-15cm deep on the weed mat and 25-30 cm everywhere else. Once this area is done, we can top up gardens in the native bush and around the school, like the small gardens in the courtyard. If moving any of this, please wear a mask, we have some available at the school office.

Junior Sandpit

As some of you will know, a while back we tried to get some traction on creating a junior sandpit, located adjacent to the Matariki garden, currently where the bark pile is. Unfortunately this never went beyond the design process due to us just having too much on our plates to plan and manage another project. We would still love to make this area happen and will be looking into ways that we could get this created, but if anyone is keen to take this project on and drive it forward, we would love the help. The area does not need to be flash, just be connected to the Matariki garden path in some way and provide for the play urges of our children. If you think you might have the time to work on pulling something together you could touch base with Vikki Tuckey who will be investigating this further.

Attendance

End Of Term Awards

These will be held at 2.10pm on the last day of term, all welcome to attend.

Fundraising

Our target this year is to raise $40 000 to cover learning support needs.

Fundraisers: Term 1

Profits so far:

Baking paper fundraiser - $1013

Ice Blocks - $218

Sausages - $230

Spring bulbs - $895.20

Easter raffle - $2925

Total raised - $5281.20

Chocolate Fundraiser for Next Term

A form has been sent home for families to indicate how many boxes of chocolates they would like to sell next term.
Please return this form by 3rd April so we can place our school order, ready for Term 2.

All funds raised will go towards learning support, which assists all of our children.

Other fundraisers for Term 2 -

*Sponsored Run

*Pizza day fundraisers

Thank you for your hard work in making these fundraisers successful! We truly appreciate your support.

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.

Teacher Only Day This Friday - 4th April

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

https://shop.tgcl.co.nz/shop/index.html

Term One - Known Dates

4th April - Teacher Only Day (school close for instruction)

11th April - End of Term Awards - 2.10pm (Last day of term)

—--

28th April - First day back Term 2

19th - 23rd May - Police Education visit - keeping ourselves safe

28th May - Winter Sports Day (senior school)

2nd June - King's Birthday (school closed)

11th June - Sponsored Colour Run

13th June - Science Roadshow (Room 7, 8, 9)

20th June - Matariki (school closed)

25th June - Empty Classroom Day

27th June - End of Term Awards - 2.10pm

—---

Last day of the year - 16th of December 12pm finish

School Bank Account Details -

Account 12-3093-0200709-00

Kaurihohore school board of Trustees

Food for thought…

Wednesday, March 19, 2025

School News - Week Seven

Kaurihohore School Week Seven, Term One 2025

Manaaki te katoa - be kind to all.

Respect - Empathy - Kindness

He aroha whakatō, he aroha ka puta mai

“If kindness is sown, then kindness is what you shall receive”

Kia ora e te whānau,

A big thank you to all of the teachers and whānau who made each year's EOTC adventures such fun events. These events take a lot of pre-planning and organisation. There are a multitude of health and safety requirements that teachers need to put in place to make these days possible. It is fantastic that despite this, these events are still made possible for our children.

It is hard to believe that it is already week seven, the holidays are coming up fast and classrooms are busy places trying to squeeze as much learning in as possible. Please ensure your child is here at school every day unless sick, attendance does make a huge difference to overall achievement!

Leslee Allen

Accountability

Last week I reflected on respect for ourselves as a staff, noticing that this value is not yet a skill some of our children have developed. Classrooms are working hard to help children learn about the value of respect and to understand how we can show this for others and our environment. We would love your support at home with this.

Children's ability to take accountability for their actions has also been an area of concern for teachers. They are having difficulty with children not understanding or seeming to care about how their actions impact others and how they can take accountability for their actions. Lost property is a really good example of this, children don’t seem to recognise their belongings or have enough motivation to care for them. We urge you not to replace items that children lose, instead, encourage them to be accountable for looking after what is theirs. We are also seeing a lack of accountability in the playground and in the classroom, so much so that all classrooms are putting in place systems to encourage children to engage in behaviours that allow everyone else to listen and to learn. Behaviour has a ripple effect, it can positively impact others, or negatively impact others and children need to understand this. We have noticed an upturn in swearing and disregard for rules and expectations put in place. Basically an attitude of ‘the rules don’t apply to me.’ We need your support with this to get things back in balance. Please actively teach children to take ownership for their actions as it really assists us at school.
Hats

ALL children need to be wearing a hat outside in Term 1 and Term 4. These need to have a full brim or a flap at the back. Please support us by ensuring they have one to use each day at school.
Attendance

We currently have 73% of our children attending school regularly (90%) of the time. While this is above the 2024 target that was set, we do have a number of children with very concerning attendance. Your child's teacher will be in touch this term and over the year if they are concerned about the attendance of your child, asking what barriers there are to your child attending regularly to hopefully get things back on track.

Fundraising

Our target this year is to raise $40 000 to cover learning support needs.
Fundraisers: Term 1

Profits so far:

Baking paper fundraiser - $1013

Ice Blocks - $218

Sausages - $230

Open Fundraisers Term 1

Annual Easter Raffle

Forms have been sent home.

Each family is asked to sell 15 tickets at $2 each.

To boost the raffle, we kindly request each family to donate an Easter-appropriate item. This can include games, art, groceries, etc., and does not have to be chocolate. We currently don’t have a lot of items, so if you have not donated yet, we would greatly appreciate your donation.

Please return tickets, money, and items by 28th March.

Spring Bulb Fundraiser

This has been very popular in the past, and we have a larger selection this year.

Please return all orders by 25th March.

Chocolate Fundraiser for Next Term

A form has been sent home for families to indicate how many boxes of chocolates they would like to sell next term.

Please return this form by 3rd April so we can place our school order, ready for Term 2.

All funds raised will go towards learning support, which assists all of our children.

Thank you for your hard work in making these fundraisers successful! We truly appreciate your support.
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.

Teacher Only Day

Schools have been assigned two teacher only days to take this year to assist them with the implementation of the new mathematics curriculum. We will be taking ours on the 4th of April.

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 One - Known Dates

20th Match - EPR08 competition

4th April - Teacher Only Day

11th April - End of Term Awards - 2.10pm (Last day of term)

—--

28th April - First day back Term 2

—---

Last day of the year - 16th of December 12pm finish

School Bank Account Details -

Account 12-3093-0200709-00

Kaurihohore school board of Trustees
Food for thought…

Wednesday, March 5, 2025

School News - Week Five

Kaurihohore School Week Five, Term One 2025

Manaaki te katoa - be kind to all.

Respect - Empathy - Kindness

He aroha whakatō, he aroha ka puta mai

“If kindness is sown, then kindness is what you shall receive”

Kia ora e te whānau,

It has been a very busy couple of weeks, and our middle school Education Outside the Classroom (EOTC) days were a great success. A big thank you to the teachers for organizing a fantastic two days, and to all the whānau who were able to assist during these events. Our senior camp is heading to Lonsdale for three days, and we are confident they will have a wonderful time. For many children, this will be their first experience staying away from home, which is an important learning opportunity in itself. A huge thank you to the senior teachers who have worked tirelessly to make this happen for our students.

Organizing outdoor experiences like this involves massive efforts with many moving parts. In recent years, planning these events has become more challenging, especially considering the significant health and safety requirements. Every odd year, we are committed to providing children with an outdoor experience. For our year one and two children, we organize a trip that includes school-based activities and a slightly extended day. For the year three and four children, we plan two day trips, with the first day including dinner at school. Our year five and six students get to enjoy two nights away from home, experiencing all the adventures that come with camp life. By structuring these activities in this way, we hope every child has at least three opportunities to participate in outdoor experiences.

We are grateful to everyone who supports these experiences. Without your help, they would not be possible.

Leslee Allen

Respect

I wanted to share a challenge we are currently facing regarding respect among our students. We are noticing a significant lack of respect for personal belongings, our environment, classroom equipment, and each other. Our school values kindness, respect, and empathy, which we emphasize strongly. However, it feels like we are currently fighting an uphill battle.

We have observed PE equipment scattered all over the school grounds, balls being kicked into neighboring paddocks, and items left out being broken. Despite keeping the PE shed locked, we are puzzled about how these items are being accessed. We are also struggling with ensuring that children wear their hats, and our lost property situation is out of control. In the native garden, rocks are being smashed and moved, leaving our environmental team overwhelmed.

In addition to these issues, certain behaviors in classrooms and on the playground do not align with the respect we expect. This has been challenging for our teachers. We kindly ask that when we bring any concerns about your child's behavior to your attention, you help them take responsibility for their actions. While we understand that there are multiple perspectives and factors in every situation, the first step to helping children own their actions is by isolating their actions and supporting us, rather than explaining them away.

We appreciate your understanding and cooperation as we work together to reinforce these core values in our students.

If you are using our grounds after school hours, or have children at sports practice, please ensure they are following the same school rules that we would expect, for example, if they are riding their bike, they need a helmet.

Hats

ALL children need to be wearing a hat outside in Term 1 and Term 4. These need to have a full brim or a flap at the back. Please support us by ensuring they have one to use each day at school.