Week Nine News

 Kaurihohore School Week Nine, Term One News 

Manaaki te katoa - be kind to all. 

Respect - Empathy - Kindness 

Kia ora Koutou

This will be the last newsletter for the term.

This term has been a really productive one, and unlike Term One of 2020, we feel like we are managing to get a lot done.  There is a happy, content vibe around the school, and despite a lot of tired eyes from the dark mornings, children are doing really well.

While the end of term is fast approaching, classes are still really busy places, we urge you not to let children have days off school unless they are sick or desperately need them, days off mean children miss out academically and socially so please don’t this to become a pattern of behaviour.  

Gala 2021

Yes, the gala is going ahead this year.  Our fabulous parent support group is working on this, and would love any help you could offer.  Many hands make light work and with people taking responsibility for different areas, it makes the process a little less daunting.

However this event can not go ahead without your support  and there will be many small ways you can help to make this day a fabulous one!

Set aside the date now: 20th of November, we will need a lot of helpers on the day!

What you can do now:

• Save small wrapped lollies and little toys for our ever popular jolly jars, the more we can make of these, the better.  Send these into school when you can.

• Save any items at home that you may be thinking of donating for the White Elephant.  Items need to be in good condition in order to sell, so please don’t save junk.  Please note, these items can not be sent in yet and we will let you know when you can start sending them in.

Money raised from the gala will be put towards the all weather canopy that we are building, this is a massive project and we urge you to support the PSG in any way that you can!

Real Time Reporting

Sometime in the last week of this term you will receive via seesaw the first instalment of your child’s cumulative report.  This will include some starting levels according to the curriculum and a comment based on the dispositions your child is developing as a learner.  If you need a copy of this in another form, please talk to your child’s teacher.  This report will be added to each term.

Over this year you will also receive updates on reading, maths and writing at least twice via seesaw, with your child’s progress and their next steps.  Teachers will complete these when they have checked in with your child.  

If you have any questions or concerns relating to your child, please send a message via seesaw, email or phone and set up a time to talk to your child’s teacher.  Don’t put this off, it is easier to deal with questions or problems when they arise and before they have gotten bigger than they need to be.  Real time reporting works well, it allows you to have the information in its up to date form, and also allows you to communicate with us as and when you need it, solving problems of having queries answered at the earliest possible moment.  As with everything in life, clear, respectful, timely communication is key.  

Spelling

As part of our learning about Structured Literacy over the last few years we are also realizing even more how much impact a child’s speech has on their spelling.  While immature speech can be ‘cute’ it has a detrimental impact on a child's spelling progress and needs to be corrected in a gentle, but consistent manner.  To learn to spell, children are taking sound, to print.  This means what they hear as the sounds when they say them out loud, they then spell them down as they hear them.  As they incorrectly do this over and over again, they soon map the spelling in these words incorrectly, meaning they believe this word is spelt right and don’t see the need to correct it.  This is a similar concept as forming letters incorrectly, which is why we need to be working on correct formation from the beginning.  We now know much more about the strong link between reading and spelling and how vital it is that children are pronouncing the sounds correctly to be able to spell them down.  We also know much more about how children map the sounds in words to spell them, if they are doing this incorrectly over and over again, they map them incorrectly and this is very hard to break. However in saying this, with explicit, consistent teaching, this pattern can be changed no matter a child’s age.  I have shared a couple of videos to help with this on our school blog.  I will share this link on our school facebook page.  If you want to know how to best help your child, or are concerned your child may have a specific learning difference like dyslexia, please talk to your child’s teacher, we can let you know ways you can help and offer assessments to give a better idea of what might be going on.

Easter Break

Once every few years Easter break falls within term time, rather than the holidays.  With many very tired and unwell children, this is a timely break.  School will be closed from Friday the 2nd of April until Tuesday the 6th of April.  We will be back at school on Wednesday the 7th.  Tuesday has always been observed as a holiday for schools, however because it is often term time, many don’t realise this.  We hope that you get a chance to spend some quality time with your family over this break.  

Term Dates

Please note that all dates and other information are kept as up to date as possible via our school blog, you can access this at kaurihohoreschool.blogspot.com

Term Two

Begins 3rd of May

Ends 9th of July

Term Three

Begins 26th July

Ends 1st October

Term Four

Begins 18th of October

Ends 12.00 December 14th

We have not yet set a return date for 2022 and won’t do this till much closer to the end of the year.  However you can find guide dates by searching term dates 2022, this will give you an idea of the earliest date a school can come back and the latest date schools can return.  All schools are mandated with the responsibility for setting their own return and end times within this framework.

Below are some known dates so far: 

Good Friday - 2nd April 

Easter Monday - 5th April 

Easter Tuesday - 6th April 

Room 1-3-4-5 - Extended EOTC Day - Please return permission forms

Term one Ends - 16th April 

Moosies and Juicies

The junior classes are selling these to cut back on costs for the upcoming junior day out.  You can purchase these for $2, please have orders in by the Wednesday each week. You can arrange payment into our bank account, or via cash to the office, just please let us know.  This week these will be given out on Thursday due to Friday being a holiday.  

Our Environment - Our Community

Over the next few years we will be having  a big focus on Kaitiakitanga, we are wanting children to identify problems in our environment or community and work on generating solutions to these problems.  Starting locally leads to thinking globally.  We also want to work on renewing and reinvigorating areas of our school to make it a better place to be.  We would love your help with part of this, by eliminating rubbish from your child’s lunch box and working on alternatives to things that come in plastic wrapping.  There are loads of ideas online if you are not sure how to do this.  If everyone makes a small change, we can make a big difference.  You can also help us by encouraging your child to look after their belongings and take them home from school, rather than leaving them lying around the school.  If they know their clothing will not be replaced and that they need to take care of it, they will look after these items.  

Crofts Poles And Timber  - Our Current Projects

 We are happy to have the ongoing support of Crofts Poles and Timber, they are assisting us in our Environmental improvements around the school.  Our current project is to mulch the remaining area of our fence line, ready to plant Manuka and Kanuka in a few months.  This links in with our bee project.  

Crofts will also be supporting Rūma Piwakawaka in their project to beautify the monkey bar area.  They will be supplying bark and timber for this area, we appreciate their support.

We then have further plans to mulch other areas of our school to extend the native bush area and in the future explore ways to create a  sandpit area for the juniors that links through to the Native bush, we are excited by this partnering as it gives a much needed boost to our project timeline.  

 Mulch Moving

As mentioned above, we have a pile of mulch that needs moving as soon as possible so it has time to sit.  If you have any time to spare in the next few weeks, we would love it if you could come in and help.  You’ll need a wheelbarrow, spade or shovel and just a little time.  Come and see Dianne or Paul  if you think you may be able to help with this.

Easter Raffle 

Thank you to everyone who supported this raffle, this has been drawn today.  We have raised $3004 which will go directly towards structured literacy in our school.  Congratulations to the winners, we hope this makes your Easter just a little bit sweeter.

Games

If you have any unwanted board games, cards or other types of games that are in complete condition we would love them for school to distribute across the classrooms.  Games are a great way to encourage a range of very important dispositions and most importantly they are fun!  Anything you have that is in complete condition that you are willing to give away would be appreciated.

Rūma Piwakawka, Kahu, Pukeko, Kōtare - Extended EOTC Event (1, 3, 4, 5)

A note went home regarding this trip last week.  Could you please return your form as soon as possible if you have not already done so.  The contribution  for this will be $8 as we have raised enough through moosies and juices to fund the food portion of the day, but not flip out.  Socks are included in this price.  Please send your contribution to the school office as soon as you are able to do so.  

Need to do now… 

1)Remember that the 6th of April is a holiday for schools

2))Junior school return forms to the office for our trip and $8 contribution when you can, before we go on the trip.

3)Last day of this term is 16th of April, this is a normal length day.

4)First day of Term 2 is Monday the 3rd of May

Food for thought... 

Noho ora mai - stay well, look after yourself and look out for others!

Leslee Allen

Week 7 News

 

Kaurihohore School Week Seven, Term One News 

Manaaki te katoa - be kind to all. 

Respect - Empathy - Kindness Kia ora koutou 

As we work our way through week seven the staff and I have been reflecting on a common problem arising in our classes to varying degrees.  

We have been struggling with the lack of respect some of our tamariki show for their belongings, themselves and each other.  We are seeing things broken deliberately, belongings left lying around, rubbish on the ground and in some cases a total lack of empathy for each other's needs.   In fact some children don’t even seem to care that they have left their belongings lying around and do not even recognise that they belong to them  .As you can imagine, we are becoming very disheartened seeing the ill treatment of items like the school bikes (with the bike shed only just being able to be opened again after several tyres popped on the first day of opening) and the breaking of school wide classroom equipment and other items purchased with staff money.  It was only this morning that I arrived at school to see bike helmets lying outside in the lost property, abandoned by their owners...these are helmets provided by the school.  There seems to be a total disregard from some children for how much items cost and how lucky they are to have them.

As a staff we have been reflecting on the currently very effective approaches we use as part of our wellbeing strategy...promoting kindness and upstanding through KiVa, helping children to understand and name their emotions and the emotions of others through Zones of Regulation and assisting them to own, fix and learn from their mistakes through Restorative practice.  

We have a huge focus on respect, empathy and kindness, but at the moment while it is working for many, this is not working for everyone.  We urge you to continue to help us by encouraging independence, respect for others and accountability for actions.  Emotional intelligence and the ability to show respect, kindness and empathy for others are such vital skills for the future.  If your children are struggling to look after their basic belongings perhaps making them keep scooters, bikes, nerf guns etc at home until they can look after items reliably would be a good first step approach.

We urge you to ask “what if everyone did that?”

Attendance

Please advise us straight away if your child is going to be away from school for any reason. You can use kauriabsences@gmail.com, the school loop app, or phone the school office and leave a message. Please ensure you give us the reason for absence as we are required to have this for our records.   If you tell the teacher about absence, please also tell the office, sometimes we get busy and forget to pass the message on and you will then get a phone call.  

Remember when children have frequent days off, it hurts their academic progress, but more importantly, hinders them socially it is hard to make and maintain friendships when a child is frequently away.

Community Defibrillator

Part of taking action in our community has been our work this year towards getting a community defibrillator.  After investigating locations of the nearest defibrillator we were concerned to find out that access was limited  and would take a ten minute drive at least to obtain one from Kamo Mcdonalds.  This concerned us, accidents can happen anywhere at any time and a defibrillator can save a life quite literally.  With the hall and church nearby we thought that it would be a great initiative to obtain one as a school that was available to anyone in the area 24 hours a day.  

So I set out to make a givealittle page which raised just over $500 of the needed $4000 (for the defibrillator and ongoing maintenance.) 

I am very very happy to announce that yesterday I was contacted by St John who have today donated a defibrillator to our community and are also happy to run community training at a later date.  

This means we will have the defibrillator on site and available from this week onwards.  It will soon be mounted at the end of the office, facing the staff car park.  The money raised through givealittle is enough to maintain the defibrillator for five years and this is a task the school, as an active part of our community, are happy to take responsibility for.  

Reading

As we have shared before, the way we teach reading and spelling has changed over the last few years.  We are now basing how we teach reading using the copious amounts of research which tells us how every brain learns to read.  This year is the first year the whole school is employing a structured literacy approach.  This means we are teaching according to a scope and sequence (scope being what is taught, and sequence being the order it is taught in.)  In this approach there is no more guessing, children are given a solid grasp of the alphabetic code, that gradually builds over time and allows them to decode and encode (read and spell) using effective strategies by mapping the sounds in words.  

Parents of new entrant children will also notice that a big part of early reading and spelling is phonological awareness...this is the ability to manipulate and identify sounds out loud.  This awareness follows a sequence from hearing words in a sentence, hearing and generating rhyme, blending and deleting syllables right through to early phonemic awareness directly related to the alphabetic code (first and last sound and blending sounds to hear words.)  These skills are all necessary to be an effective reader and speller later on and are now explicitly taught in classrooms.

There is obviously a huge amount of learning that goes into becoming a reader and speller and some children take longer than others to get there, which is ok.  While some children seem to master reading and spelling easily, others need continued work on building strong foundations and truly embedding skills explicitly.  This is also ok.

However this does mean that by using decodable books we will no longer be able to give you are level or age related to the books your child is reading, if your child is reading decodable books this means the are working within level one of the curriculum for reading and this will be indicated by a stage on their cumulative report.  Working within level one means they are still developing mastery over our tricky alphabetic code.  Teachers will however be able to tell you what stage they are up to and what spelling features they are working on mastering so you can help at home.

Real Time Reporting

Towards the end of this term you will receive via seesaw the first installment of your child’s cumulative report.  This will include some starting levels according to the curriculum and a comment based on the dispositions your child is developing as a learner.  If you need a copy of this in another form, please talk to your child’s teacher.

Over this year you will also receive updates on reading, maths and writing twice a year via seesaw, with your child’s progress and their next steps.  Teachers will complete these when they have checked in with your child.  

If you have any questions or concerns relating to your child, please send a message via seesaw, email or phone and set up a time to talk to your child’s teacher.  Don’t put this off, it is easier to deal with questions or problems when they arrive and before they have gotten bigger than they need to be.

EOTC 

As you will be aware we try to provide children with education outside of the classroom where and when we can, below is the expectations we have as a school, so you can see what you can expect each year.  We were incredibly happy to be able to provide children recently with camping experiences in Level 2 and thank the teachers and the fantastic parents/family members for making this happen.

EOTC Expectations By Class 

	Piwakawaka, Kahu	Pukeko, Kōtare	Tui, Miromiro, Kererū	Year 5+6 Huia, Kiwi	Notes
Even Year	Normal class outings as planned	Normal class outings planned	Normal class outings planned	Normal class outings as planned	Efforts have been made to ensure every child has the opportunity of one sleepover, and one camp in their time at Kaurihohore. Unfortunately this may not always be the case. Activities are class based, until Year 5 and 6 in an odd year, where children travel away together as a group. Ruma Pukeko and Ruma Kōtare enjoy the trips with the junior school at the beginning of the year, but then get a sleepover at the end of the year on their own. Parent support and help for all events is crucial to them going ahead.
Odd Year	Term 1 A day out - trips planned and dinner at school.  Timing is up to the teachers responsible.	Term 1  A day out with the other junior classes, dinner at school, timing is up to teachers responsible. Term 4 sleepover as a group with activities at school or close by.  Sleepover is optional.	Term 1 One night Sleepover timed in with Senior Camp - activities planned.  Year 5 children in those classes will be on camp.	Term 1 Extended Camp

Below are some known dates so far: 

Good Friday - 2nd April 

Easter Monday - 5th April 

Easter Tuesday - 6th April 

Room 1-3-4-5 - Extended EOTC Day (note coming home soon)

Term one Ends - 16th April 

Please note Easter Tuesday is a day off mandated for Schools.

Hats

Please remember children need a hat with a brim or a hat with a flap at the back at school, no hat, no sun.  There are no caps allowed in Term 1 or 4, please do not allow children to bring these along to school as they just create problems.  Please name your child’s hat.

Sports and Activities

We frequently get emails and notices about sports and activities open to families and  children.  These are shared on facebook or via email, so please keep an eye out for anything shared by our community or the school.

Moosies and Juicies

The junior classes are selling these to cut back on costs for the upcoming junior day out.  You can purchase these for $2, please have orders in by the Wednesday each week. You can arrange payment into our bank account, or via cash to the office, just please let us know.

Our Environment - Our Community

Over the next few years we will be having  a big focus on Kaitiakitanga, we are wanting children to identify problems in our environment or community and work on generating solutions to these problems.  Starting locally leads to thinking globally.  We also want to work on renewing and reinvigorating areas of our school to make it a better place to be.  We would love your help with part of this, by eliminating rubbish from your child’s lunch box and working on alternatives to things that come in plastic wrapping.  There are loads of ideas online if you are not sure how to do this. 

Easter Raffle 

Please drop in an item for the raffle if you have not already done so. We still have quite a number of tickets outstanding, so please get these back to the office.  Tickets need to be sold and into the school office by the 25th of March and this will be drawn before the short Easter break.  

Check out this fabulous donation for the Easter Raffle,  from Gemma Hart of Rock Pool Resin, who wouldn’t want to win that!  Thank you so much!

Rūma Piwakawka, Kahu, Pukeko, Kōtare - Extended EOTC Event (1, 3, 4, 5)

We will be holding this on the 15th of April.  On this day we are hoping to get out and about to a couple of local venues, have dinner and a late night at school.  This will be a fun day and we will update relevant families as soon as we have confirmed details.  A note will come home very soon with these classes, but keep the day free if you think you may be able to provide transport.

Need to do now… 

1)Collect and bring in an item for the Easter raffle if you have not already

2)Bring in sold raffle tickets by the 25th of March

3)Remember that the 6th of April is a holiday for schools

4)Junior school please be on the lookout for permission and transport forms for our extended day out on the 15th of April, coming home soon.  

Noho ora mai - stay well, look after yourself and look out for others!

Leslee Allen

Week 5 News

 

Kaurihohore School Week Five, Term One News 

Manaaki te katoa - be kind to all. 

Respect - Empathy - Kindness 

Kia ora Koutou

The term is already flying by.  It is hard to believe that it is week five already.  This week is a busy one, with Year 5 and 6 off away at their camp and Rooms 6, 10, and 9  having their sleepover with two activities.  We hold EOTC events like this every second year, trying very hard to guarantee that every child experiences one extended camp in their time at school, either in Year 5 or Year 6.  These events would not be possible without your support, which we rely on heavily.  With the announcement of level two on Saturday night, the staff and I quickly had discussions on how we could ensure these EOTC events still went ahead.  Many schools have been quick to pull the pin on these events, but we did not want our children to miss out, unless they really had to.  With the venue  booked a year in advance for Senior camp, it was go now, or not at all this year.  With a bit of thought we were able to tweak plans to make them work within level two and are thankful to our supportive BOT for giving us the green light!  

Our children are lucky to be supported by adults that truly want them to have experiences, despite the current up and down nature of our world.

The pandemic has meant most people have missed out on so much, you only need to listen to hear about all the events, memorials, experiences and celebrations children and adults have missed out on, big and small.   It is enough to make you truly grateful for what we are able to do.

We will always do our best for the children and families of this school, sometimes our best means disappointments still happen, but unfortunately, or fortunately, depending on how you want to look at it, this is part of life.   

Attendance 

Please advise us straight away if your child is going to be away from school for any reason. You can use kauriabsences@gmail.com, the school loop app, or phone the school office and leave a message. Please ensure you give us the reason for absence as we are required to have this for our records.   Remember when children have frequent days off, it hurts their academic progress, but more importantly, hinders them socially it is hard to make and maintain friendships when a child is frequently away.

Below are some known dates so far: 

Swimming Sports with Glenbervie for selected Year 4-6 - 8th of March

Whangarei swimming sports for those that qualify - 17th of March

Good Friday - 2nd April 

Easter Monday - 5th April 

Easter Tuesday - 6th April 

Room 1-3-4-5 - Extended EOTC Day

Term one Ends - 16th April 

Please note Easter Tuesday is a day off mandated for Schools.

Beach Trip 

Thank you for all your wonderful support on the day.  Supervision is so crucial at this event,  and this great day out would not happen without you.

Level 2

I know we are all becoming very adept at slipping between level 1 and 2.  Please remember we will be at level 2 for at least the rest of this week.  Children need their own drink bottle and are not to bring any scooters, bikes, tools, toys etc from home during this time.  Please stay off school grounds unless you need to come in and use the office window for any queries.  I will always communicate with you as quickly as I can about any changes via facebook and then seesaw, please make sure you have access to one of these.  

Hats 

We are becoming frustrated by the amount of children not bringing hats to school.  Please assist your child by having them keep a hat in their bag.  For obvious reasons, we don’t like lending out hats.

Rubbish

For a zero waste school we sure have a lot of rubbish appearing in our playground.  Most of this rubbish is from children’s lunch boxes, which is really disappointing.  Please assist us in our zero waste endeavors by finding ways to eliminate plastic wrapping.  Children often eat the processed snacks before their ‘real’ food, so taking these snacks that are wrapped in plastic out of your child’s lunch box, you are encouraging them to eat the food you actually want them to eat and eliminating waste at home as well.  All classes will be undertaking environmental audits soon and working on ways they can solve any problems they identify, we would love your support with this.

Easter Raffle 

Please drop in an item for the raffle if you have not already done so.  Tickets need to be sold and into the school office by the 25th of March and this will be drawn before the short Easter break.

Rūma Piwakawka, Kahu, Pukeko, Kōtare - Extended EOTC Event (1, 3, 4, 5)

We will be holding this on the 15th of April.  On this day we are hoping to get out and about to two or three venues, have dinner and a late night at school.  This will be a fun day and we will update relevant families as soon as we have confirmed details.

Need to do now… 

1) Update medical and contact details for your child if you have done so 

2)Collect and bring in an item for the Easter raffle 

3)Bring in sold raffle tickets by the 25th of March

Food for thought... 

Noho ora mai - stay well, look after yourself and look out for others!

Leslee Allen