Week Ten News

 

Kaurihohore School Week Ten, Term One News 2022

Manaaki te katoa - be kind to all. 

Respect - Empathy - Kindness 

He whakatauki. Ehara tāku toa i te toa takitahi. Engari, he toa takitini.

Success is not the work of one but the work of many.

Kia ora koutou,  

Covid continues to work its way through our school.  Basically every class has families impacted now, with the average number in classes being 15.

 

In this newsletter I don’t want to focus on COVID, but instead on our fabulous staff who have really soldiered through.  We recently passed an unwanted milestone in our country, two years of dealing with COVID.  During this time staff have proved themselves to be resilient, flexible and committed.  Like a quality team, they pulled together to support each other and our community and I could never thank them enough.  They have gone above and beyond and responded to each change with unflappable strength. 

 

While the world has been turned on its head, they have done their best to keep school a safe, connected place for children. I  couldn’t have asked for more.

 

We are hopeful that next term we can go back to welcoming you on site, unmasked outside, opening up the office and ensuring all parents are able to volunteer for activities and no longer be impacted by the mandates.  

 

 

E hara taku tao

i te toa takitahi

he toa takitini

My strength is not as an individual, but as a collective.

Lost Property

This is an ongoing issue that we are becoming really frustrated with.  It is important that children take responsibility for their own property, there is no one staff member with the responsibility of picking up and handing back property.  When it comes down to it, this is not our job.  

As a staff we have deliberated and tried to solve the problem of lost property.   It does not work where it currently is, and just becomes an eyesore for the classrooms it is beside.  Children don’t seem to recognise their clothes anymore and most clothing is not named.  In fact children are more likely to recognise the clothes of others,  than their own.  So we have come up with a new approach that we hope will help.

You can help this approach greatly by naming their clothes!  This means when we hold them up at the end of the day in class, they can not dispute ownership.

Each fortnight a class will take responsibility for the lost property, they will collect it when needed and display it at least twice, all classes will view this (as we currently do) and the teacher will post a video on facebook.  It will be kept in a big container outside of the classroom that is responsible that week.  Please don’t expect clothes to be delivered to owners, instead expect your child to collect their own lost property.

The teacher in that class will ask for a parent volunteer from their classroom to come in and take the lost property away at the end of that fortnight to wash and donate to a charity shop.  We will be disposing of any socks or underwear.  This hopefully will mean children become more accountable, as they only have two weeks to claim it before it is gone.  This week Room 10 are responsible, so the lost property container is currently located outside of their room.

We are hoping that this plan works and helps children take a little more responsibility for their belongings.

Honey

There is still honey available for sale at the office. 

Fundraising

As I detailed last week, every year we raise significant funds to simply keep the school running.  This year we need to raise $26 000.

We are hopeful that throughout the year, everyone will be able to help in some way so that the work does not always fall on the shoulders of a few.

Next term we plan to have a disco, a couple of pizza lunches, sausage sizzles, there will also be items that are for sale, some kindly donated by parents.  Every small amount adds up. 

Through our fundraising page, we will be reaching out for help and to inform you of how we are going.  If you see something you are able to help with, we hope that you will let us know.  Please take the time to like this page, so you see our updates.

We currently need volunteers to help with a BBQ fundraiser, outside of school hours:

We’ve been lucky enough to have been granted use of the BBQ hire at Bunnings Warehouse, Whangarei, Saturday 14th May! All proceeds will go towards the turf for our school

There will be three shifts:

1st - 8.30am till 10.30am

2nd - 10.30am till 12.30pm

3rd - 12.30pm till 2.30pm

We require three helpers per shift:

1x cook

1x cash handler

1x helper

Everything required will be organised & collated ahead of time and supplied to a helper from the first shift on the Friday afternoon prior. A few hours of your time would be much appreciated! Please pop the shift you can help with volunteering below. Thank you

Please reply to Lacey’s post on facebook, or come into the office and let Dianne know you can help.  These are good fundraisers, so it would be a shame not to be able to do it because we couldn’t get the help.  A massive thanks to those that have already volunteered, we really appreciate you!

 

Canopy Project

This project got underway this week.  The project is being paid for by a combination of ministry project money and funds the BOT has set aside for other projects like painting.  Altogether the project is projected to come in at  $192 000, with $50 000 of that coming from our funds.  The original plan was for fundraising through the gala and other activities to be completed early on and the $50 000 paid back quickly so that it could be used for the other projects we need to pay for in the future.  However with COVID this has not been the case and we had to make the decision to go ahead with the project and trust that we could eventually raise $50 000 over and above the $26 000 we need for day to day costs.  So yes, we will be fundraising to cover a canopy well after it is already built.  Then we can move on to raising money to replace the turf.

If fundraising seems like it is never ending…that is because it is.

 

Easter Raffle

The deadline for the raffle has passed.  If you have any tickets/money that need to be entered into the raffle get these in by tomorrow at the absolute latest.  We are so grateful to those families who sold tickets, we know it is not an easy time, but with $26 000 to raise this year we just have to keep trucking on.

 

Empty Classroom Day

We will be having our empty classroom day on the last day of term.  Thursday the 14th of April.  On this day, children play outside.  Given the time of year, it may be muddy if we get rain, so several changes of clothes will be needed, a bag to put them in and a towel are musts on this day!  Warm clothing is also a very good idea.

Children are welcome to bring along tools (no knives) or other items they would like to use.  Some children choose to bring tents etc that they can easily put up and down.  They come set up for a great day with their friends.

Others like to bring along items to play games with…whatever they do bring, remember it is their responsibility to look after it at school.

You may like to come along on the day, especially if there is a project your child would like help with, I know some are really into building huts at the moment, so it is a good opportunity to get a bit of adult input.

If outside with children, you will not need to be masked on this day.

We will have sausages and baking available for sale on this day too.  A form will be sent home for orders.

 

Swimming

We are so lucky to be able to swim all of Term 1, thanks to our heat pump.  The pool is kept running by a wonderful group of volunteers, without them, running our pool would just not be possible.  Thank you all so much for your time!  

 

EPRO8

On the 23rd and 24th of March a group of Year 5 & 6 students participated in the EPRO8 - Science, Technology and Engineering challenge.  They have had a blast!  We look forward to a lucky 8 people going to the inter-school event early next term.  Thank you to Yvette for initially booking this in and to Cathy Hadfield for taking this over.  Such a fabulous opportunity for our children and another example of how our teachers go above and beyond to provide as many quality opportunities as they can.

 

Art Discovery Days

Last week we had an email for the educator at Hundertwasser Art Centre with Wairau Māori Art Gallery.  They were offering to run the Hundertwasser art experience at our school for free.  This includes a short lesson on Hundertwasser followed by a fun art activity for our tamariki.  Of course we leapt at the opportunity as the arts are massively important and it is very rare that anything is offered for free.  We are booked in for week two of next term and know that children will love the experience.

 

Seasons For Growth

We are lucky enough to be able to offer the Seasons for Growth program at Kaurihohore school. We would love to get as many children through this program as we can during their time with us. Please have a read through the information and see if you would be interested in your child being part of these sessions. Seasons for Growth is a school-based peer program for children and young people (aged 6 - 18) who may have experienced change or loss in their lives such as a death, separation, divorce, health, relocation, the joining of a new school or any other change or loss no matter how large or small. It aims to strengthen the social and emotional wellbeing of children in a safe learning environment where they can give voice to their experiences, understand and befriend their feelings, learn skills that help them adapt, develop friendships and help them take ownership of their emotions. The program is made up of a small group of up to 6 children with trained facilitators, referred to as ‘companions’ (in this case Kelly Glasgow and Tanya Gwyn) and consists of 8 weekly sessions, 1 celebration session and one follow up session of up to 1 hour per week. It is a safe and engaging child centered program that incorporates a wide range of age appropriate activities involving drawing, role play, stories, discussion, playdough, music and journal activities. Each weekly session explores a concept theme such as, Life is like the Seasons, Change is Part of Life, Valuing My Story, Caring for my Feelings, and Making Good Choices. Seasons for Growth programs help strengthen the building of personal resilience, coping and social skills, and increasing participants' sense of belonging. If you are interested in your child taking part in our sessions in term 2, please let the office know or contact Tanya via email at tanya.gwyn@kaurihohoreschool.co.nz so we can organise a permission form to come home. If you require any more information feel free to make contact also. Our next group starting in Term 2 will be for 4 children, with any children over and above this amount being placed on a waiting list for Term 3. 

Kind regards, Tanya Gwyn Learning Support Coordinator Kaurihohore School.

Pilot Programme - Wellbeing

At Kaurihohore we take our approach to assisting well being and helping children to be happy self-regulated individuals, who embrace emotions and know how to respond when things get tough.  This is important work, and work we have taken on ourselves, because funding or external support for children and whānau is basically non-existent.  

If we don’t do it, who will?

This is where the nurture room was born from, where KiVa, Seasons for growth, zones of regulation, Pause Breathe Smile and other classroom approaches originated.  They were all self-initiated, self-funded and self-sustaining.  You may have noticed approaches like our termly happiness survey for children, from this data we identify those that would benefit from weekly catch ups with our Wellbeing leader (Kelly Glasgow.)  Over time we have formed many strings to our bow, out of necessity and wanting to do the best for our children.

Seasons for growth was a programme piloted here first by Barnardos and then put into other schools.  It continues to be delivered here because our lead teachers are trained in the approach and care enough to ensure it happens.  

We are excited to announce that we are again partnering with Barnardos, together we will be creating our own programme, where we see a real need.  

This pilot will be written and trialled by Barnardos with our key staff.  It will be delivered through cooking and life skills, with a wider purpose.

At the moment we hope to include these topics but will be collaborating together to negotiate these:

1. Right from wrong decision making

2. Anger management

3. Emotional coaching

4. Relationship forming

5. Managing pocket money

Other potential topics

·   Focus and Self-Control.

·   Perspective-Taking.

·   Communication.

·   Making Connections.

·   Critical Thinking.

·   Taking on Challenges.

·   Self-Directed, Engaged Learning.

There will be two to three Barnardos workers delivering the programme, with 8-10 children in the initial group.  Support staff are also likely to be involved.  At the moment we are not sure if this will take place at school, or at Barnardos.  There is no confirmed date for start, but it will be early next term, all going well.

This programme would probably be best for Year 4 up.

If you would like your child to be part of this pilot programme, that then could quite possibly benefit many schools in our area, please email me principal@kaurihohoreschool.co.nz or let Dianne in the office, or your child’s teacher know.   I can not guarantee they will be part of it, but they will be added to the list, and it is likely we will run this more than once.

 

 

Term One- Known Dates

14th of April - Last day of the school term, empty classroom day!

Term Two - Known Dates

2nd May - First day back

4th May - Epro8 challenge at KIS for selected group

10th and 11th - Art workshops for classes at school

6th June - Queen's Birthday

24th June - Matariki

School Disco - Date to be confirmed

School Bank Account Details

 Account 12-3093-0200709-00

Kaurihohore school board of Trustees

Food for thought... 

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

Leslee Allen