Week Five News

  

Kaurihohore School Week Five, Term One 2023

Manaaki te katoa - be kind to all. 

Respect - Empathy - Kindness 

Tohaina ō painga ki te ao

“Share your gifts with the world”

Kia ora koutou,  

It’s a busy time at the moment, with Year 3 and 4 camp last week, EPRO8 challenge, bee group,  swimming sports and now Year 5 and 6 camp this week along with the Year 1 and 2 trip and dinner at school.  

These events just would not be possible without motivated teachers and support staff, so much work goes in behind the scenes, with many hours spent in personal time with organisation.  We are very lucky at our school that we have teachers willing to add to their teaching load to organise  events and activities like this.  We are also lucky to have such a supportive community, we couldn’t make things happen without your support.

As we have discussed before, our school budget runs at a deficit because we prioritise people.  That means we employ enough teachers to keep our classes small and enough support staff to ensure children that need it, get the help they deserve.  Because we prioritise people, we need to raise $26 000 each year, via fundraising, to ensure we can pay for other items that are much needed to enrich your child’s learning and simply keep the school running.   Our people, particularly our support staff are paid out of the same budget that pays for toilet paper and electricity, this is an ongoing issue that is simply wrong!  

In fact it is a major issue for Principals around the country as we seek to support our most vulnerable children and it is part of the negotiations we are currently in. 

I hope that I can count on your support as we as a principal and teaching group fight to make school an equitable place for all children, through sufficient funding.  

The very sad fact is that the $26 000 that we endeavour to raise, still leaves us with a defecit.  When you see items on the news about pay negotiations, please know that this is about much more than pay!

This $26 000 that we fundraise simply ensures our budget is enough to cover our needs, any other items like the new turf, need to be part of separate fundraising.  We are very lucky to have Bronwyn Bayne committed to applying for grants for these ‘like to have’ items.  She has just completed a major application for the new turf and has successfully secured a grant to purchase extra chrome books.  Along with Holly Lucas, they are really making a difference to our school through their efforts, we appreciate this greatly and can not thank them enough!  

When it comes down to it, it is all about our kids. If we all do our part, this place is better for everyone.  On that note, you will notice that our fundraisers will be kicking off soon.  Please support these in any way that you can, if everyone helps in some way, we will quickly reach our target and then perhaps be able to work on our next wish list.

I appreciate your support.

He aha te mea nui o te ao? He tangata, he tangata, he tangata 

What is the most important thing in this world?  It is the people, it is the people, it is the people.

Leslee Allen

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.

Our school blog is kaurihohoreschool.blogspot.com

Office emails are: 

Chrissie - admin@kaurihohoreschoo.co.nz

Dianne - reception@kaurihohoreschool.co.nz

Chelsea/Enrolments - kaurienrolments@kaurihohoreschool.co.nz

Leslee - principal@kaurihohoreschool.co.nz

Fundraisers - Please support us if you can

Bulbs

We are not quite ready to run this through Kindo, so will be sending hard copy order forms for bulb orders to come home today with the juniors and then next week with the seniors that are on camp.  Please encourage anyone that would like to purchase bulbs to do so through this fundraiser.  

Easter Raffle

Every year Dianne organises a fantastic Easter raffle.  15 tickets per family will be coming home soon, the tickets will be $2.   Please bring in items that can be used for the raffle, it does not have to be chocolate, it can be any items that would be lovely to win in a hamper, please no expired goods.  Please make the effort to sell these tickets, even if you can not sell all of them, every little bit counts.

Pizza Lunch - Kindo Launch - 16th of March and 30th of March

We are going to be running a pizza lunch fundraiser to kick off the use of Kindo.  This will be a kindo only fundraiser, please refer to the information sent home about Kindo to set your account up.  Orders will open on the 6th of March and close on the 13th of March.  For the first fundraiser, no orders will be taken through the office and the no orders for the 16th of March will be accepted after the 13th.   We are aiming to get as many families on Kindo as possible.

Hats 

Wow this is becoming a real issue for us.  It has never been so difficult to make sure children actually have a named hat at school and then actually wear it.  Please support us in making sure children do have a hat in their bag and that it is named.  Children without hats are not supposed to be playing in the sun, but with the amount of children without hats, this is becoming really difficult to enforce.  Classes do have some spare hats, but the last thing we want to do is spread nits, I am sure you don’t want these little visitors either.

Lost Property

Like hats this is also becoming the bane of our existence.  There is constantly clothes and other items left at school and most of this goes unclaimed.  Children just don’t seem to care about their belongings.  You can help by naming them, but you can also help by not replacing items that are lost. Help us to make children accountable for what they take to school  and responsible for looking after it.  Please note, the class in charge of putting lost property out, is not charged with returning property to children, we need children to be responsible enough to do this for themselves.  You are free to check it at any time.  

Attendance

It is absolutely vital that children attend school regularly.  If your child is not sick, they need to be at school.  Irregular attendance impacts not only academically, but more importantly, it impacts socially.  Friendships can be hard to make and to keep and not being at school regularly can be a real trigger for anxiety.  Please support us and your child by having them at school every day unless they are sick.  If your child is away, we need a reason for absence, or they will be marked truant.

KINDO

We have officially launched KINDO and our first fundraiser will be a pizza lunch.  Thank you Renee Pilkington for organising this.  Eventually Kindo will be used for the majority of payments to the school.  It makes payments simpler for you and for us, you can find more information on the sheets sent home via seesaw.  Take the time now to  get set up with the KINDO app, your details must match the ones we have on our system for you, if your email is incorrect at our end, you will need to come in and amend it with the office.  If grandparents want to purchase they need to be linked on our system as a caregiver, please come in and see Dianne to set this up.  

Drop off and Pick Ups

Please don’t drop children before 7.45am at the earliest and pick them up by 3.20pm at the very latest.  

Staff Car Park

Please do not use this area in the morning.  You may park here in the afternoon as long as you are simply picking up your child and going straight away. Please do not park here if you intend to stay at school for any length of time.

Term One -Dates 

2nd of March -Year 1 and 2  day out and dinner at school 

28th - 3rd March - Year 5-6 camp

15th March - WPSSA Swimming sports for those that qualify

9th March - EPRO8 competition at Whangarei Intermediate School

22nd March - Visit to Tahi honey for the bee group

5th of April - End of year awards assembly 2.15pm (whole school)

6th of April - Empty Classroom Day

7th of April - Good Friday

Term Two

24th of April - Teacher only day (school closed for children)

25th of April - ANZAC day

26th of April - First day back for children

31st of May - Winter Sports Day Year 5 and 6 (we will need help on the BBQ as this is a great fundraiser, we’d love your help.)

Term Four - Last day 15th of December 12.00pm

School Bank Account Details - 

All payments now go through the one account.

Account 12-3093-0200709-00

Kaurihohore school board of Trustees

Soon you will be able to use KINDO for the majority of payments to the school.

Food for thought…

Noho ora mai -

Leslee Allen