Prize giving 2018

My speech to end the year 💛

Thank you all for joining with us today to celebrate our children, our school and our community.  And there is much to be celebrated.  As a school we never stop striving for success, to give our children the most wonderful school experience they can have and along the way, to help them to be successful.

But what is success…

Many would say if we are talking about education that success is achieving academically at the highest level possible.  Leaving school with qualifications that allow you to get the best jobs, that earn you a lot of money and allow you to live comfortably. 

While those things may be nice, I want to challenge this notion of success.

We strive for success here at Kaurihohore, but for us, this has very different measures.

Success is the ability to be kind, and in the act of being kind, finding happiness within ourselves and with others.

Success is having a deep understanding and appreciation for ourselves, our strengths, our weaknesses, the things that make us tick.  The understanding that we can always improve with effort.

Success is the appreciation of hard work and the reward of doing it for ourselves.

Success is using our strengths to work for the good of others, in turn, making our world better.

Success is cherishing the hard times, the challenges, the mistakes because it is from these things that we all grow.

Success is developing the dispositions that allow us to make a positive impact on our world and the people around us, because ultimately, that is what life should be about.

As a school it is our hope that we can allow children to develop this definition of success, because in attending to character, we naturally take academic progress along for the ride.  

Thank you to all that have helped us in our endeavours this year, to all of you that have supported your children to see success in the simplest of ways.  

To our parent support group who have worked hard in the background to allow us the tools to best help this success and to our fantastic Board of Trustees who have  have helped to shape a strategic plan that embodies this notion of success.  Who  have allowed myself and my staff to continue to put the fun of childhood and the importance of wellbeing back at the centre of everything that we do.

To the children who strive to be the best person they can be each and every day, thank you.  

Finally to my team, without you, this school would not be what it is, my job would not be so rewarding.  Our work is important, and despite the challenges it sometimes brings, please understand that you are the most vital ingredient or our success.  

Today we get to capture the essence of our whakataukī in a song, written by our children.  To be able to adopt our whakataukī through song is truly special.

Mā te huruhuru

ka rere te manu

Adorn this bird with feathers to enable it to fly.

Here are a selection of photos from yesterday, to say I am proud to lead such a fabulous school, just doesn't cut it.  These children are special, our staff our special, our place is special.  I am an incredibly lucky person to be lead such an incredible school.  I wish everyone an absolutely wonderful Summer break.  To those families leaving us for good, we will miss you, please do not be strangers.  

Mrs Kake's Amazing Singing Group - Bringing our new whakataukī to life!

Ki ora e te whanau,

I wanted to share with you a little something about the singing group I got to work with this year.

14 tamariki / 3 full school days / time in a recording studio / air time on More FM!

Yes that all happened…and before the end of the school year. 

Here’s my not very brief summary of the process.

Every year I get to work with a talented group of singers and come up with something they can perform for an audience.

This year I decided they could write, sing and perform an original piece. I told them they would be writing a song for our kura that represents who we are here at Kaurihohore School.

In the 3 days given they pulled it off, and they performed for some of the classes on their last afternoon together. 

I wasn’t ready for it to be over, so with the help and support of Hannah Young & Dan Stenhouse (Director of Creative Lab) the tamariki went on to record their waiata, in a real studio situation. They had to fundraise the money to pay for it, and managed to raise just over half of it during our school market day. A big thanks to those that supported them! The tamariki were extremely lucky to be given a koha to cover the rest, from an anonymous donor…THANK YOU!!!!!!! 

They were amazing throughout this process and got the job done in 6hours, spread over 3 days, and they absolutely loved the experience.

I was still not quite satisfied, so I called up More FM and asked if they would consider giving the kids song some air time…they agreed!

I chose 2 students to come to the radio station with me to talk about their journey with this song…this will be aired Thursday 20th on the brekky show.

I’m now looking at trying to get a video done for the song too…here’s hoping!

A massive thanks to…

…Hannah Young, for your support and guidance!

…Dan Stenhouse, for your time, patience and expertise!

…’Robin’ our anonymous donor!

…all the whanau of the tamariki that trusted in me to take their tamariki on this journey!

…the staff at Kaurihohore for supporting me when I had to leave during school hours

…More Fm, for giving the tamariki air time for their waiata!

…Last but not least, the awesome, amazing & talented tamariki I got to work with!

Lyrics to the song can be read here.

Charlie Hammond

Raewyn Strydom

Rachael Jackson

Shaiyan Adam

Lilli-Jade Nonia

Charli Mcdonnell

Petina-Rose Randell

Shyloh  Moorehouse-Wyatt

Megan Pascoe

Mia Abbott

Rebekah Nattrass

Giselle Te-Rangi

Jordan Young

Lily Young

-Mrs Kake

End of Year Details

As the year quickly draws to a conclusion, here is some important information you may need:

- Reports come home on the 18th.  Teachers have spent a huge amount of time writing these, please take the time to read them.  With the reports will be a stationery list and a class list.  Keep these somewhere safe.

-Our prizegiving and festival will be held on the 19th of December at 1pm, we will start promptly and will once again be sitting out on the field on the bank.  We have organised gazebos for shade, however please bring something to sit on and your own shelter if you wish, just think of the view of others if you have an umbrella.  We are hoping this will conclude by 2.30pm all going well, but as it is new, this is a bit of an unknown.  Prizegiving will be ably led by Raewyn and Jordan.

If it is raining, we have no plan B as we are simply too big, we will hand out awards in the courtyard area to ensure children don't miss out, but the festival section of the day will have to be cancelled.

This is the intended order of events.

1pm - School Song together - Kapa Haka

Kapa Haka Award

Room 1-2-3 item

Principal Speech

Swimming Trophy

Calf Club Trophy

Random Rubbish Award (Class award)

Athletics

Cross Country

Room 4-5 item  Ma te Wai

Growth Mindset Awards- Room 1 - 6

Outstanding Progress awards

Outstanding Effort awards

Room 7 & 8 items

-----short break
Winner of Kauri’s got talent - Zelda

Ako awards (good attitude)

Arts Awards (performing and visual)

Academic Excellence Year 4 - 6

Room 9 item

Room 6 &10 item

Sporting Excellence Award

Year 6 Leavers certificates

Good Citizen of the year

Chairperson speech

Jump Jam Performance

Singing group to conclude.

Approx finish 2.30pm

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Stationery lists will be sent home with reports and stationery can be ordered online here you will need to know your child's class number. Room One children who return to Room One do not need new stationery so are not listed on the site.

Our last day is December the 20th we finish at 12.30pm, please ensure children are picked up promptly. The office will still be open on the 21st.

We start back at 9am on the 7th of February. The office will be open in the week prior to assist you with anything you need.

Please understand while the office is closed over the holidays any emails may not be read or responded to.

Reporting Survey

Over the next three years, we will be working on the way we report to you about your child and their progress in a range of areas.  The aim of this is to be able to provide you more 'real time' reporting, rather than having to wait for a mid and end of year report and to provide a picture of your child and their learning journey over their whole time at our school.  We also feel that conversations about your child and their learning are often far more useful to you than a written report, but it is a useful starting point.  In 2019 we would like to work on the way we use learning conversations, rather than the old form of 'parent interview' that often was not around learning.  This would mean a return to having an appointment time.
As part of this process we really want to know what it is you hope a report will tell you.  Obviously academic/developmental levels are a given in any report about learning, but what else do you want to know?


Please click on this link to complete a very short survey.