2025

KIA ORA, TALOFA LAVA, AND WELCOME BACK EVERYONE.

We are looking forward to the year ahead and have planned some very exciting learning opportunities for the children and staff this year.

We welcome a number of new tamariki and their whanau to our school this year and look forward to them becoming a part of our school community.

We also welcome new staff members Sarah McLeod, Sarah Hutchison who are taking up full time teaching positions and Jenny Ratana-Koia who is returning as a teacher after being away from Koraunui School for several years. 

MIHI WHAKATAU 

We start school on Wednesday 29^th January at 8:30am, with a mihi whakatau at 8.45am to welcome new staff, students and their whanau to our Kura.

New tamariki and whanau will meet outside the front gate at 8.30am and be brought on as a group. After the mihi whakatau the children will be collected by their teacher and taken to their class, whanau are welcome to stay for a cuppa and a chat.

STAFFING FOR 2025

We are currently fully staffed for the start of the new school year and look forward to continuing to work together with our school community to provide our tamariki with exciting and rich learning experiences across the school.  With the increase in release time to 5 days a term for each teacher provided to teachers by the government, all classes will have additional teachers working with tamariki during the year.  As much as possible, we will work to have the same release teachers working in the classes so there is as little disruption as possible for tamariki.

CLASS PLACEMENT

Your child’s class placement for 2025 was with their report in 2024. If you are unsure what class your child is in for 2025 or did not receive the end of year report, please contact the school office.

We will begin the year with the following class make up. 

TEACHER/STAFF ONLY DAYS

At this stage we have planned for two Ministry of Education teacher-only days during term time for 2025.  These will be as follows.

• Term 2 - Friday 30^th May – Curriculum and assessment day for teachers.
• Term 4 - Friday 24^th October – Curriculum and assessment day for teachers.

STATIONERY

This year we have been able to allocate some of the Ministry of Education donation scheme funding to school stationery.  This will pay for stationery the children require to begin the school year.  There will be no cost to parents/whanau for start of year stationery.

• All we are asking is that parents/caregivers/whānau make a $5 per child contribution

that will be used for classroom tissues and paper resources.  By keeping on top of hygiene, we anticipate we will go through a lot of tissues and products this year as we continue working to keep everyone safe.

• If your child needs a book bag this can be purchased at the school office for $4.50.
• We DO have eftpos at school! Our preference is to make a direct deposit into our bank account.  The school account number is 12-3478-0015483-00.  If this is not possible for you, eftpos and cash will be fine.
• We are happy to organise drip-feed payments for families as long as we haven’t had to chase payments in the past.

ATTENDANCE REQUIREMENTS FOR 2025  

Every school must record attendance data and provide it to the Ministry of Education daily from Term 1 2025. 

We will be contacting parents as attendance moves through the categories (it doesn’t take long to get to the WORRYING stage) to help support whānau to achieve the attendance target. 

The Government’s target is for 80% of students to attend school regularly, that is to attend school more than 90% of the time.  The graphic below shows the attendance categories.

SCHOOL DONATIONS

This year the Board of Trustees has again opted into the Government Donation Scheme.  This has been done in an effort to minimize the cost to parents/caregivers/whanau for their children attending school.  We will not be asking for parents to contribute financially for school trips that are part of the curriculum programme.  There will be occasions where a cost will be required to be paid by parents/whanau (i.e. summer and winter sports teams that are outside the core school curriculum). 

SWIMMING LESSONS – STOKES VALLEY POOL

Swimming lessons at Stokes Valley Pool begin from Monday 17^th February for children in Years 3-6.  The children walk to the pool so will need comfortable walking shoes and will go wet or fine.  Please make sure the children come to school with named togs and towels the weeks their class is due to go to the pool.  Lessons will be between Monday and Thursday.  Please feel free to walk with your child’s class to and from the pool if you wish.

Swimming times will be published in the next 2 weeks. 

SCHOOL POOL

Our school pool will be open for classes to use every day this term.  This will supplement the swimming lessons the children receive at Stokes Valley Pool.  Classroom teachers will let you know the days they are using the school pool. 

SICK CHILDREN

If you are keeping children home, PLEASE CONTACT THE OFFICE.  If children are feeling unwell, they need to remain at home and parents contact the school. 

If children display any signs of illness at school, we will contact parents/caregivers to come and pick them up along with their siblings.

All children are expected to attend school unless they are unwell. 

FREE SCHOOL LUNCHES

We will be taking part in the Ministry of Education Free Lunches in School Programme again this year.  Each child will be provided lunch every day of the school year. With the changes the Government has made to how lunches are funded, the delivery model will be different this year.  All children, whether they are having a school lunch or bringing their own will be eating lunch in the hall as the lunches will be served rather than packaged up.  There are bound to be some changes as we sort out how this will work in practice, but we are pleased to be a part of the programme again.  The lunches will be provided from our first day back on Wednesday 29^th January.  

CAN YOU HELP?

The mornings before school starts are really busy for staff. We have a Kids Kitchen, breakfast will be available to children from 8.00-8.30am each day.  Help is needed to run this.

We also need people on the school crossings to see children over the busy roads safely each morning between 8.00-8.30am. 

COMMUNITY TUTOR READING

We are in need of some people to help take Community Tutor Reading again this year.  If you can spare an hour and a quarter a week to listen to children read, you will read with five individuals for 15 minutes each, please leave a message for Denise Silk-Martelli and she will get back to you.

Please fill in the form on page 6 of the newsletter if you are prepared to be rostered on to a regular session each week (or team up with another family and take turns). 

KCC BEFORE AND AFTER SCHOOL CARE

We will be operating KCC before and after school care programmes again this year.  If you are interested in using this service on a permanent or casual basis, please contact the school office. 

2PM CLUB

All children will need to be booked into 2PM Club by clicking here

Every Wednesday and Friday we run 2pm Club between 2.00-3.00pm for children whose parents book them in for this service.  The cost of 2pm Club is $2.00/session.  This is to cover the cost of supervision during these times.  

STUDY CENTRE

If you would like your child to attend Study Centre and they are Year 4 upwards, then please fill in the return form on the last page of the newsletter or contact the office for an enrolment form. Sessions run for 1 hour after school finishes Monday-Thursday.  This is a free service for our students.  We will be starting in week 3 or 4 depending on enrolments. 

KORAU VALUES

We will be focusing on our KORAU Values again this year and how these can be demonstrated through words and actions around the school.  These are the basis on how we build relationships and work together.  Our KORAU values are 

 COMMUNICATION

For any questions, worries or concerns parents have about their children’s behaviours, learning, social interactions or engagement in school, these need to be directed to the classroom teacher in the first instance.  Our teachers are all very approachable and are happy to discuss children with their parents/caregivers/whanau.  We have a very clear process that can be viewed on our school website at https://koraunui.school.nz/assets/Uploads/BoT/Policies-and-Procedures/Concerns-and-complaints-process-flowchart-v2.png.  This is also available to view in the school office.

HATS

Please make sure your child has a sunhat to keep at school, clearly named, on the hat, so any lost property or ownership disputes can be quickly resolved. Be aware that we will name hats with a marker pen if there is no name evident, so please, no expensive designer hats! 

PERSONAL PROPERTY

One of our expectations of all children is that they look after their own belongings. Please help your children learn how to be responsible by checking they are bringing their clothing and lunch boxes etc home every day.

Named clothing really helps.

Regularly checking the abandoned clothing around the school is a good plan to reunite clothing with owners. 

BANK ACCOUNTS

Many families keep a small bank account with the school office to pay for school costs during the year. If you would like to do this, talk to Melva, Maree or Janice and they will show you how it works.

Some families have set up a regular bank credit to do the same thing. If you wish to do this, the lovely office ladies will help with this.

Keep up to date with photos and information of what is happening around the school and in the classrooms on our Facebook page. 

CONTACT DETAILS

If your contact details have changed in the last year please complete the contact details at the bottom of the return form in the newsletter.  It is really important that we have accurate and up-to-date contacts for safety and emergencies.

 WHATS COMING UP THIS TERM?

Week One

• Monday 27^th January: Kahui Ako Staff Only Day at Taita College
• Tuesday 28^th January: Staff Only Day at Koraunui Marae
• Wednesday 29^th January: SCHOOL STARTS FOR THE YEAR at 8:30am.

Week Two

• Monday 3^rd February: Meet the Teacher family BBQ – 5.00pm
• Thursday 6^th February: Waitangi Day. SCHOOL CLOSED

Week Three

• Wednesday 12^th February: Board of Trustees Meeting

Week Four

• Monday 17-20^th February: Stokes Valley Swimming lessons begin

Week Five

• Monday 24-27^th February: Stokes Valley Pool Swimming lessons continue