Newsletter Wednesday 21/02/2024

Ngaere School

School Newsletter

Living & Learning with RESPECT

Term 1 Week 4

Wednesday 21st January 2024

Welcome – Nau mai haere mai

Tena koutou katoa

We have enjoyed having our first full week so we can really start getting the weekly routine going with our classes. Although the public holidays are welcome, the flipside of this is the stop start makes it more challenging for our kids to get their flow on.

It has been widely publicised that every NZ school is required to teach 1 hour of
Reading, Writing and Mathematics every day. I assure you that this has been and
continues to be the expected teaching practice at Ngaere School. Another Government set reguation is around the use of cell phones at school. Little will change at Ngaere. Children do not need cell phones at school. If they do ‘arrive’ at school it is the expectation that they are handed in to the school office and collected at the end of the day. Parents who need to contact their child can do so through the school office. Karen’s hours are 8.30am – 3pm.

A huge thankyou to Sasha for the work in the garden over the past week. If anyone would like to volunteer for a wee while each week to keep the gardens under control we would love to hear from you.

Just a reminder about attendance expectations:

Attendance and engagement at school continues to be a major focus for the Ministry of Education (MOE). The MOE want all children attending school 90% or more of the time and have defined the following:

Any student who is attending less than 90% is considered an attendance concern.
Students who have an attendance rate between 80-90% are considered to be irregularly absent.
Students who have an attendance rate between 70-80% are considered to be moderately absent.
Students who have an attendance rate below 70% are considered to be chronically absent.

Our attendance rates for Term 4 are summarised as 70.4% attendance 90% or more of the time. This compares with just 61.9% attendance 90% or more of the time in Term 4 2022. Ministry target for 2024 is 70% attendance 90% or more of the time.

A reminder, that if your child is going to be absent, please advise the school. This can be done either by ringing the school office (06) 764 8643, email the school: office@ngere.school.nz or via the skool loop app.

Nga mihi

Megan England (Principal)

HEARING AND VISION TESTING AT SCHOOL MONDAY 04TH MARCH

Vison and hearing screening is completed by Te Whatu Ora Health New Zealand Vision and Hearing Technicians at our school. The technicians will be visiting our school on Monday 04th March at 9am to test eligible children for vision and/or hearing. Eligible children include:
New Entrant Routine screening is completed for children who are new to school, and/or have not completed their B4 School Check and/or require further testing post B4 School Check.
Year 7
Routine vision screening is completed for all Year 7 students and Year 8 students who have not completed the Year 7 screening and/or students that require further testing.

If you have any queries or concerns, or do not wish for your child to have this screening done, please contact the school office.

TEACHER ONLY DAY: Ngaere School will be closed for a Teacher Only Day on 8th March. This is a Kahui Ako initiative that allows local schools the opportunity to come together for professional learning and sharing opportunities.

PARENT/TEACHER INTERVIEWS: Interview times are now available on our Skool Loop App for Rooms 5, 6 & 7. If you do not have the skool loop app, please see Karen in the office to make an appointment time.

Room 4 interviews will be at a later date once Whaia Mandy is back at school.

Room 1, 2, 3 had a Junior Classes parent meeting on Monday 19th February here at school to hear about the plans in the Junior rooms. If you still wish to meet with your child’s teacher, please see them to make a 1-1 appointment time .

Turnbull Cup Tonight: This is to be held at Wai o Rua – Stratford Aquatic Centre on Wednesday 21st February. Warm up for swimmers will begin at 6.30 pm with racing starting at 6.50pm.

The Turnbull Cup is an inter-school swimming competition between schools in Central Taranaki which is organised by Stratford Flyers Swimming Club. The Turnbull Cup is contested in 2 sections – Large Schools and Small Schools. We will be entering two relay teams in the Small Schools section and twelve competitors in the individual races.

Good luck to those who are swimming.

Junior Swimming Sports: This is for Year 1-4 children and will be tomorrow, Thursday 22nd February from 1pm until 2.30pm at the Rawhitiroa Pool. Students will be travelling by bus, leaving Ngaere School 12.15pm to this event. Parents are more than welcome to come along and take your child home at the end of the event.

RAFFLE TICKETS FOR SALE

There a two awesome raffles up for grabs. Tickets are $2 each.

Call into the school office and get yours now!

School Uniform: A reminder that school uniform is a dark blue polo shirt. We would prefer children not to wear their sports shirts on a daily bais as it is not part of our everyday uniform. A new order has been placed for larger polos and you will be notified when these arrive. In the meantime we do have a stock of Youth XS, S, M, XL on hand. There are plenty of polar fleeces too for when the weather turns cooler.

Tennis Coaching: $40.00 for a 30mins for 1 on1. $25.00 each for groups of 2 children or $20.00 each for groups of 4 children. Lessons 30 mins. once a week for next 6 weeks. May be at lunchtime or during school time depending on the availability of the coach. Please let Karen in the office know if you are interested in one of these options.

Don’t forget to come and visit the Amazing Maize Maze

A huge thank you to the PTA, parent helpers and sponsors for all the work on the Maize Maze so far. The first two sessions have been a great success. Don’t forget to tell your family and friends all about it! If you are able to help at any of the up and coming Maize Maze dates, please see Karen in the office.