Term 1, Week 1, 2025 – He Pānui

31/1/2025

Kia koutou e te whānau,

He mihi nui ki a koutou katoa, nau mai, hāere mai ki 2025!

I hope you’ve all had a wonderful summer, enjoyed the break and created some whānau memories from the festivities.

We’re excited to be back at kura (school) and have enjoyed watching our kids settle seamlessly into their new classes, connecting with old and making new friends.

Apologies in advance for the long newsletter, but there’s a fair bit of information following outlining things you need to know for term 1 and the year ahead. We acknowledge that there is a fair bit of disruption to the term 1 calendar with staff professional learning and statutory holidays, so many thanks in advance for supporting us as we work together to ensure we are set up to provide excellent educational opportunities for our kids.

My door is always open should you wish to connect and/or clarify anything happening within the school, so reach out without hesitation.

Ngā mihi nui

Shane (Mr B)

principal@ngaere.school.nz

• All information from Week 3, will be sent out via HERO. At least one parent/caregiver will need to have the app downloaded. This will be how you can stay connected with what’s happening, see how your children are progressing with their learning, connect with your child’s teacher, report absences, and pay any school related fees etc. If you haven’t got it sorted, please action this asap – info HERE. Any problems, reach out to Karen in the office or myself – we’ll see you right!
• School newsletters will now come home fortnightly with information/key dates etc that is relevant for the whole school. One the alternative fortnight, you receive a newsletter from your child’s teacher – sharing learning and celebrating successes related to what’s happening in classes. As a rule of thumb, these should be in your inbox by the Friday of each week. Please be patient with us – we’re learning how to best use this tool also 
• By the end of term 1, the school website will be updated and generally remain a static image of the school. This won’t be updated unless there’s changes or information that is outdated. Facebook will continue to be used for promotional purposes.
• Staff can still be contacted via email, but communication using the parent contact portal on HERO would be preferred.
• School Assemblies – we’ll now hold school assemblies on four instances throughout the term with the view to raise the quality of what is presented/shared – a less is more approach: Dates for term 1, can be found on the Community Calendar and will start at 2:15pm

*Week 3: Friday 14th February –  led by Senior Hub (Room 6/7)

*Week 6: Thursday 6th March – led by Junior Hub (Room 1/2/3)

*Week 9: Friday 28th March – led by Middle Hub (Room 4/5)

*Week 11: Friday 11th April – led by House Captains/Student Leaders

Professional Learning for Staff:

The staff will be engaging with a range of professional learning opportunities as the year progresses; this will support us in aligning how we teach, assess and report as outlined in the New Zealand Curriculum Refresh. Focuses for 2025 are:

• Teaching using a structured literacy approach in reading and writing
• Ensuring teacher led – explicit instruction in Maths
• Te Reo and culturally responsive practices

Home Learning:

As a rule, homework will only be set on a regular on-going basis for our students in Years 1-4. Teachers will communicate what this entails. For students in Year 5-8, any home learning that is sent will either be a continuation of what is being taught in classes or to support personalised areas of need. Research shows that homework set without a clear and meaningful purpose has minimal impact on student progress and outcomes. 

Students in years 5-8 that are involved in intervention programmes or receiving additional support over and above what is covered in class programmes may receive home learning to help accelerate a current focus or goal. This can be discussed with your child’s teacher as the home-school partnership hui.

Home-School Partnerships/Whānau Hui:

These are set for Monday 10th February, running from 8am – 8pm. Please make your booking via the SkoolLoop App or if this isn’t working for you, reach out to Karen or myself and we’ll book you a time. We’re aiming to see 100% of parents on this day so help us out by getting your booking sorted.

The main purpose of these hui are:

• to build and sustain relationships between home and school
• provide a forum to hear your hopes and aspirations for your chlid/ren
• involve the children in goal setting process
• discuss how and home and school can work together to ensure positive outcomes

On this day – we are asking that if possible – children remain at home and only come to school for their scheduled interview time. If this is not possible and suitable childcare arrangements cannot be found, please let Karen or your child’s teacher know as soon as possible. We’ll have a small number of staff available to support as required.

This term Ngaere School is looking to partner with some outside music providers to provide increased opportunities for our students to learn musical instruments. To start with, we’re just wanting to gauge interest to ascertain whether or not this is a viable possibility. There is the potential for children to learn: piano, guitar, ukulele, and potentially drums. 

Thursday 6th February: Waitangi Day (school closed)

Monday 10th February: Home-School Partnership Hui (info above)

Tuesday 11th February – PTA Meeting – 7pm  – all welcome

Wednesday 19th February: Board Meeting

Wednesday 26th February – Tuesday 4th March: Teachers involved in Structured Literacy training – school will remain open but teachers covering classes on these days will vary

Friday 7th March: Kāhui Ako Teacher Only Day – all schools in central region closed for Professional Development

Monday 10th March: Taranaki Anniversary Weekend (school closed)

Friday 14th March: School Gala

THANK YOU TO THE FOLLOWING MAJOR SPONSORS FOR THEIR SUPPORT TOWARDS THE SCHOOL PADDOCK