Stratford High Times

Nau mai hoki mai ki te wāhanga tuarua,

Welcome back to Term 2! There is always a lot going on during this term and we understand that as parents, juggling winter sports with cold, short days can make for busy weeks and greater stress at home. Thank you for allowing your child to be involved in extracurricular activities. These opportunities grow individuals who are committed, organised and able to be an important member of a team. These are all valuable life skills that will develop your child into a well rounded young person, ready to excel in the world.

On our Facebook page recently, we advertised a Parents Cyber Safety evening on June 8th, here, in our Hall. I have heard Rob Cope speak before and it is an evening that I strongly encourage you to attend, no matter how old your child is. Technology is wonderful, when in the right hands. Negative use of technology has far-reaching consequences and we want our students to be digital citizens who respect the power that technology gives us.

As we move from summer to winter sports, we celebrate those who excelled in Term 1. Our summer sports programme was full, and it was wonderful to see so many students cross the stage to receive the acknowledgment of their commitment and effort during the term. Thank you to the parents and families who attended.

We continue to see the disruptions to schooling throughout this term as the PPTA and MOE are unable to come to terms regarding the Secondary Teachers Collective Agreement. Thank you for your patience and understanding. Decisions about having time away from the classroom are made by the National PPTA group and affect all secondary schools in New Zealand.

I have been talking about the importance of attendance for some time now so when our Term 1 attendance data was received, I was very pleased to read that our attendance had improved considerably. Our overall school attendance was 85%. The Ministry of Education supports schools to reach 75%. With an increased roll, and therefore a greater number of students to add into the calculations, a 7% increase is something that we can be proud of, and we are very grateful to you, the parents, for the support and encouragement to have your child attend school regularly.

In staff news, Alex Hickford starts her maternity leave on the 12th of May. We wish her well for baby number 2! Kajaal Singh joins us until the end of the year. Kaajal has been teaching in Fiji for the past 11 years and has moved to New Zealand to be closer to family. Kaajal will begin on the 15th of May.

I look forward to seeing you out and about as the term continues.

Cam Stone

Principal

If you require your child to leave school early for any reason, please contact the front office or your child's Form Teacher or Dean as soon as possible. Only a parent or caregiver whose name appears on the student's school records can give permission for a student to leave school early. Photo ID will need to be shown to office staff at pick up time.

If you need to arrange for someone else to pick up your child, such as an aunty etc., this must be made clear to the office staff. We may call you to confirm if necessary. Photo ID will also need to be shown to office staff at pick up time.

On the day prior (if possible) to when you are requiring your child to leave school grounds during school hours, please contact the front office via phone or email or contact your child's Form Teacher providing the following information:

• Student name and form class
• Time that the student will need to leave school
• A brief description of the reason for early release e.g. dentist appointment etc.
• The name of the person collecting the student (if this is someone else other than you)
• Your contact details
• Your signature (if you are sending in a note)

If we receive an email or a handwritten note, you will receive a call from the front office to confirm the early release time and that the permission did indeed come from a parent or caregiver.

If a student is requesting to leave early and we have not received prior notification and we cannot get a hold of a parent or caregiver to confirm early release, the student will not be released from school.

Ms. Kelly Jennings

Deputy Principal/Pastoral Care

In attendance at the Stratford Dawn Service

Left to right: Hannah Burroughs, Matthew Jones, Victoria Payne, Kauby Ngatai-Northcott, Zoe Pitcher, Jack Linton, Masyn Austin, Anina Loveridge, Arabella Barber, Ephraim Ingram , Hollie Eagar, Heidi Sextus, Te Otiana Gerrard

We strongly encourage students who have a device at home (other than a cellphone) to bring it to school on a daily basis. We are aware that some students are choosing not to bring devices which puts pressure on our internal loan system. Thank you for your support as we continue to embed the BYOD process at school. If you have any questions, please feel free to contact the school office who will put you in touch with the right people.

If there are any students who are unable to bring their own device, they can speak to classroom teachers to support them in acquiring a borrowed device from school.

There are a variety of ways that you can make payments to cover school costs. The main office receives cash and EFTPOS payments and you can also pay online via direct credit. Parents can also set up an automatic payment to cover schooling costs. When setting up the automatic payment, consider a minimum payment of $15.00 per week, which is sufficient to pay for all school, curriculum and sport costs for a student during the year.

Payments will be automatically applied to “required payments”. Subsequent payments will sit as a credit on the student’s account. If you would like to have payments allocated to the “voluntary payments”, please email ts@stratfordhigh.school.nz with the details.

You can set this up by either using your bank’s online banking services or downloading the Automatic Payment Authority form and taking this to your bank. Please remember to use the students’ name for any payments.

Please inform the school office of any student achievements so that we can celebrate with them!

Rob Cope is running a session on Cyber Safety on Thursday 8th of June at Stratford High School. Rob is a fun and engaging speaker who has an important message to share. It would be great to see lots of community engagement from our school. Click on the PDF to the right for more details. We look forward to seeing you there!

We are currently organising our Year 8 open evening and are looking for sponsors for our advertisement in the Stratford Press as well as items for the door prizes and scavenger hunt prizes. Last year we were very well supported by our community with over 12 prize packs given out as well as a small gift for every year 8 student that attended.

If you would like to contribute, please contact Diane Lithgow at the school or email dl@stratfordhigh.school.nz. Items can be left at the main school office as well.

Our metal department are on the lookout for any scrap steel that can be donated to the school Anything will be considered; old horseshoes, angle iron, anything.

Please email Colin Franklyn fc@stratfordhigh.school.nz

• MoneyHub has published a guide to hundreds of scholarships for any student planning to start university in 2024.
• https://www.moneyhub.co.nz/scholarships-nz.html is the link.
• The comprehensive list includes scholarships offered by every university as well as those specifically available to local students.
• A list of privately-funded, Maori, Pacific and International university scholarships completes the list
• Applications close throughout the year, with tens of millions of dollars available.
• MoneyHub has also published a list of tips for scholarship success.

Now that all roadworks outside school have been completed, please be considerate of our school neighbours when you are picking up/dropping off students to the school. Please ensure that you are not parked across driveways, allowing space for our neighbours to come and go as they need.

Our Charter is now available to view on our website. The charter sets the direction for our school and identifies our priorities as a school community.

Otago University

Sunday 7 and Monday 8 May 2023 REGISTER NOW

Electronic planners can be found at otago.ac.nz/opendays . The Open Days planner contains the full timetable for both institutions – as well as space for students to write out their itineraries for the two days.

Waikato University

Hamilton Campus

Friday 26 May: 9am - 2pm REGISTER NOW

Saturday 27 May: 11am - 2pm REGISTER NOW

Tauranga Campus

Friday 9 June: 10am - 1pm and 4pm - 7pm REGISTER NOW

Massey University Open Days

All campuses REGISTER NOW

Victoria University of Wellington

Friday 25 August REGISTER NOW

Auckland University

Saturday 26 August REGISTER NOW

Canterbury University

Wednesday 20 September REGISTER NOW

The Stratford Library has partnered with Ciena and the Spark Foundation to offer free broadband to students and whanau who currently do not have a broadband connection at home.

What does a family get on the Ciena fund?
• A free modem.
• 210GB of data every month until December 2023.
• Data is automatically loaded on the 1st of each month and does not roll over. Any unused data expires at the end of each calendar month. Once all the 210GB of data has been used up, the data will come to a complete stop until the next month.

Check that Jump is available at your home address at skinny.co.nz/jump

If your address is eligible, please fill in the following form for office staff to prepare an application form for you Free Broadband for eligible students

As we begin the new year I thought it best to send a reminder about how students can access counselling. Due to the high demand and to ensure equitable access, I run an appointment system.

Appointments can be requested by:

1. Email: lalbers@stratfordhigh.school.nz
2. Text: 0223185158
3. Instagram message: @heart_shs
4. You can fill in an appointment slip and drop it into the locked ballot box (both of which are directly outside my office door).

When I receive a request, I fit the student into the next available slot and the student is then notified via the way they contacted me or an appointment card is given to their teachers. I can only allocate an appointment time when there has been a direct request by a student or parent, or if an SMT/Dean or teacher has asked me to touch base with a student.

Liza Albers

School Counsellor

MCouns (Honors)

Please ensure you notify the school office for each day that your child is absent. You can do this via the school app, absence phone line (option 1 when you call the main line), or KAMAR Parent Portal.

All year 9 students at Stratford High School are offered a free health and wellbeing check, with the Public Health Nurse or Youth Worker.

This is intended to identify any health needs that your child may have that may affect learning and behavior in the school environment. It is also an opportunity for your child to start the process of understanding and contributing to getting their own health needs met.

The assessment will include measurements of height, weight, and blood pressure as well as a basic assessment of your child’s hearing and vision.

Other topics will be discussed, such as:

· Enrolment with GP

· Health factors related to home, school and friends

· Nutrition and exercise

· Interests outside of school

· Drugs, alcohol and sexual health

The health assessments will be completed over the course of the year, commencing at the start of term one.

Consent will be presumed unless parent or caregiver chooses to opt out. If you wish to opt out of the health assessment, please contact the school office

- Public Health Nursing Team

The Public Health Nurse will be at school every Wednesday for any health needs. Clinic is confidential and free.

• Health and hauora (wellbeing checks)
• General health concerns
• Contraception
• Condoms and pregnancy tests
• STI checks and the morning after pill
• Vision and hearing

To book an appointment, see the school office reception or contact the Public Health Nurse, Bridget Powell on 027 263 4996 or 06 753 7790 or email bridget.powell@tdhb.org.nz.

We have had notification from the PPTA regarding ongoing industrial action this term. It has been confirmed that rostering home will take place from week 2 until week 7 and that in week 3 there will be another full school one day strike on Wednesday 10th May.

Rostering home means school is still open for instruction, except for the year level that is stated on a particular date i.e. this Thursday Year 11 students are NOT to come to school.

Lost your printed timetable? Download KAMAR and have it at your fingertips any time you need it! You can also get access to academic results, attendance details, school notices, student details, and finance information through the portal.

Have you downloaded our school app yet? Moving forward, our app will be the one-stop-shop for communication between school and home. Download it and check out the features that are available!

I am offering after school art classes for children 6-9 years, 10-13 years and secondary students. Classes will run for 8 weeks, starting in week 2 and finishing in week 9. Term 2 will have a focus on painting and drawing. Lessons will vary depending on age group and individual needs.

Materials provided

Cost: $240 per term

Contact Robyn on 0297770043 for further information

I am a registered social worker, who has also studied Child Centred Play Therapy, as well as Cognitive Behavioural Therapy. In addition, as a solo mother I have experienced the gauntlet in range of emotions a parent could face, and behaviours a child could exhibit. Probably the biggest lesson I have learned is how heartbreaking parenting can be if you don’t get it right. Hence my website www.nextchapterparenting.co.nz.

In addition to the resources on the website, I offer individual or group parenting classes for parents of preschool and school age, as well as a course for parents of teenagers.

Brigid Carkeek

Does your child require further support, over and above what can be offered at school?

Would your child benefit from bespoke and nurturing learning sessions from a highly experienced teacher designed to accelerate learning and boost confidence? We would love to help. We are a team of dedicated teachers, specialising in English and Maths support, for primary, intermediate and college students. Visit www.boostyourlearning.co.nz for more information or contact Jenny 021 223 3349 to book a free consultation.

I am an experienced singing teacher formerly from New Plymouth, now residing in Stratford. I am available to teach contemporary and musical theatre and vocal private lessons at the address below.

All enquiries please phone 0211905054

Mrs Mary WIlliams

38a Flint Road West

Stratford 4332

This course is available to youth aged 15 - 18 years. The focus of the programme is to prepare youth for their future, such as gaining confidence in the job application process, setting goals and learning how to budget and prepare various meals. Further information and enrolment forms can be picked up from the school office.

Give your mobile phone another life, keep it out of landfill and donate to Sustainable Coastlines Charitable Trust at the same time through the Re:Mobile phone recycling scheme!

Drop your old cellphones into the drop box in the school office reception area.

Advanced after-school coding lessons available for ages 9 - 18. To give your child the opportunity to learn how to programme technology apply now at codingnz.com/signup

Please find below key contacts for staff at school.

Senior Leadership Team

Principal: Mr Cameron Stone

Deputy Principal Curriculum: Dr Michael Taylor

Deputy Principal Pastoral and School Organisation: Ms Kelly Jennings

Assistant Principal/Academic achievement: Ms Allana George

Principal's PA: Miss Diane Lithgow

School Board Secretary: Mrs Amanda Hill

Principal's Nominee

For all enquiries regarding NZQA or Te Kura

Mr Dirk Vermeulen: extension 707 or email

Deans for 2023

Year 9: Mr Jeff Walker

Year 10: Miss Jodie Sullivan

Year 11: Miss Peta Apperley

Year 12: Mr Colin Franklyn

Year 13: Mr Bill McGeoch

Guidance Counsellor: Liza Albers

Learning Support Coordinator: Lisa Dent

For all other enquires please contact the school office 06 765 6039

Have you moved recently? Have you changed your phone number or email address recently? Please fill out the following form to advise us of your new details. Also fill out this form if you have not been receiving emails from the school. There are a number of families who we don't currently have an email address for.

It is very important we have the correct information for your child in case there is an emergency and we need to contact you immediately. If any contact details change throughout the year please let the school office know.

Email: mail@stratfordhigh.school.nz
Website: www.stratfordhigh.school.nz
Location: Stratford High School Swansea Road, Stratford, New Zealand
Phone: 06-7656039
Facebook: facebook.com/SHSTaranaki

Instagram: @shstaranaki @heart_SHS @shs_SADD_team

Fern Energy - FUEL for SCHOOLS

The Fuel for Schools sponsorship programme has helped put over $1.6 million dollars of resources into more than 600 rural schools in the last fifteen years. Just a reminder of how SHS has received this donation...

SHS has been nominated by a local business/farm that receives bulk fuel deliveries from Fern, meaning that for every 100 litres of bulk fuel they purchase, 50 cents is donated to SHS. We would like to take the time to mention who those members of the community are that have contributed to SHS. They are listed as follows:

• Makino Deer Ltd
• Palmerdell Trust
• G & M Collins Family Trust
• Cornwall Park Farms Limited
• Amberhay Limited

Rural communities and schools everywhere can enjoy the benefits of the Fuel for Schools programme. For more information about the programme, call 0800 99 99 89 or visit their website fernenergy.co.nz/community/fuel-for-schools