Term 2, Week 5

Mā te huruhuru ka rere te manu

Adorn the bird with feathers so it may fly

Email: office@kereru.school.nz
Website: http://www.kereru.school.nz/
Location: 2306 Kereru Road, RD 1, Hastings 4171

Office Hours: Monday - Thursday - 8:30 am - 3 pm
Phone: 06 876 0923
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=100084298596659

Kia ora e te whānau,

The past couple of weeks have been buzzing with activity around the school. We’ve removed the old shade sail and structure, replaced the school pool fence, and installed a new one. It's looking fantastic! We’re eagerly anticipating this area being fully ready in time for summer.

At the start of the term, I had the privilege of spending three days in Christchurch at a leadership course through Boma called Dare to Lead. Founded on the research of Dr. Brené Brown, Dare to Lead is an empirically based courage-building programme designed to improve leader agility, team effectiveness and a thriving culture. I am excited to bring these learned skills back to our school and put them into practice.

A huge thank you to Sheryn, Jane, Kate, and Ru for their outstanding organisation and management of our first Kererū Country Hill Walk. We’ve received numerous lovely and positive comments, which is a true testament to the hard work put into the event.

Noho ora mai,

Kelsie Allen

Principal

Roll: 27

A big Happy Birthday to the following ākonga (learners) and kaiako (staff):

• Ziggy M - 24/06
• Autumn R - 01/07
• Immy S - 12/07
• Paige VD - 13/07

Mornings: Please contact Megan on FB Messenger or 027 307 5852 before 7 am if your child is not on the bus. After this time, Megan is on the road and may not check her phone.

Afternoons: Please contact Sheryn (Monday - Thursday) if there is any variation to your termly bus routine. Please message Kelsie on Fridays only. These messages need to come through before 2 pm.

Term 2:

• 03/06 - Kings Birthday (school closed)
• 07/06 - HB rugby skills
• 26/06 - BOT Meeting
• 25/06 - Matariki Celebration - details TBC
• 28/06 - Matariki Holiday (school closed)
• 03/07 - 5 - Aside Tournament
• 05/07 - Last day of Term 2

"We went to Kahikatea Farm to learn more about plants and soil. We want to make compost so we have healthy plants. We made a compost heap. In the compost heap we put hay, grass, leaves and poop. The drive was long and it was raining when we got there. When we got there, Jo taught us about how to make great soil to grow great plants to eat." - Ziggy, 6 years old.

"We went to Kahikatea Farm. We got into teams. I went in the leaf team. We stacked leaves on top of each other. The fence was a little high for Ted so we had to put a bale on it. When we went to Kahikatea Farm, it was really windy at the farm. We had to wear warm clothes. At the farm, we made a compost heap. They taught us about a bug. It is called Mycorrhizal fungi. We saw some ducks and chickens. At the end we sang Kererū e. I didn't like that it was really windy. Pippa, 7 years old.

As part of our whakawhānaungatanga focus this term, each newsletter is going to have a spotlight on one of our staff member so our community can get to know us (not just as school staff) a little better.

Name: Sally Charteris

Job Title: Kākano Teacher

Spouse: Grant

Children: Harry & Lottie

Where are you from (originally): Porangahau

What is your favourite food: Thai Food

What is your least favourite food: Mushrooms

Favourite Movie: The Hangover

Dog or cat: Dog

Hobbies: Chasing the kids over the countryside with moto-cross and hanging out with family and friends.

Why did you want to work at Kererū School: Location to my house! I had also heard how amazing Kelsie was!

What do you love about Kererū School: The fun and amazing staff. I love the kids and their families. I also love working in a beautiful brand new school.

We will be having 3 Assemblies each term. Please note the change of day for Assemblies.

All dates are on the Events Calendar;

• Week 6 -Wednesday @ 2:30 pm
  
• Week 9 -Wednesday @ 2:30 pm

As you know, we use our Hero Student Management System to report to whānau throughout the year.

Last term, you recieved:

• Snapshots: Writing
• General Comment: Ākonga (student) comment
• Conferences: Whānau Aspirations Hui

This term, you can expect:

• Snapshots: Reading, Maths
• Achievement OTJ Graphs: Reading, Writing & Maths
• Effort Scores: Values & Subjects

Early next term (Term 3, Week 2), we will be holding Collaborative Conferences. This will be a great opportunity for whānau to meet with their child's classroom teacher to discuss their learning and progress this year. We will provide more details closer to the date via Hero.

One of our strategic goals for 2024-2026 is to 'implement a rich, responsive, localised curriculum that promotes self-directed learning.' Since the beginning of the year, we’ve been working with Keryn from ImpactED (authentic, knowledgeable, and solution-focused PLD facilitators) to develop our local curriculum. On Monday, we had a Teacher Only Day, which was a fantastic opportunity for our staff to continue this mahi with Keryn, and explore some exciting new maths ideas.

Keryn was also onsite on Tuesday and spent some time in both of our classrooms modelling rich routines that can be used in maths.

I have written this note from our capital city where we started the conference with a pōwhiri and watching the sun rise form the Wellington waterfront. This is the RTPC (Rural Teaching Principal Conference) for principals who are from rural schools and have a teaching component.

Over 200 rural principals have gathered together to learn, share, network, and connect. There were 5 principals on my flight to Wellington! The highlight of any opportunity to gather with like minded people has to be the great networks we make and the new learning we gather. It's a great time to put faces to email names and for them also to get to know the person behind the emails, information, and advice!

A keynote speaker of note was Julia Grace. She is a speaker and musician who educates about mental health. Her message was well-received and will be put to good use I am sure.

Kelsie

We had an amazing but very very cold and wet day out at Kahikatea Farm today to hook our tamariki into this terms inquiry topic!

We learned about soil, what it needs to be healthy and how we can help nourish our soil. Once the soil is healthy and nourished, we can then grow good quality healthy food in it. We also learned about compost and worm farms.

We are so proud of our students. In the bitter cold, not one complaint. They got in, got their hands dirty and asked lots of great questions.

A big thanks to our helpers and drivers - Jane, Emily and Emily. To our staff, especially Ms Bazzard for the organisation.

Thanks to Jo and her team from Kahikatea Farm for teaching us lots of new things and letting us explore your slice of paradise.

One of our strategic goals this year is to connect to our people, place and local environment. We love connecting with our friends at Tots and Dots twice per term. Kākano enjoyed exploring kindy and learning about their worm farm!

Pink Shirt Day is all about celebrating diversity and promoting kindness and inclusion. We acknowledged this day by dressing in PINK, making and eating pink cupcakes and doing some activities.

Kōrero Mai, Kōrero Atu, Mauri Tū, Mauri Ora.

We invited Sheryn, Jo, Megan and Taylor in for a special celebration for Support Staff Day. We are so grateful for all of the hard work these ladies do to support our school and tamariki. We simply couldn't do it without them.

Brain Injury Hawke’s Bay recently conducted a workshop on concussion awareness and brain injury prevention. The session provided valuable insights on recognising and responding to concussions, ensuring safety in various activities.

For further information on concussion and brain injuries - you can visit https://www.braininjuryhb.org.nz/

On Friday 10th of May, Isaac, Elsie and Thea competed in the Intermediate and Secondary Schools Chess Tournament. A huge thank you to Daniel for transporting and supervising our tamariki for the day.

Each student played 6 games. Congratulations to;

Year 8's:

• Isaac who came 8th out of 44
• Thea who came 21st out of 44

Year 7's:

• Elsie who came 18th out of 56

All of that practice has certainly paid off!

Days are getting shorter and cooler. It’s amazing how rapidly it is heading towards the shortest day! But in Totara, there is no time to hibernate... We are busy learning and observing every day.

We began our Kaitiakitanga inquiry by investigating and assessing the soil within our school grounds. The tamariki dug a few holes, looking for changes in soil structure and colour, texture, and living things. After visiting Kahikatea Farm and meeting the cool team led by Jo Duff, they expanded their knowledge about improving the health of our soil. They are discovering that soil is precious and that we can help care for it, improve its vitality, and in return, it will help feed us and the living plants and creatures that depend on it.

We are hoping to create our own compost for our gardens and find sustainable solutions for our fruit and vege lunchbox waste.

Each day we practice strengthening our Te Reo Māori. So far this term, we have practiced introductions and asking questions about how we are feeling.

Through our reading programme, we are looking at the structure of explanation texts and then having a go at writing explanations. It’s quite tricky, but we are all doing our best.

Our maths focus has been on measurement—measuring time, length, area, and volume. There is more investigation required with measuring angles and weights. Through these learning contexts, we need to use our number knowledge and numeracy strategies.

Lastly, we want to thank Macca, who has been teaching us the skills, strategies, and rules of the ball game Ki-o-rahi. It is a traditional Māori game played between two teams. It is complex and exciting. This Thursday, we compete in a tournament at Bridge Pā School against other rural school teams. Thanks to her, all of us—ākonga and kaiako—have developed our understanding of the game.

Thank you all for your ongoing support.

Ngā mihi nui,

Sophie Bazzard

Kākano has had a great term so far. We have been super busy with some solid learning happening in all curriculum areas. Our topic kicked off to a great start with an amazing visit to Kahikatea Farm. From this, we brought back lots of new knowledge to the classroom. We have been looking at soil and what healthy soil needs, learning about compost, the different layers compost has, and all the bugs that help break down the compost, all in preparation for creating healthy vegetable gardens at school.

For PE, we have been looking at sports, preparing ourselves for our upcoming 5-a-side tournament. We have been learning about netball and how to pass and catch. Macca has been here on Mondays helping to build on these skills. We will move into hockey and rippa rugby over the next few weeks.

This term we have had a real push on maths and a solid 5 weeks teaching maths strategies. Our class is buzzing with all the maths and the challenges it brings. After strategies, we will be moving into algebra and measurement on Fridays.

In writing, we wrote some amazing recounts of our trip to Kahikatea Farm. These are published on the wall—please come and have a read. This week we have been learning to write instructions and wrote instructions for making toast! We had a lot of fun with this and will move into writing instructions for making compost.

All groups have been making good progress with reading. Our tamariki are really benefiting from the structured approach!

On May 26th, Ru & Kate Gaddum hosted our Kereru Hill Country Walk on their farm.

This fundraiser was brilliant! Thank you to everyone who turned out for this amazing day. We made a whopping $12,000 from the day. The money will be evenly split between the Hall Society and FOKS. This means that $6000 will go towards extras for the students, your children!

A huge thank you goes out to Rural Support Trust, Wee Doo Loos, Silver Fern Farms, Taylor's Group, and Weleda for your financial support.

Over the last week, Heyhoe have been busy taking down and putting up our new pool fence. It looks very fresh and modern, enhancing the safety and appearance of our pool area.

What an amazing turn out of volunteers we had for our first (of many) Kererū Hill Country Walk. You all braved the weather and we thank you from the bottom of our hearts. What a community we live and work in. We would like the thank the following people who helped make it all happen.

Kay and Brett Burgess, Sophie White, Hamish White, Harry and Emily Gaddum, Will and Nicole Reynolds, Toby and Meagan Mayers, Hamish and Kelsie Allen, Daniel, Emily & Thea Hunter, Bryn Henderson, Pete Dowding, Mark Brady, Jane, Jimmy, Jack & William Taylor, Sally & Lottie Charteris, Laura, Steve & Elly Grady, Ru, Kate, Lucia & Bruno Gaddum, Emily, Harry, Pippa & Ted Gaddum, Briar Corson, Leonie Greville, Deb Stewart, Amy Dunn, Tamara Robinson, Lindsay Averill, Toni Fowler, Mary -Anne Bevin, Tracy Cadwallader, Bob & Liane Jones, Linda & Isabel Quinn, Kellie Jolly, Jo Mayers, Harris Family and Sheryn Slavin.

A big thank you to Harry, Jimmy & Jane, Toby and Hamish for spending some of their Sunday taking down our shade cloth/structure. We appreciate your time and strong muscles!

A big thank you to all of the community members and businesses who contribute to our school through Fern Fuels points. We are grateful for your support.

Thank you to;

• Allen Farming Company Limited
• Beeline Limited
• Corson Farming Limited
• Forest Road Farm - NZ Red Deer Ltd
• Freethlands Limited
• Hilltop Spraying Ltd
• HWS Agri Limited
• MD & KA Hinton Partnership
• Ohara Farming Company Limited
• Olrig Limited
• R Haselsteiner T/A Matangi Station
• Rangimoe Farming Limited
• SH Harper
• Simmons Contracting Ltd
• Stephen J Averill
• Summerhill Partnership
• Te Whana Farm Family Trust
• Topaki Limited
• Tuapae Farm Limited
• Tuturo Farm Limited
• Universal Livestock Limited
• Wakarara Farms
• Whenuapapa Limited

Wednesday 5th June

Kereru Community Hall

9am-12pm Mental Health First Aid

12pm - 12:30pm lunch break

12:30 - 2:30 pm AED and CPR training

These workshops do not offer unit standards upon completion.

If you are interested, please contact Ashley on the following contacts.

ashley.harris@fireandemergency.nz

027 345 7585

She will need your name and phone number to RSVP.

• Please BYO lunch and drinks
• Tea & coffee is provided

The school works on a subscription basis with SchoolDocs to maintain, update, and review our policies. SchoolDocs provides us with a comprehensive core set of policies that have been well researched and follow the Ministry of Education National Administration Guidelines. The policies and procedures are tailored to our school, and the school supplies specific information such as our charter, and procedures for behaviour management, reporting to parents, etc.

SchoolDocs updates, modifies, or creates policies in response to changes in legislation or Ministry guidelines, significant events, reviews/requests from schools, and regular reviewing from the SchoolDocs team. Our board of trustees has the opportunity to view changes/additions and comment on them before they are implemented.

Policies are up for review each term. You can access, view & review our policies and procedures anytime.

http://kereru.schooldocs.co.nz

Username is “kereru”

Password is “kereru1912”

If you ever find the need to raise a concern or file a complaint with a member of our staff, we value open communication and encourage you to follow our concerns and complaints process.

We recognise that we can't always please everyone. We appreciate your understanding that we are committed to doing our best. We value diverse perspectives and acknowledge that opinions may differ.

We encourage you to reach out to your child's classroom teacher, who is your first point of contact for any concerns. They play a crucial role in addressing issues promptly and effectively.

These links will give you some ideas on how to help your child's learning at home:

• Ministry of Education Website: https://parents.education.govt.nz/primary-school/learning-and-development-at-home/ideas-to-help-with-reading-writing-and-maths/
• Maths at home: https://nzmaths.co.nz/maths-our-house
  
• Writing prompts and ideas: https://app.pobble.com/auth/
  
• Mindfulness: https://www.smilingmind.com.au/
• Early letter formation: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=609NcinTkGI

If your child is unwell, please keep them at home to prevent the spread of the illness.

Gastro

• "People with gastro should not go to work, school and early childhood centres until they have been well (symptom free) for 48 hours. There will be viruses in your poos for several weeks after you become well. You should continue to wash and dry your hands thoroughly after you have been to the toilet."
• Here is the link for a brochure: https://www.rph.org.nz/public-health-topics/early-childhood-centres/current-illnesses/gastroenteritis/gastro-brochure.pdf

Covid-19

• If you or someone in your whānau tests positive for Covid-19, please let Kelsie know ASAP and then follow the MOH guidelines: https://covid19.govt.nz/testing-and-isolation/if-you-have-covid-19/

School is open for students to arrive from 8:15 am - 3:15 pm.

Our staff sometimes arrive late or need to leave straight after school. Please ensure you can pick your children up no later than 3:15 pm, otherwise you will need to make alternative arrangements.

Hero gives you (parents) the opportunity to send through your child's absence with a click of a button. This is a quick, efficient way and gives our staff a notification and message of the reason your child is away.

This is the way we would like you to let us know if your child won't be here. If there is additional information that the school needs to know, please contact Sheryn directly.

You can find out more information about our Student Attendance & Attendance Procedure policies by heading to School Docs and searching the above headings. Link to School Docs - https://kereru.schooldocs.co.nz/

Just a friendly reminder to help us with the end of the day organisation, please ensure you let us know if your child/ren will not be on the bus in the afternoons.

Unless we have heard otherwise, or you put on your sheet at the beginning of the term, we will assume that your child is on.

You need to contact Sheryn (Mon - Thurs) or Kelsie (Fri) before 2 pm with any changes.

We would love to have a better understanding of who will potentially come to Kererū School in the (near or distant) future. This is to ensure that you, as parents, receive information such as transition visits and school information before your child's start date.

We would love to hear from you if your child is between 1 and 4 years old. To make sure we have you on our 'potential enrolments' list.

Please email office@kereru.school.nz or follow the link to our enrolment section on our website to find out more information.