The Connection Week 2 Term 1

It’s early days and we are all dealing with uncertainty BUT we doing well.

We have nearly every student back. Our staff are excited and more determined to hold fast to what is planned and part of our focus. We have good systems in place and are confident we have planning and processes in place if / when we need to deal with a staff member or student who might catch COVID. You can be assured and confident in what we have at our school.

We are doing some really interesting innovative work around our curriculum. The pathway and plans we have in place are really starting to take shape. It’s great when the parts we have been working on starting lining up and creating something that’s got real potential. This term we have based our curriculum around the theme “Within us”. This takes students on the journey to identify and define what is at the core of what they value, and the end in mind will enable the students to respond to the question posed: How does knowing what is WITHIN US define who we are and what we value?

Our staff have been challenged to find the vehicle that is right and real for them and their class to drive this theme forward. I’m excited by the possibilities and creativity we are seeing in the staff planning and intentions for this term. We are also seeking to lift our ability to assess and report against what we call “global competencies” We look forward to bringing these forward to you as parents over the coming weeks.

Have a great week.

John Petrie

Principal

• Friday 4th March - Teacher Only Day

Alex (Year 3) says: “I love Huapai School because the teachers are nice. I wanted to come back to school to see my friends. I love climbing the trees here. It’s good to be back again.”

Deidre Neill

I have been teaching at Huapai for 3 years. This year I am teaching Year 2 in the studios. I absolutely LOVE teaching; I feel passionate about helping children learn and have fun. I live in Huapai with my husband and in my weekends I enjoy reading and spending time with my family. I have a new grandbaby on the way this year!

We do not place any requirements on children being vaccinated or not. We acknowledge and respect that this is a parents decision. This is (however) attracting some comments and concerns that the school will be a base for vaccinations or that parents will not be involved.

The following points are made (received form Ministry of Education):

- Schools in a lower decile (decile 1 - 3) are being used as vaccination centres. Our school will not be a centre. Children are able to be immunised against COVID-19 at similar locations to those used in the vaccination rollout so far, with many sites accepting walk-ins (no booking needed): - GPs - Pharmacies - Pop-up events in the community - Community Vaccination Centres.

- A simple flyer for parents which includes information on the COVID-19 vaccination, as well as other resources, is expected next week which will be distributed to students. In the interim, there are some great resources available about child vaccination, COVID-19 and health protection for your whānau at: kidshealth | www.uruta.maori.nz | www.preparepacific.nz | www.covid19.govt.nz

- Consent from a parent or caregiver is needed. Children will need consent given by caregivers to receive each dose – no child aged 5 to 11 can be immunised against COVID-19 without the express consent of one of their parents/caregivers.

To ensure we are keeping up with the best technology, we are moving to HERO Financials from 2022, in addition to the existing student KINDO portal currently in place.

Moving forward, all of your school related fees, donations, invoices etc will be available for payment via your HERO account. Statements will also be available. You will notice the Finance section on the home page, when signed in to your HERO account. This section will contain financial information for all children under your care attending HDS.

PLEASE NOTE: we will still be using KINDO shop for anything external you purchase ie: school lunches and the HDS Hat. Also, anything prior to 2022 will still be available to pay via KINDO.

Our seniors travel to Taupaki Technology centre for Tech. The costs of this is paid by the school. We ask parents of students attending to contribute $50.00 of the $135.00 Tech fee towards this. This covers the product costs of the items they get to make, build or cook. This has been placed onto your HERO account now.

Our ability as a school to recover costs is limited. There are constraints we operate under that make your school donation super important and critical to our future. Shortly, we will be sending a promotion to encourage your support. The donation “charge” will appear in your school HERO account. Please note this is a donation and therefore voluntary.

Breakfast club is available take-away style while we are at Red Light.

Children are welcome to collect a sandwich from the window of Studio 2 and take it back to their area.

We are open every morning from 8:30am to 8:50am.

Please give permission on KINDO for your child to have breakfast.

Decisions around exemptions have been passed back to schools. Our desire is to see every child (Yr 4+) wearing a mask. If there is a solid reason why your children cannot align with this, please put this in writing to the school and we will adjust our management accordingly. Please e-mail: office@hds.school.nz

We have elected to send home with every Huapai District School child a NZ curriculum based book that can be used in the situation should they be required to work from home as an individual. This decision carries a significant cost to the school, but we are committed to our students’ education and wellbeing; we believe it to be the most effective tool to support where a child is required to stay at home.

This is not a book to be used when the entire class is home or as “additional homework”. It is to be kept for when your child is unable to be at school with their classmates due to being in isolation.

We are hoping you can support the school in recovering this cost through paying your school donation. School donations can be paid via your HERO account.

Last year we distributed all our school devices to students requiring these to work from home. If we need to do this again in 2022 they will be distributed from their individual class sets. If your child does not have access to a device, we need to know this so that we can plan to distribute our school devices. We do have limited resources. Though something we have not promoted, a good number of students do bring their own devices daily in Years 5 - 8. Right now this could be a significant help and advantage for children. While stocks appear to be limited, the Asus and Lenovo Chrome books are popular and range in price from $400 - $500 per unit.

As a strongly encouraged and highly beneficial supplementary resource to our Year 7&8 science programme, a Start Right Science Workbook is available, payable through HERO ($17.50) with collection from your child's teacher.

The units in these workbooks cover the New Zealand Science curriculum in preparation for Year 9&10 science and fit in nicely with the topics covered in science at school as a pre or post-learning revision/consolidation. Though not compulsory, we will reference, mark and use this resource to supplement the school-based programme. As this book is an optional resource, it is, however, encouraged for our Year 7&8 students to have a copy.

FINAL CALL

These can be purchased online through KINDO.

Orders will be closed off next TOMORROW, 11th February 2022 at 3pm. There will be no further print runs done, so this will be your last chance to order.

*Note: This is for 2021 class photos. Please ensure you purchase the class photo of the room your child was in last year (2021). Class photos for 2022 will be taken closer to the end of this year.

Year 7 students will be offered Boostrix vaccine (Tdap) in school. This vaccine is a booster of tetanus, diphtheria, and whooping cough (pertussis). Most children received these immunisations as pre-schoolers.

Year 8 students will be offered human papillomavirus (HPV) vaccine in school. This is a New Zealand scheduled vaccine that is recommended to be given at 12 years of age. Students need two doses with a 6-month gap between dose 1 and dose 2.

Information on the vaccine and a consent form will be sent home with your child. Please complete the form and return to the school. If you would like more information on this important immunisation programme, please click the link below.

We are working to start our road patrol monitors over the next week. Please keep an eye on your inbox to register your child’s interest.

We are working hard to keep our children as safe as possible while under school care. We have made the decision not to enter any school basketball teams this term due to the imminent presence of Omicron and its potential disruption. While we are passionate about having children involved in sport, basketball is an indoor sport where the children are often in the faces of other students from many different schools huffing and puffing. We feel this is a heightened risk and not an ideal situation when we are actively trying to minimise this behaviour here at school. If you would like to register your child for basketball season 1 (March - June) please contact the Massey YMCA directly. We are very hopeful to register teams for season 2 and will advertise for interest early term 2.

A reminder that touch rugby fees are now due. These can be paid through your HERO account.

Thank you for returning your sports tops from 2021. We even had one back from 2018 - thank you! These can be dropped off at the School Office.

Huapai Family Network

HERO

To see your child’s learning journey, report, and class newsletters and pay for any in-school related costs, please log into HERO.

HERO app - See below for login instructions.

You will only receive one form of notification when a community post or student learning post is published. If you log into the Hero mobile app you will receive an in-app notification. If you log into Hero via a web browser, you will receive an email notification.

SchoolApps

If your child is away, to book Huapai Plus before and after school care, to pay fees, to see our newsletters or to order uniform please use our SchoolApps app.

Here is how you are able to download and install the App on your phone:

Step 1: Download the App

-The app is available on both iOS and Android devices.

-Please visit your app store to download SchoolAppsNZ

-Select our school - Huapai District School.

Step 2: Opt in to Alert Subscriptions

In order to receive any communication you need to subscribe to an alert group. To do this, tap on the menu icon (3 lines in the top left corner) - Alert Subscriptions.

Please select:

• Gereral/Important (must select)
  
• Classrooms - select your child/rens classroom (must select)
  
• Year Level (must select)

Official HDS Facebook Page

This is our official facebook page for us to join together to celebrate our children and special school events.

https://www.facebook.com/huapaidistrictschool

Huapai Family Network Facebook Page

This page is community driven - looking out for each other, creating fun family events and fundraising to support the school for the students.

https://www.facebook.com/groups/huapaifamilynetwork

Huapai Family Network - Sale, Lost and Found Page

Huapai Family Network: School items for sale, lost and found.

https://www.facebook.com/groups/616594765344499

Our good friends at MusiqHub are looking forward to another awesome year of music in 2022 at Huapai School! They will have some slots available for Guitar, Drums, Piano and Ukulele lessons in Term 1. If you're interested, be sure to get in touch to reserve your spot or ask any questions you may have. Contact details below:

Drums - paul.barry@musiqhub.co.nz

Guitar, Keyboard and Ukulele - scott.wotherspoon@musiqhub.co.nz

Our 2022 Term dates are:

Term 1 - Thursday 3rd February - Thursday 14th April

Term 2 - Monday 2nd May - Friday 8th July

Term 3 - Monday 25th July - Friday 30th September

Additional to this there are two planned Teacher only days:

• Friday 4th March

• Friday 3rd June (making Queens Birthday a 4 day option)

Email: office@hds.school.nz
Website: https://www.huapaidistrict.school.nz/
Location: Huapai District School 40 Station Rd, Kumeū, New Zealand
Phone: +64 09 412 5042
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/huapaidistrictschool