Contact Us
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
Man On A Bench - By Jack, 10 yrs
The lonely man sat on the old wooden bench staring helplessly at the red rose, thinking what has happened. He sat quietly for a few more moments, with bad thoughts flashing through his head he started to cry. The mans tears formed a pool of glistening water in his hands. The man started to shiver, his old winter clothing rustled as the chilly wind whipped past his body. The remaining petals of the rose started to parachute down onto the cold concrete. As more terrible memories passed his head, he whispered "will this happen to me one day?". The man got up and started to walk away, as he walked he spied a graveyard. The horrible memories flashed through his mind again, and now he started to cry. He tried to suck up his tears but it was no use, the bad memories had won.
Staff Spotlight: Alison Marshall
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: Mrs Marshall
Job Title: Boost and Release Teacher
Spouse: Ian
Children: are no longer children - Cameron, Andrew, Sean and Colette - who have given me 7 fabulous grandchildren so far.
Where are you from (originally): Hastings
What is your favourite food: Tomato - in all its amazing forms
What is your least favourite food: Leeks in white sauce
Favourite Movie: Blindside
Dog or cat: Has to be dog
Hobbies: Photography, Reading, Grandchildren (is that a hobby - feel like it is ;))
Why did you want to work at Kererū School: Love the school community and love being able to share my passion for literacy, especially children's writing!
What do you love about Kererū School: Firrst and foremost is the people - amazing staff and amazing students. I have over 40 years teaching experience across New Zealand and Melbourne, in small and large schools, rural and city and I have to say that this is such a lucky community with the school and people that you have nurturing your children!
Reporting - what to expect this term?
As you know, we use our Hero Student Management System to report to whānau throughout the year.
This term, you can expect:
- Snapshots: Writing, PE / Health & The Arts
- Reporting: Collaborative Conferences are being held in Week 2. This is great opportunity for whānau to meet and discuss your child's learning and progress this year.
Bokashi Composting System
We are very grateful to have secured a Grant from Hawke's Bay Regional Council to purchase 3 Bokashi Bins, 30 pairs of gardening gloves and some gardening tools.
Bokashi is a Japanese word that means “fermented organic matter." you place all your food scraps in the bucket including raw or cooked meat, citrus, and fish and poultry with small bones included. There is minimal to no odour, it doesn’t attract flies and all you need to add is a sprinkle of our Compost Zing to kickstart the fermentation process.
Bokashi is a two-stage process. The first stage occurs when your food waste ferments in an airtight environment within the Zing Bokashi bucket. Stage two is the decomposition process which needs to take place in soil or a compost pile.
We look forward to learning more about bokashi and implementing this system at school.
Lots of sport!
With the 5 Aside Tournament at the end of Term 2 to prepare for, we got lots of training in. We learned new skills, games and techniques. We are grateful for the support from Jeremy from Sport HB, our very own hockey superstar, Emily Gaddum and Jack from HB Rugby teaching our tamariki rugby skills and rippa rugby games.
Matariki Celebrations
At the end of last term, we had a fabulous day filled with lots of learning and activities related to Matariki. Day activities included; weaving and making stars, baking star biscuits, colouring and contributing to a korowai. Evening celebrations included; shared kai, waiata, a disco, decorating the biscuits and continuing whānau contributions to the korowai.
Making Hot Compost!
Last term we had a big focus on soil, what it’s made up of, and how to care for it.
To do this, we had to see what the soil was like at our school, and compare it to the charts showing the quality. For instance, the soil in the former chicken coop was dry and crumbly, but the soil near the pool fence was clayish and moderately moist.
To properly understand soil, we need to know how it’s formed. So we made a piece of art, detailing where the different components of it come from, and how they get there. The rain pours down onto the mountains, freezing into ice and snow. Because water expands when it turns into ice, the rocks in the mountains crack apart and it causes erosion. The rocks then tumble down into the river, which breaks them apart into silt, sand and clay.
From what we have been learning, we want our soil to be very porous (able to let air and water pass through it easily). For it to be porous, it can’t have too much clay, and we need to have our super animals in it… the worms! As worms burrow through the soil they leave small tunnels, letting water and air pass through, and just loosening it up a bit.
Soil is made up of many different layers, the top layer is called humus, the next layer is called topsoil, then the subsoil, and lastly bedrock. To have successful soil for your garden it must have these three things, water, air and humus. Humus is made up of any dead leaves and plants, decaying animals, insects, and other things like mushrooms.
To improve the soil at school we decided to build a compost cake. We have been learning all about what creatures live in them and how to create one. The decomposers hugely impact what goes on inside of the compost cake. There are two different types of decomposers, the detritivores, which are the living things (bugs, insects and micro sized animals) that eat the stuff in your compost (and poop it out again). And the saprotrophs (fungi, mold, or bacteria), which are the living things that absorb the nutrients from the soil, and then release that energy back out.
When we made our compost cake we got lots of people to donate different things such as animal manure, leaves, sheep dags, saw dust, straw, etc… but we also foraged some things from around our school such as more leaves and fresh weeds. When constructing the compost heap the different layers had to go green, brown, green, brown (greens have more nitrogen, and browns have more carbon) so the microbials (tiny little bugs) would have a good mixture of things to eat.
The heap had to be a meter by a meter, so there would be less surface area. This means that it would get hotter, and help decompose it. We were surprised at how many things we used up. The microbials and bacteria have a party inside of the compost cake and eat all of the good things we put in there for them making the heap nice and warm. Luckily for us, after about five days the thermometer said that the inside the heap was 60 degrees! We could even feel the heat from the outside!!!
Learning about soil has been great fun for everyone, and made us very thankful to be living in a place where we have so much of it.
By Eleanor and Thea - Y8
Start Composting
Elly the Author!
For the past couple of terms, Elly has been working with Mrs Marshall each week to research, plan, craft, edit and create a book based on Cyclone Gabrielle.
Elly was excited to share the printed mock up with our tamariki and also went through the process to get to this point.
We are so proud of Elly, and the work that has gone into this book. Keep an eye out for more to come about 'Cyclone Gabrielle'.
Winter Wonderland Dance - 3rd Aug
Come along on to our Winter Wonderland Dance on the 3rd of August!
Held at the Kereru Community Hall this fundraiser for Kererū School will be a real treat! Dust off your dancing shoes!
Thanks to the generosity of Marcus Buddo, we have Shanni's food truck providing burgers for everyone who attends. Please when you purchase your tickets, select if you want a beef, chicken or veggie burger.
Timeline:
- Food truck will be at 7pm (only burgers available served with chips)
- Live Auction at 9pm
- Band starts after the auction.
For more info, please contact Sheryn on 0279333388 or via the school email. If you have anything to contribute to the auction, please contact Sheryn.
Fern Fuels
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
Bus Communication
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.
