Dear Parents and Friends of our school Kia Ora/Hello/Kamusta

Kia ora koutou,

I thought I would provide an overview of what Mrs Mason and Mrs Eagar do within our school to support our school literacy programmes:

Mrs Mason works 9 hours per week to run small intervention programmes - Monday - Thursday. She can take small groups or work with tamariki individually. There a a wide variety of intervention programmes she runs and we tailor each programme to the individual needs of the children.

Mrs Eagar takes four, 30 minute structured literacy groups each day with individual children or small groups.

If your child is involved in one of these programmes you will receive a letter from Mrs Eagar letting you know and telling you a little bit about the programme and how you can support your child at home. We all know attendance at school is really important but if your child is on these programmes it is even more important that they attend school every day. These programmes cost a lot of money to run and we need a commitment that children are at school every day to get the most out of these programmes.

Over the last week Mrs Hancock, Miss Smith, Miss Harcourt, and Mrs Fuller (1 day due to camp) and Miss Jury have participated in a three day Ministry of Education funded workshop with our other Kahui Ako schools. We know this has been a lot of time out of the classroom but our teachers were well planned for this three day interruption. The focus was structured approaches to Literacy in Years 4 - 8 to align with the updates to the literacy curriculum. Following on from this the staff will be involved in a series of six webinars after school to continue the learning.

Mrs Waite and Mrs Fuller also attended an assessment workshop with our Kahui Ako schools. There have been alot of changes and updates to junior school assessments and we are working hard as a school to keep up to date with these changes.

There is a lot of change in education at the moment and the speed in which it is occuring is concerning. We absolutely can not tackle it all at once and do a quality job. To start the year our school focus remains on Literacy, in particular the teaching of writing. We will continue to include the Writers Toolbox as part of our instruction, unpack the updates to the writing curriulum in Year 1 - 6 (Years 7 - 10 have not been updated) and learn more about what it means to create a structured approach to literacy across our school.

Nga mihi nui

Kim Waite

Principal

We have changed our supplier for the Toko School tee shirts and the hoodies.

We are going through the Locker Room at Kingsway Menswear in New Plymouth. They complete the whole process. As the sizing of these shirts will be a little different from our last supplier we have samples in the office for children to try.

Please go to the Locker Room https://thelockerroom.co.nz/product-category/toko/ to order your items.

Pricing:

Tee - $46.00

Hoodie – Kids $57.00, Adults $61.00

You are able to have an individual name on the lower back of the hoody, it is an extra $10.00.

Orders will need to be paid and placed by the 28th February. The shirts and hoodies will be sent to school for pick up when they are ready.

We are looking for someone to help the children with stewing apples and rhubarb from our garden.

The apples and rhubarb will be used for our breakfast club and they will also be taken on camp for the children to enjoy. Please contact the school office if you are able to help.

Chickens - Please remember if you have any food scraps, our chickens love them!! The more scraps we have the less we need to spend on pellets. Please drop these off to Room 3 before shchool.

Eggs are back on the enviro stall for $7 per dozen.

School Tryathlon

On Friday 28th February we will be having our annual school tryathlon, beginning at 11.45am.

All children will assemble on the bottom field. They will be taken to the start line on Wawiri Road and they will finish back on the field after the swim.

We run our event in the following order: cycle, run, swim, run to the finish line.

The event order is as follows: Year 7 - 8, Year 5 - 6, Year 3 - 4, Year 0 - 2,

As in the past, we will be utilising Waiwiri Road for the cycle leg.

The children will be asked to remain with their classes until the whole event is completed - this is to encourage the children to support their House and stop the congestion in the bike area while people are still racing.

Please make sure that your child’s bike or scooter ( Year 0-2 only) is fully prepared for this event, checking that it is well serviced and that the brakes are in good working order. All children will be expected to wear a helmet, covered in shoes and swimming gear for this event.

Bikes/scooters will need to be dropped at school on the bottom field, Ahuroa Road entrance, on Friday morning. Gates will be open to assist you with this and Tracy will be supervising. All bikes need to be collected after school or after the last race is completed. If this is a problem please contact your child's classroom teacher.

For children new to our school we have a very small course set up for our 5 year olds. It’s all about having a go and all Room 1 & 2 students will be supported by our senior students. If you have any further questions please talk to Miss Mancer or Mrs Oliver.

Hockey Festival

On Wednesday 5th March we have three teams ( Y3-4 & Y7&8) taking part in the Central Hockey Festival at the turf in Stratford. A notice containing all information in regards to this was sent home last week with all children involved. We require parent to help manage/supervise these teams or we will be unable to send teams.

Cluster Swimming

On Tuesday 18th March we have the Rural Schools Cluster Swimming Sports for children in Years 5-8. These will be at the Stratford pools and we will be leaving school at approximately 9.20 with the event kicking off at 10.00am. The event will take most of the day and is expected to be completed by 1.30 in the afternoon.

All Y5-8 children are expected to participate as there are both non competitive and competitive events. For children who really lack confidence in the big pool in town - the middle pool will be used. Children will return back to school on buses afterwards. Students will need to be wearing their Toko school uniform as well as warm clothes to get changed into. They will also need to take water and their lunch to the event. We are looking forward to a great event. If you are intending on taking your child home from swimming sports can you please let the school office know by Monday 10th March. The buses are very costly.

We are also in need of parents that are able to help with either time keeping or judging at this event. If you are able to commit to this role can you please either let Tracy or Shelley know. People helping in these roles are asked to be at the pools at 10am please.

Any questions please let Shelley know.

Trail Bike Ride

We are looking forward to seeing lots of people supporting this event on Sunday. We still require a few helpers. Please contact the office if you can assist.

Just a reminder that unless you are coming into school with your child you need to drop them off at the bus turnaround area. It is the safest place to do drop offs. There are parents just dropping children off in front of the school and it gets conjested there with people doing u turns and leaving. This is a safety issue and we need to keep our whanau safe.

Each fortnight we will be sharing some kupu that we are using in our classrooms. You may want to learn along as well. We will provide the word, how to pronounce it and how to say it in a sentence.

Term1 2025 DATES

Feb 28 - School Triathlon

Mar 4 -6 - Year 5&6 Camp

Mar 7 - Teacher Only Day

Mar 10 - Taranaki Anniversary Day

Mar 11-14 - Year 7&8 Camp

Mar 18 - Rural Cluster Swimming Sports

Mar 21 - Year 3&4 Topec

Mar 25 - Weetbix Triathlon

Apr 8 - Rural Cluster Athletics Year 1-4 pp Apr 9

Apr 11 - Last day Term One

It is that time of the year again. If your child is interested in playing netball in 2025 please register your interest by completing the following google form.

ED Netball 2025

If there are any questions please contact

alison.eagar@toko.school.nz

ED Netball AGM and Information Meeting is tonight..

Thursday 27th,7pm at Toko School.

All welcome!

Come practice Yoga and support local Toko Volunteer Firefighter Charlie (Walter) Smith's fundraising efforts for his Firefighter Sky Tower Challenge in May. All money raised will go to Leukaemia & Blood Cancer New Zealand. Entry by donation - can be made in cash or online by credit card on his official fundraising site. Please register your interest by contacting Anna Smith - 0210495052.

7pm - Toko Fire Station - Friday 28th February & March 7th

7:30pm - Huiroa Hall - Tuesday 4th March (Additional dates may be added.)

Everyone Welcome! Suitable for All Levels Yoga

Email: office@toko.school.nz
Website: www.toko.school.nz
Location: 1057 East Road, Toko, New Zealand
Phone: 06 7622849
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/TokoSchool/?ref=bookmarks