Kōkopu Newsletter

What a wonderful term of learning and fun it has been at school. Our students have worked so hard and this is evident in the work they are producing. One thing that teachers across the school have been working on is punctuation in writing. I saw some great examples of students practising this in room 2 last week.

Holidays are a great time for students to have a break and refresh before the push to the end of the year. But, it is also a good opportunity to continue to practice their learning. Reading or even telling stories with family is a great way to build students self esteem and love for reading. Some of my fondest memories as a parent were reading and telling stories to each other. For a more modern twist, if you are up to a challenge, use one of the many Ai children’s story generators or even ChatGPT to create your own fun family stories.

On that note, Ai is increasingly impacting our lives. From online assistants to medicine, industry and education too. Next term I will be sharing some of the Ai advances that are impacting education. For now, our students are not allowed to use Ai for their school work unless supervised by staff. This is no doubt going to evolve as more and more of our existing education tools use the technology.
One thing that we should all be aware of is that most Ai technologies like, ChatGPT, are age-restricted to 18+ or sometimes 13+. Like social media, we as parents need to be guiding our children’s use.

Enjoy the holiday break with your children.

Nga mihi nui

Yaron Overeem

Principal

This week is the last chance to order a personalised school tee shirt for your children. We have decided it would be best to have your child's name on the shirt, so they don't get mixed up. They cost $54.00 each. They will be ready for next term

Please order via return email with preference of your child's name; i.e. first name/surname and size. Payment can be made by direct credit to the school bank account.

Kokopu School Board of Trustees

12-3099-0419154-01

This Thursday students will participate in our annual House day quiz event. Students get together in their mixed age house groups and answer 10 questions from each staff member. Points are allocated as part of our year round house competition.
As part of these days, we would love students to start dressing in their house colours. This could be a simple as a headband, t-shirt or socks. But feel free to go all out too!!! These colours are easy to spot as they are on their house murals in the covered areas.

· Tui = Blue

· Morepork = Black

· Kereru = Purple or pink

· Pukeko = Red

· Kea = Green.

We had some very excited students who undertook their induction and first lesson for the Tahi Bee Friends Program last week. The session included information about bees, hives and trying on their very cool bee suits. The hives will be arriving over the school break and will be up at the very top of the field, along the fence line. Ray our caretaker will fence this off to remind children not to get too close. Once the top car park is done they will be shifted to that area.

The car park continues to progress well and hopefully with continued dry weather the top car park will be ready before Ag Day. There is going to be a lot of work done over the break and it is best not to use the car park at all. If you haven’t already, it is worth a wander up to the top field to get a good understanding of the progress up there.

Over the break, we will also be having room 5’s and 6’s roofs replaced. This is part of a wider roof replacement that will happen over the Christmas break.

We are also upgrading some of our CCTV network to better cover the car park and front of the school.

All the best to Caitlin Riley and Riley Bourke, the two year 8 students who will represent Kokopu School at the Mangakahia Lions Club Speech competition. This will be held Wednesday 25th September at 7.00pm at The Mangakahia Community Sports Complex. Everyone is welcome to attend and support the children at this event.

Please encourage your children to look through lost property for any missing clothing. You are also more than welcome to come along to school and go through the lost property box. It is overflowing! Unclaimed clothing will be sent to the charity bin. Thank you.

Parents, please ensure the gates into the school are shut at all times.

We need them shut after school, as there are still children at After School Care until 5.30pm.

***Ag Day Reminder - Saturday 2nd of November 2024***

Read More on our Ag Day website. www.kokopu.school.nz/agday

• Ring configuration so you can practice at home
• Rearing advice things the judge may ask you
• Last minute ag day prep

Please register your animal or garden if you haven't already

When you child has registered their animal they will get an Ag Day Handbook.

www.kokopu.school.nz/agday

Please return all trophies to school now so we can get them into the engravers and get them ready for our next Ag Day on Saturday 2nd November. Thank you.

Lamb and goat day-care is up and running. Children can bring their lamb or goat to school for the day so they can look after them and feed them during break times.

Students can store their milk in the whanau room kitchen.

Please be advised that on Friday 22nd November, we will be holding a Teacher Only Day (TOD). On this day, the school and after-school care will be closed to all students.

This day has been allocated by the government for teachers to work through the new Maths and English curriculum updates. We appreciate your understanding and support as we engage with these significant changes to our teaching systems.

Thank you for your cooperation.

Wed 25 Sep - Mangakahia Lions Speech Competition

Thu 26 Sep - House Day

Fri 27 Sep - Last day of Term 3

Mon 14 Oct - Term 4 Starts

Thu 24 Oct - Vision and Hearing Test Year 7

Mon 28 Oct - Labour Day

Sat 2 Nov - Ag Day

Tue 5 Nov - Poroti Athletics TBC

Thu 7 Nov - Central Ag Day

Fri 22 Nov - Teacher Only Day

Lunch orders can be made through Lunch Online on Tuesday from Pizza Fusion - Thursday from West End Sushi - Friday from Titoki Store

Maungatapere Medical Centre is now taking on more patients and invite anyone in the local community wanting to join, to please phone 09 4308 062 for an enrolment form or further details.

SENIOR opening - Saturday September 21. 10.00 am. Thereafter Saturdays at 1.00 pm
TWILIGHT - starts October 3. 5.30 pm
LADIES DAY - every Wednesday . 9.00 am
JUNIOR OPENING - October 15. 3.15 pm
Queries - Ray or Sue Webb. 09 4346 898 or 027 2743 860

Home Industries Saturday 7th December 2024

Located in the Events Centre Building at Barge Showgrounds- inside the Members Room

Follow the signs to the side door off the deck

All entries to be dropped off to the Events Centre- Barge Showgrounds on

FRIDAY 6th December 2024 from 3.00pm to 6.00pm (except photography)

Follow the link below to see all the catagories....

https://acrobat.adobe.com/id/urn:aaid:sc:AP:bcf5604a-5513-4c98-a0c4-482c9438dd2f

Step into a magical world where a child's imagination awakens. Venture into the mystery of a sleepless night. Join us for our story that’s not quite a story, full of bravery and discovery. We encourage you to put on your PJ’s and get ready to be immersed in a world where circus and theatre collide!

Venue: Oneonesix

Dates:

Tue 1 Oct 2024, 10:00am–10:40pm

Tue 1 Oct 2024, 1:00pm–1:40pm

Wed 2 Oct 2024, 10:00am–10:40pm

Wed 2 Oct 2024, 1:00pm–1:40pm

On Friday afternoon we have a sharing assembly at 2.30pm for the whole school. Parents are welcome to come along and see what the children have to share.

Vicki is in the office on Monday, Tuesday and Thursday. Bexs is in the office on Wednesday and Friday mornings until 11.35am.

Don't forget we are collecting Yummy Stickers. So please collect the Yummy cut-out labels from bags (each cut-out label is worth 10 stickers) and individual Yummy apple stickers. Yummy apples are available from New World, PAK’nSAVE and participating Four Square stores. The more you collect, the more sports gear you get so get going and start collecting your Yummy cut-out labels and stickers now!

Guitar lessons are on Wednesday's. If you are interested in getting lessons for your child, phone Lynn Moase on 0212979437.

Term 1 .. Thursday 1st February to Friday 12th April

Term 2 .. Monday 29th April to Friday 5th July

Term 3 .. Monday 22nd July to Friday 27th September

Term 4 .. Monday 14th October to Friday 13th December

If parents/caregivers want to visit the website https://kokopu.schooldocs.co.nz/1893.htm to look over our school policies and procedures, please see the following instructions: Enter the username (kokopu) and password (0179). Follow the link to the relevant policy as listed.

Email: office@kokopu.school.nz
Website: www.kokopu.school.nz
Location: 921 Kokopu Road, Kokopu, New Zealand
Phone: 094346765
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/kokopuschool