Newsletter Thursday 3rd August 2023

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, Hastings 4171
Phone: 06 876 0923
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=100084298596659

Kia ora e te whānau,

Welcome back to Term 3! This term, we have welcomed Immy & Autumn, our 2 brand new 5-year-olds, to Kererū School. It has been great to see both of the girls settling into our school routine so well.

We also extend a warm welcome to the Jolly whānau (Payton, Tayte & Emmett), who join us all the way from Australia. The Jolly's will be based at Kererū Station, and I know that they will be well looked after by our school and the wider community.

Last week, I was lucky enough to spend 4 days away on camp with our Totara Students. It was an awesome trip, filled with lots of laughter, fun and great learning experiences such as visiting Whakarewarewa, the Redwoods Nightwalk and learning about the Tarawera eruption. Our tamariki were incredible representatives of Kererū School. They were kind, respectful, and considerate of others. A big thank you to our parent helpers: Emily, Jason & Rochelle. You guys were awesome! Thank you for giving up your time to help make this trip happen. A big thank you also to Miss Revell for her organization, food prep, and for buying the Beanboozled game! Thea and Elsie have written fantastic recaps of our time away on camp below.

As you may have seen, we have been advertising for a Caretaker. I would like to say a huge thank you to Jack Warner (and the wider Warner whānau) for the hours they have put into our school. Managing the school grounds isn't an easy job, and I am hugely appreciative of his mahi. If you (or anyone you know) are interested in this position, please let me know.

This term, our inquiry focus is Natural Disasters. We have some great experiences for our tamariki lined up, including a trip to the Ohara River to see the impact after the cyclone and to look at the water quality. We also have Kate from Illuminate Science coming to visit us with shake tables to replicate an earthquake!

Take care and enjoy these sunny days.

Noho ora mai,

Kelsie Allen

Principal

Roll: 29

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.

Please ensure you message Megan in the morning if there is a change to your usual routine.

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.

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/

A big Happy Birthday to the following ākonga & kaiako:

• Autumn - 1st July
• Immy - 12th July
• Mrs Charteris - 27th July
• Miss Revell - 29th July

This term our specific ADORN focus is going to be around 'Determined - Putohe'.

DETERMINED learners are diligent and set high expectations of themselves. They are resilient and have a growth mindset, persevering to overcome challenges.

From this week we will be training (if possible) daily by running up and down the Perkin's driveway. It is important students come to school with practical footwear & clothing to train in and full water bottles.

Thank you for your prompt responses on our Hero surveys. Planning activities and trips for our tamariki takes a lot of time and organisation, so responding promptly allows us to get planning underway. The quicker they are filled in - the better.

We will be having Collaborative Connects (parent/student/teacher meetings) in Week 8 on Tuesday 5th September and Wednesday 6th September.

This is a great opportunity for you to make time to meet with your child/ren's teacher to discuss their learning.

Bookings will be live on Hero in the next week or so - please keep an eye out for this. First in, first served.

"Last week we went on camp and it was so much fun. All of the activities we did in Rotorua were amazing. My favourite activity was the Luge. I sped down the hill on these super cool carts, then got to go back up on a chair lift. Elsie Bumped into Miss Revell and Isaac bumped Kate off the track and lots of us stopped but luckily Kate was ok.

The other one I really enjoyed was the Redwood night walk. There were so many cool lights and 3D patterns to look at. I love how these activities made me and my classmates more actively strong and connected with nature and my surroundings.

At Whakarewarewa there was so much steam coming from the ground there were also lots of hot pools. Our guide who was showing us around was cooking corn in the hot pool and then we got to eat it!! After that, we got to see a performance they did and that was great too.

Xtreme trampolining was EPIC!! There were so many bouncy trampolines and airbags as soon as I got there I just wanted to go go go! Then I could! They were so fun there was a giant tall block that we could jump onto the tramps from, and there was also a huge runway that we could jump onto the airbag it felt like you were sinking into the earth.

The trout hatchery was pretty cool as well, we got to feed them from a little bag, and there were so many fish swimming around in a giant pond. After that we went into a huge shed where they kept the baby fish, in a different section there were even some that broke out!

On the way back we stopped at Craters of the Moon it was freezing!! It said in one of the cars that it was -3 but it got warmer as we started to walk. It was so cool seeing the boiling mud right under and around us this was the last activity and it was a good one! When I walked around I knew why it was called Craters of the Moon! There were giant holes/craters in the ground so deep I could only just see the bottom! This year was a great camp."

By Thea

"My favourite activity was Whakarewarewa because it was so cool to see how people used to live and still live today! I have learned so much more than I used to know about Maori culture. At Whakarewarewa, we also learned about how people eat in different ways. One of the things I remember quite clearly was how they cooked corn! There is a giant pool that goes down so deep that nobody could measure it. It was also so hot it nearly reached up to 100 degrees Celsius! That's what they cook their corn in. We even got to try some! Michael (the guide) told us that we did not need to use butter or salt because of all the minerals in the pool that the corn was cooked in. The corn tasted amazing because of all the minerals in it.

My second favourite activity was the Xtreme Trampolines because it was a very cold day and it warmed me up in an instant. I also liked it because I landed a flip and got to do lots of other tricks. I loved it because some of the parents tried some tricks and one of the parents did a handstand and flipped over. I thought that looked like a lot of fun so I joined in.

We also ate lots of delicious food for dinner, lunch and breakfast. I found the fish and chips so yummy that I ate more than I usually would. But what really caught my eye was the accommodation (cabins) it was unreal. The beds were so soft and I did not get cold at night. It was actually hard to leave!"

By Elsie

Kākano had a fantastic time at Tots last week while Totara was on camp. They didn't want to come back to school. Thanks to Megan for the cupcakes! It's always so great for the new entrants to go back to a familiar environment that they all loved so much.

Last Friday, while Totora was on Camp, Kākano made some yummy pancakes! They did such a good job measuring and mixing, and of course making a mess!

On Thursday before the end of Term 2 we had an amazing day and evening celebrating Matariki. During the day we sang waiata and rotated around different activities; soup-making, biscuit-making & decorating and art.

In the evening, we all came back to celebrate with our whānau. Kate and Fletcher (two of our Year 8's) led brilliantly. We listened to a video about what Matariki is all about & sang waiata. We also shared kai (including our yummy Matariki soup & bikkies), decorated Matariki stars, played games & had a disco!

It was a lovely evening to celebrate, connect and enjoy with our School Community.

We will be having a school planting afternoon on Friday 11th August to plant a whole lot of natives that have been recently donated to our school.

It would be great to have as many helpers as possible. Please meet at school equipped with planting tools at 1:30 pm. We expect this will be all finished by 4 pm.

Please send students to school with clothing that can get dirty/muddy on this Friday.

A big thank you to Mauri Oho & Central Natives for their generous donation of native plants for our school landscaping.

A huge thank you to everyone who came along to support our Quiz Night. Congrats to the Bush Tits on their win, and the Hardened Arteries as runners-up. We raised $2400 which will be split between FOKS and the Hall Committee.

Thank you also to our sponsors for your ongoing support.

Cloud Farmers

McFall Fuels

Rabobank

AON

Kererū Queen Bees

HB Homes

BWR Accounting

Laser Plumbing & Electrical

New World Hastings

Gods Own Brewery

Our Cross Country will be held on August 24th. Thank you again to the Spall family for allowing us to use your farm for this event. We will be looking for helpers on the day leading up to it.

We'll need help with the following;

• Baking will be required from every family - we will let you know finer details shortly
• Setting up and manning the food stall
• Packing away the food stall
• Help tidying up and packing up the course

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. We will advise you when policies are up for review and how you can take part in the review.

http://kereru.schooldocs.co.nz

Username is “kereru”

Password is “kereru1912”

TERM 3:

• 04/08 - Chess Comp
• 09/08 - BOT Meeting
• 08/08 & 09/08 - Rachel from Field Based STEM back
• 11/08 - Planting afternoon
• 22/08 - Science Roadshow
• 24/08 - Cross Country
• 25/08 - Daffodil Day
• 08/09 - Y5/6 Mathletics Competition
• 13/09 - BOT Meeting
• 22/09 - Last day of Term 3
• 04/11 - Kererū School Dance

Please click the link below or go onto our website to keep up to date with school events and happenings.

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

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.