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Newsletter Friday 3rd March
Kererū School
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, Hastings 4171
Phone: 06 876 0923
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=100084298596659
Tumuaki Update
Well, I am sure the 14th of February is a date that won't be forgotten for a long time.
I'd like to thank you, our school whānau, for your patience as we worked towards opening the school in the safest possible way. Thank you to Sheryn, Cathy and Sally who managed to get our doors open (and keep them open) until Shaz and I could get there too. My thoughts and love go out to the schools and communities who remain in clean-up mode, who have lost their homes, and that are going through a lot of uncertainty at the moment.
It is in times of hardship that the best of people shine through to put a positive spin on the situation. My old school, Methven Primary School heard of what has been happening in our region. They held a mufti day to raise money for our students to help settle them back into school. We would like to thank Methven Primary School for their generosity and kindness. Some of the messages that came through from MPS students were;
- "I hope you are safe and dry. I hope all your students are all safe too and I hope the donation helps."
- "I hope no one is hurt. Be safe Miss Laing"
- "Hi we hope you are well and that the bad weather stops soon. Keep safe."
We will work with our students to come up with a way to spend this donated money ($387.80).
I couldn't be prouder of the way our students conducted themselves at our Swimming Sports in Waipukurau yesterday. Thank you to our parent helper/drivers; Nikki, Emily, Steve, Ru, Elva, Carlee, Todd, and Toby. Also a big thank you to Sherwood School for their organisation of such a great event, and for inviting us along.
Long may this current weather last!
Ngā mihi nui,
Kelsie Laing
Principal | Tumuaki
From the Office
Invoices
Thank you to all who have paid their invoices so far. We understand that recent events have created some difficult times for some of our families. Please let me know if you would like to set up a payment option for your invoices.
If you are having trouble with your payments, please come and see either Sheryn or Kelsie so we can make a plan.
Absences
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.
Sickness
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/
RA WHĀNAU | HAPPY BIRTHDAY
- Bruno G - 5
- Lucia G - 7
From the Staff
Supporting Kids After Scary Events
Scary or surprising events can be frightening for everyone involved, and especially for children who may not understand what’s happened. Long after they are over, scary experiences can continue to affect children’s emotions, thoughts and behaviour.
Check out the attached links for some tips:
THANK YOU
Look at those big smiles!
A huge thank you to all of the farms, businesses and community members who have very kindly nominated our school to receive points in the Ferns’ Fuel for School programme.
We recently met our points threshold and were able to purchase some awesome new sports year, books and technology for our ākonga (learners). We had lots of fun yesterday playing with some of the new equipment!
Welcome
- Bruno G
- Charlie N
Hot food
Pool
Community Service
If you know of anything coming up, please chat to Kelsie.
How to help your child at home
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
Swimming Sports
Thank you to Sherwood School for organising such a fantastic event. We look forward to next year!
The Space Guys
Grip Leadership
There were four topics throughout the day that covered;
- How to be an 'others first' leader
- The people a leader can impact the most
- Ideas that impact everybody
- How to get everybody on board with a new idea
We look forward to our seniors using these skills within our school. Thanks to Sally Charteris for transporting and supervising our students.
Cyclone Gabrielle
By Isaac - Y7
In the long and boring time off school we managed to just survive. (Well we survived just fine, but there was no TV for nearly 3 days)
On day one:
I woke up at 8:30am sharp, and went to turn on the light switch. ‘Click,’ but the light was still its ordinary grayish color. I tried again, ‘click,’ but it didn't illuminate with its usual rays of light. So I gave up on the light switch and thought about my luscious breakfast, but in fact it was only a half a cold milo, 1. Because we didn't have much milk and 2. I wasn't hungry because it was pouring down with rain and the power wasn't on. I barely finished my cold milo when I heard what sounded like Elsie screaming and not with joy, and you would have been screaming when you shore the size of the river in our back-yard. It was almost as big as the Nile, litarily. It was up to my hips. And flooding our laundry. I forgot how difficult it was with no power or internet, so I did a useful thing, and got a small piece of ripped paper, a blunt pencil and sat down at the dining room table.
When I was done planning my tin oven I pleaded with Mum if she could help me with design, but she was too busy trying to get solar power on. (she didn’t succeed) So I went to ask Dad to see if he could help me, but he couldn’t help me ‘YET.’ He said he would come in 10 minutes, but you know his 10 minutes. So I made a start on drawing with a Permanent marker on a Pams Crushed Pineapple tin to make the lines where we can cut so it would make the place where to put the tray, and the place to put the candle so the tray can heat up and cook the pizza. Anyway Dad eventually could and got the angle-grinder out, plugged it in and he said “oh, no power” and unplugged it and put it back on the drawer and we thought for a long time. And then I came to us… We could use a hack-saw plus the tin snips. We started cutting out the two rectangles. We got there in the end. The sides we cut out were a bit jaggery but it was pretty good overall.
And basically all I did until the power was on was cook marshmallows and mini pizza. Thanks for listening, goodbye.
By Thea - Y7
It started raining hard and it felt like I was isolated in the north pole snuggled around the table drinking hot chocolate, playing games.
In the morning I woke up to a foggy mist of enchanted trees, all gloom and puddles. We had just stepped into a natural disaster of rain. Wondering if I would ever get any breakfast, Mum popped her toast down. Just as the toast popped up the power went off, I had missed out on breakfast. Tuesday had hit hard, Tuesday night was torrential.
Ralph and I walked down the road only to find half the road was gone washed into a river of mud. Walking back half of the water was soaked into our bodies, we felt like we were about to die of cold. I stripped until I was just in my undies which I found were also wet! Then I put all my clothes on and curled up in a chair.
I’ve never seen anything like it, the road was a river, the driveway a stream, and our house a swamp. Papa and Nana Judy have a generator so they kindly let us warm up burritos for lunch, watch a movie, and have a shower. Mum scrolled on her phone and found some amazing pictures of the slips. Wednesday past then Thursday and still no power, then at about 5:00 ding,ding,ding, POWER!!!! We all cheered, yay!
We all went for a walk down to see all of the slips and broken roads. When we got to the first slip, oh my gosh 3 huge old trees had crashed through the canopy of trees and now lay down on the ground dead as we slowly climbed over it. A stream down the road, we splashed down the muddy sludge water to the corner where the road had fallen in just a little but it cost. A whole load of trucks and people came to work on it but it still is not fixed today, the day I am at school writing this.
During the cyclone Thor (cat) was snuggled up on my bed and Pepper (dog) was feeling happy because we let her in the house into my room for the very first time! When the power went off it felt very exciting, and then as it dragged on for days it started to get boring and frustrating. There were so many slips everywhere so we couldn't go to school for at least a week. There were alot of huge trucks coming down to the shingle pit to dump their load and now the pit we used to play in is now full of silt and dirt. Someone even dumped their compost load down there!
So many people came to help us with tractors, spades, and gumboots. It was so nice to feel everyone cared about the homes up our road.
Now on the news the death toll is going up as they were finding bodies in cars and houses and people stuck on roofs. I can see the devastation of other cities and communities. This could take a long time to fix.
From the BOT
Keep an eye out for working bee dates
From the FOKS
Bulbs Fundraiser
Dear Parents,
This year we are going to add another small fundraiser into the mix. We know many people purchase bulbs each year for their gardens, so why not support Kererū School at the same time? The school gets to keep 30% of the order costs. This is a great one to ask your relatives and friends to help out with. Order forms will be coming home with the kids today. If you need more, let me know. The bank account to be paid into is on the order form. Thank you for your support!
Join our FOKS Committee
- New members to the FOKS are welcomed with open arms! If you are keen, please let Sheryn, Emily Hunter, Megan Garnham or Carlee Olsen know.
Kererū School Policies & Procedures
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”
Upcoming Events
TERM 1:
- Swimming Sports | Waipukurau - 01/03
- Year 7/8 Grip Leadership - 02/03
- The Space Guys Visit - 02/03
- Newsletter 2 - 02/03
- HB Rugby Skills - 03/03
- Assembly - 03/03
- Sport HB Pysical Activity Leaders Workshop (Year 5/6/7/8) - 29/03
- Newsletter 3 & Community Newsletter - 30/03
- BOT Meeting - 29/03
- Last Day of Term 1 (2 pm finish) - 06/04
- Good Friday - 07/04
TERM 2:
- Teacher Only Day - 24/04
- ANZAC Day - 25/04
- First Day of Term 2 - 26/04
- Unison Safe Sparks Visitors - 28/04
- BOT Meeting - 10/05
- Intermediate/Senior Chess Comp - 12/05
- Kī o Rahi - 17/05
- Barefoot 7's - 18/05
- Pink Shirt Day - 19/05
Kererū School Newsletter proudly sponsored by
Community Notices
Hockey with Emily Gaddum
I would like to take your kids for some fun hockey skills and games on a Wednesday after school.
All abilities welcome.
Juniors (Year 1 -3) 3:15pm – 4 pm
Seniors (Year 4 – 8) 4pm – 4:45pm
If you are interested, please let Sheryn know via the Hero post that has been sent home today. Looking at starting Wednesday March 8th and going for 5 weeks up until the school holidays. Free of charge but may need a couple of seniors to help play with my boys while I take the little ones.