Kōkopu Newsletter

I really enjoyed catching up with many of you at the school picnic last Monday. It is always great to hear the holiday adventures families have been on over the break.

It is also great to see our students working hard and making the most of their learning time. The school values have been in full display the last few weeks with a variety of events and activities.
The Tahi bee program continues to be a hit and we also had the Kiwi North facilitator out today working with students around Sea Week.
The ePro-8 engineering kits have been a great opportunity for students to work in collaborative groups sharing and showing their creative skills. Our school competition day was lots of fun. Unfortunately, the teacher team struggled with reading the fine print and needed extra help to complete their tasks. 😊

Our year 7-8 students have participated in the Positive Puberty program with Nest consulting. Alongside the puberty was some very positive lessons on friendships, social media and school values. Thank you to all the parents that turned up to the parent evening. There is always something new to learn!!
If you would like to read more about how we deliver Health Education at school please read our School Health Curriculum Statement: www.kokopu.school.nz/policy
We consult on this statement every two years so feel free to email me or the office with any questions or comments.

Rural Principal Support.

I had the privilege of being in Wellington last week working with the Rural Principals Association on strengthening support for rural principals and our unique settings. I was amazed to hear some of the stories from around the country of the recent weather events and how that has affected schools. We are very lucky in our rural area to have such a collaborative bunch of principals and schools. We often meet and support each other. Whether that be borrowing equipment, sharing resources or doing professional development together.

Pool Project

Unfortunately, it looks like our pool changing shed project is not going to be completed by the end of term. This will mean, at this stage, we will not be having swimming sports and we are most likely going to have a duathlon instead of a triathlon. We will try and add a water feature to the duathlon if we can.
More info to come.

Attendance
We know there is a couple of bugs going around at the moment with both students and staff coming down with a nasty cold. Despite this, our students attending 90% or more of the time is at 83%. Which is still above the government’s target of 80%. The overall average is 95%. Keep up the great work!!
We have a new Attendance Management Plan that outlines our new steps with attendance. You will notice a more structured approach to notifying parents after 5 days, 10 days and 15 days absent in a term. It is available on our website. www.kokopu.school.nz/policy

Congratulations to the children who are going along to Maungatapere School where we are hosting the zone swimming sports tomorrow from 9.45am to approx 12pm.

Our swimmers will be competing against Te Horo and Matarau Schools to qualify to enter into the Whangarei Primary Sports Association swimming competition which involves all the schools in the Whangarei District on 11th March.

Some races may change due to absence, so the races will be finalised tomorrow morning.

PLEASE NOTE: NO FOOD WILL BE ON SALE TOMORROW. PLEASE SEND CHILDREN WITH FOOD AND A DRINK.

The transport list is attached below.

The school council is going to have a dress up day to fundraise to replace our very well used skateboards. Friday 6th March

The theme will be dress up as your parents job or a job you would like to do.

There will be a gold coin donation for the dress up and students can buy a Moosie ice block for $2

Camp 1

Room 3 and 4 (Year 5-6) – Tuesday 10th March – Friday 13th March (3 Nights)

Camp 2
Room 6 (Year 7-8) – Tuesday 17th March – Friday 20th March (3 Nights)
Room 5 (Year 3-4)

Here is a link to the permission forms.

https://www.kokopu.school.nz/camps

Here is the gear list for camp.

PIZZA FUSION ARE NOW TAKING ORDERS FROM TOMORROW.

Order for the whole term. Order the night before - or even by 9am on the day. Perfect for busy households and bare pantries. Scan the QR code below to order from Pizza Fusion on Tuesday, West End Sushi on Thursday and Titoki Store on Friday.

Term 1 2026

Mon 09/02 - Room 6 Tech at Manaia View School and every Monday for Term 1 and 2

Wed 11/02 - Kapa Haka and every Wednesday for terms 1, 2, 3 & 4

Tue 03/03 - Zone Swimming Sports

Fri 06/03 - Student Council Dress Up Day

Tue 10/03 to Fri 13/03 - Room 3 and 4 Camp Tangihua

Wed 11/03 - WPSSA Swimming Competition

Mon 16/03 - Board of Trustees Meeting 5.30pm

Tue 17/03 to Fri 20/03 - Room 6 Camp Tangihua

Tue 17/03 to Thu 19/03 - Room 5 Camp Tangihua

Tue 24/03 - Bike Day

Tue 24/03 - Year 7 & 8 Epro 8 @ 4pm

Wed 25/03 - Triathlon

Thu 26/03 - Year 5 & 6 Epro 8 @ 9.30am

Thu 02/04 - Last day of Term 1

Fri 03/04 - Good Friday Easter

Term 2 2026

Thu 30/04 to Fri 1/05 - Room 1 and 2 Auckland Camp

2026 Term Dates

• Term 1: Tuesday 3 February – Thursday, 2 April
• Term 2: Monday, 20 April – Friday, 3 July
• Term 3: Monday, 20 July – Friday, 25 September
• Term 4: Monday, 12 October – Tuesday, 15 December

All children are required to wear hats while outdoors this term as part of our sun safe policy 🌞

Please name all hats, shoes and any other clothing so our lost property bin stays empty for a while.

Lyn Moase will be taking guitar and ukelele lessons again this year starting on Wednesday 11th February. Please phone Lyn on 0212979437 if you would like to book your child/children in for lessons.

Room 6 will travel by bus into Manaia View School on Mondays for Technology lessons.

Please ensure all Year 7 & 8 students are here by 9am to catch the bus.

We would love to welcome new members to our PTA. Any help with events on the food stalls would be appreciated. i.e. Swimming Sports, Triathlon etc. If you are interested in joining us or helping out please contact Amy Pugh phone 0211729388.

As a parent at Kokopu School you have access to our free Qustodio – Parent Internet Monitoring App and online safety advice. The Qustodio Parent App is a comprehensive parental control and digital wellbeing app designed to help you manage and supervise your child’s online activities. With over 6 million parents and 24,000 schools worldwide using Qustodio, it stands out as one of the most trusted and best-rated apps on Google Play and the Apple App Store.

· You can learn more about how to set it up here: kokopu.onlinesafetyhub.nz/parent/topics/Qustodio

· Make your free account here: https://www.qustodio.com/en/30-days-school-special/?utm_source=internal&utm_medium=OSHub&utm_campaign=kokopu-nz

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.

We invite the women and girls in your school community to celebrate International Women’s Day by joining our Women & Girls "Have A Go" event in Northland.

Saturday 7th March 2026
10:00am – 1:00pm
Table Tennis Northland Stadium, 97 Western Hills Drive, Kensington, Whangarei 0112

This free event is part of a nationwide TTNZ initiative encouraging women and girls of all ages and abilities to try table tennis in a fun, welcoming environment. No experience is needed and all equipment is provided.

We would greatly appreciate it if you could share the attached poster and event details within your school community to help us encourage greater participation in sport.

More information:

https://tabletennis.org.nz/tournaments/national-tournament-calendar/women-and-girls-have-go

Facebook https://www.facebook.com/tabletennisnz

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!

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