Term 1, Week 8

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, RD 1, Hastings 4171

Office Hours: Monday - Thursday - 8:30 am - 3 pm
Phone: 06 876 0923
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=100084298596659

Kia ora e te whānau,

There’s been plenty happening at school over the past few weeks, with lots of rich learning and experiences for our tamariki, including weekly swimming lessons with Erika, a PALS workshop for our Year 7 and 8s, tomato sauce and pasta making, and Swimming Sports, as well as visiting Tots and Dots.

Tōtara are gearing up for their camp at the end of the term in Waikanae at El Rancho. There are lots of awesome activities they will experience, and excitement levels are high! At the end of this week, we will be heading to Sherwood School to participate in the Sherwood School Triathlon event. Our Year 7 and 8s are heading into the GRIP Leadership Course on Tuesday, and we look forward to seeing the skills they learn brought back into our school.

We are right in the thick of the Tennis Cup competition. Thank you to Sheryn—our Office Manager, Teacher Aide, fundraising queen, Board rep, pool lady, and now tennis coach/ref—for organising the competition and refereeing the games. We are really impressed with the willingness of our students to give the competition a go.

It was fantastic to connect with so many of you at our whānau connects. Thank you for taking the time to meet with us and share in your child’s learning journey.

We've had a busy and productive start to the year as we work towards achieving our strategic plan goals. Here's a summary of our progress to date:

• Goal 1: Implement a rich, responsive curriculum that promotes self-directed learning.
• We are embedding the refreshed Mathematics & Statistics Curriculum. This includes teacher participation in professional development (PLD), the arrival of the Oxford resources (Tōtara), and staff engaging in Curriculum PLD. Teachers are spending time learning and understanding the new curriculum requirements and changes. This includes the fact that the learning expectations are now much higher than in the previous curriculum. We have applied for Structured Literacy PLD for Years 0–3 and are providing targeted support for early literacy and handwriting. We are working with the National Library to support resources for learners in Tōtara, including audiobooks and access to a large range of chapter books with immersive reader technologies.

• Goal 2: Connect to our people, place, and local environment.
• We have been busy strengthening connections within the community. Tōtara have used the tomatoes from our school vege garden to make tomato sauce, and with Emily Hunter's help, also made some pasta to have with it—yum! We've been engaging with Garden to Table, connecting with contractors and the Hastings District Council regarding the Gorge opening, and planning with EnviroSchools for Term 2 initiatives. The Community BBQ we held on the anniversary of Cyclone Gabrielle was a real highlight.

• Goal 3: Strengthen the wellbeing and resilience of ākonga and kaiako.
• We are working to improve student attendance by unpacking the STAR Attendance Framework with staff and sharing attendance information with whānau. We are embedding the Healthy Active Learning Programme through engagement with Sport HB and have recently applied for funding to get Michaela Baker back to do her Fun Fitness Programme with our tamariki this year. We've also organised Jack from HB Rugby, Emily Gaddum, HB Netball, and HB Football to come in and run sport sessions with our tamariki. Erika has done a wonderful job coaching our students in swimming; all of our students have improved dramatically.

I'm really impressed with our school-wide attendance data so far this term. To date, we're sitting at 96.6% of our students being present at school. When you look at the bigger picture, the term-to-date average daily attendance for Hawke's Bay schools is currently 89.9%, and our rate puts us significantly higher.

Noho ora mai,

Kelsie Allen

Principal

Roll: 24

A big Happy Birthday to:

• 02/03 - Lucia G
• 26/03 - Mrs Marshall
• 31/03 - Ms Bazzard
• 04/03 - Jack T

Mornings: Please contact Megan on FB Messenger or 027 307 5852 before 7 am if your child is not on the bus. After this time, Megan is on the road and may not check her phone.

Afternoons: Please contact Sheryn before 2 pm if there is any change to your normal bus routine (Mon - Thurs). Please contact Kelsie before 2 pm on Fridays.

Term 1 Dates: 31/01 > 11/04 (includes Waitangi Day)

Term 2 Dates: 28/04 > 27/06 (includes King's Birthday & Matariki)

Term 3 Dates: 14/07 > 19/09

Term 4 Dates: 06/10 > 16/12 (includes HB Anniversary & Labour Day)

IMPORTANT TO NOTE:

Our next Curriculum Day will be on Thursday 23rd October 2025. Teachers will be participating in Maths Curriculum PLD. School will be closed for instruction on this day.

Term 1 confirmed dates:

• 17th Mar - HB Netball session with Tōtara
• 18th Mar - Grip Leadership (Y7/8)
• 21st Mar - Sherwood Triathlon
• 26th Mar - Tōtara Camp Meeting
• 27th Mar - Tots visiting Kākano
• 2nd Apr - Board Meeting #2
• 5th Apr - Farm Walk
• 8th Apr - 11th Apr - Tōtara Camp

This link (below) takes you to our school website. Our events calendar is updated regularly with key dates for all upcoming school events.

You are more than welcome to join us at our Assemblies. All dates are on the Events Calendar. Next up is:

• Week 10 - Wednesday 2nd @ 2:30 pm

As you know, we use our Hero Student Management System to report to whānau throughout the year.

This term, you can expect:

• Whānau Connects: Goal setting afternoons
• Snapshots: Ākonga Comment, Writing Snapshot and one other snapshot

Thanks for having us Tots and Dots! We love spending time at your place. The apples were delicious.

Friday 14th Feb was a beautiful evening to come together at our new community BBQ area, marking two years since Cyclone Gabrielle.

It was a time to reflect, connect, and appreciate how far we’ve come. Moments like these show the incredible community we have—thank you to everyone who joined!

Check out this fabulous art our Tōtara students have been creating.

Our Year 6 students have been working hard on place value, which is a big part of the refreshed maths curriculum's focus on number sense and proportional reasoning. They've been learning how to read, write, and represent numbers up to seven digits, as well as how to order and compare large numbers, and round them to the nearest ten, hundred, thousand, and beyond. To help them understand, they've been using things like number expanders, number lines, and place value bingo to see how our base-ten system works. These basic skills are what they need to really understand numbers and get ready for more complex maths problems later on in the education journey.

Each Friday morning, our Year 7 and 8 students head into Tech at Hastings Intermediate. There, they spend a term focusing on one of these options: food technology, soft materials, hard materials, or sport science.

Our Year 3 students have been working on recognising and representing the base-ten structure of numbers up to 1,000, as well as identifying, reading, and writing whole numbers up to at least 1,000. Their challenge was to count as many objects (blocks/Lego) as they could within a set timeframe. We talked about docking time on the farm and how farmers have to count lots of tails, discussing different strategies they use to make counting easier. The students started by skip counting the individual objects in 2s up to 10, then grouped them into piles of 10. When it was time for the final count, they skip counted in 10s, recording every 100 they reached, before using their place value knowledge to add their numbers together. There was lots of rich mathematical discussion and problem-solving along the way. We now have some kids ready to help count tails later in the year!

Our Kākano students are actively building their reading and writing skills through a variety of engaging activities. They enjoy guided literacy lessons with their teacher and receive daily support from Sheryn, who helps them develop strong handwriting and fine motor skills. Kākano also love to listen to audiobooks, reading independently, completing follow-up writing tasks, and using IXL for extra practice.

For the last few weeks, we have been very fortunate to have Erika in each week to teach our tamariki swimming lessons. We have seen a huge improvement in their style, technique and speed in the pool, which is awesome. Last week, Kererū School attended Swimming Sports in Waipukurau against other small rural CHB schools. A big thank you to Christine and the team at Sherwood School for hosting us. This is event is a big undertaking, and we really appreciate the effort that goes into planning and organising it. Thank you to our parent helpers, transporters and staff for getting our students to this event.

Congratulations to all of our swimmers - we are proud of you.

Our Year 7 and 8 students have been strengthening their leadership skills through the Physical Activity Leaders (PALs) workshop with with Jeremy from Sport Hawke’s Bay.

They learned leadership skills, how to play and teach new games and how to adapt games for different ages and abilities. They learned how to speak clearly and that instructions need to be simple and clear so everyone can understand. They now have a great kete of resources to help when they lead games within our school. After the practical session, they reflected on their key learning: teamwork, managing behaviour, communication, refereeing, leadership and motivation.

We have lots of little artists in Kākano! They've been doing some awesome drawing, including swimming pictures from Swimming Sports and giraffes, which was inspired by the story "Giraffes Can't Dance." "Giraffes Can't Dance" is a great story where Kākano learned that it's important to believe in yourself. It shows that everyone is good at something, even if they don't know it yet. It's also about how it's cool to be different and that you should find your own way to do things, even if others don't get it.

Our Tōtara Masterchefs harvested tomatoes from our school vege garden and spent one Friday morning slicing and dicing! The following week, they made some pasta to go with it. Thanks to Emily Hunter for her expert help and to Emily and Elsie for their pasta machines. IT WAS DELICIOUS! Happy kids and full bellies.

If you can help on the day or the lead up to the day we would love to have you!

Please fill in this form where you can help. LINK

We really appreciate every little bit of help. The money raised will be split evenly between the Kererū School and The Kererū Hall Society.

Saturday 5th April 2025

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Following the success of the inaugural event in 2024, the Friends of Kererū School and the Kererū Hall Committee are excited to welcome you back to the beautiful Kererū community for another amazing Hill Country Walk/Run. The 2025 event promises to be another incredible experience traversing the stunning Big Hill Station nestled under the Ruahine Ranges.

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Along with our fundraising committee, our hosts Bill & Anna and Sam & Sophie Glazebrook are excited to showcase their stunning property, Big Hill Station.

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Make a day of it - challenge yourself and take in the amazing scenery while you walk approximately 18 km, with a run option available. Enjoy a beautiful home-cooked packed lunch 2/3 through the walk, or at the end if you're running, and a well-earned refreshment and BBQ pit stop at the end. We have kids tickets available this year. Please make sure your kids can do the 18km though.

You will need a good level of fitness, good walking or trail shoes, walking poles if you need them, warm clothing, and a backpack containing extra snacks and water.

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At the end of the walk, there will be entertainment, a BBQ and some refreshments available for sale. We will also have some market stalls at the finish with local handmade produce and other items for sale. Relax and enjoy the afternoon, revelling in your accomplishment! Cash only, please.

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STRICTLY NO DOGS.

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Get a crew together, come along and enjoy some good old country hospitality in the most stunning of locations!

Link to Facebook event: click here

Link to tickets: click here

For more information contact office@kereru.school.nz

This term, the Board and Staff will review specific policies and procedures on SchoolDocs. You can access these documents at any time. Instructions for viewing our policies and procedures are available on our website and below in this newsletter.

Topics:

• Health, Safety and Welfare Policy
• Safety Management System
• Risk Management
• Worker Engagement, Participation, and Representation
• Healthcare
• Recording and Reporting Accidents, Injuries and Illness

A big thank you to all of the community members and businesses who contribute to our school through Fern Fuels points. We are grateful for your support.

Thank you to;

• Allen Farming Company Limited
• Beeline Limited
• Corson Farming Limited
• Forest Road Farm - NZ Red Deer Ltd
• Freethlands Limited
• Hilltop Spraying Ltd
• HWS Agri Limited
• MD & KA Hinton Partnership
• Ohara Farming Company Limited
• Olrig Limited
• R Haselsteiner T/A Matangi Station
• Rangimoe Farming Limited
• SH Harper
• Simmons Contracting Ltd
• Stephen J Averill
• Summerhill Partnership
• Te Whana Farm Family Trust
• Topaki Limited
• Tuapae Farm Limited
• Tuturo Farm Limited
• Universal Livestock Limited
• Wakarara Farms
• Whenuapapa Limited

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.

Policies are up for review each term. You can access, view & review our policies and procedures anytime.

http://kereru.schooldocs.co.nz

Username is “kereru”

Password is “kereru1912”

If you ever find the need to raise a concern or file a complaint with a member of our staff, we value open communication and encourage you to follow our concerns and complaints process.

We recognise that we can't always please everyone. We appreciate your understanding that we are committed to doing our best. We value diverse perspectives and acknowledge that opinions may differ.

We encourage you to reach out to your child's classroom teacher, who is your first point of contact for any concerns. They play a crucial role in addressing issues promptly and effectively.

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

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/

School is open for students to arrive from 8:15 am - 3:15 pm.

Our staff sometimes arrive late or need to leave straight after school. Please ensure you can pick your children up no later than 3:15 pm, otherwise you will need to make alternative arrangements.

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.

You can find out more information about our Student Attendance & Attendance Procedure policies by heading to School Docs and searching the above headings. Link to School Docs - https://kereru.schooldocs.co.nz/

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.

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.

Health guidance has been released by Te Whatu Ora | Health New Zealand to help schools and parents to decide if a student is well enough to attend school.

Knowing if a child is well enough to be at school – Te Whatu Ora

We've recently shared the latest Ministry of Education attendance guidelines on Hero, detailing what constitutes justified and unjustified absences. Please take the time to familiarise yourself with this information.