Kōkopu Newsletter

Kia ora Kōkopu whānau,

The weather has been a major influence on school and home life over the last week or so. We hope you all came through OK. Thank you to everyone for picking up and dropping off students safely last Thursday. We only had about 1/3 of the students here but it was a great day to get some one-on-one time with the teachers. School came through well, with our upgraded drainage and carpark making a huge difference.

Again, I would like to put out a big thank you to all parents that helped out at our camps. It was great to chat more with those who came out to the Room 5 and 6 camp. I thoroughly enjoyed the week in the bush and Kai iwi Lakes. What a great spot. I would like to give an extra shout out to Sophie Flintoff who did an amazing job organising the kitchen and feeding us all for both weeks. What a task. The butter chicken was a highlight for me!!
While on camp, a parent asked me what are the benefits of camps? Other than being a great learning tool for literacy and topic work, their biggest benefit is building a sense of belonging, working together and supporting each other. We see this reflected when we return to school. Students are more connected, able to work together and willing to ask for help from anyone. This enables better learning environments which directly improve student learning.

Students have used their camp learnings with Ricky Schraag to focus in on bush conservation, particularly invasive species. Many students were inspired by Ricky’s possum demonstrations, and the work he does to lessen the harm possums do on our environment. It is always hard for kids to understand that these very fluffy, cute animals need to be kept in check. We had 4 of Room 6 share some of their work at assembly on Friday. Well done kids.

Property

Our pool project is continuing to move forward. We have cladding on and internal insulation and lining is almost complete. They have started working on new accessibility ramps for both the changing shed and pool deck. The next phase is completing the changing shed deck and reinstalling all the pool pump equipment in our new pump shed.

Last week we had some classroom upgrades as part of the rural schools Ngā iti Kahurangi program. We have had work done on our power, lights and acoustics. You may notice an odd smell in rooms 4 and 5. This is just the acoustic panels they install on the ceilings. Hopefully it will fade shortly. The first week back from holidays we are having new carpet installed in all classrooms. This will mean a bit of shuffling around to make it work, but it will make a difference to some classrooms who are overdue for new carpet.

We hope you and your children have a good break and we look forward to catching up with you all next term.

Nga mihi nui

Yaron Overeem

Principal

Tomorrow, Tuesday 24th March, we have our annual Bike Day. This is an opportunity to bring your bike to school for a practice for our triathlon which will be held the next day, and get a safety check. Please contact your child's teacher or the school office if you need a bike for the triathlon. Bikes can be left at school over night, locked up in the classrooms ready for the triathlon.

This Wednesday 25th March we will have our triathlon here at school.

• Due to no pool, we are doing a duathlon with a slippery slide as the water activity.

• Students will start on the tennis courts, run to the slippery slide and carry on to the bike and run legs. The finish line is on the field as normal.
• Students don’t need their togs and can do everything in their clothes. They will run the first short run to the slippery slide in bare feet. They must put on a t-shirt and shoes in the bike leg transition area.

• Room 1 and 2 students will have a year 7 or 8 running the course with them. Please let them do all the transitions and helping, as they know the rules.
• There are to be no parents in the bike transition area. Students know what to do and it needs to be fair for everyone.
• Please bring a change of clothes and towel.
• Please bring your bike and helmets on Tuesday and they will be stored in classrooms overnight.
• Please take all bikes home on Wednesday or Thursday. Please don’t leave any here over the holiday break.
• We have a small number of spare bikes. Please try and bring your own so your child does not have to wait for one to come available.
• If your Room 1 child has not learnt to ride a bike yet, a push (no peddle) bike is fine.
• Parents are welcome to walk around the course to cheer their child on and come to the end finish line to see them finish the race.
• The PTA will have food to buy for lunch on the day.

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The staff wish a Happy Easter to all our Kokopu whanau. Have a safe and fun filled holiday break with your children. We will see you all back at school on Monday 20th April.

Congratulations to our E Pro8 teams, Lachie, Annabeth, Mason F and Hunter and Riley, Jax, Mason S and Roy, who did a wonderful job representing Kokopu School at the Epro8 challenges last week. EPro8 Challenge is an annual inter-school science and engineering competition. Thank you to Ricky, Louise and Samantha for transporting the children to this event.

On Tuesday 21st April, first week back for term 2, we will have a camp meeting @ 5.30pm in Room 1.

If you haven't already filled in the permission or parent helper forms, please do so as soon as possible.

This is the link here to the forms on our school website.

Don't forget Lunch Orders are available at school

• Pizza Fusion - Tuesday
• West End Sushi - Thursday
• Titoki Store - Friday

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:

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 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

Mon 20/4 Start of Term 2

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.

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