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- February Whakatauki
- Message from Mr Martin 28 02 25
- Paid Union Meeting 25th of March
- Junior School Swimming Expo 5th March/ Senior Swimming Expo Notices
- TKP Office
- Too Taatou Haerenga Kaahui Ako Community Event
- Term dates 2024
- Athletics 2024
- TK Rugby 2024
- Guitar lessons in schools
- Franklin basketball
- Te Kauwhata junior Hockey
- Taupiri Junior Rugby Weigh In
- Our Sponsors
Message from Mr Martin 28 02 25
Looking ahead
1st March - Paula Dewar working with TKP Student Leaders
George Muir - Black Sticks and Olympic Ambassador visiting TKP - 9.30am - 10.30am
5th March - TK Guitar Works onsite
Senior School Swimming Sports at TK College - 9.30am - 1.00pm
6th March - ECE Transition to School Programme at 9.30 am in Room 11
Bruce Moody (Maths) onsite working with TKP Teachers
7th March - Bruce Moody (Maths) onsite working with TKP Teachers
Too Taatou Haerenga Community Event - 2.00pm - 6.30pm
8th March - Paula Dewar working with TKP Whaanau Leaders
11th, 12th and 13th March - ASB Getwise - Financial Literacy
11th March - Poowhiri for new students
12th March - TK Guitar Works onsite
13th March - Thames Valley - Hockey Big Day Out
13th March - Ngaa Maramara O Ngaa Muka AGM - 6.00pm
14th March - Franklin Basketball onsite working with our tamariki
18th March - Principals Morning Tea
19th March - TK Guitar Works onsite
20th March - ECE Transition to School Programme at 9.30 am in Room 11
Whole School Duathlon (Biathlon - running and swimming)
21st March - Franklin Basketball onsite working with our tamariki
Namaste, bula, kamusta and greeting to you all!
I can’t believe it is Week 5 and we are nearly halfway through this term!
So far 2024, seems to be a year of real growth for Te Kauwhata Primary School with our school roll sitting close to 300. At this time last year we were sitting at 278 which is nearly a whole class smaller than our current roll numbers. It is so good to finally see the growth that we always knew would come with the ongoing residential development of TK.
Student Leaders and Whaanau Leaders
At our assembly on Friday 16th of February, Mr Thompson, Miss Roberts and I had the privilege of introducing the school to our Student and Whaanau leaders for 2024. It was a great occasion and I couldn’t be more proud of the children who will fulfil these roles in 2024!
Student Leaders for 2024 -
Back row - George Addis, Jake Vining, Kent Smith, Sheldon Hansen, Kora Barber, Aria-Lee Chamberlain, Siya Lal and Tamatahi Wilson
Front row - Pearl Cheung, Emmalyn Tuhimata, Ava Ruaporo, Sparkle Tupuhi-Popata, Mia-Ann Samuels, Poppy Watson and Tyra Khanna.
Whaanau Leaders for 2024 -
Phones at School
As you are aware one of the policies that the National Government has rolled out in the first 100 days is around phones at school. This rule is called ‘phones away for the day’ and is to be implemented in all state schools in Term 1 2024. As a school, we have existing guidelines around phones at school and this is on our Schooldocs site.
As you can see our policy aligns with the government's ‘phone away for the day’ rule and we ask that our children do not bring a personal phone to school. If they do they will need to hand it in at the office in the morning and pick it up in the afternoon. These will be kept safely in the office area for the day.
If you have any questions please feel free to email office@tkp.school.nz and one of the Senior Leadership team will get back to you.
2023 - End of Year Results
As we are nearly halfway through Term 1, I thought it would be a good time to share our results from the end of 2023 and share our focus for 2024.
The tables below are an overall summary of the percentage of students who met the expected curriculum level at the end of the year in Te Reo Maaori, Reading, Writing, and Maths.
As you can see the number of children achieving at the expected level in reading, writing and maths is between 60 - 70%. This is the second year that we are reporting on our students learning in Te Reo Maaori and we had 10 more children achieving at the expected level at the end of 2023 in comparison to 2022.
Our results in 2023 in Writing and Maths are an improvement on our end-of-year results from 2022.
- In 2023 we had an increase of 0.3% of learners achieving the expected curriculum level in Writing in comparison to our result from 2022.
- In 2023 we had an increase of 2.3% of learners achieving the expected curriculum level in Maths in comparison to our result from 2022.
The amount of learners achieving at the expected level in reading remained the same between 2022 and 2023 - 210, but with our school growing the percentage decreased by 4%. We are not worried about a 4% decrease as the same amount of learners has remained the same.
Since 2021, our main in-class intervention has been in writing and literacy. Our Learning Support Coordinator will be coaching and mentoring our teachers to focus on their learners and our DP Michael Thompson will be supporting our teachers in their pedagogical development. The coaching and mentoring programme that Keri is leading will look to support learners in writing throughout the school. This type of support is proven to work and I am looking forward to seeing the outcomes for our learners throughout the year!
Our focus on writing also aligns with our Kaahui Ako achievement challenge of Too Taatou Haerenga - To raise the achievement in literacy for all Year 1 - 13 learners with a focus on accelerating the student. This is a community of learning focus and schools across our region are focused on improving learning outcomes for students in literacy.
Ruth Foulkes is back with us in 2024 and she will support us to improve learning outcomes for our students in literacy. Bruce Moody, our maths guru, will continue to work with us to support our staff in teaching maths. As a school, we have also implemented the 1-hour of teaching in reading, writing and maths policy of the current government. In the past we had this policy running from Monday to Thursday, so the change was easy as we now include Friday.
With the support of our experts and the focus on reading, writing and maths every day my expectation is that we will continue to see a steady improvement in our achievement over the next couple of years.
If you have any questions about your own child’s achievement please contact your child’s teacher. We look forward to working with you all as we partner together to improve the educational outcomes for our tamariki!
School closes at 1 pm on the 7th of March.
I would like to remind you all that next Thursday the 7th of March, the school will close early to support the North Waikato Community Event at the TK Domain. This event will be hosted by our Kaahui Ako - Too Taatou Haerenga. The purpose of the event is to provide our community with an opportunity to engage with the different organisations and health providers that support families in our region. I am looking forward to this event - more information will be posted on our Facebook page over the next few weeks!
Whole School Biathlon (Duathlon)
In 2024 all our students will take part in our duathlon (biathlon) on the 20th of March. This replaces our annual TKP triathlon. We have made the hard decision to not do a triathlon in 2024 due to low participation rates in the triathlon over last past 5 years. At our Duathlon (biathlon), all students will run around a designated course before entering the pool for their swim. This is a fun event and there will be no placings handed out. See you on the 20th!!
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Reminders:
Teacher-only days
In 2024, we have planned for two teacher-only days. This could change due to having to fit in allocated MOE curriculum days. If there are going to be any additional teacher-only days added to the calendar we will give you all ample notice of when this may happen
- Our first teacher-only day will take place in the week of the 19th - 23rd of August
- Our second teacher-only day is on the 29th of October
In 2024, schools are legally required to be open for 192 days. Every year the Board of Trustees works within the Ministry of Education's guidelines and decides when the school is open for instruction. Teacher-only days are not included in the 192 days as on teacher-only days the school is closed for instruction.
Stationery
All children have been issued with their stationery pack and you should have received an invoice requesting payment. We would appreciate payment as soon as possible however if you wish to arrange payment please contact Morag in the school office. Thank you to the families that have already paid for their stationery and also a thank you to those who will organise their payment in the next couple of weeks. You can pay via the Internet or through EFTPOS in the office.
Sunhats
We are a SunSmart School so uniform sun hats are to be worn during terms 1 and 4. They are available from the school office at $15.00 each.
School Drop - off
We would like to ask that you do not drop your children off before 8.15 am as there will be no adult in their classroom or the playground to supervise them. This becomes a Health and Safety issue, both for children and the school. Teachers arrive between 8.00 am and 8.30 am and are expected to be in class by 8.30 am. We would ask that for the health and safety of your children being unsupervised, they do not arrive to school before 8.15 am. We will get in contact with you if we see it happening. There is before School Care available locally should you need supervision for your children before this time.
Ongoing Traffic requests:
If you are dropping off or picking your child up in a vehicle before and after school - please use the Mahi Road entrance. Wira Street is for bus use and walkers only. If you are using Wira Street during the day to pick up or drop off your child please do not park on the berm and do not park across staff car parks, especially during the morning when staff are arriving preventing them from parking. Thank you for your cooperation!
The bus company that services our school has asked if people could refrain from moving any cones on Wira Street in the afternoon. The cones are there to ensure that the buses have enough room to turn into Wira Street. If you choose to move a cone and park in that space, the school holds no responsibility for any damage that may occur to your vehicle.
Also please use the designated crossing area outside the main entrance (near Room 2), to cross Wira Street. This is the safest place to cross Wira Street in the afternoons so please use this crossing to walk your children across the road.
Parking:
A reminder that parking before and after school has to be in the designated parking areas along Mahi Rd and Wira St. As we work with the police to ensure we maintain safety for all our students and our school community, any car or vehicle parking on the yellow lines and across grass verges will result in your car number plate being alerted to them.
Lastly, if your child normally catches the bus and on any given day your plans change, can you please contact the office to let the school know that your child isn’t catching the bus that day.
Lost Property:
We have changed the location of our lost property for 2024. The lost property is now located in the shed next to the Junior playground and will be open before and after school if your child loses a piece of their clothing. If you come into school and it is locked please pop over to the office and we will get someone to open it for you!
Keeping up to date:
Please remember to check our Facebook page for the latest updates from our school - https://www.facebook.com/TKPrimary.
Also, if you would like to read our strategic plan for 2024 please follow this link
Our strategic plan details what we are aiming to achieve as a kura in 2024.
Schooldocs - ongoing review If you would like to review our Policies and Procedures for Term 4 please follow the link https://tkp.schooldocs.co.nz//Logon.aspx?ReturnUrl=%2f Username: tkp Password: wecare
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- Brian and Staff
Paid Union Meeting 25th of March
On Monday the 25th of March the NZEI have called a Paid Union Meeting for all members of the union. As most of our staff are members of NZEI we will have to close the school for instruction at 12.30pm that day. There will be a couple of staff members still on site should you not be able to find an alternative arrangement for your children, please let us know ahead of time so we can plan for this. For bus children, any who remain behind will have the buses run as usual.
Junior School Swimming Expo 5th March/ Senior Swimming Expo Notices
copied from notice sent out 22/02/24
Junior School Swimming Expo
Our Year 1 - Year 3 students from Room 2, 3, 4, 6, Patatee, Maahoe, 10 and Room 13 will swim in their classes to show you what they have been learning. We will send you a timetable of when classes will showcase their swimming closer to the day. It will be about 15 mins per class.
This will be held on Tuesday the 5th of March, starting at 11:00 am and finishing at 1:00pm. Students will participate in a series of games and skills based activities on the day.
Please ensure your child/ren brings the following items for the event:
- Togs
- A towel
- Drink bottle
- School Hat
- Goggles if needed
Please ensure all items are named clearly.
If you have any questions please feel free to email me on danielle@tkp.school.nz
We look forward to seeing you there.
Ngaa mihi,
Danielle van Zyl
Junior Team.
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copied from notice sent out 26/02/24
26th March 2024
Senior School Swimming Sports
On Tuesday the 5th of March, we will be holding the Senior Swimming Sports.
The Senior School Swimming Sports are for children in Year 4 upwards from Patetee, Hiinau, 14, 15,16,17. ThiswillbeheldattheTKCommunityFitnessCentrepoolupattheCollegefrom9:30 am onwards. You are welcome to come along and attend. Non-competitive swimmers will be taking part in events first (e.g. widths) and then will head back to school. Our competitive events will happen next and are for those confident in swimming at least a length of the College pool. We cannot give you a time frame for when those will start but will likely be after 10.30am with the 8 & 9 years old boys first. If you are not sure what events your child is entered in please contact their classroom teacher.
A school lunch will be provided upon return to school for all swimmers. Children come to school as per normal on the day with the following items.
Please ensure your child/ren brings the following items for all the above events:
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Togs
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Two towels
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Drink bottle
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School Hat
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Packed lunch
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Goggles if needed
Please ensure all items are named clearly.
Thank you,
Lesieli Seaton Sports Coordinator
Updating contact details
**If any of your contact details (phone, email, address) have changed since you enrolled your child can you please pop into the office to update them to ensure we are able to share information and make contact if needed**
Has your address, phone number or email changed? Have your bus arrangements changed?
Have your emergency details changed or no longer have your land line number?
Is there any new info eg. medical, that we need to know about your child?
Have you not received our electronic newsletter or need to add another email address?
Let us know ASAP so we can update it on our system.
If you do not want to receive this newsletter please email the office and we can remove you from our email tree reception@tkp.school.nz
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Stationery
Stationery fees are now due. ** Please bring along your paper invoice to speed up the process.
Payments can be made to the school's account for your convenience. (see below for details)
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TKP School account:
ASB 12-3454-0060853-00
Please use your child's name as reference.
Our school does have an EFTPOS facility available in reception.
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Absences
Please let the school know if your child is / or will be absent.
There are a couple of ways to do so:
* Phone 07 8263564 or leave us a message
* Text us on 027 503 7425 - text phone only
* Fill in an electronic absence submission on our school website at
https://www.tkp.school.nz/ under absences on the left hand side.
* Email the office at reception@tkp.school.nz
Your proactiveness in letting us know will be much appreciated.
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Lateness
If you child is late for whatever reason and therefore has missed the roll can they please sign in at the office.
Thank you - TKP Office Staff
Term Dates 2024
Term 1 - Wednesday 31st January - Friday 12th April
(Public Holidays - Waitangi day 6th February, Good Friday 29th March, Easter Monday 1st April and Easter Tuesday 2nd April)
7th March - school closing 1pm for Too Taatou Haerengaevent at the domain
Monday the 25th of March - school closing 12:30pm
Term 2 - Monday 29th April - Friday 5th July
(Public Holiday - Kings Birthday 3rd June, Matariki - 28th June)
(Teachers only day - 1st July)
Term 3 - Monday 22 July - Friday 27th September
(Koroneihana Teachers only day - TBC)
Term 4 - Monday 14th October - Thursday 19th December
(Public Holidays - Labour day 28th October)
(Teachers only day - 29th October)