Welcome to 2024!  We are looking forward to seeing everyone back at school on Wednesday 7th February.  We invite you to join us at 8.30am on Wednesday morning for mihi whakatau.  

I would like to extend a warm welcome to the new students and whānau who are joining us at Kuratau School this term.  We also welcome two new staff members to our team - Whaea Lou Wright and Hayley Brown. Our staff for 2024 are as follows:

We have a busy term ahead so make sure you check out the Important Dates section below. 

As a team, we are looking forward to seeing the tamariki back at school on Wednesday and look forward to working together with you, and your children this year.  We have some fantastic things on the horizon for 2024 and are excited about the year ahead.  
 
On Thursday 29th February we will be holding our Kai and Kōrero | Meet the Teacher evening and we hope to catch up with many of you then.  

It's important to us that we have open communication between home and school.  If you have any questions, concerns,  queries or positive comments about your child's wellbeing or progress please do not hesitate to make contact with your child's teacher. 


Ngā mihi
Shirley Bailey
shirleyb@kuratau.school.nz 
07 386 5801

Our swimming pool is up and running and ready for Term 1.  The solar system has kicked in and the pool has been hitting some warm temperatures in the mid-high 20s.

Please remember to send your child to school with their togs and towel every day.  Goggles are optional.

The Swimwell team will be with us for two weeks, starting in Week 2 (12 Feb - 23 Feb).  These lessons are designed to promote water safety,  develop water confidence, and learn some basic swimming skills and stroke development.

Swimming is an important part of the New Zealand Health and Physical Education Curriculum.  Did you know, New Zealand has one of the highest drowning rates in the developed world!  Given our proximity to New Zealand's largest lake it is essential that our tamariki are confident in and around the water.

The recently revised Education Outside The Classroom recommendations are for schools to obtain parental consent for all water based activities due to the higher level of risk associated with water based events.  Please complete the attached Blanket Consent form as soon as possible to ensure your child is able to swim at school this term.  A pdf version of this form is also attached below.  This blanket consent covers all day trips and education outside the classroom that may occur onsite or offsite - eg. cross country, athletics, planting and weeding in our wetland, sporting events, trips to local places.  We have also added 'Swimming in the School Pool' to this blanket consent.

Please Note:  All other water based activities that occur throughout the year, will require a consent for each activity to ensure parents are fully aware of the water risks involved - eg. kayaking, camps that involve raft building or swimming, tramping where students are crossing waterways etc.

If you have a genuine reason why your child cannot participate in swimming (eg. illness, injury, or other medical or health related reasons), please ensure you notify your child's teacher in writing.

Our Kai and Kōrero evening will be held on Thursday 29th February.  The purpose of this event is to provide an opportunity for our parents/caregivers to meet their child's teacher and learn more about what happens at school.

FORMAT:
We are running two sessions in each class and you are invited to attend whichever one suits you best.  Both sessions will be the same, they will be repeated so that parents can attend two different sessions - ie. if you have two children in different classes.  During these sessions teachers will be sharing some information about themselves; their classroom and their daily programme and share any specific things they do - eg. Technology for Year 7 & 8s.
 
At the conclusion of both sessions we warmly invite you to stay for a picnic.  School will provide a sausage sizzle but we encourage you to bring along a picnic dinner as well.  The swimming pool will be open for you and your children to enjoy a dip. During the picnic time staff will be available to catch up with.  This is a great opportunity for our families to also get to know each other.

TIMES:
Session 1: 5.30pm - 5.50pm
Session 2: 6.00 pm- 6.20pm
Picnic and Pool: 6.30 - 7.30pm

We look forward to seeing lots of you at this community event.

This term we will be trialling a different daily structure.  We will be increasing our morning tea and lunch break and removing one of the shorter breaks.  This will allow students (and staff) more time to eat and play, while also providing longer periods of time for students to engage in learning.

8.30am - 8.45 - Karakia and waiata
8.45 - 10.30am - Ako Tahi (First block)
10.30 - 10.50 - MORNING TEA
10.50 - 12.50 - Ako Rua (Second Block)
12.50 - 1.30pm - LUNCH
1.30 - 2.30pm - Ako Toru (Third Block)
2.30pm Home Time

After extensive consultation with staff, students, Board and whānau we are pleased to share our new School Vision and Values.  

We are looking to enlist the expertise of a local artist to help us with redesigning our current school logo, and to create some awesome school signage that promotes our new Vision and Values.  Once our logo has been refreshed we will finally be ready to purchase some new sports uniforms. 

This term kaiako | teachers and ākonga | students will spend time unpacking our vision, values and whakatauki.  We will begin to explore what each value means - what it looks like, sounds like and feels like.

Learning how to LEARN is our big idea for Term 1, and all classes will be working on developing their understanding of what it means to LEARN.  

We look forward to sharing what our students are learning via See Saw.  

Nova Energy have advised us of a planned electricity outage on Friday 16h February from 9am - 4pm.  Please Note:  You will be unable to contact us via phone or email on this day.  School will be open for instruction. 

If you are interested in your child learning the piano, please contact Bev, 029 773 8615

The first lesson will be on the first Friday of Term 1.