INFORMATION  FOR  PARENTS

Absences

Parents or caregivers are asked to inform the school of all absences. It can be done via:

1/ Phone : 06 858 9348
2/ Skool Loop app
3/ SeeSaw
4/ Email : office@waipukurau.school.nz.

We are using a School Management System, not a standard cell phone.

Parents/caregivers can only reply to texts once they are sent out from the school - they cannot initiate a text to notify of absences.

Absentees will be recorded in the Absentee book in the office.

If a child is absent and the school has not been informed, office staff will text to check with the family, so that both the school and the family know where the child is.

Assemblies

Our whole school meets together for assembly in the hall every 2 weeks. Special recognition is given for pupil achievement and effort, and school wide information is shared.

There are also senior and junior assemblies where students share their learning and activities relevant to each age group are included.

Families and friends are welcome to join us at any of these assemblies.

Bank Account

Our Waipukurau School account is: 02-0780-0013856-00. Please add your child's name as a reference with your payment and a short description of what the money is for. 

Any payment made to this account will be traceable, so it will provide everyone a better accountability of transactions.

Thank you for your understanding.

Waipukurau School

Buses

Students must meet all of the following three criteria to be eligible for School Transport Assistance:

There are several bus runs to the school with the Go Bus Company who provide the service. Go Bus oversees school routes. If you would like any information on bus routes, please contact Go Bus on 06 858 5194.

When children line up for the buses after school, a roll call is made to record which students are travelling on the bus.

Once children are on a bus list for the year, it is advisable that parents contact the office to let us know if there are changes in arrangements. Teachers on bus duty will not be expected to chase children up for the bus, unless they are aware that a child should definitely be on the bus.

Class Organisation In The Junior School

When movement becomes necessary because of class size, careful consideration is given to the maturity of each child and the progress they have made in their time at school. Children do not change classes because they have turned 6 or 7, nor do they automatically move after a certain length of time.

Promotion becomes particularly critical after the child’s second year at school, and there can be no hard and fast rule regarding movement from one year grouping to the next within these first two years.

As a rule, children should not be deemed to be Year 3 until they have completed at least 6 terms at school and in most cases children will have completed 2 years. Consideration is given to maturity, social development and academic ability and every care will be taken to ensure that the right decision will be made for that individual child. Consultation with all appropriate people will take place; i.e. class teacher, parents, senior teacher etc. The final decision, however, must rest with the Deputy Principal and Principal.

Health Nurse and Health Matters

EMERGENCY NUMBERS

It is important to always keep your home phone and emergency contact numbers up to date in the school office in case your child is ill or injured and we need to contact you urgently.

DENTAL CLINIC - (Phone 06 858 6725)

The Dental Clinic is operated by the Hawkes Bay District Health Board and is not part of our school organisation. The Oral Health Clinic is located by the back entrance to the school next to the Service Lane.

Most children are seen by the dental nurse once a year (annual recall) with a small number of at risk children on 6 monthly recall. If parents are concerned about their children’s teeth in between visits, please let the dental clinic know promptly. Parents are encouraged to attend appointments with their children.

There is only one Dental Nurse working in the Central Hawke’s Bay area which means that the Clinic here at school is always very busy.

PUBLIC HEALTH NURSE

The Public Health Nurse calls regularly to check any health-related problems of any pupil. Parents will be advised about any further action that may need to take place. The P.H.N. also runs a regular clinic for adolescent students, addressing any issues they may have.

VISION AND HEARING TESTING

The Area Health Board provides a regular service to our School to check children’s hearing and vision. Parents will be advised about any action that may need to take place.

Homework

Homework is given to reinforce learning taking place in the classroom and it helps develop personal study habits, including time management, outside of school. It also enables children to share their work and learning with their families.

Parents are not expected to be teachers and the work set will be of a revision and research type rather than the introduction of new learning.

As a general guide, younger children could be expected to spend an average 10 - 15 minutes each night (this could be spent reading a book if no specific homework is set). The amount of time may extend to an average 30 - 40 minutes per night by Years 7 and 8. Homework should not be onerous and we do recognise that some children lead very full and busy lives outside of school hours.

Hours

School commences at 8:55am each morning and finishes at 2:55pm, enabling children to get down to their bus lines in plenty of time.

Office hours are 8:30am - 3:30pm. The school answerphone will be switched on outside of these hours.

8:30am is early enough for children to be at school to prepare for their day. Unless they must be at school for a rehearsal or sports practice etc. they are discouraged from coming any earlier. Scallywags caters for children whose parents start work early. There is a bus that comes from there after 8:30am.

Morning tea – Juniors 10.30 – 10.55

Morning tea – Seniors 11.00 – 11.25

Lunch – Juniors 12.30 – 1.00

W h o l e s c h o o l e a t I n g 1.00 – 1.10

Lunch – Seniors 1.10 – 1.40

Lost Property / Clothing

With over 300 children all dressed in school uniform, it is important all clothes are named, especially sweatshirts. Please ensure your children’s property is named and that they can identify it.

We often have a large collection of “lost,” unnamed clothing at school. Printed name tags can be purchased in town but a waterproof felt pen will write clearly on most labels.

All lost property is stored in a box in the Office and parents are welcome to look through this before or after school any day. Lost property is put out on display regularly for children to claim.

A change of clothing is required for senior P.E activities - an old tee shirt and shorts would be suitable.

At the end of each term named clothing will be handed back to the owners and any unnamed clothing remaining will be disposed of.

Please educate children at home to be responsible for their own clothing and other belongings.

Lunch Orders

Lunches are available each day for purchase. Orders must be written on the outside of an envelope ensuring the order can be seen without having to open the envelope, with the correct amount of cash enclosed and taken to school office each morning BEFORE 9am. The lunches are made independently, not at the school, therefore we are unable to accept late orders.

Parent Helpers

Parental help and support is vital in children’s learning.

This help can vary from encouraging a child at home by supervising homework or sharing experiences together, through to assistance at school in the classrooms, on school trips and camps, school sports or assisting with a special project eg art or music activity.

From time to time teachers will request assistance - this may be on a regular basis depending on the type of help required.

Much as we enjoy members of our families visiting school and like to maintain an “open door” policy, teachers do need to reserve the right to choose who will assist with certain activities and to say at which times parent presence in the classroom is welcome. Being responsible for all the children in their class they need to keep an overall view.

Playground Commitment

At Waipukurau School every student has the right to safe and enjoyable play in the school grounds. This means that what we do at play time and lunch time needs to fit in with what other students are doing and therefore some simple rules are needed for everyone.

The students and staff at Waipukurau School agree…

The students and teachers have discussed these and agree with them. We agree that other people (teachers and students) should tell us if we let our school down.

Protection of Clothing

Change of clothes. During winter, it is preferable if children have a change of clothes/shorts if they wish to play on the field - this ensures good clothes are protected and stops children sitting around in wet, muddy clothes in class.

An old shirt to keep at school is an ideal way to protect uniforms from paint, pastels etc. during Art time.

Reporting On Children’s Progress

Parents are welcome to come and talk with the teacher to find out how their child is doing at any time throughout the year. We do ask that you make an appointment first as teachers are often busy with after-school meetings, coaching, etc. We also ask that you not interrupt the teacher during class teaching time as this would be disadvantaging a whole class of children.

Waipukurau School is introducing a new reporting system called Real-Time Reporting. Below is information on how this will look. 

Our Rationale for Real-Time Reporting:

To report in a timely manner with the most up-to-date information so that parents can be part of their child's learning journey as it happens.

Using the app Seesaw, parents will get timely updates about the progress their child is making.

This will happen through a variety of posts from teachers and students

Some posts will have an artifact (picture or video of your child and/or their learning) and a caption. These will show your child’s recent learning across the curriculum and how they meet the school values.

Twice a year, curriculum-level graphs and values rubrics will be generated from etap to report on (Term 2 & Term 4).


Benefits for Children


Benefits for Parents and Whānau


Benefits for Teachers

While your usual first point of contact will be with your child’s teacher, you are always welcome to make an appointment to see the Deputy Principal and/or the Principal if you have any other concerns.

2024 School Map

Stationery 

Stationery packs will be available to purchase from the office from the beginning of the school year. Prices are $32 per pack.


If you would like to purchase a pack, you can pay online on Waipukurau School's bank account: 02-0780-0013856-00.

Please state your child's full name & class for 2024 as a reference in your payment.


If you would rather sort your own stationery, please find the stationery lists attached.



A Safe and Happy Environment  

A safe, secure and happy environment in which our students have the maximum opportunity to learn is our priority at Waipukurau School

Each class develops its own rules for how that class is run, and teachers will normally communicate these class rules to families at home through the students. Chat with your child’s teacher if you wish to know more.

Our school-wide Social Skills programme is a positive programme to help develop and maintain a safe and secure environment. It focuses on skills that help us get on with each other and we regularly practise social skills.

In the playground we have the same rules for everyone. This is known as our Playground Commitment. The emphasis is on positive behaviour, we are currently undertaking PB4L (Positive Behaviour for Learning) which has seen our new values defined after consultation with our students and community. These are "I am Kind, I am Honest and I Persevere'. These values underpin our school vision to "Be the best version of you". Our students and our staff aim every day to realise our vision, to get the tools and resources we need on board to be able to be the best version of ourselves. 

When a student breaks the rules in the playground commitment the teacher on duty will deal with this, firstly through discussion to determine what the problem behaviour is and if necessary a warning and reminder of the standards set will be given. If the behaviour continues we refer to our behaviour Management plan to solve the issue. A senior staff member (usually the Principal, D.P. or A.P.) will step in to support if this behaviour continues.

Our school is designated a Smoke Free environment. We ask everyone to respect this.

Safety – to and from school

The pedestrian crossing in Porangahau Road has a patrol and teacher on duty from 8:20am - 8:40am. This covers the period when children arrive by bus and need to cross the road. Any children who live in town and who must cross Porangahau Road are expected to cross between those times.

After school, the patrol operates again until 3:10pm. Children must go straight home from school unless involved in an extra-curricular activity, ensuring they cross the road while the patrol is operating.

Children who travel by bus must follow set bus safety rules at all times. Bus drivers are responsible for the safety of all passengers and should not have to supervise behaviour.

Children crossing St Mary’s Road should do so at the safety crossing outside the main entrance.

We would recommend that children under 9 do not ride bikes to school. All children who do ride bikes must wear helmets and be competent cyclists. There are bike racks provided and it is recommended that children lock their bikes for security.

Wet days cause many problems for those being picked up by car - the main one being congestion outside the school gates - PLEASE BE PATIENT and DO NOT DOUBLE PARK. This is particularly important when we have bad weather, and when a funeral is on at St Mary’s Church. Occasionally the area is patrolled by police to ensure road rules are being followed.

School Donations

The 2019 government budget included the introduction of the school donations scheme. The idea behind this is to reduce inequities and financial pressures that families can face when trying to budget for the annual school donation that you are asked to pay. This has always been voluntary, but schools have relied heavily on this money to fund class trips, and many other school activities and supplies that schools need to function well. From 2020, our school has opted into the school donations scheme and will receive from the government a payment of $150 per child. By opting into this scheme, our school can no longer request payment from families for school activities that are part of the compulsory curriculum. Donations and/or fundraising can, and likely still will happen for school camps, but there will be no compulsory payment. If a camp or school trip is part of the school curriculum, then no child can be excluded because of an inability or unwillingness to make a donation towards the cost or participate in fundraising. Sport teams and sports trips will still require a fee payment as these are not compulsory parts of the curriculum. For more information and frequently asked questions, please go to http://education.govt.nz/school/funding-and-financials/fees-charges-and-donations/donations-scheme-faqs/ 

Sunsmart Policy

Our Sunsmart Policy requires that children must wear school sunhats (supplied) in the playground during Terms 1 and 4. If a child doesn’t have a hat on any day, they will be required to play in the shade. Should a child lose their school hat, they will be required to pay $18.

Support

Central Connect Whare Manaaki provides post crisis counselling, Primary Health Organisation funded counselling, home based social work support, family violence intervention and Strengthening Families work. Their staff are fully qualified and members of their professional bodies. Services are free for clients who meet their contract criteria.

https://www.centralconnect.co.nz/