Kia ora koutou,

Thank you for your flexibility with last week's earlier finishing time which enabled our teaching staff to attend the union meeting at Claudelands Events Centre.  As you may be aware, all Primary, Intermediate and Secondary teachers and principals are currently working through negotiations in relation to our collective agreements.  There are significant strains facing our profession and consequently your children currently and these need to be addressed urgently.  Please see THIS LINK to explain some of these pressures.  After last week's meetings teachers and principals rejected the latest offer.  Currently teachers across NZ are voting as to whether to strike or not.  The result of this won't be available until later this week.  Thursday 16th March is the proposed day of the strike if the votes go this way.  We will keep you up to date with the outcome of this strike ballot as this will obviously impact families.

We have a huge number of people that work to make our school the awesome place it is.  Our School Board are extending an invitation to new and existing families to come and meet them, our staff and Friends of the School (PTA) on Tuesday 21st March from 5:00 - 6:00 pm.  So if you would like to meet the TK Team, join us for some drinks and nibbles.  We are also inviting any of our Kapa Haka group to come along and do a short welcome during this time.

Tomorrow we are holding our Swimming Sports for our current 8 - 12 year olds at the Ngaruawahia Pools. You would have received an email regarding this with all the details.  The PTA will be selling food, all of which is $2; ice blocks, drinks, sausage in bread and cupcakes.  Cash sales only.  We encourage all students to attend and wear their house colours when they are out of the pool.  Please feel free to pop in during the day and cheer the kids along.  There will be a range of competitive and non-competitive events.

In Week 9 (Friday 31st March), we have our Harvest Festival planned.  This is one of our larger events of the year and all of our families and community are invited.  There are fun games, activities, food stalls and of course our incredible pumpkin creations and competitions.  See our 'Friends of Te Kōwhai School' update in this newsletter for more details.

Enjoy the rest of your week.
Ngā mihi
Juliet Dickinson

We heard from you that you want clear, succinct and targeted information about your child's learning and progress.  At our Staff Only Days this year we spent some time reviewing this feedback and have refined our processes and how we use our on-line reporting platforms.  We have also reviewed the timing and function of our on-site catch-ups.
Please follow THIS LINK to our website which explains some of these changes.  As the year progresses, we welcome your feedback as to how this is working.

 The board had its first meeting for the year on the 22nd of February and it was great to catch up around everyone’s holidays and also discuss the significant weather events that have impacted not only our community but also the broader Aotearoa.  Our thoughts are with those people who have been impacted by the recent flooding and we hope that your whānau are safe and well. 

We had a full agenda for our first meeting and got stuck straight into the mahi.  The four main agenda topics for discussion were the Analysis of Variance reporting (outcomes of goals) & school wide data review of where our tamariki are placed across the cirriculum, charter & annual goals, an up and coming korero with the board and staff and some additional maintenance around the school. 

A review of our Analysis of Variance reporting & school wide data showed that there has been some greatly accelerated progress across our most at-risk learners in 2022 in Numeracy and Literacy.  This showed that the strategies the school is putting in place are working and we look forward to seeing the progress throughout this year as well.  There has also been a positive improvement in the closing of disparity (between boys/girls and Māori / non-Maori across the curriculum and it has been fantastic to see how the school's goals in action are demonstrating more equitable learning outcomes for our tamariki. 

We then reviewed the school's charter and annual goals for 2023 and the process of engagement for reviewing these.  Our goals have remained the same over the last 3 years as a result of COVID and in late 2022 the Ministry confirmed that our 2022 goals would roll over for a fourth year – continuing on the successful journey we have been on.  With that in mind, the board has agreed to form a small working party to begin engaging with our community in mid-2023 to gather your thoughts around the school's annual goals leading into 2024. 

With the past few years being light on connecting face-to-face, the board and the staff will be holding a “Korero with the Board” on the 21st March at 5pm.  We encourage all families to come. We will have drinks and nibbles available and it is your opportunity to get connected around the direction of the school and get to know other whānau in the community. 

Finally, we have some exterior painting happening across LC5 and the art room commencing in Term 2.  It will be great to see these buildings looking refreshed. 

Mā te wā 

Nicole Watkins 

On behalf of the Te Kōwhai School Board 

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It’s one of our favourite times of year already here at TK where we get to have our annual Harvest Festival! This year it will be held on Friday 31st March. We hope your giant pumpkins have been enjoying all the rain over the summer holidays and are almost ready to pick and bring to school!

A newsletter with all the information you need to know about our Harvest Festival will go out this Friday so that is important information indeed! This is a fun mini-gala type event that all of our families and community are invited to.  As well as games, activities, food and our famous 'gunging' event, we give kudos to the mighty pumpkin!  You are all invited to enter into a range of pumpkin competitions and we will again have a scarecrow section as well.

Order forms will go out this Friday. The options will be:

Order forms need to be returned to school by Thursday, 6th April.

Our Quiz Night is scheduled for Friday 28th April which is the first Friday of Term Two.  We will be selling tickets at the end of this term, so start getting your teams together.
More information will be coming soon!

 

Thank you to those people who have already started bringing in their Yummy sticker sheets. Yummy stickers can be found on fruit from Pak’n’Save, 4 Square and New World. Each completed sheet earns us 100 points which goes toward FREE sports gear for our school! Last year we earned over $700 worth as per happy kids in photo. 

Yummy sticker sheets can be found at the office or online and can be dropped off anytime. 

Either choose the top up account option or top-up at the checkout when you make your next purchase. 

kindo accounts are linked to the email address that you activated your account with. If you have a credit balance this is visible to the account holder that loaded the funds.

Need assistance? Our Kindo helpdesk is open 8am to 4pm weekdays.

Freephone: 0508 4 KINDO (0508 454 636) Email: hello@mykindo.co.nz             

Online support: support.mykindo.co.nz

Not sure if you have already ordered?  Go into the 'my orders' part of your kindo account to see what you have ordered there.
If you haven't activated your kindo account as yet click this link
If you have activated your account but not installed the app on your phone as yet click this link

Our thanks to New World Te Rapa for once again sponsoring these, including the design work - we really appreciate it.

Is there anyone in the community that could support us by making some stilts? 

We need two different types; the wooden ones for the older kids and the stilts made out of baby formula cans (or similar) with rope attached for our younger students.
If you can donate empty baby formula tins that would be a big help.  Please bring to the music room.

If you can help please email Marieke Nation: music@tekowhai.school.nz

Year 1-2 play Thursday
Year 3-4 play Tuesday 
Year 5-6 play Wednesday
Year 7-8 play Saturday
The season gets underway in May, all at Minogue Park, Moore Street, Forest Lake, Hamilton

Please click the link to register your player. Having said that,  any year 7 and 8 players interested to please contact Nadine directly as well on 021668749 or nadinestewart222@gmail.com as we want to confirm numbers early.

Coaching and skill courses for those who want to try them out are starting soon.  

Any questions contact Nadine Stewart 021668749 nadinestewart222@gmail.com 

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As in previous years we will need to register online by logging in to myComet, answering a few questions and registering for this season.

If you're registering a new player you will need to use this link to create a new profile.

Here's a handy reference guide if you get stuck:

Unfortunately we are not able to register two or more players under the same login so you'll need to create a new profile for each player, even if they have a sibling previously signed up.

If you're just registering again for the season and already have a profile then use the appropriate link below to go straight to the 2023 season registration. You will however still need to remember your login details from last year...

First Kicks (4-6):
https://mycomet-oceania.analyticom.de/my-comet/itemDetails/4199261

Fun Football (7-8):
https://mycomet-oceania.analyticom.de/my-comet/itemDetails/4199262

Mini Football (9-12):
https://mycomet-oceania.analyticom.de/my-comet/itemDetails/4199263

Fees will range from about $40 for First Kicks through to around $70 for the older kids. On the website it will say Free as this is just for registering, and we will sort fees outside of myComet.

If you have any issues or concerns just get in touch with me either by email, phone or message - details below, and I'll be happy to help.

We will be looking to have the usual football boot sale where you can donate old boots that no longer fit but still have plenty of life in them, and/or purchase a pair of donated boots.

All proceeds are shared between TK Football and Rugby and the Clothe Our Kids charity.

We will have a muster down at school once all registrations are in and teams are submitted, where we'll hand out gear, meet the coaches and name teams.

Teams will be entered by the beginning of April and the first matches are scheduled for the 29th of April (first weekend of term 2)

That's it for now, if you have any questions or concerns just let me know.

cheers,

Simon Wade

0212900154

 that existing or new players can experience.

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 regarding a child being offered a ride home with a stranger, it is timely to share helpful information from the Waikato Police to parents of school-age children.

 

We’re all responsible for keeping children safe in our families and communities and it’s also important for children to know how to identify unsafe behaviour and what to do if they feel unsafe.

 

Click the link for some useful information to help you have conversations with your children.

 

If you have any concerns, please contact Police via the website “Police.govt.nz” or 105; if it is an emergency contact 111