Please read this article in full as it is only with your support that we will be able to run a full outdoor education programme this year.

Kio ora e te whānau,

Last year we made the decision to align our school donations scheme with Ministry of education guidelines. This means that we will no longer be charging a separate activity fee each term. All school activities will now be covered under one school donation for the year. 

We now ask our parents to pay a school donation that covers the cost of all of their children's outdoor education experiences as well as supporting the delivery of our school curriculum. 

This is a donation, which means parents have the choice in whether or not they pay. However our entire Outdoor Education programme will be funded by these donations so we will be relying on parents to support the scheme for us to have a viable outdoor education programme going forward. We will monitor the donations and may need to modify/ replace activities if we don’t have enough funds to cover the costs.

The donation that we are asking for is based on the cost of our Outdoor Education programme plus $55 per student to support the school curriculum (The amount we roughly receive per child per annum).

The only extra payments we may ask for will be to cover costs of voluntary activities that whanau/ children choose to opt into. Examples of these might be transport to a choir/ kapahaka or sports event. Mathsbuddy & Mathletics are also optional programmes along with the year 8 trip to Hanmer.

The Donations this year will be based on syndicate activities. The figures below are inclusive of the $55 already mentioned.

The Junior Syndicate is one donation. Senior Syndicate will be broken down into year groups 3/4; 5/6; 7/8 because of camp experiences this year.

Donation Structure for 2021:

Donation Junior School

Total: $183.50

Donation Senior School

Year 3/4 Total: $144

Year 5/6 Total: $188.50

Year 7/ 8 Total: $326.50

(A breakdown of activities by syndicate/ year group are listed below)

Please remember that upto 30% of school donations can be claimed back through your tax return. See Sandi in the office for the right paperwork. Overall if you generally pay your school donation and activity fees you will now be paying less per annum with the tax rebate available.

There are numerous ways to contribute and these can be set up through Sandi in the office:

1) Lump sum -you could choose to pay the full amount at any time

2) Term by term payments

3) Direct Debit (weekly/ fortnightly)

We do hope that our parent community will support this change. As a Board we wanted to comply with the Ministry of Education guidelines as well as retain all of the opportunities/ experiences offered to our students over previous years. Thank you for your continued support. Kind regards,

Fernside School Board of Trustees

Breakdown of Donation/ Activities 2021

Donation Junior School students

Total: $183.50

Activities for 2021

Sport event e.g golf/ cricket

Court Theatre

Gymnastics

Trip (only bus needed) e.g river/ beach

Playhouse

Trip Social (bus & entry fee) e.g Orana Park/ Ferrymead

Swimming (Dudley Swim lessons)

House of Bricks

Author Visit

Donation Senior School

Year 3 & 4

Total: $144

Activities for 2021

Museum Trip

Swimming (Dudley Swim lessons)

Playhouse

Gymnastics

Trip -local river

Year 5 & 6

Total: $188.50

Activities for 2021

Swimming sports

Sailing

Museum Trip

Winter Sports

Camp experience

Swimming (Dudley Swim lessons)

Year 7 & 8

Total: $326.50

Swimming sports

Art Trip

Winter Sports

Camp

Swimming (Dudley Swim lessons)