The board has reviewed the school funding through parent donations, as these funds are a critical financial source for the school. We have outlined information below which will hopefully provide some clarity on how important this financial source is and also what they are used for.

Our school receives funding from three main funding sources.

The first is the operational grant from the Ministry of Education, which is meant to fund the general running of the school and day-to-day maintenance of our property. There is always a large shortfall of revenue between what we receive from the Ministry of Education, and the funding we need to run this school effectively to the high standards we all expect.

Other Funding Sources: The other primary sources of income for the school are donations paid by our parents, a portion of the income from the international students, and the fundraising you all so generously support. Thank goodness for our Whānau & Friends, and your support with the fundraising for example the Colour Run, A- thon fundraising. (Please note: the fundraising from Whānau & Friends has gradually decreased over the last few years due to less parent participation in the group).

Parent Donations: If you pay your donations they are used to fund the following:

Teacher Aides above our Ministry of Education allocation
Extra teaching and learning resources such as, reading resources, mathematics equipment and some ICT equipment (computers, ipads, digital devices and software, robotics and aquabot equipment)
Subsidised trips, camps and student activities
Some maintenance of our bikes and bike track
Building and environment maintenance and restoration
Playground equipment and maintenance
Funding for the shortfall from the Ministry of Education when renovating planned areas.

The Ministry of Education does offer an opt in donation scheme: State and state integrated schools with an EQI (Equity Index) of 432 or higher can choose to receive a per-student payment, if the board agrees not to ask parents and caregivers for donations (except overnight camps). Hobsonville School - Equity Index 399 - is therefore not eligible to opt into the donation scheme due to the lower EQI.

Discount for early payment: We have been advised by Kindo and our accountant that we are now unable to offer a discount on early payment of donations.

The school donation for 2025 will be: $250 per child per year.

Acknowledgement for your support:

End of Term 2 Prize Draw: Once you have paid your full school donation - go into the end of Term 2 draw to be the lucky family that wins one child’s donation back. This is drawn in the last week of Term 2.
End of Year Prize Draw: Available to all families who make a donation to our kura (whether it is the full amount or not) a prize draw for a $100 grocery voucher at the end of Term 4.

Tax Credit: Don’t forget you can receive a tax credit back of one third of your donation. Download IR526 from the Inland Revenue website and send it off to IRD with your donation receipts attached.

Payment Options: Payments can be made online via MyKindo - please click here.

To make it as easy as possible we have a number of payment options available including lump sum, split payments over four terms, monthly payment and weekly payment. We are happy to discuss options and/or assist with setting up an automatic payment. We even offer a “grandparent” option, where you can pay the full donation, or part of a donation towards another family's payment.

We are very appreciative when parents pay their school donations.

Ngā mihi

Anne Leitch - on behalf of Hobsonville School Board

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