From The Principal 3 November 2022

Parent Survey
Thank you to the large number of whānau members that have completed this survey. If you have not yet completed this, please find ten minutes and make this a priority. We are keen to have your feedback. Here is the link. 

2023 School Organisation

We have a strong number of enrolments for 2023 which will see our end-of-year roll around 400 students. This year, our end-of-year roll will be 379 students.

Some years, we need to run a composite class outside our normal year groups to ensure that class sizes stay at an optimum level. In 2023 we will be operating a year 6/7 class as part of our Year 7/8 Team.

We are all familiar with composite classes in Years 3/4, years 5/6 and years 7/8. From a learning context, there are no disadvantages for being in a composite class compared to one year group. As we know, we all learn at different rates and have differing levels of maturity. Within one year group, there will be children operating at a number of curriculum, social and emotional levels. In a composite class, there are students at a very similar range of academic, emotional and social levels. As teachers, our job is to celebrate what each child can do, and support them in learning their ‘next steps’.

This Year our 6/7 class will be taught by Mrs Alison Roper, who has taught both Year 7/8 and Year 5/6 at our school. We are working on class lists at present, which takes us a considerable amount of time. If your child will be in this class, we will be contacting you directly.

In our Junior School, we will be running three Year 1 classes from early in the year.

Our Kids Online - Parent Meeting - Thursday, February 9th 7.00 PM

If your child is in Year 3 or up, then I see this meeting as absolutely essential. Please put this in your diary now.

We have been very fortunate to secure this presentation for our community. The Informed & Empowered Programme was created after spending two years working with schools and parent communities across New Zealand to figure out how to provide comprehensive courses for schools, not only to educate students on how to stay safer online, but to provide full support to teaching staff through accompanying resources, and to enable schools to educate their parent/caregiver communities. For more information look here.

Remodel of Classrooms

Between the end of this school year, up to the end of March, we will have contractors on-site upgrading Rooms 14-17. This means that there will be contractor vehicles on our grounds and Rooms 14-17 will be unavailable for us to use at the beginning of the year. There will be some short-term discomfort for the school, but unavoidable. Our Year 7/8 classes will be based in either the Library, Orca Room or STEAM Room for the first few weeks of 2023. The set of toilets for this end of the school are also being replaced with individual toilets.

Fencing of our School

You may have noticed that most schools have swimming pool-style fences around them. The Ministry of Education is working with the Board to design and install, fencing around our school
next year.

No Holiday Programme before the beginning of the 2023 year.

Unfortunately, we are unable to secure enough staff to run our normal 'before the school year' holiday programme. We apologise for this inconvenience. Our holiday programme for the 'end of this year' is still running and the after-school programme will be continuing as usual from Term 1, 2023.

French Lessons in 2023
We are delighted to announce that in partnership with Alliance Francaise, we are offering French after-school lessons. The details are:

Lessons commence: Term 1, 2023 on Monday’s from 3.05pm to 3.50pm,
Term fees: $224 for an eight-week term ($28 per lesson).
Parents can contact Alliance Francaise directly to register your interest email: admin@french.co.nz

Rongotai College is looking for further host families who may be interested in hosting our 2023 international students. Our homestay fee for 2023 will be $315.00 per week per student. Host families are able to host 2 international students in their home at a time.

The international students are aiming to be here just before the start of Term 1 in 2023.

We are experiencing extraordinary growth for 2023. We have several choices of hosting that you are able to choose from.

A. A full-year student

B. A full-year student and a Japanese student for term 1 2023.

C. Two full-year students

D. Students on a term-by-term basis.

Rongotai College is able to provide alternative homestay accommodation, should your family need to go away, and has staff who support and assist international students with their care and work alongside our host families for ongoing support.

If you have a spare room, know anyone who would like to host an international student; or would like further information about the requirements and benefits of becoming a host, please email international@rongotai.school.nz

Special Offer: Register (at international@rongotai.school.nz ) as a host family before Friday, November 18 and be in the draw to win a lunch or Dinner voucher for 3 at Arcimboldi
(24 Dundas Street Seatoun). Draw to be drawn November 18 at midday by Mr Kevin Carter, Principal, Rongotai College.

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