We need your support please!

We would firstly like to acknowledge those families that have fully paid all school fees, and also chosen to pay the voluntary school donation, as this makes a huge difference to what we are able to offer at school.

Some families have various compulsory fees owing to school, and will have received an email invoice last week.

You will have received this email because your invoice includes an overdue amount. Asking for money is not an aspect of our role that we enjoy; yet it is crucial to ensure that we can provide the very best for your children. We appreciate the fact that many new students would have only recently received invoices, but are eager to receive all owed money before the start of the 2020 school year.

We understand that circumstances can arise that makes payment difficult for some families. If this is your situation, PLEASE come and talk to us (Tony, Amanda, or Melissa). All such discussions are completely confidential. We are happy for automatic payments, part-payments, and staggered payments, in the hope that this will make it easier for parents.

Below is an outline of our funding situation, in an attempt to explain why we are reliant on parental support and school donations, and where the funds go.

Background: While our school is fortunate to be a Public Private Partnership (PPP) school, this model is restricted to the buildings and grounds and does not relate to our funding or resourcing. As a brand new school we are attempting to develop our resources from scratch. Our initial set-up funding from the Ministry of Education has enabled us to purchase only the bare minimum.

Te Ao Mārama School is classified as a decile 10 school (top 10% of schools in high socio-economic areas). This is based on the census, and reflects a number of socio economic factors that identify our area as one that is high in its ability to generate and access funds.

As a decile 10 school Te Ao Mārama School receives $220,000 less than a decile 1 school per year (based on our current roll). This amount would almost double our funding Government funding.

SCHOOL DONATIONS: We want to provide our children with the full benefits of extensive resources, additional learning programmes and special opportunities that we can all be very proud of. This can only be achieved with your support.

The school donations are currently set at $140 for the first child, $120 for the second child, with a maximum of $330 for a family.

School donations are voluntary, but we would be highly appreciative of any payment.

This donation is tax deductible and a 1/3 can be claimed back from the IRD. The IR526 form is downloadable from the IRD website.

Note: An article by stuff.co.nz reported the average donation in Decile 10 schools was over $320 per student.

In 2019 school donation funds have been used to purchase sports gear, reading resources, library books, music and art equipment, & additional learning assistant support.

OTHER FEES:The only compulsory fee we ask for is the Student Activity Contribution of $45 per student.

The activity contribution goes towards the costs of equipment, experiences e.g. shows and concerts, and services that are extra to the school’s curriculum obligations. It also goes towards curriculum-based activities that involve a “take-home” component for your child to keep.

We also provide optional extra-curricular activities (on a user pays basis) that parents are required to pay for. These costs are always set at a “break-even” point. For example camps, music tuition and sports fees.

Please work with us to ensure that Te Ao Mārama School can continue to provide a quality education to all students.

Yours sincerely,

Te Ao Mārama School Board of Trustees