For our team of kaimahi to be more effective there are a few things that we ask of whānau to help make our mahi easier. Have a read about a few ways that you can help us and we can help you.

Communication: As clever as our kaimahi are we don't know everything! We really encourage you as whānau to talk with us. Let us know how things are at home, how your tamaiti is feeling ( you know them best) and what you are thinking about. We can't change, fix or keep an eye on something if we don't know about it. 

Your child's kaiako is your first communication point if you need to communicate something. They know your child better than other kaimahi at kura and will be able to help quickly. 

We love to see and acknowledge you as whānau and we are always open to having a kōrero in the morning before school or after school as long as you have made an appointment. If you have not made an appointment it is courteous to check with the kaiako to see if they have time to see you. Our kaiako are often busy planning and getting the day or next day ready. 

Kaiako can also have incidents arise during the school day when they are teaching. It is difficult to phone or contact whānau during the teaching day however our kaimahi will do their absolute best to make contact after school hours or as soon as practicable. 

Many communication queries can be easily sorted by whānau reading classroom and school pānui and keeping an eye on facebook or email as these are our major way of communicating with you. We often hear, ' I didn't know about that' or ' when were we told about that?'. Whānau are expected to take responsibility for keeping up to date with what is happening by reading correspondence or coming in to talk with us.

Contact Details: If you need your email/contact details/emergency contact people updated please see Berniece and she will update these on our system. Again, we leave this to whānau to communicate this important information with us. 

Arrival and start times: Kura starts at 9am with karakia. On a Monday and Friday we have karakia together as a whole school in Tūranga at 9am. Every other day we have karakia in our respective rōpū - Whitireia and Puaka.  Whānau are welcome to join us at anytime. 

We like tamariki to arrive no earlier than 8.30am each morning and to be picked up at 3pm. If for some reason you are going to be earlier or later we appreciate a phone call or text to let us know. Sometimes we have breakfast meetings or after school hui offsite. This is problematic if your child has no adult supervision while they are on school site. Even if you can see our cars it does not always mean we are at kura.  

Helping Out: We love having our whānau and community join in on the learning that we do at kura. Fun Day Friday / reading / play based learning/ sports/ putting down a hangi / going to the park / listening to tamariki talk/ baking / gardening or anything you can think of really. Please see your child's kaiako to offer help and /or support where you can. 

Values and Behaviour: Our values kaitiakitanga, manaakitanga, rangatiratanga, whanaungatanga, ūkaipōtanga and puawaitanga are all very important to us. Last year we spent significant time working with our tamariki on the values and teaching them about things like kindness, caring for others, focusing on mahi, making better decisions, looking after their things and being strong leaders. If we teach and model these values to our tamariki and you teach and model these values too, together we will have a much better chance of developing excellent habits and ways of being. When you are on school grounds we expect everyone, including kaimahi and whānau to uphold our values. 

EOTC - Education Outside the Classroom: We love getting our tamariki out and about to give them further experiences, often experiences we can't give them at kura. For us to be able to do this we often need whānau support. Whānau can be so helpful when it comes to helping on trips and camps. Please put your hand up to help out when you can. We want to give our tamariki as many different opportunities as we can. 

Rubbish and Recycling: As our Tuahiwi kura whānau grows we have had to make adjustments to the rubbish and recycling. Currently we spend lots of money on this and we are looking to reduce this cost in 2021. One way of doing this is to encourage our tamariki to have zero waste in their lunchboxes. That means either tamariki taking all of their kai rubbish home with them or whānau opting to use less glad wrap, wrapping paper and packaged kai. Last year we did a big push for recycling and reducing our footprint (doing our bit to help with looking after our ao) so our tamariki understand using less of everything to wrap or store kai. If your tamariki are bringing home rubbish from their lunch boxes this is one of the reasons why. Every bit helps whānau. :) 

As you can see there are many ways you can help as whānau to make our kura and your child's time at kura more enjoyable and exciting. Together we are stronger! 

I love it when whānau come in and offer ideas, help, support, advice and aroha for our kaimahi and tamariki. 

I am here to listen and take on what our whānau want so please see us as an extension of your own whānau and make kura your home. 

Arohanui

Mel :)