Nau mai, hōki mai ki te Kura Takawaenga o Whangārei: Term 1, Wiki 2

Kia ora Parents and Caregivers,

Nau mai, haere mai, hōki mai koutou ki te kura takawaenga o Whangārei Terenga Parāoa. Greetings and welcome to all of our students, teachers, support staff, parents, and caregivers to Whangarei Intermediate School. We also extend our warmest regards to our newest students and their families. It is a privilege to have your child/ren at our school. We hope you feel very welcome and are happy with our service so far. I also hope you had a wonderful break with your friends and family, and are all looking forward to your year at WIS.

OUR SCHOOL VISION/TIROHANGA

Mã te whanaungatanga, ka whai mãtauranga te akonga, ka tū rangatira. By developing and maintaining strong relationships, knowledge can be found that will allow the learner to stand with confidence.

To achieve this, we intend to provide a rich programme of learning and teaching as well as promoting the key competencies: thinking, relating to others, using symbols and text, managing self, participating and contributing, and also by instilling in our students, our school values - WISE (attached for your perusal).

WISE - We are part of a Ministry of Education initiative called Positive Behaviour For Learning (PB4L). This initiative helps to address challenging behaviour, improve children’s well-being, and increase educational achievement. By strengthening relationships and creating more positive environments we remove barriers to engagement and improve students’ chances to achieve at school and beyond.

We implement this initiative under the umbrella of WISE - Whangarei Intermediate School Expectations. These expectations were developed in consultation with the school community, students and staff. The matrix is a working document and will be re-evaluated at regular intervals determined by the needs of our community, students and staff. Every week there will be short classroom lessons and discussions around our expectations. There will be daily recognition for students who meet these expectations and school-wide recognition at our fortnightly assemblies.

NEW STAFF - Nau mai, haere mai. We welcome the following staff to our school:

• Gemma Thompson  - ClassroomTeacher/PB4L Coach Ruma 19
• Geneva Edmonds - Permanent Chromebook Contracts Coordinator/Support Services Administrator
• Addy Wihongi-Tata - Scale A Teacher 0.4 Leadership release  
• Hōne Tata - Classroom Teacher Ruma 3
• Sonya Robson - Learning Support Assitant/Basketball Coach

Nau mai, hōki mai. We are thrilled to welcome back:

• Sam Winterton - Orchestra on Fridays
• Hayley Clark - 3D Arts on Fridays
• Karen Hinge - Library Coordinator
• Madeleine Brooks - relieving Music teacher
• All the remainder of the staff/kaimahi

We hope everyone has a fabulous year full of great learning and teaching.

UNIFORM CODE - Thank you to all of you who made the effort and sent your child along looking so smart and fresh to begin the school year. If your child does not have a complete uniform please give them a note for their teacher as we will be having a uniform check next week and a note is needed to support your child’s explanation. There are, however, items that are not part of the uniform at any time and we would be grateful if you could help us by:

• not allowing your child to wear jewellery other than watches,
• a total of two ‘keeper’ ear studs plain silver or gold, no sleepers
• a toanga/pendant must be worn under the top
• long hair must be tied up
• necklaces, make-up, and nail varnish are not permitted
• black shoes (with no white or other coloured marking) and sandals are only to be worn (no high tops allowed)
• white or black socks with no markings are only to be worn

All information is included in our prospectus on our website and is available to our parents/caregivers. We are proud of our school and part of this pride is the standard of uniform and good grooming that we expect. Any lowering of standards causes a lowering of expectations and this in itself, sends out the wrong message to students about how they are to conduct themselves. We realise that there are times when accidents happen and a non-uniform item needs to be worn. As mentioned earlier, a note sent with your child will support their explanation. Most importantly, please make sure all the items of your child’s clothing are named!

CELLPHONES - The Board of Trustees has instructed the school management team to not investigate lost or stolen cellphone when a student’s cellphone goes missing. Students are encouraged to hand in their cellphones to the office or to their classroom teacher upon their arrival to school. If students choose not to follow our advice, then their cellphone is totally their responsibility. The school rule is that cellphones are to be turned off before students arrive at school and can be turned back on, once school has finished for the day. The only exception is under our BYOD contract where teachers can approve students using their device in their learning programmes. However, this does not apply during break times. If a student is caught using their cellphone during break times, it will be confiscated and held in the office, to be collected by only a parent/caregiver. The office has a student phone line that can be used for emergency situations. If there is a change of plan after school, please contact Sue or Geneva at the front office as they can arrange for messages to be delivered to your child, Students cannot use the school phone to organise after school activities.  The Board of Trustees thank you for your cooperation in this matter. ~ Board of Trustees

OPEN SCHOOL - We have an open-door policy. This means we value contact with you as parents and caregivers. Once we are out of traffic light red, you will be always welcome here at school. If your child tells you that parents aren’t allowed to attend a school event you can be sure that it isn’t the 'school' that doesn’t want you to attend. Sometimes information gets ‘twisted’ in the retelling. If you have any queries the best course of action is to ring or email the school. We appreciate this as it often stops confusion and rumours.

FRIDAY ASSEMBLIES (11:50 ~ 12:30) - This term we have alternative weeks of principal's assembly and te wa waiata (singing) assembly. At this stage under traffic light red we are unable to host any visitors/manuhiri.  Once we are able to we will advertise the classes leading the assemblies in the newsletter so you don’t miss your child’s involvement. You are very welcome to attend once we get the all clear.

NEWSLETTERS – school and student voice -This newsletter is the first of many that you will receive fortnightly. It is a critical part of the communication channel between home and school. To help save the trees (and the environment) our school newsletters are emailed every fortnight by Sue in the office.  Also, don’t forget to visit the website www.wis.ac.nz or our facebook page for general school information. 

PARENT/STUDENT/TEACHER GOAL SETTING MEETINGS

On Wednesday 16 February and Thursday 17 February we are holding Parent/Caregiver/Teacher/Student Goal Setting Meetings. The purpose of these meetings is to help you set goals with your child and their classroom teacher and for you to share any other information about your child that is pertinent to the success of their learning at W.I.S. We have distributed a ‘Meet the Teacher’ notice asking for you to choose a 10min time slot. Bookings can be made online at www.schoolinterviews.co.nz use event code jcv3x.  The school day will end at 2.00pm on both Wednesday 17 and Thursday 18 February. We have an evening session on Wednesday. Maunu and Onerahi buses will leave at 2:05pm on both days. The high school buses will run at the normal time. We will have supervision for any students that need to stay at school until 3:00pm.

ONLINE SHOP - All canteen lunch orders and school-related costs are paid using our online shop which can be accessed via our website. It’s simple to open an online ‘shopping account’- all you need is your email address which matches the one held on our student records. More information can be found on our school website. www.wis.ac.nz - if you need help contact the school office.

ATTENDANCE - School is open from 8:15am. That is the time the staff are officially onsite. Prior to that time, there is no adult supervision at school. Please do not drop your child off any earlier. Class begins at 8:45 and ends at 3:00 daily. Please make sure your child(ren) attends school during these times. If your child(ren) is going to be absent on any school day you must notify the office of this absence so we are aware of the reason otherwise we will be concerned with truancy (we are obliged to keep very accurate records for the MOE). Please ring the absence line before 9am on the day if not sooner 438 8659 ext 1 and leave a message with your child’s name, room number and reason for their absence. Easy peasy!

COMPLAINTS POLICY - Attached is our complaints policy for your perusal. As a rule of thumb, any teaching and learning concerns must be addressed to the classroom teacher before any person in management is asked to be involved. It is our responsibility to support all members of our community so we are very committed to kanohi ki te kanohi kaupapa: face to face principle.

FINAL WORD - That’s all for now. Sorry, it is a little on the serious side. The topics mentioned are what our teachers deem as important issues to be highlighted for the health and safety of all our students. Thank you for co-operation on these matters. Finally, I must say that meeting and greeting all the new students and seeing so many smiling happy faces here, is a great way to begin the year.

Nga mihi nui ki a koutou katoa e nga māna, e nga reo huri noa tō tātou takiwā e korowai nei i te aroha o Te Parawhau o Ngāti Kāhu o Torongare. Tēnā koutou, tēnā koutou, tēnā koutou katoa.

Mā te wā, na Hayley Read. Principal/Tumuaki of the best school in Whangarei with the coolest students (especially those who are demonstrating our school’s vision: ma te whanaungatanga, ka whai mātauranga te akonga, ka tu rangatira). 

                                                   ‘Success Crowns Effort’