Winchester Rural School

Welcome back to all our returning and new whanau for 2024

We hope you’ve all had a refreshing break and shared some great family experiences over the summer.

We welcome our Tangata Whenua (existing families and children) and our Manuhiri (new whanau and children) back to our kura. On our first day back we welcomed 6 New Entrants and 2 new older children. Our roll is a healthy 148 children at the beginning of 2024. It was lovely welcoming these children into our kura at our Powhiri last Friday. Thank you to all whanau members who came along and to Mya Rose, Dawn and Dreh for being student leaders for this occasion.

As usual the teachers and support staff have been very busy over the summer break getting ready for a new term and a brand new year. We have a brand new kura management system called Hero that the teachers are just starting to get used to and we are hoping that this stream lines our data collecting processes for progress and achievement and will be a one stop shop with access to enter pastoral reports, do the roll every morning and also in term 2 or 3 we will introduce the parent portal that will replace seesaw. So watch this space! In the meantime we will continue to use Seesaw as one of our main ways for communicating with you.

Our teachers are very aware of the new Ministry requirements for one hour a day each of reading, writing and maths. Sometimes during the day these will be taught as stand alone subjects, other times they will be integrated into project inquiry. Obviously teachers will break these sessions down into smaller time chunks throughout the day. On average we know we’ve got this covered!

We have a full programme prepared with swimming practices scheduled for weeks 4 and 5 followed by the senior part of the kura participating in the Interschool Swimming Sports in week 6.

We are still waiting to hear from the Ministry and our architect concerning our kura swimming pool, so unfortunately, as expected, it won’t be open this term.

The children will soon be preparing items for the Winchester Show coming up on 2 March.

We are kicking off the year with project inquiries centred on looking after our kura and the wider environment - Papatuanuka. This will include looking at sustainable energy, composting , looking after our water, growing our food and we are looking into the feasibility of having chickens at our kura!

It was great to see all the excited children back at our kura last Wednesday catching up with friends and getting settled into their new classrooms. They all looked refreshed, a bit taller and ready to learn!

Bits and Pieces Housekeeping

The start of a new year is always a good time to remind everyone about our kura routines and to let you know new things so you start the year fully informed.

Our kura termly calendar is online and can be found on the scroll bar at the top of the school website. It can also be found through the link in this newsletter. This gives you current dates of any events coming up this term. Please note that these sometimes change and will be updated if this is the case.

Kura Times

Here are the session times during the school day. Please note there is a slight change with children playing first at interval and lunch time and eating after. The intention is to give them some energy food as they head back into class to learn. Teachers also give children the option to grab a piece to eat during the first morning session in class.

Health and Safety Processes

Please remember that as a way of safeguarding all our tamariki we require any volunteers - including parents and caregivers - who come into school to help or join us on trips to undergo a police check. We also ask that you read and agree to our volunteer helper code of conduct. Please note that including parents in our safety screening needs to be done ahead of time as it takes about two weeks for the police check results to come through. Once vetted this stands for 3 years and the results are confidential and only available to the tumuaki (principal) .

Signing in and out - If you are coming into school to pick up your child during the day, or act as a parent help, or drop something off, we ask that you remember to pop into the office and sign in on the Vistab tablet on the front desk, and then sign out again as you are leaving. This process is pretty quick and easy and the computer remembers you after the first sign in. Doing this helps us know who is in school in case of emergencies.

A reminder to sign your child out on Vistab at the office if you are collecting them early or bringing them into school later in the day.

Road Patrol At the Crossing - Mrs Haynes has trained a group of eager senior children to do these important duties on the crossing in the afternoons after our kura closes. This Kea Crossing across Rise Road enables us to ensure both our children and their whanau cross safely. We ask that our children and their family members only cross the road at this point.

Drop Off Zone -We have a 10 minute drop off zone just outside the kura’s main gate. Please only use it for its intended purpose. If you wish to come into the kura and talk to a teacher, or come into the office, please use the diagonal parks further up the road. Please leave the school car park for its intended purpose - for use by the employees.

Please let Ashley in the office know if you are collecting your child early and especially if someone different is coming to pick them up. Changes in routine can make some children anxious and if everyone is informed it can relieve this stress. Also legally we need to be informed that permission has been given for a different person to collect your child.

Grumbles and Concerns

Please check out our complaints procedure for our kura’s process in listening to and resolving concerns and complaints. We put this together so that any issues are listened to and resolved by the relevant teacher or staff member who will act on these straight away so that all involved are given a fair opportunity to discuss their viewpoint and given a chance to make changes.

We ask that you come directly to us with your concerns. While social media is a great way to air views on many topics, we would really appreciate it if you come to us first rather than posting comments and that these kura matters are not discussed on Facebook.

Remember that Seesaw PM is an ideal way to get in touch with your child’s teacher about any matters.

Regular Kura Attendance -Children are legally required to attend their kura every day it is open. Already the teachers have noticed that some children have had extra holidays and absences other than for illnesses. Yet regular attendance helps your child get the most out of their education and keep them up to date with their learning and connected with their teacher, friends and classmates.

While sickness is unavoidable sometimes and we know that occasionally you have to collect early or bring your child in late, please try to make sure this is a one off rather than a regular occurrence. When this happens they end up playing catch up with their learning and missing out.

Also where possible schedule family holidays to coincide with kura term breaks.

Mobile Phones - as with most primary kura we have always stipulated that children are not to bring mobile phones into the kura with them. As you may have heard, new government legislation coming in now makes it clear that it is the Board’s duty to prohibit use and access of mobile phones. 

However we know that sometimes there are valid reasons why your older child needs their phone, as a one off occurrence, to contact you after sport or another event. If this is necessary please let your child’s teacher know and make sure your child hands their phone into their teacher at the beginning of the day to collect at 3pm.

Kia pai to koutou ra - Have a nice day

Tre