| Newsletter 8th March, 2006 - Term 1 - No5 | |||||||||||||||||||||||
Dear Parents / Caregivers SCHOOL TARGETS Attendance In last weeks newsletter I printed some suggestions on how parents can help their children succeed at school. One of the points was, attend school regularly. This is an important factor in student learning. Unfortunately some parents don’t always realise how important it is. Unless a student is sick or there is a family bereavement, students must attend school. Reasons such as shopping, looking after younger brothers or sisters, visiting relatives, it is too wet or cold, etc, are not acceptable. We carry out roll checks every morning and parents are contacted if we are not informed of the reason for the absence. If we are unable to contact parents the Tokoroa Truancy Service visits the homes. We see attendance at school as extremely important. If a child is away for a day, it is not only the learning that occurs on that day they miss out on, but often learning on subsequent days. I would like to thank parents who contact the school when their child is absent. We request all parents to do this. Settling-in Reports These will be sent home with students to all parents next Thursday, 16 March. There will be more information in next week’s newsletter on Settling in Reports. School Photographs School photos will be taken on Friday, 17 March. This includes individual and class photographs. Envelopes are being sent out today and provide most of the information required. Some important points regarding photographs are:
Reading Tutors Our Reading Tutor Programme will start on 21 March 2006. We have fifteen volunteer Reading Tutors working with students who need reading mileage. The Reading Tutors come into the school in the mornings for blocks of approximately 1½ hours and during this time they work with four students on a 1:1 basis, listening to them read and discussing what they have read. Some of the Reading Tutors come in on more than one day and for more than one session, e.g. one of the tutors spends 7½ hours in our school a week! There are one hundred and twenty children provided with extra reading through the Reading Tutor Programme. We have found that the work the students do with the Reading Tutors, not only has a positive effect on their reading, but flows onto written and oral language skills and attitude to learning and school in general. Thank you to this year’s Reading Tutors – Kori Tihema, Anna Boseley, Charlie Clark, Janice Mair, Maree Ashton, Shirley Thomas, Lesley DeLisle, Rita McCullough, Alice Lee, Rose Marjoribanks, Jo Gerrard, Di Bell, Juanita Belfield, Vi Gubb and Herta Miehe. Board of Trustees Meeting Wednesday, 15 March at 7:00 p.m. in the staffroom. Agendas will be available from the school office Monday, 13 March. Interruptions to Classes Parents / guardians arriving at school with student’s phys-ed gear, lunches, etc are asked to please leave them at the office for collection unless urgent. This will save interrupting your child’s class. Complaints & Queries Policy Many parents have queries and concerns and these are usually handled amicably. We encourage parents to contact the school and talk with the teacher concerned if there is a concern or query. We have discovered that most queries and concerns involve a misunderstanding or lack of communication. Some concerns and queries are handled with meetings between parents and the teacher and Senior Teacher or Deputy Principal. Again, we request parents contact the teacher to organise a meeting. If it is a complaint against a teacher, policy or programme the complaint must be in writing, signed and dated. Such complaints must be directed to the Principal unless the complaint is against the Principal. Such complaints should be addressed the Chairperson of the Board of Trustees. In this case parents will be given a written response to their complaint. Kiwi Golf Next week all classes are getting an opportunity to take part in Kiwi Golf sessions. Given the recent push for all New Zealand children to be involved in an hour of quality physical activity each day, these types of activity take on extra importance. This particular activity has a cost and we would ask that all children get their $4.00 into the school before the end of this week. Netball The Year 8 girls have had their netball trials and been put into their teams. The Year 7 girls are trialling this week. We need parent and whanau support to help run a successful netball season. If you can coach or manage a team, please contact Tania Carlson (TIC Netball). Waikato Intermediate Schools Swimming Sports On Monday, 6 March, the Waikato Intermediate Swimming Sports was held in Cambridge. Sixteen students from Tokoroa Intermediate School qualified to compete. The students showed excellent sportsmanship throughout the day, encouraging both their team members and other schools. Our top results of the day were: Junior Girls
We also had a girls and a boys relay team compete, both of which gained 3rd
place. It was a successful day with our team gaining 3rd position overall. Thank you to all the parents who came along to help and support our team. Immunisation Forms Just a reminder that Year 7 & 8’s have an opportunity to have their 11 year old immunisations at school. These will be carried out Thursday, 9 March and Friday, 10 March. Consent forms have been sent home. If you haven’t received one please contact the office. It would be great to have 100% return rate of consent forms whether or not your child is having their vaccination at school, so please make an effort to get these in. If you have any queries please contact Maree, Public Health Nurse, Phone 886 0020, ext 871. Fishing The Fishing Club are having a Learn to Fish session at the lake this Thursday evening 7:30p.m. Phil Straw PRINCIPAL
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