Term 1 Week 3 19.02.24-23.02.24

From the Principal's Desk

Greetings Parents and Caregivers,

I hope everyone had a relaxing weekend. I'd like to thank everyone who attended the Parents, Caregiver's and Staff BBQ last Thursday. It was lovely meeting more parents and interacting with the children. This is a lovely community in a beautiful location.  

Headlice. 

With the warmer weather we are seeing an increase in students presenting to school with Headlice. Please take a moment to check your child before coming to school. If this could be done on a regular basis that would be great. If you find your child has headlice, that's not a problem. Please keep your child at home to treat their hair. Once your child's hair has been treated then they can return to school. 

Covid on the rise again. 

Sadly, we are seeing an increase in covid cases amongst students and staff. If your child tests positive we request that you keep them at home for 5 days, while they are contagious. We would also prefer a negative test to return to school if possible.  

Just a head's up if we lose several staff members and relievers to covid then we may be put into a position where we are unable to safely staff the school. As a last resort, if this were to occur, we will need to consider closure. As a family, please take time to consider a back-up plan if this occurs. This is only a precaution if the worst-case scenario occurs. 

Attendance

The Governments focus on improving attendance has been in the news lately. I thought i'd take a moment to share some information on this topic. 

Why is regular attendance important?

Attendance is linked to both student wellbeing and to attainment.

Student wellbeing is a key priority for the education system. Ministry of Education insights studies show that attending school and kura regularly is, on average, associated with more positive wellbeing outcomes. Ministry analysis found that 15-year-old students who reported skipping a greater number of days of school in the previous fortnight reported worse outcomes on average for a number of measures of wellbeing; schoolwork-related anxiety, sense of belonging, exposure to bullying, motivation and experiences of teacher unfairness.

Attendance is also linked to student attainment in secondary students. Recent research shows that each additional half-day of absence from school and kura is associated with a consistent reduction in the number of NCEA credits students subsequently attain – whether that is a student moving from 100% to 99% attendance or moving from 71% to 70% attendance. Students who are absent even 5-10% of the time (which is still considered “regular” attendance) nevertheless obtain fewer NCEA credits than those with higher attendance rates. In short, evidence suggests that there is no “safe” level of non-attendance which has no impact on student and ākonga wellbeing and attainment.

Absences can be justified or unjustified:

Justified absence: An explained absence, within the school's policy as an acceptable reason for the student to be away from school. e.g:

• Absent due to short-term illness/medical reasons
• Justified absence – reason for absence within the school policy
• Stood down or suspended

Unjustified absence: An absence that is either unexplained or, explained, but the explanation is not within the school's policy as an acceptable reason for the student to be away from school. e.g:

• No information or throw-away explanation
• Absent with an explained but unjustified reason
• Holiday during term time
• Unknown reason

School Assembly 

School assemblies will be held on a Friday this term, starting at 9.05am in the Activities Room. Everyone is welcome to attend. 

Scholastic Book Club

Just a quick reminder that orders for this finish on 22nd March 2024. Parents please order online - scholastic.co.nz/LOOP or download the LOOP app. 

Nga mihi,

Bevan Clark 

Principal 

School Policy Review

All of our school policies are avialable on: Whenuakite School Policies and Procedures (schooldocs.co.nz)

Every Term, we open several school policies to be reviewed. This term the policies schedualed to review are: 

If you are interested you can log into our School Docs site to view our school policies and submit a review. Attached to this newsletter is a PDF outlining the procedure and passwords required for the review. 

Whenuakite Staff 2024

Yummy Stickers

A reminder to keep sending us your yummy stickers.