It’s been a fantastic start to the term, and it’s been wonderful to see so many of our families returning to school. Our roll continues to grow each year, which means we are making use of all our teaching spaces right from day one. With more students, our teachers are working hard to manage larger class sizes, and we appreciate your ongoing support as we do this.

Overall, we’ve been really pleased with how settled and positive our students have been so far. As always, there have been a couple of moments where behaviour hasn’t quite met expectations — but we’d like to thank the parents who have worked alongside us to help their children understand how to make better choices next time. When parents and teachers work together, it makes a huge difference, and we know this helps our students feel safe, supported, and ready to learn.

There may be times when your child’s teacher gets in touch to discuss an issue or concern. Please know that these conversations are not about blame — they are about working together to find solutions that support your child’s learning and the learning of others. You know your child best, so your input is really important to us.

We are now halfway through Term 1, which is an 11-week term. Today, we also welcomed some new students and their families into our New Entrant classrooms — a big welcome to all of you!

As a reminder, now that our school is at full capacity under our enrolment zone, we are not able to accept any out-of-zone enrolments. Our teaching spaces and staffing are at their limits, so we need to follow the Ministry guidelines closely. We appreciate your understanding with this.

School Uniform Reminder
A big thank you to families who are making sure their children are in the correct uniform each day. Just a reminder that all shorts, pants or skirts should be plain black — no writing, logos or designs (other than the school monogram) are allowed. Hats must be plain black or yellow bucket hats — we’ve spotted a few ‘creative’ alternatives lately (including some KFC hats!). And please make sure all items are clearly named — we always end up with a lot of lost property and naming items really helps us return them quickly.

Lollies at School
We’ve noticed an increase in students bringing lollies and other treats to school, particularly among our older students. In some cases, students are stopping at the dairy on the way to school. Please help us by keeping treats at home for after school — we encourage healthy snacks like fruit, yoghurt or sandwiches during the school day.

Out of Zone Enrolments
There are no out-of-zone spaces available for the next enrolment period (Monday 28 April – Friday 27 June). Applications for the following period (Monday 14 July – Friday 19 September) close at 3pm on Friday 11 April. If you are interested, please ensure you have submitted an Expression of Interest form to the office by this date. The Board of Trustees will confirm if any spaces are available at their April meeting.

Thank you for your ongoing support — it’s great to be back into the swing of school life and we look forward to a wonderful rest of the term!

Ngā mihi,

We have been offered the opportunity to receive free winter PJs for the kids again this year.
Last year we had some difficulties with sizing not being accurate so some children were unable to receive theirs.

If you would like your child to receive a free pair of winter PJs later in term 2, please fill in the form attached so we can send the order away as soon as possible - this will avoid any sizing issues hopefully.

Here is the link to the form - please complete it carefully to avoid disappointment https://forms.gle/JZJBwXxCoR83er7SA
There is a due date for this to be completed - Friday 21st March 2025 to get your order in.

One of the things we are continuing to focus on in 2025 is student attendance.  You will hear us talking about this with you, with our students and it remains a strong subject of conversation in the staff room.   

If a student misses one day of school every two weeks, they miss more than a whole year of school by 16 years of age. As a parent or caregiver, you, alongside our school, play a key role in building strong habits of regular school attendance.

All students are legally required to attend school every day and it is a shared responsibility to make sure students attend and engage in learning from when they first start school. 

You must let the school know if your child is going to be absent or intends to be absent for a portion of the school term for whatever reason, like a tangi or medical procedure.  Family holidays or taking time off for extracurricular activities (not organised by school) are not acceptable reasons for being absent.

To date for Term 1 our overall attendance for the school is 73.83%.  

The Ministry has consistently used four Student Attendance Categories to understand how frequently students attend:

Knowing if your child is well enough to go to school can be tricky. Health guidance to support you to decide is available here. If you are still unsure, get in touch with us and let’s work together to support your learner.

 

If you're struggling at home with getting your child to school, talk to us. 

If you are finding it hard to get your child to school, please talk with us so we can work together. Our school is committed to supporting your child to attend school. 

Our school continues to build a culture that fosters attendance every day by having:

If you have any attendance queries and issues, please contact us so we can work together.

At the beginning of the term, Room 1 and 2 had the exciting opportunity to head to camp. 

Our Auraki unit plan for term 1 is all around “Team Work”; what this looks like and what our roles and responsibilities are in situations where we work with others. 

The first day we spent time getting to know each other through interactive and challenging activities. We enjoyed a walk through the bush and playing in the river (which was a new experience for some). We learnt about dam building and how to change the course of water. 

On the second day we took on the challenge of being leaders, when the rest of the Auraki came to join us. We helped lead the whole group through the bush, buddying up and ensuring everyone was supported.  As seniors we were in charge of organising different activities with our electives’ groups. Supporting everyone in our group to experience a sense of belonging and achievement in the activity we had organised. 

The best thing about camp was….

We had the opportunity to have swimming lessons with Matua Doug at the Te Awamutu pools in preparation for year 7 and 8 interschool swimming sports on Friday 7 March at Pukeatua School.

The following reflections from students, shows how valuable these experiences are for our tauira. Linking into our Auraki Unit focus we also had fun challenges, which involved working together to be successful. 

The mobile dental unit will be moving off site this week on Wednesday afternoon for its Certificate of Fitness.

Rest assured the team will be back onsite at Kihikihi School hopefully by Monday 17 March all going according to plan.

The Kihikihi Community Health Hub operates from the old dental clinic on the Kihikihi School grounds next to the admin block.  Entry is through the gate off Whitaker Street. 

You will be able to get free medical care for your whānau on Thursday mornings between 8.30am and 10.00am.  These are walk in clinics and no appointment is necessary. 

Save time, save on travel and save money - FREE health checks and treatments for medical issues in Kihikihi - only at the Kihikihi Community Heath Hub.

Please note that the Health Clinic will be closed on Thursday 10 April.

 

Funded by the Ministry of Education, counselling provides a safe place for children to understand the problems they may be experiencing and learn practical ways to cope with their thoughts and feelings. Common topics that children come to counselling for are: friendship issues, managing anxiety, behaviour, family issues, grief and loss.  If you would like to know more about this service, meet Kyra and her dog Gracie, or enrol your child, please contact Kyra on 021 403 472 or email kyra.lindsey@parentline.org.nz

Please come down to the Kihikihi School hall on Sunday 6 April between 10.00am and 2.30pm.  Bring your pre-loved clothing to swap.  You don't need to bring anything to swap to be able to take some 'new to you' clothes home.  This is just for clothing and accessories (handbags, shoes, costume jewellery etc).  Please NO household items or books.  Any clothing left behind will be donated to charity.