Week 9 term 1 2024

Kia ora koutou,

We've reached the ninth week of Term 1, and it's been an eventful journey so far! As we approach the end of the term, we have had a great term with lots of learning in the classroom, many achievements on the sports field, and a number of students signing up for new activities or sports or cultural activities to broaden their experiences and learning. 

A big thank you to parents and teachers who have supported us in organising, managing or coaching sports and other activities in our school. Your support is valuable, and we could not offer our students what we do without it. 

This is a reminder that over the Easter break, our school is closed for Good Friday, 29 March, Easter Monday, 1 April, and Easter Tuesday, 2 April. We reopen for students on Wednesday, 3 April. Sometimes, this holiday gets wrapped up in term break when Easter falls later in April. But when it doesn't, Easter Tuesday is still a day off. 

We continue to have a small number of COVID-19 cases in our school. Please keep an eye on your child; if they are unwell, please keep them at home.

Behaviour Reminders:

All families were sent our behaviour plan earlier this term. Teachers have been through this plan with students on numerous occasions in classrooms. In our school we believe that everyone has the right to be treated equally and well. Students and teachers have the right to work, play and learning in a friendly, safe, caring and supportive school environment. With rights come responsibilities. These counterbalance each other in the same manner as choice and consequence. We each have a responsibility to care for ourselves and others and treat others and their property respectfully. 

Our school expectations—Be Respectful—Respond Appropriately—Choose to Participate—are very clear to our students, and we expect all students to follow them.

Most of our students follow our expectations, and for the small number who do not make good choices, there are consequences as outlined in our student behaviour plan. 

Next term, our students will be learning about changes that occur during puberty. There will be a meeting for parents who wish to know more about this unit of work on Wednesday 10 April at 6 pm. Our programme is well-planned and delivered by our classroom teachers. 

I wish you all a safe and peaceful Easter Break.

Ngaa mihi nui

Susan Wood - Principal

Congratulations to our Touch Teams

New Zealand Biosecurity Awards

The New Zealand Biosecurity Awards are the Ministry of Primary Industry's way of celebrating people and organisations across the country who are contributing to New Zealand's biosecurity. 

A 0.5-hectare gully at Maeroa Intermediate School had been neglected for decades. It had become a dumping ground for rubbish and a breeding ground for pest weeds and animals and was out of bounds to students.

To rectify the situation, the school set up the Maeroa Intermediate Gully Restoration Programme in 2020. After consultation with local experts and the school community, the gully restoration vision and action plan were established, with the initial clearing and planting phase expected to take 12 years.

Since the project began, the students, whānau and local community have cleared weeds and rubbish, grown over 4,000 eco-sourced plants, replanted native trees, and created a lizard habitat and outdoor classroom.

The students are passionate about their outdoor classroom and take visitors on gully tours, showing first-hand the differences they have made to protect their community from unwanted pests and diseases.

We celebrate our school as we have been nominated and are in the finalists for the Biosecurity New Zealand Kura (School) Award.

We are very proud of our enviro and gully restoration group led with huge enthusiasm by teachers: Julie Yeoman, Oriana Tauranga and Linda McPhail as well as the many, many students and families who have supported with our gully over the last few years. 

Our Gully Restoration Project

Koru Badges

Congratulations to the following students who have earned their koru badges over the last two weeks:

Star: Stanley Murray

We look forward to seeing many more students earning their koru badges over the next couple of weeks as students earn their attendance koru, sports koru, cultural koru, enviro koru, etc

Production

Production Practices Term 1 and 2

We started with auditions, then progressed to Production practices with the Main Cast in the latter half of Term 1.  Thank you to those students who have been so organised with turning up, learning their lines. and bringing their enthusiasm with them.

I look forward to working with your child next term. Just a reminder that practices will commence Mondays Block 4 and After School 3-4pm in the Auditorium for Main Cast and Extra's on Monday 29th April.

Dionne Sasso (Dance/ Drama Teacher)

Bike Safety Training

Thank you to the Hamilton City Council Safe Travel team for working with some of our students who bike to and from school on bike safety. This was a very beneficial programme for the students who took part.

School Uniform

As we move into the cooler months of the year, students are permitted to wear school trackpants.  These are the only trackpants that our students can wear. Our school trackpants are completely black with Maeroa in royal blue written on one side. The school trackpants are available from NZ Uniforms.

Students can also wear thick, opaque black pantyhose under their shorts/skorts through the winter. These are not leggings they are to be thick pantyhose. These are available from supermarkets, Farmers etc. 

Shoes must be completely black with black or white socks. We do not permit socks and sandals at Maeroa. If your child wishes to wear sandals throughout the cooler months (any many do) they are worn without socks. No crocs, jandals, slides are permitted. 

If your child is not able to wear the correct uniform on a day then they must bring a note from their parent explaining the issue. This note is brought to the Principal or DPs for signing so the student has a dispensation for that day. 

Please ensure every item of uniform is named, including shoes/sandals. Students take their sweatshirt, shoes or jacket off and leave them lying around the school, it is so helpful when uniform items are named and we can return them to the owner.

A reminder about our Teacher Only Day

Our Teacher Only Day is planned for 31 May 2024.

Our school will not be open for students on this day.

Term Dates 2024

Term One finishes on 12 April

Term two: 29 April - 5 July

Term Three: 22 July - 27 September

Term Four: 14 October - 13 December

School Attendance Policy

Student Attendance

At Maeroa Intermediate School, our attendance procedures ensure students are accounted for during school hours and activities as well as emergency events. This allows school staff to identify and respond to student attendance concerns. We recognise the importance of regular attendance to support student welfare and help students achieve their educational potential.

As required by the Education and Training Act 2020 (s 35), students between six and sixteen years old must be enrolled at school. Once enrolled, it is compulsory to attend regularly, unless a specific exemption has been approved by the school and the Ministry of Education. The board takes all reasonable steps to ensure all students enrolled at Maeroa Intermediate School attend school when it is open (Education and Training Act, s 36).

Maeroa Intermediate School records and monitors attendance using set attendance procedures. We have annual targets for student attendance, and work with students, parents and caregivers, staff, and external agencies where necessary to improve our levels of student attendance. We share our attendance information with the Ministry of Education, which ensures we receive correct funding and staffing entitlements. We keep our attendance registers for seven years from the date of last entry.

Parent/Guardian and student responsibilities

Parents and guardians have legal obligations to ensure their children attend school (Education and Training Act, s 244). We expect parents/guardians to:

• notify the school as soon as possible if their child is going to be late or absent
• arrange appointments and trips outside school hours or during school holidays where possible
• work with the school to manage attendance concerns.

We share attendance expectations with students and their parents and caregivers, and require students to be present and attend classes on time. Parents/Guardians may ask for their child to be excused from certain areas of the curriculum for religious or cultural reasons. The principal reviews these requests and considers the preferences of the student. The school provides supervision for any students who do not participate in certain areas of the curriculum.

School hours and supervision

Maeroa Intermediate School staff comply with our schedule and release students at set times. For information about supervision outside of school hours, see Before and After School Supervision.

Students are not allowed to leave the school during school hours unless permission is requested by parents/caregivers and given by the school. The student must sign out at the office.

If a student is ill or injured at the school or a school-related activity and needs to be taken elsewhere (e.g. home or a medical facility), we follow our procedures for Managing Injuries and Illness.

School banking update