Issue 20: Week 1, Term 3 2025
Principal's Message - Karere a te Tumuaki
Kia ora koutou and welcome back to Term 3! I hope everyone had a wonderful holiday and enjoyed plenty of time with family and friends. It’s great to see everyone back, refreshed and ready for another busy and exciting term. I hope everyone enjoyed the holiday break. Emily and her cousin Lucy were very excited about getting their calves for Ag Day over the holidays — meet Oreo and Shimmer! (You won’t have any trouble working out who’s who by their colours.) Things are really starting to ramp up as we hit the Ag Day term in full force, with our chickens arriving this Friday — a sure sign of what’s to come!
At the end of Term 2, our Year 5 & 6 students had an unforgettable week on camp at Kawau Island. A heartfelt thank you to Mrs Redshaw, Mrs Christensen, Miss Waters, and Miss Cheyne for all their hard work planning and running the camp. The kids had an absolute blast, and it wouldn’t have been possible without the team’s effort. We’d also like to acknowledge and thank the wonderful group of parent helpers who gave up their time to support the camp — your help was invaluable in ensuring the experience was safe, smooth and memorable for everyone.
Bookings are now open on HERO for our 3-Way Conferences which will be held on Tuesday 29th of July from 1:20-6:30pm (as mentioned in multiple prior newsletters). We strongly encourage students to attend alongside their caregivers — that’s the “3-way” — teacher, student, and caregivers. A reminder that there’s no need to collect students early; the school day will end at the usual time, with buses and KAS running as normal. We do ask that all children are collected promptly at 2:45pm, as usual. Children who have conference slots will be brought out to the flagpole 10 minutes before their appointment time to meet parents.
Also coming up, tonight there is a PTA meeting in the Staffroom at 7pm and it would be great to have as many people there in person as possible - and new faces are always welcome! Next Monday we will be holding our Term 3 Pōwhiri on Monday at 10:30am in the Hall to welcome our new students and their whānau to the Karaka School community. All are warmly invited to attend and support our new families as they join our school whānau. And to cap it off we also have an Ag Day Committee meeting on Monday at 7pm. Again, new faces are always welcome - in fact this can be the best way to get involved and understand how Ag Day comes together, particularly if you are new to our school.
Ngā mihi nui,
Anna Powrie
Welcome to Karaka School
- Maverick C
- Rylee-Rose T
- Theo R
- Bowden W
Celebrating Learning and Achievement
Notes from the Office
Attendance
Every Day Matters
Consistent attendance is key to student success, and ability to access Learning / Akoranga. Please help us to help all learners access and experience the school curriculum every day by helping them get to school when possible. Missing even one day every two weeks equates to missing 1 year of schooling by the age of 16, and can significantly impact a child's learning journey.
Please inform us promptly of any absences, such as for a tangi or medical appointment. Unplanned family holidays or non-school extracurricular activities are not considered valid reasons for absence. If you're unsure whether your child is well enough for school, please check the health guidance, or contact us directly.
If you're struggling, please reach out, as we have staff and systems that can help.
An Attendance Snapshot
Karaka had 52 learners with 100% attendance in Term 2. Wow! We have 15 learners with 100% attendance across Term 1 and 2. Amazing! You may be aware that just 1 learner had 100% attendance across the whole of 2024 - We have some healthy competition in 2025! The government target for regular attendance at school is 80% of learners attending school 90% of the time by 2030. In Term 2, we had 73% of learners attending school over 90% of the time. This was up from 63% in Term 2, 2024! In Term 1, we had 79% of learners attending school over 90% of the time. Year 7 is our highest attending year group with 89.47% attendance! Tu Meke! Girls (77.31%) are beating the boys (68.7%) in the race for regular attendance! Friday is the most common day of absence! Hmmmm! Let's make Term 3 a fun-filled, healthy term full of learning, resilience and great attendance, and please remember to contact us if you need any support.
News and Information
Please refer to Mr Dyer's Hero post on 13th July for start of term information including information on how to order a flag and where to email information regarding the Beyond the Gate bulletin which is published in Week 5.
School Board Elections 2025
All state and state-integrated schools are required to hold board elections every three years, and the next round will take place this year, in 2025.
The School Board is an important part of our school as they set the strategic direction for our school, consult with our school community about our school, ensure the schools funding is spent wisely and ensure that we are giving effect to Te Tiriti o Waitangi within our school.
Our board is made up of five parent representatives, the [Principal or Tumuaki], and a staff representative elected by staff.
The current board has appointed Election Pilot as our Returning Officer, and the election will be conducted online. They have been assisting schools with elections for over 20 years and have been the only election provider accredited by the Ministry of Education to provide online election services since online elections started in 2022.
Nomination and voting forms will be sent to all eligible voters by email directly from Election Pilot. If we don’t have an email address for you, nomination and voting papers will be sent by post so no one will miss out.
School Board Elections must be held in accordance with the provisions in the Education and Training Act 2020 and the Education (Board Elections) Regulations 2022. Your name and contact details have been provided to Schooled Election Pilot to enable the provision of election services for our school as required by legislation.
They will use your contact details for the provision of election services for Karaka School only and your details will be deleted 60 days after the election date as required by legislation. If you have any questions about the election process, please contact the Returning Officer directly on 0800 VOTENZ (0800 868 369) or election@electionpilot.nz.
We will continue to keep you updated through the various stages of the election process. Our election date is 10th September 2025.
- Parents with email addresses will receive nomination emails from Election Pilot (Schooled) on 18 July.
- Parents without email addresses will be sent nomination forms by mail on 18 July.
PTA News
PTA Meeting - 16th July 7.00pm in the staffroom. All welcome!
Any questions/fundraising ideas or if you require uniform items urgently, you can email the PTA on karaka.pta@gmail.com
The Karaka School PTA account is 12 3031 0851231 00
Updates from the Wider Community
