A - Z of Manawaru
Everything you ever wanted to know about Manawaru School (well almost everything!). If you can’t find the answers to your questions here then please feel free to ask.
A
Attendance Codes
At Manawaru School we recognise that regular attendance at school is crucial for student achievement. Children are expected at school before 8:25am each day. Absences are easily recorded in the Hero app, otherwise a text to the school phone would be appreciated. We are required to code all absences for the Ministry of Education, so please provide a reason for the absence.
Please do not send sick children to school.
Assemblies
We welcome parents to our assemblies. Monday morning assemblies celebrate sporting achievements and are an opportunity for us to focus on the weeks learning. Friday assembly starts at 8.45am and is run by the children. We have a focus on whole school activities including regulation strategies and school singing.
B
Board Of Trustees
Meetings are usually held twice a term, although it may be more often. Meetings are held in a mixture of online and in person meetings. Meetings are open to the public. Members of the public are welcome, however if they wish to speak, permission needs to be given by the Presiding Member. There are some conditions that need to be met, before permission can be granted. Information on this can be supplied by the school office.
C
D
E
F
BUS
Our bus is supplied by Greenline Motors for our Ministry of Education bus routes. Please contact the
school office should you need further clarification regarding the bus route. Those on the bus need to
sign a behaviour contract, which is in our enrolment packs, or from the school office. The bus run
may have students from other schools on board in the mornings. While we all make every effort to
keep to our bus timetable, life often gets in the way, so please keep this in mind and understand our
times are approximate.
This time can be a tricky time for children. If you have concerns about any bus behaviour please
contact the school office as soon as practical.
The Ministry of Education provide school aged children with assistance to get to school. Bus routes
are set by The Ministry of Education, and then the contract is put to tender. These routes have
become increasingly more rigid, making variations difficult. In some circumstance the Ministry of
Education will provide funding for families to transport their children to school.
Currently the eligibility conditions are as follows
a) Children nine years of age or under, must live 3.2 km or more (by the shortest route) to the
nearest state or integrated school.
b) Children ten years of age or over, must live 4.8 km or more (by the shortest route) from the
nearest state or integrated school.
c) Children eligible for School Transport are expected to make their own way for 1.6 km to the
school bus unless the transport is passing their home and not overloaded.
Our current provider may make a private arrangement with families not covered by these guidelines.
Please contact Greenline Motors for more information.
Certificates
Following the research, we are working to most effectively support learning. The work by Alfie Kohn
over decades does not support the value of many of our traditional ways of recognising effort. The
use of recognition in terms of certificates and/or stickers has been curtailed.
Communucation
Formal communication is via HERO, email, and Facebook to parents/caregivers.
As we know working together is the best way to support your child’s learning. Understanding when life is tricky, provides us with the opportunity to ensure we can support your child to the best of our ability. Often issues such as a death in the family, or even just a late night can impact on your child’s
day. Please let us know.
If you would like to have a focused conversation with your child’s teacher, please contact school to arrange a time. Providing information on what you would like to discuss means the teacher can gather any information required before the discussion. Please remember that your child learns most of their behaviour from their role models.
Concerns
Please refer to our Concerns and Complaints Policy. Please make initial contact with your classroom teacher and arrange a suitable time for discussion. If the issue is not resolved then make contact with the Principal.
Emergency Procedures
The school practises emergency procedures, in particular fire and earthquake drill regularly, so that
in the unlikely event of a fire or earthquake the children and staff know what to do.
In the event of an emergency we will try to maintain contact via our cell phone or Facebook. Please
remember we have just one phone line, and if we have an emergency we will keep the line clear.
It is important that emergency contact details are kept up to date, please message the office if you
have a change, even just a temporary one.
We would encourage families to work out similar emergency procedures for the whole family when
at home.
Fundraising
We are very fortunate to have an active Fundraising Club who do so much more than their name
suggests! They are enthusiastic and skilled fundraisers for the school and they are also incorporating
a social dimension into their school support work.
As soon as you become a parent of the school, congratulations you become a member of this group!
H
Hero
HERO is our main vehicle for delivering all school information. This will contain the following school-
wide information;
• Notices / Newsletters
• Communication from staff / teachers (to your email or app)
• Accounts
HERO is also our main reporting tool for your children. They each have an individual page that you
are linked in to which you will receive a link to when your child enrols with us.
Some classes also use the less formal DOJO in their rooms. Your child’s teacher will be able to
support you to set this up.
Please do not use Dojo for urgent communication, using the school contacts is a more reliable
manner to share information.
Please download the free HERO app.
https://hero.linc-ed.com/pages.php?page=parent&
L
N
Newsletters
We enjoy sharing the news from school every two weeks. Our school newsletter is sent home via
HERO and with our favourite Rural Delivery Man, John. This reaches approximately 400 letter boxes
in our area.
The newsletters will keep families up to date with what is happening in classrooms, and school wide.
A community section endeavours to keep people informed with goings on in the Manawaru
community, please contact the office if you have information you would like to share.
P
Parent Help
The school welcomes parent help in a variety of ways.
Firstly check with the class teacher on how you can best help. Needs of teachers vary from class to class and levels of the school.
Assistance may be given accordingly:
-
Help with the reading programme
-
Help with school trips, camps, sporting outings
-
Coaching of school sports teams
-
Working bees
-
Fundraising events
As you can see there are many ways that you can help Manawaru Primary School be the best school ever.
Policy
The Board of Trustees is responsible for providing the framework for the school to operate under
through the school’s policies.
We utilise the legal expertise for this.
Our policies can be found by googling schooldocs. Our username is Manawaru. Our password is
empowering.
The policies are accessible to all with the password. The policies are personalised and current. This is
a good place to start looking if you have a question about how we work at Manawaru School.
R
Reporting
We know that children learn best when the adults around them are working as a team. We try to
create informal, as well as formal lines of communication.
Currently reporting requirements are changing. We are required to report twice a year in writing.
Mid year and end of year reporting will be completed.
We also hold Student Led Conferences. During this time children share their learning with their
families, using class resources and their books. The class teacher will be available to join the
discussion to support this discussion.
We believe that reporting should contain no surprises as we work to keep the lines of
communication open.
S
School Donations
We appreciate donations of time when our fundraising team are working to support the school. We
have a large number of support staff in the school to support your children’s learning. All children
benefit from the increased staffing. However, it is far in excess of Ministry of Education funding, so
we appreciate the difference fundraising makes to learning.
Swimming
We are fortunate that our pool is heated! Heated, and converted to salt water. This means we can
swim during term 1 and term 4. Swimming is a massive part of our curriculum, it is one part that
actually has the potential to be lifesaving. We ask for parent’s support, by ensuring children come to
school, ready to swim. We are prepared to do our part in ensuring your children can swim to survive.
We just ask that you put swimming gear in bags.
Over the Christmas holidays the BOT usually hires out pool keys to all our families to keep those
swimming skills up over the holiday period.
T
Tech
The Year 7 and 8's travel to Te Aroha College once a week to partake in Tech classes. They
experience a range of curriculum areas that we are not able to cover. It is also a good opportunity
for them to become familiar with the layout of the college. They are all bussed in and out, as part of
the Ministry of Education bus contract.
There is a fee to cover expenses. This is set by the College and an invoice will be sent home early in
Term One.
Te Aroha Cluster
At Manawaru School we work well with the other great schools in our cluster.We take part in a range of school events with our children. This includes hosting the Te Aroha District Cross Country each year. Teachers regularly meet together for professional development supported by the Te Aroha Principal's Group. We organise community education events to support learning for the te Aroha Learner. Together we are better!
Z
Zerowaste
It is great to see parents using reusable containers for their children’s lunchboxes. All of the lunch
rubbish goes home. We are an Enviroschool and as part of the way we function we promote a
reduction in rubbish.
Check out our short video on ZeroWaste Ideas