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Connect Communication
26 February 2025
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As a school in a growing area, we are often welcoming new families and children to Ararira. Children | ākonga join us at every level of the school. Due to our proximity to Lincoln Unversity many families are new to New Zealand.
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Our Board has made belonging part of our strategic and annual plans. We hope that you are doing your part to make our new whānau feel welcome, too. We would like to invite our new families to an information session at school. This will be held in the staffroom at 7 pm on Thursday 6th March. This is aimed at families with children from Year 2 and up. Our families with five-year-olds have already attended a wonderful information session with Nicky and me. Please let the office know if you are attending as we will provide refreshments, email office@ararira.school.nz.
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Next Wednesday afternoon, at 1:30pm, you are invited to a Design Jam with Adrian from Botanic. This is a chance to share your ideas with a landscape architect on how our site can be developed while we wait for more buildings. Again, let the office know if you can come.
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THT | Te Hapori Tautoko is keen to support projects that will be identified as achievable. The process will identify play spaces that we can develop as we don't know when the Ministry of Education will prioritise our new buildings.
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Further down in the newsletter, you will see that next week it is 'Walk or Wheel to School Week'. We encourage children to use an active way of getting to school for the week. Remember, due to congestion at the gate we are walking our wheels in and out of the school gate.
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Permissions Reminder
A reminder to those who haven't already done so to please complete our 2025 permissions form online. You are only required to complete one form per family. If there is more than one parent who will be volunteering please both complete this form.
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It covers important matters such as:
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- Who can pick up your child/children in the event of an emergency
- Permission to use of your child's image
- Parent volunteer agreement
- Education outside the classroom
- Dietary requirements
- Permission to be seen by the Community Dental Van
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We would be grateful if you can complete the Google form at your earliest opportunity as some classes have trips coming up in the next couple of weeks or so.
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Emergency Food Reminder
As part of our planning procedures, we need to keep a supply of snacks in each classroom in case of an emergency.
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Could each child please bring 2-3 individually wrapped snacks (eg. snack pack of chips or crackers, muesli or snack bar, etc.). If your child has special dietary requirements, please provide snacks for your child in a clearly named ziplock bag so they can be easily identified.
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Please drop these in at your child's class as soon as possible.
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Cultural Calendar
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Being a school with many international families makes us a very unique school community. Currently, we have families from 28 different countries from around the world. We would love to use this as a learning opportunity for our students to learn about different religions, festivals and celebrations which connect to our international learners.
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What I would like to do is compile an international calendar of celebrations and festivals our school families celebrate. This calendar would be used by teachers to acknowledge with students these special celebrations and when possible share a short presentation in hui to teach others about it. The students can share these celebrations themselves if they wish. If not, a cultural ambassador can present on their behalf.
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If you have a special cultural celebration or festival you would like to go on our cultural calendar can you please email through….
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The name of the celebration/festival/occasion
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How you celebrate or acknowledge this occasion
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Your child’s name and current class
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Many thanks and I look forward to hearing from you and learning about the many cultures within our school.
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Absences
If your child is going to be absent or late, please let the school know before 9.00am or you may receive a text/phone call asking about their whereabouts.
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- via the Hero app
- call 03 420 0888 and press 1 for our absence line
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We now have to record absences in line with the new Ministry of Education guidelines, so please provide the reason for your child's absence, or we may contact you for further information.
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School Donations
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School donations and term 1 activity fees have now been added to your Kindo account. Please click here for further information.
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IMPORTANT DATES
- 26 February - School Board meeting, 6.30pm in the Staffroom
- 03 March - Walk or Wheel to School Week (see below)
- 07 March - Hui (Hikuwai), 9.15am in the Hall
- 07 March - Curiosity Clubs begin, 11.45am-12.45pm
- 08 March - Karma Keg fundraiser at The Laboratory, 2-4pm (see below)
- 21 March - Hui (Huarapa), 9.15am in the Hall
- 27 March - THT meeting, 7pm in the Staffroom
- 31 March-11 April - Life Education
- 11 April - Last day of term 1
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School Board
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Next meeting - 26 Feburary, 6.30pm in Tahuna | Staffroom
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The board meets for the first time tonight (Wednesday) at 6:30 pm in the staff room. We'll be electing a presiding member for the rest of the board's term of office, which runs until September; and approving budgets and plans for the year.
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This term we are reviewing policies in safety and risk management, worker engagement, healthcare, and recording and reporting incidents. You're welcome to read and comment on these policies - go to School Docs on the About menu of the school website or click this link , then click the "Current Review" button at the top of the page. Feedback will be collated in week 8 for consideration at the board meeting in week 9.
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Presiding Member - Te Puna o Ararira School Board
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Te Hapori Tautoko (THT)
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Next meeting - 27 March, 7-8pm in Tahuna | Staffroom (all welcome)
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Second-Hand Uniforms - THT has a small selection of second-hand uniform items available for purchase. Click here to view a list of the items we currently have available. If you have uniform items to donate please contact Charlotte via charlotte.mcmenamin@ararira.school.nz
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Congratulations to all our students who took part in the Weetbix Tryathlon at the weekend. We look forward to seeing your photos of the day! If you have any that Whaea Meeghan can display in the foyer of the office please email them to her at meeghan.herbert@ararira.school.nz
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At the end of this year in term 4 we will be having a swim sports, which will go a long way in helping us select swimmers for the Zones competition the following year. There will be a number of fun activities and races as well as some races for our more competitive swimmers. Keep an eye on the calendar for this event and if you can assist please let Whaea Meeghan know.
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If your child is keen to represent Ararira Springs at the Zones swimming competition and they are able to swim 50m in a minute or so, without stopping or holding onto the side of the pool or lane ropes please ask them to come and see me in Kaunuku 1 or parents please email with their strokes of choice. I realise that my previous message may have sounded like only club swimmers could take part. As long as they are confident and capable they are welcome! If they are still keen please let me know via email before Friday the 7th of March. This will be taking place on 18th of March at Jellie Park.
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Top Team will be taking place at Ararira Springs on the 21st of March. All children from Year 4 - 8 will be participating. If you can help with the challenges please let your child’s ako teacher know as soon as possible. The Year 7/8 teams will be completing their challenges in the morning, 9 am - 11:30 am while the Year 4-6 teams will be taking place in the afternoon, 12 pm - 3 pm.
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Next week, our school is joining Walk or Wheel to School Week, a fun-filled event from Christchurch City Council and Selwyn Council that encourages students to walk, bike, or scoot to school. This is great for our health and wellbeing and our Environment. With daily themes, exciting prizes, and awesome giveaways, there’s plenty to get involved in. Check out the Council's Facebook event for all the latest updates— click ‘Going’ to stay in the loop!
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Katrina Robinson has been teaching guitar and ukulele now for a number of years at schools and also from her home. She loves to sing too and is a professional musician playing in wineries and cafés as well as weddings and private functions. Katrina likes to make her lessons fun and really enjoys teaching. You can read more information on Katrina at www.thesingingdiva.co.nz
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Spaces are available for 2025!
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The closing date for Issue 1 is 04 April 2025.
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All orders will be delivered to school in batches and distributed to the classrooms as they arrive. Any orders marked as gifts, we will put to one side and contact you when they are ready to be collected.
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Dream Big Tutoring is an independent tutoring program started in 2024 by founder and leader Tiffany Zhang. Comprised of talented Year 7 students (including one current and one former ASP student), Dream Big offers mathematics tutoring to all students in years 2-7, aiming to foster a love for learning and helping students to excel.
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At Dream Big Tutoring, we believe that quality education should be accessible to all,
offering our high-quality tutoring services at an affordable rate of just $15 per hour. We are dedicated to creating a supportive, nurturing learning environment that empowers students to reach their full potential in mathematics.
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Assessment Update - Term 1, 2025 At Ararira Springs Primary, we use assessment to support learning and help each child grow. Our main focus is on formative assessment, which means we check in on students’ progress regularly through class discussions, observations, and their work. This helps teachers understand what students already know and what they need to learn next. By …
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Payments and School Donations Our community’s socio-economic status means our school is not eligible for the government’s school donations scheme. Our equity index means we receive less operational funding than other schools. More information about the Equity Index can be found at the bottom of this post. Due to this, we request donations from parents. Voluntary Donations The Ararira School …
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Te Mātaiaho | The New Zealand Curriculum Curriculum Update - Term 1, 2025 From Term 1 this year, all NZ primary schools are required to teach the refreshed Maths (Year 0-8) and English (Year 0-6 at the stage) curriculum areas. Please refer to my blog post from 6 November for a more detailed explanation of the changes. Your child will …
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