FAQ

The Uniform Shoppe, 639 Great South Road, Manukau (entrance on Ronwood Avenue between BNZ and Krispy Kreme), phone 09 267 6063.

The office does sell some secondhand uniform items for $10 each.

School hats can be purchased from the school office for $12 and are compulsory in Terms 1 and 4.

We do have some secondhand uniform items that can be purchased from the school office for $10 per item. We usually have plenty of sweatshirts but limited stock of other uniform items.

Preferably black school shoes that are suitable for running around in. If you require assistance with sourcing shoes we can assist you with this.

School hours are 8.50am to 3pm each day. The school grounds are open 8am-3.15pm. Classrooms are open for students from 8.30am onwards. Children are not allowed at school before 8am due to health and safety. Our school will always finish at 3pm unless you receive a notice of any change. It is required that all students leave school grounds by 3.15pm each day.

We have an outside provider, Safe Kids in Daily Supervision (sKiDs) that operates a before an after school programme at our school. For queries and to obtain more information about this programme go the sKiDswebsite.

Yes, you are able to pick your child up early but only by special arrangement. Please remember parents/guardians have legal obligations to ensure their child(ren) attend school. Parents are to try and arrange appointments etc. outside school hours, or in holidays. If this is unavoidable, the parent/caregiver or listed emergency contact must sign out the student at the office. Anyone who signs students out prior to 3pm is to be 18 years or older.

Please note that this may take a bit longer on a Tuesday afternoon due to cultural/art sessions.

The school will ring one of the parents/caregivers, or emergency contacts if the parents/caregivers are uncontactable. The child is to be picked up from the school office and signed out.

For safety and attendance reasons, it is important that parents/caregivers and teachers know where children are.

For all unforeseen absences please contact the school before 9am via one of the below options:

• Phone 09 278 5231 or 0800 786 3784 – option 2 to leave a message on the answerphone

• SchoolApp Absentee option

• Website Report an Absence page

All parents/caregivers of students who have not been marked as present or sick will be texted by 9.30am.

Teachers will follow up unexplained absences with a phone call home and in some instances a letter home.

Parents/caregivers have legal obligations to ensure their child(ren) attend school. The Education Act requires that all children six years older and over must attend school. Once enrolled, it is compulsory for children to attend school regularly.

Holidays during term time are now classified by the Ministry as an unjustified absence. We are required to remove a student from the school roll after 20 days of absence.

If you have a planned absence during term please notify your child’s teacher and complete a Student Leave Form which is available from the office, prior to the start of the absence.

Parents, grandparents and friends are encouraged to be actively involved in the education of the children in the school. This includes classifying and caring for library books, helping to make classroom equipment, helping in classrooms with various reading, language or art and craft activities, helping in many other useful ways. Parents are also invited to assist staff on school trips, excursions and outdoor educational activities.

If you would like to offer your services in any way, please phone the office and leave your name.

Generally the answer is no but there are exceptions. The reasons why are their toy may get lost or stolen and this can be extremely upsetting for the child. If children do bring toys to school they are to be handed into the teacher. The only instance where toys are to be at school is when they are specially requested for fun days/events and a notice will go home to parents in these instances.

Schools are required to report to parents twice a year on their child’s progress. An Interim report is sent home at the end of Term 2/start of Term 3 and an End of Year report at the end of Term 4. If you wish to find out about your child’s progress outside of these times please make an appointment to see your child’s teacher. An appointment can be arranged via the school office.

Triadic Learning Conversations (parent/student/teacher) are held once a year at the end of Term 2/start of Term 3.

At the start of each year we have approximately 520 students. By the end of the year year we have approximately 560-600 students.

You are welcome to make an appointment to see your child’s teacher to discuss any concerns or worries you may have. Depending on the issue  you can also contact the school office and they will be able to advise you on your next steps.

We take all incidents seriously and we can only follow up if we know about it. Please encourage your child to talk to their teacher if something happens. Parents are also welcome to contact their child’s teacher to discuss any incidents. Not all cases are bullying as this is targeted repeated behaviour. However all reported incidences of children feeling unsafe are recorded and investigated.

Make an appointment with your child’s teacher to discuss your concerns. The teacher will then follow this up with the appropriate personnel. The teacher will keep in touch with you to let you know what will be put in place, if additional support is necessary.

Contact the school office to arrange an appointment, phone 09 278 5231 or 0800 786 3784

There is an expectation that all students read with/or be read to every day. Speak to your child’s teacher around their homework expectations.

We have a school pool and students will have lessons in Terms 1 and 4. Lessons will be supervised by the class teacher. If you’d like to know more about the lessons please contact your child’s teacher. This is also a great opportunity for children to build independence by being able to get themselves changed.

Sports teams start for students in Year 4 but all students participate in physical education lessons as part of the New Zealand Curriculum.

Tironui runs a programme with our students in Years 4-6 where they can learn a string instrument. All other students are given the opportunity to participate in music lessons within the class as part of the New Zealand Curriculum.

Yes. All classes visit the school library each week and books are issued for two weeks.

Our school also offers weekly whānau library sessions in which you have the opportunity to spend some quality time in our school library reading and sharing books with your children. You can also issue books to take home and read together. If you are interested in getting a whānau library card so that you can issue books, please complete the application form on the Enrolment page. Terms and conditions to apply when borrowing books.

These are on the school calendar of events. Any special assemblies where whānau are welcome to attend will also be on this calendar. Please be seated at least five minutes before the start time.

All non-uniform items are placed in the lost property containers in the student entrance by Rm11. Students and parents/caregivers can check this lost property at any time. These containers will be cleared at the end of each term and remaining items will be donated.

Found uniform items are to be handed into the office. Named items will be returned to the student via their classroom teacher. All items that are not named will be kept for a term and any remaining items will be added to the secondhand uniform stocks.

The mobile dental clinic comes to our school for two separate terms each year. The technicians will see students during class time. Parents/caregivers will only be contacted if students require a higher level of treatment.

If your child requires dental treatment outside of these times you are welcome to call the Dental Hub at Puhinui School, phone 09 278 1975. Please try to make appointments outside of school hours.