After School Care Programme

St Paul’s Before School Care and After School Care (Including the holiday Programme) are Oscar/Winz-approved after-school care programmes.

For further information, contact Mrs Horler 027 405 2664 or click here to learn more about Before and After School Care.

Assemblies

Our Principal’s Award Assemblies are generally held on every second Friday (odd weeks) after our school liturgies at 1:30 pm, in the school hall. All parents are welcome to attend; keep an eye out in the newsletters to see when they are happening.

Attendance

This is tracked weekly. After 5 days you may receive a letter letting you know that your child has had these days off. If your child is away on a regular basis they will be referred to Team Leaders and appropriate action will be taken. Please ensure that your child is at school daily and is here before 8:45 am. It is important that they have enough time to get themselves prepared for the day. To do this they need to be at school by 8:40 am at the latest. However, if your child is really sick please keep them at home. If your child improves during the morning, don’t hesitate to bring them to school!

Please use the eTAP Caregiver App to notify the school if your child is absent.

Bell Times

• School Starts: 8:45AM
• Morning Tea: 10:45AM – 11:05AM
• Lunch: 12:45PM – 1:40PM
• School Finishes: 2:45PM

Healthy Eating

To encourage healthy eating habits please provide healthy choices in your child’s lunch box. Fruit, vegetables and sandwiches should form the bulk of their lunch with only one or two treat foods (like chips, cakes, biscuits, roll-ups, muesli bars and fruit strips). Remind children that lunches and drinks are not to be shared and inform the teachers if your child has any food allergies.

As there are some children who are allergic to nuts and eggs it would be appreciated if you could consider providing alternatives in your child‘s lunch box.

Children need to be able to open lunch packaging by themselves. If your child has difficulty with this, please slit or partly open the plastic or foil wrapping when you pack their lunch.

Linking Home with School

Homework is a time to connect and share with your child what they have experienced at school.

Reading – every day. Home readers will be sent home 4 nights each week. They will either have a new book or a familiar book to read. Rereading is valuable especially when new skills (comprehension, inference etc) are being taught. Poetry books will also be sent home and this, or another book, can be filled in at the weekend and will count as a night’s reading. Remember the number of nights not books counts towards reading nights certificates. Please sign the Homework diary daily and return it to school, with the reading book, in the green bag for use the next day. Enjoy this activity with your child – praise their efforts, talk about the book, let them retell and ask the questions suggested. Enter weekend reading as these nights count towards their totals.

Spelling/Word study – will be given each week.

Maths – Maths No Problem – At St Paul’s School we deliver maths via Maths – No Problem! Based on methods developed in Singapore and the pedagogy of influential educational theorists, Maths — No Problem! is a teaching framework proven to help students gain a mastery level understanding of maths.

“[Students] are having fun with maths. They can talk about what they’re doing, [show] deeper understanding and clearly explain their thinking. This is working for all kids.”

Marie Nelson, Maths Lead, St Paul’s Primary School

Religious Education – books will be sent home regularly for work to be completed or for parent input. Tamariki also have the opportunity to bring home a prayer bag throughout the year. With the prayer bag children are encouraged to lead prayer at home with their whānau.

Sometimes there may be Catch-Up or Completion tasks. If further consolidation is required or if class exercises are not finished, this will be sent home. This will give you the opportunity to follow and support your child’s progress. If you have any questions or need anything explained please make a time to talk to the class teacher (before school only allows for the briefest chat, as it is a busy time when the teacher is getting ready for the day and welcoming the children).

Liturgy

Each class is given the opportunity to lead a Liturgy of prayer and worship for our school. These are held on Friday afternoons, before the Principal’s Prizegiving Assembly at 1:30 pm. Please keep an eye out for when your child’s class is leading and please feel free to attend any Liturgy. Notifications are in the weekly newsletters. Our school also holds a school-wide Mass once a term, and our parents and families are always welcome to attend those celebrations of faith.

Lost Property

We ask that everything is named. We do our best to find owners for any items left at school. Unclaimed items can be located in the lost property container situated in the school hall or office.

Lunch Menu

We have stopped selling lunches on Fridays. However, the PTFA occasionally have fundraising, such as Sushi or Sausage Sizzles etc. Notices of these will be sent home for ordering. When sending back your order, please put it and the money in an envelope with your child’s name and room on it. Thank you.

Medicines at School

All medicines must be handed into the office at the beginning of the school day. Please complete the Permission Slip form and bring it to school with the medicine.

Pick Up After School: 2.45pm – 3.10pm

All children are asked to make their way around the side of the hall to the Waiting Area (between Rooms 18 and 19 in the Summer). There will be teachers on duty until 3.10 pm.

Parents are asked to park their car (reverse in) and walk across one of the crossings to collect their child/ren.

Once most of the congestion has subsided you will be directed to drive as far as you can up the pick-up zone (see road markings) where the children can get into your car on the left-hand side only. After 3.10 pm children will wait outside the school office for collection.

If you are running late please ring the school office and we will put your child/ren in After School Care.

Relationships First

St Paul’s School follows the approach of Relationship Based Learning. Within classrooms, teachers and learners interact in a family like context to promote learning.

Starting the Day

Please be punctual. The first minutes of the day are valuable. We often talk about key concepts at this time. It is also a special time of Prayer. The roll is taken at the start of the day (8.45 am). Use the eTAP Caregiver app or email to tell your teacher if you know you will be late on any day.

Encourage your child to take responsibility for getting organised by putting their reading book and drink bottle in the designated place in the classroom, before the bell rings.

Teacher Release and Relievers

All of our Classroom Teachers have ‘release days’ or absences throughout the year (for planning, professional development, student assessment etc). When this happens another qualified teacher will take the class. Our teachers plan the day for the relieving teacher – so it is business as usual. Our relievers are quality teachers, who have a good relationship with the school and community.

Uniforms

All students attending St Paul’s School are expected to wear a neat and tidy regulation uniform as set down by the Board of Trustees.

This uniform can be purchased from the school uniform shop which is in the school hall. Hours 8:00 am – 9:00 am Friday mornings only.

Shop Manager: Mrs Ingrid Heynen

Uniform:

• Girls – blue culottes / skort
• Boys – navy blue shorts

Boys and girls:

• light blue short or long-sleeved polo shirt embroidered with the school name
• navy blue track pants (winter only)
• navy blue polar fleece jacket embroidered with the school name
• blue school hat
• blue school socks
• black Roman sandals or black shoes
• long hair is to be tied back using a black hair tie.