whānau / Parents
School Hours:
8:55-10:50 Learning block 1
10:50-11:10 Morning tea play
11:10-11:20 Morning tea eat
11:20-12:50 Learning block 2
12:50-1:20 Lunch play
1:20-1:35 Lunch eat
1:35-3:00 Learning block 3
Community Dental team: 0800 84 69 83 or email: commdental@cdhb.health.nz
BUSY BUMBLES
Before and After School Care at Templeton School:
Our fun-filled programme is based on the Templeton School grounds in the Auditorium. All bookings are done via the Enrolmy website.
Click here to book into Templeton Before and After School Care here:
https://enrolmy.com/busy-bumbles#/name/%25Templeton%25
Click here to book into our awesome Holiday Programmes, based at various local venues:
https://enrolmy.com/busy-bumbles#/name/%25Holiday%25
Please refer to our website https://www.busybumbles.co.nz/ or contact us for further information:
Carly Napier
Operations Manager
opsmanager@busybumbles.co.nz
ABSENCES
PLEASE remember to contact the office by 9 am, if your child/ren will be absent from school. You can do this in the following ways:
HERO: Via the app it will send a message to the office (click on the child)
EMAIL: office@templeton.school.nz
PHONE: 03 349 7045 (you can leave a message if out of office hours)
TEXT (ONLY): 027 727 9753 (The school cell phone)
You can also let the office know ahead of time if you’re planning a trip away so we can enter your child’s absence for that time. If we don’t hear back the reason for their absence, they will automatically be marked as TRUANT after 5 days.
School Stationery Requirements
At the end of each year, we publish the stationery list the children will need for the following year. All items can be purchased from myschool.co.nz or from any stationery stockist during the holidays.
Please click the links below to go to the lists.
Later in the year, all stationery items can be purchased from the office. Stationery items can be paid for at the time or put on your school account.
Horoeka 1 (Room 1) - Mrs Pauline Trathen (Year 2/3)
Horoeka 2 (Room 2) - Miss Hayley Banks (Year 1/2)
Horoeka 3 (Room 3) - Mrs Jasmin Martin (Year 1)
Horoeka 4 (Room 4) - Miss Anna Cousins (NE/Year 1)
Mānuka (Room 5) - Mrs Mijin Kim (Year 3)
Mānuka (Room 6) - Miss Georgie Hill (Year 3)
Kōwhai (Room 7) - Mrs Ange Poxon (Year 4)
Kōwhai (Room 8) - Mr Mike Stewart (Year 4/5)
Ti Kōuka (Room 10) - Miss Georgia Haines (Year 5/6)
Ti Kōuka (Room 11) - Mr Liam Dempsey (Year 5/6)
Ti Kōuka (Room 9) - Mrs Ali Stewart (Year 6/7) - please purchase Tōtara Stationery List
Tōtara - (Room 12) - Mrs Anna Wright (Year 7/8)
Tōtara - (Room 13) - Mr Omar Ali (Year 7/8)
The office will be open from Monday 29 January for any queries.
School starts back on Wednesday, 31 January.
Waitangi Day is on Tuesday, 6 February (week 2), so we will be closed on this day.
Additional Chromebook information:
Our school no longer ‘hires out’ devices but instead has Chromebooks available for general use in class. These stay at school and are on a shared basis.
It is not a requirement to purchase a personal device for your child. However, many families choose this option . Chromebooks are great devices as they are a portal to the internet (cloud storage), so they should easily last the four years at TPS. Secondhand Chromebooks are also an affordable option. If your child has a device to use in class, we need to register it on our school's system for security purposes. This device will still be able to be used at home with their Templeton account. Ali Stewart has written a detailed and helpful set of slides to explain what we do at school and some suggestions/information for managing the internet at home (see link below). At school, children use our 'Student Wifi', which has very strict security features. At home, your wifi is managed by you. We have attached these slides for your reference.
At school we use Google Suite for Education - this allows particular features to be heavily locked down where necessary. For instance, when signed in with an @templeton.school.nz account, students are unable to start Google Meet sessions and browse to incognito windows. All students in Years 4-8 have their own @templeton.school.nz email address and password that is changed every 6 months (after 9 pm on the last day of the July holidays by Ali).
Please see the link in the title for further information. We will also send this out on FB and update our website. Please let other parents know.
school uniform
Uniform update - January 2023
Kia ora koutou Templeton families, whānau and friends,
We are looking forward to working alongside Mainland Uniform as we tranistion our school into our refined uniform over the next three years.
Our key considerations were focused on functionality and costs. The uniform will be phased in over a two to three year period. This will allow our whānau to maximise the use of any existing uniforms that they have purchased for their children. We have retained the colour scheme of red (whero) and black (pango). The branded uniform items will be on all of the tops and these can be purchased from Mainland Uniforms.
All uniform bottom items will be plain black (trackpants, shorts, skirts, skorts and leggings). These can be purchased from Mainland Uniforms or other suppliers.
The subtle adjustments in our uniforms are the polo shirts and the introduction of a softshell jacket. Polar fleeces, cotton sweatshirts and hats will also be available.
Our Year 0 to Year 6 children will wear a red polo with fine black piping on the sides and the new school logo. This design is very similar to the existing plain red top.
Our Year 7 to Year 8 rangatahi will be able to purchase a Senior polo. This is red with black panels on the side and will have ‘Senior’ embroidered on the shirt next to our school logo.
Again our community will have two to three years to transition into this new uniform. You can see the new uniform design and our updates in the Term 4 newsletters dating back to Friday 23 September.
Please note that the current brand on the uniform only features our school name 'Templeton School - Te Kura o Rātā'. This is to keep consistent with the past polo embroidery. We are in the process of updating our school's logo as part of our planned school redevelopment. To save on costs for whānau and in keeping our uniform consistent moving forward, the decision was made to only have our school name on the polo shirts and other tops.
I am very much looking forward to seeing the children back onsite next Wednesday when we officially start the 2023 school year.
Noho ora mai nā (Stay well, take care of yourself)
Nick Pratt
Principal - Tumuaki
Templeton Primary School - Te Kura o Rātā
To help enable the children take pride in their school and appearance, we would encourage you to ensure your child has the correct uniform each day.
Girls
Plain black trousers/shorts/skirt/skort/leggings
Templeton School (or plain) Red polo shirt
Templeton School (or plain) Red polar fleece/red sweatshirt
Plain red School hat
Boys
Plain black trousers/shorts
Templeton School (or plain) Red polo shirt
Templeton School (or plain) Red polar fleece/red sweatshirt
Plain red School hat
Shoes
Sneakers/sports shoes
Black School Shoes
Appropriate Sandals (Shoes you can run in)
Jewellery
Wrist Watch
Earrings: Studs or small sleepers
Other jewellery of significance to be discussed with School Staff
Other
Red or black thermal top in the winter
Hair tied up if shoulder length or longer with a red or black (small) hair tie and clips
No makeup/nail polish
REPORTING
We believe that regular two-way communication between home and school is essential. Teachers report on individual student progress to inform parents and promote partnerships in the learning process.
It is our intention to provide clear, meaningful information about your child's learning, progress and achievement. This information sharing can be used to support learning both at home and at school.
All families have the opportunity to meet with their child's teacher twice a year in a formal setting.
We hold learning conversations at the end of term one. The focus for this conversation is based on the student information sheet parents are asked to fill in mid-way through the term. Teachers use the points from these as a conversation starter as well as discussing how the child has settled into learning for the year and the next learning steps.
In term two we update our assessment data in Literacy and Numeracy. This has examples of learning across a variety of curriculum areas (that is added throughout terms 1 and 2) as well as informing parents about the level their child is currently working in reading, writing and maths. The online report has a graph to refer to, this displays the level children are working at in relation to the expected level for their year group. The online report also has a variety of assessment information collected in semester one (terms one and two).
During the same week, this data is updated, we hold Learning Conferences for each child. This is a 3-way conference. In the Middle Learning Team and Intermediate Learning Team, the children present a curriculum area to their parents explaining what they have been working on, what was successful and what they will continue working on. Teachers will discuss the progress that has been made in core curriculum areas, highlights from other areas and what are their next steps in learning. At this meeting, parents are also provided with a paper summary of the online report.
At the end of the year, we once again update our assessment data so parents can see the progress their child has made throughout the year. Further learning examples and assessments are updated throughout semester two (terms three and four) to share with parents. A general comment is also added summarising the year.
Please feel free to speak with your child's teacher throughout the year on the progress that is being made.
The Junior Learning Team and Middle Learning Team also use Seesaw as an informal way of sharing learning that happens on a daily basis. We think about this as looking through the window at everyday learning. This may also help to prompt conversations about the learning that is happening at school.
A Celebration of Learning book is used in the Intermediate Learning Team. This holds paper copies of learning completed throughout the year. These are shared at the mid-year learning conference and sent home at the end of the year.
parent logins
Online Reports
We use HERO as our platform for written communication, reporting and assessment. Please see below as to how to access this. If you have any issues, please contact Penny McCauley penny@templeton.school.nz
HERO LOG IN
Our school uses the Student management system called Hero. HERO Logging on Click for Hero login instructions (please scroll to the bottom of the page. If you need any additional help, feel welcome to email Penny McCauley
Hero enables you to keep up-to-date with all school communication through a modern computer browser or through the app. Note, Internet Explorer is not supported.
Hero Premium updated features are explained in this presentation. Introduction to Hero Premier. These features will be enabled for whānau from the start of the 2023 school year.
TEMPLETON SCHOOL POLICIES AND PROCEDURES
Templeton School has moved to a SchoolDocs based policy and procedure approach. This sees us working as a collective with other schools while also having the ability to tailor these to suit our school.
Please use the link above to access our SchoolDocs website. The details you will need to use to login are:
Login = templeton
Password = wise
CYBER SAFETY INFORMATION
Chromebook Information for Parents - 2024
Please click on the above link to open some slides put together by our Digital Technologies Lead, Ali Stewart. Please contact ali@templeton.school.nz if you have any questions.
If parents would like any help with keeping your child safe online or any Cybersafety tips, you can visit websites like: Netsafe / iKeepSafe or cyber[smart:] for ideas.
Resource Material: CyberSafety by John Parsons
Key Topics Covered
Challenges children face when using ICT
Tools to support children in how to use ICT safely and ethically at home and at school
Support for practical situations that may be faced
How to safeguard children
BRAIN DEVELOPMENT
LITERACY INFORMATION
At Templeton Primary School there are high expectations for pupils to become effective communicators in a variety of ways; through visual, oral, reading, writing, listening and speaking literacies.
Classroom literacy programmes are in line with the NZ Literacy Progressions and are integrated across all learning areas. The NZ online curriculum offers an informative WEBPAGE for parents to refer to - please note that this page refers to the National Standards that no longer apply in schools, however it does give an insight into the aspects covered at different Year levels.
Reading and Writing at TPS
In the Junior team the focus for literacy is to build up letter sound knowledge (phonics), spell high frequency words and apply this to our writing. We encourage oral language to begin our writing so children realise the sequence of words and how letters sound. We apply these phonic skills to reading, focussing on decoding new words by sounding out letter sounds.
To meet the Templeton Primary School expectations your child will be learning to:
show they can plan what they want to write about through talking, drawing or perhaps in words
link their writing to their everyday experiences
use many words they know from their reading
In the Middle team, students are exposed to all genres of writing where they learn to write to persuade, inform or entertain. They are becoming more aware of writing for an audience and having a purpose to their writing. In reading, students are reading a broader range of texts and shifting their focus from 'learning to read' to 'reading to learn'.
To meet the Templeton Primary School expectations your child will be learning to:
write with purpose, to persuade, inform or entertain
plan their ideas in detail
re-craft their writing to suit the intended audience
In the Senior team, students are more independent in applying their skills to write specific tasks. They consistently consider audience and purpose when writing and striving to learn through their reading. Children at this level are reading and writing across the curriculum, unlocking new information and creating new understandings.
Writing at Home
Make writing fun
let your child see you writing
encourage them to write - shopping lists, birthday cards, postcards, email friends
Give your children reasons to write
Write to each other. Write notes to your child and leave them in interesting places, like their lunchbox. Ask them to write a reply.
help them email, text or write to family or friends
work with them to put labels on special things - like the door to their room
Engaging Children with Writing: Murray Gadd
Murray is an expert in the field of Literacy, contributing to at least five key resources in NZ education including the NZ curriculum and the National Standards. He is nationally and internationally recognised in this field.
He ran a parent session based on engaging children with writing. The session outlined what happens at school and how writing can be supported at home.
MATHEMATICS INFORMATION
Numeracy learning in schools is now based on the Numeracy Framework. Below is information from the New Zealand Maths WEBSITE that explains this framework. As parents it is important that you understand the framework. It is no doubt quite different to how maths was learnt when parents went through school. You can also use the activities that support your child's learning from the New Zealand Maths WEBSITE.
What is the Number Framework?
The Number Framework is intended to help teachers, parents and students understand the stages of learning of number knowledge and understanding.
There are two sections to the Number Framework. The Strategy section describes the processes students use to solve problems involving numbers - how they work things out. The Knowledge section describes the key items about number that children know and can recall quickly.
The two sections are linked, with children requiring knowledge to improve their strategies, and using strategies to develop new knowledge.
Templeton School has developed a maths progression outline across the school. The maths progressions represent the key strategies at a given year level. It is often important to further develop children's understanding by exposing them to other strategies at their year level before moving on to the next level of progressions.
Click on the folder beside to see the outlines of the Templeton School maths progressions.
Maths Information Evening Resources
Basic Facts Deliberate Practice
Tonight we discussed the need for deliberate practice of the Basic Facts. This is a three week (or so) block of intensive maths focussing on the basic facts. The idea is to supercharge the recall of basic facts (- and it could only take 7 minutes a day -) so your child will be able to explore other maths strategies or use their knowledge in lots of different situations.
Deliberate practice has three phases.
Pre Action: Start with asking:
What is your goal for the day? (think about small bites - "I will focus on the 7 and 9 times tables" rather than "I am going to know all of my times tables" How will you know you have achieved it? Are there any obstacles you need to overcome?
Action
Engage in the deliberate practice (these could be anywhere between 7 - 15 minutes). The resources shared by the teachers are listed below - if you are unable to print these yourself please contact admin@templeton.school.nz with your child's name, class and the resource you would like printed.
Post Action: Finish off with:
What have you got better at?
How do you know?
What will you do to make progress tomorrow?
Have a think about the environment that has been set up for the deliberate practice. Provide a;
Focussed area (maybe big enough for two)
Free from distractions
Have a conversation about how to refocus (this could be as simple as a couple of deep breaths)
Please remember deliberate practice is tiring and should be done in bursts rather than a whole term of the same thing - like everything variety is the spice of life.