The school day starts at 9am. The children know that the 8.55am bell is telling them they need to get themselves organised and onto the mat. It is a good idea for children to be at school early so that they can greet and meet their friends, have time to play and say their goodbyes.

At the end of the day the students will pack their bags before they go home. The skills required to ‘manage self’ may take some time. Starting this process is closely linked to helping students to develop greater independence within the classroom and to take responsibility for themselves and their actions.

A friendly reminder that Term 4 is sunhat term.  Every student must bring a hat to school daily.  We do have sun cream available in the classrooms although applying at home before school would be very much appreciated by the teachers.  The teachers model and wear sun safe hats and we would encourage parents to also role model wearing sun hats for the children as well. There are Ngaio School Hats available from the Office for $20 and are available in a variety of colours.  

Below you will find important information about Kōwhai syndicate.

Kōwhai Teachers

Alison Craven

Rūma tahi (Room 1)

Wendy Holbrooke

Rūma rua (Room 2)

Caitlin Clute

Rūma toru (Room 3)

Karen Doogan

Kōwhai Team Leader (On leave 2021)

Dana Gilbert

Rūma tekau mā toru (Room 13)

Teachers are in their classrooms from 8.30am in the mornings so the best time to discuss any issues or concerns with them is between 8.30-8.45am. Teachers are more than happy to meet with you at other times.

Part time teacher Kathy Yamada works in Rūma tekau mā toru every Friday.

Karen Doogan, Team Leader is currently on leave. Bronwyn O’Halloran is overseeing Kōwhai Syndicate in her absence. 

Teacher Release

All New Zealand teachers are entitled, as part of their Collective Agreement, 10 hours per term of Classroom Release Time (CRT). At Ngaio School this is mostly allocated over the term in blocks of 1 1/2 hours and part time teachers are timetabled to work in the classrooms during this time.

Teachers are released for various other work related reasons, for example attending professional development courses or for carrying out assessment tasks with students.

Where possible we utilise our pool of part time teachers who are known to the children and familiar with Ngaio School’s routines and expectations. At times however, we employ relief teachers who may not be known to the children. This is most often for sick cover when our part time teachers are already booked, or if several teachers are being released at once.

Our team leaders also have regular release to carry out their syndicate leader responsibilities and some teachers with allocated responsibilities also have a small amount of release time to carry out their roles.

You can check out our part time teachers in the Our Team section.

Important Syndicate Dates

Week 2

Monday 25th October : Labour Day School is closed 

Thursday 28th October

  1. Shake Out New Zealand Drill : the whole school will be participating in ‘Shake Out NZ Day.’  This is to remind us of the right action to take during an earthquake – Drop, Cover and Hold – and to discuss a tsunami hikoi (evacuation) in a coastal area.

School Disco (Only in Alert Level 1 : be confirmed asap)  Year 1and 2 students 3:20-4:00pm to be held in the Year 3 double classroom near the School Office.

Week 3

Tuesday 2nd November : School Athletics Day at Nairnville Park (only in Level 1)

Thursday 4th November : Postponement Day for School Athletics at Nairnville Park ( only in Level 1)

Week 4

Friday 12th November : 9-10am School Whakatau to welcome new students and families to our school.  To be held under Te Kapua (white shade sail beside Senior School Playground)  (only in Level 1)

All families and Whānau are warmly invited to this celebration and welcome for all of our new students and staff. 

Week 5

Friday 19th November : TEACHER ONLY DAY – SCHOOL IS CLOSED FOR STUDENTS.

Week 6

Life Education Trust  (Harold the Giraffe) will be on site for classes to visit over the next 10 days. 

Thursday 25th November : Room 1 and Room 3
Friday 26th November : Room 2 and Room 13

Friday 26th November : New Families Breakfast (only in Level 1)

Are you and your child new to Ngaio School? Come along and meet other families new to Ngaio School. New Families are invited to join the PTA and staff members for breakfast, tea, coffee and chat from 8am. 

This event will be held in Room 20 (the classroom directly below the staff room/ beside the Te Kapua White shade cloth).

Sunday 28th November : Senior School students will be performing in the Community Kapa Haka Festival: more information can be found on the school website.

Week 7

Our Christmas Charity Collection begins Monday 29th November for the whole week : Ngaio School will be collecting food for the “Wellington City Mission”  : Students can bring their non-perishable food donations to their classroom each morning any day throughout this week.

Life Education Van (Harold the Giraffe) will be on site for classes to visit.

Monday 29th November : Room 1 and Room 3
Wednesday 1st December : Room 2 and Room 13

Week 8

Throughout this week please can all library books, school guided reading books and or resources be returned to school.

Junior School Final Assembly for 2021  –  day, time and place to be confirmed as this event can only be held under Alert Level 1.

Week 9

Tuesday 14th December : School Reports and Class placements for 2022 will be sent home.

Thursday 16th December : 

  1. Whole School Powhiri and farewell to Year 6 students and families to be held on the lower playground at 11am (only in Level 1)
  2. Last day of the school year – school ends at 12:30pm We wish everyone a happy and safe holiday break.  Thank you to all for your support and kindness throughout the whole year.

Syndicate Programme - Termly Overview

I am a Scientist

The whole school will be working on this unit this term through the focus area ‘The nature of science strand’.  

This term we will be looking at the ‘Nature of Science’ through a variety of hands-on investigations.  Our students will be ‘Investigating Science and developing their Science Capabilities’. We will …

  • Use our senses to help us investigate, notice, discuss and explain what we see, hear, smell, feel and sometimes taste.
  • Building on prior experiences, work together to share ideas and knowledge.
  • Ask questions, find evidence, explore simple experiments and carry out appropriate investigations to develop our science capabilities. 
  • Increase students’ interest and supports students to explore the human side of science.

Reading

Reading: Guided or independent books will go home every night from Monday – Thursday.  You may find that your child is given the same book more than once or they may only read a specific part of their book in relation to their current learning goal.

The reading books your child brings home should be relatively easy for your child to read as they have been previously read in a guided lesson with the teacher or have been selected from an “independent box” of familiar readers.  

The Kōwhai Syndicate classes use a yellow reading log book to encourage home reading communication.  Please ensure you sign the reading log and return both the reading book and reading log to school the following day.

The final day for class ‘Guided Reading Lessons’ will be :Wednesday 8th December.  Please over this last week of school please can everyone have a good hunt around the house for all ‘Ngaio School Reading Books and Resources’ and return back to school – no questions asked.

Writing

This term the 3 main focus areas in writing will be integrated into our Science Unit : we will continue to develop the skills to structure a Recount of an event, Describe in detail using adjectives and topic specific vocabulary and finally a focus on how to structure and set out, write and sequence a series of Instructions.

 

Mathematics

Our ‘Number’ knowledge coverage will include: reading and recording numbers (2 and 3 digit numbers), identifying numbers ‘before’ and ‘after’ in this range, skip counting in 2’s and number sequencing. We will also develop the knowledge, strategies and skills of addition and subtraction and solving basic facts equations.  

Also integrated throughout the term the students will also explore 2 mathematical strand areas : Geometry (positional language and movement e.g. moving forwards, backwards, sideways, ½ and ¼ turns, left, right, up, down  and diagonal) and Statistics (look at the concepts of probability : how likely, unlikely or certain we are that something might happen). 

The Arts

This term we will be exploring a range of multimedia challenges.  We will use our senses to help us create and explain what we see and feel as we create artwork.  The students will explore a range of materials and use a variety of art tools.  By being motivated to explore art techniques the students through using close observations to create using their imagination

Health 

This term we are very lucky to have The Life Education Trust Van coming to Ngaio School to visit the students.  The Life Education facilitator will support the teachers and students to explore the human body and create opportunities for the students to ask questions.

Te Reo

During Term 4 our key focus area will be exploring and learning about our body and together we will explore how to pronounce, identify and label our body parts in both English and in Te Reo Māori.

Physical Education:

Term 4 will see us revisit our skills using the Sportstart Physical Education Programme. Our specific focus area will be “Athletics” which will help the students to learn how to explore the skills and techniques for the 3 core components of ‘Run, Jump and Throw’. At all times in Physical Education, we teach the importance of participation and positive play by taking turns, showing patience, encouraging others and having ‘a go’.

Digital Technology: 

In the first 2 years of school, as part of the Digital technology Curriculum most of the learning is taught through mainly offline activities.  The students work to explore and understand the vocabulary of the curriculum e.g. planning, instructions, sequencing, identifying errors (bugs) and repeating a sequence (looping).  We work hard to integrate this vocabulary into a wide range of activities throughout all areas of our learning.

Key Competencies Focus Term 3

Key Competency – Managing Self:

This involves managing our own belongings, behaviour and responses.
We ask that students take responsibility for unpacking their school bags in the morning, bringing reading folders into the classroom and putting their own books and other items into the correct baskets.

The children know that the 8.55 am bell is telling them that they need to get themselves organised and onto the mat. It is a good idea for children to be at school early so that they can greet and meet their friends, have time to play and say their goodbyes.

At the end of the day the students will pack their bags before they go home. The skills required to ‘manage self’ may take some time, but starting this process is closely linked to getting students to develop greater independence within the classroom and take responsibility for themselves and their actions.

Teachers are in their classrooms from 8.30 am in the mornings so the best time to discuss any issues or concerns with them is between 8.30-8.45 am. Teachers are more than happy to meet with you at other times.

Library Visits

Each week we visit the library and children are able to choose 1-2 library books to take home and enjoy. The books are then returned the following week, in time for new books to be issued. Please help your child to remember their library books each week, so they can return them and get new books issued. The library is also open during lunchtimes for children to independently issue and return books.

Class library times

All Year 1 classes are booked to visit the library on Tuesdays except Ruma 13 who visit on Wednesday.

Please help your child remember their coloured book bag for ensuring books stay safe and dry.

Home Learning

Guided or independent books will go home most nights from Monday to Thursday. The reading books that your child brings home should be relatively easy for them to read, while they build fluency and confidence. From time to time, your child may have selected a book from an “independent box” of familiar readers.


The Kōwhai Syndicate all use a yellow reading log book to encourage home reading communication.  Please ensure you sign the reading log and return both the reading book and reading log to school each day.


On Fridays, children will bring home their poetry books, which need to be returned to school every Monday.

Classroom Parent Help

Shelving books: We would be most appreciative for any parental help to ‘re-shelve’ the classroom reading books. If you have any free time (any time that suits you works for us) and would like to help with this, then please contact your child’s teacher.

Collecting Children

At the end of the day children will be dismissed from class. At Alert Level 1, Please wait for your child outside to help minimise congestion in the corridors. It is a good idea to arrange a meeting place to make it easier for your child to find you when it is busy outside.

At Alert Level 2 we will continue to escort students to the gates for pick-up.

Spare Clothes

Every now and then, children have accidents at school and a spare set of clothes is needed.  It would be helpful if children could keep a spare set of clothes in a plastic bag in their school bag.