School Lunches

At Rakaia School, we actively encourage eating frequently and making the right healthy choices. We supply 3 dedicated meal times to eat from Brain Break, Morning Break to Lunchtime, however with these growing minds and bodies in our Kura there may also be times when your child just needs a top-up in between which our teachers will monitor.

We are a positive promoter of healthy lunches and discourage sweets, chocolates, lollies and food that is high in sugar content. However, we are also parents and know how busy it can be at home so click here for some easy inspirational ideas to help with these Lunch Box Ideas.

Drinks – with our bodies being made up of 60% water it is important to keep hydrated and we have found that water is the best for our tamariki. Please supply a named drink bottle that your child can bring into class and keep themselves hydrated throughout lessons as well all outdoor recreational activities that happen throughout the day. Don’t worry if your child forgot their bottle, we have water fountains located throughout the school that will give your child access to the best drinking water in New Zealand.

Heat up food for Term 2 and 3

With the winter months upon us, we supply the option of reheating food. There will be a dedicated day for your syndicate, food must be pre-cooked, defrosted, wrapped and labelled. No pot noodles or liquid food like soups.

Sausage sizzles

Our amazing School support organises sausage sizzles on Fridays. These need to be pre-paid prior to Friday. So keep an eye out for further information and don’t miss out.

School Uniform

Rakaia School uniform is compulsory as it is an important tool that creates a sense of belonging and identity for our Kura. Our children show great mana to be recognised as being a part of Rakaia School.

We really encourage independence and see it as a child’s responsibility to make sure they have the correct uniform. If there are instances where your child is wearing other options, just let your teacher or the office know.

Footwear – we don’t have a compulsory choice on shoes and will leave that with the parents and child to choose from. There are many options out there so make sure you look around and keep in mind these pointers:

• A suitable multi-purpose shoe that’s good for running, jumping
• A colour that is easy to keep clean
• Open shoes need to be sandals, not jandals

Uniform

Girls:

• Royal blue polo short sleeve shirt.
• Navy blue crew neck tunic sweatshirt/ navy blue polar fleece/navy blue polar fleece vest.
• Summer uniform: royal blue gingham skorts/royal blue gingham culottes.
• Winter uniform: blue tartan skirt or pinafore.

Boys:

• Royal blue polo short sleeve shirt.
• Navy blue crew neck tunic sweatshirt/ navy blue polar fleece/navy blue polar fleece vest.
• Navy blue cargo shorts/navy blue track pants.

Hats

A bucket sun hat must be worn during Terms 1 and 4. We have a strict policy that if a hat is not available the child must play in one of our many shaded areas.

We’ve made it really easy and have teamed up with Ashburton Work Outfitters (which used to be Elite Embroidery), The Warehouse and Tots to Teens who will supply the Rakaia School uniform apart from the girls’ skorts. So pop into one of them and they will help you out.

How does help children succeed at school?

Reading

• Share the reading, take turns or see whether your child wants to read or be read to today.
• All children like to be read to, so keep reading to them. …
• Visit the library together and help them choose books to share.
• Read emails from family or whānau aloud.
• Play card and board games together.
• Ask your child what they are reading and talk about their ideas:
  – What is the ‘picture’ they have of particular characters?
  – Are there people like that in your family or whānau?
  – What do they want to find out from the book
  – What are the important messages
  – What do they think is going to happen next
  – What else do they need to know to understand the story or topic?
• Talk about books on similar topics. This helps your child to pull together ideas from different places.
• Talk about different types of stories that are read or spoken. Newspaper articles, internet sites, whakataukī (proverbs), comics, bible stories, songs, waiata or novels will each have different points you can talk about together.
• Find a newspaper article you’re both interested in and talk about what it means to each of you.
• Help your child to share their thinking. Get them to share opinions and talk about why they think that. Listen, even when you don’t agree with their ideas.

Writing

Encourage your child to write for fun. Writing does not have to be about pen and paper.

• Send an email to someone. Have the children write it out, and discuss it with them. Does it have capital letters and full stops? Is the detail in order? Can they make it more interesting to read (add adjectives)? Does it need any other punctuation? Where should the paragraphs go? Is the spelling correct?
• Give the children a writing prompt….It was a dark stormy night when suddenly or try this, https://www.pobble365.com/
• Write a sentence each, and share the writing.
• Always ask your child questions when they write. Ask specific questions about your child’s writing such as: “How did that happen?” “How did that make you feel?” “Can you tell me more about that…?” “What are some other words you could use to describe…?”
• Have your child write his own thank-you notes, party invitations and letters to family.
• Let your child make the grocery list.
• Finding a penpal for your child would make writing “real.” Helping children make the connection between writing and the “real” world will increase interest in writing
• Teach your child new words each week and encourage her to use them. Make it into a game and give points for using the new words. Your child can keep a vocabulary notebook and get rewarded for the number of new words learned. The words will begin to appear like magic in her oral language and writing.

Maths

Card Games Websites – check out these websites for fun and learning card games.

• 123 Home School
• Math Card Games
• Math Engaged: Card Games
• 10 Family Card Games That Support Early Math Skills

Some other fun maths ideas can be:

• Maths golf (the children will know how to play this)
• The Year 5/6 children have also got access to their maths menu – please check out the resources on there.
• Baking with your children – dealing with measurement
• Making items in the garage
• Shopping – money and estimation
• Car trips – mapping, co-ordinates, distances & budgets

Dice Games Websites – check out these websites for fun and learning dice games.

• Math Games Using Dice
• 20 Fun Dice Games Teachers and Students Will Love
• KS2 Teacher Playing with Dice Collection
• Math Games with a Pair of Dice

Spelling

• Discuss with your children what spelling rules they are learning at the moment. Can they repeat this in their own words? For example, “I’ve been learning about closed syllable CCVC patterns. A closed syllable is when a consonant/s follow the vowel so the vowel sound is short.”
• Help them learn their spelling words and the spelling rule. For example, can they spell the words orally? Can they write them down accurately? Try sounding them out e.g. s/l/a/p and the children have to tell you what the word is that you sounded out (slap). Spell the word backwards saying the letters, can they say what the word is? It is important to check and correct errors as they happen.
• Discuss any rhyming words from your spelling list.
  Check the word’s meaning – do they know what the spelling words mean? Can they write their words in a sentence? They could try writing a paragraph trying to use all of their spelling words. The story should still make sense.
• What words can they find or know that mean the same as their spelling words e.g. slap means hit, strike, clout, thump etc. What words mean the opposite? e.g. the opposite of grin is frown or scowl.
• You could look at the history of the word – is it anglo Saxon, greek or Latin? This often explains what seems like odd spelling of sounds in words or irregular parts of words.
• Explore the prefixes and suffixes of words. For example unhelpful – un means not, full means full of or characterised by, so unhelpful means not full of help or not helpful. Knowing what these word parts mean helps children understand word meanings.

Term Dates 2021

Term 1

• Feb 1 Begin
• Mar 9 Early Closure 1 pm Kahui PD
• Apr 2 – Apr 6 Easter
• Apr 16 – Term ends

Term 2

• May 3 Begin
• Jun 7 Queens Birthday
• Jun 15 Early Closure 1 pm Kahui PD
• Jul 9 Term Ends

Term3

• Jul 26 Begin
• Sept 7 Early Closure 1 pm Kahui PD
• Oct 1 Term Ends

Term 4

• Oct 18 Begin
• Oct 25 Labour day
• Nov 11 Teacher Only Day
• Nov 12 Canterbury Show Day
• Dec 15 Term Ends 12 pm

Absentee Form

Please use the form below to advise us if your child is absent for any reason.

Please click here to fill out the Absentee Form.

Structured Literacy

At Rakaia School, we believe that ALL children are capable of learning to read, write and spell. Teaching the Science of Reading through a Structured Literacy approach, all of our children from New Entrant to Year 8 receive explicit, systematic instruction in reading, writing and spelling.

Children who require more support in literacy are identified early and interventions put in place to target their needs. All of our teachers and teacher aides are trained in the Science of Reading and Structured Literacy so consistency across our school and intervention programs reflect what is happening in our classrooms.

Our teachers are passionate about teaching literacy and ensuring that every child builds confidence and success from the beginning of their school journey.

To read more about the Science of Reading and Structured Literacy visit Literacy Expert Liz Kane.