As an area school, Hurunui College offers many advantages. We are proud of its family atmosphere where students from Year 0 to Year 13 interact and care for each other.
Our vision is an aspirational learning community where all are empowered to reach their full potential. Students enter Hurunui College to learn and to develop their unique talents and abilities, so that they may leave school prepared to serve and enrich both themselves and their community.
Our College is strengthened by our core traditional values: Respect, Integrity, Service and Excellence. These qualities support high academic achievement and promote personal skills required by our local, national and international communities giving our students the foundation for future success in this rapidly changing world.
Please ensure you stay connected with the multiple forms of school communication.
School website - access to the longterm school calendar and general information about the school.
Skool Loop App - pushes out school notices and newsletter, school calendar and can be used for notifying absences - critical mode of communication - download Skool Loop from the app store/google play and select Hurunui College
Edge Student Management System - the parent portal provides access to school accounts, student information, contact information and reporting. Contact the school office if you are unable to access this facility and we can talk you through the process. This is also available via the Edge Mobile App.
Facebook - used only for celebration and pushing out general information and last-minute reminders
Ngā mihi nui,
Principal - Tumuaki Hurunui College
Newsletter - Panui Term 2 2024
Kia ora koutou parents and whānau
Welcome back to the new term. I hope you all managed to schedule some time out to spend with your children over the two week holiday period. The weather was perfect if you wanted to take a break and have a holiday, but I am very aware of the current drought situation, and the effect it is having on our families and farming community. If only those black clouds that every now and again appear over the hill could turn into a decent downpour!
At our school assembly last Monday morning we welcomed to our school community our new ākonga, their families and whānau starting this term, and our new staff member, Miss Ilana Moir who has taken on the role of TIC Sport and Outdoor Education and Physical Education teacher.
We also congratulate the appointment of Mr William Harnett to the Leadership team, due to Mr Phil Biddlecombe stepping down from this role.
Positive School Culture One of our key focuses this year is to build and maintain a positive school culture, through upholding and role modelling our school values of respect, integrity, service and excellence. At our assembly on Monday, I spoke to all of our ākonga about this and how our values guide our beliefs, the way we do things, our rules and expectations.
In addition, I spoke to all ākonga about the importance of putting in every effort and taking up every opportunity offered at school. I talked about goal setting and how setting goals gives something to work towards, keeps you focussed and motivated, and helps to stay on track and achieve ambitions.
Parents, caregivers and whānau play a big part in positively influencing their child/ren to do the right thing, follow our school rules and expectations, and engage in learning activities at school. As parents and caregivers, you can support your child/ren by having those conversations about what respect, integrity, service and excellence might look like at Hurunui College. This could include showing respect by looking after the chrome books that Hurunui College allocates to each Year 4-13 student, as well as using them only for learning. Conversations about showing integrity by consistently wearing the correct school uniform would be helpful. Parents could encourage their child/ren to show service by participating in every opportunity that is offered and excellence by setting goals, aiming high and putting every effort into their learning.
We have had a positive start to the term, and it has been reassuring to see how well the majority of our students have settled back into school and engaged in their learning. Thank you to all parents and whānau for your continued support in getting your children to school on time, in the correct uniform and equipped ready for classes. Please click here to see our uniform guidelines.
Attendance Regular attendance is another of our focuses for this year. Schools and kura, along with parents and whānau are legally responsible for making sure ākonga attend school every day. If a student misses one day of school every two weeks, they miss a whole year of school by 16 years of age. Our school is committed to supporting your child to attend school and building a culture that fosters excellent attendance. Our staff care about your child's learning, and we do everything we can to make sure your child is at school, participating and progressing in their education. As parents/caregivers, setting clear expectations with your child about why attending school every day is important, and being positive about school and setting good habits would all be helpful in supporting your child to attend school regularly. If you're struggling at home with getting your child to school, please talk to us! Parents/caregivers must let the school know if your child is going to be absent for a day or intends to be absent for a portion of the school term for whatever reason, like a tangi or medical procedure. Family holidays or taking time off for extracurricular activities (not organised by school) are not acceptable reasons for being absent.
School Building Upgrade The renovations to Rooms 11-17 in the secondary area of the school are continuing into term 2, which means we have to timetable classes into all other available spaces in the school, as we did last term. We are awaiting the arrival of the new windows and doors, which has somewhat stalled the project. However, we are hoping that the renovations will be completed by the end of Term 2. Thank you to the Hurunui College Board for their continued support of this project.
Cell Phone Policy - ‘Phone Away for the Day’ From the beginning of Term 2, all schools are to have student phone rules in place. This is our third year of ‘no cell phone at school’ ruling and we have already experienced the benefits of this. These have included less distraction and conflict at school due to social media interactions and students seen interacting and playing games during break times rather than being on their phones. Some key expectations we want to make clear for students and parents to be aware of at Hurunui College are:
Students in Year 1-8 - no cell phone at school. If for any reason a student requires their phone, parents/caregivers must contact the class teacher and the cell phone is left in the school office for the day.
Students in Year 9-13 - if a cell phone is brought to school it stays ‘away for the day’, switched off in the student’s bag
Consequences for all students:
If the student is seen to have their cell phone out during class or break times it will be kept in the school office to be picked up at the end of the day by the student
The second and subsequent breaches will result in the cell phone being confiscated, kept in the school office where it will stay until a parent/caregiver picks it up
Please click here to see the Hurunui College Cell Phone Policy. We thank all parents/caregivers for their support with following and enforcing these guidelines
Evidence Based Instruction in Early Literacy Last week the Education Minister, Erica Stanford, announced new education priorities. One of these was a better approach to literacy and numeracy by implementing evidence based instruction in early literacy and mathematics. Hurunui College has already started on this journey for the teaching of literacy, and we are now in the third year of using the structured approach to the teaching of reading and writing for all ākonga in Years 1-4. Years 5-10 ākonga are also taught using some elements of this structured approach. This teaching approach follows the science of learning - the understanding of how we learn and what it means for how we teach. It involves a highly explicit, systematic, well-sequenced, teaching of all important components of literacy. Hurunui College has invested a lot of time and money into providing professional development for our teachers to upskill with this new teaching approach in literacy, and it is great to hear that funding will now be available to further support our teachers with this. It is pleasing to hear that as a country we are making this pedagogical shift and moving to a structured literacy and mathematics approach that is grounded in the science of learning. Nāku noa, nā
Jane Marsh Acting Principal - Tumuaki Hurunui College