School Newsletter
3 April 2025

Kia ora e te whānau | Greetings all

Eid Mubarak to all our staff and learners who celebrate!

Home Learning at Stonefields School 

In our yearly whānau survey, we asked "I have a good understanding of what my child/ren is learning".  We were not satisfied with the 2.97/4 average response we received and are actively working to improve this. As part of our strategy to better partner with you, we have been reviewing our Home Learning guidelines to provide more clarity for everyone. We are also utilising feedback from the 2024 parent focus groups, who had invaluable insights and ideas to support parents. 

Stonefields School's approach to home learning is informed by research. A lot of research suggests that homework can indeed have a negative impact on student learning. However there are specific home learning tasks that can support and accelerate learning, these are:

• Reading Mileage - spending time reading each night. Recommendation: up to 20 mins every weeknight. 

• Building automatic recall - practising age-appropriate foundation knowledge like basic facts, sight and spelling words so that automatic recall is developed.

• Reinforcing current learning - specific tasks are set that build on and reinforce learning that has already been taught, needs to be finished, or reinforced further at home.

• Targeted practice - Specific learning tasks or practice is set for some learners to close an achievement gap. 

• Pre-Learning - tasks that are aimed at helping learners to develop levels of curiosity and interest before they learn a new concept or topic e.g developing a family tree, introduction to some key vocabulary related to the new concept or topic.

Home learning should be a positive experience. Non-specific home learning unrelated to a child's next steps can end up being busywork rather than constructive learning. Too much homework can lead to stress, unnecessary pressure, and a lack of balance in children's lives. 

See our website for recommended home learning specific to each village of the school. 

Ngā mihi nui,

Sarah and the team

Whole School Athletics - Tuesday 8 April

We are looking forward to our Whole School Athletics Day on Tuesday 8 April. This will take place in learning villages as per below. Please see the Info for whānau link for details on each event including what events will take place, the timetable and what to wear.  

• Year 0-2 - 9:15am-11:00am at Stonefields School - Info for whānau

• Year 3-4 - 11.20am-1pm at Stonefields School - Info for whānau

• Year 5-8 - 10:20am-2:40pm at Colin Maiden, leave school at 10am - Info for whānau

We'd love to see you there encouraging on the sidelines!

Intermediate Downhill Derby

On your marks....get set....go! Well not quite yet, we are waiting until next Monday when we will be holding our Stonefields Intermediate Downhill Derby!

While not quite as palatial as the Grand Prix tracks of Monaco, our learners will be applying their understanding by racing their custom-creation cars down our purpose-built racetrack! 

With accompanying team chants and top-notch decal designs, we can't wait to see our learners celebrate the term's worth of mahi around teamwork and team function.

Here are some pictures of the creation process:

Year 5-6 Perspective Taking in Literacy 

Our Year 5-6 learners have enjoyed perspective-taking in literacy from the wolf's point of view from The Three Little Pigs. Our ākonga have built knowledge and made meaning of perspectives explicitly and implicitly applied in the text. They then applied these points of views in a group debate of the wolf lawyers vs the little pigs lawyers.

We will be finishing the term off with Narratives in literacy. Furthermore learners will continue to get into the learning pit in maths through Maths no problems workshops and mahi. 

Junky Monkeys

We had the privilage of having Junky Monkeys visit again this week for our junior learners. It was incredible to see the creations they come up with and the writing pieces they produced off the back of this. 

Hats

Thank you for your support with instilling the importance of sun safety with our kids! It's fantastic to see the respectful way all learners are now wearing their hats when outside. Ka pai! 

Values survey

One of our strategic goals for this year is to actively embed the mantras (behaviours/habits) that exemplify the School values lived. We'd love to hear your thoughts on how we're tracking so far. We have created a short survey to capture your feedback, if you have one minute to spare, please let us know your thoughts. 

Bell times

We have been noticing that there is some disconnect for many children between the 5-minute warning music and the start of learning time bell, with many not moving to the hubs until the bell and therefore missing out on valuable learning time. If a child is late to the hub by just 5 minutes at morning tea and lunchtime, by the end of the week, they will have missed 50 minutes of learning time! 

To help with this we will be decreasing the time between the warning music and the bell to 2.5 minutes. This is enough time for children to pack up any play equipment, use the bathroom, and be at their hub ready for learning when the bell goes. This change will take place next week and all children will be reminded of the appropriate response to the warning music using our mantra 'Right place, right time. Ready for learning' 

Your help in supporting your child with this transition is greatly appreciated. 

Term 2 Staff

Hub 7

You will be sad to learn that Sophie Atkinson has resigned from her teaching position. Her last day with us will be Friday 9 May (end of week 2 next term). Sophie has been a valuable member of our team for seven years. Over this time, she has contributed significantly as a Learning Assistant, and we are proud that whilst at Stonefields, she studied and received her teaching qualification. She will be missed by those she teaches, her colleagues, and the wider community. We wish her all the best in her new school. 

We are pleased to share that Amelia Mulligan has been appointed to commence at the beginning of Term 2, allowing a two-week handover and transition with Sophie. We’re excited by the strengths she’ll bring to the Hub. 

Hub 9

Rochelle Rodrigo will be spending all of her three days in Hub 7 from Term 2 onwards. She currently splits her time between Hub 9 and Hub 7. We are delighted that Lisa Gower whom many of you will have met last year, will take over Rochelle’s two days in Hub 9. Lisa taught in our Year 3-4 team last year and will be a wonderful addition to the team. 

Hub 1

As our new entrants increase throughout the year, we're excited to welcome Samantha Meehan-Harris to Hub 1. Samantha will bring a wealth of experience from the early childhood sector helping to transition our youngest learners to school.

Gardener

We're also delighted to welcome Jasmin Harris to our property team. Jasmin will be with us a few hours a week to help replenish our garden beds and create new ones. We can't wait to see the wonderful gardens she'll create with her wealth of horticultural knowledge.  

Lockdown exercise

As part of keeping our school safe, we need to be able to respond safely and quickly to a range of emergency situations. We work alongside an independent company, Harrison Tew, who specialises in emergency management planning for schools, whose procedures have been successfully implemented in hundreds of schools throughout New Zealand.

As part of maintaining our emergency procedures, specialised training is being conducted with our staff and learners. As a part of this, we will be conducting a lockdown exercise on Thursday 10 April, under the guidance and support of Harrison Tew. More details will be emailed next week regarding this. 

Board Elections - September 2025

In September this year, the School community will be invited to elect five parent representatives to become School Board members. Members stay on the Board for a term of three years. Have you thought about standing as a nominee? 

The role of the School Board is to:

• ensure every child can reach their highest possible standard in student achievement,

• be the employer of all staff in the school,

• set the school's strategic direction in consultation with parents, whānau, staff, students and the wider school community, and

• be responsible for overseeing the management of personnel, curriculum, property, finance, and administration.

Here's some further information.  

We welcome anyone interested to come along to the next Board meeting on Tuesday 13 May to find out what it's about. Please contact the Board Secretary for more details. 

Weetbix TRYathlon 

A huge congratulations to everyone who took part in the Weetbix TRYathlon last Sunday! With great weather, you all gave it your best and absolutely smashed it. We are so proud of your efforts!

AIMS Games Football

Thank you to all the students who attended the AIMS Football trials this week. Your dedication and enthusiasm were evident, and we’re excited to provide an update on the teams early next week.

Please note, the first Parent Connect session has been rescheduled and will no longer take place on Tuesday, 9th April. We will share the new date and time as soon as possible.

A Big Thank You to Our Parent Volunteers!

We are grateful for the time and support provided by our dedicated parents and staff who volunteered during these events. Your involvement has been instrumental in helping our young athletes achieve their goals, and we appreciate the positive impact you've made. Thank you!

Term 2 Inter-School events 

Some awesome sporting events are coming up in Term 2. Look out for sign-ups opening next week

• Tamaki Football (Y3-8) sign up now

• EZ Boys Y7 Football sign up now  

• EZ Boys Y8 Football sign up now

• EZ Girls Football (Y7-8) Unfortunately we are unable to participate in this event as our Intermediates will be away at camp

• EZ Hockey

• Tamaki Ki-o-rahi (Y5-8)

Term 2 | On-site Afterschool Sport Programs 

• Tuesday's: GIRLS only Football Development program by Eastern Suburbs Football Association | 3:15-4:15pm | 10 weeks $160

• Wednesday's: Basketball Skills by Sports-X | 3-4pm | 9 weeks $125

• Thursday's: Football Development Program by Eastern Suburbs Football Association | 3:15-4:15pm | 10 weeks $160

• Friday's: Young Guns Skate School | 3:30pm-4:30pm | $22 per lesson, further discounts may apply

Registration details available on the Sport Website or Community Noticeboard

• Friday Cafe | Friday 4 April  | 3pm

• Year 3-4 Sleepover | Friday 4 April - Saturday 5 April 

• Senior Assembly (Year 5-8) | Monday 7 April | 2pm, Hall

• Whole School Athletics Day | Tuesday 8 April 

• Intermediate Water Safety Beach Day | Wednesday 9 April 

• Kapa Hapa practice | Wednesday 9 April | 8.20am Te Pou Manawa

• Lockdown Exercise | Thursday 10 April

• Last day of Term 1 | Friday 11 April 

• Term 2 starts | Monday 28 April 

• New Entrant cohort starts | Monday 28 April

• Pōwhiri | Monday 28 April | 9.15am. 

View our School Calendar to keep up to date with all events

Community Activities

There are many sports, art, and cultural activities available in our community including school holiday programmes. Check out our Community Noticeboard for more details.