School Newsletter
7 February 2025

Kia ora e te whānau | Greetings all

Welcome back! We hope you all had a wonderful break with your whānau. We've loved hearing all the fantastic stories of your summer activities, sounds like loads of time exploring outside and enjoying the sunshine. It's great to have everyone back refreshed and ready for an exciting year ahead! 

Our staff also returned last week feeling refreshed and ready for the year ahead. We had a week of professional development and wow the energy was just amazing. 

This week we welcomed 43 new learners and their whānau to our school community. Nau mai, haere mai!

Ray our caretaker, has been super busy over the holidays getting our school looking spick and span. We've had the line markings on the courts repainted, carpets have been cleaned, the buildings and windows have been washed, the gardens have been tidied up, and new netball hoops are being installed on the turf. Please help us to teach the kids the value of Kaitiakitanga and looking after our beautiful school. 

We're excited to see you all next Thursday at our Meet the Teachers and Community Picnic event. 

Ngā mihi nui,

Sarah and the team

Concepts Term 1

Kia ora koutou - it is Ms Griffin here with some exciting updates about our learning and concept design for Term 1 - Power of Me, Power of Us! 

Learners have been settling back into their learning hubs…

Year 0-2

The Junior village learners have been learning about all the ways we can contribute individually in our Hubs. The learners are bringing their best together, showing that when we work together, we can achieve great things. 

Junior learners will also be exploring our differences and how when we come together as a group, our differences make us powerful.

Year 3-4

In Year 3 and 4, learners have been reading The Tree Hut Treaty and using it to create hub kawa's— which are shared agreements on how we learn and work together.

Year 3 and 4 are also exploring the unique qualities that make us who we are, discovering our own ‘superpowers’ and how they help us in our learning and relationships. Plus, they’ve been getting excited as they start to prepare for their school sleepover at the end of the term—an awesome opportunity to build independence and have fun with their friends!

Year 5-6

In Year 5-6, in the lead up to our Camps in March, learners have been connecting to their peers and working together. Learners will be creating Camper Handbooks to help each other prepare for camp and the challenges they will encounter. They will also be learning and writing about the native birds, plants and animals found in the Hunua Ranges! 

Year 7-8

The Intermediates are building knowledge on what makes up a high functioning team and will eventually be taking their findings to the racetrack…

Stay tuned in the coming weeks to find out more! 

Exploring Through (ET)

Woohoo! Welcome back to what is geared up to be an amazing Exploring Through year!

ET stands for Exploring Through….this can be through Art, Music, STEAM, Baking and Play Based Learning just as some examples.

We have been collaborating as a team to plan exciting, engaging and relevant sessions for all learners to get fully involved in and expand their learning.

ET will begin next week. This year we will be predominately based in Hub 5&6. Nathan Imboden and Katherine Wilcox will be teaching in the music spaces in Hub14 and Hub15. 

• Year 0-2 - Wednesdays 

• Year 3-4 and Year 5-6 - Thursdays

• Year 7-8 - Fridays

ET is a safe place for learners to discover new passions and strengths, be challenged in the learning pit and use a range of thinking skills within the learning process. 

Looking forward to a wonderful ET year ahead with our learners.

The ET Team

School groups and clubs

The school has loads of groups and clubs available for your child to join. Here's a list of everything that's on offer. For details on days and times, please contact the teacher in charge.

• Kapa Haka - all ages welcome, come along to practices on Wednesday mornings. Shoba Segar

• Orchestra - Katherine Wilcox

• Senior Choir (Year 5-8) - Nathan Imboden

• Recorder club (Year 3-8) - Katherine Wilcox

• Bands (Year 5-8) - Nathan Imboden

• Junior Enviro club (Year 0-4) - Hilary Ironside

•  Senior Enviro club (Year 5-8) - Yubin Han

• Garden club (Year 0-4) - Hilary Ironside

• Trees for survival - Yubin Han

• Book Club - Esther Casey

• Senior Art club (Year 5-8) - Emma Clark

• Junior Art club (Year 3-4) - Matoia Record

• Run club (Year 4-8) - Sophie Atkinson  

• Minecraft Education Club (Year 5-6) - parent run! more details to come

• Retro video games club (Intermediate) - Ollie Baker

• Drama club (Intermediate) - Ollie Baker

• Pokemon Club (Intermediate) - Zara Powdrill

• Dungeons & Dragons club (Intermediate) - Zara Powdrill

• Robotics club (Intermediate) - Zara Powdrill

After School activities on-site

There are also loads of after-school activities offered on-site by other providers including football, basketball, skateboarding, art classes, chess, and bricks for kids. See our Community Noticeboard for more details. 

School hours - 8.30am - 3pm

Hubs open at 8.30am. We encourage learners to arrive at school between 8.30am to 8.45am, giving them time to unpack, play for a short time and settle into school before the 8.55am bell. If you need to drop your child at school earlier than 8.30am, please book them into before-school care with Kelly Club.

School finishes at 3pm. For safety reasons, children who are not picked up by 3.10pm need to go to the office to wait until their caregiver arrives.

Music Lessons 

We are very proud to offer a growing range of music lessons during school hours. Through specialist music teachers, your children can learn guitar, piano, vocals, drums, violin, trumpet, french horn or music production. For more details and to book, please get in touch with the teachers directly:

• Guitar - Gideon Voon or Nathan Imboden

• Piano - Katherine Wilcox is currently at capacity. We are in the process of securing another tutor, please register your interest here

• Vocals - Nathan Imboden. We are also in the process of securing another vocal tutor, please register your interest here

• Drums - Jag Singh 

• Violin - Belinda Carrigan

• Trumpet - Stephen Bemelman 

• French Horn - Anita Austin

• Music Production  - Nathan Imboden

For music lessons with Nathan Imboden, please contact the school office. 

Kapa Haka

Kapa Haka practises will resume on Wednesday 12 February in Te Pou Manawa at 8.20am. If your child is interested in joining or just wants to know more, please come along to check it out. All are welcome

Uniform donation please

If you have any uniform items that you no longer require, and there is life left in them, please donate them to the school. Good quality items will then be sold as Pre-loved uniform, with the school gaining extra revenue which flows back to your children. Your support is greatly appreciated!

Scholastic Book Club

Scholastic Book Club orders for issue no.1 2025 are now open.  If you wish to make a purchase, please do so before orders close on Friday 21 February.  

The ordering process is completely paper-less, and the current brochure is available to view here.  There will be some paper copies of the Book Club catalogue in each of the hubs and the library, should you prefer to view the catalogue in paper form. 

To place your order, please register using the LOOP website. You may then order via the website, or by using one of Scholastic's apps.  Please select your child's hub (class), not their year level when placing your order.  Please do not return anything to school as all orders are processed through the Scholastic LOOP system. 

If you have any problems placing your order, please email anna.malan@stonefields.school.nz 

Visitor Tour

Stonefields School offers prospective and current parents an opportunity to attend a walk through of the school. This will give parents/caregivers an insight into what being a learner at Stonefields is all about!   

Our next tour will take place on Wednesday 12 March, at 9.15am. Please register here if you'd like to attend or pass on the details to any other prospective parents.   

FOSS and Friday Cafe

Introducing FOSS (Friends of Stonefields School). We welcome all members of the school community to get involved with FOSS and help support our school. This group of dedicated and supportive parents, grandparents and wider whānau, play a vital role in bringing us together as a school community and helping to enhance the school's resources.

Over the years, FOSS has contributed to organising such events as Friday Café, Movie Night, Raffles, Disco, and Quiz Nights. These events are always a highlight, and you won’t want to miss them! FOSS has also helped to raise funds for the new sports shed, sporting equipment, and shade sails over the playgrounds. 

FOSS relies entirely on the generous support of our amazing school community. Without your involvement, these events wouldn’t be possible.

If you'd like to get involved in any way, please join the Facebook group or pop your details onto our Friday Cafe volunteer sign up sheet.  

How to report an Absence

Via the Edge App. 

There is no need to email hub teachers or anyone else, simply notify the school via the Edge App and this immediately appears on the school roll for all teachers to see. 

How to report a Late Arrival

Via the Edge App. 

There is no need to email hub teachers or anyone else, simply notify the school via the Edge App.

Once logged in click 'Notify School of Absence' and follow the below steps:

Kindo is our online payment platform for all school payables including sun hats, lunches, book bags, trip fees and donations. If you have not yet created an account, please do so here using the email address you receive school communications.  

Lunch orders via Kindo

Lunch orders are available every day. Simply order via your Kindo account up till 9am on the day and your order will be delivered directly to the school office in time for lunch. You can also order ahead for the entire Term. Check out our menu options for Term 1. 

Download the Kindo App to make it that little bit easier. 

There are also many other goodies available for purchase on Kindo including:

• Name labels 

• Gratitude journals

• Beeswax food wraps and other sustainable products

Orders will be delivered to school

• Kapa Haka practice | Wednesday 12 February | 8.20am Te Pou Manawa

• Meet the Teachers and Community Picnic | Thursday 13 February | from 4.30pm  

• Friday Cafe | Friday 14 February | 3pm

• Junior Assembly (Year 0-4) | Monday 17 February | 2pm, Hall

• Kapa Haka practice | Wednesday 19 February | 8.20am Te Pou Manawa

• Friday Cafe | Friday 21 February | 3pm

• New Entrant Cohort visits | Monday 24 - Thursday 27 February

• Senior Assembly (Year 5-8) | Monday 24 February | 2pm, Hall

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

Term 1 Sports opportunities

There are loads of sports opportunities available in term 1, please see our latest email. 

Community Activities

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

Chess Club

Chess Power run an after-school Chess club. To see what it's all about, drop into their free lunchtime session on Tuesday next week in the Community Hub. For more details, contact Paul.