A-Z Information
The timetable for school assemblies is established each year and parents will be advised via newsletter. There may be unscheduled school assemblies for specific purposes e.g:
- Powhiri for visitors
- Performances by visiting groups
Students from each team host the regular assemblies and they are an occasion to share:
ê Awards and Achievements
ê Samples of student work, or unit displays or something that students have been working on
ê Music, singing, performances
ê Notices / Events
Parents are welcome to attend these occasions.
ATTENDANCE
Students are required to attend school by law. If there is a good reason for a student to be absent we require an explanation by written note or a phone call. We will follow up absence and lateness with visits from the Manukau Attendance officers if we do not receive these explanations. (see Lateness also)
BELL TIMES
08.45 10.30 10.50 12..20 1.20 3.00
Block 1: 08.45 – 10.30
Block 2: 10.50 – 12.20
Block 3: 1.15 – 3.00
Te Whanau o Tupuranga begins classes at 8.30am each morning
Cyclists must wear approved cycle helmets. Bicycles must be secured in the bike stands provided. Students should be aware of the security risk and the responsibility for the type of locking system is the student’s. Both wheels and frame should be locked. No child can ride a bicycle within the school grounds.
Clover Park Middle School and Te Whanau o Tupuranga have a commitment towards bilingualism. Research has shown that children who speak more than one language have definite academic advantages across all areas of the curriculum. We value the first languages of all students and encourage the use of languages other than English in all aspects of our programme. We also encourage and foster excellence in English. It is compulsory for all students in the school to learn basic Maori pronunciation and vocabulary as this is a requirement of the national curriculum for all schools. Two Areas in Clover Park specialise in bilingual education – Fonuamalu, our Tongan bilingual unit and Lumanai, our Samoan bilingual programme. Te Whanau o Tupuranga is a Bilingual School.
The Board of Trustees meets on the third Tuesday of every month at 3.30 pm. in the Board Room.
Stationery requirements are standardised across all each school. There is no school wide selling of stationery at the beginning of the year. All students have been issued with lists (ALL students will have received a list posted during holidays to home addresses) and are asked to come prepared. Casual stationery purchases can be made each morning from 08.15 – 08.45 at the stationery sales window at student reception entry of the office. This is the ONLY time stationery is sold.
COMMUNICATIONS WITH THE SCHOOL
Please contact the School Office to speak with school staff. Teachers are not available to take phone calls during classroom hours but will contact you if you leave a message at the office.
Computers are spread through classrooms and the library and are used as a tool across the curriculum – not as a separate subject area. Our campus has won widespread recognition for our ICT capability, particularly through the Clubhouse 274 programme. No student is permitted to access the internet unless signed permission has been received and is on file from the parents who have been advised of our internet safety procedures and expectations. A form giving permission for this access is required from every new student who enters the school. A log of all sites used from school computers is automatically documented for regular perusal by our computer technicians. Filtering software is in place but this is not guaranteed to block all sites. Responsible use of all computer equipment and functions is expected of all students.
Clubhouse 274 is a highly resourced after-school drop-in centre which was fully introduced in 2006. All students are welcome to become members of the Clubhouse. Members work on a variety of high level projects with the support and mentoring from adults. The Clubhouse is open from 3.00 to 7.00 pm every day.
Confiscated property is sent to the office where it is stored securely. Non-uniform clothing, cellphones, MP3 or MP4 players, cameras and other electronic equipment will be confiscated. Please avoid having items confiscated by monitoring carefully what your child is wearing and/or bringing to school. Confiscated items can only be collected in person by a parent or caregiver. Please don’t send notes asking for the items to be returned.
Children may not be released early from school without permission from the Principal, the Pouhiwa or DPs. Permission is only granted for an important reason. Students may not be released regularly to collect younger siblings from school or carry out other whanau duties.
The campus participates in the NZ School Trustees Association’s emergency preparedness online scheme and has a comprehensive set of procedures related to emergency preparedness that are practised regularly
HOMEWORK
Students do receive clear communication from each teaching team about their homework programme and the system they operate. Students should be well aware of the homework required. Homework will vary according to the programme and the year level of each child. Senior students should be working regularly every night on their NCEA requirements.
A Study Centre operates four afternoons a week in the Library for Clover Park students. Information about this programme is sent home early in the year.
Children who are late must record their arrival time with late monitors (Clover) or the Pouhiwa office (Tupuranga) in the Late Book. Consistent lateness will be referred to the Manukau Attendance officers who will visit parents.
The campus has a fine library/information centre and in 2009 we spent over $300,000.00 on updating our new library collection. We have books, especially some Pasifika titles, that are rarely seen anywhere else. Students only go to the library or use the Internet with the appropriate pass and supervision.
This is kept by the School Office to whom all inquiries should be addressed. Please help by naming all your child’s uniform to avoid losing these items.
School lunches may be ordered before school at the school Kai Shop. The Kai Shop is open at interval and lunchtimes. Lunches are able to be ordered before school, and food is fresh every day. The school’s Healthy Eating policy bans the eating of junk food, fizzy drinks etc. The Kai Shop does not sell these and students are not allowed to bring these items to school in their lunches. Banned items include:
Cheezels / Big’Uns / Rashuns etc
Jelly Crystals / Sherbet / Raro, Refresh etc powder
Soft drinks / fizzy drinks – Coke, Lift, Mountain Dew etc
Sweets / lollies / chocolate
Takeaways
If students do bring banned items they are confiscated, and a form letter sent to parents advising them of the reason. Kai Shop prices are reasonable and students are encouraged to have lunch at school every day.
Students are not allowed home for lunch unless they have applied for and been granted a lunch pass which they hand in and collect from the office each day. Lunch passes do not allow students to go to the shops to buy lunch. Lunch passes will be withdrawn if students misuse them.
MEDICATION
The school should only be requested to administer medication during normal school hours when it is either not possible or impractical for a parent or caregiver to do so.
- The first dose must not be given by school staff but may be administered by a medical professional or notifying parents/caregivers
- All requests to administer medicines must be in writing and addressed to the Principal.
- The medication must be kept in a locked cabinet in the school sick bay – medication should never be kept by children.
- The exact dose of medication must be provided by the parent/caregiver to the school.
- Whenever possible administering of medication will be witnessed by another adult and a record of administering initialled by both adults.
MIDDLE SCHOOLS
Clover Park was a leading school in this concept and Te Whanau o Tupuranga’s Year 7 to 10 students also follow this philosophy.
Increasingly students are bringing mobile phones to school for safety and recreational reasons. A student’s mobile phone has the potential to increase student safety by informing parents as to their child’s whereabouts. However there are also risks and negative aspects to students who use mobile phones. As a school in 2007 we weighed up the issues around mobile phone use and decided on a campus ban on mobile phones, MP3 players and other electronic equipment due to the huge amount of staff time taken up in dealing with upset students and parents due to lost and/or stolen equipment.
GUIDELINES
1. Students may not bring mobile phones, MP3/4 players or other electronic equipment e.g. cameras to school. If a family feel it is necessary for their child to have a phone at school for reasons of transport (some students travel some distance to school and may need to coordinate travel with parents), they must make prior arrangements with the principal/DPs/Pouhiwa and hand the phone into the school office each morning and collect it again at 3.00pm
2. All staff and students will be informed and made aware of the impact and implications of text bullying through the health curriculum programme.
3. The process for confiscating phones should be the same as that for other items
4. Students who are found to be using their mobile phone for harassing or bullying other students will face school disciplinary action or, in serious cases, involvement from the Board of Trustees.
5. Parents/caregivers of students involved in mobile phone harassment/bullying either as the bully or the victim will be contacted.
These items are not permitted at school for use by students during the day. Inevitably problems arise if they are lost and/or misused and the music may be inappropriate for school. The same process of confiscation applies as for other property. If the MP3/4 player is a Mobile Phone it should not be at school (see Mobile Phones).
MULTILEVEL LEARNING
The campus has a commitment towards providing learning for students at the level where they experience both challenge and success and for building a programme based on the concept of whanau and the mixing of age groups and abilities. A multi levelled organisation and framework lends itself best to this philosophy but should also deliver the needs of the curriculum framework – which is itself multi levelled.
NEWSLETTERS
The school communicates regularly with the community through regular newsletters. Newsletters are usually posted home to parents.
We encourage and welcome help from whanau. Parent helpers on trips should meet with staff prior to leaving the school and be given very clear guidelines as to the expectations for the activity. All adult helpers are expected to adhere to all school policies and guidelines at all times, in their interactions with students.
Teachers and parents should be partners in the education of children. It is Clover Park Middle School’s and Te Whanau o Tupuranga’s intent to foster supportive, reciprocal relationships with our parents and community. This means relationships which are of mutual benefit.
Students are allowed to wear small studs in their ears. Piercings to other body areas are discouraged as they are not appropriate at school. If any piercing jewellery is deemed to be dangerous, the student will be asked to remove it.
School policies are reviewed and revised regularly by the Board of Trustees, as part of our ongoing self-review programme. Relevant policies can be seen in the Board of Trustees section of this website.
We provide two written reports each year – Mid Year Reports at the end of Term 2 and End of Year Reports in Term 4 (early December). The Term 2 reports are issued to parents via student-led parent interviews. As well as a short, formal oral reporting session teachers and parents may set up an interview to discuss a child. Please make appointments for these visits through DPs or Pouhiwa
Skateboards, Scooters, Roller Blades and Skates are banned from the school at all times and students may not use them on the way to or from school. This is for the student’s safety and is non-negotiable.
SPECIAL NEEDS (Unrealised Potential – ‘UP’ programmes)
Special Needs are identified and divided into two categories:
Priority 1: Those students for whom we employ specific staff support.
Priority 2: Those students who are having difficulty within the learning programme. This may include truants, those with behaviour problems or other risk factors.
Three Resource Teachers of Learning & Behaviour (RTLBs) are onsite in our campus. They serve the needs of three other schools in our cluster - Tangaroa College, Ferguson Intermediate, and Te Kura Kaupapa Maori o Piripono. Please advise staff if your child has special medical or education needs we may not be aware of.
STUDENT DRIVERS
No student is permitted to drive a motor vehicle or motorbike to school unless they have the appropriate NZ Driver's Licence, have been approved for special written dispensation from the principal or pouhiwa/deputy principals, and have signed a safe-driving contract agreeing to the schools' conditions. No students are allowed to travel as passengers in vehicles drive by other students, at any time.
STUDENTS LEAVING SCHOOL GROUNDS
Students leaving the school grounds for any reason during the school day must have written permission from their parents or caregivers. This written explanation must be given to staff at the beginning of the day.
These are installed throughout the new campus, some internal and some external. Cameras are working in the Admin Block: reception area, locker area, social worker area. Notices are placed around the school advising that cameras are operating, but not where these are.
School telephones are not for pupil use unless there is an emergency. If a teacher believes there is a genuine case the teacher will give the child a note to present to the office staff. These authorised calls are then made from the office where they can be supervised. Students are not permitted to use other phones unless a teacher is in attendance during the call. The phones are NOT to be used by children for:
- making after-school arrangements
- articles left at home
- receiving calls
Clover Park & Te Whanau o Tupuranga acknowledge the Treaty of Waitangi and the status of Maori as Tangata Whenua in their Mission Statement. Maori protocol is accepted in school policy as the basis for official functions and practices within the school.
UNIFORM – GENERAL
School Uniform should be worn at all times. Non uniform items will be confiscated. Detailed Uniform information can be accessed in the Enrolment/Uniform section of this website.
We do not have a specific PE Uniform. However, students are expected to wear a complete change of clothing during both lunch and interval sports games and during their official Physical Education lessons. Students are encouraged to wear a plain t shirt and shorts. No student is allowed to do PE or play sport during class or lunch times wearing any item of their school uniform.
Vandalism is an ongoing problem. Where a case of deliberate vandalism can be proven it will be common practice for the parents to be sent an account to reimburse the school.
Parents are welcome in the school to talk about their children and their progress. However, please do so by appointment rather than by “dropping in”. It is difficult for teachers to give you their full attention when they are in front of a class. Parents must report first to the office when visiting the school.
Last Updated Saturday, February 20 2010 @ 06:51 PM CST|370 Hits 
