Policies and Procedures

Regular and punctual attendance is a requirement of the Education Act. If your child is absent, please telephone the school office to notify us and please send a note of explanation on their return to school. The school is audited on its roll and absences need to be explained to the auditors. All unexplained absences will be followed up by a phone call.

Any child who arrives at school after 9.15a.m. must be personally signed in at the office by a parent or caregiver. All children must be signed in and out at the office if they attend appointments during school time.

Any requests to withdraw a child from school, for more than three days, must be sent to the Principal in writing. Under the Education Act, only the Principal can grant permission for children to be withdrawn from school. This should be done prior to the time/day of the withdrawal.

Family holidays during term time are discouraged by the Principal and Board, due to the disruption to learning and teaching to the student, their teacher, and other learners when long absences occur.

If you wish to remove your child during term time, please advise the Principal in writing (via email / written letter) of your intention to do so with at least 5 days notice.

All visitors and contractors are required to sign in and out at the office. All parents on-site between 8:55am and 2:55pm must sign in and out at the office. This is a legal requirement under the Health and Safety in the Work Place Act.

Stationery can be ordered online from the St Joseph’s OfficeMax MySchool Website or via Mail Order using the form from the above website. You can visit the OfficeMax Store in Mt Eden to buy your stationery. You may also print the list from the St Joseph’s OfficeMax MySchool Website.

The Staff are more than happy to assist you in any way possible. If you would like to arrange to have an meeting with your child’s class teacher, please contact the teacher directly or leave a message with the school secretary. It can be difficult for teachers to return calls during the day, so if you are leaving a message please include an after hours contact number.

St Joseph’s is a ‘Litter Free’ school. This means that litter produced by children’s morning tea and lunches is put back into their lunch boxes, along with any uneaten food, and taken home. Please ensure your child brings a lunch box to school each day to assist us with this.

Under the Smoke Free Environments Act, St Joseph’s School is smoke free at all times. Smoking is not permitted in or around school buildings or in any part of the grounds, at any time.

We prefer children to keep toys and other items of value at home. The Board and staff accept no responsibility in the case of loss or damage to valuables or articles brought to school.

Children are discouraged from bringing cellphones to school.  If there are circumstances that require one to be brought to school the cellphone must be handed in to the school office before school and collected at the end of the day.

In order to enrich the teaching programme and enhance learning, teachers plan visits to places of interest outside the school. A letter outlining the trip will be sent prior to the event and all out of school visits have an educational objective related directly to the curriculum.

Students that are nine years or older may cycle or scooter to and from school by themselves.  All other children MUST be accompanied by an adult.

Our Public Health Nurse visits the school on request to monitor our students’ health.

Medication

When students need to be on medication the class teacher should be informed. Parents whose children are need to take medication during school hours are required to inform the office secretary so that you can sign a consent form. All medical supplies will be kept in a secure place.

Healthy Food

Quality food enhances your child’s learning potential. For this reason, we discourage sweets, fizzy drinks and highly coloured and flavoured snack foods at school.

Sun Smart

Children must wear a school hat at all times they are outside during terms 1 and 4. This includes coming to and from school.  An official school bucket style may be ordered from NZ Uniforms. Children without a hat will be required to stay in the shade areas during breaks and will be unable to participate in outside activities.

Nits

Nits are an ongoing problem in all schools. For this reason, we ask that all students (girls and boys) with hair below shoulder length have it tied back. This helps prevent the spread of nits between children.

If there is a concern about nits in a particular room(s) then you will be notified. We ask that you treat your child(ren) as soon as possible and ask that you do not send your child(ren) back to school until this has been done.