How can I best prepare my child for school?
The first five years are acknowledged as critical years in a child’s development. In the weeks prior to starting school, and throughout the early school years, you can help your child by:
helping them write their own name
looking at the various letters in their name
reading and re-reading favourite stories
doing puzzles and making things together
singing nursery rhymes and waiata
answering their questions and encouraging them to ask questions
sharing household tasks such as baking, sweeping and laying the table
putting toys and equipment away after activities are finished
making regular visits to the local library
teaching your child their full name, address and phone number
practicing road safety procedures and becoming familiar with the route to school
playing games where everyone takes turns.
Enrolment Scheme
In accordance with Section 11A of the Education Act 1989 the Te Wharau School Board of Trustees has deemed that the establishment of an enrolment scheme is necessary to avoid overcrowding or the likelihood of overcrowding at the school.
The guidelines for development and operation of enrolment schemes are issued under section 11G (3) of the Education Act 1989 for the purpose of describing the basis on which the Secretary’s powers in relation to enrolment schemes will be exercised.
The scheme came into effect on 24 July 2017
The purposes of an enrolment scheme, as set out in Section 11A of the Education Act are:
To avoid overcrowding or the likelihood of overcrowding at the school;
To ensure that the selection of applicants for enrolment at the school is carried out in a fair and transparent manner; and
To enable the Secretary to make best use of existing networks of State schools.
In achieving its purpose, an enrolment scheme must, as far as possible, ensure that:
The scheme does not exclude local students: and
No more students are excluded from the schools than is necessary to avoid overcrowding.
The Home Zone
All students who live within the home zone described below shall be entitled to enrol at the school.
From the Ormond Road Bridge over the Waimata River, travel up Ormond Road until Fox Street. Then turn right into Fox Street to Russell Street. Turn right down Russell Street until you reach the Waimata River.
Follow the Waimata River upstream until the end of Darwin Road. Then travel south down towards the coast excluding Wheatstone Road but including Sponge Bay Road, Hamilton Drive, Law Street, Ferris Cres and Taumoto Park.
The zone boundary then follows the coastline back towards Gisborne and then up the Waimata River until the Ormond Road Bridge.
All homes included in the Kaiti and Tamarau suburbs are included in the Te Wharau home zone.
The zone has been determined to ensure that the board can manage potential over-crowding.
Out of Zone Enrolment
At the midway point of each year the board will determine the number of places that are likely to be available in the following year for the enrolment of students who live outside the home zone.
The board will publish this information by notice in a daily or community newspaper circulating in the area served by the school. The notice will indicate how applications are to be made and will specify a date by which all applications must be received.
Applications for enrolment will be processed in the following order of priority.
First Priority This priority category is not applicable at this school because the school does not run a special education programme approved by the Secretary.
Second Priority will be given to applicants who are siblings of current students.
Third Priority will be given to applicants who are siblings of former students.
Fourth Priority will be given to any applicant who is a child of a former student of the school.
Fifth Priority will be given to any applicant who is either a child of an employee of the board of the school or a child of a member of the board of the school.
Sixth Priority will be given to all other applicants.
If there are more applicants in the second, third, fourth, fifth or sixth priority groups than there are places available, selection within the priority group will be by a ballot conducted in accordance with instructions issued by the Secretary under Section 11G(1) of the Education Act 1989. Parents will be informed of the date of any ballot by notice in a daily or community newspaper circulating in the area served by the school. Parents will be informed of the outcome of the ballot within three school days of the ballot being held.
Applicants seeking second or third priority status may be required to give proof of a sibling relationship.
