FAQ - Frequently Asked Questions

 

Absences

If your child is to be absent, please let the School Office know via phone, email or school app (544 7083 or 544 7915, office@ranzau.school.nz), before 9.30 am. Absences will be checked against the classroom list and parents of non-reported absences will be phoned. We also use skool loop which allows you to let us know of your child's absence

Where a child is absent for more than one day, it is important that the parents notify the school each morning of the absence. Written notes are not required.

Appointments

Please phone the school if you wish to make an appointment with the principal or class teacher. Please avoid Mondays and Tuesdays after school as we have meetings scheduled on these days.

Assemblies

Whole School Assemblies are held every morning at 9.00 am if the weather is suitable. 

On Friday the whole school has a singing assembly at 1.45pm and Parents/Caregivers are welcome to join us.

Behaviour

At Ranzau, our primary focus is on positive reinforcement of acceptable behaviour. We believe it is important for children to be clear about what constitutes unacceptable behaviour and what the consequences for this are. We endeavour to be consistent in our approach when dealing with unsatisfactory behaviour. 

Where your child’s behaviour becomes totally unacceptable, you will be involved and asked to help us resolve problems, especially if the rights of other children are at risk.

If you as a parent/caregiver want help, then you only need to ask and we will do our best to find it for you. The School has a strong support team of people such as the Health Nurse, Resource Teacher of Learning and Behaviour (RTLB), School Psychologist, and community support agencies who can be of assistance to you and your child. We do our best through planning and organisation at school to minimise problems and we do expect the same level of help from you. You are always welcome to speak to the class teacher or the Principal about any concerns you have.

Bicycles

If your child is biking to school please check that: 

• they have a NZ safety approved helmet
• their bike is road safe
• they know how to ride properly and do not ride on the footpath
• their bike is the right size
• you have practised getting to and from school together

Ranzau School strongly supports the Police recommendation that children under 10 should not ride a bike to school without adult supervision.

We provide cycle safety programmes for our older children.

Book Club

Children have the opportunity several times each year to purchase books from Scholastic Book Club. Pamphlets are distributed to students and orders should be returned to the school office.

Crossing/Parking

This can be a real concern to us. We are very fortunate to have access to the church car park opposite the school. 

When parking at busy times, especially before and after school, we ask you to follow these guidelines:

• do not park on yellow lines under any circumstance
• please enter and exit the church car part at the entrance nearest where you are travelling to/from. This minimises traffic at our school crossing. (See information pack map)
• don’t park on the roadway next to the Church entrance or exit
• please use our crossing, don’t ask children to cross anywhere else. This patrolled from 3.00 – 3.10 pm
• please enter and exit school grounds via pedestrian access (not the school driveway)

Road safety is a responsibility we as a community all share. Please support us in our efforts to minimise the risks at the road.

 

Dental Clinic

Children at Ranzau School attend the Henley School Oral Health Clinic. All children, once they reach the age of two and a half years, can enrol for regular treatment and parents/ caregivers are strongly urged to do so. Once your child is at school, appointments are made during the year. Please don’t hesitate to contact the Dental Nurse, 543 9292, with any problems or queries you may have regarding your child’s teeth.

Enrolment

We welcome and encourage contact visits before your child starts school. 

We will contact you prior to your child’s 5th birthday to arrange up to three visits. Parents are asked to stay with their child for some of these visits unless you and the teacher see benefit in another arrangement.

We try hard to make a child’s transition to school as easy as we can. We value liaison with your child’s pre school. Our New Entrant teacher will try to visit your child at their pre school prior to enrolment.

Please don’t hesitate to contact the school or look at our website for further enrolment details.

Online Enrolment

Exercise

Daily exercise is taken each morning after assembly (except during swimming season or on very cold mornings). Children are expected to participate, as it is part of our school curriculum. 

Every Wednesday children can assemble in the Hope Domain at 8.30 am and walk, bike or scooter to school as a group. We call this “Walking Wednesday”.

Health and Well Being

The health of your child at Ranzau School is important to us. We ask you to also monitor your child’s health. There is little sense in children coming to school when they are sick. We know children will often insist on coming, but you must be firm and they must learn how to look after themselves. 

Head lice are often a problem and because children are in situations playing and working together, they are easily spread. If you detect head lice on your child, please let us know promptly. We will do the same for you.

From time-to-time children become sick at school and accidents can happen. We are well equipped to handle most minor ailments. If there are more serious problems, we will telephone you so that you can collect your child. However, in extreme emergencies where parents/caregivers cannot be contacted immediately, your child will be taken to a doctor and you will be notified as soon as possible.

It is always necessary for us to have an emergency contact number. Please let us know if this changes.

We also ask that you tell us in writing about any medication that may be required at school including dosage and times to administer. We have contact with our Health Nurse, who is most willing to help you with any problems you may be having. We are happy to organise a visit from her, or if you wish to contact her yourself, phone 543 9820.

Home Learning

Home Learning takes many forms and is an opportunity for you to share in your child’s education in a really positive way. Reading, spelling and basic facts can be common home learning tasks. Older children participate in an optional “Star Challenge” home learning programme.

Information Centre

We have a wonderful Information Centre that was fully upgraded in 2010. It is open everyday during school hours. You are most welcome to use it to select books together with your child at lunchtime. It is important for children’s reading progress that they see their Parents/ caregivers are interested also. 

We are always looking for ‘helpers’ in the Information Centre to help maintain and process library books. Contact the office if you would like to help.

Kapa Haka

We are very proud of our Kapa Haka group. Well over half of our students volunteer to take part. From time to time this group performs for others, both at school and off site.

Lost Property

Please name your child’s clothing! 

We have too much lost property and we do our best to find owners. The lost property is kept in a basket on the staffroom deck and is displayed regularly. We encourage children to take responsibility for their own property.

Lunches

Sausages and saveloys are often available on Fridays. Proceeds from these go to our Year 6 Camp. We will advise you in our newsletter when these are available. 

We try to have a shared healthy lunch once each term. These are wonderful Ranzau occasions.

Money

If you are sending money to school, please make sure it is sealed in an envelope, or wrapped up, and includes your child’s name, room number and amount. This saves a lot of confusion. In general, we try to discourage children from having money at school. Unless otherwise advised, cheques should be made out to Ranzau School.

Newsletters

We are really proud of the Ranzau School newsletter. Newsletters will come straight into your email inbox each fortnight as well as being available on our school website and app. One of the many benefits, other than just the environmental aspect, of going digital is that we will be able to use media in more engaging ways to share the wonderful things that are happening in our fantastic school. 

We regard the Newsletter as an important contact between school and community and this is reflected in content which makes interesting reading.

Newsletters

Office Hours

Our office is staffed from 8.30am until 3.15pm each day.

Parent Involvement

We value seeing parents/caregivers at school as do your children. If you have a skill or wish to help in any way, please let us know. There are many practical jobs that always need doing that we never seem to have enough time to do! Parent/ caregiver help at sports, swimming and for class trips is really important. Don’t be afraid to be a part of our team. We need your assistance in many ways.

Playground

During school hours, a ‘Duty’ teacher supervises the playground. The playground is for all children to enjoy.

Problems

From time to time we all encounter problems. The best way to solve them is to talk about them with those concerned. If something is worrying you in your life that is affecting your child at school or at home, come and talk to us. We are here because we care about your children and their learning. We are only a phone call away. If we have a problem, we will contact you.

Religious Instruction - LauchPad

This is available to Year 3 – 6 children on Wednesday’s during Terms 2 and 3. Let us know in writing if you wish your child to be excused. ReMix follows the approved Bible in Schools curriculum.

Reporting to Parents

We report at regular intervals during the year: 

February: Meet the teacher

March/April: Written report, work samples and Learning Conferences

September: Written report, work samples and Learning Conferences

New Entrant Reports: All New Entrants, after approximately 6 weeks at school, receive a report followed by an interview. Where the timing of these reports coincides with the issue of Term 1 or Term 3 reports, they will replace the latter.

Please remember your support all through the year is extremely important. You don’t have to wait for an invitation. There are plenty of times to visit your child’s class, read your child’s work in books or on walls, before school, lunch hours and after school. When you wish to talk to your child’s teacher about specific matters it would be best to organise a time to suit you both.

Safety

Please read this very carefully!!! 

The safety of children when coming to school and when returning home, is a concern to us all. Please familiarise yourself with the responsibilities of parents outlined below. We consider if we all play our part, we can maximise safety for the children of Ranzau.

Responsibilities of the School

• to operate a “phone-in” system where parents are expected to inform the school before 9.15am of their child’s absence
• to check immediately any unexplained absences (ie after checking the class roll and “phone-in” book)
• endeavour to contact parents if an absence is unaccounted for
• use emergency contact numbers if parents can’t be reached
• to inquire of classmates likely reasons for an absence
• to insist that no child be permitted to leave the school grounds without the prior approval of a teacher

Responsibilities of Parents / Caregivers

• to contact the school before 9.15am if their is child absent
• to clearly define the time that a child should be home by
• to contact the school if their child has not returned home after the designated time
• encourage their child to walk to and from school in a group
• to take responsibility for arranging how their child gets to and from school. Check out the safest way and insist on your child using the route consistently
• to discuss with their child, places they could go to if they get scared
• to have their child make contact with a specific adult by telephone on arriving at home if no adult is present at that time
• to supervise their child riding to school if they are under 10 years old

School Hours

9.00 am – 10.30 am 

11.00 am – 12.45 pm

1.30 pm – 3.00 pm

School Contacts

 

Telephone: 544 7083 

Address: 111 Ranzau Road, Hope, Nelson

Email: office@ranzau.school.nz

We only make our phone available to students for important messages.

School Productions

Every second year we produce a school performance in December. All of our children are involved in this. These “shows” are always exiting events and are well supported by our community.

Special Education

The school recognises the needs of children who have Special Needs and Abilities and has policies to guide the development of special programmes. 

These programmes which are put in place, seek to develop processes and in some cases skills and knowledge. The procedures used to identify Special Needs are very broad, and involve parents and often other resource and support people who have specific expertise in meeting the needs of your child.

Special Requests

Children are asked not to arrive at school before 8.30 am. 

As Monday and Tuesday after school are Staff Meeting and Staff Development times, parents/caregivers are asked not to delay or seek interviews with staff members on these days.

Sports

All children are expected and encouraged to take part. We have regular senior, middle and junior sport times where a variety of skills and wide range of sports are taught and played. We compete against other schools both during and after school but for this to be a success, we really need all the help we can get. You don’t have to be an ‘expert’ to help. Are you interested? Please let us know.

Sun Sense

We require children to be sun safe with the wearing of hats and sun block during the summer months. We make sun-cream available in all classrooms and make hats compulsory for outdoor play during terms 1 & 4.

Stationary

Some stationery items can be obtained from the school office during office hours.

Swimming

The school swimming pool is open from December – March for daily instruction as part of the school curriculum.

Trips and visits

We really appreciate support from parents/caregivers for trips outside the school. Trips and visits are an important aspect of our curriculum, providing valuable learning opportunities. 

Transport money collected for class trips is evenly distributed amongst those providing cars.

If you provide transport, a seatbelt must be worn by all pupils carried. You will be notified if trip arrangements change.

Uniform

Notification for our optional school uniform orders are sent out in the newsletter twice a term. 

In 2020 we updated our uniform tops and we think they look great.

The uniform is provided to give parents a voluntary option. We do, however, expect that our children wear our Ranzau uniform when representing the school as part of a team or going on school trips.

Year 6 Camp

Our Year 6 students attend a week long camp during Term 1. Children enjoy and value these camps. It is a great opportunity to challenge themselves in an outdoor setting.