St Michael’s term dates are those set by the Ministry of Education for Primary schools in New Zealand. The dates for 2010 are:

Term 1 Friday 5 February – Thursday 1 April
Term 2 Monday 19 April – Friday 2 July
Term 3 Monday 19 July – Friday 24 September
Term 4 Monday 11 October – Monday 20 December


School hours are: 8.50am – 2.55pm
Office hours are: 8.30am – 4.00pm






During the term, the following days will be observed as Public holidays and children will not attend school:

Good Friday: Friday 2 April
Easter Monday: Monday 5 April
Easter Tuesday: Tuesday 6 April
Queen’s Birthday: Monday 7 June
Labour Day: Monday 25 October






8.30am children may enter classrooms
8.50am bell for children to line up, school day begins
10.30am morning tea break
10.50am classes resume
12.30pm lunch time
1.25pm hand bell, return PE gear to shed
1.30pm line up for afternoon classes
2.55pm school day ends
3.15pm report to office bell (for children yet to be picked up)


• Please endeavour to have your child at school before the 8.50am bell to prepare for his/her day’s learning.
• Encourage your child to learn self organisational skills for his/her personal property as a preparation for each day
• Children are not permitted to leave the school grounds unless accompanied by a parent/caregiver. Permission needs to be obtained from the school before a child leaves.






Absences

If for some reason your child cannot attend school on a given day, please notify the school by note, telephone message or email before 8.50am on that day. Ph: 520 0933, or email: secretary@smcs.school.nz.

At 8.55am each morning the Register of Attendance is called to ensure all children are accounted for. The names of absent children are then sent to the office to be checked, and if absences are unexplained parents will be contacted. The Register of Attendance is called again after lunch at 1.30pm.

If your child is to be absent for a longer period of time please contact the Principal in writing.

Signing in/out Register

This register is held in the office and must be filled in when children arrive late, go home sick or leave for an appointment during the day.





St Michael’s School operates a syndicate system. The Junior Syndicate comprises years 0-3 and the Senior Syndicate years 4-6. The Junior syndicate is headed by the Deputy Principal and the Senior syndicate by a senior teacher. The Junior and Senior syndicates are also defined by the classrooms they are allocated to. The original building is generally home to the senior children, and the newer school building is generally home to the junior children.

Phoebe Cunningham Tyler Senior Teacher Louise Campbell Deputy Principal

Houses

In 2008 a ‘House’ system was introduced to foster stronger relationships between age groups of children.

The four houses and their representative colours are:
Cluny – Blue House    Pompallier – Yellow House
Patrick – Green House    MacKillop – Red House

Each of the house names has significance to St Michael’s.
Cluny – the congregation of Sisters of Saint Joseph of Cluny was founded in 1807. St Michael’s has a close association with Cluny kindergarten.
Pompallier – Jean Baptiste Francios Pompallier arrived in NZ in 1838 and worked for 30 years bringing the Catholic faith to New Zealanders.
MacKillop – Mary MacKillop was an Australian nun and together with Father Woods founded the Sisters of St Joseph of the Sacred Heart.
Patrick – St Patrick was born in Scotland in 385 AD and was taken to Ireland as a boy. He preached the gospel for over 40 years.

The houses will cover all age groups of children with older children developing leadership skills through role modelling to, caring for our younger children. All children will be encouraged to strongly support their ‘House’. All children are assigned a house and siblings will share the same house. Children are asked to please wear either a T-shirt or polar fleece of the appropriate colour and their St Michael’s sports shorts for sports events.

House Points and Leaders

House points are awarded in two different ways: Sports points: at each of the three major school sporting events (swimming, cross country & athletics) points are awarded. Class points: points are awarded within each class on a weekly basis. A House points table will be displayed on the senior notice board. At the end of the year cups are presented to the winning houses. Students from year 6 are chosen to be house leaders.









Newsletters

A fortnightly school newsletter is uploaded to the website on the 'Events & Notices' page on a Thursday. Newsletters are designed to keep parents informed about school, including Parish activities. Other notices will go home in your child’s red ‘notice folder’. A hard copy of the fortnightly newsletter is available on request through the school office.

Open Door Policy

Parents/caregivers are most welcome to discuss their child’s progress or other important information throughout the year. In the first instance teachers should be approached, then the syndicate leader, then the Principal. As teachers are very busy, meetings should be organised at a mutually agreed appointment time, after school hours. Likewise, teachers will contact parents for an appointment if there are aspects of a child’s progress which need to be discussed further.

Term Calendar

At the start of each term a Calendar will be sent home to each family. The Calendar will list each significant school, Parish, PTA and BOT event for the term. The calendar is also available to download from the website on the 'Events & Notices' page.

Notice Boards

Notice boards are located in the senior and junior block. All current school newsletters, sports notices, updates from the PTA and BOT, term calendar and community information are on display. Copies of newsletters, sports notices and lunch order menus can be found in the plastic display holders on the senior noticeboard.

Full Year
Year 0 - Year 6 students:	$1336.00 + $250.00
Building Fund
Breakdown
Per pupil per term *	Term 1 only **
$150.00 General Purpose	$16.00 RE Digital Resource
$ 87.50 Attendance Dues	$60.00 Activities *
$ 10.00 Special Character	$30.00 Mathletics
$ 60.00 Computers
$307.50
* Amounts will be calculated proportionately for children starting throughout the term
** Pupils starting in Terms 2, 3 or 4 will pay these amounts on commencement of school.
$250.00 per year contribution to Building Fund

General Purpose

In general terms the Board of Trustees use the general purpose contributions to employ additional teaching resources and to ensure that each classroom is appropriately resourced in its curriculum requirements. For 2009 the additional teaching resources are:

• Learning Support (additional to Ministry of Education funding)
• Library Support
• Reading Recovery (additional to Ministry of Education funding)
• Deputy Principal & Senior Teacher/DRS/SENCO release
• Learning Enrichment
• Maths Consultant
• Literacy Consultant
• Teacher’s Professional Development


Catholic Schools Office

The $85.00 attendance dues paid to the Catholic Schools Office is for the repayment of building loans on the Catholic Schools in the Auckland Diocese, the general upgrade and insurance of school buildings and administration of the CSO. The $10.00 Special Character contribution is used for religious teaching coordination in schools. The $10.00 CSO Loan is collected on behalf of the CSO for the Auckland Diocese.

All amounts are collected by St Michael’s as an agent and are passed directly through to the CSO. All Catholic Schools throughout New Zealand are subject to the same charges. These dues are compulsory as part of your commitment to catholic education.

Computers

The $30.00 amount per term for computers pays for the lease of 55 computers. St Michael’s is aiming to provide a ratio of 1:5 computers in 2009.

Building Fund

The purpose of this fund is to enable further development of St Michael’s Catholic School. As St Michael’s is an integrated school, it will be the Bishop of Auckland (effectively as trustee for the Parish) to whom any payments to the building fund will be treated as being made. Currently the building fund is being put towards a school hall. This contribution is voluntary.

Activities

An amount of $60.00 is charged for the activities for the year. This covers the cost of performers visiting the school and trips and activities throughout the year.

Payment

Yearly accounts are posted to every family in Term 1. Financial contributions may be paid per term, or for the full year by credit card, cheque or by automatic payment spread over 12 months.