Te Hihi School Newsletter

School News

Electronic Newsletter
Unfortunately, some parents did not receive our newsletter when it was emailed to them last week.  We believe that those affected have an Xtra email address.  I have been onto Xtra this morning and they "assure" me that the problem lies with the spam settings Xtra customers set.  Therefore, could you please check your email settings and contact me at This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it if you continue to not receive our newsletter via email.  I will then contact Xtra again to try to remedy the problem.

Up-coming Events
The school has our calendar hosted by Google.  The settings for this have been set to public so that anyone in the world can see them.  If you are unable to view the calendar, either via the school's website or by following the link to the left, please contact the office.

Meet the Teacher Evening
Thanks to all who came along last Thursday.  Hopefully you found the evening enjoyable and informative.  If you are unsure about anything, please remember to contact your child's teacher first.

Student Contact Details
Today your child will bring home with them a copy of the contact details we have for you.  Could you please ensure that these are correct, making any changes required, and send back to school.  Every child that returns their form this week receives two House points but as an extra bonus, those who return them tomorrow will receive four House points.

The Minstrel Show
On Thursday at 1:15 p.m. in the school hall we will be hosting The Minstrel Show. The Minstrel last visited Te Hihi five years ago and the children all thoroughly enjoyed his show which is fun, educational and interactive.  The cost is $3.00 per child to be paid to the classroom teacher by Thursday.

Musical Instrument
Your child can have Piano, Keyboard and Guitar Lessons during school time. These are individual lessons run by N.Z Modern School Of Music.  If you would like more information on this please contact Wendy on  09 2364300, 021 1576664 or This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it Guitar, Nick on  09 2969232 or 021 2200636.

Reading Mileage
Reading mileage is a support programme run by parents.  It involves listening to children read three mornings a week from 8:45 am - 9:30 am and is held in the school library. We are presently looking for parents who are willing to join this group to help our children's reading. If you are available and willing, please contact Tessa Gasson (Ph 09 235 3744) or Cathie Newton.

National Standards
As you will be aware from the publicity in the media recently, National Standards are to be introduced into New Zealand schools from this year.  This is a National Party policy to lift the tail of achievement.  However, where this has been implemented overseas there has been no increase in achievement and those countries are now desperately trying to remove such policies from their education system.

Further, the statistics published in the media are misleading and leading academics have challenged our government over them.  New Zealand's education system is regarded as world leading.  Against all OECD countries, New Zealand is rated 6th in Mathematics, 4th in Reading and 3rd in Science in international studies.  Such results don't signal a system in crisis and a knee-jerk policy such as National Standards will only be detrimental to it.

At Te Hihi we do set expectations that our children will achieve at or above national norms.  At the end of last year we were very close to achieving 100% across all year levels in reading and maths.  If properly constructed standards were set, I am very confident that Te Hihi students would achieve them and this was backed up when ERO visited last year.  The National Standards have no research base supporting them and are open to such broad interpretation that they are anything but standard.  Some parents believe that National Standards equals tests; they don't and the data can be easily manipulated to suit the school.

The government also says that the standards are about reporting to parents in plain English.  I totally support this notion and our report format meets the criteria that has been set.  Further, the assessment tools that we use provide much better information on what your child can do and where their next learning steps are than the standards will ever provide.

I do not believe that continual measuring of achievement raises achievement.  Over the past four years Te Hihi teachers have been involved in professional development programmes which have a proven record of raising student achievement and I firmly believe that it should be these such initiatives where tax payer money is spent to raise achievement.  Currently, the teachers' union, NZEI, is running a campaign asking for the standards to be trialled.  If you would like to support this call, there is a petition in the school office foyer that I invite you to sign.

Kevin Bush
Principal

FOTHS

The FOTHS first meeting for 2010 is this Thursday 18th February. We warmly invite all parents interested in helping our school to come along especially to new parents of the school this is a great way to meet people in our school community. 7:30pm in the Staffroom.

Community News