2024 Parent Information Booklet <<< please provide the current document for us to upload here.
There is an established system working within the school, which ensures that any absence from school is accounted for. Parents/caregivers are asked to ring, email, send a message through our App, or text (027 8198039) school before 8.50am to report a student’s pending absence. At 9.00am, all teachers advise the office of any absentees, and those families who have not informed the school of absence are contacted to confirm the reasons for the absence. If parents / caregivers cannot be contacted in the event of an unknown absence, we are required to mark the child as ‘Truant’ in our attendance system. A written note/email is appreciated if parents know in advance that a student is to be absent. Once enrolled, students must attend school each day, unless they are sick or previous arrangements have been made with the Principal. Attending school every day assists a child’s on-going education.
Please see the Principal for the options available.
We have a school App that you can download from the App Store or Play Store for free. Search ‘Skool Loop’ and choose Tokomaru School once installed. Make sure you join the relevant groups within the App to ensure that you get the right notifications.
Tokomaru School is committed to ensuring that all of our students get the most out of their education and we want to support our students to maintain regular attendance. Students who attend school regularly learn more and achieve better results. We use the following figures as a guide:
Note: our attendance rates make no distinction between justified or non-justified absences. That is, having a justified sickness is still recorded as an absence.
At Tokomaru School, we: – use kind hands – use positive and encouraging language – treat others with respect – respect property – be safe and allow everyone around us to be safe. All classrooms will have on display a copy of the school Code of Conduct, as well as their own class rules or treaty. Consequences for not following the Code of Conduct will, where possible, match the behaviour ie; disrespecting property may result in picking up rubbish; damage to school property may result in a request for remuneration. In making this decision, staff will take into account the seriousness of the actions, and the age / maturity of the child. Our Restricted Playground System may be used depending on the seriousness of the situation, or issues of an ongoing nature. A Promoting Positive Behaviour Policy is in place, and can be found on our website.
The school bell times are as follows:
8:30am Classrooms open
8.55am First Bell (students in class)
9.00am School begins
11.00am Morning interval (first 5mins eating)
11.30am Interval ends
12:55pm-1:05pm Supervised Lunch Eating
1.05pm Lunch break
1.50pm Afternoon school begins
3.00pm School ends
Children are not permitted on school grounds before 8:15am. Staff are not available to supervise children until 8:30am, when children can enter their classroom (classrooms will not generally be open to students before 8:30am). Children are able to wait on the covered decks or under the bike sheds until 8:30am.
The school participates in the Scholastic Book Club and pamphlets are distributed regularly to all children. A.B.C, Lucky, Arrow and Star are now all combined into one booklet. Books must be ordered online through Scholastic’s Linked Online Ordering and Payments for Parents, or LOOP. If you need any help, please see Roxanne in the office.
It is recognised that people regularly need food and water to maintain high-level brain function. Some children eat breakfast at 7am and then our morning tea is not until 11am. We find having a Brain Food break in between that time helps to keep their brains ready to learn.
Your child’s Brain Food needs to be a small snack (fits into the palm of their hand) that can be eaten (without mess) in 3-5 minutes and is not pre-packaged.
Appropriate Brain Food could include:
Thank you for your support with this.
Bus transport for children attending Tokomaru School is provided by GoBus. Please contact the Principal for service routes, times and eligibility.
No cell phones are able to be brought to school. We appreciate that there may be times when you NEED your child to have their phone at school (ie; shared care arrangements) however, we ask that you contact us directly to discuss this ahead of time. That way we can arrange for the device to be handed in at the Office for safe-keeping. We believe this would only be on rare occasions. If you need to get a message to your child during the school day, you can text us, email us, use our Facebook messenger, send a message through the Skool Loop App or phone us (leaving a message if needed).
Parent help and assistance is both necessary and greatly appreciated with all class trips. It is expected that parents who have offered assistance stay with the class during the trip and help with supervision.Private Transport – Parent support in transport is very important, as is the safety of all our students. When parents / caregivers use private vehicles to transport students to sports, cultural or other school trips, the following guidelines apply:
Children may only be transported in vehicles carrying a current registration and W.O.F. All drivers must hold a current FULL driving licence and comply with the current Road Code. All children must wear seatbelts. Students up to the age of 7 must use a booster seat.
Please ensure that your child’s clothes are clearly named. Many items of clothing are identical or similar, and some children genuinely have difficulty in recognising their own. Encourage your children to develop a sense of self-responsibility for their clothes. Shoes/boots are not to be worn in the classrooms (but slippers may be brought to school in the colder months).
We are part of the Fitzherbert Cluster along with Aokautere, Linton Camp, Linton Country, Opiki and Turitea schools. During the year we combine and take part in sports, cultural, quiz and speech competitions etc.
As we are a full primary school, with New Entrants to Year 8 students, it is usual for a teacher to have 2 or 3 year levels in one room. This also means that a particular year level may be split between 2 teachers. At the end of the year when class lists are organised, great care is taken by staff to ensure that any year level split is sensitively done.
We consider the children’s progress, siblings, friendships, personalities, behaviour and the gender mix when determining these classes. Parents/caregivers are always welcome to discuss their child’s needs with the Principal and teacher at this time.
The Dental Van will be at the school for about 3 weeks during the year, where all school children and local pre-schoolers are seen. Once the visit date is confirmed, we’ll inform parents via Facebook, our Google Calendar and the Newsletter. Please ask Roxanne in the Office if you need to contact the Dental Therapist outside of this period.
Tokomaru School is governed by an Enrolment Scheme. A map and description of our Home Zone can be found on our App. Further Information Here
You can follow us on Facebook. We post regular updates and important reminders. It’s also a great way to encourage extended family members to keep in touch with what we are up to.
Our website is also a useful place to see what’s coming up, on the “News & Events?” tab. We also use the App ‘Seesaw’ to connect with our parents on a weekly basis. See your child’s teacher to sign up for the updates.
Parents/caregivers are requested to show their completed and signed (by their Doctor) immunisation form on entry to school. A medical room is available, and suitable medical supplies are kept at school. Please advise us of children requiring regular medication, or for whom allergy medication is to be kept at school – you will be required to complete an ‘Administering Medication Form’. There are school guidelines on headlice, and procedures are in place to inform the parents of affected children. Parents/caregivers will be informed if we are concerned about the health or accidental injury of your child.
Homework at all levels throughout the school is encouraged where appropriate. Work set usually complements what is happening in the classroom and is relevant to the programmes of work and level of achievement of the individual student. For more detailed information, please refer to our school Home Learning Policy, or see your child’s teacher.
Thanks to Sanitarium and Fonterra, Weetbix and milk will be available free to all students every school day from 8.30-8:50am in the Staffroom. We have Breakfast Buddies who wear red vests before school; they are easily identified by the children and are there to help prepare breakfast for those who want it.
Our school has a comprehensive and extensive collection of books, both fiction and non-fiction, and is situated in the main block. Classes visit the library each week, and each student may borrow books to take home for up to 2 weeks (see your child’s teacher for their rules around issuing). Tokomaru Early Childhood Centre also use our school library on a weekly basis.
Damaged books should be returned to school for appropriate mending. Students will be charged for lost or damaged library books. Please do not mend books at home. We are always looking for parent helpers to tidy the shelves and return books. If you are interested in helping (even only every now-and-then) please see Sonia or Katrina.
We are a ‘water only’ school, and have compost collections in each classroom. In order to reduce the amount of waste we create, we recycle paper/plastic/glass throughout the school as well. We also reuse or repurpose what we can. (Home and School now use reuseable plastic bowls and cups for Variety Morning Teas in order to minimise the wastage and cost of throw-away items). This has had a positive impact in reducing the amount of rubbish we have to pay to get rid of, and we are proud to be doing our part for the environment.
As our school has grown, so too has the waste from lunch boxes. In order to reduce this (and to continue to promote healthy choices) we ask that children take their food wrappers / bags / packets home in their lunchbox every day. This means that parents are able to see what they eat and don’t eat, as well as helping us out as a school. If any child does not have a lunch box, they will need to bring a bag to put their morning tea/brain food wrappers into (before putting it back in their school bag).
Sweets, lollies and chewing/bubble gum etc of any kind are NOT to be brought to school. If any of these items are brought to school, they will be held by the Office until a parent can collect them.
Any un-named clothing found at school is kept in a lost property basket outside the main entry. Students are encouraged to look for lost clothing themselves, and named labels greatly assist the process of returning items to their owners. Lost property, which is not claimed, is given to charity at the end of each term.
Tokomaru School are now part of the Government’s healthy lunch programme Ka Ora, Ka Ako. A free lunch is provided for each of our students every school day. You will not need to send a lunch to school with your child. You will only need to send along their water bottle, brain food and morning tea snack each day (in a suitable container).
Ocean Beach Eatery (OBE) are our supplier, and on enrolment you will be asked to provide dietary requirements for your child which will be passed on to OBE. The menus each week are posted on our school Facebook page, and also displayed in classrooms. If you have any questions about the lunch programme, please speak to Roxanne in the Office.
We also run a ‘Variety Morning Tea’ fundraiser each Friday. All proceeds from this go to our whole school, end-of-year fun day. Order forms are sent home at the start of each term for you to pre-order the items you wish a term in advance. Please see Roxanne in the Office for further details.
Mana Rail is our all-inclusive term that encompasses all the teaching initiatives, pedagogies, cultural competencies, and our commitment to Te Tiriti o Waitangi. It also includes our School Values, Learner Pathway, Localised Curriculum and NZ History, as well as our Hauora programmes.
We envisage it increasing our students’ mana, wellbeing, resilience, and belief in themselves as learners.
Students are encouraged NOT to bring money to school unless it is for a particular purpose. This money should be in a sealed and named envelope, and taken to the office. If you need to pay for items such as Home Reading Diaries, Sunhats or Variety Morning Tea, we would prefer that you do this via Internet Banking (no matter how small the transaction). Our details are below.
School bank details – Tokomaru School BOT – ASB -12-3143-0428358-00
Please note: Home & School Association has a different account number to this one.
A newsletter is emailed to all families fortnightly on a Thursday. Please read it. They are a handy reference for upcoming activities. If you would prefer to have a paper copy sent home, please let us know. If you have any items you would like included in the Newsletter, please contact the Office at office@tokomaru.school.nz. Please understand that school news is our priority. We will endeavour to publish your notice as soon as possible, but only provided we have room to do so.
Our newsletter is also online at the link above – we encourage you to download our school app. There is also an online Google calendar on our on our News & Events page.
If a parent has a concern about any school issue they should:
Approach the class teacher in the first instance.
If the parent remains dissatisfied, then the Principal should be contacted and an appointment made to see her.
The Board of Trustees should be contacted only if matters cannot be resolved with either classroom teachers or the school Principal. See our Complaints Procedure/Policy. Click Here
Parents are welcome at school and are encouraged to participate in many of our school activities. If parents wish to contact the class teacher for student related matters it is requested that this be done outside classroom hours. Email is a great way of making contact if you cannot get into school on a regular basis.
A number of school policies have been developed and approved by the Board of Trustees. These are available for perusal in the Principal’s office. As each Policy / Procedure is reviewed and approved by the Board it is uploaded / updated at the link above.
Teachers and parents both have an opportunity to request interviews at any time, but there are formal Parent/Teacher/Pupil Conferences scheduled during Term 1 and 3. A report is sent home at the end of Term 2, and again at the end of the year for Year 4 – 8 students. Year 1 – 3 students will receive their reports on their anniversary (After 1, 2 and 3 years at school).
Though the school is accessed through an underpass, we remain concerned about the busy road at our front boundary. Students are prohibited from using the road coming to, or leaving the school. Car parks are available on Tokomaru East Road or in the Hall Carpark for this purpose. For your child’s safety, we strongly encourage parents/caregivers to use either of these car parks.
Riding to School – Students may ride their bikes to school as long as they:
Since 2014, the Board of Trustees has not asked parents/caregivers for a school donation. A “zero” donation policy was adopted. The Board of Trustees once again opted into the Government Donations Scheme (which gives us additional funding that we might have got through asking for Parent Donations).
Tokomaru School is a smoke free zone and smoking is prohibited anywhere on the school grounds. This includes vaping.
Kiwisport, Swimming, Cross-country and Athletics are all included in our programme. Where possible and when numbers permit, the school has sports teams. If we cannot cater for a team that your child is interested in we will do our utmost to arrange a placement in a team from another school. Those wanting to play Rugby or Football usually join Linton, Shannon or a Palmerston North club. Parent/caregiver participation is vital in our sports programme, as travel is always a factor. We encourage parents/caregiver’s interest and participation in school life and we are grateful for the number of parents/caregivers who coach our teams and all those who provide transport or go to games to support and encourage our students.
Students are expected to have suitable clothing for P.E. and school sports. During Winter, students should have old clothes for playing on fields when weather permits. When representing the school, such as interschool, sports or cultural events, students are expected to wear the Tokomaru t-shirts and shorts (which we provide on loan).
The pool is normally available for swimming from January to mid-March, and then again in November-December (if funding allows). Each class has regular daily swimming, and students are required to participate. If there is a reason for non-participation, a note is required. Classes may make use of the other local pools to participate in aquatics programmes, or we may have instructors come to our pool.
At the end of each year, or when a new student is enrolled, you will be given a list of what stationery is needed. Book packs (containing the books/scrapbooks/etc for the year) are made up for us by Office Products Depot (OPD) in Palmerston North, and therefore need to be purchased there. Other items, such as whiteboard pens/pens/pencils/rulers etc can be purchased from a supplier of your choice, or you may purchase the ‘pen packs’ available via OPD. Online ordering of stationery is also available and all details can be obtained from the school office, our website or our App.
The school has a Sun Smart Policy – students (and teachers) must wear a sun hat during Term 1 and Term 4. We have a supply of red bucket style sunhats with the school logo printed on. In the past the hats have been kindly paid for by the Home and School Association. From now on each new enrolment (any year level) is asked to buy their own hat for $20 (that will then be named, but still stay at school). Hats will be given out at the start of Term 1 and 4, and returned at the end of each of these terms, to be cleaned and stored. Hats do not go home. There will be a replacement cost to parents of $20 if the hat is lost or damaged.
The school staff can call on several different support services for advice and assistance, where necessary. If parents/caregivers have concerns about their child(ren), then they can make direct contact themselves or through school. We also have a useful document, ‘RTLB Referral Process’ that shows the process we follow to access support or advice for a child. Please see your child’s teacher or the Principal for a copy.
The Year 7 & 8 students attend Technology classes at Monrad Intermediate in Palmerston North. During the year they work on six technological areas of Music, Science, Hard Materials, Structures and Mechanisms, Food/Bio Tech and Soft Materials. Transport is by bus, which is provided free of charge. The Technology day is Wednesday, with 2 sessions.
11.45am-12.45pm - 1 hour - Session 1
12.55pm - 1.45pm - 50mins - Session 2
New phone rules are being implemented due to all state schools and kura now required to have student phone rules in place as soon as possible. Tokomaru School has always had rules around phones needing to be handed in to the office at the beginning of the day and collected at 3pm. This will continue until the new policy is developed and consulted on.
TECC is a community based, teacher led childhood centre catering for children aged 2 – 6 years, on the same site as our school. They are licensed for a maximum of 28 children and offer 20 Free ECE hours for children 3 and above (T’s & C’s Apply). Having TECC so close to us allows for great connections to be made between the teachers and the students. TECC use our school library and playgrounds, as well as having contact with our New Entrant class on a regular basis. Transition to school has never been easier.
While it is exciting for children to bring and share toys at school, it’s often a distraction to learning, and can be an interruption when toys go missing or get broken. We therefore ask that NO TOYS come to school unless they are needed/requested by the class teacher as part of your child’s learning.
Tokomaru School does not have a compulsory school uniform, but we do have school t-shirts and shorts, which students are given to wear on school trips. We also have school jackets that can be borrowed by students when representing the school, and black caps for selected sporting events.
Please see the ‘Lunches’ section for details about this programme.
Since the start of 2017, Tokomaru has been a ‘water only’ school. We really care about the health of our students and their achievement, and we are committed to this change. This means that children are NOT able to order juice/fizzy etc from the dairy for their lunch, nor are they able to bring juice/fizzy from home (if any of these items are found, they will be confiscated and collected by a parent from the office). We encourage children to have their own water bottle (filled with water only) to bring to school each day. There are two filtered water bottle filling stations for children to re-fill their bottles during the day. All new enrolments are offered a free school water bottle. These are kindly sponsored by our local real estate agent, Sandra van Toor.
Between 8am-3:30pm the school rules around scooters, bikes, skateboards (all wheels) apply:
Wheels area: The scooter area is from scooter rack (outside Room 3/4) to the basketball area and lower tennis court (not along front of Room 1/2/Library block). Children cannot scooter around the ‘eating area’ or from the ‘eating area’ up to the scooter rack. The court areas can only be used by wheels if no other children are already playing there with PE Gear. The new concrete/limestone path is available for bikes/scooters etc around the field. Children must walk their bikes from the ‘eating area’ to the path alongside the pool before mounting and carrying onto the limestone path on the field by TECC (or enter the path beside the PE shed from the ‘eating area’ end).
Maintenance of the school grounds cannot always be completed within the caretaking hours available to us, therefore from time to time, working bees are arranged to help with the upkeep of the grounds and buildings e.g. gardens, play equipment, bark areas and guttering. If you can help out at any time, please let us know. All assistance is appreciated.
Please feel free to contact the school if you have any further questions.
Parents, please support our local businesses
Call Direct
Send Email
Visit Website
Call Direct
Send Email
Visit Website
Scan this code to download the app
Download our Skool Loop App, a simple and free download. In Google Play & App Store search ‘Skool Loop’ and choose our school once installed.
