Useful Every-day Information

The School Day

The first bell rings at 8.30 a.m., which is when our children are officially able to come on to the school site. (If children do arrive before 8.30 a.m. it is fine for them to play on the school's courts, however the school is not legally responsible for them until 8.30 a.m.) Parents are encouraged to use the Before-School Care facility if they need to drop children at school early.
The school learning day starts at 8.55 a.m. and it is a great idea to have your child at school before this bell goes. Late arrivals must report to the office.
The first learning block goes through until 10.50 a.m. when the whole school stops for "supervised eating". This is a 10 minute period where each child is encouraged to eat their morning tea. Following this, there is a 20 minute "play" time.
The second learning block starts with a bell at 11.20 and goes through to 12.50, where we break again for supervised eating of lunch, followed by a 40 minute play period.
The afternoon learning block starts at 1.40 p.m. and finishes with a school bell at 3.00 p.m.

Please note: On Tuesdays the school learning day starts at 9:15am due to staff training

Pick-Up at the end of the school day

School finishes for the day at 3.00 p.m. and parents are most welcome to come on to the school site to meet their children. Alternatively many parents pick children up at various points around the school boundary e.g. the gate on Red Beach Road, the path on to Lucy Foster Lane. As a general rule, children who are not picked up by 3.15 p.m. are "gathered up" and asked to wait at the office. This is so that we can guarantee their safety. We do supervise children when parents are late to pick them up on the odd occasion, but do discourage this from happening regularly.

Parking outside the school gate

As we do have over 500 families at the school, parking outside the school gate can easily become a problem. Parents are not permitted to park in the staff carparks, inside the school boundary. (The parents from our Special Needs Unit are exempt from this as they need to drive right up to Motuora's door). The immediate area outside the school on Albert Hall Drive is a P2 area, which means you may only park here for 2 minutes during the hours of 8.30 a.m. to 9.00 a.m. and 2.45 p.m. to 3.15 p.m. (Drop off and pick up only). This system works very well when everyone works together.

Absences

It is a Ministry of Education requirement that all children attend school. Therefore in the event of your child being unwell, you need to inform the school either by telling the teacher or leaving a message on the phone system. This is cleared daily. Attendance is monitored twice a day and if not explained can become a real issue for the school. We do let parents know when their child's attendance is less than 90%, just so to keep everyone informed. Lateness is counted as an absence.

Emergency Contacts

It is very important that the school is informed of who to contact should parents not be available, in the unlikely event of an emergency. Please keep this information up to date.

Riding Bikes and Scooters to School

We encourage as many children as possible to walk, ride or scoot to school as a great way of keeping active and also alleviating the pressure on cars at the gate. Children are permitted to ride to school at any age although the Police recommend the children be at least 10 years of age. ALL children who ride to school must have a parental permission filled in by their parents.

School Assemblies

Every alternate Friday at 9.10 a.m. we hold a school assembly, where the whole school meet together to celebrate each other's learning and engage in some sort of presentation. Each school community which is usually a group of 4 classes takes a turn at organizing the assembly. Parents are most welcome to attend and indeed we are very lucky that many do. Parents and visitors are asked to be seated at the back of the Hall to allow space for the whole school to fit in. Principals Awards for at least one child in each class are presented at each assembly.

Mufti Days

Periodically the school holds a "Mufti Day". This is when the children can wear their regular clothes rather than school uniform, paying usually a gold coin donation for this opportunity. A Mufti Day is usually held for a particular fundraising reason. We always hold 4 of them just prior to the school's Gala Day in November as part of the build up to the Gala. Mufti Days are however optional, if parents do not want their child to participate then that is absolutely fine.

School Stationery

The school outsources its stationery requirements to Paper Plus in Orewa. At the beginning of the school year, we issue stationery lists so that parents can make these purchases before school starts for the year. Library bags and book bags however are now housed by the school and can be purchased at the Office counter.

Lost Property

Unfortunately small children do lose their belongings , so the school stores all lost property in a purpose built alcove under the stairwell to the Room 12-16 classrooms. From time to time parent volunteers sort out these items and if named return them to the child's class. Parents are most welcome to come in any time and look through what is left behind.

SunSmart School

Red Beach School is a sunsmart school. This means that in Term 1 and 4, we adopt a "no hat no play" policy. The children must wear a Red Beach School uniform bucket hat at all times when they are outside in the sunshine.