Koraunui School is a state, co-educational contributing primary school located in Stokes Valley, Lower Hutt. We have classes for students in Years 0 to 6 who are aged between 5 and 11 years. Our whanau classes cater to all year levels throughout the school.
Over the years you will hear more about our behaviour plan. We are using KORAU as our means to focus this.
K Kind We show Kindness to people and the environment.
O Own We Own our own behaviour.
R Respect We Respect the rules, people, and the school.
A Aspire We do quality work and strive for excellence.
U Unite We work as a team / whanau. We are inclusive.
Strengthening New Zealand through Choice Theory
Koraunui School has been providing training for its staff for the past 10 years, with Maggie Bolton taking all the training. A story about Norah Jennings' classroom can be viewed by logging into the blog 'Choice Theory in New Zealand.'
Koraunui was one of the schools featured in an article published in the William Glasser Institute USA newsletters in 2011.
William Glasser Institute NZ
Choice Theory: This School’s Bedrock
As a school, we seek to empower both children and adults to take positive control of their lives by developing effective relationships with friends, family and the school community. The staff constantly strive to model how to connect with each other in positive ways. We use the work of Dr William Glasser, Choice Theory/Reality Therapy, to help us.
The following information attempts to give the briefest synopsis of this approach. It is not possible to use such a small space to explain William Glasser’s theory of how and why humans operate the way they do in this very complex world.
If you would like more information, and we encourage you to seek it, ask anyone employed by the school and they will point you in the right direction.
Choice Theory explains how and why we as humans choose behaviours to effectively meet our needs. It reasons that successful people are self-managing and internally motivated mainly because they have learnt to get along with others in effective, meaningful ways.
In contrast to this, it also explains why unhappy people expect to be managed by others and expect that events beyond their control manage them (external control).
There are four main components to Choice Theory/Reality Therapy; Basic Needs, Quality World, Perceptual System and Total Behaviour
External versus internal control
Because of our knowledge of Choice Theory, we understand that the only person we can control is our self. All behaviour is chosen. The outcomes of any behaviour we choose are our own responsibility.
When external control is used, there will be attempts to control the way we dress, think and behave and to control our beliefs by; coercion, threatening, bribing, engendering fear, withholding, and demeaning. The result of this type of culture will inevitably create an environment of conflict and blame, which in turn allows the responsible party to pass the ‘fault’ on to others, unchallenged.
At Koraunui we believe that in building stable, trusting relationships we will enhance children’s learning by encouraging, supporting, accepting our various ideas, caring and listening. By doing this ourselves and giving the children opportunities to practise in a safe, non-judgemental environment, our children will not only be able to forge positive, responsible connections in the future but become self-motivated, independent learners.
Responsibility for, and the resolution of, conflict lies with those immediately involved.
Encouraging honesty and self-reflection by those who work, learn, lead and model in the school, help us all to flourish in a positive and caring environment.
We are a ‘work in progress’, with all staff working hard to change lifetime ‘disconnecting’ habits and learning to apply Dr Glasser’s approach consistently.
We are delighted to welcome you and your child on this journey!
Koraunui School was established in 2005 after the merger of Kamahi and Stokes Valley Schools and resides on the original Stokes Valley School site.
The roll currently ranges between 160 to 200 students. Koraunui school is not currently subject to zoning.
Welcome to Koraunui School. Nau mai, hoki mai. Nau mai, haere mai.
We encourage you to visit our school before enrolling your child. Please phone the office and make an appointment.
For New Entrants, before your child starts school, we have found it beneficial for him/her to have at least five visits to the classroom. We are flexible about length of visits and parents staying for part or all of the visits. We follow the needs of the child. By visit four, it is appropriate for you to leave your child at school alone for their visit, to encourage their independence. Times for visits will be organised between you and the New Entrant teachers.
We are never too busy to talk to parents so please approach us at school, or phone if you wish to chat about something concerning your child. Our Principal, David Lamont, is more than happy to meet with you.
This booklet is designed to help you and your family settle into our school.
Nā matou noa Te Whānau o Koraunui
Sun Protection
Children/Tamariki are required to wear sun hats in the playground during Terms One and Four. Terms Two and Three are hat-free to encourage Vitamin D absorption from the sun during the winter months. All children need to bring a named hat to school each day. Parents need to sunblock their children before they come to school in the summer months.
Drink and Food
We encourage tamariki to bring a drink bottle of water and nutritious food to last the day. Please let the office and your child’s teacher know about any known allergies or intolerances to food and drink that we need to be aware of. We discourage sweets or lollies. But we also discourage any food that is made using food colouring, particularly orange or red. Your child will be asked not to eat these
and to take them home. (For example; Twisties, Strings, Rashuns.)
We are a water only school. Please refrain from sending cordials, fizzy drinks and energy drinks as they will be sent home.
As we are an “Enviroschool”’ we encourage the use of less packaging
Medication
If your child requires medication at school, please notify the office. This includes asthma inhalers, courses of medication, epi-pens etc. You will be asked to fill in a permission form for us to administer the medication involved. Any medication, including inhalers, will be kept at the office. We can refrigerate medicines that require this.
Money
If you are sending money to school, please put it in an envelope with your child’s name, room number and purpose of the money, and put it in the cream post box, just inside the office foyer to the left.
To save you the hassle of finding change, there is the option for a sum of money to be kept at the office to pay for incidentals etc. Talk to the office staff if you need any further information about this.
We are able to offer eftpos on site.
Bank deposit is available using our school account number. Please use the childs name and reason in the reference fields.
Clothes
It is a good idea for your child to have a change of clothes in their bag in case of accidents or muddy/wet play. Please name your child’s clothes; it helps us re-unite your child with their belongings. Lost property will be kept in the school office.
Toys, Cell Phones, Devices, Scooters etc
In general there should not be any toys brought from home unless there is a special reason that your child’s teacher has informed you of. It is important to note that school staff will take no responsibility for broken or lost property. Should children bring items that have not been requested and/or are disturbing the learning process, staff will look after them until a parent/caregiver collects them.
Cell phones can only be brought to school if they are necessary for parent/child communication. Cell phones must be handed in to the office for safe-keeping on your child’s arrival to school. Devices etc are to be left at home.
Koraunui is not a BYOD (bring your own device) school, although some teachers may invite this in writing to you. If this is the case, BYODs are brought to school at the risk of the owner and only with parental permission for this specific notified purpose.
Scooters used unsafely will be put in the office area until home time.
We welcome parent and community help in many ways. If you would like to be involved with any of the following activities, please let the classroom teacher know or send us a message.
CAN YOU HELP?
The mornings before school starts are really busy for staff. We have a Breakfast Club available to children from 8.00-8.30am each day. Help is needed to run this.
We also need people on the school crossings to see children over the busy roads safely each morning between 8.00-8.30am. If so, can you help?
Community Tutor Reading
We are in need of some people to help take Community Tutor Reading again this year. If you can spare an hour and a quarter a week to listen to children read, you will read with five individuals for 15 minutes each, please leave a message for Denise Silk-Martelli and she will get back to you. It is so exciting to see how successful the programme can be
We have 2 spaces for tutors on Monday, 2 on Wednesday and 3 on Thursday. We would love for some help to fill these spots. If you are able to spare 1 ¼ hours once a week to read with our tamariki please leave a message at the office or contact for , who will get back to you.
Other ways to help
- Helping with supervision on class trips
- Listening to children reading
- Shelving reading material
- Cooking with small groups of children
- Art work with a small group
- If you have any skills or interests you would like to share, we would love to hear from you.
School Hours
School Area | Monday | Tuesday | Wednesday | Thursday | Friday |
---|---|---|---|---|---|
Classes | 8.30am - 3pm | 8.30am - 3pm | 8.30am - 2pm | 8.30am - 3pm | 8.30am - 2pm |
Study Centre | 3 - 4.00pm | 3 - 4.00pm | 2 - 3.00pm | 3 - 4.00pm | Closed |
Breakfast Club | 8 - 8.30am | 8 - 8.30am | 8 - 8.30am | 8 - 8.30am | 8 - 8.30am |
2pm Club | Closed | Closed | 2 - 3pm | Closed | 2 - 3pm |
KCC Before School Care | 7 - 8.15am | 7 - 8.15am | 7 - 8.15am | 7 - 8.15am | 7 - 8.15am |
KCC After School Care | 3 - 5.45pm | 3 - 5.45pm | 2 - 5.45pm | 3 - 5.45pm | 2 - 5.45pm |
Te timatatanga o te Kura/Beginning School
Our school day is from:
8:30am – 3:00pm, Monday, Tuesday and Thursday.
8:30am - 2:00pm, Wednesday and Friday.
You can help your child settle into school by arriving at least 10 minutes before school starts. This enables children to unpack their bags and say ‘Kia ora’ to their friends.
If children are late arriving at school they need to go to the office before they go to class so they can be recorded as being at school and to receive late slip for their teacher.
Wā Taka/Timing of the day (in general)
8:00am | Children are able to come into the classroom |
8:30am | Start of the school day |
10:00am | Morning tea begins |
10:30am | Class Time |
12:30pm | Lunch break begins (children sit to eat for 15 minutes) |
1:30pm | Class time |
2:00 or 3:00pm | School Finishes at 3:00pm, Monday, Tuesday and Thursday and 2:00pm on Wednesday and Friday. |
There are sometimes fruit breaks within sessions. |
Absences
If your child is to be absent, please phone the school or use the form on this website before 8.30 am to notify us. After this time school will endeavour to contact you to check that you are aware your child is not at school. This is a safety measure.
Should there be any change to your contact details please notify the school office immediately so we can update our records.
We do keep records of times children arrive at school as continual lateness impacts on learning.
We work hard to balance the classes across the school as well as maintaining the smallest possible class numbers.
We are looking forward to an exciting year in 2024. We have many plans in place already to provide the children with stimulating and engaging learning opportunities as well as planned staff development so we can continue to improve our teaching practise.
Thank you to parents and whanau who have supported the children in their learning and the staff in the work we do at Koraunui School.
Room |
Year Level |
Teacher |
23 |
Year 0 and 1 |
Maria Joe |
4 |
Year 1, 2 and 3 |
Dale Ritossa |
5 |
Year 1, 2 and 3 |
Tim Rhoades |
Room |
Year Level |
Teacher |
7 |
Year 4, 5 and 6 |
Lily Crandall |
8 |
Year 0, 1, 2 and 3 |
Ana Kawenga |
9 |
Year 4, 5 and 6 |
Liz Raimona |
10 |
Year 0, 1, 2 and 3 |
Ruiha Maiava |
Room | Year Level | Teacher |
13 |
5 and 6 |
Craig Gilmour |
14 |
Year 4 |
Ceri Giddens |
15 |
Year 5 and 6 |
Liz Raimona |