Government Policies in the Headlines

No doubt you will have seen the headlines about 2 policies impacting schools this year - cellphones, and teaching an hour of reading, writing and maths each day.

• Cellphones

The Terrace is well placed in our systems around cellphones. There is no change to what we do.

Year 1 to 6 students are not to bring cellphones, or smart watches, to school.

Year 7 and 8 students, if families would like students to bring cellphones, they must be kept in their bag and not used during class or break times. On occasion the intermediate teachers may allow students to use their phones for a learning task. Students will be clearly directed about this. 

Should your child need access to a cellphone for a medical or exceptional reason, please contact the principal directly so we can set up a plan.

In the information packs that we shared at the whanau connect conferences you will have received details about our expectations for device use at TTS. Please make sure you have read these. 

• Teaching an hour of reading, writing and maths

The Terrace School is in a perfect position for this regulation, already delivering at least an hour of reading, writing and maths each day. 

Generally speaking, our mornings from 8.55 am to 12.25pm - a total of 3 hours and 10 minutes are devoted school wide to teaching the literacy skills of oral language, reading, writing including spelling and handwriting, and maths. These skills are also keenly used in our afternoon programmes where we integrate the curriculum areas of science, social sciences, histories and technology in our inquiry topics. Students also visit our library each week, selecting and reading books.

We have a fantastic team of well trained and focused teaching professionals at The Terrace. Because of this we trust them to make the decisions about how they use this time to progress our students learning.

From time to time you may have information you wish to share with the school.

The first person to approach if you have any celebrations, cares or concerns about your child’s learning or behaviour is your child’s class teacher.  Set up an appointment via email or call the office, allowing time to discuss the concern. Share with the staff what you want to discuss, as this will help us have a productive meeting.

If you have concerns following the meeting, follow The Terrace School Concerns and Complaints procedure. 

A copy can be found by clicking here .