General Information for St Francis Catholic School Thames.

About our School

St Francis School is a state integrated school, which means that the buildings are owned by the Roman Catholic Bishop of Auckland while the school operating costs are met via the Ministry of Educations state operating grant. We currently have a roll of 85 students with four classrooms.

Enrolment and Fees

Being a state integrated school we give preference of enrolment to children and whanau with a Catholic connection. We are, however, able to have 10% of non - preference children enrolled at our school. Please see our Enrolment Policy in 'about our school'/'Documents' for more information on this.

St Francis currently opts into the Government's donation scheme. Because of this, we will not request any donations or fees for curriculum activities apart from those associated with overnight school Camps.

School Hours

Our school day begins at 9am and finishes at 3pm. We like all children to be at school before 9am so they have time to prepare themselves for the day, but not before 8.30am as this is a valuable time for teachers to meet and prepare for the day.

Once a child has arrived at school they are not permitted to leave the school grounds until 3pm unless parental permission is given directly to a staff member.

9am	School Commences
11am - 11.30am	Morning Interval
1.10pm - 2pm	Lunch
3pm	School finishes

SchoolDocs

This is a comprehensive core set of policies that have been well-researched and follow the Ministry of Education National Administration Guidelines. The policies are monitored by SchoolDocs and are updated, modified or created in response to changes in legislation, significant events, MOE guidelines and reviews / requests from the school. Each term our Board of Trustees, staff and parents/caregivers have the opportunity to review different policies as they come up for review. To view the policies and the latest review topics, go to: https://stfrancis-thames.schooldocs.co.nz/1893.htm
username (stfrancis-thames) and password (mackay).
If you do not have internet access, school office staff can provide you with printed copies of any of the policies and the review form.

Reporting an absence

If your child is going to be away from school parents/caregivers are to contact the school either, in person, phone 07 868 7655 or e-mail [email protected]. This is to ensure that everyone is aware of where the child is, safe at home and not missing between home and school. Should there be no contact by the family the school will contact the parents/caregivers to check the whereabouts of the child.

Buses

Students attending a Catholic Integrated school are eligible for school transport assistance where there are no bus routes if...

They are years 1 to 8 and live more than 3.2 km from their nearest Catholic Integrated school. These distances are measured by the shortest public road or pedestrian route from the home roadside gate to the school’s front gate.
There must be no suitable public transport options. Suitable public transport: • travels within 2.4km of the roadside gate of the student’s home • travels within 2.4km of the closest appropriate school • departs after 7am and arrives before school starts • leaves no later than one hour after school finishes • does not require the student to change buses more than once
We have buses that pick children from up the coast, towards Puriri and the Kaueranga Valley. We are currently working on getting a bus from Ngatea for the future. If you would like to be considered for the Ngatea bus route, please give your name and address to the school office.

Communication between school and home

We consider this a vital link to helping your child achieve their full potential. We actively encourage both formal and informal get-together with parents through a series of school gatherings, Masses and Liturgies, sporting events, parent-teacher-child 3 way learning conferences interviews and written reports. If you would like to contact a teacher the best time for this is 3.10pm - 3.30pm except on a Monday & Thursdays which is staff meeting nights.

Each Friday our newsletter is emailed out to the school community. If you would like a hard copy of the newsletter please let our office know.

EMAIL OFFICE