Tēnā koutou e te whānau
I hope that everyone has had a wonderful break over the Christmas and New Year Festive season. We look forward to welcoming all students; when they return to school.
Great news. We’re thrilled to announce that our swimming pool is officially back in operation for Term 1! This is an incredible milestone, and we couldn’t have achieved it without the support and contributions of our amazing community and dedicated staff.
Whaanau teachers will extend more details regarding when your children will be swimming. We are in the height of summer so please also ensure that your children come to school prepared to protect themselves from the weather. Sunhats are essential. We do have limited supplies of sunscreen that teachers have access to but advise you to have your own supplies as well.
School Starting Dates 2025
- Monday 3 February
The school office is open for enrolments and general enquiries.
- Friday 7 February
Years 11, 12 and 13 students come to school for subject confirmation meetings. Each student will be sent details regarding the times for these meetings.
- Monday 10 February
Welcome Whakatau for ALL Years 0-6 students 9.00am in the school hall.
Welcome Whakatau for ALL Years 7-13 students 11.30am in the school hall.
Click here to see our Full Term Dates for 2025 and Stationery Lists for 2025. It is now mandatory for students in years 7-13 to bring their own device to school. We would love to provide devices for our students to use, but we have no funding in 2025 to do this. We will,however, be able to provide device support and software free of charge to our students.
The school buses for our students will begin operating on Monday 10th February.
Class Lists 2025
These are linked here. Please note that we still have new enrolments coming in daily and there may need to be some amendments made before Monday 10 February. If this involves your child, you will be contacted. Some students may take time to settle into the new year and new teachers. We aim to keep all classes stable for the month of February before considering any possible changes. However, feel free to communicate with us, if any concerns arise for your child during this time.
Our School Canteen & Feed The Kids
- The school canteen will be open for the students from Monday 10th February. Teachers will talk to the younger students about how this works. You can order lunches online via the following link https://lunchorders.co.nz/.
- “Feed The Kids” will be operating again on Wednesdays. This is a community initiative that the school supports and is not a part of the Ministry of Education’s School Lunches programme.
Student Attendance 2025
- The Ministry of Education (MOE) Target for schoolwide regular attendance is 90%. This means a student who attends school 9 out of 10 weeks is regularly attending.
- Attendance and Non-attendance is monitored by our teachers and office staff. We have appreciated whaanau letting us know when our students are absent. This information helps us to monitor and track attendance patterns.
- Our partnership with our neighbouring primary schools (Waitetuna, Te Mata and Te Uku) has been successful. Bernie Marshall is our Attendance Officer who will connect with whaanau who are not attending regularly.
- All reports sent home now include an Attendance figure to help whaanau to monitor more closely their children’s attendance.
- Together we can make a difference. Let’s get our students to school every day.
Principal on Sabbatical Leave in 2025
I (Whaea Louisa Barham) will be on Sabbatical leave for Terms 2, 3 and 4 in 2025. Quenten Browne will be Acting Principal in my absence and Haylee Webber will assume the Deputy Principal role across the entire school for Terms 2, 3 and 4 in 2025. They will be ably supported by the Board of Trustees and our middle school leaders.
Returning and New Staff Members 2025
Emily Meleshenko, Naomi Tovio, Hilary Elliot and David O’Loughlin have been on leave for the entire 2024 school year and are back with us in 2025. We also extend a warm welcome to Felipe Queriquelli (Years 7 & 8) who comes to us having been teaching at Maeroa Intermediate School in Hamilton during 2024. We welcome Simon Thompson onto our staff as a teacher in years 5 and 6, Simon has been a regular reliever in 2024 so many of our students will already know him. We welcome Carolyn Munro, an experienced Maths Teacher, who will be teaching alongside Sandra Jonas in our senior classes. Finally, we welcome Natasha Rao on board as a counsellor in our Hauora Team.
Teaching Staff 2025
Below is a complete list of the confirmed teaching team for 2025.
Senior Leadership Team
- Louisa Barham (Principal)
- Quenten Browne (Deputy Principal Kura Tuakana – Years 9-13 / Acting Principal Terms 2,3 and 4)
- Haylee Webber (Deputy Principal Kura Teina – Years 0-8 / Deputy Principal schoolwide Terms 2,3 and 4)
Kura Teina – Te Rōpū Aroha Ki Te Reo Kaiako (Māori Full Immersion classes)
- Juanita Asi (Team Leader TRAKTR, Y0-3 kaiako)
- Aroha McQueen (Y4-6 kaiako)
Kura Teina – Mainstream Years 0-8 Teachers
- Hilary Elliot (Classroom Release Teacher Y3&4, Curriculum Leader Y0-6)
- Steph de Besten (Learning Support and Enrolments Years 0-6)
- Nicole Bell (Team Leader Y0-2, Y0-1 teacher)
- Lisa Brunel (Y0-1 teacher)
- Sheree Gibson (Y2 teacher)
- Grace Winter (Y2 teacher)
- Celia Risbridger (Classroom Release Teacher Y0-2)
- Rebecca Hishon (Structured Literacy teacher)
- Kieran Hallgate (Team Manager Y3&4, Y3&4 teacher)
- Kim Geros (Y3&4 teacher)
- Emily Meleshenko & Annie Stuart Job Share (Y3&4 teachers)
- Christine Prouse (Y3&4 teacher)
- Alison Hewett (Team Leader Y5&6, Y5&6 teacher)
- Amy Haswell (Y5&6 teacher)
- Simon Thompson (Y5&6 teacher)
- Nick Wilson & Lisa Mitchell Job Share (Y5&6 teachers)
- Victoria Cooper (Classroom Release Teacher Y5&6)
- David O’Loughlin (Team Manager Y7&8, Y7&8 teacher)
- Serita Drewery (Y7&8 teacher)
- Eddie Martinez (Y7&8 teacher)
- Felipe Queriquelli (Y7&8 teacher)
Kura Tuakana – MainstreamYears 7-13 Lead Teachers
- Gwyn Brodie (Learning Support and Enrolments Years 7-13)
- Joseph Rao (Y9&10 Dean, Social Sciences teacher)
- Linda Holmes (Y11 Dean, Lead Teacher Social Sciences,)
- Stevie Gardiner (Y12 Dean, Food Tech, Hospitality teacher)
- Pauline Sweetman (Y13 Dean, Gateway, Careers, Correspondence teacher)
Kura Tuakana – MainstreamYears 7-13 Teachers
- Betty Diprose (Counselling)
- Natasha Rao (Counselling)
- Ariana Millward (Lead teacher Te Reo Māori, Te Reo Māori, teacher))
- Liam Coulden-Lavers (Lead Teacher Outdoor Education )
- Briar Heinrich (Health & PE, English teacher)
- TJ Pemberton (Lead Teacher HPE & Sports)
- Lee Copson (Lead Teacher Science, Physics & Chemistry teacher)
- Karen Woodcock (Lead Teacher English)
- Sandra Jonas (Lead Teacher Maths)
- Carolyn Munroe (Y9-11 Maths teacher)
- Angela Prain (Lead Teacher Enviroschools: Science, Biology, Horticulture teacher)
- Levonne Fraser (Visual Arts teacher)
- Brendon Rickard (Lead Teacher The Arts, Music Teacher)
- Ruth Hare (Dance & Drama teacher)
- Adrian Reeves (Lead Teacher Technology, Materials Technology teacher)
- Matt Stockton (Digital Technology Teacher)
- Deane Hishon (Surfing Academy, Graphics teacher)
- Larry Fisher (Surfing Academy, HPE teacher)
Head Students 2025
In case you missed the news, congratulations to Manoa Beaudry who is the Head Boy and Lani Frazerhurst who is the Head Girl for 2025. Cormag Eadie, Jivan Rao, Summer Diprose, Star Knuiman, Kaiya Miller and Vida Bradbury are the other six members of the Student Leadership Team. Kaiya Miller was also voted on as the Student Trustee for the Board of Trustees.
On behalf of the entire staff in our kura, warm wishes are extended for an exciting year of learning ahead at Te Kura a Rohe o Whaingaroa – Raglan Area School.
Ngā mihi nui
Whaea Louisa Barham
(Tumuaki / Principal)
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