PREPARATION FOR 2026
Preliminary work is now being done in placing children for next year. It is really helpful for you to let us know now if you are not planning to be at Hokowhitu School next year, or if there are any other considerations that you think we should be aware of. Once placements are made, it is not possible to make changes. Please don’t assume all teachers will be in the same spaces as this year either - we often make changes.
Almost every kete in our school is composite -that means there are 2 year groups of children in each kete. A reminder that whether your child is (for example) a Year 5 in TKT or TKA, they will have the same experiences. The same applies to EACH of the other year levels. One of the reasons that we mostly have composite kete is to balance class numbers - no one wants their child in a class of 35 children (with only 22 in the class next door). Another important reason is getting the right social/emotional/academic balance - this way we can better meet individual needs.
EVERY child at our school spends 2 years in at least one kete area, they are not being held back or disadvantaged in any way. All the children know this - they just may need reminding from you. Our class placement process is considerable - we certainly don’t just pop names on a list. We gather data from teachers and create draft lists. These lists go back to the teams to see what the combinations look like to them. We then tweak and rework the lists until we have our final placements. We think about children who work well together and those who don’t. We consider teacher strengths and personalities to match individuals. While we try hard to ensure everyone has children that they know with them, sometimes they may not be in the same kete as their best friend - this happens. They get anopportunity to work with different people and widen their friendship circles. We encourage you to be positive about class placements with your children, they take their cues from you.Thanks so much in anticipation of your support.