Nau mai, hoki mai - Welcome to Term 1, 2026
The school day ⏰
8:30 Gates open for children. School gates open for children at 8:30 am. For safety and supervision reasons, students must not arrive before this time. If a child arrives early, we will contact you to ensure it does not happen again.
8:55 The first bell rings, and children make their way to class.
9:00 The day begins with karakia and taking the school roll. Any absences at this time are followed up by the office with a phonecall.
10:25 Morning tea, all children sit outside on the courts, eat, then go off to play.
10:50 End of morning tea, start of the second learning block.
1 pm Lunch bell rings, all children sit outside on the court and eat until 1:15pm.
1:15 pm Playtime
2 pm End of lunch
3 pm The end of the day. Parents are welcome to wait on the courts or at the gate for their children.
Stationery ✏️
To view and order the stationery list requirements, please visit this link https://www.myschool.co.nz/student-details
Sickness and absences from school 🤧
If your child is absent due to illness, please call the school office at 4640065 before 9 am. While you are welcome to message your child’s teacher, you must first notify the office. Our staff will call to follow up on any unexplained absences.
To keep our school community healthy, we follow Health New Zealand guidelines regarding stomach bugs. If your child experiences vomiting or diarrhoea, they must stay home for 48 hours after their last symptom.
Extended Leave Requests (Non-Illness) If you plan to take your child out of school for more than three days for reasons other than illness, please email our Principal, Beth, at principal@kaikorai.school.nz In your email, please include the dates of the absence and an explanation of why the leave must occur during term time.
Road Patrol and parking outside our school 🦺
We are looking for parent volunteers to help supervise the Wright Street crossing! Many of our long-term helpers' children have moved on to intermediate school, leaving us desperately short of volunteers. Can you spare some time in the morning or afternoon to help keep our Kaik Kids safe?
If you can help, please email roadpatrol@kaikorai.school.nz
Parking near the school is always a challenge. To keep traffic flowing and our students safe, we strongly encourage you to park a short distance away and walk to meet your children.
Please remember that the spaces directly outside the school are "Kiss and Drop" zones only. They are not for parking or waiting. These zones work best when:
Your child is at the gate, ready for collection after school
You stay in your vehicle.
Note: If your child is not ready when you arrive, you will be asked to move on to prevent congestion.
If your child needs to be walked to their class in the morning, do not use the "Kiss and Drop" zone.
Communication at Kaikorai Primary School 📞
We use two main channels to keep you informed:
Weekly School Newsletter: Sent via the Hail platform every Friday at 2:30 pm. This is emailed to your registered email address and contains vital information about the whole school. Please ensure you read this to stay up to date.
Sunday Comms: Scheduled to be sent by your child’s teacher every Sunday via Seesaw. These updates include the upcoming week's learning focus and general reminders. To stay engaged with your child’s classroom activities, please ensure notifications are turned on in the Seesaw app.
Urgent Messages: If you need to communicate a change to after-school plans or a time-sensitive message, please call the office. Teachers are focused on teaching and often cannot check messages during the school day.
Staff Well-being: Our team will respond to emails and messages during work hours. To support our staff’s time with their whānau, please do not expect replies in the evenings or over the weekend.
We appreciate your support in ensuring our teachers have a healthy work-life balance.
You can also find us on Facebook. Please like our page to receive updates and information directly in your news feed.
Parents' Group ✅
Join our Parents’ Group! We are fortunate to have a fantastic Parents’ Group (similar to a PTA or Friends of the School) that works together to support our school. Through fundraising and events like school discos and fairs, this group creates wonderful opportunities for our tamariki.
We would love to see some new faces at our first meeting of the year!
When: February 11th, 2026, at 6:00 pm
Where: School Staffroom
RSVP: Please email pg@kaikorai.school.nz if you would like to attend.
Weetbix Tryathalon 🚴♂️
For the first time, Kaikorai Primary has a school group you can join when registering your child. We will have the new school tent set up at the event, and we hope to see lots of Kaik kids giving it a go.
Distances are approximate and are as follows;
6 year olds 50m swim / 1.5km run
7 year olds 50m swim / 4km cycle / 1.5km run
8 – 9 year olds 100m swim / 4km cycle / 1.5km run
10 – 15 year olds 150m swim / 8km cycle / 1.5 km run
To register https://tryathlon.co.nz/locations/dunedin/#entry-info
Aimee Wilkins from our Parents' Group is our school coordinator. If you have any questions, feel free to email her directly at aimeeleewilkins@gmail.com
Sports Registrations ⚽️
Please follow this link --> https://hail.to/kaikorai-primary-school/article/2zomgqE to register your child to play a sport in Term 1. Registrations close on 2/2/26 and no late entries can be accepted.
Important dates for Term 1 📆
28th January School begins at 8:55 am
6th February School closed for Waitangi Day
11th February Parents' Group Meeting 6 pm - all welcome
12th February - Meet the teacher and whānau picnic (more details to follow).
9th March School Closed for Teacher Only Day
10th - 19th March Swimming lessons for Years 0-4
23rd March - School closed to observe Otago Anniversary Day
2nd April Last Day of Term 1
20th April Start of Term 2
All dates can be found on our website
https://kaikorai.school.nz/news-and-information/calendar
We really look forward to another amazing year at Kaikorai Primary School! See you all for the first day of term, Wednesday, 28/1/26.
Ngā manaakitanga
Beth
Gallery
