A to Z

Behaviour

We expect children to take responsibility for their own actions and to respect the rights and feelings of others. Positive encouragement and support is provided to children who display initiative and common sense.

School-wide Behaviour Management procedures are in place to allow staff and students to work in a positive, constructive and peaceful environment. The school’s health curriculum incorporates anti-bullying programmes.

If your child’s behaviour causes us concern you will be notified and asked to work with the classroom teacher to put in place an appropriate plan of action.

Any concerns you have regarding behaviour and discipline should be conveyed in the first instance to your child’s teacher.

Prompt and early intervention is the most effective way of dealing with a problem — for children and adults alike!

When someone with
more power is
deliberately and
repeatedly acting mean,
it is bullying.

Bikes and scooters

Children under the age of 9 years are not permitted to ride a bicycle to school. This follows the road safety guidelines of the New Zealand Police.

Children riding to school must wear a safety helmet and keep their bikes in the bike stands provided.

In the interests of everyone’s safety, bicycles and scooters must not be ridden in the school grounds — please dismount at the gate and wheel them to your nearest stand.

Complaints

Sometimes, things go wrong.

Everyone who works at Ilam School is doing their best to deliver an amazing learning experience for your child. But we’re human, and mistakes can happen.

If you have a question, a concern, or some feedback on how we’re doing, the first person to talk to is your child’s classroom teacher.

If your concern remains unaddressed, the next step is to refer to our Concerns and Complaints Process — one of our school policies and procedures.

The Concerns and Complaints Process can be viewed at our SchoolDocs site. You will be asked to log in — the user name is ilam and the password is ilamschool (case sensitive). Then simply search 'complaints' and the document is likely to be the first listed PDF.

Cellphones

We recommend that cell phones are kept at home. If your child requires a cell phone for information regarding pick up/drop off then we ask that the cell phone is handed into the school office first thing in the morning. The cell phone will be kept in a secure location and it can be collected at the end of the day. If cell phones are used during the school day we will ask your child to take it to the office to be kept in a secure location. We ask that you support us with these expectations.

Should your child require a cell phone for health/learning purposes we ask that you discuss this with Kirsten Aaron our Deputy Principal.

Please note: If cell phones are bought to school, the school is not responsible for any loss or damage.

For further information please see our Cellphones and other Personal Digital Devices policy on SchoolDocs https://ilam.schooldocs.co.nz/

If you need to contact your child during school hours please contact the school office on: (03) 348 7492.

Email expectations

Email is a great way to communicate, but please remember that our teachers are focussed on their class of students during the day, often not finishing with extra-curricular activities or meetings until 5.30pm or later.

This is why our team commits to responding to emails within 24 hours, instead of immediately. We appreciate your understanding.

If you have an urgent reason to contact your child's teacher, please phone the school office on (+64 3) 348 7492.

Enrolments

Everything you need to know about enrolling your child at Ilam School can be found here.

Itinerant Lessons

Children have the opportunity to learn how to play a musical instrument, join the Lifted Learning Science club and the Creative Writing club at Ilam School. Please be aware that these lessons are taken by teachers who are not directly employed by Ilam School. All teachers are police vetted. If you would like your child to learn an instrument or join a club, please collect a form from the office.

Musical Instruments Available:

Piano
Recorder
Drums
Bass
Violin
Guitar
Flute

Lifted Learning - Run by Dr Joyce

Creative Writing - Run by Kerrin Davidson

Kerrin is a poet, writer and teacher of creative writing. To date, she has published five collections of poetry, all by Victoria University Press. Reviewers have described her work as ‘poetry at its finest’ (London Grip), and a place ‘where nothing goes unnoticed’ (takahē). In 2008, Kerrin was awarded the NZ Post Creative Writing Teacher’s Award from the International Institute of Modern Letters. In 2013, she received a Creative NZ grant to write her third collection of poetry, Rabbit Rabbit. Also, in 2013, she had twelve poems in Oxford Poets 2013, published by Carcanet Press UK. In 2021 Kerrin was awarded a Micheal King Writers Centre residency.

Ilam School is proud to offer its Year 3-6 students the opportunity to attend a weekly specialist creative writing class, which aims to foster creative writing talent in poetry and prose and further student success in writing competitions. Kerrin can be contacted by telephone on 03 3555414.

Music

All Ilam School students have the opportunity to be involved in excellent choirs at their team level (Junior/Middle/Senior).

Children in the Senior Choir also have the opportunity to perform with a large number of other Christchurch school children at the North West Music Festival and the Christchurch Schools’ Music Festival.

Participation in the school orchestra is offered to children who play an instrument — all children who have a basic ability in reading music can enter into the orchestra. Their skills always improve rapidly!

We are fortunate to have skilled music tutors who offer individual tuition on a variety of musical instruments. Bookings are essential and can be made at the school office.

Find more information, arrangements and lyrics here.

One Hour a Day

The Government’s ‘one hour a day’ policy for teaching reading, writing, and maths started Term 1 2024. Even though Ilam School already does this daily and there is no real change, we will continue to spend an average of at least an hour a day reading, writing, and maths. Our students will continue to receive regular, purposeful instruction in these core areas to help them make progress with their learning.  There is more information available on the Ministry's website.

Policies and procedures

A school can’t run without established policies and procedures, and Ilam School follows the Ministry of Education’s Administration Guidelines in doing so.

Our policies and procedures are tailored to our school and are created, modified or updated in response to changes in legislation, significant events, Ministry guidelines, reviews/requests, etc. This process is overseen by the School Board.

In order to streamline this process, the Board works with SchoolDocs, a company which maintains, updates and reviews our policies.

All our school policies and procedures can be viewed at our SchoolDocs site. You will be asked to log in — the user name is ilam and the password is ilamschool (case sensitive).

Please remember: except where stated, the content on the SchoolDocs site is copyright to SchoolDocs Limited. It may not be reproduced. Thank you.