Kaipaki School was established in 1876 as Pukerimu School further along Kaipaki Road.  In 1920 the school building was moved to its present position some five kilometres west of the original site.  Since then various alterations have occurred to the building and eventually, two classrooms, a library and an administration block were added, as well as a number of resource buildings.

The Board has made a commitment to providing our pupils with a swimming programme.  During Terms 1& Term 4, all classes are included in professionally provided swimming coaching at the Cambridge Pools.

Reporting on student progress is achieved through ongoing, informal contact between teachers and parents, twice yearly written reports followed by offers of formal parent/child/teacher discussions. We also have a Meet the Teacher picnic at the beginning of each school year. 

 

Kaipaki School currently has many school sports teams and a dedicated sports co-ordinator (Mr Julian Coutts), who manages our in-school sports programme, coaches teams and co-ordinates our involvement in multiple sports codes. We have school teams in: rugby, netball, hockey, cricket, miniball, equestrian, cycling to name a few.

 

Learning Using Digital Technologies 

 

We use 1-1 chromebooks in our Year 4-8 classrooms. The students use Google Drive to access learning for the week/term provided by their teachers. We have some iPads within our Year 3 classroom that are used for educational purposes such as Studyladder. 

 

The school places a strong emphasis on providing a variety of educational experiences out of the classroom. A feature of the calendar is the whole school camp, usually held in the first term of the year. This is traditionally known as a family oriented event with many parents joining us. Older students also have the opportunity to embark on another camp experience designed to specifically cater for the needs of senior students later in the year. All classes incorporate trips to support classroom learning.

Ag. Day is held at Kaipaki School each year in Term Four. This day consists of the showing and judging of students’ animals and a Flower and Craft Show to which all students contribute their work. It is a highlight of the school year and pictures of the event are in our photo gallery.

Kaipaki School has a close and supportive association with other schools in the Cambridge area, which ensures students have opportunities to participate in a variety of inter-school activities. These include regular sports or physical education activities, learning programmes, social events and competitions. We are also affiliated with the Waikato Full Primary Association, which provides opportunities for our Year 7 and 8 learners to have competition within the greater Waikato area.

Tech-Arts Programme

Our Yr 7/8 students attend a tech-arts programme at Peachgrove Intermediate School each week. This programme includes Drama; Visual Art; Music; Dance; Food Technology; Materials Technology and Computational Thinking.


Environmental Education

While we are not an official Enviro School, we have embarked on a programme of developing ecologically friendly and sustainable practices in our school. This is achieved through our classroom programmes, a zero rubbish policy and extensive recycling for the Paper4Trees programme.

Home learning

Home learning, like all schooling, should be a positive experience for children. Parents are asked to support their children with their home learning and to encourage them to take responsibility for returning their home learning to school. Each classroom operates their own home learning system that fits the needs of the class and pupils.

In conjunction with Project Energise, we encourage patents to provide healthy lunches . Items not eaten from lunchboxes are returned so that parents have a clear idea about what their child has had to eat that day. At Kaipaki School lunch is eaten at the end of the lunch break. This ensures children have plenty of time to eat.

Dental Treatment

Appointments are made through the Cambridge Middle School Dental Clinic Tel: 827 7929. Referral notices are usually received directly from the Dental Therapists once a year.

Stationery and other school costs

Stationery is available from the school throughout the year.  We operate an account system where families are billed once a term for stationery and other school activities. Options are also available for automatic payments.

Sun Smart

We are a SunSmart School.  The wearing of Kaipaki School sunhats when children are exposed to the sun is compulsory at our school (Terms 1 & 4).  Sunhats with the school name can be purchased at the office for $18.50 each. We also encourage children to apply sun block before going out in the sun.