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Te Kura or Distance Learning and the Supervision Allowance

11/28/2022

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Parents who hold home education exemptions for their children are eligible to be paid a homeschool Supervision Allowance. But what about those who enroll their children in Te Kura, or in any of the other distance learning schools? The answer depends on the exact scenario. Let's explore them:

Homeschooling with an exemption 

Parents of exempt students are required to sign a 6 monthly declaration, and with it can choose to recieve the supervision allowance. The payment is $371.50 every 6 months for the first child, with lesser amounts for additional children. (This is due to increase slightly shortly, so I won't lay out all the amounts here. For current information on amounts, and details about how to get it etc, see HERE). 

If you travel overseas for more than 28 days, enroll your child in a school, or otherwise stop homeschooling, then this affects your eligibility for the allowance. In particular note the below section on Te Kura for students 16yo+

Enrolled in Te Kura under a funded gateway

Students who are enrolled full time in Te Kura under a funded gateway do not have/need exemptions. They do not qualify for the homeschooling supervision allowance, but rather may be eligible for the Student Support Payment. The amount is very similar - $380 per half year - but the student must meet certain criteria, including:
  • Enrolled for at least 10 weeks of the 6 month period
  • Returning assessable work at least once each fortnight
  • Residing in NZ
  • Not enrolled as a young adult (16-19yo) or under dual enrollment with a school, or as a fee-paying student
For further information on the Student Support Payment, see HERE
These students are enrolled in a registered school (Te Kura) which is why they don't need an exemption. 

Fee-paying Te Kura students

Some parents, whose students are not eligible for free Te Kura, choose to enroll their students with Te Kura as fee-paying students. To do this, they must first gain a homeschooling exemption. Then they can choose to pay for as many Te Kura subjects as they wish, within reason. Because they have an exemption, and are paying for Te Kura, they are still entitled to the homeschooling supervision allowance as above (not the student support payment). The terms can be confusing: Te Kura is a registered school, however students enrolled in Te Kura as fee-payers are technically *not enrolled in a school* but still homeschooled/exempt. 

As you will read below, there are other registered schools delivering distance education these days which you can enroll your student in on a fee-paying basis (because they are private schools) and for which you do not require an exemption. Te Kura is the exception. I've thought about suggesting to the Ministry that this needs revisiting in light of recent changes - so parents who are willing to pay for Te Kura need not get an exemption first - however, the reasons to keep it how it is are:
  • requiring an exemption is a (small) "barrier" to enrolling in Te Kura on this basis - theoretically limiting the number who will do so, which the Ministry prefers
  • parents who remove their kids from school and pay for Te Kura are free to withdraw from Te Kura at any time - the exemption demonstrates the parents' ability to ensure they will be taught at least as regularly and well as they would be in school, and means that parents have formally accepted responsibility for this, whether they continue to use Te Kura or not. 
  • holding an exemption while paying fees means you can get the homeschool supervision allowance (as above), so that's something at least. 

Enrolled in Te Kura as a Young Adult (age 16-19)

If your child was already enrolled in Te Kura under a funded full-time gateway, then when they turn 16 nothing should change - they should remain under the same gateway, and eligible for the student support payment as above. However, if your child enrolls at Te Kura for the first time at age 16+, they will be enrolled as a Young Adult. This is a funded gateway, but it affects allowances in the following ways:
  • For students who have homeschooling exemptions - they can do one or two free Te Kura subjects, with no effect on the exemption or homeschooling allowance - which continue. 
  • If an exempt student enrolls in 3 or more Te Kura subjects as a young adult, then they are considered to be "full time" funded students, and the exemption ceases, and with it, the supervision allowance. 
  • Students enrolled as young adults are not eligible for the Te Kura Student Support Payments. 

Other Distance Learning Schools

Due to changes in the law that came in with the 2020 Education and Training Act, allowing the Ministry to recognise any school as a distance school (not only Te Kura as previously), and prompted by the Covid situation, a number of schools are now offering full time distance learning options. These are (so far), all private schools, so they have fees attached (as private schools get minimal funding from the Ministry and are funded mostly by fees that parents pay). Enrolling in one of these schools is no different than enrolling in a local school, except that the learning will occur at home. Parents can simply choose these schools as an option, assuming they meet any enrollment eligibility criteria set by the schools themselves. No homeschooling exemption is required, as the student will be enrolled full time in a registered school, under the distance learning programme. However, there is no supervision allowance (or student support payment) available either. 

Current NZ registered schools offering distance learning are: Mt Hobson Academy, AGE School, 3H International School, Crimson Global Academy, Amana Christian School and Otamatea Christian School. More on this option in an article to come. 

Summary

Exempt homeschooling students are eligible for a supervision allowance payment, including those who are fee-paying for Te Kura subjects or doing no more than 2 free subjects as a young adult. Full time funded Te Kura students who meet the criteria are eligible for student support payments. Students enrolled in other distance schools are not eligible for payments (and don't need exemptions), and nor are full time young adult Te Kura students. 
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Lapbook & Unit Study - St Patrick & Ireland

11/22/2022

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Lapbooking can be a fun, effective way to record learning on a topic. As an example, I'm sharing a lapbook and unit study my family and I did one year. 

The idea arose because St Patrick's Day was approaching - normally something I didn't pay any attention to, but I had recently read information about his important contribution to history, and thought "Hey, he'd be worth learning about!" Plus, I have an Irish great-grandfather, so my children have some Irish heritage, and this meant a perfect opportunity to teach them about Ireland, some family history, and St Patrick, and with St Patrick's Day coming up, this gave us a timeframe - some learning activities over 3 or so weeks, culminating in a celebration on St Patrick's Day. Because this was all rather spur of the moment, I brainstormed a quick list of ideas and activities, and then we just rolled with it. My kids each completed their own lapbook. The pictures are from one I did at the same time for myself, as a keepsake, and so I could share it with others too. This unit was so much fun!
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A lapbook is simply one or more manilla or coloured file folders stuck together to hold the "outputs" from a topic study, and form the record of learning. When folded shut, it fits on one's lap, hence the name. The simplest lapbook is one file folder, opened flat, then each side is folded to the middle to make "shutters". This lapbook was made from two folders, with one side of a shutter on each one glued together. It's also possible to add extra flaps by taping an extra piece of card to the centre top of an open lapbook, so it folds up/down, and extra items can be mounted on it. I didn't need to do that for this lapbook project. By putting two folders together, that gave us the following parts to mount work on: front, back, 2 wide middles, and 6 sides of flaps. 
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The main elements of our unit study were:
  • Learning about our family tree and Irish history
  • Learning about some symbols of Ireland
  • Learning about the life of St Patrick
  • Learning about the country of Ireland
  • Planning a celebration, and doing arts/crafts etc
  • Having fun!
Here's an outline of the activities we did, not necessarily in chronological order. 
Family history:
I found an old picture of my great grandparents, and photocopied it, reduced to fit on a flap. I added info about who they were, when they were born and the relationship to me (my kids had modified versions, with the relationship to them). 

We created a family tree using a free geneology programme, and printed it out, sticking it inside a simple book (folded piece of coloured paper) with a family tree picture stuck on the outside. 
​
I asked my great-aunt, who was still alive, if she could tell us any interesting stories about her father for our study. I'm so glad I did this, or I never would have heard this one! Don't miss the opportunity to ask older family members about the things they know and about family stories. This story was about my great-grandad when he was a lad in Ireland:
"When James was 14, a friend of his father died. James was finally considered old enough to attend a wake (funeral) with his Dad. James was very proud to go, all dressed up in his best clothes and a nice jacket. But he was the only young person there, and all the older men were sitting around drinking, smoking and talking about their dead friend. James was bored.
He noticed that there was a strap around the body of the dead man in the coffin, and began to wonder what it was for. As usual, James had his trusty penknife in his pocket, so he pulled it out and nicked the strap, wanting to see what would happen...
The strap gave way, and the dead man sat bolt upright in his coffin! All the people thought he had come back to life, and ran away very fast. James led the pack, leaping over fences to get away! It turned out that the poor man was a hunchback, and the strap had been to hold him flat in the coffin. When James cut it, his body jerked upright. He wasn't allowed to go to any more funerals for quite some time...
Poor James - and he'd been SO proud to be at his first wake."

We typed the story out, and printed it on coloured paper, folded it to place in the lapbook, with a title cover glued to the outside. 
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Symbols of Ireland
Using library resources and the internet, we learned about four common symbols of Ireland - the Shamrock, the harp, the Celtic Cross, and the colour green, and made simple booklets about each, with a picture on the front, imformation inside, and a folding flap to one side to hold the booklet closed (made it easier to shut the lapbook flap without crushing things). 
Life of St Patrick
We watched a movie about St Patrick, and also read library books etc. We recorded information about the various stages of his life, using folded pieces of paper with info inside, and titles on the covers, mounted in a circle around a print out of a famous stained glass window featuring St Patrick 

There was a little room on the bottom of the centre sectiong of the lapbook, so we added info about the flags of England, Ireland and Scotland, as well as St Patrick, and how together they form the Union Jack. 
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Country of Ireland
We used the library and internet to learn about both the Republic of Ireland and Northern Ireland. I printed off some resources to use to record key facts - these were taken from a Country Study lapbook kit from Knowledge Box Central. We learned about the flags, languages, climate, currency, land areas, populations, religions, capitals etc. By doing this for both parts of Ireland then mounting them how we did in the lapbook, it makes it easy to compare them. We added a world map for location, as well as a map of Ireland, and information on neighbouring countries. 
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We also learned about the Irish Potato Famine (aka The Great Hunger) and made a small booklet about that, and studied white clover, the plant, and all that it provides. I made a 5 page booklet about this as I found it so interesting. 
Fun activities and celebration
We also did lots of other activities throughout the study, and had a final celebration dinner. These included:
  • Visiting the op-shop, where the kids picked out green clothes to dress up in for our dinner. A couple of the kids from next door (also homeschoolers) joined us for this. 
  • Made napkins by cutting up a tablecloth from the op shop, hemming it, then cross-stitching shamrocks on a corner. We made paper napkin rings with a shamrock design. 
  • We hung "Happy St Patrick's Day" banner and shamrocks on the wall. 
  • On the day of our celebration, we see the table with a tablecloth with green in it, our napkins and other decorations. We coloured some lemonade green to drink, and the kids (including neighbours) played games and had lime popsicles. We watched the St Patrick movie together, and had a "traditional" dinner of corned beef, carrots, cabbage, mashed potatoes and horseradish cream. Desert was lime jelly and icecream, and our drinks green lemonade and lime juice. We typed up the menu to add to our lapbook, along with lots of photos of the kids and what we did. 
  • We also cut out stamps from potatoes, in the shapes of shamrocks and crosses, and the kids used these stamps with green paint to make decorative covers for their lapbooks. 
  • We used scissors that cut wavy patterns to cut out borders for the lapbook, and made title sections using two layers of wavy-cut paper - green behind and white on top with the titles added. 
  • The front and back covers of the lapbooks were a great place to add lots of photos, and we also memorised and wrote out an Irish blessing to put on the back cover.
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Old Irish Blessing
May the road rise to meet you
May the wind be always at your back
May the sun shine warm upon your face
The rains fall soft upon your fields
And until we meet again
May God hold you in the palm of His hand!
I finished off my lapbook by covering it front and back with clear adhesive covers, to protect it, as this study was special and so much fun, and I want to keep my own copy as a keepsake. 
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