Haere Mai
Welcome again to Waikato Diocesan School for Girls. Whatever your initial motivation for sending your daughter to our school, this is the journey we now share.
There are endless reasons why families choose Dio for their daughters’ education. Some are attracted by the opportunities offered in sports and the arts, some because a mother or grandmother is an Old Girl or one parent or both went to boarding school. Invariably, it is because we deliver an excellent academic education, and parents believe that their daughters will be happy and well cared for.
But whatever families’ original motivation and accompanying expectations might be, it is our challenge each year to gather up 150 new entrants from many contributing schools, to bind them together into a harmonious whole and absorb them into our existing school culture while still meeting the needs of every individual and satisfying the varied expectations of each family.
Keep Connected
We encourage you to familiarise yourself with our website and social media over the next few months. This will assist you in getting a feel for the Dio community. Our social media is linked here, so make sure you like and follow us to keep up-to-date with all the great things happening in our school community. Most direct communication from the school is by email, so please check and update all contact information, especially email addresses, when we invite you to access the Parent Portal. Once school has begun, you can also see your daughter’s timetable and reports through the portal.
Financial Information
Dio is an Anglican school with an excellent academic, sporting and extra-curricular performance record, committed to providing a well-rounded education for its young women. We are grateful for the parental support that enables us to provide the level of education we do. Voluntary donations and Attendance Dues are essential to maintain the standard of education offered at Dio and to support the site's ongoing development. As a state-integrated school, the Anglican Church owns our land and buildings, and we are responsible for maintaining and developing the site and its facilities.
Attendance dues are charged quarterly at the commencement of each term. Any donation payments may entitle you to a donation receipt for tax credits as of 31 March each year. All statements will be emailed to you. When you receive your first statement, if the email address is not your preferred account email, please let us know so we may change this for future statements. This first statement will be sent to boarding families in January and daygirls the first week of February. Monthly instalments should be initiated before then. Several payment options are available to you, but our preferred payment method is by direct debit. A direct debit form is available here.
Boarding
For the school's 160 boarders, developing caring attitudes towards each other and the wider community is the foundation of their boarding experience.
Through a school-wide Peer Support Programme and ice-breaker weekend at the start of the year, students quickly find friends, mentors, and 'big sisters' among the older students.
Waikato Diocesan School for Girls is a seven-day boarding school. However, students can go home for weekends if they wish. There is no limit on this bar, one in-weekend at the beginning of the year to build unity.
Boarding families will receive more information about starting at boarding before we break for the summer holidays.
Uniform and Stationery
All your school uniform requirements can be purchased from our Uniform Group Shop online or by visiting the Uniform Group Shop located at 125 Ward Street, Hamilton Central on the specified day during opening hours. The shop hours can be viewed here.
Waikato Diocesan uses OfficeMax MySchool.co.nz online ordering system for stationery requirements. The school gets paid a rebate based on the sales on the website, which supports students' teaching and learning. OfficeMax will list requirements for each year level on their website.
Other emergency stationery items (pens, paper, sellotape, etc.) are available at the school reception.
Buses
Parents and caregivers are responsible for getting their daughters to and from school daily. However, the Ministry of Education acknowledges that some parents and caregivers face distance issues and lack public transport. For this reason, the Ministry offers School Transport Assistance (a school bus place and/or an allowance) to help these parents and caregivers get their daughters to and from school.
Please click here for further information on bus routes and school transport assistance.
If you have any questions, please get in touch with Student Services or the Bus Companies directly (details can be found on the relevant bus route link).
Ordering Lunches & Canteen
The canteen food is made to order, fresh, every day. We also make fresh daily meals in our catering kitchen.
We provide a range of food, with some options having the ability to be made gluten-free, dairy-free, or vegetarian. These are the only alterations made to food.
Please ignore the time stated on the app when ordering - selecting the following tells us the time that your food needs to be ready:
Student - 12.50 pm
Teaching Staff - 12.50 pm
Support Staff - 12.00 pm
Any orders made before 11.00 am will be ready at lunch that same day. Any orders made after 3.00 pm will be available at lunch the following day.
For any absences that impact your order, please email catering@wdsg.school.nz
How can I order?
Online Web Orders
Please follow this link to a web browser where any student, teacher, or support staff can order their lunches. An account can be created, linked with a debit card, and an order placed as required.
Mr Goodfellow App
A student, parent, or staff member can download the Mr Goodfellow App in their app store (compatible with Google Play or Apple). Just search 'Mr Goodfellow' in your app store to download it.
An account can be created, linked with a debit card, and an order placed as required.
What else is available on the app?
There are virtual 'stores' for the following:
School Canteen Lunch orders (store closes 11.00 am for a meal that day)
Daily Fresh Meals (store closes 9.30 am for a meal that day)
Hot & Cold Drinks - made by our Barista and collected from the PMC foyer kitchen. Open from 8.00 am - 1.30 pmish each day
Ice Blocks/Ice Creams - Open at lunchtime, collected from the canteen or PMC foyer kitchen.
Last Minute Noodles - Open during lunchtime for students who have forgotten to order/are hungry and would like a cup of noodles.
Sushi & Donut Fridays - more information to be sent about this in 2024
Year 9 Friendship Camp
The Year 9 outdoor education camp is a four-day residential programme with a major focus on the orientation of our new students. Students are placed in smaller activity groups formed across form classes within the camp. This ensures that the cohort is mixed and has the opportunity to develop relationships throughout the year level. Some fun activities include kayaking, mountain biking, archery, rock climbing, waka ama, orienteering, bushcraft, camp craft and tramping.
Extra-Curricular Sports
Preparing confident, resourceful and resilient young women to lead healthier and active lifestyles.
Our Vision
The school of choice for sports at all levels
At Dio, an extensive sports programme offers 26 sports over summer and winter and caters to all ability levels. All students are encouraged to participate in sports to enhance their fitness, be part of a team, and for the enjoyment that sport brings. At Dio, sport is not compulsory, but we have an incredible 78% participation rate in sports, with most girls participating in at least one sport during the year and many participating in more than one.
Summer Sports
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We have excellent facilities including our swimming pool, a gymnasium, netball courts, football and Astro Hockey Turf.
Our Sports Education Centre is the hub of our curricular and co-curricular sports
programmes. This includes a fully equipped fitness centre staffed with qualified coaches, with membership open to
all Dio students and staff. As well as the extra-curricular sports, we have school-wide athletics, swimming and
cross-country events as our main inter-house competitions.
Sports Council and Code Captains
Our Head of Sport leads the Sports Council of nine senior students who work with the sports
department to deliver our sports programme. This includes coordinating the inter-house sports programme,
lunchtime sports competitions, sports results for assemblies, fairplay awards and organising the annual Sports
Awards function. We also have a team of 25 code captains who work with the sports department to help coordinate
and lead their codes. Leadership opportunities are given to students to coach teams, captain teams, umpire or
manage teams. Students are open to selection for regional and national representative teams.
Rowing
The Rowing Club is the only sport at Dio that operates as an independent club and is run by a committee of parents.
New students interested in rowing should contact Gabi Peach, Rowing Manager, gpeach@wdsg.school.nz Our new Year 9 students will be able to learn to row in Term 3.
Role of Parents in Co-curricular Sports
We have always been supported by a dedicated volunteer base of parents, Old Girls and friends of the school to help with coaching, managing and umpiring teams. We warmly welcome new faces and expertise to support our co-curricular sports
programmes. For further information, please get in touch with the Sports Office sports@wdsg.school.nz
Dio Sports Website & Registrations
Students will be advised of opportunities to register for Dio sports as they become available. Enrolment for the
majority of our extracurricular activities are completed via Enrolmy (https://enrolmy.com/waikato-di...), an online
registration and payment system.
For all information about the co-curricular sports and registrations at Dio, click here.
Extra-Curricular Arts and Culture
Dio has a significant number of extra-curricular arts activities in which our students can be involved.
Current activities are:
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The Operations Coordinator (Arts) supports the teachers of curriculum arts subjects by organising a range of activities and trips, as well as arranging opportunities for students to participate in a range of co-curricular activities.
Dio has a student Arts Council led by the Head of Arts (Arts Prefect) whose role it is to help organise and promote arts in the school. Activities organised by the council include the Arts Report presented in Assemblies, various Arts activity days which present a variety of Arts to all students and Arts Awards.
House Singing is the main inter-house arts activity. Building up over the second half of Term 2, this culminates in an evening concert offsite near the end of Term 2. House Singing is a compulsory activity that the students participate in, with their allocated Houses. Each House sings one worship song and one song from a different genre each year. These songs are chosen, arranged and taught by the house leaders and their team of helpers.
A full school production takes place every year in some form. Punk Rock collaborated with Shakespeare for 2023’s production of A Midsummer Night’s Dream pushing some thinking along the way. 2024 had us bring the childhood classic The Lion, The Witch, and The Wardrobe to life as a musical adaptation. New musical ‘The Prom’ will be bringing the glitter for 2025. All incoming year 9’s can book an audition time (check your emails for details or email arts@wdsg.school.nz for an audition time). The production will be opening on 5 April, with tickets on sale at the start of March. There are also excellent year level drama performances to be enjoyed from the classes studying drama as a curriculum subject throughout the year.
We have three established singing groups here at Dio - Espresso Barbershop Chorus sings four part a cappella harmony to some well known songs, and package it with costumes and choreography and have a lot of fun. They welcome any singers without an audition. Cantiamo Chapel Choir performs mostly sacred music as its primary focus is to serve the Chapel, although they also get to have fun and compete at The Big Sing every year in Tauranga. This is an all-comers choir so anyone who has a love of singing is welcome to join. With no auditions, Cantiamo Choir has a huge focus on serving the chapel and enjoyment of singing!
Bel Suono choir focuses mainly on high level singing and competitions. The prerequisite for entry into this choir is membership of the Chapel Choir (Cantiamo Choir). Entry into this choir is by audition in November 2024. They start 2025 with an intensive camp before school starts in Term 1. If you would like to audition this, please contact Mrs Maria Colvin ASAP mcolvin@wdsg.school.nz
Our Kapa Haka, named Te Kaahu Piihopatanga, uphold many school events such as poowhiri, whakatau, Chapel services, Matariki and many more. The year starts with a noho/ live-in before Term 1 starts. Incoming students are welcome to join for this noho - please email HoD Kaupapa Maori, Ms Faith Tautuhi ASAP on ftautuhi@wdsg.school.nz
NCEA Music performance evenings, Dance Showcase, High Achievers’ Concert, and the Arts Showcase are great nights out which showcase both curriculum and co-curricular arts.
Some fees are charged for the co-curricular activities. They can range from competition fees to costume fees and transportation on trips. These are most often charged to the students’ school accounts which are billed monthly. You will always be notified of these costs prior.
All co-curricular activity information (Co-Curricular guide) will be on the Waikato Diocesan School for Girls main website (www.waikatodiocesan.school.nz) under Arts and Culture. There you will find all the information required to make informed decisions about the activities students wish to participate in (this will be updated in December to relevant 2025 dates) . During the first few days of school students will be given the opportunity to register for arts and cultural groups at Arts Registration which will be emailed to their school emails.
Optional performance lessons occur during school hours up to 3:30pm. Each lesson is 30 minutes in length. Students are expected to catch up on any work they miss by being out of class, and to give plenty of notice to their music tutor if they cannot leave class due to an assessment. Fees are charged each term and reflect the current private market rates. Some instrument lessons are covered by the itinerant music scheme and are of no cost to the student. These spaces are limited and NCEA students are given preference. Sign ups for lessons are done on a separate form.
We like to celebrate the success of our students in their outside arts groups, so if your child is in a community theatre production, or had amazing results in a dance/music exam or competition, or has made a representative team/group please let us know - a photo would be great too! These can be emailed directly to arts@wdsg.school.nz
Parents' Association (formally School Association)
The Waikato Diocesan Parents' Association is a team of dedicated parents who make the 'Dio Difference' through supporting school events and running fundraisers. Some of the events the School Association has organised over the years include Dio Ladies Night, Dio Quiz Night, DioArtX, Dio Day Out – Gardens and Art and Dio Golf Day.
The Association also runs the Dio Stock Scheme, which involves our rural families donating calves or grazing for calves for funds.
Dio Bears is another scheme where the Association makes and sells the gorgeous Dio Bears (dressed in junior or senior uniforms) to our graduating classes and special visitors to Dio.
All this hard work sees the Association raise funds, which are donated back to the school for the direct benefit of our students.
The Dio School Association is a very friendly group open to any Dio parent/caregiver to join. We warmly welcome all newcomers and their ideas. Please check the school calendar for meeting dates and times.
Special Character at Dio
Veritate, Simplicitate, Fidelitate –
By Truthfulness, By Straightforwardness, By Loyalty
Our special character as an Anglican girls’ boarding school, underpins and informs everything that we do. Our Christian values are the clay from which the character of our students will be moulded and it is also the canvas upon which our waahine will paint their destiny. While literacy, numeracy, critical thinking and problem-solving are important in preparing students for their future careers, it is their social, emotional and spiritual development that will prepare them for a happy life to be lived well.
Dio students are fortunate to belong to a faith based school where our educational framework is underpinned by central Christian concepts of hope and forgiveness in a world too often marred by conflict, suffering and selfishness. These lessons of hope and forgiveness are not restricted to the Chapel but also play out in the classroom, on the sports field and the stage, in restorative conferences, selfless acts of community service and in our celebration of diversity.
Academic excellence, success in arts and sports, the home away from home boarding experience – all these different reasons that parents select our school for their daughters - are inextricably linked to our special character because our faith shapes our practice and informs our appreciation of each unique individual and our desire for her to achieve to her fullest potential.
Kaupapa Maaori at Dio
Kaupapa Maaori at Dio is whaanau-based and whaanau-focused. Inclusive of Te Reo Maaori me ona tiikanga and kapa haka, students gain a sense of pride and belonging under the leadership of our Amokura (Maaori Student Leader) and her Mana Waahine Council.
Our school year starts with the whole school poowhiri led by our kapa haka group to welcome new staff and students. This is followed by the annual Cuppa at the Kura evening for new and existing whaanau to meet and greet.
At the beginning of term two, all Year 11 students attend camp at Tuurangawaewae Marae in Ngaaruawaahia, home to one of our most famous Old Girls, the late Maaori Queen and the longest-serving leader of the Kiingitanga, Te Arikinui, Dame Te Atairangikaahu. This spiritual camp aims to help students understand more about Kaupapa Maaori, which is underpinned by Tainuitanga, and experienced in the heart of the Kiingitanga.
In term three, we celebrate Maaori Language Week, and our annual Whaanau Dinner showcases students' achievements and successes of the year in the concept of whanaungatanga.
