Newsletter Issue 4

Kia ora, Nameste, Talofa, Konnichiwa, Guten Tag, Gidday, Vannakkam, ni Hao, Kia orana, Hola, Salam, Sa wat deekha, Dia Dhuit, Goeie Dag, Bonjour, Καλημέρα, Mālō e lelei, Greetings everyone

After a long wait we are all moved into our new administration space and those of us who work mainly in the office are very grateful to have left our portable offices behind! It has also been great to be able to open up our playing spaces so the children have more choices in their break times.

Term 4 Pōwhiri

A wonderful welcome was held for our new students and families to the school last Thursday. We thank Tessa Finnigan and Whaea Jayjay for all their mahi with our wonderful Kapa Haka group to prepare to greet our new families in style and we look forward to working alongside our new families.

Busy Friday

Last week ended with a much anticipated student organised bake sale (raising funds for the Bellevue Kindergarten), which we all enjoyed in our dressups (raising funds for our Hub 4 office mural!). In the afternoon the students celebrated earning 5,000 dojo points (our student values acknowledgement system) with an afternoon of free choice. It was a busy day packed with student agency!

Hub 5 Inquiry / EOTC Week

As part of our ‘Community Connections - Taking Action’ learning focus for the term, Hub 5 have been busy finding ways to ‘give back’ to their community. They have been learning cultural dance, creating murals for the hall, setting up sports challenges with Newlands School students and fundraising.

In our school grounds, they are also setting up soccer pitches and goals for school use, weeding and planting, teaching younger students to make bird houses and doing research into possibilities for a new playground. Next week they are even going to wash the teachers’ cars for a small donation to sports equipment!!

For some students their inquiry also involved planning this week’s Education Outside The Classroom (EOTC) week which, so far, has been a huge success. This involves a visit to Pukehuia Park, Te Rauparaha Aquatic Centre, and the Intermediate school’s bike track for some students (which also supported our ex students with their community project!). Other things on the plan include Indoor games, electives, and a sleepover in the hall to make it extra special for our Year 6 students.

All of this exciting learning can only happen with the enormous support from our fantastic families and the entire school team (maintenance contractor, support staff, and everyone else included)!

End of 2023 / Start of 2024 Information Coming Home

In previous years we have sent home your child’s achievement report with their class placement for the following school year and information about their stationery list. This year the reports will come home on Wednesday 6 December, but the class placement letter (which also contains information about the Meet the Teacher/Whānau Event to begin 2024 and access to the stationery lists) will be sent home with your child on Monday 11 December. This is to provide families with time to digest the achievement report and talk to their whānau teacher as needed before having the focus turned to 2024.

School Organisation for 2024

Please also refer to last week’s newsletter for information about our transition process and what to expect for next year.

The below image shows where our teaching team will be for 2024. Please note that, although our Hub 5 teachers will have straight Year 5 or Year 6 whānau classes, these will still make up our Hub 5 area and these teachers, as well as our Hub 1 and 2 teachers will still work collaboratively with one another as suits their programme.

We are very grateful for the ongoing financial provision from our school Board that enables us to staff for smaller classes across the school in 2024.

Change to Year 6 Leavers Event

An update to our dates below for our Year 6 families is that our Year 6 Leavers Event on Monday 11 December will now start at 6pm not 5.00pm as initially advertised.

Other places to find information about our school:

Bellevue Website - scroll down to view 'previous Bellevue Newsletters' - and for more timely updates, you could follow our closed group Bellevue Facebook Page, if you are not already.

Noho ora mai

Annette

To assist our families with locating our Attendance Procedures, please note that the below link now takes you to a 'quick link' to the Attendance Procedures in PDF form.

Haere mai ki te kura o Bellevue. Welcome to the following student and their whānau. It is great to have you in our Bellevue Learning Community.

Room 4 - Lola

Room 14 - Hasiru & Sasiru

Our annual Helper’s Morning Tea is an opportunity for us to come together with all the amazing parents, caregivers, whānau and community members who have helped out in some way over the course of the year to say THANK YOU!

This years Helper’s Morning Tea will be held in the hall this Friday 1 December at 10:30 am. Invites were emailed in week 6. If we missed sending you an invite, but you have helped out in some way this year we would love you to join us on Friday.

Each year the school is asked to nominate a Year 6 student to be awarded the Wellington North Primary Schools Citizenship Award. These awards are sponsored by Johnsonville Rotary Club.

The 2023 Wellington North Primary Schools Citizenship Award recipient is Caitlin Brown.

Caitlin was voted by her peers as being a positive role model, someone who other students look up to. She is respectful and inclusive of all as well as contributing to our school community in a positive manner.

On Friday evening, Caitlin was presented with the Citizenship Award at the Johnsonville Community Centre along with the other students chosen by their schools in the North Wellington group of schools. It was an opportunity for Caitlin to be acknowledged for consistently demonstrating the Bellevue School values of Empathy, Integrity, Creativity and Resilience.

Congratulations Caitlin!! Thank you for your contribution to our kura!

Username bellevue-newlands, password 'grow'

After a second year of hard work in this space to develop consistent and positive ways to teach, model and acknowledge positive behaviour that supports learning, our team are excited to share with you the new PB4L page of our website.

Click HERE to visit this page which has an easy to view culmination of:

• the intention of this work

• the values we have developed in consultation with our students and community

• a matrix outlining what living these values looks like for (and according to) our students.

• how we acknowledge positive behaviour

At times, however, we experience behaviours that are not in line with our values. The PB4L flow chart below this may be helpful for families to see our consistent approach to these behaviours. A copy of this will also be uploaded to our SchoolDocs website under ‘Behaviour Management’ for your reference.

Beginning next year, there will be some changes to the times of our breaks during the school day. As well as the change to timings, students will now play before they have their kai. School will still start at 9am and finish at 3pm, with 3 learning blocks throughout the day.

This means our breaks will look like the following:

Break 1

11:00 - 11:30 - Play

11:30 - 11:40 - Eat

Break 2

1:10 - 1:40 - Play

1:40 - 1:50 - Eat

Changing the order to playing first and then eating has shown in international studies to improve children’s ability to focus in classroom learning. With the ‘Play’ first and then ‘Eat’, children eat more, drink more and have improved readiness to learn. They are not so inclined to rush their food to get out to play. They are calmer when they are eating after playing. By having the ‘Learn’ time immediately following eating, they are more attentive, relaxed and ready to learn. The aim is to provide a time to focus on eating in a calm, settled way and then transition successfully into learning programmes.

A number of schools across NZ have embraced this concept following the research of Dr Kathleen Liberty, an Associate Professor at the University of Canterbury. If you would like to find out more, please follow this link.

An example of the impact the new values are having on our tamariki! In Learning through play today some students in Hub 3 were making certificates to hand out to other students who they saw showing the Bellevue values in school.

As conversations around the use of artificial intelligence increase, we have a responsibility to work alongside our students to support them to interact as positively as citizens of the digital world as we do in the real world.

This can be hard with developments taking place at such speed. Common Sense Media suggests a set of 8 principles to guide our work with young people in this space - not vastly different to the principles that should guide schools in all aspects. They also provide some useful tips for families wanting to guide responsible use of these emerging technologies.

Your child’s stationery list for 2024 will be added directly to the Parent Portal of our Bellevue Website (under Stationery) from Monday 11 December when your child’s ‘2024 Class Placement’ letter comes home. Information on how to access the lists will be included in the letter and they will also be on Qizzle after this date.

This letter will also outline the Whānau/Meet the Teacher Event - Wednesday 31 January 2024.

This year we have had fantastic and dedicated parents supervise the Road Patrols before and after school. Sadly some of our parents will not be continuing next year and we are looking for new volunteers to support with Road Patrol.

It is a legal requirement for schools to have an adult stand with the Road Patrols when they are on duty. It is important that our children are able to safely cross the road.

When: Mondays - Friday before or after school

Times: Mornings - 8:25 am to 9:00 am; Afternoons - 2:50 – 3:15pm

Who: Any parent, grandparent or caregiver is welcome. Your child DOES NOT have to be a road patrol in order for you to volunteer.

Please email Nadine at nadine@bellevue-newlands.school.nz or contact the school office if you are able to volunteer.

In previous years, some families of Year 6 leavers, and others leaving Bellevue School, have wished to mark their time here by donating a book to the library.

We are holding a small number of fiction, non-fiction and picture books suitable for a wide range of ages and interests. We make these available for donation at about half the retail price.

A library donation plate showing the name(s) of the donor will be placed in front of the book which will be available for borrowing by the donor after cataloguing and covering.

If you wish to make a donation to the library in this way, the books may be viewed at the school office from Monday 27th November.

We encourage you to enrol your preschoolers as soon as they turn 4. This assists with future planning for our kura and classes. Out of zone enrolment applications close approximately six months prior to commencement date so it is important to submit these early to ensure you are in the ballot. We accept up to five out of zone new entrant applications per term.

If you have preschoolers at home that you are planning to enrol at Bellevue School in the future, here are a few important things to know and put into action:

1. If you are living outside of the Bellevue School enrolment zone, then your preschooler(s) will need to be processed as an out of zone application. Please let us know, if you haven’t already, of any future enrolments at Bellevue School from your family. It helps greatly with our planning to know well in advance. If we know then we can also prompt you as to when you need to get your out of zone application in.

2. It is very important that out of zone applications are received by the application deadline of Friday 8 December , for enrolment from Saturday 13 April 2024 to Friday 5 July 2024.

We cannot accept any out of zone applications if they are not received by the deadline advertised for the enrolment period your child is due to start school in. The deadline can sometimes be up to six months prior to your child actually starting school.

3. Even if your preschooler(s) are in zone, please get your enrolment in to us as soon as possible to enable us to plan ahead. We need this information to be able to work out how many out of zone applications we can accept in each enrolment period.

If you have any questions or are unsure about anything, please call the school office and talk to Amanda.

Melissa Brooke has been appointed to the Learning Support Coordinator for Te Korowai ō Horokiwi (based at Newlands Primary School) for 2024. She will cover Lisa Ramcharan who is taking maternity leave. Melissa has years of experience working in the special education unit at Johnsonville School, as well as prior classroom teaching experience. Bellevue’s Learning Support Coordinator will be Sue Campbell who continue to work with our school, but you may see Melissa around the place in 2024 too.

Every year, it is a real highlight reading the students' reflections on their achievements in their reports. As a parent you will, of course, see your own child’s reflections - but the picture of what children say across the school remains a privilege of the teaching staff. So this year we thought we’d share a few of our favourite comments which speak to the children’s really honest reflections on themselves as learners, what is important to them and what they understand is important about being excellent learners.

Quotes from reports -

• I think I have improved in my writing because I used to just write short, messy sentences, but now I write whole stories. A goal I have worked on this term is punctuation. I know I have made progress because I used to only sometimes use punctuation, but now I use more complex punctuation, mostly correctly.

• I think I have improved my resilience because I used to always give up on a project and ask for help. I know I have made progress because now, if you give me hard questions, I can give you an answer.

• A goal I have worked on this term is making nets of shapes. I know I have improved because I can make cute nets, cuboid nets, cylinder nets and prism nets.

• A goal I have worked on this term is my times tables. I know I have made progress because I have learned more of them and have got faster.

• This year I am proud of taking part in Peer Mediator training because I am good at solving conflict.

• I think I have improved in Maths because I can do squares and pie and lots of other Maths as well!

• I have also worked on Touch because I am the nicest team mate and I cheer them on.

• I am proud of my resilience skills because I have worked really hard at this. It has helped me when I accidentally make a mistake because I can try again or fix it without getting mad.

• I am proud of my Te Reo because I did a lot of good work learning new Māori words and working on pronouncing them.

• Kapa Haka was cool, fun and enjoyable. I got an important job as a whaikōrero speaker for Pōwhiri. It made me feel proud, special and like I was a leader.

• This year I have really enjoyed learning about Maths because I have grown my brian and learnt different things like using number lines to add and subtract and how to skip count.

• This year I have really enjoyed being a Peer Mediator because it is more than wearing a lime hat and vest - it’s helping out kids that are in conflict or have a problem.

• I know I am growing my brain because when I can’t do something I say “I can’t do it yet”, then I keep on trying and don’t give up, and then I can do it.

• A highlight from my learning is being a Librarian because I have improved on taking responsibility for myself and others like helping them find books, issue books, return and reserve books. I have shown to be trustworthy and reliable.

We would like to begin 2024 with a community connection event before school starts for our children on Wednesday 31 January. The aim of this event is to provide an informal opportunity for families to come along and connect with all the teaching team at Bellevue, as well as with your child's whānau class teacher.

On Wednesday 31 January from 4.30pm - 6.30pm our school field will be open for a BYO picnic afternoon tea/early dinner with sports and games available for those who wish to participate. All of the teaching staff will attend and are excited about this opportunity to get to know the new learners in their hubs and their whānau.

We understand, however, that there may still be some families who would appreciate a more formal conversation, or three way conference with their child's whānau class teacher. To accommodate this, we will be offering 12 bookable conferences for each whānau class teacher between 1pm and 3:45pm.

There is no expectation that you attend one of these if you are happy to talk with your child's whānau teacher in the informal part of the day.

However, if you do wish to book one of these slots, bookings can be made on the school inteviews website: www.school.interviews.co.nz for the event that will open following the letter that comes home on Monday 11 December. This letter will also include instructions for accessing your child’s 2024 stationery list.

We will still gather information from families such as emergency contact updates, cybersafe and image use permissions, your aspirations for your child and how you might like to be involved in the life of our school, but we will do this digitally to free up the event time for connecting.

We look forward to beginning our year by strengthening the connections between our school and home and supporting our learners to feel more confident to start their learning on the first day having met their teacher already.

Weet-Bix TRYathlon

Registrations for the 2024 Weet-Bix TRYathlon are now open! If you wish to register your child for this event, please follow this link to sign up under our school group. You can find more information about the event here.

Good Day to All!

Everything seems to be a flurry of activity coming into the end of year season!

It really is hard to believe we now have just over two weeks until the summer holidays are here.

The updates on our confirmed current events as below -

End of Term Pizza – 7 December

Orders close tomorrow, Thursday 30 th November.

Please place your order online via this link: https://forms.gle/Y5qexc1XwTfuXB5w5

Kids Art Work (Calendar Art)

Thank you to all families that supported our school by purchasing via this FUNdraiser event!

The art works were delivered to the classrooms this week. So your children should have been coming home with their calendar art the last few days.

If they haven’t yet, please check in with your children and/or their teachers as to when your purchases will come home.

Alana Estate Wine – Orders closed. Pick up 1-3 December.

Thank you to all the parents that have supported this FUNdraiser! The orders have closed and are being processed, with pick up available on the weekend of 1st /2nd /3rd December.

Due to the nature of this fundraiser, we cannot undertake distribution at school, so collection is from a private address in Newlands. If you could please nominate a date/time to collect your order via this form:

https://forms.gle/NciNPQPXQuAYZB5U9

Bake Sale 2023 – Friday 8 December

The Bellevue Bake Sale will be on Friday the 8 December at 3.00pm, outside of Hub 1.

My oh my do the Bellevue tamariki love a bake sale! There was a separate event recently, that the

students fundraised for the local kindy. They had to ration the baked goods so that there was enough for all the students!

For this event, we ask that our families donate baked goods for the bake sale. The items are sold on an individual basis (ie a single cookie or piece of slice or cupcake). So, get your kids practicing their baking and decorating skills ahead of this highly anticipated event.

A flyer will be coming home as a reminder ahead of the event. Donated baking can be dropped into the school hall AFTER 8.30am on the day (8 Dec).

Can you help us? FUNdraisers Committee Meetings

We can honestly say the kids love our FUNdraiser events, and it has proven to be pretty awesome running these and to get to know the kids of our neat wee school.

If you need a little more in your life and have some time, we welcome you to join us to continue to make ourevents FUN for our children.

If you would like to meet our team, we will be at the Community Picnic event on the 31 st January 2024.

You can join our Facebook Group: https://www.facebook.com/groups/FUNdraisersBellevueNewlands/

Rebecca can also be contacted via fundraisers@bellevue-newlands.school.nz or 021515987.

What’s all this fun and FUNdraising for you ask?

What are we fundraising for? What have we spent our funds raised on?

Our wish list is reviewed often, and is linked via our FUNdraisers webpage:

https://www.bellevue-newlands.school.nz/fundraisers

If you work for a company that may be interested in supporting our school with any of these targets, please don’t hesitate to get in touch with our principal Annette with details :)

Upcoming Events – 2024 Focus

Bellevue Community Picnic Event – 31 January 2024.

Bellevue School - Newlands

Wanted: Patient, sensitive and caring people to support students with special social, emotional, physical and learning needs. Need to be calm, fair, consistently follow guidelines and be interested in working with children from 5-11 year olds.

You will support students with routines, learning tasks and making good choices for their learning/behaviour in the classroom and playground. May involve assistance with toileting and administration tasks at times.

Experience/willingness to support students learning in:

- developing skills in speaking/using English

- calming/de-escalating and resetting behaviour

- working with teachers in a variety of learning spaces

Current positions are for supporting students with English as their second language, class/playground or learning and behaviour support.

The hourly pay rate will be based on experience for the role.

To apply: send current CV with the details of two referees who can attest to the skills relevant to the above and letter of application to: principal@bellevue-newlands.school.nz.

Position closes as soon as appointments are made.

KAPAI KIDZ - Friday 18 December

We are open from 12.30pm (last day of Term) Book via our website www.kapaikidz.co.nz

KAPAI KIDZ - 18-22 December

We are operating from 7.30am-6.00pm to cater for the community. Book via our website www.kapaikidz.co.nz

All enquiries to Linda Robinson 021 409641 or linda@kapaikidz.co.nz

BIGAIR GYMS popular December Drop & Shop Holiday Programme is back, running Mon 18th – Wed 20th December 2023!

Full day and half day sessions are available. This is a wonderful opportunity for kids to keep active, while you get those final pre-Christmas preparations done! BIGAIR GYMS January Holiday Programme is also running Mon 8th – 26th Jan 2024. Bookings are open online now at www.bigairgym.co.nz

Please contact us with any inquiries:

Bigair Gym Owhiro Bay: ph. 383 8779, e. wgtn@bigairgym.co.nz at 14 Landfill Road, Owhiro Bay.

Bigair Gym Tawa: ph. 232 3508, e. office@bigairgym.co.nz at 10b Surrey Street, Tawa.

Wellington North Badminton:

Hey kids, want to learn how to play the super fun, fast and action packed sport of badminton???

Lessons for term 1 2024 start Tuesday 29 January at our stadium in Tawa.

Classes cost just $90 per term and kids can play from aged 6+

Register at https://www.wnba.org.nz/learn/junior/ or email babette@wnba.org.nz for more details.

Get ready to ignite your child's musical passion! Goodtime Music Academy teaches at Bellevue School and is offering award-winning in-school music lessons. Say goodbye to post-school commutes! Dive into the world of music in a vibrant group setting with the following instrument lesson: Drums, Guitar, Keyboard, Ukulele, or our 'Intro to Music' course. But the excitement doesn't stop there! Your child will have the chance to shine in our thrilling concerts.

Act fast, as spots are limited. Enrol now at www.goodtimemusicacademy.co.nz/learn-at-school or call us at 04 568 2237. Your child's moment in the limelight awaits!

Thursday 30 November

Hearing/Vision Technician visiting school

Year 6 Sleep-Over - School Hall

Friday 1 December

10.30am Helpers' Morning Tea

Saturday 2 December

BOT Meeting, 10am - 2.00pm

Wednesday 6 December

End of Year reports sent home

FUNdraisers Pizza Lunch

Thursday 7 December

Friday 8 December

FUNdraisers Bakesale - 3pm outside Hub 1

Friday 8 December

Year 4-6 Celebrations Assembly 9.30am - 10.30am

Monday 11 December

2024 Whānau class & teacher information + Stationery Lists Home

Year 6 Leavers Event - 6.00pm - 8.30pm

Friday 15 December

Last day of the School Year (12.30pm finish)

Wednesday 31 January 2024

Meet the Team:

Community Picnic/3-Way Conferences

Thursday 1 February 2024

First day of the school year

Friday 12 April 2024

Last day of term 1