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

With a number of new families joining our school from across the globe we are wondering if the greetings above may be missing a few - if your language is not represented, please get in touch and let us know!

Tongan Language Week

This week is Tongan language week | Uike Kātoanga’i ‘o e Lea Faka-Tonga. This year’s theme is 'E tu'uloa 'a e Lea faka-Tongá 'o ka lea'aki 'i 'api, siasí (lotú), mo e nofo-'a-kāingá’, which means the Tongan Language will be sustainable if used at home, church and in the wider community. There are more than 80,000 people of Tongan descent in Aotearoa and the largest age groups are the youngest – meaning many ākonga are enriched with Tongan culture. Resources are HERE

2024 Term Dates

Term Dates for 2024 have been finalised and can be found on the school website here. This is in PDF form so you can print it to refer to. This will help with your holiday planning, including public holidays and the currently confirmed staff only days (the Ministry of Education may advise additional dates for specific topics).

Growing Community Conversations Survey - now closed.

We would like to thank the 37 families who took the time to respond to our community survey to inform our strategic planning. For those who entered their names into the draw for the Galaxy tablet, our draw has been a little delayed. The lucky winner will now be drawn by members of the student council this Friday 8 September and the winner announced via email and Facebook.

The next step is for our Board to meet later this week to collate the information from our students, staff and families. We will work to identify themes from the feedback. We will then share these back with you to see if we have heard your thoughts correctly, before we use these to underpin our strategic planning.

PB4L Information Evening

After much preparation, we went ahead with our PB4L parent information evening last Wednesday as we had recevied 10 replies indicating attendance. We are sad to share that we only had two families attend. While we thank both families heartily for making the efforts worthwhile, we were disappointed at this response. With so much staff sickness at present, it is not reasonable to ask our team to stay late (after long days of supporting school operation amidst teacher shortages), unless this is valued by our community. In light of this, we are reviewing how we communicate and plan for community events in the future.

What makes Bellevue Special?

As part of our ongoing focus on building our students’ sense of turangawaewae - belonging and ownership of their school, we asked them this question. The responses were a really special insight into the way our children see their school. Please follow THIS LINK to view a PDF of what they had to say.

Welcome Kristopher Wernicki

Kristopher is an educational pyschology student who is kindly giving up his time to volunteer at Bellevue. Currently he is working on Tuesday and Thursday in Hub 3. We are very grateful for his contribution to the life of our school. Please make him feel welcome if you see him around.

Friday 15 September - A Big Day!

This date is important for three reasons.

It is our whole school Emergency Evacuation and Reunification Practice - please see the information below about this as well as the letter coming home following this newsletter.

This is also the day the Year 6 Road Patrollers head off to celebrate their commitment as school leaders at the Orange Day Parade. In addition we have the magician El Gregoe visiting our school. There will, of course be no Whakawhanaungatanga Friday on this day.

We have received some queries about the two events being on the same day. Although, we do not tell our community when the evacuation will take place so that it is more in line with an actual civil defence emergency, we can assure you that this will be while all students are at school.

Meet The Bellevue Board

Thank you for your participation in our recent election for a parent representative. We are pleased to announce that we once again have a full school Board - five parent representative, the principal and a staff representative. Please follow THIS LINK to the Board page of our school website to find out a little more about us all.

Two new dates for your diary -

Please note the addition of the Te Korowai ō Horokiwi Kapa Haka Festival on Friday 20 October at Newlands Intermediate and the Learning Celebrations Open Evening as outlined below to our important dates.

Learning Celebration Open Evening - Thursday 21 September

To mark the end of another great term of learning, on the last Thursday of the term we will be holding the second of our 'Learning Celebrations' for the year. This is an opportunity to come into the classes and take a look at all the rich learning your child has been involved in. Classrooms will be open with students' learning displayed from 3 - 4.30pm and then again between 5.30 - 7pm. Your child will be preparing for this in the coming week and they are excited to share their learning with you.

You will see a variety of learning across the children's classes and are very welcome to visit classes across the school. We are aiming for richness and diversity in our celebration of the student's learning - what is important to them as individuals - rather than consistency.

Individual meeting times will not be scheduled for this event but we would encourage families to take the opportunity to talk informally with their child’s whānau class teacher. As always, if you prefer a one to one meeting, you are very welcome to request an appointment with your child’s teacher outside of this time.

Please look out for our usual community feedback sheets ('How did we glow? How did we grow?') which will be available for you to let us know what you think.

School Organisation for 2024

Finally, as we approach the final weeks of Term 3, school planning for 2024 is underway. We would like to draw your attention to the ‘School Organisation’ section of this newsletter in case you wish us to consider anything for your child’s class placement for 2024.

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.

Malo ‘Aupito

Annette

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.

Enya in Room 3

Lyrie in Room 15

Misa in Room 5

Bi in Room 11

Duc in Room 15

Hub 5 would like to say a huge thank you to the following people who helped with supervision for our recent Matiu/Somes Island trip:

Ghulam, Badari, Gabrielle, Edwin, Ashtar, Robyn, Rob, Aaron, Yolandy, Kelvin, Stacey, Denise, Vinay, Damien, Melissa, Ramon, Ambika, Mark H, Shane, Lin Chen, Siaosi, Quinn, Bryan, Hester, Charlotte, Phil, Glen, Keegan, Mel, Deeann

Hub 1 would like to thank the parents who helped us on our trip to Wellington Zoo on Monday 28 August. This day could not have been so successful if you weren‘t there!

Thank you to our wonderful volunteers who are assisting with the Artsplash Choir rehearsal on Monday 11th.

A big thank you to Erin Bellhouse and Teresa Kennedy for supporting our Netballers throughout this season and providing so many opportunities for them to shine!

This important school event is taking place NEXT FRIDAY.

Following the newsletter today, the second of two letters outlining what you need to know for our whole school emergency evacuation and reunification practice will come home via email. An image is included below.

Once again we thank you for your patience with this important practice so our school is prepared to respond quickly to keep our children safe in an emergency.

Term 4 is a short term and always busy! At this time of year we begin looking at the number of students we anticipate in each year level to make decisions about class organisation and placement for the following year.

At Bellevue, providing the best environment for learning is at the forefront of our decisions. The number of classes we start the year with is dependent on the staffing entitlement received from the Ministry of Education. This is based on the number of students in the school.

Our teachers are capable of teaching at all levels of the school and so we can allocate teachers to classes no matter the structure of the school or where they were teaching the previous year.

When looking at class composition, we aim to meet each child's needs regardless of the whānau class or mix of year groups. Our team of skilled educators takes the following factors into account when considering class placement for students -

• Individual needs and achievement

• Peer relationships

• Learning groups and friendship groups

• Age and year group

• Gender balance and number of students

• Siblings in other classes and year groups

Students are asked for the people they work/play well with. We are committed to making the most appropriate placement, considering all the information.

If there are any factors we may not be aware of that you believe are important for us to take into account please contact the school over the coming month - by Friday 13 October at the latest. There will be reminders in the final newsletter before the term break.

You can talk with your child's teacher or a member of the leadership team or email us at

Anne Smith (Deputy Principal Year 0-3) annes@bellevue-newlands.school.nz,

Cassie Woodhouse (Hub Coach Year 3/4) cassie@bellevue-newlands.school.nz

Deeann Daniels (Deputy Principal Year 4-6) deeann@bellevue-newlands.school.nz,

Annette Borgonje (Principal) annette@bellevue-newlands.school.nz.

Once again, please make sure that you have contacted us before 13 October (end of the first week back) so we can take this into consideration when planning classes early next term.

We would like to extend our deepest thanks to the JCT, who have provided a grant of $8,415 for us to purchase a Nudel Kart to support our students technology learning in Learning Through Play. After several declined applications to other trusts JCT have made it happen! Look out for this amazing resource around the school in the near future. Thanks also to Amanda Beauchamp our Accounts Manager who does an amazing job of applying for grants so our students can have the best learning opportunities possible.

Thank you to all the parents who volunteered as coaches, as managers and to all those that came and supported each week.

A huge thank you from the school also to Erin and Teresa whose organisation made all this happen!

Touch Rugby - Term 4

If your child is interested in playing Touch Rugby in Term 4, please fill in this form by 10 October.

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.

The below resources were shared with us through our Journal Surf subscription. We thought some families may find them useful:

Help your child become a problem solver
Aimed at kids aged 6-8 although the hallway maze activity included would be fun for all ages!

Help your child become self-aware
Aimed at kids aged 8-10 and includes some great videos, activities and discussion points.

Help your child make great decisions
Aimed at kids aged 10-12 and includes some great videos about decision making, and activities to do as a family.

Hub 4 have been working on narrative writing and in an effort to have a purpose for our writing, we made a plan to visit and share our writing with Hub 1. Hub 1 and 4 ākonga buddied up, and then Hub 4 ākonga shared their writing followed by Hub 1 ākonga sharing something they were proud of.

Feedback from the Hub 4 ākonga was that they enjoyed reading their writing to others, sharing with their siblings, making new friends and being leaders to younger students. Whakawhanaungatanga in action!

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.

Important information about the Bellevue School enrolment scheme (zone)

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 22 September 2023, for enrolment for term 1 2024, from Saturday 16 December 2023 to Friday 12 April 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.

The Bee Healthy Dental Van was due to visit our school in Term 4, but due to a number of School Events happening in Term 4 this has been postponed until Term 1 2024. A date has yet to be confirmed. If you have any concerns about your child's dental health or need to make an appointment please contact the Dental Hub on 0800 825583.

Welcome to Spring Bellevue Whanau!

It’s seeming that winter has done its dash for 2023 and spring has arrived! It’s beautiful to see the daffodils are blooming along the walkway into school.

While FUNdraisers might look like we have been hibernating through the winter of Term 3 this year, our feet are paddling away furiously under the water’s surface in prep for Term 4!

In addition to our normal updates, this week we are delighted to share with you all just how amazing our community and our very small FUNdraisers team have been in achieving some FUNdraising goals.

To-date for 2023, we have raised a total profit of: $5191.81

Our events have included 2 x End of Term Pizzas, 2 x Juicies days, the FUNrun, the Matariki Hangi meal and Entertainment Book membership sales.

From this, the school have put funds towards agreed purchases of the following items:

- $1000.00 toward 50 new sports t-shirts for our school sports teams

- $1999.11 toward outdoor play equipment for each of the Hubs throughout the school.

Leaving a balance to put towards the next project on the list, which is likely to be replacing the covers on the sandpits in the Hub 1 and 2 playground area.

As mentioned also later in this update, our wish list and goals are reviewed regularly for priority and are available to view on our school website via: https://www.bellevue-newlands.school.nz/fundraisers

Have you considered joining FUNdraisers? As you can see, we have some pretty big goals coming up, including for the seniors area of the school, and it takes a village (or in our case a community) to achieve these goals.

Have you joined our Facebook Group? https://www.facebook.com/groups/FUNdraisersBellevueNewlands/

Now onto the updates on our confirmed current events as below -

End of Term Pizza – Term 3, 22 September

Pizza lunch is confirmed for Friday the 22nd September from Dominos.

Order forms should have been distributed to your children’s classrooms, with a minor glitch that the tick boxes are missing. So please circle your order type preference.

Or better yet, please head on over and order online: https://forms.gle/BbYs7SGmtDNCZqUX7

Orders close Wednesday 13th September.

Kids Art Work (Calendar Art)

If you attended the Matariki Evening at the end of Term 2, you may have seen your child’s artwork on display. If not, or you need a closer look, keep your eyes peeled!

Order forms and product information will be coming home to you toward the end of the term, with delivery of the products in Term 4 in time for Christmas (yeah, I said it… Christmas!)

Alana Estate Wine

We are delighted to confirm that the following varieties of wine will be available for order this year. Tasting notes and prices will be on the order form, which will be released early in Term 4, in time to order your Christmas (I said it again) and Summer supply!

Estate Pinot Gris, 2022

Estate Sauvignon Blanc, 2022

Estate Riesling, 2021

Estate Chardonnay, 2022

Estate Rosé, Marlborough 2022

Estate Merlot, 2021

Rapture Pinot Noir, 2022

Lumiere Pinot Noir, 2022

Estate Pinot Noir, 2021

Limited Release Pinot Noir, 2020

Alana Estate NV Blanc de Blanc

Alana Late Harvest 2017

Bake Sale 2023

It’s confirmed, the Bellevue end of year Bake Sale is back! This event took a hiatus thanks to that nasty pandemic, but we look forward to bringing it back to the children for 2023!

The Bellevue Bake Sale will be on Friday the 8th December at 3pm, outside of Hub 1.

For this event, we kindly 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!

You may have seen on our Facebook Group, some keen beans have already started prepping lemon cordial for the event!! If you have spare lemons growing at your property and would like to pass them on, your FUNdraisers team will gladly accept them for the making of the lemon cordial!

Can you help us? FUNdraisers Committee Meetings

Our little team of 5 need more support – WE NEED YOU!

Gosh do we LOVE to bring the FUN to our kids with events through the year, and we have some really interesting ideas we would like to bring to the school. We however don’t have quite enough resources to make it all work. Do you have some of that elusive ‘spare time’ and would you like to give back to our cool school? If so…

Our next committee meeting is scheduled for 7pm on 12th October 2023, location TBC due to the school building works.

We hope to see you there! Or get in touch with Rebecca: fundraisers@bellevue-newlands.school.nz

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

We have set the last of our 2023 events and will be considering our 2024 events at our next FUNdraisers committee meeting.

Goodtime Music Academy at Bellevue School - Enrol Now!

Goodtime Music Academy are taking enrolments for in-school music lessons now. If you want your child to be a part of these award winning music lessons, and want to be a part of their new curriculum and performing opportunities, then in-school lessons may be the solution for you. Learn in a group setting, and choose between Drums, Guitar, Keyboard, Ukulele. Or try their 'Intro to Music' course. Please visit www.goodtimemusicacademy.co.nz/learn-at-school to enrol and enquire. You can also call them on 04 568 2237. Spaces are limited so get in quick!

Wednesday 6 September

BOT Meeting - 6.30pm - 8.30pm

Thursday 7 September

Whole School Circus Challenge

Friday 8 September

Onesie Day

Monday 11 September

Highnotes Choir performance at the Michael Fowler Centre

Thursday 14 September

Pōwhiri to welcome new students - 10.40am

Friday 15 September

Road Patrol Orange Day Parade

El Gregoe School Show

Whole School Emergency Evacuation Practice

Thursday 21 September 3-4.30pm / 5.30 - 7pm

Learning Celebrations Open Evening

Friday 22 September

FUNdraiser Pizza Lunch

Last day of Term 3

Monday 9 October

First day of Term 4

Friday 20 October

Te Korowai ō Horokiwi Kapa Haka Festival - NIS

Monday 23 October

Labour Day - School closed

Tuesday 24 October

Teacher Only Day for NZC Refresh - School closed