Newsletter Issue 1

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

Welcome back to all our students and whānau and to our first newsletter of Term 2.

There is already lots going on!

Last Friday, only our third day back is an excellent example of this. In the Junior school a number of our newest students were enjoying their visit with their whānau, while our Year 2 students engaged in their 'discovery' learning time. In another corner of the school, the walls were being attacked by the construction team for our admin area upgrade. In the Senior area of the school, Bellevue was hosting Longworth Education who were running a 'Play with Older Students' professional learning session organised and attended by our Hub 5 kaiako, while the team from the Goodtimes Music Bus set up for their introductory concert, postponed from the end of last term. The beautiful day meant that they were able to perform to the whole school at once on the senior courts which made it much more special and the school felt briefly like a music festival!

Welcome To Our New Team Members

This term we welcome Beverley Warwick as a full time member of the Hub 5 teaching team and Asmaa Zewada (also a parent of one of our students) as kaiawhina (teacher aide) in Hub 5.

Asmaa has a wealth of experience in supporting student and adult learning, including teaching Arabic, English as a second language to international students, working as an interpreter and in numerous volunteer roles. We are excited to have her supporting our tamariki in Hub 5.

Term 2 Learning Focus

This term's conceptual focus is the Māori concept of 'Turangawaewae' - a place to stand, feel at home, sense of identity/belonging. Students will be exploring where the people of Aotearoa are from, what they bring and how they contribute to the richness of Aotearoa.

Property Update

The construction team are well into the weathertighness work on our adminsitration block now after beginning in the term break. A reminder that we expect this work to continue throughout this term and the next. Thank you for being so considerate about parking, drop off and pick up to avoid congestion around the school with limited parking.

The two portable cabins outside the front of the hall are labelled - Principal Office / Medical & Work Room and School Office. The first of these as you approach them from the main gate is where you head with any enquiries or to sign your child in or out.

Goodtimes Music Acadamey - Music Bus

After an amazing outdoor concert on Friday afternoon last week, the music bus lessons are in full swing. I popped by this week to see keyboard players and guitarists brimming with excitement in their first lesson - see photos below.

Teacher Only Day - Staff learning

Thank you for your support with extending the term break until after ANZAC day so that our team could spend Monday 24 April engaged in professional development.

The teaching team spent the morning exploring our Turangawaewae with a visit to Te Papa - specifically focused on the Mana Whenua, Manu Rere Moana/Pacific Voyagers exhibit and Te Waka Huia o Ngā Taonga Tuku Iho (Wellington Museum) for our local stories. In the afternoon we explored the NZ Curriculum Refresh and got excited planning for our term's Turangawaewae learning possibilities with Matt Richards from VIllage Robot.

Our learning support team also spent the day learning about ways to support dysregulated students.

NZ Sign Language Week - Coming soon!

Don't forget the New Zealand Sign Language Week begins on 8 May. As one of NZ's official languages, we will be including this in our learning programmes at school and resources can be found here to support us all to give this a go in our own lives. You can also head to the NZSL Dictionary or download the app to learn a little yourself. We are fortunate to have some whānau members highly skilled in sign language who give up their time to share their skills and provide learning opportunities for our students and staff.

A reminder that our newsletters are now fortnightly with a 'important dates' update on the alternate weeks. You can expect the next one on Wednesday 17 May.

Any necessary communications prior to this will come out via email or as updates on our closed group Bellevue Facebook Page, if you are not already, you may wish to consider following this.

Ngā manaakitanga

Annette

Please ensure that you use the office email: office@bellevue-newlands.school.nz to report absences.

Often our emails are sent through our student management system with an address that looks like this:

Bellevue_School_{Newlands}@etap.co.nz

Replying to these directly means that there is a high chance they are not seen until much later in the day or week and your message may be missed.

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

Jesse in Room 3

Alistair in Room 4

Kawa in Room 6

Raid to Room 10

• Thank you to Nita, Charlotte and Oscar for making sure our library was ready to go when Sarah was unable to be at school. What a great example of responsibility!

Hub 5 kaiako had the privilege of attending a ‘learning through play with older children’ course on Friday. They learned a lot about the importance of understanding children’s development stages, the types of play and noticing what students are naturally interested in. They are excited about the possibilities this new knowledge presents and are currently discussing how this might look in hub 5.

This term, Whakawhanaungatanga Fridays will be in Weeks 3 and 9 (12 May and 23 June).

Last year, we introduced Whakawhanaungatanga Fridays as a way for children to come together across the school to explore, learn from each other and connect with one another. We're excited to be continuing these sessions this year! During these afternoons, children opt in to sessions based on overarching curriculum areas including STEM, The Arts, or Health and PE. Sessions follow a Learning through Play approach, where a variety of engaging invitations are provided to spark creativity and curiosity, while also allowing students to follow their own passions and interests. This focus on 'process over product' promotes a holistic approach to learning and supports our tamariki to develop both their core subject knowledge, as well as dispositional skills such as perseverance, resilience and empathy, values and skills that are integral to life long learning.

During Whakawhanaungatanga Fridays children are:

1. Learning in rich and authentic contexts, relevant to their own experiences and interests.

2. Developing dispositional skills, such as collaboration, risk taking, and leadership.

3. Living values that we hold dear at Bellevue School, such as empathy, integrity, resilience, and creativity.

We warmly invite whānau to come along and play, explore and learn alongside your child/ren during any of the sessions this year. There is no need to commit in advance and you are welcome to stay for as little or as long as you are able.

We would love to see you!

Sessions run from 1:30pm - 2.30pm on any of these afternoons. On arrival, please head to the office and you will be able to find where your child/ren will be for the afternoon.

Keeping Gates Closed

On occasions since the beginning of term, our school gates have been left open - in particular the small gate from the car park to the junior area of the school which can be hooked open. When our students are settling in to the school it can take some time for them to establish the safe areas and the gates play a key role in this. When entering or exiting our school please consider the littlest members of our community and make sure that you are closing gates so they click shut behind you.

Early Arrival

With our administration area out of action, currently there is no safe space for students who arrive before 8.30am to wait. On the odd occasion, teachers are happy to have students wait on their class patio prior to 8.30am. This is a key time for teachers preparing for the day so students are not monitored. Also, as the weather declines, is not pleasant for our tamariki either. Please support us to keep our students safe, warm and dry by not sending them to school prior to 8.30am.

Thank you.

You may be aware that the Ministry of Education has released new rules and guidelines about understanding student distress and minimising the use of physical restraint in schools. More information about this for families can be found HERE. Our team has already been trained in understanding behaviour and responding safely and will be completing training for the new requirements during Term 3.

School Docs have updated our policies and procedures to reflect these changes. To access these go to the 'Our People' - 'Our Board' page of our school website (or use the button below) , scroll down to locate the icon, enter the username bellevue-newlands and the password 'grow' then simply search 'Physical Restraint'.

In addition to the above, there have been updates to our concerns and complaints policies. By following the same steps above and seraching 'concerns' you can view this on our School Docs site.

This includes a helpful flow chart of the process for raising concerns.

At our school we expect that all concerns will be raised directly with the appropriate staff member in the first instance. Following this, if the concern is not resolved, please contact the Hub Coach or Deputy Principal for the area of the school your child is in:

• Anne Smith - Deputy Principal Year 0-3, Hub Coach Hub 1 & 2: annes@bellevue-newlands.school.nz
• Cassie Woodhouse - Hub Coach Hubs 3 & 4: cassie@bellevuenewlands.school.nz
• Deeann Daniels - Deputy Principal Year 4-6, Hub Coach Hub 5: deeann@bellevue-newlands.school.nz

If the matter is still not resolved or is more serious as indicated in the flow chart, please contact Annette Borgonje, our principal: principal@bellevue-newlands.school.nz. If the concern is about the principal, then Kelvin Russell our Board Presiding Member is the appropriate contact: boardchair@bellevue-newlands.school.nz

New Entrants—Enrol Now!

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. And 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 9am Friday 30 June 2023, for enrolment from Saturday 23 September 2023 to Friday 15 December 2023. 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.

International Star Wars day is on Thursday.

We'll be celebrating International STAR WARS day in the Library on Thursday.

'May the fourth be with you'.

Ngā mihi nui to everyone who dressed their hair wacky in support of our student council fundraiser on Tuesday. As a school, we raised a total of $249.30. This will be donated to the New Zealand Red Cross Disaster Fund. Here are some photos to make you smile.

Collective Statement from Principals

You may have seen in the media that primary and area school principals who are NZEI TE Riu Roa members have voted to stop working with the Ministry of Education and to limit our work hours. We have taken this action as we believe it is necessary to highlight the significant issues that we need to address in the current round of negotiations.

We are committed to continuing to lead our schools and to ensure that they are safe, healthy places where students are learning during this time. Our day-to-day work to do this will continue, but we will no longer be working with the Ministry on their education system work or to introduce or implement new initiatives. As principals we make a significant contribution of time and expertise to this work. There is little additional resource or staffing to support this which has a negative impact on us.

We will continue to meet with our boards.

We will not be available for work or to be contacted before 8am and after 5pm on weekdays. This includes sending or receiving digital communications. We also not be available at all on Saturday, Sunday or public holidays.

We hope to receive an acceptable offer in negotiations and will end the work ban when that happens.

The latest brochures have been sent out to all families. Orders are due in by Thursday 11 May. Payment is by cash or credit card (details on the book club form). Please bring your order along to the school office, in a sealed envelope with your child's name, room number and Scholastic book club written on the outside of the envelope.

We are always looking to strengthen our partnerships and relationships with those in our local community, If you work for a company that may be interested in supporting our school, please get in touch with annette@bellevue-newlands.school.nz.

Thank you.

Miniball Draws for Term 2:

This link will take you to the Sports page on our website. Scroll down to the bottom of the page to see the Miniball draws - https://www.bellevue-newlands.school.nz/sport-notices

Miniball Results:

Bellevue Hurricanes lost 10–22 to St Bens Bucks. Lara was player of the day.

Bellevue Lightning lost 63-8 to Ngati Toa Toa. Caleb was player of the day.

Bellevue Storm lost 59-16 to Ngaio Panthers, Tyler was player of the day.

Bellevue Lightning won 42-32 against Ngaio Makos. Jinhan was player of the day.

Our ākonga (our students), our hapori (our community) – you are all amazing!

Term 1 2023 was a little crazy, and so much FUN!

First up, our FUNdraisers brought Juicies to Athletics Day. 270 Juicies in total went to the students, raising a total of $350 from this activity.

Then our big event in Term 1, the FUNRun, with pizza lunch and Juicies! Oh wow did the kids and their parents bring the FUN for the FUNRun event! The colour theme dress ups (some that came to school TWICE) were awesome and it was delightful to see the kids happy and engaged in journeying around school to the music! The FUNdraisers team brought 192 Juicies and 196 Pizzas to the students for this activity. But most amazingly, the kids put in some incredible effort seeking support for their personal efforts in partaking in the FUNRun! Thank you so much to our students and their families and friends!

In total in Term 1, we have raised over $3500 for our school, with every cent going towards equipment and resources for our children. Thank you everyone!

Newlands Scouts have space for youth between the ages of 6-14. Keas age 6-8, Cubs 8-11, Scouts 11-14

Every year we help 13,000 young people in New Zealand enjoy new adventures, experience the outdoors, make new connections, and gain confidence. This includes outdoor activities and Leadership

To make contact with us, please email newlands@group.scouts.nz

FUN Sticks

FUN Sticks is an 8-week hockey programme designed for children aged 5-6 years (school Yr 1 & 2)

2023 FUN Sticks will focus on individuals’ movement and motor skill development, helping build a young person's physical literacy and preparing them for sport. Hockey skills will be taught through fun, games-based activities. FUN Sticks offers:

- An introduction to hockey with an emphasis on having fun

- An opportunity to develop fundamental skills - running, dodging, striking

- A positive and quality coaching environment

- Full involvement for all participants -Regular changes of activities to maintain enthusiasm and interest

-A safe environment for all activities -Equipment required to play hockey (Hockey Stick & Ball) is provided -We encourage parents to join in with kids if they want

Festival Day:

On the last week of the programme, there will be a festival day held at the National Hockey Stadium on the morning of Saturday 1 July. FUN Stick participants will be able to play games with players from different locations.

Please Note: There are no postponement days scheduled (excluding the festival day)

Where:

FUN Sticks is run at the following locations across Wellington:

- National Hockey Stadium (NHS), Wellington from 10:00 am – 11:00 am – Saturday starting 6 May

- Hutt (Fraser Park) - 10:00 am – 11:00 am Saturday starting 6 May

- Porirua (Elsdon Park) – 3:45pm – 4:45 pm – Tuesday 9th May

- Kelburn (Kelburn Normal School) – 4:00 pm – 5:00 pm – Tuesday 9 May

The cost for the 8-week programme is $50

Register using the following link for the Player registration system PlayHQ

https://www.playhq.com/hockey-new-zealand/register/5a8236

If you have any questions please contact Regan Fricker, Development Officer (Umpires) regan@wellingtonhockey.org.nz

Monday 8 May - Friday 12 May

NZ Sign Language Week

Tuesday 9 May

NZ Cross Country

pp Thursday11 May

Wednesday 17 May

BOT Meeting - 6.30pm - 8.30pm

Thursday 18 May

Junior Invitational Cross Country

pp Thursday 25 May

Friday 19 May

Pink Shirt Day

Thursday 25 May

FUNdraisers Meeting - 7pm

Thursday 1 June

School Disco

Friday 2 June

Teacher Only day - school closed

Monday 5 June

King's birthday - school closed

Wednesday 14 June

BOT Meeting - 6.30pm - 8.30pm

Tuesday 20 June

Northern Zone Hockey

pp Thursday 22 June

Wednesday 28 June

Reports go home

Thursday 29 June

Matariki Celebration

Friday 30 June

Last day of term 2

Wednesday 9 August

BOT Meeting - 6.30pm - 8.30pm

Wednesday 6 September

BOT Meeting - 6.30pm - 8.30pm

Friday 15 September

Whole School Emergency Evacuation Practice