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, Mālō e lelei, Greetings everyone

Nau mai, haere mai, and welcome back to Term 1 of 2025! A special welcome to our new families and students. The school year has started smoothly and quietly and though we are still surrounded by property work in the grounds, the students have settled quickly into their new classes.

For our new families, Bellevue’s guiding values are shown below and fall under the concept of Aroha. All of us in our school community strive to embody these values in our day to day learning and interactions.

Communication from School

This newsletter comes home fortnightly with key news, reminders and updates from across the school. For more hub learning focused communications, as well as contact with the teacher, you will need to check you have access to your child’s Seesaw page. Our Bellevue Website has term dates and longer term information about the operation of the school - take a look at the Parent Portal - and you may wish to follow our closed group Facebook Page for quick updates or reminders.

Term 1 Learning

After several weeks of teacher preparation, it is wonderful to welcome back our students and see them reconnecting with their friends and teachers, and getting to know their new school routines.

Our key concept for Term 1 is ‘Beginnings’ - with a focus on Science/Technology. Drawing inspiration from our Kura Ahurea (Te Āti Awa cultural kaupapa) story of Rangi and Papa and engaging the tamariki’s curiosity, learning programs will begin with getting to know one another, establishing class kawa, routines and expectations for the term’s learning. The focus is also on developing the dispositions and mindsets for effective learning - believing I can learn anything with perseverance, developing collaborative relationships, resilience, risk taking and managing myself in the learning environment.

Teacher Only Days - Staff Professional Development

Prior to the start of school our team engaged in two staff only days.

The first of these was spent with our entire teaching team - kaiako (teachers) and kaiāwhina (teacher aides) - to connect, work on our school culture - the way we operate to get the best outcomes for our students, and clarify roles and responsibilities for the 2025 school year.

The second day was spent learning how to use the e-asTTLe tool for Writing assessment. This will be the tool used to gather information from a snapshot of children’s writing to inform teachers planning and student goal setting in Writing from this year.

Friday’s teacher only day was focused on the refreshed Mathematics curriculum. We would like to thank our school community for supporting this day as, with the pace of change currently in education, opportunities to strengthen our understanding of the curriculum changes are invaluable. This day was spent delving into the refreshed curriculum, which is not vastly different from what we have been teaching, with a laser lens on the specific changes that affect each area of the school and understanding how these progress across the Phases 1 and 2 - Year 1-3 and Year 4-6. We also looked at what comes in Phase 3 Year 7-8 so that we are able to extend those learners who require this.

Positive Behaviour for Learning

Last year we made changes to the timing, length and structure of break times in response to information gathered about student behaviour. After reviewing this data at the end of 2024, we will continue to have break times as follows. Do note the change of names to these breaks. This is to remind students to eat a more substantial amount at the first break so they are not still hungry in the second learning block.

• 9am school begins

• 10am Fruit and Fuel - short break in class with nutritionally sound snack

• 11 - 11.30am Lunch, with eating time 11.30 - 11.40am

• 1.10 - 1.40pm Afternoon tea, with eating time 1.40 - 1.50pm

• 3pm school ends

New Names for our Year Groups and Spaces

As you will be aware, we have changed the names of our year groups to make the identification of hubs within the school easier over several years.

The composition of year groups - eg. Year 3/4, Year 6, Year 5/6, etc. changes every year in response to the number of students. The old Hub 1, 2, 3 names did not always work and we were looking for something that reflected our school history and that the students could connect with more easily. Although the school grounds have changed a great deal over the years, in the two years leading up to 1970, 608 trees were planted in the school grounds. Thus the current school logo and our selection of the new names.

The new year group names will remain the same year after year (so Year 1 will always be Mānuka) and the composite groups be named as with this year’s Year 4/5 group - Rimu/Tōtara.

With the Year 4/5 group being bigger this year than our Year 6 cohort, they have moved into the classrooms down the hill. This means we cannot refer to our play spaces as Junior, Middle and Senior any longer. The te reo Māori name for a play space is papa tākaro, so this seemed like a great opportunity to learn a little more reo in our school organisation.

The year groups, new tree names and new play space names can all be viewed in the easy to print map HERE and shown below.

Staff News

We are delighted to welcome Heidi Lloyd to our team for 2025 and beyond. Heidi has a wealth of experience in South Africa and more recently at St Marks School in Wellington. Heidi has joined the Mānuka (Year 0-1) Team and is already making strong connections with our learners and their families.

Also for Term 1, we are very fortunate to have Kristine Medrano volunteering with our school. Kristine is awaiting her teacher studies and focused on getting some in school experience with all ages so we feel very fortunate that she has started with Bellevue. She will be working across the school supporting groups and getting to know how the school operates.

Smart Devices at Bellevue

A reminder that at Bellevue our policy has always been to discourage phones or smartwatches (with access to data) at school. If they do come to school, they must be handed in to the teacher at the beginning of the day. These are locked away and returned to the students at the end of the day.

If you need to contact your child urgently during the day, please call the office. Similarly, in the event of an emergency at school where the care and safety of the children will be our first priority, your first contact would be from the school rather than your child.

If your child has a smartwatch that does not have access to data they may wear it, however, please remind them that they are not to use this to take photos of anyone in school. Please see our SchoolDocs policy for more information (username:bellevue-newlands, password: grow).

Bellevue Community Support

Sadly, during the break one of our Bellevue families unexpectedly lost a treasured husband and father. Although the family has been well supported by those close to them, we are aware that members of the wider school community may wish to show their support of this family at such a difficult time.

The school is receiving donations for the family. These can be made in cash direct to the office, or via online banking.

If you would like to contribute please make your payment to the school bank account below with the reference: Aroha.

Bank details: ASB Johnsonville Branch, 12-3223-0048283-00

2024 - 2025 Strategic Planning

We are now in the second year of our two year strategic plan. This can be viewed HERE. The focus for this year is very much on the embedding and refining of the changes made in 2024 to, for example, reporting student achievement information to families, monitoring student achievement and meeting the diverse needs of students. The annual plan is being prepared to reflect the detail behind this and will be shared later in the term through this newsletter and on our website.

Property update

Thank you for looking out for our grounds over the break - apart from some minor tagging, the school was in good shape to start the year.

We are nearing the end of some major and long lasting property improvements:

• The hall has been washed, painted internally and the floor has been renovated. It looks like a new floor! If you haven’t had a chance do pop in and take a look.

• The accessible ramp leading from the admin block down the hill is in its final stages of construction. We anticipate this work to be completed before the end of the month, though the fencing outside the administration area will remain a little while to give our grass a chance to establish.

• The building at the bottom of the hill is having major work done to address the rot - this has become more than initially expected, but is worth doing well. A breakout space has been provided opposite the three classrooms that are in use to provide an alternative space to the Room 12 classroom which is being worked on. This work is expected to continue until the end of the term.

• The roofing and cladding work throughout the rest of the school is now complete except the entrance to the library which we anticipate will be completed in the next couple of weeks.

• We are currently seeking grants to support the establishment of Stage 2 of the lower field playground in 2025.

Reminders:

• Medications at School

If a​ student requires prescription medication during school hours, we only administer medication where the whānau have completed a medicine authority form. Don’t forget to update/replace medications should they expire. If your child ​requires a medical action plan, please ​ensure the school has been provided with a copy and inform the school of any changes to individual plans.

• 2025 Term Dates - are HERE on our school website.

Hei konā mai me ngā mihi

Annette

A reminder that our fortnightly newsletters can also be found on our 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.

Bellevue's Guiding Values

2025 School Map

Da-Hae - R3

Zion - R2

Emily - R3

Davina - R2

Van-Taylor - R4

Perrin - R4

Vin - R2

Jessie - R4

Malik - R5

Amilia - R9

Te Kaniva - R13

Thao - R8

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

Please do always contact the office (office@bellevue-newlands.school.nz), or call and leave a message for absences. Do not reply to this newsletter as your message may not be seen.

Communication both to and from families is important to us at Bellevue School. With multiple methods of communication can come some confusion about where to look or what to use. We spent some time before the school year began clarifying for ourselves and for our community where each platform fits in regard to effectively communicating with our families and allowing them to do the same. We hope this visual will be useful. You can find a printable copy of this for your reference on our website HERE.

Thank you to all who attended our aspiration meetings and whānau picnic on Friday 31st January. Although the weather was up to its usual tricks and it was a smaller group, it was lovely to connect with you and your child in a more informal way and we appreciate the effort made by those who attended. Bellevue School will continue to gather our general family information digitally.

We have had a record number of responses already! Thank you.

If you have not yet completed this, the link is HERE. Please complete this before Friday 28 February.

Please note that this form also includes permissions for sharing of your child’s images and work to help to keep them safe and has links to your child’s digital technologies user agreements. These were sent home hard copy on the first day of school. If you did not receive one you can print them directly from the form. Alternatively, please contact your child’s whānau teacher for a copy. We would appreciate you returning these as quickly as possible as your child will not be able to use devices at school until this is submitted.

Emergency contact information is not included in this form. It will be sent home in paper form at a later date, prior to our Emergency Evacuation. In the interim, please contact the office directly if your Emergency Contact information has changed since our Emergency Evacuation last year.

We look forward to receiving your completed form before 5pm on Friday 1 March. If you require support with this form or would prefer a paper copy, contact the school office..

Due to how Seesaw was set up for 2024, you will find two years of posts in one class, 2023 posts and 2024 posts. To assist any families looking for historical reporting information, the class names have been changed to reflect the hub and year - for example, Hub 2 has been renamed Hub 1 2023 & Hub 2 2024. Parents and whānau who have access to your child's Seesaw journal can still see archived classes containing all their posts.
Two printable visuals are included below to help families locate either reporting posts from this year, or reporting posts from previous years that have now been archived.

For the one or two students who lost posts in 2023 due to technical issues, we are informed by Seesaw that, unfortunately, there is no way of recovering these. We apologise for this. Since 2024 and using Seesaw Real-Time Reporting to families, however, please rest assured that classes will be archived each year. This will eliminate the risks of student posts being lost and make it for families to locate posts from previous years, including reporting.

Thank you for your understanding and support as we move into our second year of sharing learning information with families in more meaningful ways.

You are very welcome to contact any member of our team with queries, concerns or feedback.

For general contact with your child’s whānau teacher we encourage you to use Seesaw messaging in the first instance. Please note, however, that as our teachers and support staff are focused on the students they are working with during the school day they endeavour to respond to messages received during the work day (8am - 5pm Monday to Friday) within 2-3 business days.

If your matter is urgent (ie changes to pick up arrangements) please call the school office 04 4787037, who can also be contacted on office@bellevue-newlands.school.nz

We like to address small issues before they become big issues! If you are contacting a teacher with a concern, please consider making a time to meet with them face to face, with a brief outline of the concern only. This enables us to work together to engage in a ‘problem solving conversation’ rather than both parties having to write lengthy emails!

For concerns that have been addressed with the class teacher, but remain unresolved or for complaints, please see our SchoolDocs website (username:bellevue-newlands, password: grow) and search:

• Raising Concerns

• Concerns and Complaints

• Concerns and Complaints Process - a helpful flow chart outlining the process

Following speaking to the class teacher, or for certain matters, it may be helpful to contact a member of our leadership team, prior to contacting the principal:

Anne Smith

Deputy Principal Year 0-3

Health & Safety Officer

Hub Coach Year 1 & 2 (Rooms 2, 3, 5, 6)

Literacy Lead - annes@bellevue-newlands.school.nz

Megan Walters

Hub Coach Year 3 (Rooms 10 & 11)

megan@bellevue-newlands.school.nz

Cassie Woodhouse

School Leader, Hub Coach Year 4 & 5 (Rooms 12, 13, 14)

Sport & Writing Lead

cassie@bellevue-newlands.school.nz

Deeann Daniels

Deputy Principal Year 4-6, Learning Support (SENCO), Hub Coach Year 6 (Rooms 8 & 9), Mathematics Lead

deeann@bellevue-newlands.school.nz

Bellevue School is committed to providing a digital and online environment that is physically and emotionally safe, inclusive, and free from racism, discrimination, and bullying.

Bellevue School is a Netsafe School, which means the school has completed a Netsafe Schools Review and joined Netsafe's programme to establish, develop, and promote online safety, citizenship, and wellbeing in the school community. We promote positive, and active use of digital technologies as a tool for students to curate, reinforce, enhance, and share their learning.

We have a new page for families on our website that outlines our approach to the use of technology in supporting learning and provides information about the platforms that we use. Please follow this link - https://www.bellevue-newlands.school.nz/about-5 (this information has also come home in a hard copy flyer).

For more information see our Digital Technology and Online Safety policy on our Bellevue School Docs page (username:bellevue-newlands, password: grow) on our school website.

As we are a Netsafe School, we are working in partnership with our community to keep our tamariki safe online. Below are two webinar opportunities for our families of primary or intermediate age students.

Online Safety for Children Under 10

Date and time: 5th March @ 7.00pm

Register here: Webinar Registration - Zoom

Discover practical advice and helpful tools to support tamariki online with Netsafe's first parent webinar of 2025. Designed for parents and whānau of tamariki under the age of 10, this webinar will explore common concerns and introduce the Hector's World resource, designed exclusively for primary school children, their teachers and their families.

The webinar will explore:

• The opportunities and risks under 10s face online

• Resources available from Netsafe (including Hector’s World) to help support online safety in the home

• What to do when things go wrong online

Whether you’re seeking reassurance or taking your first steps in learning about online safety, this welcoming and judgment-free webinar is here to support you. There will be plenty of time for Q&A.

Supporting Your Pre-Teens and Teens to Chat Safely Online

Date and time: 26th March @ 7.30pm

Register here: Webinar Registration - Zoom

This webinar is designed for parents and whānau who are you looking for ways to support their 11-18 year olds to navigate the challenges and opportunities of chatting online. Gain practical tips and advice for supporting your children’s online safety when they chat and connect in the digital world.

We’ll cover:

• Popular chat based social media apps and online games, and the practical safety steps that can be used on them

• Tips for discussing safer online chatting with your rangatahi

• What to do when things go wrong online

Whether you’re seeking reassurance or taking your first steps in learning about online safety, this welcoming and judgment-free webinar is here to support you. There will be plenty of time for Q&A.

We are aware that home learning at Bellevue is inconsistent across hubs. There are many varied perspectives about home learning and we are interested to gather the thoughts of our community to inform our review of this, alongside what is known to be effective. We will carry out this review over the coming two terms and expect to be able to share some consistent, clear expectations for home learning across the school by the middle of the year. In the meantime the following information may be helpful in finding what works for your family:

1. The school recommends children spend approximately the following amount of time on their home learning or activities each night:

10 minutes - New Entrants – Year 2

15 minutes - Year 3 and Year 4

20 minutes - Year 5 and Year 6

2. This year we have online platforms for Reading, Writing and Mathematics. The log in details will be shared by your child’s teacher and these can be used to provide practice activities for your child.

3. The Ministry of Education provides the following resource with ideas for practical, year level appropriate activities to support your child with their learning at home.

https://www.education.govt.nz/parents-and-caregivers/schools-year-0-13/supporting-learning-home/reading-writing-maths-nzc

4. In addition to home learning set by the whānau class teacher, students may choose to also complete Bellevue’s Aroha Achievements. This is a series of awards with a set of challenges for Year 3 to Year 6 students. The challenges are completed, by the students, in their own time throughout the year. The aim of Aroha Achievements is to show children that learning takes place in all parts of their lives and is an enjoyable thing to do. There are four categories for the challenges that link the learning directly to our school values of resilience, integrity, creativity and empathy. More information will come home about these later in the term.

In the coming few weeks, your child will come home with the emergency rations you sent in last year. Please use these as you see fit and provide your child with a new water bottle and storable snack (such as a muesli bar) to take to school for this year's emergency supplies. Thank you.

Weet-Bix TRYathlon 2025

The 2025 Weet-Bix TRYathlon is coming to Wellington on Sunday March 16, 2025! If your child is interested, they can register as part of the Bellevue School Team by following this link. If you would like to know more information about the event, please head to:

https://tryathlon.co.nz/locations/wellington/

Yummy Stickers

We raised a fantastic $350 last year by collecting Yummy Stickers! We have purchased some new sports equipment for our tamariki to use. We are collecting Yummy Stickers again this year. Your children will be encouraged to peel off their Yummy Stickers and place them on a sheet in their hub. We are also collecting the cut-out labels from the bags, which can be given directly to your child’s whānau teacher.

Netball 2025

We are in desperate need of someone to help organise our school netball teams this year. This role includes organising the coaches, teams and uniforms for our players. If we are not able to fill this vacancy then Bellevue will not be able to take part in Netball in 2025! Please let Cassie know if you are interested: cassie@bellevue-newlands.school.nz

Welcome back everyone - our school library is open for business! Actually, our front entrance is still in the process of being repaired, but we are open. (There is a side door entrance from the Room 7 cloak bay)

House keeping information:

- Just a reminder that ‘summer reading books’ are now due back. Thanks to those who have already done so.

- During the school term our library system allows the students to borrow books for two weeks. If the book(s) have not been returned after that time you’ll receive a reminder automated email to let you know they are now due back. If students are still reading any of their selection, please email me and I can easily renew them for you - library@bellevue-newlands.school.nz

- The library is closed on Mondays.

- For those of you who are new to Bellevue, your child’s class will have a timetabled visit to our library once a week.

- We are open during both ‘break 1’ and ‘break 2’ times for students to visit, and after school until 3:30pm. If you have a spare moment, please feel free to pop in. We love visitors!

We’d also like to remind everyone of the importance of each student having a waterproof book bag. Our most common book damage is water, so we want to take every precaution to avoid this happening. We have good quality bags available from the office for $11.

We are looking forward to a year of fun, excitement, suspense and adventure that is available from the great selection we have.

Sarah

Scholastic Book Club orders - brochures have been sent home via classroom teachers - orders are due in by Thursday 20 February 2025 - payment options are on the brochure order form.

PLEASE NAME ALL CLOTHES AND ITEMS!

We always want to get any lost property returned back to its owner! Items that can’t be identified will be stored in lost property (in the first aid room). Please note that this will be cleared out twice a term. Any unnamed items left will be donated to charity.

Keep It Real Online is a New Zealand Government public awareness campaign to support our tamariki and rangatahi to be safe online. Please take a look at this valuable free resource. It contains practical tools and support for parents and caregivers, and for young people.

https://www.keepitrealonline.govt.nz/parents

Term 1 is a sun-smart term - wear a hat every day

Term 1 is a sun smart term and students MUST wear a wide brimmed hat when they are outdoors for activities such as PE and Sport, morning tea and lunchtime. Please ensure your child has a named sunhat ready to go!

A reminder that, due to allergies, school cannot provide sunscreen for our students so please do pop a named sunscreen in your child’s bag so that we can remind them to apply this when they go outside.

Lastly, please make sure your child has a named water bottle in their bag!

If you would like to nominate our school to win $10,000 worth of sports equipment, please click on the link below. The more nominations we get the greater the chance of us winning!

https://www.aainsurance.co.nz/big-little

Username bellevue-newlands, password 'grow'