Newsletter Issue 5

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

A reminder that this newsletter usually extends beyond what you can see in the email - we suggest clicking the page to open the full newsletter in a browser/on your phone so that you do not miss all the good stuff!

The last week and a half of the 2023 school year has been focused on celebration - and what a lot we have to celebrate!

Our staff and Board have reflected on our annual plan (which was ambitious!) and enjoyed seeing all that we have completed or thoroughly begun so this can be embedded as business as usual next year. This reflection forms part of the school’s Annual Report, which will be published to our website early next year and linked through this newsletter. As a Board, we have clear direction from our students, staff and community about where we need to head in 2024 and our strategic planning is well underway. We expect to be able to share our goals with our families at our community picnic in January.

Our students' reports celebrate another successful year of learning and growing and, for our Year 6 leavers the week has been peppered with fun events. Thank you to all the families who came along to our Leavers Event on Monday evening to see their children receive their leavers certificates and acknowledge those who also got school awards. Much pizza and partying followed this with a slip and slide in the sun on Tuesday for all our Hub 5 students, both Year 5 and 6 to enjoy their ‘last hurrah’ together!

As you know, we have leaders right throughout the school and our Celebration Assembly (held at the end of last week) was testament to this as the number of students receiving acknowledgements made a line that almost snaked out of the hall! It was lovely to have some whānau join us for this too.

And then there is our wonderful community….

Some of you were able to join us for our Helper’s Morning Tea on Friday 1 December and it was special to have time to talk to you over a cuppa, but many of our families are working during the day and so this is our opportunity to express our heartfelt thanks in celebration of you all too.

To our Board:

Thank you for the huge commitment you make to our school, giving up time in your already busy lives to provide thoughtful governance. We appreciate the myriad of decisions you make, always with the students best interests at heart and the steady steering of this waka in the right direction.

To our Whānau:

Your support is unfailing when we are in need of volunteers, helpful, constructive feedback or a positive message to keep us going. You communicate openly and readily with us, being willing to engage in collaborative problem solving to help us find mutually beneficial solutions.

We encourage you to continue to engage with your school in whatever way works for you in 2024 as this is how we achieve the best outcomes for our students - by working in partnership.

Thanks to every one of you who has contributed your time and skills to a myriad of events and occasions - without you so much of what we do would not be possible. We hope you have a wonderful summer and some special family time.

To our FUNdraisers:

You have certainly earned your name this year! We have had a number of super popular events which the students look forward to and which have funded sports equipment to enrich students’ play times across the school as well as covers for our sandpit! You are a small team and this means that there is more work to go around. We want to acknowledge the time, energy and innovative ideas that each of you bring to the table and recognise the commitment it takes to make great things happen around here!

To our school staff:

You continue to embody Aroha in all you do. Reaching out to families, connecting with and supporting one another in your singular mission of providing great learning opportunities to our students.

With the wellbeing of our students as your top priority, you invest time, energy and patience to meet each child where they are, drawing out hidden talents and celebrating these, while supporting children to reach their goals. Thank you for all you do to make Bellevue school ‘our children’s place’.

Year 6 Leavers

After a very special celebration on Monday night, our Year 6 students are ready to move on to their next adventure. We will miss them, all the wonderful leadership they have provided and the way in which they have contributed to our school, but we wish them well as they move to intermediate. For those going to Newlands Intermediate, I look forward to seeing you welcomed at the Year 7 Pōwhiri on Wednesday 31 January.

Celebrations of achievement

At our celebrations assembly we acknowledged all our leaders for the 2023 year:

• Student Council

• Tech Ninjas

• Green Fingers Gardening Club

• Peer Mediators

• Road Patrollers

• Librarians

• The Bell Challenge Participants

• Those who were awarded ICAS certificates

• Big Buddies

2024 Term Dates

A reminder that our 2024 dates are HERE on our school website.

Property Update - Possible construction work this summer

Although we are yet to have this confirmed, the accessibility ramp between the administration block and Hub 5 may start during the summer break.

If you are around the school grounds during the holidays, you and your whānau are welcome to enjoy the playgrounds and fields in our kura. Please do pay attention to any Health and Safety notices that may be in place or any areas that are off limits so that you are safe and let us know if you see anything of concern.

Having our families using the grounds is also a great deterrent for those who may not look after our school in the ways we would like, and offers an additional layer of security.

Medications at School

If we hold medication for your child at school and you wish to take it home for use during the holidays, please collect it from the school office by 12:30pm, Friday 15 December. If you are returning next year, don’t forget to update/replace medications at the office should they be due to expire. If it is not collected, medication held for our leaving Year 6 students will be safely disposed of.

Last Day of School— Friday 15 December Early finish - 12:30pm

A reminder that school closes at 12.30pm. Please organise for someone to pick up your child. You are most welcome to visit classrooms and say farewell to teachers, and they would also love to wish you all the best for the holidays. We have our staff Christmas lunch at 1.30pm so please ensure that your child is picked up promptly.

We wish all of you a wonderful summer break and look forward to reconnecting in 2024 at our Whānau/Meet the Teacher Event - Wednesday 31.

Ngā manaakitanga & Meri Kirihimete!

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.

On Friday we farewell Tom Stewart-Edwards who has been a Teacher Aide for Bellevue over the last three terms. Tom has supported our students with diverse learning needs across the Year 4-6 areas of the school during 2024. We will miss Tom and we wish him well for his next adventures.

Roxy Grace has been a part time teacher in Hub 5 for the second half of the year and has made a very positive impact on our Hub 5 learners and kaiako. Although the structure of the school and Roxy's plans for 2024 mean that Roxy will no longer be working with us in the same role, you will still be seeing her around the school in a regular relieving capacity which we are thrilled about!

Username bellevue-newlands, password 'grow'

By now you are aware of your child's class placement and teacher for 2024.

At Bellevue our staff choose whether students call them by their first name or last name.

To help our families with this, here is a staff list with their room and the titles our team prefer -

Beverley Warwick Room 14 - Beverley

Nadine Dechapunya Room 15 - Nadine

Jane McCauley Room 12 - Jane

Tessa Finnigan Room 13 - Tessa

Cassie Woodhouse Room 9 - Cassie

Jean Goodhall Room 9 Term 2 & 3 only - Jean

Megan Walters Room 8 - Megan

Anne Gullen Room 10 - Mrs Gullen

Emma Cummings Room 11 - Emma

Nichaela Taylor Room 5 - Ms Taylor

René Senekal Room 6 - René

Anne Smith - Rocket Room - Mrs Smith

Grace Mellow Room 2 - Grace

Deirdre McArthur Room 3 - Deirdre

Elizabeth (Liz) Macmillan Classroom Release Time cover Hubs 1-3 - Mrs Macmillan

Anneke McLean Classroom Release Time cover Hubs 4-5 & Fridays in Hub 3 - Room 10 - Anneke

Deeann Daniels - Office, Hub 5 - Deeann

Mandy Toms - Junior Area - Mrs Toms

Annette Borgonje (Principal) - Annette

All our support staff go by first name terms.

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.

Your child’s stationery list for 2024 are now available on the Parent Portal of our Bellevue Website (under Stationery) Information on how to access the lists is included in your class placement letter that was sent home on Monday. They are also available on Qizzle.

In July, Student Council organised our annual disco which raised money for the school. We used this money to buy new graphic novels and puzzles for the library as well as a class set of felt pens for each classroom.

On Monday evening, our Year 6 students and their whānau gathered to celebrate our Year 6 Leavers and for the presentation of our school awards.

The Year 6 Award recipients for 2023 are:

• Maia Award (Confidence and Te Reo Leadership) - Pyper Bradley

• Manawaroa Award (Resilience) - Aadi Hinduja

• Kaitãkaro Award (Sport and Sportsmanship) - Mickey Duncan

• Takohanga Award (Reliability and Responsibility) - Oscar Roper

• Takohanga Award (Reliability and Responsibility) - Kate de Jong

• Whakaute Award (Respect and Consideration) - Prayaag Belur

• Whakaute Award (Respect and Consideration) - Mahi Goyal

• Manaakitanga Award (Citizenship) - Caitlin Brown

Congratulations to all our Year 6 students! We wish you all the best as you continue your learning journey and look forward to hearing of your future achievements.

Last week on the 27th of November Hub 5 started EOTC week, which stands for Education Outside The Classroom. Monday morning we designed amazing costumes, signs, and chants and prepared for pack the bus. Then after morning tea we all went up to the courts outside Hub 4 and celebrated pack the bus with our decorations. In the afternoon we went to Pukehuia park and some people played kī o rahi with Tessa. We all had heaps of fun. On Tuesday Hub 5 went to the Te Rauparaha Pool for the morning. After lunch we played some exciting hub games. Wednesday, we did Learning Through Play throughout the morning, then it was board games/puzzles/card games! In the afternoon we had the option to go on devices or we continued with Learning Through Play. Thursday we had our really fun electives sessions where we got to go to our chosen class and activities like tie dye, sewing or coding, through to lunch. Afterwards we had free time and enclosure play. Friday was Movie and PJ day all day with a yummy fish and chip lunch on the court. We really enjoyed it and it was so much fun doing all the awesome activities! We would like to thank all of the parent helpers for giving up their time to ensure that we all had a brilliant time.

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.

Happy Holiday Reading everyone. Enjoy your break, we look forward to seeing you in 2024.

Sarah

From your FUNdraisers team –

We wish you all a Merry Christmas, Happy New Year and relaxing summer holidays for all of our Bellevue Community!

We have finished off 2023 in style, with all of our events having been successful. Better yet, we have done this while ensuring the FUN for our kids.

From me (Rebecca) - Thank you so much to Bridget, Mandy, Monique, Teresa and Vinay, our FUNdraisers Committee. Without you these events would not have been possible.

Bake Sale 2023

A massive and heartfelt THANK YOU to all the children and families that donated baking for last Fridays bake sale. Without your donations, the event would not have been a success!

And my what a success it was – a beautiful afternoon with all those happy (and patient) kids faces in the crowd were a delight to see.

Whole-hearted appreciation goes out also to Andrea and Robin, Mel, and Tracey for being the best FUNdraisers helpers that our committee needed on the day!

What about the funds we have raised?

We have raised funds to be put toward the Senior Playground and providing shade in the Seniors area of the school:

• From the Bake Sale event, we have raised approximately $800.

• From the Alana Wines event, we have raised $483

• From the Kids Art Work event, we have raised $799

We have also raised funds to be put toward the new mural in the office block:

• From the End of Term Pizza Lunch in December: approximately $250

We have spent $81 on purchasing polythene for a waterslide/slip and slide for school.

Upcoming Events…

Bellevue Community Picnic – 31 January 2024

Hopefully you have this date penned in your calendar! It’s the day before our children return to school as students for the year!

It is also the day of the Whānau/Meet the Teacher Event, and from 4.30 – 6.30pm it is the Community Picnic. This is an opportunity to meet the teachers and socialise with the other Bellevue Families.

YES - the FUNdraisers expect to have the Water/Slip and Slide in action – we look forward to seeing both the kids and those parents who are young at heart taking part! Your FUNdraisers team will again be there running a sausage sizzle for those that do not fancy cooking on this night! There will be both meat and vegetarian sausages on offer again. We will also be offering some drinks and a few ice blocks this year.

See you next year for some more FUN everyone!

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

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!

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