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School Newsletter Term 2, Week 4

Friday 23rd May 2025

School NewsletterTerm 2, Week 4Friday 23rd May 2025

Kia ora koutou,


As the autumn leaves continue to fall and our school grounds transform with the colours of the season, the learning inside our classrooms remains steady and focused. This week, we’ve been deep into a period of assessment across the school, gathering valuable information to understand where our students are in their learning journeys. These assessments provide a snapshot—a spotlight—on current achievement levels in literacy and numeracy, helping us to celebrate progress, identify next steps, and ensure we’re providing the right support for each learner.


This work also informs the reporting process, with teachers preparing to share mid-year updates with you in the coming weeks. These reports offer more than just numbers—they tell the story of growth, resilience, and the everyday effort your children are putting into their learning. We appreciate your ongoing support and partnership as we work together to support each child to be their best.


Alongside assessment, our teachers have continued their professional learning and development (PLD). Recent sessions have focused on strengthening our assessment practices, ensuring that our judgments are consistent and accurate through moderation. This collaborative work allows us to ensure fairness and consistency across classes and year levels.


We have also been refining our approach to 'Power Hour'—a focused block of literacy or numeracy learning designed to maximise student engagement and accelerate progress. Teachers have been exploring strategies to make this time even more purposeful and responsive to students’ individual needs.


We also welcomed cyber safety expert John Parsons to our school for a special Parent Evening last week. He focused on keeping our children safe online. In today's digital world, internet safety is more important than ever, and this session was an invaluable opportunity for parents and caregivers to learn practical strategies for creating safer online environments at home. John brings a wealth of knowledge and a down-to-earth approach that empowers families to have open, honest conversations with their children about responsible internet use.


Thank you to our students for their hard work and positive attitude during assessment week, and to our families for your ongoing encouragement at home. We look forward to sharing your child’s progress with you very soon.


Ngā mihi nui,

Tony West

Principal

West End School - Te Kura O Urumutu

Reminder of our school times

West End School starts at 8.50am in the morning. Children can wait next to the turf until 8.30 and then enter the school grounds when the bell goes. Please try to get your child to school on time as this sets them up for the day and helps establish a healthy routine - so they're not catching up with learning if they arrive late.


School finishes at 2.50. If you are picking your child up, please be at school at this time. We are having many parents turning up late which causes disruption for our office staff and teachers who have to delay appointments and meetings after school.

Sickness

Please keep your child home if they are sick

We are experiencing a lot of coughs, colds and illnesses at the moment. We ask that if your child is sick, please keep them at home to get better. We are having many children come in sick, which in turn makes our staff sick.

John Parsons Event

Last Wednesday, John Parsons visited West End School and talked to Tipuranga, Puāwaitanga and Te Wao Nui o Tāne about staying safe online. He then talked to the staff about the teacher's role and how we can help to educate, and support those who need it. We then had an evening session with the parents where John gave us an insight as to the dangers and what to be aware of when our tamariki are on a device, and how to keep them safe. This was a highly important visit and everyone who listened to John took away a lot of important information. If you missed the parent evening, please click on the link below for all of the information John talked about.

Testing Week this week for Puāwaitanga and Te Wao Nui o Tāne

Understanding e-asTTle at West End School

At West End School, we use e-asTTle testing in the middle and at the end of the year to help us understand the literacy and numeracy abilities of our students. e-asTTle (Assessment Tools for Teaching and Learning) is used for Reading and Mathematics for students in Years 3 to 6. All students across the school are assessed using e-asTTle for Writing.


The results from these assessments allow us to tailor learning to meet the diverse needs of our students and to track their progress over time.


After each test, every student receives an Individual Learning Pathway report. This report helps both students and teachers identify key strengths and areas for improvement. Your child will share this report with you during their Student Led Conference.

What do the B,P and A mean in the e-asTTle report

e-asTTle uses curriculum sublevel scores to better track student progress within a school year. Since a single curriculum level didn’t show growth within that level, three sublevels were created: Basic, Proficient, and Advanced. These help to show how students are progressing over time within each curriculum level.


B – Basic: The student is just beginning to work within the curriculum level.

P – Proficient: The student is confidently working within the level.

A – Advanced: The student is nearing the top of the level and may soon be ready to move to the next.

Puāwaitanga Vibe Assembly next week

After such an amazing first VIBE Assembly from our Comms team and Rooms 3 and 4, Puāwaitanga classes Room 10 and 7 will be presenting next week. It would be great to see our whānau to celebrate our learning and see what we've been doing. Please be seated before 2.10 in our school hall next Friday!

Pae Tamariki 2025

Te Pae Tamariki festival is just around the corner. Our tamariki have been working so hard to learn a bracket for their upcoming performance. Kapa Haka isn’t just about learning songs, we build relationships, gain confidence and learn how to work together. We are looking forward to seeing them shine on the stage.

Cross Country 2025

What an awesome two weeks we have had for sport. On Friday 16th May we were able to do our Cross Country down at the Esplanade and the students had a blast! What made it even better was that we were all in pink! Thank you volunteers that came down and supported us with marshaling, we appreciate your help. On Friday 30th May during our Puāwaitanga Vibe we will present certificates for Cross Country.

Breakfast Club - help needed!

We are needing at least 3 more parent volunteers to support our breakfast club. If you are interested in support from 8:10am - 8:30am please get in touch via email to sport@westend.school.nz

Communications Team

One of our new Kapa Whakamana groups is our Communications Team. They are the group that organise and present our assemblies and share some of the amazing things that are going on at West End School. Our first Comms Team member to share what we have been doing is Mackenzie.

Written by Mackenzie Linton

In West End school we have been doing something called Power Hour. We have chosen a passion we would like to try and we go to a different area around school. I do baking and Miss Gobey teaches it. It’s in the staff room.


We have baked feijoa muffins, weetbix slice, banana muffins, muesli bars and more. We are also coloring a cookbook to take home so we can bake with our families and friends . The cookbooks are looking amazing. I’m so excited to see what they’re going to look like when they’re finished!

Tipuranga

Room 14

Ruma 14 have been using mana aotūroa and are really enjoying exploring our new Numicon maths resources. This week we have been counting objects and ordering objects by size. We have also been talking about ordinal numbers, developing repeating patterns and using effective strategies to estimate. Here we are at one of our activities and we are putting number rods in order of length.

Room 17

Room 16 and Room 17 have been doing a lot of learning about letter sounds. We have been learning sounds along with Milo the Monkey and his friends. Milo has been trying to plan a birthday party, but none of his friends are available to go - because they are planning a surprise party for him! We have learned all of the letter sounds, so we decided it was time to celebrate Milo’s birthday! We had lots of fun activities at our party like Sally the snake’s shop, Cooper the caterpillar’s crafts, Milo the monkey’s masks, Oscar the octopus’ origami and lots more! We wore our party hats and had a great time celebrating. We can’t wait to learn more sounds!

Puāwaitanga

Room 11

For the last 4 weeks, Room 11 has been looking at Myths and Legends around Aotearoa. We have learned about The Legend of Okatia & Hau’s Revenge. During our learning of Okatia, we completed writing to retell the story in our own words and then we made our own book on Book Creator. While reading Hau’s Revenge, we had a map of the West Coast and we located all of the rivers Hau found on his journey. We had the chance to read Hau’s Revenge in buddies and discuss what we had learned from the book.

Te Wao Nui o Tāne

Room 3

In Room 3 we have been diving deep into how it all began. In the photos you can see the earth's different layers we have created by layering different coloured playdough. Through hands-on experiences we have had loads of fun exploring how Earth was created.


Upcoming Events

WEEK 5

  • Power Hour - Tuesday 27th May
  • PTA Pies - last day to order! - Thursday 29th May
  • VIBE Assembly Puāwaitanga: Friday 30th May


WEEK 6

  • King's Birthday - Monday 2nd June NO SCHOOL
  • Pae Tamariki - Tuesday 3rd June
  • Power Hour - Tuesday 3rd June
  • Pae Tamariki - Wednesday 4th June
  • Newsletter - Friday 6th June
  • PTA Disco - Friday 6th June


WEEK 7

  • Power Hour - Tuesday 10th June
  • VIBE Assembly Tipuranga - Friday 13th June


WEEK 8

  • Power Hour - Tuesday 17th June
  • BOT Meeting - Thursday 19th June
  • Newsletter - Thursday 19th June
  • MATARIKI - Friday 20th June. NO SCHOOL


WEEK 9

  • Power Hour - Tuesday 24th June
  • Matariki Celebration (Hangi) - Thursday 26th June
  • VIBE Assembly (Pihipihingā) - Friday 27th June
  • Jumping June (dress in red) - Friday 27th June
  • Last Day of Term 2 - Friday 27th June

PTA Fundraising and Events

Last Day to order is next Thursday!

Final week next week! Remember to order via Kindo.

PTA Disco

Term Dates 2025

Term 1: Monday 29 Jan - Friday 11 April

Term 2: Monday 28 April - Friday 27 June

Term 3: Monday 14 July - Friday 19 Sept

Term 4: Monday 6 Oct - Friday 12 Dec

Ballot Dates 2025

Ballot Dates Drawn at 11.30am of the dates stated below

Term 1 for Term 2: Wednesday 26 February 2025

Term 2 for Term 3: Wednesday 14 May 2025

Term 3 for Term 4: Wednesday 30 July 2025

Term 4 for Term 1 2026: Wednesday 8 October 2025

Proposed Special Programme for our Bilingual Unit

We are excited to announce that we are working towards establishing a proposed special programme for our bilingual unit. If you have any concerns regarding this process, please contact the school.

Road Works Information

Community Notices

If your child is absent from school.

It is really important under the current circumstances you notify the school if your child is absent.


PLEASE DO NOT TXT OR EMAIL THE CLASSROOM TEACHER.

ALL ABSENCES SHOULD BE ADVISED VIA THE OFFICE.


Please remember to advise the office by 8.30am if your child is not attending school.

You can telephone 358-2465 and leave a message or txt 021 118 0156.

ABSENCES CAN ALSO BE SENT EASILY THROUGH OUR SCHOOL APP


In both cases please give a reason for absence.

Thank you.

Kindo Online Shop

It is very important that families register with Kindo, as this is now the only way to register your child for school sports, and ordering PTA lunches.
Below are the links to register.
If you require help please call the Kindo helpdesk on

0508 454 636

New users need this link

Existing users need this link

West End School
Te Kura o Urumutu
Email: office@westend.school.nz
Location: West End School, 196 College Street, Palmerston North
Phone: 06 358 2465