Newsletter Issue 4
Term 3 - 11 September 2024
Principal’s Update
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
Farewell Kiingi Tuuheitia
Last week we mourned the loss of Kiingi Tūheitia Potatau Te Wherowhero VII who died one week ago, after enjoying the 18th celebration of his coronation with Te Koroneihana. The principles of rangatiratanga, manaakitanga and kotahitanga are exemplified through his life, both in words and actions. It was inspiring to read of the new Te Kuīni Māori, Te Arikinui Nga wai hono i te po in E-Tangata recently, as she takes on the responsibility of honouring her father’s legacy. Our thoughts are with the whānau, hapū and iwi of Te Kiingitanga and all who connect with Kiingi Tuuheitia and the Kiingitanga.
Sickness
Please be aware that we are not quite past the winter challenges of sickness and staffing - on Monday and Tuesday we had five staff members away. While we recognise that inconsistency in the classrooms is less than ideal, we ask for your understanding when this is unavoidable and also when we have to resort to alternate plans. We are hopeful that the sunshine will rid us of the winter ills!
Production
Due to some initial complications with securing a venue there has been a change to our production schedule. We have had a wonderful response from our families and the one night, which we already knew would be tight for all families, has sold out.
The production will now be held over two nights:
Wednesday 25 September - tickets are sold out (Blue tickets)
Thursday 26 September - tickets still available (Red tickets)
We are enormously grateful to the team at Newlands Intermediate who have rallied round at the last minute to make this work for our community. We do recognise that this is short notice for our staff and our families but, as this is the first time that our students have been able to perform to a live audience in more than six years, we trust that we can work together to support this.
John Parsons
Thank you to all the whānau who attended our John Parsons, Keeping Safe Online, parent information evening on 29 August. There is more information about what John spoke about as well as an opportunity to access the resources, further on in this newsletter.
Te Wiki o te reo Māori - next week
We are counting down to the exact moment Te Petihana Reo Māori – the Māori language petition was delivered on the steps of Parliament in 1972. This historic event kicked off Māori Language Week and Te Taura Whiri i te Reo Māori.
The Māori language moment is on a Saturday this year. Please see the image below for more information about this event should you want to participate.
Annual Emergency Evacuation & Reunification Practise
This important school safety event is taking place next Friday. Please see the additional information, including a link to the letter sent home to families, later in the newsletter. Importantly please note the below information which has historically caused difficulties for families on the day. Please consider this in planning for the 20th September. Note that the El Grego magic show for the whole school is also scheduled for the morning of this day.
☺ NO CHILDREN WILL BE ALLOWED TO WALK HOME or LEAVE THE SCHOOL GROUNDS WITHOUT AN EMERGENCY RELEASE ADULT (As held on school records) and only after this adult has signed them out.
☺ KAPAI KIDS WILL NOT BE OPERATING (as they would not operate if a real emergency took place during the school day). Should the emergency occur during ‘after school time’, Kapai Kids follow their own emergency release procedures. (Please talk to Kapai Kids so you know what they would put in place).
Safety to and from school
Following the alert a couple of weeks ago, when a student was approached outside the school grounds, we have heard nothing further of concern in our area. It is always advisable to encourage children who are walking to school to connect with others so that they are not walking alone but, to the best of our knowledge, it is now safe for our children to walk to and from school.
Education Review Office Research - New Entrants
ERO’s research centre did a deep dive into the evidence base for oral language teaching and learning to develop a short, practical guide for new entrant teachers, and one that schools can share with parents and whānau too. These were developed with new entrant teachers.
Property Update - Senior Playground
Later this week I am attending the first meeting to set up for the establishment of phase one of our new playground in the Senior area of the school. Following much gathering of student voice, planning and raising of funds over the past year, we are excited to have sensory panels, balance posts and a bucket swing set being installed near our green slide. We anticipate this work will begin over the term break but we will keep you informed through this newsletter.
How You Can Help At Home - Mathematics
Often families ask about how they can help students with Mathematics at home, especially given that the way that this is taught is so different to when we were at school! Over the next few newsletters we will be sharing a sequence of articles that may help families to understand the research behind the way we teacher basic number facts in particular, as well as outlining activities that can support with this. As we all know, for mastering anything the key is practise, practise, practise and these articles include ideas for simple, fun activities that can be done with the bare minimum of equipment for those who are keen to try them at home.
Shared Developing a sense of Number - Phase 1.pdf
Baking Goodness - Sharing Aroha
Our Hub 5 students have a penchant for baking at the moment. The staff are not complaining as we regularly get delivered warm brownies (these seem to be the favourite) to brighten up our work days!
Term 4 Teacher only day
A reminder that school is closed on Tuesday 29 October (the day after Labour Day) for a Staff Development day. Teachers will be taking part in writing professional development as part of the NZ curriculum refresh.
School Organisation for 2025
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 2025.
Reminders:
Our FUNdraisers committee mostly have students moving on at the end of the year and we are recruiting! There are lots of ‘wishes’ on the list including a rebuild of the little house that burned down and some new playground markings to brighten up our school. If you are interested in supporting our school to reach its fundraising targets then please get in contact with the team - see their update at the end of the newsletter.
Ngā mihi nui
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.
Freshly baked brownies!
Welcome
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.
Alfie - R4
Remy - R4
Chloe - R4
Thank you
Thank you to all Netball and Miniball coaches and parents for their dedication this season.
A BIG THANK YOU to Wilson Barbecue for the donation of the lollies in the jar for our Year 6 Camp Fundraiser.
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.
IMPORTANT - WHOLE SCHOOL EMERGENCY EVACUATION 20 SEPTEMBER
This important school safety event is next week.
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 be emailed home. An image is included below.
Please read this carefully and, if required, be sure to check in with the office about your emergency contacts (which you have recently had home for updates) before THIS Friday - 13 September.
You will understand that there is a great deal of preparation that goes into making this practice as safe and streamlined as possible so we appreciate your assistance with timely contact.
Finally, we do understand that this practice creates an interruption in the busy lives of our community and so we thank you for your support and understanding.
Sport
Term 4 Touch Rugby at Alex Moore Park (Johnsonville).
Starting Monday 4th November - Monday 9th December (for 6 Mondays). Games will start from 3.30pm. If we don't get enough players per year groups, or coaches and managers for each team, we won't be able to enter teams. Fees will be $35 per player. This needs to be paid into the school bank account 12-3223-0048283-00. Please add their name and touch as reference.
Regos will close on the 4th of October or when teams are full.
Please fill out this Touch Google form if you are interested.
Contact Mel or Rene if you have any questions.
mel@bellevue-newlands.school.nz
rene@bellevue-newlands.school.nz
Netball prize giving
We had the honour of celebrating our Netball teams and coaches.
Congratulations to all the teams who gave their all this season. A special thank you to our coaches and parents for their dedication to have the players up and ready for the games.
Newlands-Paparangi Tennis Club Scholarship
Newlands-Paparangi Tennis Club is a club determined to reduce the barriers for all people within our community to engage in Tennis.
Program Overview:
The NPTC Scholarship Programme aims to encourage young people to get into the sport of tennis, offering them the opportunity to learn and develop new skills, gain confidence and have fun whilst making new friends. These scholarships are specifically designed to reduce any significant barriers that prevent enthusiastic and motivated students from accessing tennis training and facilities.
We will have a limited number of scholarships to award this season (October 2024 - October 2025). Our program is open to students aged 5-17.
Scholarship Benefits:
Free Tennis Coaching: Scholarship recipients will receive professional coaching from our experienced and certified tennis instructors from One Community Tennis. The training sessions will be tailored to the individual needs and skill levels of the students.
Access to Facilities: Students will have access to the tennis courts and court booking system. They are welcome to bring their parents/guardians to the courts to play.
Equipment: All necessary tennis equipment, including rackets and balls will be provided at no cost for the duration of the scholarship.
Application and Selection Process:
Families are able to self nominate by filling out the google form or a teacher can nominate a student.
Nominations are open from 8 September until 22 September to apply. Successful applicants will be notified by 7 October.
Tennis coaching will begin the week of the 14th of October and run through Term 4 and Term 1 & 2 of 2025. This will take place after school on either Tues or Wed (age-dependent).
After the form is completed the NPTC Committee will be responsible for selecting the chosen candidate. The Committee may work in collaboration with the Student’s school to provide any further information that may support the application.
Link to nomination from
https://forms.gle/fnQSWVjynD1ymPaq5
Yummy stickers
Just a reminder that we are now in the last term for collecting Yummy stickers to get sports gear for our school.
The promotion runs through until the end of Term 3, please send all stickers to your whānau teacher.
Term 4 is a sun-smart term - wear a hat every day
Term four is just around the corner, along with the warmer weather - well here’s hoping! A friendly reminder that term four (and term one) are sun smart terms 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!
Congratulations to all those budding readers who are working hard to complete their Hell Pizza reading wheels. Tino pai rawa!
A big thankyou to Gemma and family who have donated Elaine Bickell’s new book ‘The little witch who lost her broom!’ to the Library.
Username bellevue-newlands, password 'grow'
Keep Your Tamariki Safe Online - John Parsons
All of our teachers and some of our kura whānau took the opportunity to attend the John Parsons’ presentations last week at Newlands Intermediate. It was a compelling presentation about the realities that can occur in an online environment when children are not keeping themselves safe. In terms of digital use, children are safer in the filtered online school environment, and most dangers for children online occur in home use.
John talked a lot about how important it is as parents that we don't forget we are our children’s guardians and not their friends. We need to set clear boundaries and rules around safe online use, and we need these to be part of everyday family life.
Key things he mentioned that our children need to know:
• Online ‘friends’ are not real friends as we haven’t met them face to face.
• When children are playing online games, they should only talk about the game and not share any personal
information.
• Sharing photos of ourselves in our pyjamas, or in our bedroom or bathroom is not safe.
• Parents being present in a child's online world is critical - avoid cyber separation and not knowing or understanding what your child is accessing.
He also mentioned the major impact device use is having on some children’s quality of sleep, and encouraged us all to be “nosy, loving parents” when it comes to monitoring our children's device use.
John has provided us with some excellent resources to refer to, and we will share them with you over the coming weeks. This week you will find attached a flyer called ‘Parent Tips for Younger Children’. I strongly encourage you to take the time to read through this information. For anyone who was at the presentation and would like to receive all of the information John mentioned directly, please contact Alice - office@bellevue-newlands.school.nz
Understanding Neurodiversity
We continue to include a few snippets for families in our newsletter to support our collective understanding of neurodiversity under one of our guiding values of Empathy.
This week’s focus is Dyslexia. The following link includes information about Dyslexia for adults as well as a short video to help students understand the challenges and gifts of a dyslexic brain.
https://www.bdadyslexia.org.uk/dyslexia/about-dyslexia/what-is-dyslexia
School Organisation for 2025
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 18 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 18 October (end of the first week back) so we can take this into consideration when planning classes early next term.
Term Dates 2025
Lost Property
There is a large pile of lost property in the first aid room. Please pop in to check if you are missing any items. Anything that is still there at the end of term will be donated during the holidays.
AA Insurance Big Little Sponsor
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!
This is our platform to publish great writing from students across the school.
Please pop onto our website here to view a collection of great writing from our students.
A virtual hands-up please for who can’t believe that Term 3 is nearly over? Production is just around the corner, with school holidays hot on its heels!
The update on our events is below:
School Production – 25th AND now 26th September
There has been an amazing response for ticket purchases to this event, and school have been
able to secure a second night to hold production!
Our FUNdraisers team are coming together with our Year 6 tamariki to fundraise toward school
camp at this event.
What this means is that there will be sales of chippies and sweets as you arrive in the evening to
watch the production. And Wilsons Barbeque have also sponsored a LOLLIES IN THE JAR Raffle!
All purchases will be $2, so please bring your small change and keep an eye out for us on the
night!
Lollies in the Jar Raffle
As mentioned above, Wilsons Barbeque have sponsored the schools Lollies in the Jar raffle.
If you want to size up this jar, it is currently in the school office. And will be on display at the
school production nights on the 25th and 26th September.
End of Term Pizza – 27th September
Forms have been distributed to the classrooms, and we are ready to receive your orders… in fact
about 45 are through already!
The link to order online (which we do prefer!) is: https://forms.gle/A145W5qpNtdV39T2A
Paper orders need to be at school by 20th Sept, with online orders closing on 22nd Sept.
Kids Art Work
We don’t yet have a delivery date on the artwork which is currently being processed.
An update will come via this newsletter when we do have more information.
Term 4 FUNdraising events
We have on our plan for term 4 the following events:
- A Wine fundraiser. This one is very much just for the adults ��
- The annual end of year Bake Sale! (Such a student favourite!)
- We are also collaborating with the school for the FUNRun which is coming up.
- PIZZA!
FUNdraisers Committee Meetings
Next meeting: 24th October 2024
Meetings are currently held at 6.15pm (in the school staff room when possible) in week 2 and also
week 7 of each term.
If you have capacity to take on being an incredibly valued member of our community and
committee, please join us! You can contact Rebecca by email for information at
Community Notices
Kapai Kidz Holiday Programme
We will be operating from the school hall from 30 September - 11 October. All enquiries to linda@kapaikidz.co.nz or 021 409641 Register via our website www.kapaikidz.co.nz
Important Dates
Thursday 12 September
Board Meeting 6:30 - 8:30pm
Friday 13 September
Hearing and Vision at school
Onesie day
Monday 16 Friday to Monday 23 September
Te Wiki o te Reo Māori 2024 / Māori Language Week 2024
Friday 20 September
Whole School Emergency Evacuation and Reunification Practice
Wednesday 25 September
School Production - Doors open 6pm for 6:30pm start
Newlands Intermediate School Hall
Thursday 26 September
School Production (additional night added due to demand!)
Doors open 6pm for 6:30pm start
Newlands Intermediate School Hall
Friday 27 September
Last day of Term 3
Monday 14 October
First day of Term 4
Monday 28 October
Labour Day - School closed
Tuesday 29 October
Teachers Only Day - School closed
Newsletter proudly sponsored by
Email: office@bellevue-newlands.school.nz
Phone: 04 4787037