We would like to begin by wishing ‘Ramadan Mubarak!’ to our Muslim families for whom Ramadan began on 13 March and who may be fasting until 10 or 11 of April. This is considered a period of spiritual growth, and is considered to be one of the holiest of months.
Easter & Final Newsletter for Term 1
With the school closed for the Easter break between Friday 29 March and Tuesday 2 April (inclusive), this is the final newsletter for Term 1. With all that is going on in the school and what is coming up, it is a big one!
Paid Union Meetings - Thursday 4 April
A reminder to please complete the form that is four items below this update to let us know of your intentions for your child for the upcoming paid union meetings.
Annual Plan
Our annual plan for the 2024 year is now published HERE on the Our People - Our Board page of our school website. Our school teachers and leaders are currently working on their action plans for achieving our goals over the year.
Student Learning
Formal learning programmes are well established now in all hubs and there are many exciting learning experiences taking place across the school.
When I visited Hub 5 Learning Through Play there were students pruning the undergrowth so that they can more easily retrieve their balls, some working through the technological challenges of building outdoor forts or rope swings, some creating snail habitats (having researched what snails need), some taking care of their school grounds, some composing musical creations and some baking! In fact our teaching team has been enjoying the Hub 5 baking in our last two staff meetings!!
Students across the school have created videos and posters to inform other students about their learning; Hub 1 created some fabulous posters following their inquiry into the undersea world to remind us what to do with our rubbish. Hub 5 students provided information about the refreshed Aroha Achievements (old Bell Challenge) via video and all tamariki and kaiako are learning a range of new waiata and karakia to start their day (or their staff meeting!).
The first of our First Language Hui, for students who speak Mandarin, was a huge success. The students were able to connect and participate in a Tech challenge speaking in their own home language.
I recently also visited Hub 4 just in time to see them sharing their ‘taonga’ - a special artefact to them that connected them to their family history and heritage. It was amazing to hear the students talking about such interesting stories they knew, or had learned about their whānau.
Professional Learning
Our teaching team have also been learning. We attended an excellent staff meeting on understanding ADHD, run by one of our own kaiako, our junior teachers have been refreshing their Better Start Literacy Approach knowledge and we have had teachers attending Mathematics networks, sessions on supporting English Language Learners and a ‘Building Young Writers’ session with the Wellington Literacy Association.
Staff Update
As you are aware, the end of this term marks the end of a 29 year tenure at Bellevue School for our wonderful Office Manager Michele Clarke.
We are pleased to announce that we have appointed Alice Potts as Bellevue’s Office Manager from the start of Term 2. Alice has a wealth of experience in administrative, customer experience, team management and training/facilitator roles including with the NZ Police and Ministry of Justice.
She has a passion for, and is experienced in, working with a diverse range of people and is looking for 'a role in a community oriented school' so she can spend more time with her two primary and intermediate aged children. Alice won our appointment committee over with her warmth, confident but calm manner and strong values. We think she will be a great fit for our team, students and community.
Also, on the staff front a reminder that the end of this term marks the beginning of two terms Parental Leave for Cassie Woodhouse as she and her husband are expecting a new member of their family. During these two terms we are fortunate to have Jean Goodhall, both a parent and a regular relieving teacher in our school stepping into the role of whānau teacher for Room 9. Jean has already established great relationships with our students and staff and shows great commitment to maintaining a sense of normality in Hub 4. We are also grateful to Rene Senekal, who will be taking the role of Sports Leadership in Cassie’s absence. If your child is in Hub 4 and you have concerns during Term 2-3 that you are unable to resolve with your child’s whānau teacher, then please contact Deeann (DP Year 4-6) for year 4 students and Anne Smith (DP Year 0-3) for Year 3 students.
Swimming Sports - Advance Notice
Unfortunately Primary Sport Wellington has made the decision not to continue with the Northern Zone Swim Sports from 2024. This is based on a number of factors including the cost. The swimming sport event costs almost half of Primary Sport Wellington’s funding for the whole year, while the cost of buses for schools is also a challenge. It is becoming increasingly difficult to book pools for events like this and there is a noticeable decrease in the number of students who are able to swim well enough to participate competitively. Of course, if your child is part of a swimming club, they will still have opportunities to take part in competition swimming. The upcoming Year 5-6 friendly Ki o Rahi tournament is one of a number of initiatives that Sport Wellington are looking at to provide alternative events for our students.
This will not affect Bellevue’s annual swimming lessons across the school in Term 4 - we are fortunate to be one of the few schools in our area who are presently successful in securing lessons for all children every year.
Eating Time
It has been noted by our teaching team that some students are not eating enough to fuel them through their learning in the eating time. We have adapted our break times in the following two ways to support this:
A two minute warning bell now goes before the end of the break bell. This is to ensure students get back to their lunchbox in time to start eating on time.
‘Feed and Read’ is being trialled as a quiet time to encourage students to eat quietly - thus focusing more on fuelling their bodies than the social interactions.
Meeting With Our Team
A reminder that, as per the outline of our new reporting processes, the three way conferences that used to be held at the end of Term 1, are now scheduled for the end of next term. If you wish to talk to your child’s teacher about anything prior to this, however, please do feel free to contact them to make a time.
It is exciting to see so many families now connected to Seesaw which will form the main communication channel for teaching and learning this year. If you have not yet connected to your child’s portfolio, please do speak to your child’s whānau teacher about this. Family feedback on learning is enormously powerful in motivating our students.
Road Patrol
Being a Road Patroller is a much anticipated leadership opportunity for our older students and we place great value on keeping our community safe while they are crossing our busy and challenging road to and from school.
This year, we have really struggled for parent assistance for this which has meant we frequently have teachers and leaders having to fill in on the crossing. This is a big ask for the teaching team who have to come out of class early and our leadership team are often heading straight into, or leading, meetings immediately after school. If giving up half an hour of your week from 8.25 - 9am or 2.50 - 3.15pm on any day to support our student leaders then we urge you to get in contact with Nadine who organises this for our kura - nadine@bellevue-newlands.school.nz
First Pōwhiri of the Year
This week we are excited to hold our first pōwhiri for the year to welcome our new students and staff tomorrow. With the guidance of Tessa and Whaea Jayjay, this also provides an opportunity to strengthen our understanding of tikanga and refine our protocols.
Coming Up Before The End Of Term
April is Autism Acceptance month and we will be recognising this in school.
To read more and find out how to participate visit:
Autism Acceptance Month – Autism New Zealand
Our school cross country event is scheduled for Monday (25 March) with a postponement date of Wednesday 27 March and the Year 5-6 Ki o Rahi tournament will be held on Tuesday (26 March, pp 28 March)
Just before the end of the term some of our Hub 5 students will participate in the extension Maths opportunity ‘Otago Problem Solving Challenge’.
Until our next newsletter we wish our families a happy Easter break.
