Principal Update
Nau mai, haere mai, and welcome back to Term 1!
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.
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.
Meet the Teacher / Whānau Picnic
It was fantastic to see so many families at our Meet the Teacher event on Wednesday last week. The weather was kind to us, the FUNdraisers worked enormously hard to provide us with sausages, drinks, ice blocks and the slip ‘n’ slide and a lot of fun was had by all. A big thank you to all those who helped make the event such a success, including those volunteers for pack up at the end of the evening!
As a follow up to this event, we ask for your help in gathering important information about your child or family for the 2024 year digitally as well as providing us with any feedback. Our 2023 feedback about this event from our families had some great suggestions about how we could improve things for this year!
Please note the Whānau Inventory section of this newsletter and complete the form for your child by Friday 1 March.
Draft Strategic Goals
If you did not get to take a look at our draft strategic goals for 2024 - 2025, these are on display just inside the admin area door and HERE - please feel free to share your thoughts with us before these finalised at the end of the month.
Teacher Only Days - Staff Professional Development
Leading up to the start of school, our staff were involved in two teacher only days.
On the first day, after reconnecting with each other, we explored Pataka’s exhibition Whiti Te Rā - The Story of Ngāti Toa Rangitira. In Newlands, we have no local iwi, but we acknowledge two key iwi in the area - Ngāti Toa and Te Ati Awa. We will be working with Te Ati Awa over the course of this year with Kura Ahurea - a cultural kaupapa support for schools - so we were keen to start the year by exploring the story of Ngāti Toa also.
We also began delving into Te Reo Tuatahi - our Māori language and tikanga learning for this year as a staff. Your children will have begun this learning in the classroom - learning new karakia and waiata - so you may like to chat to them about this.
Our second teacher only day was focused on assessment for learning. We explored the way in which assessment in its broadest sense (all the information we have, or can observe, or derive about each learner) underpins all effective teaching and learning. We looked at different ways in which we could gather information about students' learning and use this to support effective teaching as well as the importance of involving the learner in their own assessment so that they are active in their learning.
This year we have a heavy focus on lifting student achievement through effective use of assessment information.
Term 1 Learning
Our key concept for Term 1 is ‘Whanaungatanga’ - developing close connections and kinship. We believe it is important in the first few weeks of the school to allow time for the students to get to know their new teachers, class/hub mates and settle into their new routines. They will be exploring - where we come from, what we bring with us and how our culture and identity underpins all that we do. 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.
2024 Reporting to Families
In response to our Growing Community Conversations in 2023, we have reviewed our approach to reporting to families. This year we are trialling a new way of reporting. This document outlines this further:
Bellevue School Reporting To Families 2024
Please read it carefully so you know what to expect and get in touch should you have any comments or questions.
New break times and eating
We are well into our new break times as advertised in the ‘Welcome Back’ newsletter. To support our children to have enough fuel to get through the day we are no longer seeing these as ‘Morning Tea’ and ‘Lunch’. Instead we have ‘First Play’ at 11am and ‘Second Play’ at 1.10pm. After their first play, we are encouraging students to eat a healthy, more substantial part of their lunch, while after the second play they may have a lighter snack, given there is only an hour left of the school day. You may like to consider this in what food you provide for your children.
Phones at Bellevue
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.
Property update
It was so good to be able to start the year as a staff in our new improved staffroom and office spaces.
There are a few projects on the property team’s radar for 2024.
We anticipate work will start in the first term on an accessible ramp leading from the admin block down to the senior area of the school via a long zig zag across the existing bank. This will provide better access for students and staff to the lower area of the school and also allow for access to the bank for planting.
We have improvements to roofing and cladding scheduled for the main blocks adjoining to the admin area of the school too. These will mostly be external and should not cause too much disruption to school operations.
As part of the same project, we will be improving the internal environments - mostly carpeting and access - of the Junior block: Rooms 1-6. This is the beginning of such improvements throughout the school.
Our senior area accessible bathroom is being enlarged and modified to provide better access and facilities.
We are currently seeking a large grant to support the development of better playground facilities in the senior school.
Sun Safety
As we experienced at the picnic, the sun has still got some strength to it! Please do support your child to remember their sun hat every day, drink plenty of water and either bring sunscreen with them or apply this before they come to school. Students who are not prepared for the sun are asked to play in the shaded areas so they are sun safe.
Zero Data Portal - Access to Bellevue’s Information With No Data
The below website provided by the government allows families to access certain website - including our school website without data. Simply follow the link and search for Bellevue Newlands to have access any time. Note you do need to have your data switched on!
https://portal.zero.govt.nz/0ecf2ab113c023c8de862f3822ad4687/welcome-zero-data
