Newsletter Issue 3

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

We are delighted to start this newsletter with a ‘Congratulations’ to Lucas and Eva who both qualified for the Interzone Athletics yesterday. Lucas qualified for Long Jump, Quoits and Sprints and Eva qualified for Sprints. The latest update is that Lucas came 3rd in both Long jump and Quoits, and 5th overall for sprints. This means that he will be off to the Regional Athletics event next week. Well done to them both and thank you for representing Bellevue so well.

Year 6 Camp - Brookfields: Wainuiomata

It was an absolute privilege to join the amazing team of Year 6 tamariki, parent help and kaiako at Brookfields Scout Camp last week. This camp has been a long standing tradition of our school for our senior students and is quite special for a number of reasons. Most of the activities are run by parents or teachers who bring their passion and enthusiasm to; orienteering, the confidence course, archery, kayaking, STEM projects, camp fire cooking, the flying fox and raft building. Although the camp is only an hour by bus from school, the surroundings are serene and naturally beautiful - you could be a million miles away. Every year we are supported by a phenomenally skilled, patient, supportive and energetic team of whānau who work together to make (and we hope to have) the most amazing memories for our students who are coming close to the end of their time at Bellevue. As well as our parent help, visitors from the RTLB and Intermediate who are supporting transition and Constable Aaron Dann, we need to extend our thanks to Deeann Daniels and the Year 6 kaiako who work tirelessly to organise this event and willingly spend the time away from their own families.

Staffing Update

Sadly, at the end of this year we will farewell Rene Senekal who has taught this year in our Year 2 classes. Rene started out with us as a Reading Recovery teacher and has been a wonderful full time addition to our team for the last three years, carrying the Sports leadership role very capably in Cassie’s absence. Rene is moving to Maranatha Christian School in a role that allows her more time to be with her family and the opportunity to teach in a community aligned with her own values and beliefs. We wish her well for this new chapter in her teaching career - Maranatha is lucky to have her!

We are delighted to inform you that Heidi Lloyd will be joining our Junior Hub in 2025.

Heidi is a vastly experienced teacher with more than twenty years of teaching experience in South Africa, the UK and here in NZ, including as a team leader. Heidi and her family live locally, with her children attending schools in our wider community, so she was looking for a move closer to home. Familiar with structured literacy, PB4L and ‘The Incredible Years’ trained, Heidi is a calm, considered and capable practitioner who is driven to support her students through ongoing learning herself. We are excited to have her join our Bellevue whānau.

End of Year Report PDF and 2025 Class Placement Information

The end of year information has been carefully timed this year to align with school events.

As you will see in the dates section below, a PDF of your child’s reporting will come home via email on Wednesday 11 December so that you are able to refer to this during the Three Way Conferences in the evening on Wednesday 11 and Thursday 12 December should you wish.

To ensure that you receive this, please make sure that the email(s) we hold on record for you is up to date. If you are receiving this newsletter, it should reach you.

On Friday 13 December you will receive your child’s class placement for 2025 and their stationery list - these will also be on our website. This information is coming home just prior to the students visiting their new classes/teachers on Monday 16 December - our last full day for the year.

If any students are not returning to Bellevue next year, please tell the office or your child's current teacher as soon as possible.

Annual Plan 2024 - Your Feedback

Our Annual Plan for 2024 is HERE.

To ‘measure’ how we have gone against our goals we asked for feedback from our students, staff and community on the goals directly related to them which will be used to inform our planning for 2025.

Thank you to the 27 families who took the time to share their thoughts with us. While we recognise that the number of responses received may not represent all the voices of our community, we are very pleased with the results, which indicate a marked difference in how our community experiences reporting and communication from the school, with an average of 80% satisfaction compared to the 54% positive responses in the 2020 community survey (bottom of second page).

The results of the community survey are HERE:

These results give a clear indication of our progress against our 2024 community goals, particularly with regard to our focus on reporting student achievement to families and the sharing of key information about our school and its events.

We will continue to focus on strengthening active learning partnerships between home and school and the consistency of communications from the school and the Board in 2025.

This was also a good reminder to reshare our ‘Consistency of Communication’ document outlining which platform we use for what communication. You can find this HERE. We recommend keeping a copy on the fridge for reference!

Some of the feedback received was classroom specific. We would like to remind you that, should you have any concerns or queries that are focused on your own child’s classroom, the first port of call is the classroom teacher. Following this, if the issue remains unresolved, we encourage you to contact the Deputy Principal or Hub Coach for the area of the school your child is in.

Transition - What To Expect For Next Year

Every year is different for our tamariki and kaiako at Bellevue School. With student led learning as one of the foundations of our curriculum no two years are ever the same. At the beginning of the year, teachers and students take time to get to know each other - their strengths, interests, goals and aspirations as well as the challenges they will work to overcome. This information informs the planning of the teaching and learning, which responds to the needs of the learners.

In 2025, our teaching team remains stable again, although some will be working with us in a different capacity. Some of our teachers, who are used to teaching across several levels of the curriculum no matter which year group they work with, will be moving into teaching in another year level. The organisation of the school for 2025 is outlined in the image below.

You will note that this is the first year for some time that Bellevue has had a Year 4/5 composite hub. This is due to the needs of the students and our numbers in this area of the school. Every year the school organisation is planned with student needs (both academic and social emotional) as the first priority. We then consider the spaces that will suit this group. For 2025 the Year 4/5 cohort will work in Rooms 12-15 as they are a bigger group than the Year 6 cohort who will work in Rooms 7-9. This will mean we will not be referring to our ‘Senior, Middle or Junior’ areas of the school as this will be different for 2025. You will also note that each year group will have the name of a native tree from next year in line with our motto and vision and the focus we have on growth.

If you have concerns about how your child will settle into their new area of the school, we ask that you give our teachers time to settle the students and get to know them in the first instance. We have a robust transition process for all our learners with additional needs which involves detailed information being passed on to next year's teachers about what works for them as learners (and as human beings!). In addition to this, we encourage you to take up the opportunity to book a 1:1 meeting, either at our Meet the Teacher / Whānau Picnic event on 31 January (more information to come), or at any time throughout the year, to talk with your child's whānau teacher.

Last Newsletter - Wednesday 4 December

As school closes for the year at 12.30pm on Tuesday 17 December, our next newsletter on 4 December will be the last for the year.

Reminders:

• Additions to Important Dates and Teacher Only Days for 2025. The important dates at the bottom of this newsletter are now updated until the end of the year. There are a few additions - please double check that you haven’t missed any.

• A reminder with reporting all online now that Seesaw post captions can be translated. If a note, caption, comment, announcement, or message is written in a language that is different from the language of a family's device, a 'Translate with Google' option appears below the post. If you are a family who would find this useful and need some assistance, please get in touch with our e-Learning lead teacher nic@bellevue-newlands.school.nz, or with your child's whānau class teacher.

• Three Way Conferences - Wednesday 11 (3.15 - 8.15pm) and Thursday 12 December (3.15 - 6.15pm). A reminder that these meetings, together with the Reading, Writing and Mathematics posts, replace our end of year written report, so we encourage all families to attend.

• For more information about what to expect from these meeting please follow THIS LINK. To book a time to speak with your child’s teacher please follow this link to School Interviews look for the ‘Make a Booking’ button top right, and enter the code wg8zf.

• FUNdraisers and Principal informal wine and cheese evening to come along and find out more about being a FUNdraiser on Thursday 28 November at 7.15pm in the staffroom.

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.

2025 School Organisation

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.

Izzy - R4

Mahanya - R4

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.

Weet-Bix TRYathlon 2025

The 2025 Weet-Bix TRYathlon is coming to Wellington on Sunday March 16, 2025! If your child is interested, they can register as part of the Bellevue School Team by following this link. If you would like to know more information about the event, please head to:

https://tryathlon.co.nz/locations/wellington/

Swimming in 2025

At Bellevue we value swimming as an important part of our Health and Physical Education curriculum area. As we live in a country surrounded by water we believe that water safety is an incredibly important life skill for our tamariki to learn. In our 2024 Health and PE consultation the majority of our whānau indicated that swimming is also important to them. We will therefore continue to provide yearly swimming lessons for all of our students from Year 0-6. With that in mind, we are experiencing price increases for buses, pool entry and instruction. We always look for the most cost effective options, which include securing grants to cover part of the cost of bus hire, or investigating other pools in the area. There will unfortunately still be a price increase for our swimming lessons in 2025. More information about this will be communicated with you closer to the time next year, as soon as we investigate and secure the best options.

To date we have received payment from 62% of our families for swimming. If you have yet to pay, please contact the school office. Thank you.

Whole School FUNrun!

Friday 6th December (pp Friday 13 Dec)

Walk, jog or run. Dress up encouraged!!

And lastly, remember the Pizza reading challenge is still going!

Each year Bellevue School is asked to nominate a Year 6 student to be awarded the Wellington North Primary Schools Citizenship Award. These awards are sponsored by Johnsonville Rotary Club.

The 2024 Wellington North Primary Schools Citizenship Award recipient is Milan Su’a.

Milan was voted by her peers as being a positive role model, someone who other students can look up to. She consistently demonstrates genuine care for her classmates, and can often be heard offering words of encouragement. Milan demonstrates resilience and commitment in all that she does. She is respectful, thoughtful and inclusive of others, contributing to our school community in a positive manner.

On Friday 8 November, Milan was presented with her award by Mayor Whanau at the Johnsonville Community Centre along with the other students chosen by their schools in the North Wellington area. It was an opportunity for Milan to be acknowledged for consistently demonstrating the Bellevue School values of Empathy, Integrity, Creativity and Resilience.

Mālō (Congratulations) Milan!!

Fa'afetai tele lava, ua avea lava oe ose tamata'i ua fai ma faataitaiga mo isi Tamaiti aōga!

Year 6 reflections at their time at Brookfields, Wainuiomata last week.

'We stayed at camp for 3 days and 2 nights. I had an amazing time with lots of great memories.

At camp we did a lot of activities. Some of the activities were raft building, kayaking and archery. One of my highlights was cooking on the campfire because we roasted marshmallows and made s’mores. We also made damper on the fire. Damper is made with flour, sugar , milk and salt. I had to cook it on the fire for about 10 minutes and it tasted like scones yum.

On the first morning we woke up early but we had to go back to bed. When I woke up, Guhan and Benji played UNO No Mercy. On the second day my group did kayaking, archery, flying fox, confidence course and cooking on fire. In the evening the parents did a play. It was very funny. The funniest bit was when Prince Charming said “Here try this on” and Blade said “Sorry doesn't fit, bruv.” Then my dad tried it on and he said “It fits no cap, it fits no cap.”

On Friday it rained heavily but we did not let that stop us because we still did abseiling. I went up the abseiling tower but it was a bit scary so I went back down the ladder stair thing. After Abseiling we went home with lots of great memories.'

By Joshua

'Year Six went on camp last week, these are some of the best things about camp. I really liked the confidence course, kayaking and raft building. I liked the confidence course because it was fun when I got dirty and faced my fears and faced difficult challenges. Raft building was fun because the person helping was really funny and helpful. Kayaking was fun because we got to learn how to turn and we got to splash Annette and the person helping. All the parents put on a show on Thursday night. Luke's dad was Cinderella. It was really funny! Camp was awesome and there were lots of best things, but I wish it was longer.'

By Harley

'On Wednesday 13 of November, we set off for camp and watched Loony Tunes on the way. At camp there was bugs and mud everywhere, but doing the activities took my mind off it. Raft building was war, and kayaking was cold. Dinner was good but dessert was better. At the campfire (which was too small BTW) we got these awesome glow sticks that lasted forever. And at the Nightline it was scary, even though we were the ‘not scary’ group. Sleep was my least favourite part. It just wouldn’t happen! I went to the bathroom at 2am! And for some reason Nuvini was watching me and Rishika ‘sleep’. The good thing was I slept for 2 hours. (Better than none!) On Thursday I did archery, which I was horrible at, flying fox, which was fun, confidence course, which was my favourite, and STEM where me and Rishika’s car kept going in circles. Dinner, medicine and bed. I am happy to report we slept much better that night. On Friday it rained. A lot. A lot - lot. But people still went abseiling. We made our lunch and went to the bus. Fifteen or so minutes later and there we were, back at school.'

By Margot

At our recent Board meeting, the Board reviewed our school donation amount for 2025.

We greatly appreciate the additional resources and support these payments allow for our kura and tamariki. We have agreed to keep the donation at the same level of $140 for a single student, and $220 for two or more students in the same family for next year.

We rely on donations to provide our tamariki with things such as:

• Sports equipment and events

• Kapa Haka tutors and uniforms

• Significantly subsidised swimming programmes and

school trips

• School and community events such as our regular pōwhiri

for new whānau

• Additional learning support

• Our awesome school library

• Additional digital technology resources

So far this year we have had donations paid by 53% of our families.

If you have not paid your donation, please get in touch with our school office to organise this.

You are welcome to pay your donation in one amount, or arrange to make regular payments over a set period of time - office@bellevue-newlands.school.nz. You are also able to claim one third of your donation back from the IRD. Claiming tax credits for a donation is a straightforward process and more information on how to do this can be found here. We need your help to keep all our extra programmes running, and we appreciate your support.

Student Activity Fees

Activity payments are required to cover the costs of additional equipment, experiences, and services that are extra to the school’s curriculum obligations. This payment is set at $15 per pupil each term (i.e. $60 per year) to enable parents and teachers to budget for the cost of educational trips and visiting performers. Payment may also be required for curriculum-based activities that involve a “take home” component for the student to keep.

This year so far we have received payment from 65% of our families.

This year the student activity fees have paid for the following across the school and there are further activities to come in Term 4 for some hubs:

• Life Education Bus - the whole school

• Elgregoes Magic Show - the whole school

And for hubs (some of these still to come to celebrate the end of a successful year):

• Dance & Drama workshops (Hub 5)

• Visits to The Space Place & The Dowse Museum (Hub 4)

• Cyberpunk Ninja and Clip n Climb (Y ear 5)

• Photography sessions (Year 3)

• A visit to Staglands (Year 1 & 2)

• End of year picnics, celebrations and treats

There will be no increase to these payments for 2025 either. In order to enable teachers to plan for more adventurous opportunities the Board will assist by ‘topping’ up the activity fee as needed in the 2025 year. We are interested to see how this improves opportunities for our children.

Term 4 is a sun-smart term - please bring hat and water bottles every day.

A reminder that, due to allergies, school cannot provide sunscreen for our students so please do pop a named sunscreen in your child’s bag so that we can remind them to apply this when they go outside.

Chickenpox

A reminder from the previous communication we sent out earlier in the week, have had several confirmed cases of chickenpox within the school. If your children feel unwell and are displaying symptoms, please keep them home from school.

The following link has more information if you require it:

https://info.health.nz/conditions-treatments/infectious-diseases/chickenpox

Pertussis (whooping cough) Health NZ update

Te Whatu Ora | Heath New Zealand has reported an increasing number of confirmed pertussis (whooping cough) cases. It is highly contagious and particularly serious for pēpi, tamariki and older adults – it can be fatal in some cases. Vaccination provides the best protection against pertussis and is free for children under 18.

Health advice is available here:

Pertussis (whooping cough) public health key messages [PDF, 137 KB]

Pertussis (whooping cough) public health key messages for pregnant people [PDF, 135 KB]

International Competitions and Assessments for Schools (ICAS) is a suite of competitions designed specifically for primary and secondary students. ICAS are conducted annually in Australia and in over 20 countries in Asia, Africa, Europe, Pacific countries, and America by The University of New South Wales (UNSW) Global Educational Assessment Australia.

ICAS Assessments are designed to recognise and reward academic excellence. Students are asked to demonstrate a deeper, integrated, and thorough level of learning.

The assessments are challenging and provide an opportunity, particularly for students who are more academically orientated, to gain a measure of their achievement in an external assessment situation.

At Bellevue, the ICAS Assessments are offered to students who wish to challenge themselves in Years 4-6. All students who take part receive a certificate for participation. We commend them for their risk taking and confidence. This year the exciting results for those Bellevue students achieving in the top 50% across all schools and countries are shown below:

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!

https://www.aainsurance.co.nz/big-little

Username bellevue-newlands, password 'grow'

Gosh the end of this year is creeping up fast!

This week, our message repeats… WE NEED YOU!

We here are FUNdraisers are about bringing the FUN while raising funds for what we want our school to have. Ideally doing this with as little of the hard work as possible, as hard work, while rewarding, is not always FUN! To do this, we need YOU!

On the 28th November at 7.15pm, with support from Annette and staff, we are holding a wine and cheese evening to entice you along to find out more about what we do and why we need you.

Four of our committee have children who are in their final year with Bellevue School and will therefore be moving on. This leaves us with a team of two but no chair of the committee! The roles the committee is seeking include administration for events like sausage sizzles or pizza (mostly online and using a school computer), chairperson - organising meetings, liaising with the Principal, oversight of committee activities, secretary - taking and distributing meeting minutes and communications.

If you can offer your time to attend two meetings a term and support in these roles on the committee it would make a big difference to the school both now and for the future.

Currently we are fundraising for playground markings. The students have a wonderful range of ideas we have gathered to improve the markings in 2025, but the cost for this work is around $15,000. Raising these funds will take a team working with the school.

The update on our events is below:

Wine and Cheese FUNdraisers information evening

28 th November 2024, 7.15pm, in the staff room.

We really do look forward to seeing you and having you part of our team.

Kids Art Work

The art work orders have been distributed to the classrooms. If you ordered, and your child has not

brought their home, please first follow up with their classroom teacher as they should have the order.

End of Term Pizza – 6th December – Orders close 27th Nov

The order forms for this terms pizza lunch were sent out last week. Unfortunately, an error was made on the QR code, and it was only active for 7 days and unable to be reactivated.

All orders via the QR code are received. But if you are yet to order, please use the below link:

https://forms.gle/m2sh1wWgRpry1EQz9

Thank you!

FUNRun – 6 th December

You will have seen the school notice about the FUNRun, and further information is coming home with your children this week. Our contribution to the FUN for this event is at the finish line! Where we will be giving away one FREE Iceblock to all of the children partaking in the event of the day. The ice blocks have been kindly donated to our school by Kristen and Marcus of New World Newlands – THANK YOU to you both for your support of our cool wee school!

End of Year BAKE SALE! – 13th December

Time to get your kids practicing their baking skills in preparation for this much anticipated annual event! For those new to Bellevue School, the annual Bake Sale is supported by families providing a ‘plate’ of baking. The FUNdraisers set up stalls ready for 3pm, then the kids spill out of their classrooms with their pocket money in a great rush to buy the delectable treats we have available to sell. It’s a bit chaotic, and it is amazingly good fun! A real highlight to the end of year for our tamariki.

New World Newlands: Newlands Community Centre Collaboration

Keep your eyes peeled for this Newlands community initiative supporting our local community centre. From the 16th November, you will be able to donate directly to the Community Centre during your weekly grocery shop by scanning one of their $3 boxes at checkout.

FUNdraisers Committee Meetings

Next meeting: 28 th November 2024. Followed by wine and cheese at 7.15pm.

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 any questions, you can contact Rebecca (the FUNdraisers Committee Chair) by email for

information at fundraisers@bellevue-newlands.school.nz