Newsletter Issue 2

Ngā Hau e Whā o Paparārangi Marae Welcome

We wish to thank the wonderful team at Ngā Hau e Whā o Paparārangi Marae for the special welcome extended to all our staff, as part of the Te Korowai ō Horokiwi Cluster of schools last Thursday. After school we attended a mihi whakatau to strengthen our connections with each other. Along with the staff from Newlands College, Newlands Intermediate, Paparangi, Newlands Primary and Rewa Rewa schools, we shared kai, and learned a little more about the marae and the committed team that keep this incredible community hub going. We intend for this to be the beginning of many more connections throughout the year and beyond to strengthen our students sense of tūrangawaewae (their standing place).

We also enjoyed the most breathtaking view in Wellington! Kia ora rawa atu Ngā Hau e Whā!

Junior School Update

Due to the improvements to the junior school block, our Year 1 and 2 students are working a little differently at present. They are using Rooms 1-4 but also need to use the hall for some activities throughout the day. It can get a little chilly in the hall, so if anyone knows of anywhere that we might be able to get hold of some free carpet offcuts, or has old (but clean and in reasonable condition) rugs they might like to repurpose, these would be welcomed by us to make the space a little cosier.

This use of the hall does, of course, have an impact on some of the schoolwide events we are working on so please be patient with us if there are changes to events like Whakawhanaungatanga Fridays or the way in which we organise our Matariki Community event for example. We will keep you informed as needed.

Our New Entrant numbers are growing at a much faster rate than we had anticipated this year, which has meant that we are in need of an additional Junior teacher from the middle of this term. At a time of extreme teacher shortages, we are delighted to share that we welcome Sara Marett to the team as our Room 4 Whānau teacher from the beginning of next week. Sara has established several roll growth classes at Cashmere Avenue school in the past so is skilled at supporting students transitioning to school. Sara will work full time with us for two weeks and then as a 3 day/2 day job share arrangement until the end of the year with Liz Macmillan (our part time Junior teacher) who has kindly worked with us so we are able to provide consistency for our youngest students.

Acknowledging our Support Staff

We had a fantastic spread last week and took time to acknowledge the wonderful support staff in our kura for Support Staff day. These people are often the unsung heroes in a school, quietly doing a myriad of tasks in ‘the background’ to support our students and our team, keeping the school running smoothly. We are fortunate at Bellevue to have a highly skilled team of support staff who embody our values everyday.

Extra-curricular Opportunities

We were proud of our students who represented the school so well at their Northern Zone Cross Country event last week, supported by our ‘Acting’ Sport Leader, Rene Senekal. There is more information about this later in the newsletter, but we would like to thank Rene for the time and energy that has goes into organising these events for our students on top of her teaching role. Thanks also to the wonderful team of parents who have supported these events - without you they would not be possible.

Our youngest ākonga attend the Junior Invitational Cross Country tomorrow with Nic Taylor and we wish them ‘Kia Kaha’!

In our senior school, we had a small group of 10 Hub 5 students attend the National Young Leaders' Day in Porirua. These students were given this opportunity to acknowledge the leadership they provide in school on a daily basis. Deeann Daniels organised this fabulous event in liaison with Newlands Primary schools so that we continue to strengthen networks for our students moving on to Intermediate at the end of the year.

On Friday, the school was a sea of pink in honour of Bullying Free Week and ‘Pink Shirt Day’ organised by our student council. Continuing the conversation about bullying, the importance of being an ‘upstander’ not a ‘bystander’ and supporting students with strategies for navigating friendship challenges is important to us at Bellevue so, although it is great to celebrate this with the nation, it is an ongoing focus for us through our Positive Behaviour For Learning work.

Next week, we look forward to seeing many of our tamariki dancing the night away at our Bellevue Disco! Please read the notice linked into the newsletter further down (and also coming home hard copy ) about this event carefully - especially about the pick up so you can collect your child from the correct space. This will make connecting students with caregivers much easier on a dark night!

Professional Learning Day 4 June - School closed 1-5 June

Following the upcoming King’s Birthday weekend (1-3 June), school is closed on Tuesday 4 June for all of our staff to attend our Te Korowai ō Horokiwi cluster Professional Learning Day at Newlands Intermediate. This is one of the teacher only days provided by the Ministry to support curriculum work. The day offers a range of workshops for the sharing of best practice and an opportunity to learn more about supporting our neurodiverse learners as well as best practice in Mathematics and Literacy, along with our colleagues who are part of our cluster. This is an important day in the year for growing our connections across the schools to use our shared resources to provide the best educational experiences for our students.

Due to the short timeframe in our next newsletter week, you can expect our next newsletter to come home on Thursday 6 June rather than the Wednesday of that week.

Hindi Opportunities for our students

Since March we have been working in partnership with The Wellington Hindi School. They use our hall space on Sunday mornings to provide Hindi lessons that cater for school aged children. If you are interested in your child participating in these or would like to make an enquiry, the link to their website is below.

https://www.wellingtonhindischool.org/

This has provided us with an opportunity to provide a series of Hindi ‘Taster’ classes for the students at Bellevue in Term 3 which we are excited about as it will align with the First Language Hui currently underway (more information about this below). Deeann Daniels, our Deputy Principal is currently organising this with the Hindi teacher so look out for more information about this opportunity coming home soon.

Hei konā mai

Annette

Remember to take a look at the Bellevue Website for longer term information (Parent Portal) or follow our closed group Facebook Page for quick updates or reminders.

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.

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.

Room 2 - David

Username bellevue-newlands, password 'grow'

Last Friday we had Pink Shirt Day. We celebrate Pink Shirt Day because many years ago there way a boy who got bullied at school for wearing a pink shirt. Some kids saw this and thought if they could get the whole school to wear pink the bully would have to stop because you can’t pick on everyone! So that's exactly what they did. The next day the whole school was wearing pink with pride and this is why we continue to celebrate Pink Shirt Day every year. In our Hub we all wore pink clothing, took a class picture and made paper crowns to celebrate the day. Thank you to everyone who participated! -The Student Council.

Over the next few weeks we will be learning about all the whetū (stars) that are part of te tau hou Māori (the Māori New Year). These famous whetū include Rehua, Matariki and their eight tamariki, along with Puanga. We’ll learn about the significance and meaning of each star and what aspects of our world they connect with.

Questions you might discuss with your child/ren to support their in class learning are

• What are the names of the whetū (stars) that are part of te tau hou Māori

(the Māori New Year)?

• What is the significance/meaning of each whetū (star)?

Last week a group of Year 6 students attended the National Young Leaders Day. This was a fantastic day out for students who demonstrate leadership qualities and potential. Students enjoyed listening to a range of motivational talks from great New Zealand leaders. They shared key messages from their leadership journeys to inspire us as we develop our leadership skills further. It was a great experience!

Some key messages were

• Better never stops! Take small incremental steps towards your goals.

• Surround yourself with whānau and friends who lift you up.

• Step outside your comfort zone.

• Use positive affirmations e.g. I am brave! I am confident! I got this!

• Never give up! If you give up you will never know how successful you might be.

A big thank you to Gordon Van Dyk and Jo McNicholl who accompanied us on this trip!

At Bellevue we value the many different cultures, languages, and identities that make up our school community. We believe it is important to foster the strengths of cultural and linguistic diversity. All languages are a taonga (treasure).

In Term 1 we began ‘First Language Hui’ for our Mandarin speakers. Students from across the school work collaboratively in mixed ability groups to complete a task. As they do, they share and discuss ideas, trial and error, and collectively problem solve. Students are encouraged to speak in their first language. Through maintaining their own languages, students have their learning enhanced as well as it helping in the acquisition of other languages.

Students are enjoying coming together and connecting with others in the school who speak the same language as them. For some of our new students who do not speak much English this group is supporting them to feel more confident, happier and involved. Students are having fun!

This term we are continuing with the hui for our Mandarin speakers and introducing a second group for those students who speak Sinhala. In Term 3 we hope to introduce a third group for those students who speak Hindi.

A space for whānau during the upcoming Disco

With the limited capacity in our hall, we have consistently received feedback that students have more space to enjoy the disco when parents do not remain in the space with them. To provide an opportunity for our families to connect informally Rooms 2 and 3 will be open for whānau who wish to wait for their child/ren. Tea and coffee will be available. For clarification on this and more whānau information please see the disco information notice here.

This next Whakawhanaungatanga is Friday 7th June (11:50am - 1:05pm).

During Whakawhanaungatanga Fridays children are:

1. Learning in rich and authentic contexts, relevant to their own experiences and interests.

2. Developing dispositional skills, such as collaboration, risk taking, and leadership.

3. Living values that we hold dear at Bellevue School, such as empathy, integrity, resilience, and creativity.

We warmly invite whānau to come along and play, explore and learn alongside your child/ren during any of the sessions this year. There is no need to commit in advance and you are welcome to stay for as little or as long as you are able. We would love to see you. Sessions will run this year from 11:50am - 1:05pm on any of these days. On arrival, please head to the office and you will be able to find where your child/ren will be for the afternoon.

Hub 3 are collecting yoghurt pottles for a project towards the end of the term. If your family eats yoghurt, please can you save any clean, empty containers and drop them off to Room 11 and encourage your children to do the same if they have a yoghurt at school. We need HEAPS so continue to drop them off until Week 9. Thank you SO much for your help!

$50 PRIZE DRAW!

Every two years schools ask for feedback from their community about Health Education. Parents, whānau and caregivers are invited to share what is important to them in relation to Health Education and the needs of their child/ren.

This information is carefully considered when determining the future Health Education at Bellevue School. Please share your thoughts so that the health programmes that are available at our school meet the needs of our tamariki.

This survey will close on Friday 21 June at 4pm.

To thank you for taking part, these families will go into a draw for a $50 grocery voucher.

Please follow this link to complete the survey: Health and PE survey 2024

We encourage you to enrol your preschoolers as soon as they turn 4. This assists with future planning for our kura and classes. Out of zone enrolment applications close approximately six months prior to commencement date so it is important to submit these early to ensure you are in the ballot. We accept up to five out of zone applications per term.

Important information about the Bellevue School enrolment scheme (zone)

If you have preschoolers at home that you are planning to enrol at Bellevue School in the future, here are a few important things to know and put into action:

1. If you are living outside of the Bellevue School enrolment zone, then your preschooler(s) will need to be processed as an out of zone application. Please let us know, if you haven’t already, of any future enrolments at Bellevue School from your family. It helps greatly with our planning to know well in advance. And if we know then we can also prompt you as to when you need to get your out of zone application in.

2. It is very important that out of zone applications are received by the application deadline of Friday 28 June 2024, for enrolment from Saturday 14 October 2024 to Tuesday 17 December 2024. We cannot accept any out of zone applications if they are not received by the deadline advertised for the enrolment period your child is due to start school in. The deadline can sometimes be up to six months prior to your child actually starting school.

3. Even if your preschooler(s) are in zone, please get your enrolment in to us as soon as possible to enable us to plan ahead. We need this information to be able to work out how many out of zone applications we can accept in each enrolment period.

If you have any questions or are unsure about anything, please call the school office and talk to Amanda.

After all the disruption, excitement, and celebration around the administration block project, it may have all seemed pretty quiet on the property front at Bellevue for a while. Memories of working out of portacoms for months have faded and the grass where they had been positioned has grown back again!

Well, there’s been work in the pipeline and we’re excited to share it!

We have two big projects entering their construction phase in the next month or so:

The Block 3 ILE Redevelopment

This project will be a refurbishment and opening up of classrooms 1-6. The main outcome the project is working towards is improving the internal environment. Included in this project are:

New flooring in the classrooms, upgrades of the room 5 and 6 toilet block, replacement roofing, and the enabling work so that, when budgets allow, we can install large, double glazed sliding doors between classrooms 4, 5, and 6 to create a more flexible space throughout the hub!

“The Ramp”

An accessibility accessway (zig zag ramp) is going to be constructed between the staffroom and the seniors area of the school along with two accessible bathrooms. This is a wonderful way to make our school grounds more accessible and inclusive and gives us the opportunity to get some nice plants on that slope which would make a huge difference!

Both these projects are funded by the Ministry of Education and Bellevue is grateful to our Ministry partners, architects, project managers, and Peryer’s construction for getting them to the stage where we’re ready to kick off construction activity on site!

Whilst we are a dog friendly school and happy for our 4 legged friends to be on the school grounds after hours and on weekends, please respect our community by picking up after your dogs and keeping them under control at all times while on school grounds.

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

Kia Ora Bellevue Whanau!

Our next FUNdraisers committee meeting is just around the corner now, on the 13th June 2024.

We are actively looking for additional committee members, as at the end of 2024, the Year 6 children of three of our stalwart committee members will be leaving Bellevue School.

Below is an update on our upcoming events:

Matariki Celebration Evening – 26th June

Ahead of this event we will be FUNdraising by selling pre-order hangi meals to enjoy on the night.

Last year, while the hangi was again popular, we did get some feedback around the authenticity of the flavour. So, this year after having had the opportunity to try the hangi at the Newlands Neighbours Day event, we are delighted say that we will be supporting our local marae Ngā Hau e Whā o Paparārangi, who will be making the hangi meal for us.

Their hangi meals are genuine earth oven/pit (umu) cooked and are delicious. The meal price will be $15 per meal, and there will be a vegetarian or meat option.

Order information will be available soon!

Kids Art Work

Annually our students complete an artwork which can then be ordered to be made up into a calendar, cards, a journal, diary or a mousepad.

The tamariki have started their art work as part of the ‘arts’ portion of their classroom learning, and we understand that it will be available to view at the Matariki Evening.

Orders will be collated in Term 3 for this FUNdraiser.

End of Term Pizza

Our classic End of Term Pizza lunch will be happening on the last Friday of term.

FUNdraisers Video

We will be recording some fresh content or our FUNdraisers promo video… Our current one features “that spicy cough” information that we do NOT need to highlight any longer!

If you have a child who is keen on being in front of the camera, please let Rebecca know on the below email address and we will do our best to include them if we can!

FUNdraisers Committee Meetings

Next meeting: 13th June 2024

Meetings will now be 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 fundraisers@bellevue-newlands.school.nz

Thursday 23 May

Junior Invitational Cross Country (pp date Tuesday 28th May)

Bellevue Board Meeting 6.30 - 8.30pm

Thursday 23 May - Friday 24 May

Hearing/Vision Technician at school

Thursday 30 May

School Disco 6.30 - 8.30pm

Monday 3 June

Kings Birthday - School closed

Tuesday 4 June

Staff only day - School closed

Thursday 13 June

FUNdraisers Meeting 6:15 - 7:15pm

Tuesday 18 June

Inter-Zone Cross Country, pp Thursday 20 June

Thursday 20 June

Bellevue Board Meeting 6:30 - 8:30pm

Tuesday 25 June

School Photo Day

NZ Hockey, pp Thursday 27 June

Wednesday 26 June

School-wide Matariki Celebration Evening (time TBC)

Friday 28 June

Matariki Public Holiday - School closed

Tuesday 2 July

3-Way Conferences 3:15 - 8pm

Wednesday 3 July

3-Way Conferences 3:15 - 6:30pm

Thursday 4 July

Newlands Intermediate School Open Evening 7pm

Friday 5 July

Last day of Term 2