Newsletter Issue 4

Kia ora, Nameste, Talofa, Konnichiwa, Guten Tag, Gidday, Vannakkam, ni Hao, Kia orana, Hola, Salam, Sa wat deekha, Dia Dhuit, Goeie Dag, Bonjour, Καλημέρα, Greetings everyone

Thank you for your incredible support with our teaching team attending the NZEI union meetings last Wednesday in pursuit of better support for the learning of our students. We had more than 200 students picked up at lunchtime.

Both principals and teachers have unequivocally rejected the government’s offer to settle our agreements as we are seeking a longer term investment in the education sector as a whole. This includes increased staffing to support smaller group sizes and increased funding and support for our students with diverse learning needs. This is a conversation that we have been raising with the government for some time so we recognise that we may have to back up our kōrero with action. We will keep you informed through our usual channels as this evolves.

Athletics Day

Thanks for all those families who attended our Athletics day yesterday. The weather was kind, the students all demonstrated great resilience in pursuing their 'personal best' and we are now working through the results to determine those qualifying for the Northern Zone event. Thank you to Cassie Woodhouse who does a phenomenal job of coordinating all these sporting events for our school and to our FUNdraising committee for their support, both of the event in general and keeping our students cool and hydrated with the juicies!

Hui for Whānau Māori

For our whānau Māori we are hopeful that you might join us on Wednesday 15 March (next week) at 6pm in the staffroom for our first (in a long time) hui. In case you missed it, check your inbox for Friday 24 February or please get in touch with Deeann or Annette. Please RSVP by this Friday 10 March to assist us with planning.

Student Leadership

It is always inspiring to see the number of students we have keen to be involved in some aspect of leadership in our kura. Traditionally we have the following leadership roles for our Hub 5 tamariki:

• Road Patrol
• Peer Mediation
• Librarians
• Student Council
• Tech Ninjas
• Kapa Haka

There are also various clubs (Art, Gardening, Choir) that students can be involved in from across the school. The application processes for these groups are almost complete and our students are doing a marvellous job already of 'taking care of our place'. Our messaging to the students, however, is that leadership is about 'the goal, not the role'. They do not have to 'wear a specific hat' to lead, but rather this is something that they can do every day in their own ways. We encourage students who are keen to see something happening in the school to take a lead role in organising this and have had some very successful groups - Chess club, Writer's club, Engineering and even a Rubix cube club - over the years as a result. If your child has tried for something and been unsuccessful, please encourage them to 'think outside the box' about what they might do to satisfy that leadership drive instead. Bellevue is their place so all contributions are welcome!

Working Bee - Saturday 18 March

The form for this event is now closed. Our Working Bee scheduled for Saturday 18 March, now has 22 families having indicated their interest. Thank you for your willingness to come along and pitch in for our school!

Moving to Fortnightly Newsletters

A reminder that newsletter are now fortnightly from Bellevue. You can expect these on 22 March and 5 April for the remainder of the term.

On the alternate weeks we will send home just the ‘Important Dates’ section for your reference.

Please Read on!

We understand that there are items in the newsletter that are a repeat of previous weeks because we have requirements to advertise certain aspects (i.e. the out of zone enrolment information for a set period of time). However, we encourage you to read on as there are often new items especially pertaining to our community that follow this.

Ngā mihi nui

Annette

We are delighted to announce that our Bellevue SchoolDocs Policies and Procedures website is ready to go live with our community.

It is our aim to increase transparency around our school policies and procedures. We would suggest you begin by visiting the Parents and Whānau section on our SchoolDocs site – it has a brief description of SchoolDocs, and important information about parent involvement, communication and reporting, community conduct expectations, and social media guidelines. There is also a Quick Links for Parents and Whānau topic with links to the most relevant policies and procedures.

We invite you to visit the site directly using the button below which will remain in our newsletters, or via the ‘Bellevue Board’ page on the school website - by clicking the large checkbox SchoolDocs image. Our username is "bellevue-newlands" and password "grow".

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.

Paige & Kaison in Room 2

Windie in Room 3

Insith and Rose in Room 4

Inudi in Room 5

A Powhiri to welcome new students will be held on Wednesday 15 March at 10.40am.

Please not the change of date.

Sadly for Bellevue, Rachael Cobham, Room 14’s whanau class teacher is leaving us at the end of Term 1 as she has won a position at Wairakei Primary School in Taupo. We wish Rachael all the best for this new opportunity as she relocates to be closer to family.

We are very happy to inform you, that Beverley Warwick has accepted a full time role with us in the Year 5/6 teaching team and as Room 14’s whanau class teacher for the remainder of the year.

Many of you will know Beverley Warwick, who has had a long connection with Bellevue School first as a parent, then as a reliever and part time teacher in our school for the last three years. Beverley is an experienced, capable and creative teacher who has formed strong relationships with all of the learners in her care.

For term 1 this year, Beverley has been working with the Year 5/6 team as a support teacher in the mornings so she is well known to the students. We are very excited that she has decided to join the team in this new capacity and anticipate that it will be a smooth, positive transition for the students as well as building a strong senior school team for the future.

• Thank you to Ian Dickson for his donation of netballs. These were put to good use last week during the ‘Have a go at Netball’ lunchtime session!
• Thank you also to Raman - grandfather to Krish - who has offered to run some small, informal and fun cricket coaching sessions for about 10 tamariki from Hubs 3 and 4 in the latter part of this term.
• Thank you to the families who came to Athletics yesterday to help and support our students.

If your child is going to be absent from school please let us know by phoning the school (04 4787037) between 8:30am and 9:00am, stating your child's name, their whānau class number and the reason for their absence. All absences are reported to the office and followed up. The Ministry of Education requires the school to state the reason for any absences from school as well as to note patterns of unexplained absence. We may request to sight a copy of the appointment details if your child needs to be away from school for a medical appointment during school time. To assist us with this, please text or email proof of your appointment time to the office as verification for MOE attendance records. Thank you for understanding and helping us with these requirements.

Increasingly we have students picked up early from school with no reason given. If this is the case, this is noted on our student management system and we may follow up with patterns of unexplained absence. Please always inform our office of the reason for collecting your child from school to assist our reporting of attendance to the Ministry.

We have been made aware of head lice in the school.

Head lice and nits are a common problem among school-aged children and can affect the whole school community. Lice and nits can easily spread from one person to another through close head-to-head contact or sharing personal items. The Ministry of Health recommends that students with live lice should stay away from school until treatment has started.

Please consider checking your child for head lice and inform your child's class teacher if your child needs treatment. We include an information sheet for your reference.

Keep It Real Online is a New Zealand Government public awareness campaign to support our tamariki and rangatahi to be safe online. It is led by the Department of Internal Affairs.

They have created a website with tools and advice to help you keep children and young people safe from online harms like grooming, pornography and bullying.

For more information follow this link - https://www.keepitrealonline.govt.nz/

Hub 1 are continuing to use the Better Start Literacy Approach for our Literacy teaching this year. All of our Hub 1 teachers are just finishing or have finished their training with The University of Canterbury which is a requirement for teaching BSLA. We are seeing really positive results in the students’ achievement data (which we are closely monitoring) as a result of this approach. Our Hub 2 teachers are training this year and using The Better Start Literacy Approach with our Year 2 children. This means as part of this approach books won’t be sent home each night, but rather when the children are ready to share them with you. There will be a Whānau sharing event in Term 2 to give more information around the Better Start Literacy Approach.

Three Way Conferences are coming up at the end of this term.

On Tuesday 4 April and Wednesday 5 April bookings will be available from 3.15 until 8.15pm (Tuesday) and until 6.15pm (Wednesday). We warmly invite you to spend this important 15 minutes with your child and their whānau class teacher to talk about their learning. The feedback from last year's approach was overwhelmingly positive so we will be continuing with the same format.

What is the format?

As we report on academic achievement in our written reports twice a year, the conferences have a dispositional lens. The Bellevue Learning dispositions (pictured below) are central to our local curriculum as they ignite an interest in learning and empower students to continue to be life long learners as described by our school vision. Students will be encouraged to share the ways in which they have demonstrated their 'learner toolbox', their successes and their next steps.

What if I want to know more about academic progress or how I can help at home?

Please note that, as per our motto, 'E tipu e ako' our learning conversations are growth focused. For this reason, we talk about 'next steps', areas of learning that we are working on or things that we cannot do YET. We understand the importance of a growth mindset in facilitating learning and building students' self esteem so they have the confidence to tackle challenging tasks and take risks in their learning. With this in mind, if you wish to know more about specific areas of the curriculum (progress in writing for example), or how you can help at home, we would encourage you to ask the teacher about this during your visit. If you have specific concerns better voiced without your child present, it is also an option to set up a time to talk to the teacher separately to this event (as at any time during the year).

How do I book?

From next week bookings can be made by visiting School Interviews and entering the event code which will be shared with you next week. This same code can also be used to re-enter the site to check the time of your booking if you have already made one. Look out for a separate letter outlining what to expect and including the booking code coming home next week.

If you are unable to use the online booking, please contact the school office to book your time for these important meetings. The teachers and your child are looking forward to meeting with you to celebrate their learning progress.

With people travelling overseas again, there’s a risk that someone with measles could unknowingly bring the disease back to Aotearoa.

Measles spreads easily and quickly, usually between people who are unimmunised or only partially immunised. It can be serious and life threatening. In the 2019 measles outbreak in Aotearoa more than 30% of the people infected had to be admitted to hospital.

The best protection against measles is the free MMR vaccine. It will protect you and your whānau, and prevent the virus from spreading.

You will be protected against measles if you:

• had 2 doses of the MMR vaccine

• had measles before

• were born before 1 Jan 1969.

If you’re unsure if you or your tamariki have had any or both doses of the MMR vaccine, check by calling your GP or hauora provider. Alternatively, check your Plunket Well Child Tamariki Ora book. If you’re still not sure, be safe and get immunised – there are no safety concerns with having an extra dose. MMR vaccines are free at your local health provider and many pharmacies.

As measles still occurs in many countries, if you’re travelling overseas these holidays it’s especially important to be immunised to prevent the risk of being unknowingly infected and causing an outbreak in Aotearoa on your return.

More information about the measles vaccination can be found here:

Measles vaccination – Ministry of Health

As you move around the school you may notice some 'new stuff'!

We have been adding to our kete of options for students outdoor play over the last few months of 2022 and early this year. Alongside a range of practical skills and learning dispositions, this kind of play fosters creativity and exploration as described in the Science and Technology learning areas of the New Zealand Curriculum.

Amongst other things, we have an outdoor mud table and sink in the Junior and Middle areas of the school, new carpentry workbenches in Hub 4 (take a look at the pictures below) and Hub 5, a mini kitchen in Hub 5 and new K'nex kits. Next time you are in the school, please come a take a look!

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 new entrant applications per term.

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 new entrant applications per term.

If you have pre-schoolers 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 pre-schooler(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 9am Friday 31 March 2023, for enrolment from Saturday 1 July 2023 to Friday 22 September 2023. 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 pre-schooler(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.

Please see attached the following letter with some information about our Cultural day that will be held in Term 1.

Kia ora Parents and Whānau Toku Ano Au day

We are always looking to strengthen our partnerships and relationships with those in our local community, If you work for a company that may be interested in supporting our school, please get in touch with annette@bellevue-newlands.school.nz.

Thank you.

Movin March

All through March, we will be stamping Walk or Wheel (WOW) Passports for every trip to and from school that your child walks or wheels. Walking or wheeling to school is a great way to get active, kick start learning for the day, and take care of the environment. If you live further afield why not try ‘Park and Stride’? Children can be dropped off on Link Road (by Bellevue Kindy) or the bottom of Bancroft Terrace and walk from there to get their stamp. Happy Movin’!

Netball 'Have a Go"

Netball co-ordinators Teresa and Erin ran a ‘Have a Go’ at netball lunchtime for years 3-6. They had a huge turnout of 40+ children and 4 parent helpers. Everyone had lots of fun and there will be another one before the end of the term, date TBC.

Northern Zone Cricket Tournament

Congratulations to the Bellevue Badgers and Bellevue Bears, who played at the Northern Zone social cricket tournament on Thursday 2 March. It sounded like an amazingly fun day of sport. Also, thank you to our wonderful whānau who helped as drivers, supervisors and umpires - without your support these events are not possible!

Kia Ora Bellevue Community!

Here we are, over half-way through Term 1 2023, time flies when you’re having fun.

Our FUNdraisers committee meeting is on tonight (Thursday 9 March0 at 7pm in the staff room at school. We will be discussing our opportunities for the end of Term 1 and for Term 2.

There will be a call for help in the next newsletter for the FUNRun events, both for getting the pizza lunches to our children, and then later in the day, the Juicies after the run.

We also have a lot of ideas in the pipeline to make our activities for the kids even more FUN and engaging. So please if you can, come and be involved with our committee as many hands make light work and increases our ability to ensure these activities bring the FUN for all!

If you want to contact the team, you can email us: fundraisers@bellevue-newlands.school.nz

Juicies for Athletics Day

Athletics went ahead yesterday and all the children enjoyed their thirst quenching and refreshing treat at lunch time!

Pizza and Juicies for the FUNRun

The FUNRun is planned for the Tuesday 28 March. The FUNdraisers are offering both the ‘end of term’ pizza at lunch time and also Juicies at the end of this event. Order information for pizza and Juicies were included in the FUNRun information pack.

Online orders for this event are via this link: https://forms.gle/uNb7sGYo7hUiw4vF7

For those that can, we do appreciate it when you use the online ordering method for pizzas especially. It ensures correctness of the order and helps make processing of the event much easier.

Orders will close for Pizzas and Juicies for the FUNRun on Friday 17 March.

Our FUNdraisers team will also be assisting the school with managing the sponsorship payments for your child participating in the FUNRun. These payments however are not due until the 3 April 2023.

FUNdraisers Committee Meetings

Our first committee meeting for the year has been held and several new opportunities were discussed for the future of FUNdraisers. To make some of these ideas come to fruition, our little team of 5 need more support – WE NEED YOU!

Our next committee meeting is scheduled for 7pm tonight (Thursday 9 March 2023) in the school staffroom.

We hope to see you there!

https://fb.me/e/4nvP7IAmI

Johnsonville Junior Rugby Club

Registrations are now open for the 2023 Rugby Season. The season will start on 5/6 May and finishes on 25/26 August. If you are interested and would like more information, please

email - johnsonvillejrns@gmail.com

TO REGISTER GO TO:

https://www.sporty.co.nz/johnsonvillerugbyjnr

Please also “like” our Facebook page ‘Johnsonville Junior Rugby Club’

Thursday 9 March

FUNdraisers Meeting - 7pm Staffroom

Wednesday 15 March - NOTE CHANGE OF DATE

Powhiri to welcome new students - 10.40am

Whānau Māori Hui - 6pm Staffroom

Saturday 18 March

Working Bee - School Grounds

Tuesday 21 March

Northern Zone Football (pp 23 March)

Wednesday 22 March

BOT Meeting

Friday 24 March

Tōku Anō Au - ‘Our Space / Our Place’ - Cultural Festival

Tuesday 28 March

School Cross Country pp Thursday 30 March

Pizza Lunch and Juicies FUNdraiser

Tuesday 4 & Wednesday 5 April

Learning Celebration - Three Way Conferences

Thursday 6 April

Last day of Term 1

Friday 7 April

Good Friday

Monday 24 April

Teacher Only Day - school closed

Tuesday 25 April

ANZAC Day - School closed

Wednesday 26 April

First day of term 2

Friday 2 June

Teacher Only day - school closed

Monday 5 June

King's birthday - school closed

Friday 30 June

Last day of term 2