Newsletter Issue 5
Term 4 - 23 November 2022
Principal’s Update
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
This week the excitement has been tangible as our Year 5 and 6 students, many of their whānau and our kaiako prepare for our (very) long awaited camp!
I am also looking forward to getting out to Brookfields Scout Camp in Wainuiomata as being knee deep in pond mud for a couple of days leading the kayaking sessions will no doubt be a welcome change from school administration!
Education Outside the Classroom is the name of the game at Bellevue at the moment:
Hub 2 & 3 Trips
On Monday both Hub 2 and 3 were out of school on visits. Hub 2 were getting creative and physical at Pātaka Art Museum and Te Rauparaha Arena Aquatic Center, while Hub 3 visited Ākau Tangi Sports Centre (previously ASB Sports Centre) for indoor sports. Keep an eye out later in the newsletter for some photos of the fun.
Hub 1 had this to say about their visit from the police!
Scarlett’s Dad came to visit in his Police Car. He talked to us about road safety and what his job was about and showed us everything in his Police Car. We got to sit in his Police Car and run as fast as we could as he recorded our speed on his radar.
Te Korowai ō Horokiwi Kapa Haka Festival
It was wonderful to see so many of our school’s communities at the Te Korowai ō Horokiwi Kapa Haka Festival on Friday. Thank you to all those whānau who supported with the preparations and transport as well as during the event. Whaea Jayjay, our Kapa Haka kaiako, and Rachael Cobham have worked tirelessly with the students to help them to perform at their best and our tamariki certainly made Bellevue proud!
We began with a pōwhiri from Newlands Intermediate School before our students performed alongside RewaRewa, Paparangi, Newlands Primary and Newlands Intermediate schools.
There were many ‘goosebump moments’ during the day, both because of the passion with which the students performed and because of the taonga (treasure) of being able to come together across our cluster schools in this way to celebrate the strengths of our community at last! If you attended this event and captured any recordings or photographs, please also note the piece later in the newsletter about image sharing.
Unexpected Fire Evacuation
Just to add to the week's excitement our fire alarms were activated on Monday which led to an impromptu evacuation in the rain. Our team did a wonderful job of evacuating everyone quickly and calmly and we had two fire engines arrive within 4 minutes.
School Donations
Donations 2022 Thank you to all our families who paid the school donation for 2022. School donations are used to supplement funding we receive from the Ministry of Education, and our own school fundraising activities. Donations are used for curriculum related resources, sports and cultural uniforms, classroom equipment like devices, and PE gear. If you haven’t paid this voluntary contribution for 2022, please consider doing so. We greatly appreciate all donations we receive.
Annual Emergency Evacuation & Reunification Practice - Reminder: Your Feedback
Thank you to all those who have already shared their thoughts on our Emergency Evacuation practise on Friday 11 November. A reminder that we are still collecting your feedback until 3pm on Monday 5th December on THIS LINK.
Ngā mihi maioha
Annette
Health & Safety Reminders
If you or anyone in your household tests positive for Covid - 19
The incidence of COVID-19 infections across New Zealand has increased recently and it is probable that this increase will continue over the next few weeks. The BA.5 sub-variant continues to dominate but with several other new Omicron sub-variants increasing in incidence. There is no evidence that these new sub-variants cause more severe symptoms than the current variants, even where they are more transmissible.
Under current Ministry of Health guidelines, positive cases must isolate at home for 7 days, starting at Day 0 on the day that they test positive. If your child tests positive, please email office@bellevue-newlands.school.nz immediately, so that we can work with you to calculate their return to school date.
Thank you to our families who have considered the health of others by keeping siblings of a child home when they have tested positive.
If your child is a Household Contact they must test daily for 5 days from the first positive test result in their house. If someone in your family tests positive, please support our school community by testing your child before sending them to school. It is also helpful to encourage your child to wear a mask during this time if they are in Year 4-6. We have plenty of masks available at school.
The school will continue to follow Ministry of Health guidelines regarding sanitation and ventilation.
Thank you
- To the Parents who went to the Te Korowhai o Horokiwi Festival at Newlands Intermediate and helped with transport and supervision
- To the Parents that accompanied and supported Hub 3 on the ASB Sports Centre trip on Monday
- To the Parents who attended the Hub 2 Pataka and Te Rauparaha Aquatic Centre trip and helped with supervision
- To the Parents who help Hubs 1, 2 & 4 with swimming
Without the help of our Parents and Caregivers these trips would not be possible so we greatly appreciate you giving up your time to support our tamariki and teachers.
WELCOME
Haere mai ki te kura o Bellevue. Welcome to the following student and their whānau. It is great to have you in our Bellevue Learning Community.
Ella in Room 4
Caution with sharing please
We would like to ask our families who wish to record at any of our school events during the year to consider the privacy and safety of our students before sharing. We have included our school policy on this below for your information.
Sharing Images of Students - Bellevue SchoolDocs Policy
Bellevue School follows guidelines to protect students' privacy and safety at school when we publish student information. This includes sharing photos of our students. We encourage our school community to also consider privacy issues when sharing photos and videos taken at school events.
We are happy for parents to take photos/videos of their children at sports day, cultural day, or other public school events. If copyright issues apply, such as at a school play, which forbid photos or videos to be taken, the school makes this known.
If parents want to share photos/videos on social media, they should consider the following:
Show the images to your children and discuss them before posting them on social media. This will help your children understand that they should always think about what goes out to the public on the internet.
If the images have pictures of other students, think about editing to remove them.
Make sure that other students are not named in any online posts.
Parents should remember that posting photos of other people can amount to harassment and they should take care to ensure photos are fair to other people.
Students are also expected to consider privacy and cybersafety issues when sharing photos and using social media.
Out-of-Zone enrolments
Important information about the Bellevue School enrolment scheme (zone) - 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 9 December 2022, for enrolment from Friday 7 April 2023 to Friday 30 June 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 paperwork 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.
Pōwhiri for students and their whanau new to Bellevue School
Date: Thursday 1 December 2022 (Postponement date 8 December)
Time: 10:30 am—11:10 am
Please confirm your attendance to: Rachael Cobham - rachael@bellevue-newlands.school.nz
Please meet on the middle playground (near the Bellevue Kindergarten entrance to our school) where a teacher will greet you and give you an overview of the pōwhiri. You will then move onto the Jubilee Corner platforms together as a group with our new students. Please follow the leader as you move here. New students will sit on the floor and men will need to sit in the front row please. We look forward to welcoming you all to our wider Bellevue whānau.
Helper's Morning Tea
This year we are excited to be able to hold our annual Helper’s Morning Tea ‘kanohi ki te kanohi’ (face to face). This is an opportunity for us to come together with all the amazing parents, caregivers, whānau and community members who have helped out in some way over the course of the year to say THANK YOU!
This years Helper’s Morning Tea will be held in the hall on Friday 2 December at 10:30 am. Invites will be emailed out early next week so please watch your inbox for this.
Although we have sent individual invites out electronically please take this as an invite to everyone who has supported the school throughout the year. Sometimes we have issues with email addresses that do not work. If for any reason you did not receive this personal invite, please RSVP to the school office if you are attending the Helpers’ Morning Tea on Friday 2 December.
Road Patrol Supervision 2023
This year we have had fantastic and dedicated parents supervise the Road Patrols before and after school. Sadly some of our parents will not be continuing next year and we are looking for new volunteers to support with Road Patrol.
It is a legal requirement for schools to have an adult stand with the Road Patrols when they are on duty. It is important that our children are able to safely cross the road.
When: Mondays - Friday before or after school
Times: Mornings - 8:25 am to 9:00 am; Afternoons - 2:50 – 3:15pm
Who: Any parent, grandparent or caregiver is welcome. Your child DOES NOT have to be a road patrol in order for you to volunteer.
Please email Deeann at deeann@bellevue-newlands.school.nz or contact the school office if you are able to volunteer.
Students Arriving Early
There are an increasing number of students arriving before 8.30am in the morning. Some of these students then wait until after 8.30am outside the school grounds - probably something we got used to during our covid restrictions. By way of a friendly reminder, please note that students are not expected to be at school until after 8.30am when teachers are in their rooms to connect with them and they are safe and supervised.
No one onsite is able to take responsibility for the safety of students prior to this.
Thank you for your assistance in keeping our tamariki safe before and after school as well as during.
Camp Quiz Night
Parents of students at camp are invited to join us at the quiz night on Thursday night at 7.00pm. Please RSVP Jenny at jenny@bellevue-newlands.school.nz so we can organise groups for you to join. Come prepared to answer questions and compete against the other groups at camp!
Bell Challenge
Can students in Years 3 - 6 who have completed a BELL Challenge this year please hand their completed challenge to their teacher by Friday 2 December. If your child has done an additional Maths or Science challenge, can you please also hand in the certificate and badge for this (if you have not already done so).
Library News
Given the end of year is looming, there's a lot of 'library' information this week :-
Year 6 students - all books are due back by Friday 2nd December.
Year 0 - 5 students - all books are due back by Friday 9th December.
Please help your children to find and return their books on time.
WANT TO READ ALL HOLIDAYS?
Take home a bag of 10 books to read over summer!
To qualify you must be in returning to Bellevue School next year, and
have no outstanding books on issue.
Permission forms will be available from the class teacher, or the Library,
from next week (Monday 28 th November)
The bottom of the form will need to be completed, signed, and returned to the
library.
Library Donations
In previous years, some families of Year 6 leavers, and others leaving Bellevue School, have
wished to mark their time here by donating a book to the library.
We are holding a small number of fiction, non-fiction and picture books suitable for a wide
range of ages and interests. We make these available for donation at about half the retail
price.
A library donation plate showing the name(s) of the donor will be placed in front of the book
which will be available for borrowing by the donor after cataloguing and covering.
If you wish to make a donation to the library in this way, the books may be viewed at the
school office from Monday 28th November.
Shots to Make you Smile
Hub 1 was very lucky to have a visit from Constable Daniel Bellhouse last week. We learned all about road safety and what he does as a police officer. Thank you for making this day so exciting!
Shots to Make you Smile
Hub 2 - Pataka & Te Rauparaha Aquatic CentreTrip
"Tomasi & Shana are giving us help to make our owls. We took turns and shared ideas to make cool rurus!" said Kriti. Xaelyn and Kasha. "We want to improve them at school tomorrow then take them home.
We don't want to get too wet. What do you think of our problem solving?
Room 6 told me while returning on the bus that the highlight was swimming for fun!
Junior Athletics
We have a date! On Thursday 1 December from 1.30 - 2.30pm we will hold our Hub 1 and 2 Athletics afternoon at Pukehuia Park (Newlands). The postponement date for this is Monday 5 December. We look forward to seeing our whānau there!
Sports News
Touch Results:
Bellevue Bandits won 8-6 against Amsebury Crushers. POD Frank and Lucas
Bellevue Taniwha won 10-0 against Thorndon. POD Zoe and Mitchell
Bellevue Blitz lost 13-0 against Wadestown school. POD Levi and Ethan
Wellington Weet-Bix KIds TRYathlon 2023 registrations are now open!
Advance Notice: Whānau/Meet the Teacher Event - Monday 30 January
We would like to begin 2023 with a community connection event before school starts for our children on Tuesday 31 January. The aim of this event is to provide an informal opportunity for families to come along and connect with all the teaching team at Bellevue, as well as with your child's whānau class teacher.
On Monday 30 January from 4.30pm - 6.30pm our school field will be open for a BYO picnic afternoon tea/early dinner with sports and games available for those who wish to participate. All of the teaching staff will attend and are excited about this opportunity to get to know the new learners in their hubs and their whānau.
We understand, however, that there may still be some families who would appreciate a more formal conversation, or three way conference with their child's whānau class teacher. To accommodate this, we will be offering 16 bookable conferences for each whānau class teacher between 11am - 1pm and 1.30pm - 3.30pm.
There is no expectation that you attend one of these if you are happy to talk with your child's whānau teacher in the informal part of the day.
However, if you do wish to book one of these slots, bookings will be via the school interviews website. The event and bookings will go live from Wednesday 30 November (watch this space in the newsletter). Your child will bring also home a hard copy of this notice with some helpful pre-thinking prompts at the same time as their class placement for 2023 and their achievement report on Wednesday 7 December.
We will still gather information from families such as cybersafe and image use permissions, your aspirations for your child, and how you might like to be involved in the life of our school, but we will do this digitally to free up the event time for connecting.
Following this event, we will seek and look forward to hearing your feedback on this new approach to connecting with our whānau at the beginning of the year.
Wellington City Mission & The Breeze: Pack The Bus
The Student Council are joining with the City Mission and The Breeze again this year to think of others less fortunate at Christmas through Pack the Bus, supporting Wellington City Mission.
A bus with Christmas characters will arrive at school and students will have the opportunity to pack the bus with Christmas presents along with songs.
This year the bus comes to Bellevue on Monday 28 November at 9:15 am.
We encourage our students and learning community to practise empathy and manaakitanga by donating a little something to help children and whānau less fortunate so that their families can have a more enjoyable festive season.
The Student Council invites you to send along new toys, games, books, board games, art equipment, vouchers, cans of food or festive food to place under the tree in your child’s hub. A list of suggested items from Wellington City Mission is included below.
If you wish your child to place the item your family/they have donated on the bus, please put their name and class number clearly on this gift but please do not wrap the gift (a request from the organisers).
Please note the Christmas tree will be up in each Hub from the 14 November.
Thank you in advance from the School Council, The Breeze and The City Mission for thinking of others and practicing empathy, aroha and compassion for those less fortunate.
Pizza Fundraiser - Friday 9 December
Bellevue FUNdraisers end-of-term pizza lunch is back, with pizzas from our local Domino’s! Pizzas are $5 each – gluten free surcharge $3, so are $8 each. Please have your order in by Wednesday 30th November.
Online payments to school account: ASB 12-3223-0048283-00, include student name, room number, and "Pizza" as reference. Please put in a separate order form for each student.
Use the link below to order your Pizzas online:
Hi from FUNdraisers everyone!
We are getting closer and closer to wrapping up our events for the year… here is an update on
what we still have active right now:
End of Term Pizza Lunch – 9 December
We have Pizza back on offer for our tamariki this term. Yum yum for the tums!
You should have received the order form via the school bags, with orders closing at 9am on the
30 November.
We love seeing the online orders coming through via Google Forms. Please use this link this term:
https://forms.gle/SRtsUGhgoMeH4XpZ8
Our FUNdraisers website page is also updated with the links as events come throughout the year
also!
Alana Estate Wine Fundraiser
The bulk delivery has been made, and you should have received a text message from Rebecca
outlining the available pick-up times and dates. If you haven’t already, please follow the link below
to indicate the time/date that you can collect your order.
https://forms.gle/a3tnkWZkPvUg2Tvo8
Book Fair
Left over books and a Mini – Kids Only – Book Fair
We were donated a significant number of books in the week leading up to the Book Fair on 5
November. We perhaps only sold a half of the volume that we had there, so we have PLENTY leftover.
Do you have a van or a small truck? Could you assist us with our left over books that we are
donating to the Heretaunga Book Fest, which is located in Trentham.
Please be in touch with Rebecca on 021 515 987 or fundraisers@bellevue-newlands.school.nz
Additionally, while we did have a great turn out on the Book Fair Day, a few kids unfortunately
missed out due to sports or other commitments.
As we have such a large volume of books remaining, Rebecca has decided to run a Mini Fair
during a school lunch time before the end of the year. This will feature kids books only.
Date: Still being decided
Price: 5 books for $1
FUNdraisers Committee Meeting
Our last committee meeting for the year is on 8 December, with a focus to what events we will
be running in 2023. We welcome anyone to attend, especially if you have some savvy and neat
ideas to share on how we can raise funds for our cool school!
The meeting will be held in the staff room at 7pm on Thursday 8 December.
Community Notices
Newlands Scout Group are running a Mudslide this Saturday from 10am til 2pm, in the Spenmoor Street Reserve.
Going down the Mudslide is free, and there will be a sausage sizzle and some drinks available for purchase. Please support our fundraising to get our Scouts to the National Jamboree in December 2023.
More details are available on EventFinda or Facebook
Wellington City Libraries Summer Reading Adventure:
From 1st December 2022 through to 31st January 2023, we’re inviting the tamariki, rangatahi and pākeke of Wellington on a Summer Reading Adventure — an adventure that will take them around the city, into their own backyards, down to their local library, into the pages of more than a few books, and back home again in time for tea.
Along the way, children and teens will be reading books, drawing pictures and maps, taking videos, completing challenges, getting out into nature, and maybe fighting off the odd monster or two — all in the name of seeing who shall have the honour of being crowned Supreme Champion of Words, Books and Deeds. Along the way, our intrepid young adventurers will be earning all kinds of awesome prizes for their efforts, from collectible badges to ice-cream vouchers, free books, movie tickets, family passes to Zealandia, Wellington Zoo, and the Space Place, and much more.
This year is the first time there is a Summer Reading Adventure for adults, and our librarians have delved deep into the book mines to come up with challenges and book lists that should satisfy readers of many tastes and sensibilities. As they review books and participate in challenges, adults will be earning digital achievements and tickets towards one of our awesome Grand Prize draws.
Children, teens and adults can visit our Summer Reading site at wcl.beanstack.org to find out more and pre-register for the Adventure, or they can download the free Beanstack Tracker app from Google Play or the iTunes Store to participate on the go.
Important Dates
Wednesday 19 October - Wednesday 7 December
Hub 1 & 2 Swimming (every Wednesday)
Monday 28 November - Friday 2 December
Hub 3 Swimming (every day)
Thursday 1 December
Pōwhiri to welcome new students and staff 10.30 - 11.30
Hub 1 and 2 Athletics Afternoon at Pukehuia Park (Newlands) 1.30 - 2.30pm (postponement Monday 4 December)
FUNdraisers committee meeting 7pm in the staffroom
Friday 2 December
BELL Challenge due in
Wednesday 7 December
End of Year Reports come home
Thursday 8 December
Final Board meeting for the year - staffroom
NZSTA strategic planning session 6pm
Board meeting 7-9pm
Thursday 15 December
Last day of the School Year - 12.30pm finish
2023
Monday 30 January
Whānau Meet the Teacher Event:
Conferences 11am - 1pm / 1.30 - 3.30pm, Picnic 4.30 - 6.30pm
Tuesday 31 January
School starts for 2023
Newsletter proudly sponsored by
Email: office@bellevue-newlands.school.nz
Phone: 04 4787037