Newsletter Issue 4
Term 4 - 16 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 has been a busy one for our team with a number of staff absences - two teachers and two teacher aides away for much of the week. This has in no way impacted on the experience of school for our tamariki - which has been action packed as always. Hub 1 has been for a visit to Te Papa, the Year 6s have completed their orientation morning at the intermediate, Hub 2 have been planting, Hub 3 have been investigating if everyone in their class can become world record holders in one day, Hub 4 have embarked on their swimming lessons, Hub 5 preparations for camp are in the final stages as are the Kapa Haka group's preparations for the festival on Friday. During all of this, teachers are in the final stages of writing the achievement reports for our students!
I commend our positive, professional and hard working staff on their resilience, empathy for one another and the responsibility they show for the students in their care no matter the odds.
Emergency Evacuation and Reunification Practice
Thank you for your support with this important Health and Safety drill on Friday.
No one arrived before the text, the children were calm and listened well and the weather held out for us! We sent the text just after 1pm and within an hour more than 90% of our students had been evacuated safely and calmly. We so appreciate your willingness to take time out of your day, work with our protocols and your positivity and patience while waiting. As a result of this evacuation, we were able to identify a few incorrect contact numbers or contacts in our school records so that we know these will not be an issue should there be a real emergency. It is a comfort to know that we will be able to respond so successfully as a community should an emergency arise.
We value your feedback to inform planning for our next evacuation so we would encourage you to take a minute to complete either the paper form on the second notice sent out HERE or on our quick Google Form HERE before 3pm on Monday 5 December.
PB4L Teams Day
On Thursday Gabrielle (Teacher Aide & Parent), Deeann (DP Year 4-6 & Learning Support Leader), Cassie (Hub Coach and Teacher) and I attended our fourth PB4L Teams Day. This was focused on developing consistent schoolwide approaches to acknowledging positive behaviour as well as how to work with our wider team on consistent responses to behaviour that is not in line with our school values.
The Positive Behaviour for Learning Schoolwide approach is centered around responding to behaviour in ways that are preemptive and preventative, fair, compassionate and maintain students dignity. Involving the students in problem solving discussions and providing opportunities to practise positive behaviours for learning are the foundations of this approach.
We are looking forward to beginning these discussions at our teacher only days before the start of school in 2023 and building on this throughout the year.
Northern Zone Athletics
Congratulations to all our tamariki who attended the Northern Zone Athletics on Monday this week. As always the teachers were impressed by the way in which you represented our school. Special congratulations to Lucas and Mickey for making it through to the Interzone Competition! Ka rawe!
NZEI Paid Union Meetings for Teachers Thursday 17 and Friday 18 November
Across the country teachers are having paid union meetings to discuss the progress of ongoing negotiations and the unified public service pay proposal. These meetings are an important opportunity for teachers to decide whether any offers received from the Ministry meet the goal of ensuring teaching is an attractive and sustainable profession, which is extremely relevant for all kura due to the critical teacher shortage we are currently experiencing. We will be covering classes within our school to enable as many of our teachers as possible to attend this meeting, while minimising disrpution to our families. Please be aware that this will mean an alternative programme for our students on Thursday and Friday this week.
Hei konā mai
Annette
Health & Safety Reminders
If you or anyone in your household tests positive for Covid - 19
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 all the parents who kindly gave their time to help with the Hub 1 trip to Te Papa Museum last Thursday.
- To all the parents who are helping Hubs, 1, 2 & 4 with swimming. We appreciate your help.
WELCOME
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.
Taika in Room 4
Jaaziel in Room 14
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.
Wellington North Primary Schools Citizenship Award
Each year the 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 2022 Wellington North Primary Schools Citizenship Award recipient is Max Gerrie-Weir.
Max was voted by his peers as being a positive role model who is respectful in his interactions with other members of the school and who contributes to our school community in a positive manner.
Congratulations to Max!!
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.
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
We have a HORSE, two ZEBRA FINCHES and two CHICKENS...
There must be more pets out there....
Please send us a photo - library@bellevue-newlands.school.nz
Hub 1 Te Papa Trip - Unique Wildlife
We wanted to see Aotearoa's unique wildlife at the Museum and how we can be Kaitiaki about our environment.
Sports News
Northern Zone Athletics:
Yesterday we took 20 of our year 4 - 6 students to Northern Zone Athletics at Newtown Park. It was a beautiful day to compete as the sun was shining and next to no wind! All of our athletes did extremely well and should be proud of their efforts. A huge congratulations to Mickey Duncan and Lucas Hart who will be going forward to Inter Zone Athletics later on in the Term.
Thank you to Megan Hart, Rebecca Coster, Yolandy Russell, Nicola Dermer and Daniel Bellhouse who supported our tamariki yesterday.
Touch Results:
Bellevue Bandits won 7-3 against Cashmere You can’t touch this. POD Caleb and Harvie
Bellevue Taniwha won 14-3 against Bellevue Blitz
Taniwha - POD Kahu and Pippa
Blitz - POD Dom and Mickey
Miniball Results:
The Hurricanes lost to the West Park Opals 22–26 in yesterday's game.
Players of the day were Theo Cooke and Tyler Riviera.
Wellington Weet-Bix KIds TRYathlon 2023 registrations are now open!
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.
Community Notices
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 14 November - Friday 25 November
Hub 4 Swimming (every day)
Pack the bus donations welcomed - please send to your child's hub
Friday 18 November
Te Korowai ō Horokiwi Kapa Haka Festival
Friday 25 November
Whakawhanaungatanga Friday - starts 1.30pm
Monday 28 November - Friday 2 December
Hub 3 Swimming (every day)
Friday 2 December
BELL Challenge due in
Wednesday 23 - Friday 25 November
Hub 5 Camp
Thursday 1 December
Pōwhiri to welcome new students and staff 10.30 - 11.30
Wednesday 7 December
End of Year Reports come home
Thursday 15 December
Last day of the School Year - 12.30pm finish
Newsletter proudly sponsored by
Email: office@bellevue-newlands.school.nz
Phone: 04 4787037