School Newsletter Week 1 - Term 3
Paparangi School, 30 July 2021
Nau mai, haere mai
A very warm welcome to tamariki and their families who have started at Paparangi School this week. Welcome to our friendly school: Estella Clark & Hadley Watson in Uenuku, Charles Hu in Pounamu and Navaeh Bennett-James in Rākau Nui.
Welcome to Term 3! I can't believe it's nearly August already! I hope that our families had a relaxing holiday and are ready for another term full of adventurous learning. I've enjoyed talking to some of the children about their holiday fun. As well as welcoming our new students, welcome back to teachers Clare Adams, Sam Diggins and Vanessa Janes who are working part time in our school. All three have worked in our school before and we're delighted to have them back on the team!
This term we welcome 'Art Club' to our school. Art Club is running a weekly art class for children on Thursdays after school (not Tuesdays as previously advertised). Look for the flyer at the end of the newsletter if you'd like to register your child.
Winter illnesses are always a concern, with RSV a serious illness that has been prevalent in the community this winter. Please see the special notice attached from Wellington Regional Health with information for parents and caregivers about looking after our tamariki, the signs to look out for and what to do if your child is unwell. A reminder that when children are unwell to keep them at home to reduce the spread of sickness.
Are you a ANZ bank customer? If you are, thanks for your support! ANZ recently made a generous donation to Paparangi on behalf of customers who nominated our school. We received two Sphero robots, felt story boards, a Maori picture dictionary and a light tray to add to our science equipment.
Have you noticed the new signs? We love the look of them and seeing the logo all over the place. There are new welcome signs on the gates, block signs and the big sign by the hall has a map of the school and you'll find a fundraising thermometer at the office entrance. There's one more special sign that's being built at the moment. Can you guess where it's going to go?
Using the School App
It's great to see that lots of parents are using the new app. It's a year since it was introduced and the uptake has certainly been popular. As administrators we can see that there are over 330 users, but due to privacy settings, we do not know who individual users are.
What's on the app?
- absentee form - super easy to use
- contact details - find teachers, Board and school email addresses all in one handy place
- school info - links to handy forms like the enrolment or school handbook
- calendar with upcoming events
- newsletters - links to the latest newsletters
- Kindo - school shop
- alerts - reminders about upcoming events
Please check that your settings match the syndicates your children are in this year (and that you're not still on last year's groups). We often send alerts to everybody, but sometimes only to the seniors or juniors, and individual teams. We send emergency alerts to the app and also by text message too. For many of you we realise this is a double up, but it is by using our bulk text message service that we can be confident that all the phone numbers in our parent directory will be sent emergency alerts. If your contact details change, please notify the office and if you'd like to upload the app go to Google Play, App Store or find instructions on our website.
New Lost Property Bins
Look out for the new wheelie bins around the school for storing Lost Property. There is one in each team. We'd really prefer it if they stayed empty, so to help with this please, please name your child's belongings - especially jackets, tshirts, sweatshirts and the new hoodies (if your child's name wasn't printed on the back). Every term we donate unclaimed clothing to a local charity. Here's where you'll find the new bins:
- Uenuku - R6 Patio
- Pounamu - Outside R3 or R4
- Rākau Nui - R10 Patio
NZ Playhouse - Rumpelstiltskin
Today NZ Playhouse performed their Rumpelstiltskin play for the whole school. It was amazing to watch and very entertaining. It's great to have touring actors visit Paparangi so we can provide the experience of live theatre to the children. Ask them all about it and what was their favourite part!
The cost per student is $6.00 per person. Please pay via Kindo, internet banking or Eft-Pos at the office. Thanks to families who have already done so.
Dance Splash
Over the past term a whopping 86 Rākau Nui students have been busy rehearsing for the Dance Splash extravaganza. Dance Splash will be held at the Michael Fowler Centre on Friday 17th September at 5:00pm. There will be schools from all around the Wellington region performing. We are awaiting more information on tickets for the show so we can confirm how many each family will be allocated. If your child is participating, we will send a notice home as soon as we get this information. Loreece & Christine
Home & School News
Thank you to everyone who supported our various fundraisers throughout last term. Through sales of sweatshirts, pizzas, holiday packs and ice blocks we have raised over $2000 for our friendship seat which will be installed this term.
While we wait for the first stage of the playground plan to be finalised, which concentrates on the senior playground, we will continue to focus on making smaller and more immediate improvements to the school environment. This term we will be raising money for a new outdoor sound system. This will make events like jump jam, family fun night and other outdoor events much more enjoyable! We have a couple of exciting things coming up to help fundraise for the sound system.
The Matariki disco is now on the 13th August - Kindo is open until to 10th August so if your child can now attend you are still able to purchase tickets. With the date change if you are now unable to help on the day please email us on paparangihomeandschool@gmail.com and let us know.
We will do a second run on sweatshirts so if you missed ordering the first time around please don't worry you will get another opportunity.
Parents and Caregivers, book in a night out! A fundraiser is being planned for Tuesday 5 October for all the Mums and Dads. Home and School have booked a movie night at the Lighthouse Cinema in Petone for the latest James Bond movie, "No Time to Die." Further details and ticket information will follow.
Lastly, we welcome Jasmine, who has children in Pounamu and Rākau Nui, to the committee. Welcome aboard Jasmine! If you would like to join the committee or have ideas or skills you would like to share then we would love to hear from you. Please send us an email on paparangihomeandschool@gmail.com
Spotlight on our 'Community Social Media Guidelines'
Each newsletter we will highlight one of the policies from SchoolDocs. This time it's the social media policy. This policy applies to anyone using school-related social media. For access to all policies go to the school website and select Schooldocs from the 'helpful links' menu. Here you will find the log-in details to access all policies.
Expectations
Administrators and users of all Paparangi School social media accounts must use their best judgement when using school social media. Posts and comments must be:
- polite and represent the school in a good light
- relevant to the school community
- consistent with relevant school policies (e.g.Privacy and Digital Technology, Harassment and Bullying)
Posts and comments must not contain or link to:
- abusive content, bad language, personal attacks, spam
- advertising (unless this is thanking a business for their support)
- identifiable images of a student's face (unless with relevant permission).
If users breach the conditions above, the post/comment may be deleted and the user may be blocked.
Administrators
Administrators of social media accounts must be currently associated with the school. If an administrator's association with the school ends, they must be removed as an administrator. A senior staff member will always be an administrator on the account. Anyone setting up a social media page that is associated with the school must seek permission from the principal/board. Administrators are responsible for:
- monitoring posts/comments regularly
- removing inappropriate posts/comments (and blocking users if necessary)
- documenting harmful content with a screenshot and removing it as soon as possible
- reporting inappropriate content to senior staff.
Concerns
We encourage parents to contact the school when issues arise. If you have a concern, please let us know before sharing negative personal views online.
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Now that our website and app are functional, our attention is turning to other types of social media, to ensure that good practice as outlined in the above guidelines are consistently followed by school and our community.
If you're currently an administrator of a Facebook group related to Paparangi School, that has any association or link to the school, please contact a member of the Senior Leadership Team to arrange admin rights for the team. This also includes platforms such as TikTok, Instagram, Snapchat, What'sApp, Messenger or any others.
Top Tips when using the Lunchonline website
- Orders are available for Wednesdays and Fridays. Sushi or rice dishes on Wednesdays and items from Nada Bakery on Fridays.
- Always remember to press “Submit” once you have completed your order.
- “Transactions” will show all your top-ups and purchases.
- Remember to check the cut off time for your providers. To view cut-off times and menus – go to “Menus” under “Families” on the Home Page
- If your child is unwell or can't attend school but you've ordered a lunch, log onto Lunchonline, click on to the order for this day-you will see a cancel button. This must be done before the providers cut off time for ordering (most providers are 9am on the day of delivery, but some vary).
Upcoming Events
- NZ Playhouse Performance: "Rumpelstiltskin" - Friday 30 July
- StarJam JumpJam, supporting StarJam, a local charity, Friday 13 August (gold coin donation welcomed)
- Matariki Discos, 5-6:30 Y1-3; 7-8:30 Y4-6, Friday 13 August
- Board Meeting, 6pm in the staffroom, Monday 16 August
- Y4-6 Swimming Sports at Tawa Pool, 12-2pm, Thursday 19 August
- Onesie Day, supporting Wellington Free Ambulance, a local charity, Friday 3 September (gold coin donation welcomed)
- DanceSplash, y4-6 students, Michael Fowler Centre, Friday 17 September 5pm
- Board Meeting, 6pm in the staffroom, Monday 20 September
- Swimming Lessons, Y2-Y6 children, 21-24 September & 28 Sept - 1 October (not Mondays) - notices will be sent home shortly
- Last day of Term 3, 3pm, Friday 1 October
- Movie Night Fundraiser at Lighthouse Cinema, Tuesday 5 October
Monday mornings: Goodtime Music Academy
Mondays after school: Kelly Sports
Tuesdays after school: Marrzipan Drama
Thursdays after school: Art Club
Newsletter proudly sponsored by
Community Section
Kelly Sports
PLAY LIKE A SPORTS HERO! – TERM 3 (Yrs. 0-4) – Monday’s 3.05pm-4.05pm (STARTS MONDAY 2 August 2021!)
Kelly Sports will be back in Week 2 with their fun and exciting classes.
This term we will focus on the following sports: Football, Hockey, Ultimate Frisbee and Dodgeball! This weekly programme gives children the skills and confidence in a fun and enjoyable environment. It also encourages their enthusiasm for sport and the life skills that such involvement brings – giving them confidence to join sports clubs and teams in the future. It’s a great way to try new sports, learn new skills and improve ability.!
For full details and to enrol into our programmes visit www.kellysports.co.nz email adminwgtn@kellysports.co.nz or call 04 972 7201
Contact Us
Remember that parents can use the App to send a message about a student absence. It is our preferred method of contact for non-attendance and is quick and easy to do.
Email: office@paparangi.school.nz
Website: https://paparangi.school.nz
Location: 57-59 Beazley Avenue, Paparangi, Wellington 6037, New Zealand
Phone: +64 4-478 6617