School Newsletter Term 1, Week 2
Friday 10th February 2023
Principal's Message
Kia ora koutou katoa,
I trust that everyone enjoyed a relaxing long weekend and Waitangi Day. We have had a great Week 2 at school so far. The children have continued to settle in well and engaged in learning programmes. Your child’s Team Newsletter for Term 1, 2023 has been made available via Seesaw, the app or paper copy. These newsletters provide you with information about how things work in your child’s classroom and across their learning team. If you have not been able to view a copy please contact your child’s teacher.
We are looking forward to starting our Kickstart Breakfast club again in the near future. Please keep your eye out for more information and let us know if you would like to be involved. We have enjoyed amazing support from parents and whānau to help us run this fantastic aspect of school life at Te Kura O Urumutu.
Our talented classroom teachers do a wonderful job providing learning programmes for our children as part of the regular daily routine. However, we also have robust systems in place that help us to identify some children who would benefit from extra support. This support can help a child to overcome a specific challenge or to accelerate their learning. This term, Mrs Baynes (Deputy Principal) is providing in class support focused on Literacy for some children who have been identified. This support aligns with the approach our teachers are taking with literacy learning in classroom programmes and supplements the learning plan that is already in place for each child. Parents of children involved with this support will be contacted in the coming weeks.
Additionally, we are grateful to have quite a number of volunteers coming into our school who are trained in the HPP programme. This programme is designed to develop children's oral language and literacy using picture books. Once again this provides an extra opportunity for children to develop their literacy skills. Last and certainly not least in terms of our support that we are excited to offer is our ESOL (English as Speakers of Other Language Learners) which is delivered by Mrs. Larsen. This is accessed by a number of children with this identified need. In 2023, Tommy Harvey, our fantastic ORS Team Leader will also be working in the role of SENCO (Special Education Needs Coordinator).
Next Thursday, we are excited to host our first Pōwhiri of 2023. We have not been able to run a Pōwhiri for quite some time due to Covid restrictions so we are especially looking forward to welcoming quite a number of new children, whānau, and staff to West End School. Pōwhiri will be held in our school hall at 9.45am on Thursday 16th February. We would love to see any new parents, caregivers, and whānau there to welcome you to our school. More information for those involved will be provided next week.
Each Day, I continue to enjoy the chance to chat with parents and whānau about the start to the year and how children are settling in and progressing with learning. I wish you a great end to Week 2 and a lovely weekend.
Ngā mihi nui,
Matthew Kennedy
Principal
West End School
Te Kura o Urumutu
Reminder that school finishes at 2.50pm every day
Please ensure you are at school for 2.50pm to pick up your child, as we have had many late pickups since school has started. If you require after school care, please contact A+ to collect and look after your child after school until you are able to pick them up. If you have made alternative arrangements for your child to be picked up by someone else, please let the school office, or classroom teacher know in advance.
Music Lessons starting again at West End
MusiClass Lessons will be commencing in Week 4 this term. We are pleased to offer music lessons at West End School with Emma Minchin - who offers a variety of taster sessions, across a variety of musical instruments, building musical knowledge at beginner level.
Emma strives to inspire creativity and an appreciation of music where pupils learn foundation music skills by playing instruments. Please click on the information poster below to see what classes are on offer - as well as the enrolment form to be completed by Thursday 16th February.
Please return your child's E-Learning Agreement to classroom teachers
Reminder to sign permission for your child's image to be displayed on our newsletter. We would love to share photos of the amazing mahi happening at our kura.
Last week we sent home an E-learning agreement with all students. When we use digital technologies, we need to learn how to keep ourselves safe, and make good choices in ways we behave when we are online. At West End School we call this being a ‘digital citizen’. Good digital citizens help to make our school a safe and positive place for everyone.
Parents please read this e-learning agreement carefully, and to your child as necessary. Please sign and return to your classroom teacher. Access to E-Learning technology will be allowed once this form has been signed and returned to school. We have also provided a Student Home Digital Citizenship Agreement, that you can talk about at home to support your child with staying safe online.
We are also asking caregivers if you give permission for your child’s image being displayed in our School Newsletter. Our newsletter is posted on our school website which is an unsecured public page. If you do not wish for your child's image to be on our school newsletter, please send in the E-learning agreement (indicating you do not agree to their image being displayeed), or email dminchin@westend.school.nz by Thursday 16th February so we are aware.
Contact Information
Does the office have your correct contact details? And do we have an alternate contact number in case of an emergency? If you have moved or changed phone numbers or have a different/alternate email address, please let the office know as soon as possible. It is very important that we are able to contact you if there is an accident or emergency. We are also sending out a lot of information through our school app, which are connected to the email address the office has on file. If you would like to add additional email addresses onto contact information, please give these details to the office.
Swimming Timetable
Parking and entering school grounds
Please do not do not be tempted to use the staff car park or hall carpark when dropping off and collecting your children from school.
It becomes very busy and dangerous for children. We have had many families also leave from the Room 9/Hall gate, as well as walking through the staff carpark before and after school. Many children are crossing the carpark where we have vans and cars entering and exiting at the end of the day. Please remember to abide by the road markings on Botanical road and park only in designated spaces (not on the yellow lines). This is for the safety of our children and community members.
To enter the office, please use the gate pictured above. We encourage parents to park on the street and use the walkways coming into school.
Thank you for your co-operation.
Enter through the gate next to our Rongo Garden next to the field
Enter through Botanical Road gate next to court area
Enter through College Street gate by the wharenui
West End School App
All school notices are sent out via our school app.
If you haven't downloaded the app, please do so. If you haven't been receiving the email link to download the app, or if you are having problems with the app, please email Dan Minchin dminchin@westend.school.nz. If you haven't set up the app on your device, there will be an easy to download process and quick set up so you can join our new communication platform. If you've downloaded the app already, please just follow the quick username/password set up and for the app users, choose Parent. Once you have set it up, you won't be asked about passwords on that device again. These links do expire, so we will continue to send them out every couple of days to those who haven't logged in.
This free mobile app allows parents to receive pop-up reminders and instant messages. These can run on smartphones, tablets and other mobile devices and are designed to help whānau keep up to date on school happenings.
SchoolApps also allows parents to report absences online, receive instant alerts, check the calendar for upcoming events, view newsletters, log into Seesaw and this will also be a way to use Kindo.
You will be able to personalise what information you wanted to subscribe to, such as notices from specific area teams, sports news, or groups such as Student Council or kapa haka.
Remember to go to Alert Subscriptions (through the main menu - the three lines at the top left hand corner of the app) so you get specific alerts to our different groups within the school - this included Whānau teams your child is in (Tipuranga, Puawaitanga and Te Wao Nui o Tāne). You would only receive information directly relevant to those groups, but you will however receive whole school notifications when they are sent out.
Sports at West End School
Reminder
Summer Sports competitions begin next week. Please keep a lookout on the School App regarding teams and game times. Information has been sent out today regarding all sports. Please make sure you have clicked on the team your child is in on our app so you receive notifications about practices etc.
Unfortunately we have not had enough students register to enter a team in this terms Flippaball competition. We will issue a refund as soon as possible.
Also, the Summer Football programme that was due to start next week at Massey University has hit full capacity, because of this we are unable to enter teams. This is absolutely devastating for the players we understand, a full refund will be made on KINDO as soon as possible. We hope to get football teams going over the winter and get our kids onto the field. We will look at having some inter school competitions during school time for students keen on football to have a go competitively against peers from wider schools. More details of this will be shared.
If you have any questions relating to sport, please feel free to contact Georgia Black WESsport@westend.school.nz
TERM DATES 2023
If your child is absent from school.
It is really important under the current circumstances you notify the school if your child is absent.
PLEASE DO NOT TXT OR EMAIL THE CLASSROOM TEACHER.
ALL ABSENCES SHOULD BE ADVISED VIA THE OFFICE.
Please remember to advise the office by 8.30am if your child is not attending school.
You can telephone 358-2465 and leave a message or txt 021 118 0156.
ABSENCES CAN ALSO BE SENT EASILY THROUGH OUR SCHOOL APP
In both cases please give a reason for absence.
Thank you.
Bikes and Scooters to school
For the safety of our children all children biking or scootering to school MUST wear a helmet. Please also remind your children about road safety - including the safest way to travel to school if on a bike and scooter. While students are on the footpath outside the school , we ask if they can walk their bike or scooter. This is for the safety of themselves and others sharing the footpath, as students are travelling very fast and going past 2 of our school driveways where vehicles are coming in and out of.
Start and end of day procedures
Here is a reminder of start and end of day procedures.
- If your child is at school before the 8.30 bell, they will need to come through the wharenui gate and wait in the area next to the turf.
- Students need to wait here until the bell goes at 8.30am.
- Please remind your child to walk sensibly to class. We have had a few accidents with students running and tripping over each other in the excitement of getting to class.
- At the end of the day, students will be let go from class. Please let your child know if you are picking them up and therefore will need to wait outside the classroom or meet you in the designated spot you told them to go.
- If siblings are going home together, please make a plan of where your children will meet each other so they aren't walking around school trying to find each other.
Kindo Online Shop
It is very important that families register with Kindo, as this is now the only way to register your child for school sports, and ordering PTA lunches.
Below are the links to register.
If you require help please call the Kindo helpdesk on
0508 454 636
New users need this link
Existing users need this link
Location: West End School, 196 College Street, Palmerston North
Phone: 06 358 2465