Newsletter Issue 1
Term 4 - 19 October 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
Nau mai hoki mai, welcome back to Term 4!
What an action packed term of learning we have ahead of us. It has been so lovely to see the smiling faces of our tamariki and kaiako as they reconnect – and to actually see their smiles now that we are able to relax a little about mask wearing!
With the weather improving and case numbers in Wellington continuing to fall, it is great to be able to do this. Please be assured, however, that we do so both in the knowledge that we maintain the high hygiene practices we have established in school and that we are ready at any time to return to mask wearing if required to prevent the spread of illness.
Staff First Aid Training
The banner photos are our team having fun in our call back day on the first Monday of the school break at our St Johns First Aid Level 1 Training. Health and safety is a priority for Bellevue School. This training included what to look out for and how to respond to diabetic episodes and seizures, how to administer an epipen in case of life threatening allergic reactions and CPR as well as the first aid required for cuts, breaks or burns. We appreciate that our staff are prepared to use their non-contact time to upskill in first aid so that every member of the school can respond to the first aid needs of our tamariki at any time.
Aroha / Empathy – the term’s focus value
This term our values focus is on Aroha – love, concern for others, compassion, empathy. This is the perfect focus for our Year 6’s as they enjoy their last term with us at Bellevue and all the excitement and emotions that come with this, as well as the rest of us as we continue to focus on strengthening our relationships with our whānau and community.
Education Outside the Classroom
Education Outside the Classroom is a big focus in Term 4, with the senior camp, Hubs 1-4 swimming, School Athletics, the Kapa Haka Festival (as well as our fist pōwhiri for the year) and various trips as advertised in your child’s hub communications.
Unfortunately, our school hall’s fire compliance no longer allows us to gather here with our whole school community – we are just too big! We are determined not to let this affect our ability to connect with each other and our whānau, however, so we will be finding ways to hold our Term 4 events in outdoor spaces (something we are familiar with after covid anyway!). This may mean some rearrangement if the weather does not cooperate, so we thank you for your understanding if this is the case. We will continue to keep you informed of events (and any changes) through this newsletter, email or our closed group Facebook page (if you are new to our school or have not already, you may wish to follow this).
Whakawhanaungatanga Fridays - 4th and 25th November from 1.30pm – please come along and join us if you can!
Sunsafe Policy
We will be getting out and about much more to enjoy the sunshine this term, so a reminder to please ensure your child has a named sunhat and either sunscreen applied or in their bag every day. Our policy is to ask students who are not prepared for the sun to play in the shaded areas of the school.
Welcome Our New Board Members
Our triennial school Board election process is now complete. Thank you to all those who participated, including those parents who contacted us to find out more information, showing an interest and willingness to be involved in the governance of our kura. We are delighted to announce:
- Mary Sleep as our new parent representative
- Anne Smith (Deputy Principal of Year 0-3) as our new staff representative
With a full Board we will continue the Term 4 mahi of reflecting on the Annual Plan goals for the year, including our student achievement for 2022 to inform strategic planning for 2023 begins.
IMPORTANT - Whole School Emergency Evacuation and Reunification Practice
A reminder that this is scheduled for Friday 11 November. More information about this will come home via email next week instead of a newsletter – please look out for this.
The most important actions for you to be prepared for this are:
- 1. Please either be prepared to collect your child during the school day on Friday 11 November or organise for someone else to do so
- 2. Please ensure that the emergency contacts we hold on file for your child are up to date and include the person you expect to collect your child on this day
A copy of your child’s emergency contact information will come home with them this week. If it does not make it, please contact the office.
Please check that the person who will be collecting your child on this day is on this information. Please do not add several contacts as this will significantly hold up the administration in our school office. Please return this to the school office by Wednesday 2 November at the latest.
Please note that the purpose of this evacuation drill is to practise responding as if we had no warning of the emergency. For this reason, we do not publicise the time of the emergency notification to families. We ask that you support us by being prepared for your child to be collected but by not heading to school until you receive the notification.
No Week 2 Newsletter – School Closed Friday 21 & Monday 24 October
School is closed this Friday for Teacher Only day, during which the teaching team will be working on assessment and reporting in preparation for the end of year achievement reports coming home with your child at the end of the term. Monday is Labour Day. Due to two short weeks, there will be no newsletter next week. You can expect the next update on Wednesday 2 November.
World Teachers’ Day
In the meantime you may like to note that Friday 28 October is World Teachers’ Day. We are very fortunate at Bellevue to have a team of highly skilled and professional kaiako who bring the best into the classroom every day to support the academic, social and emotional learning of our wonderful Bellevue tamariki in partnership with you. Our Board and leadership team will be acknowledging this next Friday.
Ngā manaakitanga
Annette
Thank you
An enormous thank you to Rotary Club of Jonsonville for their generous grant to support our Year 5/6 camp.
Thank you to the following Parents/Caregivers who helped with Hub 1 & 2 swimming today:
Hub 1 (Room 2) - Jen, Lakmali, Anna, Judie, Nicolette, Sarabjeet, Tracey, Sophia, Vicky and Sherry
Hub 1 (Room 3) - Richa, Karen, Sarah and Erica
Hub 1 (Room 4) - Rikki
Hub 2 (Room 5) - Andrea, Lisa and Rebecca
Hub 2 (Room 6) - Lisa and Xinhua
WELCOME
Haere mai ki te kura o Bellevue. Welcome to the following students and their whanau. It is great to have you in our Bellevue Learning Community.
Arlo, Mihit, Soana, Bethany and Iyon in Room 4
Tashfin and Omobola in Room 6
Ryan, Anaherajo and Ranshika in Room 11
Damilola and Ngaziah in Room13
Whakawhanaungatanga Friday - Week 3 (Friday 4 November)
This term we will be continuing to trial our new initiative known as Whakawhanaungatanga Friday on every third afternoon. Whakawhanaungatanga is all about establishing relationships and, after a rather disconnected couple of years, it was lovely to see whānau joining their child/ren in their learning and getting involved in the play during the last session of Term 3.
On Friday of Week 3 (Friday 4 November) we would love it if you could come along again and join your child/children in their learning for the afternoon. The session starts at 1:30pm and ends at 2:45pm. Children will be all around the school so there will be a map of activities in the Office when you arrive, as well as a list of which children are in which learning area.
For those that are new to Play, there will be some prompts that you can use when you are playing alongside the children, as well as our usual feedback form so that you can let us know how we are doing. We can’t wait to see you there!
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).
Citizenship Awards
Every year the school is able to nominate a student for the Wellington North Primary Schools Citizenship Awards from the Year 6 cohort. These awards are sponsored by Johnsonville Rotary Club. It is important to us that this is driven by student voice - their thoughts on individuals who have demonstrated good citizenship.
The students have been asked to vote for a child who is:
A positive role model
Is respectful in their interactions with other members of the school
Does things for others without expecting recognition
Contributes in a positive manner to the school community
This person will be announced in the next few weeks and we are looking forward to sharing this with you.
Computer Keyboards
Hub 2 is wanting some computer keyboards that are no longer in use for our literacy programme. If you have any that you would like to donate, please send them to Room 5 for Miss Taylor.
Thank you!
Internet Safety - Discord - What Parents Need to Know
Discord is a free internet communication platform popular with teens.
Some NZ schools have had issues with cyber bullying that begins in conversations outside school, but inevitably makes its way into the school environment. One platform that is mentioned in this conversation is the free instant messaging platform, often popular with gamers known as Discord. Like most platforms, it has positive outcomes, such as allowing young people to connect with like minded others, but there are risks involved.
To find out more about how to keep your child safe please follow the link - https://www.internetmatters.org/hub/esafety-news/parents-guide-to-discord-on-how-your-kids-can-use-it-safely/
For brief, balanced and informative reviews of apps, games, books, movies and more, we like to consult Common Sense Media
Library News
A warm welcome to Term 4.
A reminder that holiday reading books are now due back, so if you haven't returned them already, have a good hunt at home for those books hiding in sneaky places.
Sports News
Wellington Weet-Bix KIds TRYathlon 2023 registrations are now open!
The Wellington Weet-Bix Kids TRYathlon will be held on Sunday 19 March, 2023 at Kilbirnie Park. Information about the event can be found here. If your child is interested in taking part in this fun activity, please register as part of our ‘Bellevue (Newlands)’ school group.
Nathan Wallis speaks about child development and learning:
One of the foundations of our curriculum at Bellevue is neuroscience – especially how the brain develops and what this means for learning. This is what underpins our learning through play approach and focus on learner agency. This podcast has some interesting perspectives from Nathan Wallis on what best serves our tamariki in the early years of their development.
Note – the first part Nathan Wallis speaks about his life – the focus on child development begins around 17:50.
Can We Afford To Ignore The Science Of Reading?
As you will know our New Entrant – Year 1 classes have begun working with the Better Start Literacy Approach to teaching Literacy. The Better Start Literacy Approach monitors children's phonological awareness, letter-sound knowledge, word reading and spelling, and oral narrative development to allow for targeted, evidence-based instruction and strengths-based reporting for every child. The teaching of phonics, however, has long been part of Bellevue’s Literacy curriculum. For our interested families we are sharing this TedX talk by Melissa Hostetter (teacher and Dyslexia tutor) which outlines the importance of phonics as part of our literacy instruction.
Kia Ora to Term 4 2022…
Dominos Doughraiser – 20 October
This Thursday, ahead of the long weekend, we have been given the opportunity to partake in a Dominos Doughraiser c/o Dominos Johnsonville.
What does this mean?
- You don’t need to cook on Thursday!
- Get it delivered for that extra bourgeoisie feel!
- Bellevue School will receive $1 from each pizza ordered from the Dominos
Branch in Johnsonville. See the advert below for more information.
Bellevue Book Fair – 5th November 2022, 10am to 2pm
This year at our book fair we are inviting our Hub 4 and 5 students partaking in the
Bell Challenges to share a stall, offering small homemade items for sale.
This is an extracurricular activity (not done during school time) and depending on
involvement may count toward one of the 'Design Your Own" Bell Challenge
categories.
Giving: by crafting items for sale at the Fair.
Service in the Community: volunteering your time to be on the stall at the Fair
Excellence in the Arts: Creating your own artwork for your crafts to sell at the Fair.
Please discuss with your child’s teacher which one of the categories you will count
your effort towards!
Additionally, we are offering stalls to our Bellevue Community! So is someone in
your family an arty and crafty type? A toy maker? Do you have a hobby making
something that you would like to sell?
You can contact Rebecca on the FUNdraisers team at
fundraisers@bellevue-newlands.school.nz
Don't forget, if you have done a spring clean at home (or about to!) and you have
books that you would like to donate to the book fair, there is a collection box in the
school office area!
Kids Art Work (Calendar Art)
Exciting - These orders are making their way home with your children this week!
Wildflower World Spring Seed Fundraiser
Orders are now closed. Delivery of seeds TBA.
Alana Estate Wine Fundraiser
Order forms will be distributed in the coming weeks. Keep an eye out!
Coming Up Next Term from your FUNdraisers Team!
If there is a suitable opportunity, we will look to run a JUICIE’s fundraiser for the
kids, and either a sausage sizzle or pizza lunch day toward the end of term.
A decision is still yet to be confirmed for a bake sale this year, so we remain on
stand-by for that one!
Community Notices
Newlands Resilience Group - October Community Survey
Community resilience is having the resources, social capital, communication, and competence so the community can thrive. Disaster resilience is being ready, able to respond to, and able to recover from a disaster. A community is more likely to be disaster resilient if it is community resilient. A community can be resilient if a holistic and sustainable approach is taken to the wellbeing of its people. This Survey will help inform community conversations to generate ideas to improve community resilience and wellbeing. The survey includes some basic disaster readiness questions also. For more information, please visit Newlands website: https://newlandrg.weebly.com/
To take part in this survey, please go to:
https://www.research.net/r/2022_Community_Survey
New te reo Māori App – Wellington City Council:
Taranaki Whānui, Ngāti Toa and Wellington City Council are excited to launch Mahau, a new Māori language app to celebrate, encourage and share te reo Māori in Te Whanganui-a-Tara.
Mahau was developed alongside Mana Whenua to enable the community to give te reo Māori a go any day and anywhere. Mahau will also help to engage, speak and understand our local dialects of te reo Māori. It’s a free, easy-to-use, interactive app to help locals and visitors to the city get started on their reo journey. The app is being launched on 23 September and will be available for download soon after.
Affordable counselling available for parents:
Parent Help counsellors have helped hundreds of families to restore peace and balance in their lives. Request a counselling session by registering online here: www.parenthelp.org.nz/counselling. Do you need parenting strategies you can implement right away? Speak to our warm and supportive parenting experts. Call now for free on 0800 568 856. Available from 9am – 9pm 7 days a week.
Coding Lessons:
In today’s world, it’s essential for young people to learn how to create technology not just consume it. Coding NZ’s lessons empower students with the tools they need and help give students the best chance at being successful in our increasingly digital age. Extend your child’s awareness and horizons. Free trial lessons available now at codingnz.com/signup
Important Dates
Wednesday 19 October - Wednesday 7 December
Hub 1 & 2 Swimming (every Wednesday)
Friday 21 October
Teacher Only Day - School Closed
Monday 24 October
Labour Day - School Closed
Tuesday 1 November
Whole School Athletics
pp 3 November
Wednesday 2 November
Emergency Contact Information Updates due
Friday 4 November
Whakawhanaungatanga Friday - starts 1.30pm
Saturday 5 November
Bellevue FUNdraisers Book Fair 10 - 2pm
Friday 11 November
NIS Orientation Morning
Whole School Emergency Evacuation
Monday 14 November - Friday 25 November
Hub 4 Swimming (every day)
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
Friday 18 November
Te Korowai ō Horokiwi Kapa Haka Festival - details to come
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