Balclutha Primary School

Principal's Report

Kia Ora e te Whānau and welcome to Week 3.

It was wonderful to see so many parents come along and support our tamariki at our school athletics day yesterday. Congratulations to the brave runners that joined in with the relays at the end of the day.

With so many disruptions over the last couple of years with COVID, and the devastation caused by the weather in the North Island, we are so lucky to be able to join together and celebrate our students achievements. I look forward to our parents being involved in many more school events this year.

We are also looking forward to seeing many of our parents at next week's parent interviews. Teachers will be touching base with parents who are unable to attend next week's interviews, as we believe that a positive relationship between home and school makes a difference to all our learners.

Next Thursday evening is the first Whānau and School meeting for the year. This groups does a marvellous job raising funds to support the learning at our school, and it is a great way to meet other parents and find out more about what is happening at school. All our parents are very welcome.

Have a great weekend,

Kā mihi nui,

Vicki.

Board of Trustees Update

Kia ora koutou,

The Board had its first meeting for the year last night.

We discussed and approved the annual strategic and financial plans for the year. We have two main strategic goals. These are ‘To empower all members of our school community to work together in a safe and welcoming environment to enable our entire school community to reach their full potential’; and ‘Through deliberate teaching of an innovative and relevant curriculum and effective leadership, all students will be provided with the opportunity to experience success’. Our job is to support Vicki and the team at BPS to achieve these goals.

Our curriculum report was a tour around the school. It was great to see the learning spaces and hear what happens during the school day. We also looked around the grounds to see where improvements can be made. We will consult with the school community through the year to help us make some of these decisions.

It sounds and looks like everyone is having a positive (and busy) start to the year - ka pai te mahi.

Rachael Watt

Presiding Member (Chair)

Parent- teacher- student interviews

These are being held next Tuesday and Wednesday. We would love the opportunity to talk with all parents / caregivers about their children, so we can ensure that we best meet their needs.

This is an opportunity for you to share information about your child. Attached are the questions that we would like to discuss with you. We are looking forward to seeing you next week.

Sports News

Tania is on leave next week, 20 February - 24 February. If you have any urgent questions please contact Karen Robins at School.

Hockey

Hockey starts on Monday 20 February draw as follows

yr 1-2 court 2 (4:30 - 5:00 every week)

yr 3-4 BPS Purple vs Romahapa 4:00

yr 5-6 BPS Green vs Catlins Yellow 5:30

yr 7-8 BPS Blue vs Warepa Smashes 4:00

BPS Blue vs Catlins White 4:30

Touch

Touch starts Thursday 23 February

Draw will be emailed out as soon as it is received.

Cricket

Cricket starts Wednesday 22 February

Year 7-8 draw will be emailed out as soon as it is received

Year 3-6 3:45 - 4:45 every Wednesday at the Balclutha Football Grounds

Netball AGM

Balclutha Netball Club

Monday 27 February 7pm

BPS staffroom

All parents welcome

Athletics

Well done to all our students yesterday, what a fantastic day we had.

Check out our school results below. Please note these are our placings for our school athletics, not necessarily qualifying places for South Otago.

There is a very quick "turn around" for South Otago Athletics. All children who have qualified have been given notices and need to return them to school no later than Wednesday 22 February.

Paid Union Meeting - 2 March 2023

Whakamana tamariki, whakamana kaiako

We all want the best for our kids.

Our teachers love what they do, but not enough funding for schools means that they don’t have the time they would like to support all kids to thrive.

We can fix this though. NZEI Te Riu Roa primary teacher and principal members are making the case to Government for the best investment in tamariki. Smaller class sizes, more time for individual students and more specialist learning support staffing would make a huge difference.

Keeping and retaining teachers is top of mind right now, and this term, our teachers will also be meeting to consider a pay offer – and assessing if it’s enough to make sure that teaching is valued and is an attractive profession.

That is why all the teachers at our school will be attending a paid union meeting on Thursday 2 March at 1:30 pm. To enable teachers to get to the meeting, all students will be released for the day at 12:30pm.

When we support our children to learn and succeed, we are supporting whānau and communities to thrive. We look forward to another great year in 2023 – and together with your support building the case for better investment in our tamariki.


Structured Literacy lesson for reading.	Skip came to get us moving.	Athletics was a colourful and exciting day. . . tired teachers and children!

Structured Literacy lesson for reading.

Skip came to get us moving.

Athletics was a colourful and exciting day. . . tired teachers and children!

Whānau and School

Whānau and School February Meeting will be held on Thursday, 23 February 2023 in the School Staffroom at 7pm. (The staffroom is next to the school foyer.) We would love to see lots of parents/caregivers come along, including any new families to the school. You are all welcome.

Foodwrap and Kitchen Consumables

Order forms have been sent home with every family.

If you would like to place an order, please complete the form and return to the school office by Monday 27th February. (Payment instructions are on the order form.)

(If you have lost your form, we have attached it below.)

Spud Dig

How are your potatoes growing? Not long to go now. Keep the evening of March 10th free.

There will be more information following next Thursday Whānau and School Meeting.

If anyone has a photo they would like to share of their potato, please email to balcluthapta@gmail.com

Kind Regards

Sara Sutherland

President.

Year 7 Vision Screening - 22 February 2023

If you have a year 7 pupil at school, please click on the link below and read the attached about the Vision Technician coming to screen all year 7 pupils for distance vision. If you do not want your year 7 child to be screened, please ask at the school office for an "opt out" form before 22 February. All year 7 pupils will be screened, unless they return the "opt out" form.

Room 12

This week's STEM activity involved groups creating the best aerial runway using a limited supply of Lego. They had to work together in a team to plan, test and refine their creations before showing them off in front of everyone else. We had some amazing ideas and all of the creations made it down the aerial runway without breaking!