BBPS Values………

                   RESILIENCE, RESPECT, RESPONSIBILITY, RELATIONSHIPS

 

A very warm welcome to all our new students and families in the Junior School.

The Team organisation for Term 3 is as follows:

  • Charlotte Wilson – New Entrants  (This new classroom will be opening throughout the term).

Our programmes for Term 3 are underway and include a focus on our values of Respect and Collaboration.

The Inquiry Topic is:       ‘How we express ourselves’.

The Central idea is: People recognise and share important events through the beauty of celebrations and traditions.

Learning Intentions (We are learning to…)

  • Understand the celebrations we and others celebrate.
  • Know the characteristics of celebrations (look, smell, sound and feel like).
  • Understand the reasons these celebrations exist.
  • Find the similarities and differences between cultural celebrations.

Inquiry Skills:

  • Finding – Where shall we look for information?
  • Organising – How do I organise my information in an effective way?
  • Presenting – How will I share/present my information with others?
  • Social Action – What impression did I make? (interviewing)

Key questions that will support the inquiry:

  • How do we celebrate?
  • Why do we celebrate?
  • What do we celebrate?

             We will be learning about different cultures and how different families celebrate.

        Please see the fun and educational ‘home learning task’ which ALL children in the Junior school are being asked to carry out during their holiday.  This will enable us to celebrate cultural diversity and allow the children to be proud of their own cultural beliefs and traditions.

During the holidays we will be asking children to carry out these two tasks:

Design and present a poster/photograph on information about their ‘Family’ – for example where they’re from, what foods they like to eat, their traditional dress, traditions and celebrations as well as  important events in their culture. Please include a picture of your family. * Please bring this poster/photograph on the first day of term 3. Thank you.

 

We will also be celebrating the 100th day at school on Tuesday 24th July. (room 4 will celebrate 50 days)

Create a collection of ‘100 things’ (these need to be brought into school inside a named box with a lid). Items could be leaves, stickers, marbles, pictures, buttons…anything.  Just use your imagination and have fun counting to 100) * Please bring this ‘collection’ on the first day of term 3. Thank you. (Room 4 are celebrating 50 days!)

Nude Lunches:

We will be continuing with Nude Food Fridays this term. The children will be encouraged to bring food to school with as little wrapping as possible. They will also be encouraged to put any worm friendly rubbish into the worm bins. We are learning to CHECK THE LIST FIRST, as there are many things that worms cannot digest. Any other rubbish will be put back into the children’s lunchboxes and brought home to sort.

Our BBPS Vision is “We are inquiring, connected, resilient and future-focussed learners who give 100%”

The children are working on gaining skills in thinking, problem solving, working cooperatively, and communicating effectively. We very much value the partnership with parents in helping to make our vision a reality.

Thank you for:

  • reading to your children every day.
  • listening to them read to you every day as part of home learning, and practising the alphabet, basic words, early spelling skills and maths.
  • ensuring children have enough sleep and have an ‘early to bed’ time.
  • getting children to school before the bell at 8:50 so they have enough time to get organised before school.
  • helping teachers in classrooms as necessary.
  • helping to return readers to the book room.
  • letting us know about the things you feel are going well.
  • approaching teachers to discuss any concerns or issues so we can work together to address them.

Quick informal queries or comments may be made before school or through emails. However, because teachers may need to attend staff meetings immediately after school, for anything requiring more deliberation please make a suitable appointment.

Self-Management:

To foster the Key Competencies component of our New Zealand Curriculum including self-management, at this time of the year we would be expecting the Year Twos in particular, to be taking more responsibility for walking into school, hanging their bags up and putting book bags into classrooms, ready for the day.  If possible, saying goodbye at the school gate would help to further the development of the children’s confidence and independence. A meeting place after school away from the classroom could be another step.

It also helps teachers end the day with the children’s full attention for notices etc if parents wait at a distance from classrooms and are not directly outside classrooms before the 3pm bell.

Uniform:

Now we are into the third term children should wear the winter uniform.  Our website has a list of the requirements. Undergarments including extra non uniform t-shirts or vests should not be seen. For extra warmth it is better to wear the school sweatshirt that can then be easily removed when it gets too hot.  Sunhats are no longer compulsory but may still be needed on these continuing hot sunny days.  It is a good idea to also have a raincoat ready and waiting in schoolbags for those unexpected downpours.  An extra pair of undies can also be a good idea in case of emergencies. Longer hair needs to be tied back to discourage nit epidemics.  If your child has lace up shoes, please teach him/her how to lace them up independently.  If you’re struggling to keep the name visible in your child’s shoes, there are effective name labels available to purchase from the school office for $3.00. Please ensure that jewellery and any precious items are kept at home. Thank you.

Home Learning:

At the early levels children bring home a book each day that is kept in their book bags until Friday or the following Monday, so that over the week they have four small books to share with you.  A poetry book comes home to share each Friday.  At the higher levels the books are longer and may be worked on for two or more days.  Please ensure all books are kept and returned in the book bags after the home reading each day. It would be helpful if you could return any earlier readers that may have got ‘lost’. They are a huge expense for the school and we do need to keep them in circulation for class reading programmes.

Morning Tea and Lunches:                                                                                                                  

Drink bottles need to contain water only please. To promote healthy eating we encourage children to eat their bread (or pasta, rice, noodles) first at lunchtime. Please keep sugary, highly processed snack foods to a minimum.  Our expectation of a rubbish free school means that children need to take home anything not eaten from their lunch box, however fruit peel and cores etc can be collected to feed our worm farm.

Our main goal is to ensure children feel secure in their class, enjoy coming to school, and develop confidence and independence as they continue their learning journey.

Early arrivals – in the morning children aren’t supervised outside classes and can’t enter classrooms before 8.30a.m.  Please consider SKIDS as an option so they’re not sitting in the cold.  

Any early arrivals must sit under the rotunda until the 8.30a.m bell.  

Important Dates: (please check calendar for confirmed dates nearer to the time)                              

  • Week 1 – please bring in 100 day Celebration ‘collections’ and ‘Cultural Family Poster’ on the first day of term 3.  
  • Week 1 – 100th day at School Celebration & 50th day for room 4 – Tuesday 24th July.
  • Music Programme – From week 3, our teachers will be teaching music using an online music programme called ‘Rad Rhythm’.
  • Week 3 – Parent Assembly – Rooms 9 & 17 (Friday 10th August).
  • Week 4 – Maths Week – We will be holding a special Maths week August 13th – 17th.
  • Week 5 – Enviro – We will have the ‘Tread Lightly Caravan’ parked at school.  The Junior School will be visiting on Monday 20th August & Tuesday 21st August.  We will need parent helpers. There is a $5 charge for this activity.
  • Week 5 – Scooter Training for the Junior School – Wednesday 22nd & Thursday 23rd August.
  • Week 6 – Parent Assembly – Rooms 10 & 14  (Friday 31st August).
  • Sunday 2nd September – Father’s Day.
  • Friday 7th September – Spell-a-thon testing day.
  • Week 9 – Parent Assembly – Rooms 11 & 15  (Friday 21st September).
  • Last Day of Term Three – Friday 28th September.

Please remember to check the school website for notices – www.bbps.school.nz and our official school Facebook page.

Kind Regards

Sarah Bartholomew – Junior School Leader

s.bartholomew@bbps.school.nz

 

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