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

The Team organisation for Term 2 is as follows:

Our programmes for Term 2 are underway and include a focus on our values of Respect and Collaboration.

The Inquiry Topic is:       How the World works & How things move.

The Central idea is:             Moving Structures & Moving Things

  • Throughout history people have used science and maths to move objects

Learning Intentions (We are learning to…)

  • Understand ‘how’ and ‘why’ things move.
  • Investigate ways to make things move.
  • Explore structures which move things.
  • Students are able to organise and describe objects that require push/pull motion to move.

Learning opportunities and External visitors

We have two events planned at school to enhance curriculum delivery for the term.  As they are both in addition to the taught curriculum, payment of $8 is required if you would like your child to attend both events.

  1. Science in a Van ($5)

Presenters will deliver a science show to us in week 3 to support our learning in this term’s inquiry.  

  1. The Bone Lady  ($3)

The bone lady will demonstrate movement in our bodies.  

Payment can be made through Kindo, or at the office.  Thank you.

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.  Please refrain from using the green worm bins outside the classroom as rubbish bins after school.

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 am so they have enough time to get organised before school, but not before 8.30 am as they’ll be unsupervised and will be sent to SKIDS.
  • 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.  
  • ensuring your children do not go onto the school playground until after the 3.10 pm after school.

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.

Linc Ed Online Reporting

Your child’s learning goals, and examples of their work can be viewed on Linc-Ed.  This can be viewed at any time throughout the year. If you have not yet logged into Linc-Ed, please follow the link below for instructions.   https://docs.google.com/presentation/d/1haIkj5mmvYzzzPEH0orf7FBqBLwDGrWu1HCBgoIewYk/edit#slide=id.g46f3edec9a_2_26

If your child has recently started school, there will be less on Linc-Ed until they are in the swing of school.

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 second 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.  Jewellery should be kept at home please as it can get easily lost or broken.

Home Learning

At the early levels children bring home a book each day that is kept in their book bags overnight.  Please send this reader to school again the next morning, to receive a new book.  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 and 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.  Thank you.

** Important Dates:  ** (please check calendar for dates nearer to the time as dates and events could change and extra event added)         **                                                                                                 

  • STOMP dance lessons in year groups – Tuesday 30th April for 5 weeks
  • Road Safety Week – Week 2
  • Mother’s Day – Sunday 12th May
  • Bully-Free Week & Science Week – Week 3
  • Science in a Van – Thursday 16th May
  • Bone Lady Presentation – Monday 20th May
  • PTA DISCO – Friday 31st May (5pm)
  • Monday 3rd June – Queen’s Birthday Weekend (DAY OFF SCHOOL)
  • Scooter Training for Year Two – Tuesday 4th & Wednesday 5th June
  • Ramadan – 5th May
  • BOT Election Day – Friday 7th June
  • PTA PIZZA Day – Tuesday 18th June
  • Matariki – 25th June
  • Cross Country – Friday 28th  June
  • Last Day of Term Two – Friday 5th  July

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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