Relationships – Whanauangtanga, Resilience – Manawaroa, Respect – Manaakitanga, Responsibility – Tiaki

Kia Ora, Nǐ hǎo, Greetings,

Welcome back to term three.  I trust you enjoyed some quality time with your children over the holidays, despite the constant rain. 

A special welcome to our  new students and their families who have joined us recently: Leo Zhou, Luca Turner, Ethan Vorster, Doris Yang, Katie Harrison, Izzy Harrison, Chloe Jooste, Ross Geysman, Frank Liu, Wanzhen Li, Tony Pan, Konstance Ngaata & Jericho Ngaata.

Thank you to all of those parents who attended our three way conferences at the end of last term.  Students certainly enjoyed the opportunity to proudly share what they have been learning, and they are getting so articulate at doing so.   Next week we have ERO (the Education Review Office) coming to school to see our growth as a school in the last five years, so students will have another opportunity to share their learning, with the ERO team.   We have so many things to be proud of at BBPS, we look forward to sharing our successes.

Over the holidays we had contractors in working on getting the hardware in place for shade sails over the playgrounds.  The first shade sail went up last week, and as requested by community and through student feedback, we have chosen vibrant colours to brighten up our school environment.  Thank you to the PTA and your involvement with fundraising, which has assisted us to be able to purchase the sails and be more sun smart.  We now look forward to getting more sun to test them out!  The senior school inquiry this term is going to culminate in some murals outside rooms 18 and 19, which will continue to brighten up our environment.

Mid Year Results

We have made great progress against our writing goals in the first six months of the year.  As well as aiming to improve our writing results across the board, we have been trying to target more boys to be writing above the curriculum expectation, to equal the girls.  The staff have been working with Vision Education building up practices to improve writing and engagement.  Staff also meet weekly in teams, and inquire deeply into ways to accelerate groups of students in writing, supporting each other by sharing ideas and discussing when students are ‘stuck’.  Over the year staff have been trying different approaches, to see which best works for their group of students.

Writing Mid-Year Results vs 2017

*The 2018 data does not include students who cannot yet speak English.  In 2017, non-English speakers had to be included in the National Standards data for the ministry.  

Congratulations to our students and staff, and supportive parents,  for working so hard to get these improvements.  I am thrilled with what we have achieved, and look forward to seeing where we are at by the end of 2018.

School Docs

Our school has been working with SchoolDocs to create a website for our policies and procedures. We are excited to announce that the site is now live and available to our school community. 

The school works on a subscription basis with SchoolDocs to maintain, update, and review our policies. SchoolDocs provides us with a comprehensive core set of policies which have been well researched and follow the Ministry of Education National Administration Guidelines. The policies and procedures are tailored to our school, and the school supplies specific information such as our charter, and procedures for behaviour management, reporting to parents, etc. 

SchoolDocs updates, modifies, or creates policies in response to changes in legislation or Ministry guidelines, significant events, reviews/requests from schools, and regular reviewing from the SchoolDocs team. Our board of trustees has the opportunity to view changes/additions and comment on them before they are implemented. We will advise you when policies are up for review and how you can take part in the review. 

We invite you to visit the site at http://bbps.schooldocs.co.nz/ (note that there’s no “www”!). Our username is bbps, and our password is clovelly.  In future newsletters, we may ask you to review a policy online.  (Instructions will be provided at the time).

100 Days at School

Room 10 wore their 100 items to school

NZEI Teacher Negotiations

Most people by now know that teachers have been in negotiation regarding their Collective Agreement.  The outcome of which the majority of teachers were extremely unhappy with and as a result decided to take action on the 15 August.  A further ballot is currently being held as to whether this should be extended to a full day strike. 

I would like to put this in perspective.  Teachers were offered a small increase, but accepting this would mean that they would not be able to negotiate either pay or work conditions for a further three years.  It is not only a pay issue.  Teachers are extremely concerned about their workload.  The required paper work with little release time means that a large number of teachers are working 70 hours or more a week.  Apart from working after school, most teachers are involved in working in the evenings and at weekends.  There is a cry from many teachers to “please give us back our weekends”.  Teachers feel that they want classroom time used for teaching students with whose care that they have been entrusted.  The Government offer did not address any concerns about workload or resources.  

Workload has meant that many in the profession have left in order to maintain a balanced family life.  This has put pressure on the supply of relievers.  Last year I went to a local teachers’ meeting only to find others from nearby schools telling of how they had to have doubled up classes because relievers could not be found.  They felt tired and stressed after a day of having 60 students.  At Bucklands Beach we have been lucky that we have had a supply of relievers and have not been affected this way.  However it may not always be the case.  

The Government tells us that they have set aside money to train more teachers over the next three years.  This is not going to be the solution.  There are trained teachers, but schools do not have the resources of experienced staff who can give these new recruits the guidance that they need to ensure your children receive the education that they deserve.  When positions are advertised some schools are struggling to find a suitable applicant for a job.

Teachers are further disillusioned when they ask the Ministry for help for children in need.  Many students who need additional support from a teacher aide are being turned down because they do not qualify under the Ministry’s unreasonably restricted criteria.  It is disheartening after spending hours on this paper work applying, to be refused but it is even more frustrating when you know there is a child of concern missing out.  We receive a very small budget to cover all of the needs across our school, which the board end up topping up from donations.

Please when you hear the media talk about teachers refusing what the Government is offering as a pay increase understand that the issue is far wider than money – at the heart of the matter are the learning opportunities for your children.   

Faye Chilvers

At this stage there is a strike planned for the 15th of August for members of the union.  At this stage we are waiting to hear whether this will be a half day, or full day strike.  As soon as we have more details, we will share with you.

Yummy Stickers

We would welcome Yummy Stickers that come on Apples from New World, Pak ‘n Save and some independent greengrocers, being sent to school.  Classes have charts in their rooms to attach these to.  Alternatively you can collect a paper chart from the office or download one from the Yummy website.  Sometime in September we will collate these and send them to Yummy.  Each year we receive a sizeable amount of sports equipment for the school from this firm.  Please help and save all Yummy stickers and any logos on bags of apples.

Cardboard Offcuts

We could use cardboard offcuts from manufacturers in our art programmes.  At the moment we have small strips of cardboard and would appreciate anyone with contact to a printing or packaging firm who would be willing to donate large and small pieces of cardboard to us. 

The Good Home

The Good Home in Picton Street Howick is currently running a competition whereby points are given to schools based on a diner’s spending.   At the last publication of points Bucklands Beach Primary was in 6th place.  Please consider helping us to move further up the ladder if you are going to be dining out to consider eating at the Good Home.  All you need to do is to mention Bucklands Beach Primary when paying your account and ask that points go to our school.  All help will be very much appreciated.

Upcoming Maths Rich Event

What do Mathematicians do ?

BBPS is hosting a Rich Maths Event to celebrate the learning of Maths

Does your child love Maths or do they find it difficult? Dr Nic from Creative Maths is coming exclusively to our school from Christchurch. She will run this interactive and engaging session using the award-winning Dragonistics data cards and Cat Maths.  The session will present Maths in a way in which ALL children can engage and learn Maths and Statistics.  

Who is it for: Parents and children

When: Tuesday 14th August

Where: BBPS library

Time: 3.30pm – 5.00pm

Cost: $10.00 per person –  please pay at the office.

Parents will be able to purchase The Dragon Games for $30 and The Cat Pack for $25.  

Who is Dr Nic?

Nicola Petty (Dr Nic) is an experienced mathematics and statistics communicator. Her love of teaching, people and maths shine through all her endeavours to build a world of mathematicians. After twenty years as an award winning lecturer at University of Canterbury, Dr Nic (Nicola Petty) became co-director of Creative Maths, a social enterprise to help people learn and teach mathematics more effectively and enjoyably. She has a YouTube channel with over 4 million views, and a popular teaching blog. Creative Maths has developed engaging resources and programmes to help people to see themselves as mathematicians.

PTA News

Following on from the feedback from the recent PTA survey we are trialling the new meeting time of 1.45-3pm.  If you have a spare hour and would like to join us for a coffee on the 14th of August, please come along.  Toddlers are more than welcome! Your attendance makes a difference!

Sports News

Interschool Cross Country

Children have been named for the Interschool Cross Country Team, the championship of which will be held in Week 4.  Students are expected to practise each lunch time and practices are also being held each Tuesday and Thursday morning at 8am before school.  It is expected that as many of those involved, attend if possible.  There is also the expectation that all attend at least one run of the course at Lloyd Elsmore before the event.   By having run the course students can mentally prepare themselves for the event.  This is most important.  At the present time I am looking at holding a training session at Lloyd Elsmore on a Sunday morning.  More information will be given regarding this.  Alternatively parents are welcome to take their child to run at the park at anytime themselves.  By being prepared our students do not become stressed and enjoy the event.  Please support training if your child is involved.

Rugby

Kind regards

Kelly Slater-Brown

Community Notices

 BUCKLANDS BEACH TENNIS CLUB – It’s time to start thinking about Summer sport …..come and learn the game for life at  Bucklands Beach Tennis Club – recently awarded Tennis Auckland Junior Club of the Year.  Junior tennis commences on 15th September with enrolment days on Sat 18th Aug between 12pm and 2pm or Wed 22nd Aug 6:30 pm – 8pm.  
Mums … come and learn to play…. Midweek Open Day on Thursday 29th Aug from 9am to 12pm. There will be a free  “have a go” lesson at 9:30 or social tennis to join in. Kiddies welcome along too.  For further info…..bbtc.co.nz or email bbtc@xtra.co.nz

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