September 2020 Newsletter

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

A community of agile and collaborative learners – Proud of who we are, empowered to make a difference

Kia Ora, Nǐ hǎo, Hallo, Greetings,

A big welcome to our new students and their families who have recently joined us: Alex Pham, Jessie Tang, William Hunt, Noah Millinchip, Olivia Jiang, Logan Schutz, Jake Schutz, Kingsley King and Leon Ge. Well done to our new students for settling in so well under interesting conditions.

I would like to again acknowledge the strong support of our families who worked with us during the lockdown. The staff met last night to share new ways of working that they trialled in the last lockdown, and to work through challenges. I’d like to acknowledge the staff for again being so agile and reflective – always looking for ways to do things better for our students. As with the previous lockdown keeping up the relationships online has been such the most important tool. There are a number of our students who are to be commended for their resilience, self-management and motivation, as they adapted to working online and continued to demonstrate excellent effort. We would love to hear how your household experienced online home learning – please click on the link to give feedback on your experience. A useful tip I heard from a parent was that following the last lockdown, they prepared a box of art and craft material just incase we went into lockdown again, which turned out to be very useful.

Now we are back at school our focus is on teaching, teaching, teaching, and more teaching. We are also aware of the impact that lockdown may have had on some of our children and are monitoring student wellbeing to make sure everyone is settled as quickly as possible. To support well being, staff are focusing on:

Relationships – reconnecting with our students will be the foundation for learning and building resilience. We will be rebuilding connections through simple actions such as personal greetings, asking how they are doing, lots of positive acknowledgement, and providing an environment with familiar ‘things’ so they can connect with friends over favourite activities and of course checking in throughout the day.

Routines – providing a routined and structured environment, one in which students feel safe and supported. An environment that is predictable and stable; no surprises.

Reassurance – talking to students in a developmentally appropriate way about what is happening. Taking the time to answer questions they may have.

We are loving having the children back but should you have any concerns about your child’s return to school please do not hesitate to contact their teacher. I found this New York Times article explaining why some are struggling post lockdown an informative read both personally and for my own children.

Goodbye to Ms Wong

Ms Wong has commenced her maternity leave this week. We wish Ms Wong and her husband all the best for the upcoming birth of their first baby, and can’t wait to have a cuddle. The staff threw Cherry a socially distanced baby shower before she left.

Mrs Bayer is Retiring

Mrs Bayer has decided to retire at the end of the year, though has kindly agreed to pop in during the beginning of 2021 to induct her replacement. She is leaving some very big boots to fill! Julie has been the heart and soul of the school office for a number of years, and I’m sure you will agree that she provides the warmest and friendliest greeting – certainly the best I have ever experienced in a school. Julie will be missed by the whole community! We will be organising a fitting farewell for Julie in term four.

Out of Zone Students

With the border being closed to immigrants, our rate of enrolments has dropped over the year in comparison to the last four years. The board of trustees have decided to advertise for a small number of out of zone students in years 1 – 5, to keep our roll stable. Keeping the roll stable will also allow us to continue offering all the extra activities we currently do, as well as retaining our fantastic staff.

Teacher Only Day

A reminder that Friday the 25th of September is a teacher only day.

Have a wonderful week.

Kelly

Bus changes

Auckland Transport (AT) is making the following changes to bus routes in Buckland’s Beach:

Public bus route 714 (Buckland’s Beach to Half Moon Bay) is to cease operating after 10 October 2020
A new school bus, route 424, will replace the 714 from 12 October 2020 to serve Buckland’s Beach Intermediate School students

After the 714 is withdrawn, Buckland’s Beach will continue to be served by all-day all-week routes 712 (to Pakuranga and Panmure) and 733 (to Highland Park and Botany). Anyone wanting to travel between Buckland’s Beach and the Half Moon Bay ferry terminal can still do so but they will need to take two buses not one.

We apologies if these changes cause problems for anyone. If you have any concerns you can contact AT where they can help you find alternative journey options.

Call AT on (09) 366 6400

Or contact AT online at AT.govt.nz/contact us

The AT mobile app and online journey planner (AT.govt.nz/journey planner) will be updated before school term 4 to include the new 424 school bus.

Why we are making the changes

This change is being made because very few people use the 714 public bus service except for Buckland’s Beach Intermediate School students at school times. Excluding intermediate school students using this service, this bus service averages fewer than two passengers per weekday trip. By replacing the 714 with a dedicated school bus, we believe this will be more beneficial to Buckland’s Beach Intermediate School students, while making efficient use of ratepayer funding.