A very warm welcome to all our new students and families in the Junior School.
Our Junior Team for this term is as follows:
- Miriam Giles and Sue Everard with New Entrant children in Room 6.
- Louise Johnson with Year 2 children in Room 7.
- Lorna Foulger with Year 1 and Year 2 children in Room 8.
- Amber Davidson with Year 2 children in Room 9.
- Michelle Murray-Brown with Year 1 children in Room 10.
- Kelly Cowan with Year 1 children in Room 11.
- Hayley Sanileva with Year 1 children in Room 12.
- Anna Madgwick, Sarah Millinchip and Marlene Jackson with New Entrant children in Room 20.
We continue to focus on our main goal which is to ensure children enjoy coming to school and feel secure in their class, so they can develop confidence and independence as they continue their learning journey.
Our BBPS Vision is “We are inquiring, connected, resilient and future-focussed learners, who give 100%”
The children need to gain skills in thinking, problem solving, working co-operatively, and communicating effectively.
We really value the partnership with parents in helping to make our vision a reality.
A sincere 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 bookbags into classrooms ready for the day. If possible, saying goodbye at the school gate would help to further the development of 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 class’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 fourth term, children should wear the summer uniform. Our website has a list of the requirements. For extra warmth on chilly days it is better to wear the school sweatshirt, which can then be easily removed when it gets too hot, rather than extra t-shirts or undergarments. Sunhats are compulsory in Term 4 and are expected to be worn everyday. It is a good idea to also have a raincoat ready and waiting in schoolbags for those unexpected downpours, and an extra pair of undies in case of emergencies. A regular ‘nit check’ on Fridays would discourage nit epidemics, and tying back longer hair is also helpful.
Home Learning
At the early levels children bring home a book each day that is kept in their bookbags until Friday so that over the week they have 4 small books to share with you. At the higher levels the book will be returned and kept in the bookbag each day for further exploration and comprehension work. Please ensure all books are kept and returned in the bookbags 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.
Please check bags for notices – particularly on a Friday when poetry books and library books are brought home to be read over the weekend. Remember notices can also be accessed on the school website.
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. Please no sweets, lollies or chocolate. Our expectation of a rubbish free school means that children need to take home anything not eaten from their lunch box. Foods like yoghurt need to be in a small container with a secure lid to prevent spillages. The less gladwrap the better.
Our programmes for Term 4 are well underway.
INQUIRY TOPIC
Our teaching and learning inquiry topic’s key question is:
- What do living things need to survive?
We Are Learning To:
- identify living and non-living things
- identify what living things need to survive (and thrive)
- make comparisons between living and non-living
To support our learning we have already been for a trip to Ambury Farm where we learnt about the changes we experience in Spring, and what living things need to thrive. We will also be visiting the Life Education caravan, which will be at BBPS. All children in the Junior School will have two visits to the caravan, where they will learn about ‘What our body needs to stay happy and healthy’ and ‘Why we need to eat different kinds of food to stay healthy and to give us energy’. The cost for Life Education is $6 per child. Please complete the permission form (which will be sent home separately) and pay either at the school office or through our school website.
TABLOID SPORTS
The Junior School Classes will be having their tabloid sports each Friday. They will be working in mixed age groups on a range of fun activities. They may bring a t-shirt to wear, plus they will need their sunhats.
SCHOOL PHOTOS
Class and individual photos will be taken on Wednesday 25 October, with sports and other group photos on Tuesday 31 October.
HOWICK SANTA PARADE
The Howick Santa Parade is on Saturday 3 December. Our fabulous PTA are organising a BBPS float – keep an eye out for a notice about this nearer the time.
The last day of school for 2017 is Thursday 14 December. School will finish at 12 o’clock.
Thank you for your support
Kind regards
The Junior Team
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