Relationships – Whanaungatanga, Resilience – Manawaroa, Respect – Manaakitanga, Responsibility – Tiaki
Kia Ora, Nǐ hǎo, Hallo, Greetings,
Welcome to our new students and their families that have recently joined us: Siena Amoore, Asher Bowlin, Genevieve Lowe, Matthew Zou, James Coxon-Byrne, Yaseen Bassam, Luvin Bassam, Mark Zhang, Michiel Willemse and Antonia Alb.
A warm welcome to everyone for term 2. We trust you had a Happy Easter and ANZAC Day break, whether heading away or staying home catching up with family and friends. I know the staff here have had a good break and are all set for an exciting and rewarding term 2 with your children.
Dance, Dance, Dance!
We are embracing the arts this term, with five weeks of weekly dance lessons across the school from the Stomp dance company. These lessons will feed into our team performances planned for next term. A lot of fun was being had by students and staff alike when I popped into the hall yesterday!
PB4L
We are in our third year of being a PB4L (Positive Behaviour for Learning) school. This programme is research based, supported by the ministry, and is used internationally in schools. Next week we have our third assessment by the PB4L team, who evaluate our practice year on year, which has shown continuous improvement in implementing the programme.
Positive Behaviour for Learning includes the use of evidence based practices:
- A consistent school-wide system of support that helps define, teach and support appropriate student behaviour, creating a positive school environment.
- The whole school community living by our values we have chosen.
- School-wide discipline practices including establishing clear consequences, and a consistent reward system to recognise the ‘right’ behaviours for individuals, classes and houses.
- Teaching social skills, helping students to manage their own behaviour.
- A focus on prevention of problem behaviour and teaching and practising appropriate behaviour.
- Supporting staff to intervene effectively to manage behaviour in the classroom and other school environments.
- Active supervision at break times, supporting play in the playground.
Just as we teach maths and art, we also teach the behaviours we want to see. From time to time, students make poor decisions around their behaviour, especially as the term wears on and students get tired. We follow our behaviour matrix, and work through the restorative process to help students make better decisions in the future. One of the ideas we reinforce regularly to students is that when something goes wrong, they need to speak to a staff member who they are comfortable to talk to so we can resolve the situation. If your child is unhappy about something that has happened at school and hasn’t told a staff member, please phone or email to make an appointment with your child’s teacher, so we can work together to make things right. We can only solve what we know about, and appreciate your support with this.
The school has a lovely positive feel, with students refreshed and focused. We are enjoying ‘catching’ students being good!
Working Bee
A big thank you to the team of parents and PTA who came in on Sunday the 28th to do a working bee. We now have bark around the new PTA funded PlayPod shed for the Junior School, and are almost ready to open it up.
A big thank you to John Rist, Steph and Carl Carter, Paul Young and Kobus Coetzee for their fabulous muscle power spreading the material and water blasting the old milk room in preparation for it to become the new Second Hand Uniform Shop. Our school just looks better and better!
A big thank you also to Megan Webster for opening the Second Hand Uniform Shop at the same time, and helping another five of our school families purchase their uniforms for the winter terms.
BOT News
In June, we have our elections for the Board of Trustees for the next three year term. This is an important role, contributing to how the school runs and ensuring that the community has representation and a voice in what is important for them.
We meet eight times per year during term time for 2-3 hours at a time in the evening. There is a small amount of reading to do before each meeting and up to an hour or so of time each month often contributed to a portfolio area. Some members offer more time at their own discretion.
The role of the board is not to get involved in the day to day operations of the school, but to ensure that the right support structures are in place for the school to function effectively and to support the principal. As a board we help to define the direction and priorities for the school, and make sure that we have robust systems and practices in place.
We do this across a range of portfolios that call on the many different skills in our community. The key skills that we look to have on the board are related to property management, people and culture (HR), legal, commercial and finance, educational sector knowledge, digital and ICT.
In addition to this we also look to ensure that we have a good representation of our community and aim to ensure we have diverse views and experience. If we have gaps, we actively seek to fill these by co-opting members.
It’s been a very rewarding experience for me over the last three years to work together with a diverse group of people to help ensure our school goes from strength to strength. If you’re keen to offer up your skills and develop your governance experience, I’d thoroughly recommend putting your name forward at the upcoming elections. If you have questions, or would like to know more, I can be contacted on kieranpturner@gmail.com.
Sports News
A list of the upcoming sports is available on the website under: Parents, About Us, and Sports (at the bottom of the page). This is a live document that will update.
Travelwise News
Anzac Poems
Still, The Poppies Grow
The petals from the poppies blew in the breeze,
Even though a sinister war was raging on, still, the poppies grow,
But in the trenches it was a different story,
It is a place where no joy could be found, but the poppies still grow.
There’s a giant wad of mud and a small pool of blood,
There’s a big crater in the ground, but still, the poppies grow.
To this day, the poppies still grow,
Row by row, above the soldiers tomb.
Their courage still grows strong.
The soldiers fought for freedom and peace so we can live freely,
So today we remember the heroes who saved me and you.
By Eric
We will Remember
Guns fired and shells flew,
Over the heads of the ones who fought,
Dead bodies lie across the fields,
Poppies grow, red and bright,
They dug there trenches to hide and sleep,
Days go by and there is only a few people left,
They kept on going,
With their heads up high,
To bring us piece,
The war ended and they returned to their loved ones,
We will remember.
By Aryana
Swimming Pool Keys
Community Notices
Bucklands Beach Tennis Club – The Junior Winter Tennis Programme commences next week 8th May with squad coaching on a Wednesday.
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