The school roll in February was 415 and is now 490.       

Our vision is for “inquiring, connected, resilient and future-focussed learners, who give 100%” and we value: Excellence, Effort, Resilience, Respect, Responsibility and Inquiry

The school’s strategic direction has continued to drive annual goals, and there has been a particular focus on engaging students in their learning, particularly our national priority students and also in Science and through the use of digital devices. Community participation in school events has continued and attendance at sports events, our visual arts celebration, open days and conference evenings has been high. The P.T.A. has supported ongoing activities and was actively involved in fundraising to astroturf the top field, which was opened by MP Maurice Williamson in March.  A particular highlight this year has been the official opening of our new library / information centre, with special guest Jill Eggleton.  We also have brand new junior and senior toilets and new changing rooms, which were functional for the swimming season. The Board has been active in all its dimensions of governance.

 School Organisation & Staffing

The school has continued to be organised into 3 teams for 2016:

Junior Team:           Years 0, 1 & 2          led by Lisa Ray

Middle Team:           Years 3 & 4               led by Debbie Rist

Senior Team:            Years 5 & 6                led by Jillian Redpath

A sports teacher has worked two days per week with middle and senior school students. The primary focus was encouraging participation, enjoyment and improving the development of fundamental skills across a wide range of sports.  

We also have a specialist teacher three days per week working with students who come from bilingual families.

A consultant teacher has worked in classrooms throughout the year, to increase student knowledge and to support teachers with e-learning.  BYOD in Years 5 and 6 was successfully extended into Year 4 for 2016. The Board committed to significantly increased student access to digital devices in all classrooms during 2016.

Special support was provided for students through Ministry and Board funded staffing. Programmes offered included remedial Reading & Writing (Accelerating Literacy Learning), Mathematics (Accelerated Learning in Maths) and English Language Learning (ELL). Additional learning support was provided in all classes by Learning Assistants. Reading Recovery was offered by one teacher, who participated in ongoing training.  Eleven 6-year-old students received this extra specialist literacy support.

Student Achievement

Student achievement across the school remains high in Reading, Writing and Mathematics.  In 2016, whole school achievement data from the end of 2015 was reported to the Ministry of Education.  The school had target groups of students who were our priority learners in 2016, and also focus groups of students in Reading, Writing, and Mathematics.  These students have been monitored carefully over the year, with teachers coached to use specific interventions to accelerate progress.

In the International Competitions for Australasian Schools (ICAS), which some students choose to enter, we were pleased to note some high achievement:

Mathematics: 1 student achieved High Distinction, and 3 students achieved Distinction.

English: 2 students achieved Distinction.

Science: 1 student achieved High Distinction and 2 students achieved Distinction.

Digital Technologies: 4 students achieved Distinction.

Reporting Individual Student Progress & Achievement

In February “Getting to know our students” conferences were well attended. In June, 3-way conferences were offered to all families. Extra conferences for students have been initiated by parents and teachers where needed. In December each student took home a report. In Years 4-6 this is an End of Year Report. The reporting schedule for students in the first three years of schooling aligns with birthdates. Therefore, at the end of term all students took home either a Progress Report or an End of Year Report; or will receive their next National Standards report next term in 2017.

All students, regardless of whether they received a National Standards report or not, received a report on other curriculum areas, values and key competencies in December. The school continues to encourage the purchase of A5 BBPS Red folders for filing and keeping track of reports.

Curriculum Delivery

Students at B.B.P.S. have received a broad enriched education. We continue to be proud of the varied opportunities provided for students to develop interest and talents in areas of the curriculum other than Literacy and Mathematics. Science has been a special focus. Inquiry learning has provided rich opportunities for students to learn in authentic contexts and to apply meaningful learning to situations of relevance to them. E-learning, Te Reo and Enviro have been integrated into the curriculum.  The BBPS website has informed parents of ongoing events and along with assemblies has enabled us to share and celebrate events and learning. A range of newsletters are sent out now via the website.

There was a Parent evening where all classes were involved in showcasing their learning using digital technologies in the hall.  This was well attended by parents.

The well-being of students is a priority and pastoral care included working in partnership with parents to be fully inclusive of students with special needs.  Kagan Cooperative Learning Strategies continued to be implemented in 2016. Local Resource Teachers of Learning and Behaviour (RTLBs) continued to provide guidance as needed. An in-depth well-being survey to all Year 5 & 6 students informed the school of student perspectives so that staff could work to ensure all students feel safe at school.  

Programmes have increased student awareness of safety in digital citizenship and cyber safety. Walking School buses continue to be a popular, safe form of transport for children coming to and from school. Six Travelwise Student leaders have been appointed and have successfully been involved in a number of Travelwise initiatives – ‘back to school’ campaign, poster competition, Travelwise prizes for safe crossing users and scooter riders (wearing helmets and using the scooter tracks correctly). Other opportunities for learning have included education outside the classroom, with all classes making educational trips beyond the school grounds.

The junior school visited the Howick Historical Village.

The middle school visited the Auckland Maritime Museum, the Rotary Walkway, MOTAT and also held a special Science week.

The senior team’s year began when whanau leaders received leadership training at Willow Park. The Year 5 students participated in a Surf Safety Day at Red Beach. The Year 6 students attended a 3-night camp at Lakewood Lodge, with one night a survival night camping in tents in a field. They also experienced sailing at Little Bucks, led by the Bucklands Beach Yacht Club. We will return to Lakewood Lodge in 2017 as it proved a very worthwhile and popular venue.  The students also attended the annual Science Roadshow and had school visits from Tread Lightly, The Science in a Van show, Watercare (including a visit to Macleans Stream), and Vector.  Year 5 students also went to Te Tuhi and all senior school classes visited the Auckland Art Gallery.  

The Enviro Group continued to work in liaison with the Trees for Survival group. The TFS students and staff have worked regularly on a “Trees for Survival” programme that involved nurturing hundreds of trees. Thirty very keen students and a large group of adults visited a property at Waiau Pa to plant over 600  native trees. This was the ninth year that our students have planted out seedlings. Again, we received positive feedback from the organisers about both the enthusiasm of the children and the excellent quality of the trees they had nurtured. The Half Moon Bay Rotary are continually working towards updating and repairing the planting unit.  Thirty students attended the Manukau In Bloom Festival. Three students entered the arts competition and one child received an award with a money voucher for the school.

Highlights of the Enviro Group work included:

• Scavenger Hunt – Green Days
• The Solar Panels won in a community Vector competition were installed.
• Establishing understanding of  Guiding Principles with leaders, group, staff and whole school. Visiting local Marae to explore Maori Perspectives within the school programmes and initiatives.
• Orchard Development: 16 more Fruit trees donated by Kings Plant Barn, which have been planted, fertilised and maintained to add the total to 81 fruit trees in the school grounds.
• September family working bee to plant as well as add paving around gardens.
• Patch to Plate Term 4 – nine energetic students from all teams researched about what we could make with our school produce. We had fun making rhubarb icecubes (a bit sour) and banana oatie biscuts – which were shared with all classes and got a big thumbs up from all of those that taste tested!
• Green Days each term – classes enjoyed and shared successful actions.
• Enviro Council included wihtin the Student Council to drive student- led initiatives.: sub-groups created, Switch-Its monitor power usage.
• Enviro funded art mural mounted.

Students continued to be actively involved in recycling bins with every class having a Paper 4 Trees green bin. Our mobile community stall and produce have continued to grow and harvest.

The ten Enviro Leaders wore their bibs with pride and responsibly performed duties in a rostered system and were involved in several key leadership opportunity days.

Travel Wise Leaders were an enthusiastic bunch of 6 students – involved in getting the Travel Wise message out to students.

Travel Wise activities:

• Slogan Pen competition
• Poster competition
• Caught being Travel Wise prizes given out – one day per week.
• Scooter training
• Travel Wise celebration day at the Cloud – received a SILVER AWARD

An Enriched Curriculum has been offered.

• Children participated in inter-school chess competitions during the year with after school chess classes also being offered.  It has been pleasing to see more students involved in chess. Each of the teams placed well in the Howick Primary Schools Chess Competition.

• 1 Robotics team entered  this year into First Lego League.  Past pupils who have now moved on to BBI have helped train the team this year.    Fundraising included a cupcake day for entry fees and a new set for 2017.
• 11 students demonstrated their robotics skills at the Science Teachers Meeting for the local Cluster group at Wakaaranga in June. They ran a workshop in which students and teachers participated.
• The Senior School have run a Science Rotation fortnightly throughout the year with each Senior School Teacher teaching a specialised Science Topic for a mixed group from all Senior classes.

• Whanau Days were held where students were grouped with buddies in their whanau from across the school to receive extra curricular activities from teachers with specialised interests.

• Senior students took part in the Interschool Technology Competition at Point View Primary. Also a Middle School team participated in the Top Trumps Science Challenge at the same venue.  
• Another group of students also participated in the EPro8 Technology Challenge and were successful in making it through to the regional semi-final.
• A further technology group were successful in winning the final of the Vecor/Mindlab Technology Challenge, winning a cup and $1000 for technology in the school.
• The school choir (of Year 4-6 students), along with choirs from four other local schools, participated in the HPPA Choir Festival in Term 2.
• A team of students competed in the annual Mathex competition held at Sunnyhills School, gaining fourth place out of 22 entries.
• Year 6 students competed in a school Literacy Quiz. Eight students from BBPS were selected for the NZ Literacy Quiz held at Baverstock School. These children had to become familiar with 16 books from the 2014 New Zealand Post Children’s Book Awards. They did a wonderful job under tough competition.  Our top team received our best result ever!
• A senior school speech competition was held, and the winner went on to compete at the Howick and Pakuranga interschool event. The Middle school held an Oral Reading competition.
• The Junior School enjoyed shared lunches in their classrooms to celebrate International Food Day in term 4.
• Two dance groups performed well at the Howick and Pakuranga Schools’ Dance Festival.  They consisted of a middle and senior dance group.  Musiqhub students and Royal Family dance group performed at special assemblies.
• The Year 5 and Year 6 classes had two visits from Korean international students who came for three week blocks. The Year 4 students also hosted a group for two weeks in term 3.
• The Kapa Haka group performed with enthusiasm, talent and pride at the local Koanga Festival. They also participated in a powhiri for several groups of visiting Korean Groups and visiting school groups on different occasions. They performed at a powhiri held at Cockle Bay School for Dorothy Bigwood.
• B.B.P.S. held its own team sports days in swimming, cross country and athletics.  The junior school held tabloid sports each week during term 4 with Year 6 students taking on a leadership role in this.
• Students were involved in many sporting field days and inter-school events. Throughout the year, students participated in netball, rugby, soccer, rippa-rugby, touch rugby, rugby sevens, Barbarians rugby, cricket, hockey, basketball, athletics, cross country, swimming, gymnastics and softball. Students were coached and trained for competitive events and many individuals and teams have performed to a very high standard.  Students have proudly represented BBPS, demonstrating excellent behaviour and sportsmanship.

Sporting highlights throughout the year are summarised below:

• The rugby team was represented in two grades, Under 45kgs & Under 35kgs and performed well with many Year 4 students being given an opportunity to represent the school. 
• Winner of the Interschool Cross Country.
• The soccer team performed admirably in their pool group narrowly missing out on a semi-final spot due to a 2-1 loss.
• BBPS entered a team in the Eastern Basketball League, which was run on a Thursday night at Pakuranga College, Howick Recreation Centre and Sommerville Intermediate. We are very appreciative of our parents who managed the team.
• This year one softball team participated in field days and performed well.
• Teachers have offered lunchtime sports and games for all students.    
• The Lloyd Elsmore Summer Hockey League was a huge success for our students this season, with a Year 5/6 team and a Year 3/4 team entered.
• Tip Top Schools. We participated with a large group of students making up 8 teams. We were the largest school participating in regard to the number of teams.
• BBPS were also represented at the Barbarians Rugby Field Day and the Weetbix Tryathlon.
• Running: A number of children joined together to run in the Howick Fun Run and BBPS came away with the Crawford Medical Cup for coming first in the 8.5km Primary Schools division for the second year in a row.
• The Auckland Marathon 2016: our Kids Marathon team grew to 72 registered runners who completed either the full marathon distance or the shorter 5km race on event day. For the second year running BBPS entered the second largest school contingent and the organisers will be using images of our runners for next years media.
• We entered two teams in the inter-school netball competition. We also entered the HPPA netball field day with 6 teams.
• BBPS was responsible for the organisation of the Howick and Pakuranga schools local Interschool Gymnastics competition.  This competition was held over two days and was run by the Howick Gymnastics Club. The event was hugely successful, and 68 BBPS students performed creditably. We  entered a Year 3 team. Coaching involved three staff members. A team of Year 5 girls, a Year 4 boy, a Year 3 girls team and a Year 6 boy advanced to represent BBPS at the Auckland Champion of Champions competition. Fourteen children is the highest number we have had to represent at this level.

• In the HPPA inter-school cross country competition, BBPS came 1st overall with individual students performing to high standards. We performed very well in inter-school athletics too.  We again came 1st overall in the interschool competition.  Year 5 boys 1st, Year 4 girls 1st  (2 girls coming in top 2 places), Year 6 girls 3rd, Year 6 boys 2nd.
• BBPS entered a team into the HPPA Touch Field Day.
• Our cricket team was mainly comprised of Year 5 players and while there was a huge amount of interest at the trial stage (more than 50 students) we were able to select a wider squad of 16. They performed well on the tournament days reaching the second round.

Our sporting programmes, competitions and cultural events are indebted to the contributions of parents, who provide coaching, transport and other support regularly.

Thank you all.

Community links

• PTA

A big thank you goes to all parents, teachers and board members for their support of P.T.A. events and fundraisers, and I would like to thank the PTA team for making them happen.

• Transition to school

Smart Start continues as a popular pre-school fixture, along with the I’m Nearly Five Birthday Party and New Entrant Parent meetings.

Finances and Property

This year we saw the grand opening of the library/information centre and new astroturf, with planning underway to develop the school further over the next few years.

Nearly 90% of our families supported BBPS by paying the school donation requested. Financial support of the school is needed for us to provide the current level of services and programmes, and we are deeply grateful for your donations.

Professional Learning and Development

Professional learning and development opportunities for teachers have been prioritized with generous funding by the board. The major foci have been Reading, Science and e-learning. One staff member has undertaken a postgraduate Certificate of Applied Practice: Digital and Collaborative Learning through Unitec/Mindlab, with another completing a postgraduate Certificate in Educational Leadership.  One teacher has completed TESSOL papers during the year to help the school with supporting students from bilingual families.  The Ministry significantly funded professional learning in the teaching through Accelerated Literacy and Mathematics Programmes. Other professional development has been targeted to specific needs.

Staffing

At the beginning of the year we welcomed Mrs Lisa Ray in Room 8, as Team Leader of the Junior School, Mrs Debbie Rist in Room 13, as Team Leader of the Middle School, Miss Amber Davidson in Room 9 and Miss Hannah Saul in Room 14. During the year we also welcomed Mrs Michelle Murray-Brown in Room 10 and Mrs Marlene Jackson in Room 6.  Mrs Diana Spencer continued as our ELL teacher, and filled in as sports specialist when Mrs Rebecca Trotter went on maternity leave.  We also thank our treasured regular relievers. Mrs Donna Gormley, Ms JayJay Snider, Mrs Connie Cheng, Mrs Rachel Ciechowich, Mrs Stella Williams and Mrs Megan Barnsley are also thanked for their work as Learning Assistants.  We farewell Mrs Robyn Wilshire, Mrs Marlene Jackson, Mrs Sue Everard and Mrs Michelle Murray-Brown at the end of 2016, although Mrs Murray-Brown will be rejoining us early in 2017.  We thank them for their many and varied contributions to what BBPS has offered.  Mrs Jenny Todd is leaving us after many years at BBPS and will be sadly missed.  We wish her well in her retirement.

Thank you to:

• The BOT, PTA, parents and community members who give wonderful support and contributions that enable the school to offer more and more opportunities each year to our students.
• The whole staff of BBPS for their personalised care of students, dedication, expertise and professionalism. This includes teachers, learning assistants, office and library staff, and our property manager. Special thanks go to team leaders and Jillian Redpath in particular. Together, you are a great team that I am privileged to work with.

Best wishes for a happy and safe Christmas and holiday period. We look forward to seeing you all at the beginning of Term 1.

Carole Crompton

Acting Principal

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