Newsletter Term 1, Week 1

Term 1, Week 1 – Friday 11 February 2022

Principal’s Chat

Xīnnián kuàilè 新年快乐 and welcome to the Year of the Tiger.

We look forward to 2027 when the children born this year will join us. Born leaders, they will be courageous, energetic, love a challenge and be prepared to take risks.

As you can see from the list of characteristics above there is some tiger in all of us as we enter the new school year. Taking a risk when learning is one of the most important aspects of being at school that we can instill in our young people. You definitely learn best when given the right amount of guidance by those around you. Our teachers know when to give a push in the right direction, provide the opportunity to explore boundaries and give our students the freedom to be creative. Removing the worry about getting things wrong means taking risks and learning go hand in hand.

Moving around the school this week visiting each class and beginning to get to know the staff and students has been an absolute pleasure. Asking the children what it is they have enjoyed most about being at school was an interesting exercise, the results were not surprising.

Friends stood out overwhelmingly as the key highlight of the week so far. It was reassuring to see fun, and teacher appearing as well. It is the connections our teachers foster at this time of the year that will set up the class for success as the year progresses.

Our Covid-19 plans are in place, we have taken a wide range of steps to keep everyone safe, and we continue to adapt and change as we go. Thank you to everyone who has been so understanding about the measures we have taken. There is no group of people as enthusiastic about getting our school back to ‘normal’ as the staff at Long Bay Primary. 

I would like to thank everyone for the warm welcome the new staff and I have received. I would like to also thank the Long Bay School staff as a whole. As a group they are hard working and dedicated, with the best interests of your children at the front of their minds. As I speak to each of them about why they are at Long Bay Primary all of the responses so far have included us discussing the students, the collegial staff members and an unbelievably supportive community.

As a staff we are looking forward to stretching the young minds in our care to develop the next generation of leaders. Foster courageous and energetic learners who love a challenge and are prepared to take risks. Bring on 2022, we are ready.

Ngā mihi

Rob

Tumuaki / Principal

What’s Been Happening

Goodbye Gorse

Linda’s parting gift to us all has been a passionate dedication to the eradication of the gorse in the land around the school. In conjunction with John Underwood the area between the school and Ashley Avenue has been cleared and further work done in the areas around the other three sides of the school. The results speak for themselves.

The new view from the playground

Service to the School

Senior Constable Tania Wansink our local school community officer spent time this week training up the next generation of road patrol monitors. They all passed with flying colours and the first group began their service to the school on Thursday morning.

Road patrol monitors in training

The Business of Learning

The real mahi in classes has begun with students across the school reconnecting with old acquaintances, making new friends and beginning the bonding process with their peers and teacher. 

Pest Control – Saturday 12 February

We will be conducting a pest control programme at school on Saturday 12 February to deal with a persistent ant problem. While the school grounds are always open and available for families to enjoy on the weekends, please keep away from the school site this Saturday to allow the pest control team to do their work.

By completing this task on Saturday morning it will ensure the school grounds are safe and available for us all to return as usual on Monday.

Goal Setting Conferences – Wednesday 23 March 

We value the partnership between home and school and look forward to the opportunity to share with you what your children have been doing at school. Even more valuable is to hear from you about your children, what makes them tick, and what you have discovered about how they learn over the last few months, while they worked with you at home. We will be holding our goal setting conferences on Wednesday 23 March starting from 1:10pm. 

In order to have time to see all of our families, usual instruction finishes at 12.30pm on this day, so please arrange alternative care for your children from 12.30pm. If you cannot arrange alternative care do let the office know so we can plan supervision for them.

We do encourage all students to attend their learning conference and talk to the teacher with their parents. At this stage we anticipate these interviews will be held virtually. More information to follow in the next newsletter.

2022 Term Dates

New Long Bay Primary School App

Welcome New Students

A warm welcome to all our new students who have started at Long Bay Primary this year:

Aya, Phoenix, Lawrence, Selina, Makenzie, Maddison, Matthew, Steve, Eason, Sylvie, Harper, Chi, Hannah, Jaxon, Leo, Willie, Karla, Yanna, Oscar T, Chloe L, Paige, Hunter, Joshua, Beau, Jake, Rose, Asmi, Hara, Markus, Boden, Olina, Adi, Griffyn, Chloe C, Jayden, Lily, Oscar C, Charlie, Hansen, Kai, Ava, Olivia, Harrison and Ethan

Donation Receipts

Sports Buzz – Week 1

Various school sports have been added to myKindo, so please look online to register your child/children.

For all sports enquiries, please email the sports co-ordinator at nikkid@longbayprimary.ac.nz

North Harbour Hockey

As school gets underway our World Series programme also gets underway on Monday 28 February. The World Series is one of our favourite youth programmes at North harbour Hockey putting players into a country in a preseason competition and training environment. Our players get the playing uniform of the country they’re representing as well as being coached by some of our best coaches with some new skills that they will be able to bring back to their school sides for the 2022 season.

We have now re-shaped our Years 5-6, 3-4 and 1-2 programmes to also follow the world series model. Please use the link below for more information and to register:

https://www.harbourhockey.co.nz/programmes/world-series-2022/

Kelly Club