LBP Newsletter – Term 2, Week 6

Term 2, Week 6 – Friday 2 June 2023

Principal’s Chat

Kia ora Parents/Caregivers

Before I started school my dad taught me how to read. Using a phonics approach I got the sounds I needed to be able to understand the letters on a page and then the words, finally the meaning of the words and I was away. When I finally got to school the teachers had no idea what to do with me, I was an unusual case and stood out from the crowd.

For a number of years ‘phonetics’ was frowned upon as a way to teach students to read.

The wheel has turned full circle and with a combination of a phonetic approach along with some other tweaks to what we do and how we do it the “science of reading” or structured literacy is now embedded across the school. This research based approach to teaching is spreading in popularity across most New Zealand schools and we are riding along at the front of the wave.

Discussing student assessment is enough to make most people’s faces glaze over within the first 30 seconds. It is however a vital tool to allow us to know where your children are at, where they have come from, and more importantly where to next. As reports and interviews draw closer we have been taking a close look at where our students are at in order to be able to construct accurate and effective reports. We were thrilled when we took a look at the data we have gathered thus far. There has been a noticeable upward shift across the school in our results. Part of this can be attributed to the bounce back post COVID-19, however there will be no doubt that the effort our teachers have put in is significant. 

I will always be grateful to my dad for setting me up for success. How I feel about the effort he put into me in those early years is exactly how I want you to feel about your children and our teachers. We are making great strides and appreciate having you along for the ride. Please read your child’s report, come along to the interview, but more importantly keep in regular contact with your class teacher. They, like you, want the best for your children.

Rob Hutton
Tumuaki/Principal

2023 Term Dates and What’s On

Welcome New Students

A warm welcome to our new students who have started at Long Bay Primary since our last Newsletter:

Lucas and Isla

Donation Receipts via Kindo

Accessing your donation receipts on Kindo

You can view all your purchases, top-ups, refunds, cancelled orders and donation receipts using the ‘my orders’ option.

From the record type, you can select donation receipts, and choose to download individual receipts or download a summary of all your donation receipts.

More detailed instructions can also be found on the Kindo online support pages.

Click here for more detailed instructions.

Important School Reminders – Please Read

Keeping Ourselves Safe

Between now and the end of this term each of our classes will be covering aspects of the Keeping Ourselves Safe components in the curriculum. We are working with Senior Constable Tania Wansink, our School Community Officer, to deliver this to our students.  If you would like to find out more about Keeping Ourselves Safe this website is very useful. We are looking at the Junior and Middle Primary parts of this only, the rest is covered at Intermediate and Secondary level.

We Need Your Help

In July we have five 2 metre tall pohutukawa trees being extracted from a local apartment building garden. We have said we would love to add them to our school grounds. There is a catch, we need to collect them. If there is anyone out there with a HIAB truck or similar that could give us a hand in July please contact John Underwood our property manager. 

Absences

We are seeing an increasing amount of unexplained absences lately. If your child/children are going to be absent from school, then you must let the Office and class teacher know. This is to avoid your child/children being marked as truant.

Absences can be reported by calling the school on 09 473 6077, select option 1. Emailing the class teacher and admin@longbayprimary.ac.nz or through the school website ‘Report an Absence’.

All absences from school must have a reason so your child/children can be coded accordingly on their student record. Thank you for your co-operation.

Late Passes

We give out late passes at the school date each day to students who arrive at school after the bell has rung. This is because by the time these students get to class it is likely the teacher will have already marked the roll for the day. The late pass indicates to the teacher that we know your child is at school and it means we do not call you because they have been marked as absent on the roll.

Permission Slips

We are making a move towards asking your permission for events and activities online rather than on a piece of paper. This means no more looking in the bottom of school bags for permission slips. You will receive an email with a link to click and follow to give us the information we are after. 

Arrival at School

Our doors at school open at 8.30am. The time until then is invaluable for our staff to prepare for the day. While we appreciate the closure of Glenvar Road has increased travel times and traffic in general at the moment is rather appalling, the closer to 8.30am that students can arrive at school makes it easier for us to deliver the best we can for your children. Any help you can provide will be greatly appreciated.  

Contact Details

If your personal contact or emergency contact details need updating, please email admin@longbayprimary.ac.nz It is very important that we have correct details on our student records.

Enrolments

If you have a child turning 5 in the near future, please can you complete an online enrolment application form as soon as possible. This is to assist us with classroom planning. For all enrolments enquiries, please email enrolments@longbayprimary.ac.nz

Room 13

This term we are learning about rockets. We have also been learning about Sir Isaac Newton’s law of motions and how rockets fly. Right now we are designing prototypes for our water powered rockets. We have different teams of 3 pupils. Each team has a chief engineer, chief scientist and safety officer. We all have an important job to do. We are using the design process to design our rockets. Thinking about how many fins do we add for satiability, how much water do we put inside the rocket for propulsion.

Oneroa Kāhui Ako Cultural Festival

In Term 3, we look forward to celebrating the different cultures represented in our schools.

The Oneroa Kāhui Ako Cultural Celebration is on Thursday 31 August at Sherwood School. 

Each school is allocated 15 minutes for their performance(s) which can include two or three items. We are reaching out to our Long Bay Primary community to see if we have any parents/contacts who would be interested in taking a group of students to learn an item for the performance. For example: Chinese fan dance, Bollywood dance etc. We already have a Pasifika group going. 

If you are keen to work with us, please get in touch with Tiffany Krstev at tiffanyk@longbayprimary.ac.nz 

Year 6 Camp Fundraiser

Violin Lessons and String Group

One of the instruments that we offer as part of our tuition programme is the violin. If you would like your child to learn at school please contact Ulrike Schwerdtfeger our violin teacher on 021 148 1512 or by email ulrikeschwerdtfeger7@gmail.com. Ulrike is also offering a string group for existing players. If your child would like to be involved please contact Ulrike for further details.

Scholastic Book Fair

Just a huge thank you to all the volunteers who helped at the recent Scholastic Book Fair. We have managed to raise $5,550.00 with all the commission going towards buying new books for the library and some towards literacy resources for the classrooms. This would not have been possible without all the support from our wonderful school community. 

Thank you also to Mrs Gingell for her superb organisation and passion running Book Fair again this year.

Sports Buzz – Term 2, Week 6

Senior Cross Country

Last Friday the Year 4 to 6 students channelled their inner Alison Roe and Rod Dixon and bounced their way down the hill to Long Bay Regional Park to participate in our annual Cross Country run. After the 6th time up the infamous northern Long Bay hill the enthusiasm had waned. Crawling back to school was a much longer process than going down, however we returned dry, tired and happy. Running was the winner on the day.

Thank you to the staff and parents who helped out and made the event such a success. Once again if it was not for a dedicated group of Long Bay College students some of us might have got lost. Finally we must thank Nikki Douglas who organised and ran a great morning. Fingers crossed for the sun again in 2024.

PTA News

Kelly Club

Community Notices and Events