LBP Newsletter – Term 4, Week 3

Term 4, Week 3 – Friday 1 November 2024

Principal’s Chat

Kia ora Parents/Caregivers

The New Zealand Cricket Teams have had some spectacular success over the past couple of weeks. The Black Caps won not one, but two games (and a series) in India. Something they have never achieved before. Meanwhile the White Ferns went from losing 10 games in a row to winning the T20 World Cup. Both of these teams showed resilience, persistence and absolutely will have learnt plenty about themselves through the whole process.

The same can definitely be said for our Year 6 students last week at camp on Kawau Island. A number of them took the whole experience in their stride. Nothing was too much trouble, the rather cold water didn’t seem to phase them. Being away from home for a week was a breeze and being given food to eat they had no input into was not an issue. As an aside I can assure you that feeding 105 people is quite a job. When it takes an hour from start to finish to have a meal, patience is definitely a virtue.

Other students found it much harder. Some of them were exactly the opposite to those described above. The most rewarding thing I observed last week was how these students took on the challenges they faced and overcame them. It took resilience, a lot of persistence and independence to get the job done. After the first day and night you could see a change. They had worked out they could do this. Don’t get me wrong – it was hard, but they did it. The reunions on Friday were a mixture of relief, joy and thoughts of how comfortable their own bed was going to be. 

The parents that came along to help were brilliant. They were proactive, when something needed to be done they were in there and sorting it out, they cleaned, they helped and managed to survive on instant coffee very well. I am sure that most of them were also pretty relieved to be back home in their own beds – it turns out that mattress comfort does matter.

Finally thanks to Lliam Carran, Elisha Russell, Jono Oates and Mark Wallace. Without their 24/7 care, attention to detail and effort the camp experience would not have been the same. I would also like to acknowledge their families for letting them go away for the week, it is greatly appreciated.

Just like the Black Caps and White Ferns our students climbed a mountain, got to the top and paused to rest. The question now is where next? For the cricketers hopefully more victories. For our students, who knows, their new found independence has them ready for whatever comes next.

I would like to wish everyone who is celebrating Diwali over the next few days a Diwali that brings happiness, prosperity and joy to you and all your family.

Rob Hutton
Tumuaki/Principal

2024 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:

Chenei, Lilly and Rodney

Important School Reminders – Please Read

Collecting Children During Whole School Assembly
We are noticing an increasing number of students being collected early from school on Friday afternoons. Please note there are whole school assemblies fortnightly on Fridays and this makes it difficult trying to locate your child/children if they are leaving school early. Your child/children should either be collected at 2.00pm straight after lunch or please wait until the assembly has concluded at around 2.45pm. Your co-operation is appreciated.

Adventure Playground Before and After School
A reminder that students must be actively supervised by an adult at all times when playing on the playground before and after school. We do not have the staff to supervise this space at these times.

Absences and Lateness
If your child/children is going to be late or absent from school, then you must let the Office and class teacher know.

Absences/lateness 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.

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.

Food Brought to School
Please do not bring food to school to share with others for special occasions like birthdays. With the number of food allergies within our school community this is not a safe practice for some of our students. A reminder we are a nut free school.

Wrapper Free School

Lost Property
Please check the Lost Property box, located at the hall entrance, for any missing items. The box will be emptied at the end of every term.

2025 Classes

As a staff we are currently working on classes for 2025. This is a complicated process involving finding the teachers that suit each year level the best. Then we consider the type of teacher each student responds to most effectively, along with which peers the students work well with and the list goes on and on. All classes in 2025 will be single year level (there will be no more composite year level classes).

We have asked the students who they get along with and have already collected this information from them. If you have any information about your children that will help us with this process please send it to info@longbayprimary.ac.nz with your child’s name and 2025 class in the subject line. We will then take this into account as well, or make contact if necessary.

Please do not send in a list of the teachers you do and do not want along with a list of 15 children you would like in the class and 10 you would not. We are interested in information about your child that you may have that we are not aware of that will help us as part of this process. We tried to think of other tactful or politically correct ways of saying this, nothing sprang to mind, sometimes being direct is most effective. Thanks for your help as part of this process. Please note that this is not compulsory, it is available if you have something valuable to add to the process.

2025 Enrolment Information

Do you have a child turning 5 at the end of this year or in 2025?

Book Week and Dress-up Parade – 11-15 November

We have a lot of fun activities planned for the children during Book Week which will run from Monday 11 November until Friday 15 November. We will wrap up the week with a Dress Up Parade on Friday 15 November. There will be prizes up for grabs in the form of vouchers to spend at our Book Fair.

Scholastic Book Fair – 15-27 November

This will run from Friday 15 November until Wednesday 27 November. The opening times will depend on the availability of committed volunteers. It usually runs from 3.00pm until 4.00pm every afternoon after school in the Library. There will be at least one late afternoon for parents who would like to shop for Christmas presents. A percentage of each book sold is returned to the school to allow us to increase the number of books we have in our school library. 

For any Book Fair or Book Week enquiries please email fennekeg@longbayprimary.ac.nz

School Library 

The last day for library book issues will be 13 November. Please return any overdue books back to school before 28 November for our annual stocktake. Please also be mindful when returning books borrowed from the East Coast Bays Library as we often have to collect our school library books from there.

Festival of the Arts – 21 November

Gumboot Friday – Thank You

Thank you for the donations we received today from the students for Gumboot Friday.
A grand total of $656.30 was raised and will be given to the I Am Hope Foundation.

Have a look at the video made today to celebrate:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=94Q0FzjZvEM

ezlunch Update

Woolly Nightshade – Restore Hibiscus and Bays

Please help Restore Hibiscus and Bays and our local environment by removing any woolly Nightshade you might see on your proerrty and report any on public land to Auckland Council. You can watch our informative (and brief) video by clicking here to see exactly what this pest plant looks like.

Sports Buzz – Term 4, Week 3

Auckland Kids Marathon
The big day has arrived. Best wishes to our 27 runners who will complete their marathon quest on Sunday morning.

Sustainability Challenge 2024
Last chance to register for this year’s sustainability challenge on Friday 15 November at Wenderholm Park. Please email me if their child is interested – I’m looking for two more Year 5/6 students to complete a team.

This event aims to help students:

• Foster a sense of kaitiakitanga for our Auckland regional parks, raise awareness of how special they are, the threats posed to them and how students can make a difference by taking positive action for the environment.
• Work together as a team
• Enjoy and value the ecological sustainability of our regional parks.

Please email Nikki Douglas – nikkid@longbayprimary.ac.nz if you would like to register your child’s interest. Please include who they would like in their team, and who will be the designated adult for the team.

Football Sessions

PTA News

Kelly Club Notices

Please email Kelly Club at longbay@kellyclub.co.nz to register and/or make a booking.

Bricks 4 Kidz

Community Notices and Events