Newsletter 22 February 2024

Bayview Primary School

School Newsletter

Empower Our Future

Newsletter Date: 23 February 2024

Issue: 02/24

KIA ORA TEAM BAYVIEW

Welcome to our second newsletter for the year!

Keeping Ourselves Safe

Thank you to everyone who attended the Keeping Ourselves Safe parent session last week. We hope you found it valuable.

If you want to know more about this programme here is the link to the Police website: https://www.police.govt.nz/advice-services/personal-community-safety/school-portal/resources/successful-relationships/kos

Every lesson your child will be participating in is on this website. There is total transparency in what is taught as the aim is to empower your child to know what to do if they feel unsafe in any context. Please note that this is part of the Health and Physical Education curriculum.

Senior Constable Louise Nicholas is our School Community Officer and has been working alongside staff to deliver this programme. Louise will also teach a lesson in every habitat so that our learners understand that the Police are here to help us. You may see her car parked in the carpark or up the road and may see her out with the school crossing people just to help out. Louise would be happy to answer any questions you have about KOS if you see her around.

Long Bay Picnic

Tomorrow is our annual picnic at Long Bay Beach. The children are very excited. Please help us by ensuring your child has their hat, you have applied sunscreen before they come to school, they have enough food and water for an active beach day, and that they have the appropriate clothing including underwear for when they get changed out of their bathing suit (togs).

Mathematics at Bayview School

Our goal at Bayview School is that through explicit teaching of mathematics, our children will become confident learners who can problem solve and transfer their mathematics knowledge in everyday life. We have three different maths programmes at Bayview School but all three have a solid structured scope and sequence. They focus on providing a clear roadmap, ensuring that each new concept builds on strong foundations.

The year 0-1 students are working through a structured maths approach which focuses on the number identification and the beginnings of number patterns, place value, and adding and subtracting. They learn new concepts through a range of activities including play-based tasks, structured maths lessons, and authentic tasks.
Our year 2-4 learners are working through the Maths No Problem programme, which is a mastery approach to learning mathematics. This programme exposes all learners to all curriculum areas through lessons broken into small connected steps. It mixes whole class, group working, and independent learning time.
Our year 5-6 students are building on the foundations that have been set in years 0-4. Our focus is to expand their knowledge and make sure that they are confident in number knowledge and strategies as well as areas like statistics, measurement, algebra, and geometry. We want our learners to move to intermediate with solid knowledge, a range of mathematical strategies and problem-solving skills. We are basing our programme on Dragon Maths.

Through this approach, we can ensure that our learners have a range of mathematical experiences. Some of this is integrated through other curriculum areas such as physical education, social sciences, science, etc. Activities may include cooking, mapping, calendar maths, etc. These activities complement our formal maths programme.

Elleen Davids – Leader of Learning Mathematics

NZ Curriculum

All state schools in Aotearoa are bound by the NZ Curriculum which outlines what must be taught. Unlike other countries, NZ does not have a Year 1 curriculum, or a Year 3 curriculum. Instead, our curriculum is in bands of learning so that each learner is taught at their own level. The bands are organised so that most learners in Year 1 and 2 are at level 1, Year 3 and 4 are level 2 and Year 5 and 6 are level 3. We do have some learners in year 6 at level 4 of the curriculum and also some new entrants that are still building the foundation skills to be able to access the NZ curriculum successfully. Every child is different.

If you would like to know more about the current NZ curriculum you can view it here:

https://parents.education.govt.nz/primary-school/learning-at-school/new-zealand-curriculum/

If you would like to know more about the changes being made to the curriculum, known as the curriculum refresh you can view this here:

https://curriculumrefresh.education.govt.nz/te-mataiaho

Term 1 Partnership Meetings

On Wednesday the 27th March we will be holding partnership meetings with parents and caregivers to let you know how your child has settled over term 1 and how they are progressing with their learning. Children will go home at 12.30pm that day so that teachers can eat lunch before starting their meetings at 1pm. Soon your child’s teacher will make contact with you to invite you to make an appointment on that day. It would be beneficial if your child can attend as well as they are very proud of sharing their learning with you.

Parking Around School

We all know that it is important to teach our children young about road safety. As part of Keeping Ourselves Safe, our learners will be talking about rules we have that support our safety such as wearing seatbelts in the car, crossing the road at the pedestrian crossing, wearing a sunhat during terms 1 and 4 etc. To support this learning we ask for your support in ensuring you are parking your car safely around the school at drop-off and pick up. Just a reminder that the entrance off Simon Ellice Drive is a great place for you to park and then wait for your child, they may say it is too far away but I can assure you that during break times your child is active and walking long distances to play equipment, etc. so walking to the back gate is not too far 🙂

Illness

We have had such a fabulous summer with the weather but sadly we are being affected by illness. We currently have cases of covid going through the school affecting both staff and students. We also have some other respiratory illnesses affecting some of our learners and staff. Te Whatu Ora is also expecting measles to hit our shores as winter approaches, due to this it is very important that we have your child’s immunization documentation up to date on our system. If you have not provided us with this you can send it through to Shannon in our office: [email protected]

Please help us maintain a healthy and safe environment for everyone by keeping your children home if they are sick.

Beach Haven Fun Run / Walk

After a few challenging years the Beach Haven Fun Run/Walk is happening on 10 March 2024 at 9am.

Same great location – Shepherds Park, slightly new courses (to make the most of those fabulous new tracks), same great vibes, stalls, sponsors, prizes. Book it in now!!

Term Dates For 2024:

Term 1: 31 January – 12 April

Term 2: 29 April – 5 July

Term 3: 22 July – 27 September

Term 4: 14 October – 17 December

Di and Team Bayview Staff