Welcome back to Term 4! Pictured here are some of our certificate and award winners from our last school assembly 👋

Coming Up

• Sports Assembly - Friday 10 October - 10am (School Hall)

• Life Education - Monday 13 October-Wednesday 29 October

• Sports Team Photos - Tuesday 14 October

• FOTS Disco - Friday 17 October - School Hall (Theme is Pyjama Party) - Tickets available now on Kindo until Thursday 16 October 3pm

• NZEI Strike Day - Thursday 23 October - (School is closed unless there is a change from the Union)- see more information below

• BOT Meeting - Thursday 23 October - 6.30pm (Staffroom)

• Labour Day Holiday - Monday 27 October - (School Closed)

Contents

Principal News

• Welcome to Term 4

• Hats in Term 4

• Class Placements For 2026

• Strike Information

School Notices

• Life Education

School Events

• Superstars

• Year 5 Peer Mediator and Friendship Games

Friends of the School/P.T.A

• Tea Towel Orders Closing Soon

• Parent Feedback Form - Reminder

Principal News

Welcome to Term 4

It's hard to believe we're starting the final term of the year already. We're heading into another busy term, so please be sure to check out the School Calendar. Remember that you can subscribe to the Calendar; the subscription link is here.

We have a FOTS School Disco coming up next week! FOTS are also working hard to ensure Jingle is another great success this year. The Calendar is full of school trips, Waterwise dates and Graduation events, so make sure you have everything noted down.

Hats in Term 4

With the warmer weather and the New Zealand summer approaching, it is compulsory for all children to wear a hat during all outside activities in Term 4.

We ask that your child has a uniformed, named hat ready to wear by the start of next week.

Please note: If children do not have a hat, they are required to play in the shade during morning tea and lunch times. This can restrict their movement and may mean they cannot always play with their friends, so it is very important that they have their hat every day.

Hats are also required for outside lessons, including P.E. This is a crucial part of our sun safety policy to protect your children from the strong sun during the New Zealand summer.

Small and medium Bucket hats can be purchased from the school office for $12 Eftpos (no Paywave).

Thank you for helping us keep your children safe and sun-smart!

Class Placements for 2026

Next week, we'll begin the process of finalising class placements for 2026. This is a thoughtful and rigorous process, and our team works hard to create balanced classes where every child can feel safe, secure and ready to learn.

Our Teachers incorporate student feedback and use sociograms, (a tool for mapping student friendships and working relationships), to ensure we consider every child as an individual when forming the groups.

As part of this collaborative process, parents are welcome to email with any information you feel will help us best meet your child’s learning needs. Please direct your email to the relevant Staff Member:

• Year 3-5: joh@brownsbay.school.nz

• Year 0-2: tanyas@brownsbay.school.nz

Please note that while we welcome your input regarding learning needs, we cannot take specific requests for a Teacher into consideration.

Strike Information

Further to the information last term, I can give you an update on the planned Strike on Thursday 23 October. I know that there can be mixed messages in the Media, but this is what we know now.

Members of the New Zealand Educational Institute (NZEI) Te Riu Roa have voted to take strike action. The indicated day for this strike action is Thursday 23 October.

All schools have been issued with an Informal Strike Notice. Under the Employment Relations Act, the Union is required to provide official notice of a strike at least three calendar days before the planned action. We are awaiting this official confirmation, which we expect to receive by the end of the day on Sunday 19 October. Once the Official Strike Notice is confirmed, we will urgently issue an additional newsletter with our school's definitive plan for Thursday 23 October.

The Board has carefully considered if the school can remain open during strike action. Unfortunately, we are not able to safely keep the school open and so school will be closed on Thursday 23 October, (unless there is a change from the Union).

Please keep a close eye out for further information in our newsletters. We appreciate your understanding and cooperation as we navigate this Industrial Action.

School Notices

Life Education

A visit from the Life Education Mobile Classroom has been arranged for our students. The classroom will be onsite next week for 3 weeks. The Life Education Programme encourages children to adopt a healthy lifestyle with an emphasis on the things children can do to look after themselves. It aims to help children develop respect, understanding and appreciation of the human body. A Life Education Trust educator, Charlie Pollard, will work with us to teach some of those important health ideas. The sophisticated technology and equipment of the Life Education Programme supplements and extends the resources that we can offer the children.
The following topics are being covered:
● Year 0/1 Relationships and Community
● Year 2 Identity and Resilience
● Year 3 Identity and Resilience
● Year 4 Identity and Resilience
● Year 5 Body Systems
● Year 6 Making Good Choices
There is a cost involved in having this programme on site and a contribution of $9.00 per student would be appreciated to support the Life Education Trust. Part of this cost covers related activities that are valuable learning resources. We would appreciate payment of this by Friday 10 October on Kindo.

School Events

Superstars

At the last school assemblies, the following pupils received certificates for their achievements:

YEAR 0/1 TEAM - Kaia Lees R6, Bridger Ren R6, George Cheng R8, Hendrix Hyland R8, Oliver Ingleson-Duder R9, Vivian Zhou R9, Oscar Jin R10, Karina Hou R10, Noah Eversham R11, George Jin R11, Dan Jo R12, Hawk Rayward R12

YEAR 2 TEAM  - Jasper Zhu R2, Hugo Perkins R2, Henry Guo R3, William Paterson R3, Finn Hart R4, Yuni Shi R4, Abby Weldon R5, Tyler Meredith R5

YEAR 3 TEAM - Annika Gopinath R14, Brandon Holmes R14, Austin Bai R15, Max Niu R15,  Kjell Hirovanaa-Nicholls R16, Alissa Petzer R16, Freddy Wang R17, Sophia Ji R17

JUNIOR VALUES AWARD - Mira Mostert R14

YEAR 4 TEAM - Leo Hulton R30, Jessica Deng R30, Aaron Cui R31, Olive Hu R31, Elena Lee R32, Methni Eshwara R32, Iris Li R33, Kevin Xue R33

YEAR 5 TEAM - Ryan Yoo R18, MG Franzoso R18, Kingston Chase R19, Akealah Atchison R19, Jason Jiang R20, Mint Chaikajonsak R20, Lochy Iversen R21, Vani Patel R21

YEAR 6 TEAM - Kora Ren R24, Maeve McGovern R24, Elynn Son R25, Lucie Moyon R25, Nicole Ni R26, Agnes Jun R26, Sunny Liu R27, Luca Spangenberg R27, Jack O’Sullivan R28, Janco Englebrecht R28

SENIOR VALUES AWARD - Isla Packer R27

SERVICE TO THE SCHOOL – Andy Kong R26 

ACHIEVEMENT CUPS - Jessica Wilson R24

ARTS AWARD - Theo Corbett R28

SPORTS CUPS - Veronica Zhou R24,  Jack McDonald R24

Year 5 Peer Mediator and Friendship Games

The Year 5 Peer Mediator and Friendship Games students will be on duty in the next five weeks.

ICAS

Congratulations to all of our Year 4, 5 and 6 students who challenged themselves by sitting the ICAS exams. We would especially like to acknowledge these students who achieved a Distinction award (top 10% in NZ) or a High Distinction award (top 1% in NZ)!

Once we have received the certificates at school, we will award them to the students.

DIGITAL TECHNOLOGIES

YEAR 4 - Nathan Jiang (Distinction)

YEAR 5 - Rhyss Daroy (Distinction)

YEAR 6 - Agnes Jun, Austin Cui (Distinction)

    Margarita Qiao, Yomal Navaratne (High Distinction)

ENGLISH

YEAR 4 - Eaden Liu, Evelyn An, Isla Gamble, Nathan Jiang (Distinction)

    Sarah Wang (High Distinction)

YEAR 5 - Chien-Hui Lo, Jason Jiang, Kevin Wen, Vera Li (Distinction)

    Jessica Feng (High Distinction)

YEAR 6 - Charlie Yang, Chris Xu, Eileen Zhang, Harold Yang, Jinyi Fan, Margarita Qiao, Victor Chen, Yomal Navaratne (Distinction)

    Agnes Jun, Leah Wang (High Distinction)

MATHEMATICS

YEAR 4 - Austin Li, Eaden Liu, Max Chen, Nathan Jiang, Patrick Jin, Samuel Chen, Sarah Wang, Senwei Ren, Seymour Zhang (Distinction)

    Jeremy Cheng (High Distinction)

YEAR 5 - Alex Chu, Jason Jiang, Jessica Feng, Sophia Song (Distinction)

YEAR 6 - Burton Yu, Felicia Yu, Harold Yang, Nicole Ni, Taylor Zhang, Victor Chen (Distinction)

    Leah Wang (High Distinction)

SCIENCE

YEAR 4 - Eaden Liu, Patrick Jin (Distinction)

      Nathan Jiang, Sarah Wang (High Distinction)

YEAR 5 - Jessica Feng, Vera Li (Distinction)

YEAR 6 - Jinyi Fan, Kora Ren, Margarita Qiao, Meilun Song (Distinction)

    Agnes Jun, Harold Yang, Leah Wang, Victor Chen (High Distinction)

Friends of the School/P.T.A

Tea Towel Orders Closing Soon

Don’t Forget to Order Your Tea Towels!

🫖Our Tea Towel Fundraiser is in full swing — don’t miss out! Each Tea Towel features the self-portraits of all the children in your child’s Year group, beautifully screen printed on high-quality cotton (500mm x 700mm).

They’re practical for everyday use, make amazing gifts and will arrive in plenty of time to send to friends and family for Christmas.

📅Orders are open on Kindo until Wednesday 15 October.

Parent Feedback Form - Reminder

FOTS would love to get some Parent feedback around how they fundraise and what we fundraise for. Please take a minute to let us know what you think by completing the Google form here.

We appreciate your feedback.

FOTS School Disco

FOTS School Disco is on Friday 17 October - Pyjama Party theme!! Tickets are $8 each (available on Kindo until Thursday 16 October 3pm) and includes a slice of cheese pizza. Junior Disco is from 5pm-6.15pm, Senior Disco is from 6.45pm-8pm. Kids bring some coins for some treats to buy on the night! Also a reminder that the discos are for school children only, and no parents are allowed inside (unless you are parents of a Year 0 child or a parent helper).

If any parents are available to help out on the night, please email fots@my.brownsbay.school.nz

Community Notices

Every single Friday in Term 4 sKids are running the TGIF Weekender Club! Children can end the week on a high by getting involved in active obstacle courses, creative crafts and chill-out time! Weekender Club also focuses on building friendships & teamwork through group challenges, games and shared projects help kids strengthen social skills and make new friends.  

Rest assured that your kids are having a ball with friends at sKids where glitter flies, and imaginations soar. A place where screens are off, and kids are switched on! Where you avoid school peak hour, and they get peak play hours. 

Book Term 4 today at sKids, where play meets potential. 

Click HERE for link.