Welcome back to Term 3 😀Our lead photo is of one of our teams who took part in last terms 2025 Junior Mathex Competition.

Coming Up

• Parent/Teacher Conferences - Wednesday 16 July & Thursday 17 July

• Sports Assembly - Friday 18 July 9.45am start (Y3-6)

• Super Cluster Hockey - Tuesday 22 July

• Rm 14 Parent/Teacher Conferences - Tuesday 22 July

• BOT Meeting - Tuesday 22 July - 6.30pm (staffroom)

• Y6 Puberty Meeting - Thursday 24 July - 6pm-7.30pm

• FOTS Meeting - Monday 28 July - 6.30pm (staffroom)

Contents

Principal News

• Using the Drop Off /Pick Up Zone

• Safety at the School Gate

• Board Elections

• Feedback at Parent/Teacher Interviews

• School Reports

School Notices

• Intermediate School Enrolments 2026

Friends of the School/P.T.A

• 2025 Math-a-thon Fundraiser

Principal News

Using the Drop Off /Pick Up Zone

Thank you to everyone who uses the Drop Off/Pick Up Zone. We know that it is not always possible to make other arrangements for getting to and from school.

There is always a member of staff on duty before and after school. I try and do that as often as possible. I love doing this duty because it is a great way to get to know children and connect with the community. Increased safety is important too.

Keeping traffic moving is always our goal, so whoever is on duty, please do all you can to help with that.

Drop-Off

• Make sure that your child can use the passenger door on the pavement side - children should never exit a car on the road side.

• Talk to your child about being ready to jump out quickly as you are approaching the Drop Off and say your goodbyes before you stop.

• Have your child's bag next to them, or on their lap so when you stop they are ready to hop out straight away.

• Please do not leave your car at any time. If there is a problem, please drive on and park away from the Drop Off Zone.

The Staff on duty will help to keep the traffic flowing by closing doors and helping children but you don't need to wait for someone. Please drive on as quickly as you can.

Pick-Up

• Please do not enter the Pick-Up Zone before 3pm when the signs are removed. This is at the request of the Police.

• Please do not queue on Masterton Road. You are welcome to arrive any time between 3pm and 3.10pm.

• If you arrive and your child is not ready, it helps everyone if you drive around the block. This stops queueing on Masterton Road and helps everyone.

• Your child is able to jump in the car once your car is clear of the yellow lines at the start of the zone.

The Staff member on duty is there to help with traffic flow, but we encourage children to be independent and manage themselves.

Please do not u-turn on Masterton Road at drop-off or pick up. Our Road Patrol children are taught by the Police not to put the signs out while someone is u-turning and everyone else is held up while you are turning.

Board Elections

Thank you to the members of the community who have contacted me about standing in the upcoming Board elections. I am always thankful to be part of a community so willing to support our kura. 

The Boards of all state and state integrated schools are required to hold elections every three years, and this will be happening again in 2025. The School Board is an important part of our school as they set the strategic direction for our school, consult with our school community about our school, ensure the school's funding is spent wisely and ensure that we are giving effect to Te Tiriti o Waitangi within our school. 

Our Board is made up of five representatives from the community, the Principal and a staff representative elected by the staff. 

The current Board has made the decision to appoint Election Pilot as the Returning Officer for our election and for the election to be provided online. They have been assisting schools with elections for over 20 years and have been the only election provider accredited by the Ministry of Education to provide online election services since online elections started in 2022. Nomination and voting forms will be sent to all eligible voters by email directly from Election Pilot. We work with Election Pilot and use the email addresses that are on Etap. If we don’t have an email address for you, nomination and voting papers will be sent by post so no one will miss out.

School Board elections must be held in accordance with the provisions in the Education and Training Act 2020 and the Education (Board Elections) Regulations 2022. Your name and contact details have been provided to Schooled Election Pilot to enable the provision of election services for our school as required by legislation. They will use your contact details for the provision of election services for Browns Bay School only and your details will be deleted 60 days after the election date as required by legislation.

If you have any questions about the election process, please contact the Returning Officer directly on 0800 VOTENZ (0800 868 369) or election@electionpilot.nz.

We will continue to keep you updated through the various stages of the election process, and our election date is Wednesday 10th September.

Feedback at Parent/Teacher Interviews 

The current Board is collecting feedback from you to help with future planning. You may remember that we put a Google form in newsletters last term and included the graphic below to share the feedback you gave.

At parent / teacher conferences a feedback sheet will be available in all classes. If you haven’t given feedback yet, don’t miss the opportunity. There will be two sheets;

• Things you love about the school

• Something you would like to change

Please take the time to contribute to the future of your child’s school.

School Reports

At the end of last term you may have heard some news articles about school readiness to implement and report on the new curriculum. I want to assure you that we are teaching the new curriculum. We planned for changes through last year. The leadership team has supported teachers and in turn teachers have worked hard to understand and implement the changes.

As I have already shared with you, the report that you have received this week shows the progress that your child has made against the old curriculum standards. I made this decision for a number of reasons. The Ministry of Education is still working on structures and language to support parents and will make final decisions in Term 4. It may mean that we make some significant changes to reporting and while we are still working on this I want to give you as much consistency in reporting as possible. Before making significant changes to reports I would like to understand better what information is important to you and consider how this can best sit within our whole communication structure. 

Linked here is a short survey about the reports you have just received and gives you the opportunity to offer feedback moving forward. Thank you to everyone who completes these surveys. Your feedback is always useful.

School Notices

Intermediate School Enrolments 2026

We will shortly be underway with the Intermediate School Transition Programme for our Year 6 students.

Once the students have visited their nominated school, they will bring home further specific enrolment information.

The Transition visits will be held on:

Wednesday 13 August   Murrays Bay Intermediate School

Monday 18 August          Northcross Intermediate School

Thank you for filling in the Google form - indicating which school you would like your child to visit.

Please be aware that Northcross Intermediate have informed us that they will only be taking out-of-zone applications for students who have a sibling attending their school.

Friends of the School/P.T.A

The Countdown is on…

Two weeks until the Browns Bay School/FOTS major fundraiser Math-A-Thon. 

This will take place in Weeks 3-5 this term.

We are fundraising for the upgrade of our school playground areas. Each year level will have a set of questions from the new Maths Curriculum that they will practice and be tested on in Week 5.

We need to have every family on board to manage this, and the knowledge building that will occur can only benefit every participant!

At the start of Week 3, questions will be sent home for the children to practice both at home and at school. We hope this will provide another real opportunity for students and their families to focus on building some Maths knowledge.

Our MATH-A-THON is a ‘challenge’ for children to practice and gain knowledge to enable them to complete a MATH-A-THON test, with as many correct answers as possible. 

Each student will create their own fundraising site through “Go Raise It”.

 All information will come home at the beginning of Week 3, and this fundraising link can be shared with friends and family anywhere in the world!

Incentives/Rewards

There will be three prize draws throughout the Math-a-thon period. 

• Friday 1st August -  Week 1 of MATH-A-THON - any student who has created a Go-Raise It fundraising site will go into the prize draw.

• Friday 8th August - Week 2 of MATH-A-THON - any student who has received any sponsorship via their Go-Raise It fundraising site will be in the prize draw.

• Friday 15th  August - Week 3 of MATH-A-THON - any student who has received any sponsorship via their Go-Raise It fundraising site will be in the prize draw.

We also have 3 major prizes for the students who raise the most money.

First prize – Rainbows End Super Pass for 2 adults and 2 children - this includes entry and rides

Second prize - $100 Westfield voucher and Third prize - $50 Westfield voucher

There will also be a class incentive - Pizza lunch for the 2 classes with the best participation (worked out on a class average). 

Major prizes will be awarded at the School Assembly in Week 10. 

Thank you for your support with our 2025 ‘MATH-A-THON’, a fun way for our children to learn and to raise money for our school playground upgrade project.

Tanya Sheppard                                                               

Tanyas@brownsbay.school.nz

Community Notices