08 August - Term 3 Week 3

Teresa Burn — May 1st, 2024

Congratulations to our Year 6 Netball Team (pictured here) for winning the Super Cluster Netball Tournament this week. Well done!!

Coming Up

Read-A-Thon continues - Prize Draw - Friday 09 August - 1.30pm
Scholastic Book Fair Week - Monday 12 August-Friday 16 August
Barefooted NZ to Visit Y3 Students - Tuesday 13 August
Y6 Visit to Murrays Bay Intermediate School - Tuesday 13 August
Y6 Motat Trip - Wednesday 14 August
Book Character Day and Dress Up Parade - Friday 16 August
FOTS Meeting - Monday 19 August - 6.30pm (Staffroom)
Y6 Northcross Intermediate Visit - Tuesday 20 August
Y5/6 Super Cluster Hockey - Wednesday 21 August
BOT Meeting - Thursday 22 August - 6.30pm (Staffroom)
Whole School Assembly - Friday 23 August - 9.45am (Y2 Hosting)

Principal News

Government Announcement - Structured Maths
Astroturf and Building Projects
Feedback on the Fridge List and Calendars
3pm Pick Up
AWHI Update

School Notices

Browns Bay School Lunchroom
Intermediate School Enrolments 2025

School Events

Read-A-Thon
Book Character Day and Dress Up Parade
Year 2 100th Day of School Celebration
Year 1 Celebrating Milo`s Birthday
Super Cluster Netball
Friendship Games Leaders
Buddy Classes Nature Scavenger Hunt

Principal News

Government Announcement - Structured Maths

Over the weekend, the Government announced that it is bringing forward the introduction of a new Structured Curriculum for teaching Maths. The statistics that were used to show the achievement of students in Maths were alarming. Those statistics do not match the data for our school.

At Browns Bay School we track the progress of students very carefully and have support for children who are not achieving at the levels we would expect for their age. We also support children who need extension because they are exceeding those levels.

At the end of Term 2 we collected data from across the school. In Year 6, 73% of students were working at or above the expected level for their age. Of those students, 43% had already exceeded the expected level for the end of the year.

We work closely with all the schools in our area. Murrays Bay Intermediate School sent the following information:

At Murrays Bay Intermediate School, teachers use the Learning Progression Framework to place students on the PaCT tool. At the end of 2023, of the 538 Year 8 students moving on to high school, 94% worked within Level 4 and above, with 48% of those working within Level 5 and beyond. This year, our data is tracking in a similar way, with a majority of students already working 'at' or 'above' the Curriculum expectation. At the halfway point of this year, 88% of students are working at Level 4 or above in Maths.

These results reflect the dedication and hard work of our students, as well as the excellent support from our teachers. We are confident that our students are well-prepared for the exciting challenges of high school.

When we have more information to share I will update you through the newsletter. Schools and Boards did not receive information prior to the announcement and at this stage there has been no detail provided to schools.

Astroturf and Building Projects

Thanks to the fundraising efforts over a number of years I am happy to let you know that over the summer break we will be installing Astroturf over the courts outside Rooms 14-17 (the Year 3 block). We are still working on the final design, but it will include two Basketball courts, two Netball courts and some additional hoops and small games. It will transform the area making it safer and better for training and having fun at school!

During the summer break I hope there will be two other major building projects happening. The roof on Rooms 1-7 (the Year 2 block) is due to be replaced and we hope to get the work completed in the summer holidays when there are no children onsite. Our pool is also due to be painted. This work will also take place in the holidays so we can keep swimming lessons going during term time. Unfortunately it means that this year we will not be able to hire out pool keys to the school community, and the school grounds will be 'out of action' for most of the holidays.

I usually love that the community can use the facilities while school is closed. It is a wonderful opportunity for your children to play in a safe environment. I have tried to group the projects together to keep costs down, and to make sure that we can return to school in February with a much improved environment.

Massive thanks to FOTS and everyone who has supported the school in raising money for the Astroturf. Keep the fundraising going with the Readathon!

Here is the link if you still need to create your site.

https://brownsbayschoolreadathon.raiseit.co.nz/

Feedback on the Fridge List and Calendars

The Fridge List was attached to the last newsletter and came home (hopefully) in hard copy with the Read-A-Thon information.

I would love to know if it was useful. Please let me know here and we can plan for next term. Don't forget you can also add the School Calendar to your Google profile if you are a regular user of the calendars. Just click here.

3pm Pick Up

Reminder that all children should be collected from school at 3pm. There should be no unsupervised children on the school grounds after this time. sKids operate an after school programme in our School Hall if you are unable to collect your children on time. See Community Notices for more information on sKids. Thank you for your support.

AWHI Update

Our AWHI lessons continue to be an important part of each Monday’s planning. Lessons aim to teach students new skills as well as enhancing the positive behaviours we already see throughout the school. Recently we have been learning about how we can treat others with respect. Your children have been learning that everyone deserves respect regardless of who they are or the role they have at school, home or in the community. From time to time things don’t go to plan at school so we have also been teaching your children who they can go to if they have a problem. We can sort most issues out quickly if we are told about them at the time. Our Duty Teachers are always available at break times along with our fabulous Peer Mediators and Cultural Leaders. It would be great if you could chat with your child about what they have been learning and perhaps even speak to them about who they can go to if something goes wrong when they’re not at school.

In next week's Lesson we will be focusing on active listening. This is an essential life skill and one that’s important to develop. We’ll be looking out for students who really demonstrate their active listening skills.

School Notices

Browns Bay School Lunchroom

The Browns Bay School Lunchroom will remain closed for now due to staffing arrangements.

The School Lunchroom should open again on Monday 02 September. This date will be updated in future newsletters.

ezLunch will continue to be available on Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays.

ezlunch provides a wide variety of healthy food options for school lunches (including vegetarian and gluten free), delivered to Browns Bay School by Go-Deli.

It is available Monday, Wednesday and Friday with ordering online at www.ezlunch.co.nz. Lunches can be ordered, at home, in less than 1 minute.

Payment is made by ezlunch account, topped up by credit card. NO COINS required.

You can Join ezlunch (for free) and have a look online.

Questions or comments to enquiry@ezlunch.co.nz. Helpdesk 7.30am-4.30pm on 475 5287, during term time.

2024 ezlunch Menu Click here

Intermediate School Enrolments 2025

Murrays Bay Intermediate School

Murrays Bay Intermediate School have asked for the following dates to be passed on to parents who have a child attending their school in 2025:

Wednesday 21 August - Parents Evening - MBIS Hall - 6pm

Tuesday 27 August / Wednesday 28 August – Application Confirmation - MBIS Hall 7.30am – 10.30am and 3pm – 8pm

Tuesday 12 November / Thursday 14 November – Transition Interview In Person or On-Line 3.30pm – 7pm

Wednesday 13 November – Band Information Evening MBIS Hall - 7pm

Monday 25 November to Saturday 30th November and Tuesday 28 January to Friday 31 January – Uniform Sales

The children will bring home enrolment information following their transition visit to MBIS on Tuesday 13 August.

Northcross Intermediate School

Northcross Intermediate School have asked for the following dates to be passed on to parents who have a child attending their school in 2025:

Tuesday 20 August - Year 6 Orientation Visit to Northcross Intermediate

Wednesday 28 August - Parent Information Evening - 6.00pm

More information from the school has been emailed to parents who have indicated that their child will attend the orientation visit.

School Events

Read-A-Thon

Thank you to everyone who has set up their fundraising site for our school Read-A-Thon! It is not too late.

Here is the link if you still need to create your site.

https://brownsbayschoolreadathon.raiseit.co.nz/

Browns Bay School in conjunction with our Browns Bay ‘Friends of the School’ Parent Association are running a Read-A-Thon fundraiser to assist us in raising funds towards our exciting new sports upgrade. We are fundraising to repair and upgrade our Basketball and Netball courts and create an Astroturf field that will allow our Tamariki to play sports year round.

We have the opportunity to reinvigorate the courts outside Rooms 14-17 to expand the number of hoops available for playing and practicing as well as building an entirely new Astroturfed area that has line markings for Basketball, Netball and Tapu ae. Our students are coming together to participate in our Read-A-Thon. They are seeking online sponsorship for their efforts. All funds raised will go towards this exciting upgrade to our sports facilities.

Congratulations to those children who won a prize last Friday. The next Prize Draw is tomorrow, Friday. Anyone who has set up a fundraising site and has received some sponsorship will be in with a chance to win a prize!

Book Character Day and Dress Up Parade

Next Friday – 16 August

Children are invited to dress as a book character
We would like them to carry the book that they are a character from or make/ have a copy of the book's cover/title (if possible) so when they parade we know the book they are from.

The children will assemble at 9.15am ready to parade one class after another. Once every class has paraded and is back to their starting point children will return to their classrooms.

If the weather is fine: Parents are welcome to come and watch the parade but we ask that you stay in the designated parent viewing spots only –please see the map below. This is so we have a clear parade area for the children to move around.

If the weather is wet/really wild and windy the Character Day will still go ahead but the parade will not!

Year 2 100th Day of School Celebration

The Year 2 students from Rooms 1, 2, 3 and 4 celebrated their 100th day of school for this year!

They have been focusing all year on the ‘number of the day’ and improving our number knowledge and strategy skills as the number increases.

They celebrated the day by dressing up as though they were 100 years old(even the teachers) and had a special shared lunch party! All our learning activities that day also focused on the number 100! It was a lovely day of celebration.

Year 1 Celebrating Milo`s Birthday

Year 1 celebrated Milo's birthday surprise after completing their learning about all the sounds of the alphabet. Rm 11 are pictured here.

Super Cluster Netball

Two of our Netball teams competed in the Netball Super Cluster against 8 other schools. Both teams played fantastically, with both making it into the semifinals. There was some excellent netball played and some very tough games. Well done to our Year 5 team for coming 4th in the Year 5 division and huge congratulations to our Year 6 team who were the overall winners on the day! A huge thank you to the coaches of both teams and all the supporters on the day.

Friendship Games Leaders

At the start of this term the Friendship Games leaders attended a lunchtime training session so they can teach the Junior students how to dribble the ball in Basketball. The Junior students are having great fun learning how to dribble and pass, circle dribble, partner dribble and zigzag dribble. Once they feel confident, the Friendship Games leaders are helping the Junior students put these skills into practice while playing a friendly game of Basketball. Thank you Friendship Games leaders for stepping up and doing such an awesome job each day during lunch playtime!