Mēnā, ka whakapono koe, ka tūtuki koe. If you can believe it, you can achieve it!

Dear Parents/Whānau

Thank you so much for your understanding on Friday.   A lockdown is never easy to manage.  You can be very proud of your children who stayed calm and helped the teachers do their jobs.    This lockdown was under the direction of the police and we were advised to wait for their clearance to release the children.  Whilst I understand some of you wanted to collect your children, we were simply under the advice of the police and our number one priority was keeping your children absolutely safe.  Friday was indeed a sad sad day for our city.

It has been wonderful to see so many of you around the school in recent weeks meeting with teachers to set learning goals for your child. These meetings are a great chance to connect and work together as we support your child to be the best they can be this year. If you missed these meetings, you are still very welcome to come in! Simply get in touch with your child’s teacher and they will be very happy to make a time for you.

Breens is a PB4L (Positive Behaviour for Learning) School and at the moment we are rolling out the 12 Breens catch phrases which stem from our five school values with a series of weekly lessons. So far, we have focused on BEING KIND, ACTIVELY PARTICIPATING, USING MANNERS and GETTING INVOLVED.  Some of the student leadership team have been busy creating fabulous graphics to support the catch phrases. These will feature around our school.

The staff had a wonderful day of learning last Friday with Rich Matler from Restorative Schools. We spent the day learning more about the restorative way of being and what that translates to in a school context. It is all about facilitating conversations that help people reflect deeply on their behaviour, the effect it has on others and what can be done to put things right. This approach fits beautifully with our school values and the Positive Behaviour for Learning (PB4L ) work we are doing.

Building progress - 18 concrete trucks later and the slab is now down for our two new learning hubs and multi-purpose library/hauora space! The paths will now be laid around Māpuna and this will give us better access around the school and the building site.

Thank you for your support with helping our children to be safe as they arrive and leave for school each day. The yellow no parking lines have been a real concern of late outside the school.   We ask you to encourage your child to get their own way to school where possible and avoid being dropped off and collected at the school gate. This will help with the congestion around the school/preschool and construction area and also promote a bit of additional physical fitness each day!

This newsletter reflects just some of the rich opportunities from this term so far and there are plenty more great learning opportunities still to come this term. I hope you enjoy the articles in this newsletter, many of which are written by our students.

Ngā mihi nui

Nikki