We were delighted to receive a community AED machine from the Embracing Hearts Charitable Trust last week. Buddle Finlay has also provided grant funds to provide a lockbox. This will be a wonderful community resource (we do hope we never have to use it).

This AED will be installed near the office on Washington Ave. From left we have Rachel Evans from Wellington Free Ambulance, Charlotte von Dadelszen from Buddle Finlay, Liz Rhodes (Tumuaki), Emma Lawler from Embracing Hearts and Rebecca McEwen from Heart Kids. If you are ever in need of it, please call 111 to ask for the lockbox code.

Welcome back

Welcome back to school for Term Two. We hope you had a lovely break with your whānau.  We are enjoying the settled sunny Autumn days as we embark on a term full of science learning and discovery. 

You will have received your child's syndicate newsletter last week outlining the work programmes for the term. This term culminates with parent-teacher-child conferences, reports and celebrating Matariki.

We want to thank you for contributing to our Community Consultation, we had 120 responses which is a great result. We are using this to help inform us of our strategic direction over the next few years. 

Cross Country

Today we enjoyed watching the tamariki run the cross country. This is an annual event and the Tūī syndicate were supported by the rest of the school as they ran around the school playground. 

The rest of the school visited the Prince of Wales Park, this park has been out of action for a few years as WCC has installed a new water reservoir to help with Wellington's Water resilience. We welcomed the opportunity to have this resource available to us again. Even better, we didn't need to catch a bus! The tamariki were amazing and we would like to thank Jo Wheeler and Kurt Norton for their organisation. You will receive an email from either Kurt or Jo over the next few weeks if your Year 4-8 child qualified for the Central Zone Cross Country. This is scheduled for the 21st May.

Structured Literacy Announcement

You may have heard the announcement around structured literacy last week. The media release on 2 May quotes: "Structured literacy will change the way New Zealand children learn to read - improving achievement and setting students up for success, Education Minister Erica Stanford says.

“Being able to read and write is a fundamental life skill that too many young people are missing out on. Recent data shows that just 56 per cent of Year 8 students are at the expected level for reading, and just 35 per cent for writing,” Ms Stanford says.

“Domestic and international evidence shows this method is the most effective way of equipping children with strong reading skills that are critical for their futures.

“A number of schools in New Zealand are already teaching structured literacy and have experienced significant improvements in student achievement. I want all children to have this opportunity.

“That is why, beginning in Term 1 2025, all state schools will teach reading using the proven structured literacy approach."

At Brooklyn, we use the Better Start To Literacy Approach for our year 1- 3 tamariki. From year 4 we use Liz Kane's The Code which is a structured spelling approach. Our progress and achievement data shows us that at the end of last year we had 89% of Year 8 students at the expected level for reading, and 87% for writing. We are looking forward to seeing what extra resourcing we will receive from this announcement to help support our literacy programmes. 

Last week we had 11 of our staff host a BSLA Parent Evening, we enjoyed sharing our knowledge and understanding with you around this new reading approach. Thank you to those of you who came along.

Attendance

If a student misses one day of school every two weeks, they miss a whole year of school by 16 years of age. As a parent or caregiver, you, alongside our school, play a key role in building strong habits of regular school attendance.

All students are legally required to attend school every day and it is a shared responsibility to make sure students attend and engage in learning from when they first start school. As we enter 2024, every day of school matters.

You must let the school know if your child is going to be absent for a day or intends to be absent for a portion of the school term for whatever reason, like a tangi or medical procedure. Family holidays or taking time off for extracurricular activities (not organised by school) are not acceptable reasons for being absent.

If you're struggling at home with getting your child to school, talk to us! Our school is committed to supporting your child to attend school and building a culture that fosters excellent attendance by having:

· School staff who have strong relationships with students and whānau.

· A school culture that recognises your child and your family for who they are, where they come from and who they want to be.

· A school community that does everything to make sure students are at school, and they are participating, and progressing in their education.

Parents and caregivers can find more information here.

Teacher Professional Development

Mitey is an evidence-based, school-wide approach to teaching mental health education which is built around the NZ Curriculum and aligned to the Mental Health Education Guidelines. This term, the kaiako at Brooklyn School are learning more about this programme and their staff meetings will be focused on this new learning.

The last few years have brought increased awareness of the alarming number of children experiencing mental health issues in New Zealand. Teachers know that anxious and unhappy children find it difficult to learn. If children are mentally and emotionally healthy they are better equipped to face the challenges life brings.

Mitey targets NZ children from Years 1-8 to help them build the necessary and age-appropriate skills, knowledge and understanding they need to nurture their emotional well-being and those of others.

Learn more about Mitey here.

We have also been successful in our Ministry-funded professional development application for maths. This will also be an area of focus for the kaiako this year. This is through an assessment for learning lens.

Access way by the Community Centre

We have been advised by the Brooklyn Community Centre that next Wednesday and Thursday the accessways between the community centre and McKinley Crescent (including at the bottom of the orchard) will be closed off for tree maintenance. 

We are looking forward to an exciting term of learning.