Latest information and updates:

1st September 2020

Tena koutou e te whanau

Greetings to Parents / Caregivers

I hope you are all doing well out there and have been enjoying some of these warmer pre spring days - although it certainly is back to winter today!

Alert level 2

Welcome to Week 7 of term 3. We are noticing that some of the school events such as sports, arts and cultural events are starting to pile up as they have been postponed and new dates set. The hard reality is that we are fast running out of school year to reschedule some of these events. It is inevitable that we will have to make some hard calls whether some of these events will take place or not. You can appreciate that given the year we are having, continuity of class learning for our children is paramount. Some of these decisions have been made for us and some we will make. We anticipate your understanding here as we juggle our busy calendar.

Reporting to Parents 2020:

COVID-19 has caused a rethink and a reorganisation of our reporting to parents via digital reporting and meeting parents via learning conferences. With the reduced instructional time the Lockdowns have caused and with accommodating the normal Learning Team events and EOTC activities along with school-wide participation in a crammed sports programme for the last 20 weeks of the year, cultural festivals and music events, we have organised the Learning Conferences for parents at the end of Term 4. The Learning Conferences will coincide with the release of end of year student progress reports. The usual booking system will apply for parents wanting to attend a Learning Conference. As always teachers will continue to meet and communicate with parents whose children received additional support or differentiated programmes as part of the normal daily life of the school. Parents can always request meetings with teachers during the week if needed. Please keep in contact with teachers via email.

Fair Play:

We have noticed post lock down that some of our children have struggled with playing positively in the playground with others especially as we head to the end of the week when tiredness starts to kick in. As a result we have been focusing recently on fair play routines with our children in the playground. This has involved the children brainstorming in their classes, exactly what fair play looks like for them: especially at break times. They have then submitted their brainstorming sheet in return for a brand new supply of play equipment kindly donated by our PTA. The skills of fair play needs to be actively taught and reinforced both at school and at home. Please run this discussion in your house with your children particularly around our core values of being respectful, responsible and resolute.

Resolving conflict:

From time to time children will bring home stories of conflict situations that they may have been involved in or observed with others at school. It is important that we actively listen to our children at all times. However we know there are always two sides to the story and extracting the full details of what happened can be challenging. Please be discerning and please dont rush to conclusions before checking things out with the school first. This is very important as this will save a lot of unnecessary angst and stress for parents and staff. We have had some recent examples where the parent has rushed in to school with accusations that have not been correct only to be embarrassed to find that the problem was caused by their on child.

Staffing:

Welcome to Becs Tait / Amber Tucker to our Junior Team. Becks and Amber will be working alongside Sue Page in the Nest until the end of the year. We also welcome Brylea Bostock in Room 22 until the end of this term.

Migration from LINC ED to HERO student management and reporting system:

The full migration of school-wide data has been completed though a further upgrade will commence this week. Parent access to the ‘Parent View pages will increase once staff familiarity and training has taken place.

You can log on now to Hero. Click https://hero.linc-ed.com/parents/ for Hero login instructions. If you need any additional help, feel welcome to email admin@queenspark.school.nz

Hero enables you to keep up-to-date with all school communication through a modern computer browser or through the app. Note, Internet Explorer is not supported.

All the rich learning content from LINC-ED has been migrated to Hero and our school is working closely with the team at LINC-ED throughout this process.

Year 2/3 Team:

• The Year 2/3 Team has started an interchange of Science, Social Sciences, Music, Te Reo and Digital Technology this week.
• All the Year 2/3 children are either participating in Rocket Reading or Spelling
• We have been teaching the Firewise programme. The Wainoni Fire Fighters are coming to visit us this term.

Year 4/5 Team:

The Year 4/5 team has had a very settled first half of the term, focusing majorly on some consistent learning in the essential areas of Reading, Writing and Mathematics.

We have also been integrating some learning around the environment, with lots of new learning connected to the Christchurch City council's efforts to reduce, reuse and recycle. An exciting trip to several CCC environmental sites is planned for week six.

Our Year 5 students are enjoying their first experiences of senior school sport, with lots of students trialling for tournament teams, running in the zones cross country, as well as all being involved in Rawhiti sport on Fridays.

Here's some feedback from students about Rawhiti:

I'm enjoying playing sports with friends from other classes - Amaia

It's fun because we get to try out some new games - Brock

It's a good way to be brave and give something new a go - CJ

It's cool to go on the bus - Elizabeth

We get to be with different teachers - Max H

Recently our Year 4 students were excited to listen to a New Zealand award winning children's author Juliette McIvor. Students were inspired by her beautiful language and strong rhyming schemes. We got to learn some of her tricks of the trade for writing using rhythm and rhyme for amazing impact!

Year 7/8 Team:

Year 7&8 has busy trialing for various sports competitions this term and keeping their fitness up.

We have started a Social Sciences unit about the challenges of making decisions and what that process looks like in many different contexts. It's providing lots of scope for animated discussions!

Year 6 Team:

Year 6 students have been taking part in Cycle Safe with CCC in the first part of this term.

Rawhiti Sport made a short but successful start for the Year 5-8 Students. We hope to continue this programme once we return to level 1 again. There have been various sports games and or practices held at school in its place.

Year 5/6 Basketball and Year 7/8 Basketball teams have started at weekly competitions

EPro8 Groups have been working well with Mr Mabin

Caretaker, Ben:

Garden projects

- New fruit gardens planted around the shade house

Kids got to learn delicacy with carefully planting the trees without disturbing the roots. Learning how to care for them by watering them and not walking on them

- Building a new path

The kids are getting an opportunity to work as a team. If everyone does a little bit to help, a lot can be achieved

Successes on the playground:

I am continuing to see helping hands when someone falls over. Kind words when someone is feeling down. Working as a team to accomplish tasks like picking up rubbish, finding lost items. Co operation when there is a disagreement - Way to go Queenspark Students!

Remember to keep an eye on the school website for community notices and any other school information.

Regards

Ross Willocks

Principal