Kia ora koutou,

We are now in the final four weeks of the school year! We still have a busy few weeks ahead of us with the all the events going on in the school. Some really important information included in this fortnight's Snippets, as below.

Canterbury Athletics

Wishing the athletes all the best today for the athletics event. We have sent a large team and we are so proud that you are competing against other students from across Canterbury. Look forward to hearing how they all get on!

Staffing News

Ahead of 2025, we have been carefully reviewing many operational aspects of the school. One of the focuses was ensuring the school is operating financially within its means, and staffing considerations is a big part of that. When looking at the 2025 student numbers against our recommended management staffing allocation, we identified that we needed to move from two to one deputy principal in our school. This leadership structure is inline with similar sized schools. 

Janene will transition out of a Deputy Principal position at the end of 2024 and take up a fixed-term teaching role for 2025. Ben will continue in the single deputy principal role. Janene’s 20 years of experience as a DP will be of great benefit to our learners.  She sees this as a meaningful step forward as she broadens her experience in preparation for future opportunities. Janene is excited to return to the classroom, reconnect with students in this way, and continue contributing to our school in a new role. She will be joining the Waveriders team for 2025 (Year 7&8).

Another announcement is that Lynette Barnfield has resigned from her permanent teaching position at South New Brighton School. She has been teaching here for 20 years. While Lynette is stepping away from the classroom, I am very pleased to share that she will be taking on a Literacy Intervention Specialist role, 4 days a week. Literacy is one of Lynette’s big strengths and she will be working closely with small groups and individual students who have been identified as needing acceleration in literacy. This will be through a structured literacy approach. This programme is going to have such an impact on our learners.

I am pleased to share that Kate Hall has been appointed to lead Learning Support at South New Brighton School. This is 0.5 role. She will still continue to lead the Kuaka team, but will relinquish her classroom responsibilities and provide release for those in her team. We are currently advertising for another teacher in the Kuaka team. 

Below is the proposed teaching structure for 2025. We still have one position to fill and will keep you updated as this is finalised.

Manaia - Year 1-2 (4 classes)

Emma Glass (team leader)

Sandra McHugh

Shay McCann

Rachel Gentry 

Kuaka- Year 3-4 (5 classes)

Kate Hall (team leader, no classroom)

Mel Koppier 

Brad Taylor

Kirsty McIntosh

Lynne Connolly 

New Teacher (position currently advertised)

Legends - Year 5-6 (5 classes)

Karen Ward (team leader)

Jess Fisher-Robertson

Kurt Soares

Anna Pryde

Mark Shin

Waveriders - Year 5-6 (4 classes)

Craig Paterson (team leader)

Janene Gill

Jo Chalmers

Luca MacKenzie 

Class Placements Process 

Now that we have our teachers in place for next year (apart from one Kuaka teacher) we will start our class placements process. For a school of nearly 430 students, this is a huge undertaking as you can imagine. This is the process that the school follows to place students into classes;

• Students choose three other students who they work well with. This information is used to ensure that the student has at least one of those chosen students in their waka. 

• Teachers consider which 2025 teacher might best be suited for individual students, particularly important for those students who receive learning support

• Team leaders and teachers review draft classes and cross check important information, as above

• Class placements are finalised

While we understand that some students/parents have preferences of which teacher they would like, it is not always practical to do so. We do carefully consider class placements and genuinely want all students to be placed with the most appropriate class/teacher. On Monday 16th of December the end of year report will be available on HERO for you to read, as well as what class your child will be in 2025.  From time to time, we have had requests from parents for their child to be moved, following class placements being confirmed. After our careful thought and processes, we would be very reluctant to make any changes and would strongly encourage the child to get the year underway. Following this, if it appears there is any unhappiness after a decent amount of time, we are open to having further discussion later in Term 1. We know change is hard for some children, and giving it time to settle and talking about it positively, most often has great outcomes.

Prize Giving 

Our full school prize giving is on Tuesday 10th December, at 6pm (students arrive from 5.40pm). This will be held in the Avonside Girls / Shirley Boys theatre. We are excited to have all our school whānau together to celebrate what has been a great year. This year we are also introducing class awards for Year 0-7, in addition to our Year 8 senior cups and prizes. The three new categories for the awards are:

• Whanonga Pono Award (one per class) for students who have consistently shown the school tikanga. They are respected by their peers and always show care, connection, courage, creativity and curiosity.

• Panekiretanga Award (one per class) for students who perform to the highest standard and benchmark, a pinnacle of achievement and excellence

• Haumāuiui Award (one per class) for students who have accomplished, attained (through hard work), achieved and made excellent progress

We will also have performances from our kapa haka group, choir and school band. We will also hear from some of our key people. We look forward to seeing you there! 

Mana Ake

We are fortunate to once again be able to offer another drop-in session on Thursday the 5th of December between 9am and 11am with Mana Ake.  They are an outside agency who provide support to children in Canterbury promoting wellbeing and positive mental health.  Mana Ake can support children at school and at home and provide advice, guidance and workshops for parents, whānau and teachers. 

A drop-in is a chance for you to talk for 20-30 min in person regarding what’s on top for your young person and what things will support them best. 

If you would like to make a booking, please complete this form and we will do our best to fit you in on the day. Confirmation of exact times will be sent to your email address early next week. 

School Accounts - HERO 

We have noticed a few outstanding payments on school accounts. You can view your school account on the HERO app. Please ensure all payments are made by Friday 20th December or earlier.

Key dates for remainder of the year

• Itinerant Music Concert - Sunday 1st December at 2pm(The Bridge)

• BOT Meeting - Wednesday 4th December

• Year 8 Formal - Friday 6th December

• School Prize Giving - Tuesday 10th December at 6pm

• Junior Athletics - Wednesday 11th December

• Reports and class placements shared via HERO - Monday 16th December

• Final School Hui - Thursday 19th December at 2pm

• Last day of the school year - Friday 20th December at 12pm 

Whanau Hui is on this Friday at 9.15am. We look forward to seeing you then!

We have recently set our dates for 2025 and are going to start the school year off with Check and Connect Hui. This will be an opportunity for students and whānau to have some time with the new classroom teacher discussing the classroom programme, answering questions and getting to know each other.

• Check and Connect Hui - Monday 3rd and Tuesday 4th February (bookings on Hero will become available prior to the end of the school year)

• First day of the school year is Wednesday 5th February, 2025

• There will be two-three teacher only days during the year, and these are yet to be confirmed.

Wishing everyone a great rest of the week!

Ngā mihi nui,

Kate McClelland - Tumuaki/Principal