Principal's Message
Tena Koutou,
Firstly, I wish to congratulate our wonderful teacher Hillary Houston on her marriage to James Manuel over the weekend. Having delayed their special day in Fiji last year due to lockdown, a wedding on the sunny Kapiti Coast proved to be even better! Best wishes from us all Hillary and James.
On the 27 March the Holi Festival of Colour is being held between 11am – 2pm on the field of Kapiti Primary school. The organisers, being PBS parents, have suggested that we use the event as a fundraiser. This fundraiser involves PBS kids being sponsored $20 to be part of the Colour Run with ALL proceeds returned to PBS to support camp fees for kids. I’ll be involved too – so the community can Colour Bomb me at their leisure 🙂 We will give you more details about this in next week’s newsletter.
Recently, I have seen some good examples of restorative behaviour practice. One of the leading advocates for Restorative Practice we follow at PBS is Marg Thorsborne. I remember a course of Marg’s where she spoke about FESSING UP, FACING UP AND FIXING UP. I have found this to be especially useful when explaining restorative practice to kids; when we do something wrong we have to FESS UP (be honest and take responsibility for our actions), FACE UP (say sorry to those people we have hurt) and then FIX UP (take steps to repair relationships and mend what we have done).
It’s all too easy to speak the words “I’m sorry”, but following the apology up with actions helps to teach the wrong doer consequences, it helps them understand the hurt or damage done and it helps to cement the apology. We all make mistakes in life and this simple model can help us repair some of the hurt done. Using a common language at home and school would be beneficial – so perhaps you might like to adopt the same lingo in your household.
Ngā mihi,
Jess Ward – Tumuaki ~ Principal
PS Don’t forget that school closes at 2pm tomorrow (Wed, 24 February) for Parent-Teacher Interviews
Welcome to Our Recent New Students
There were no new students this week.
Meet the Teacher Interviews
Parent –Teacher interviews, or “Meet the Teacher” as we often call it at the start of year, will be held tomorrow – Wednesday, 24 February. Interviews, at this early stage of the year, are not reporting sessions. However, they are an excellent opportunity for parents and teachers to meet and for parents to pass on essential knowledge about their child and what makes them tick.
To make a booking, click here and enter the code qt4ne, then follow the prompts.
The library will be open during interviews for child supervision.
NB: School closes at 2pm on this date to accommodate enough interview slots.
Were Your Ears Burning?
Staff Gratitude Section
The beginning of a school year is busy for everyone, but syndicate leaders carry an extra workload and responsibility. Our team leaders are a skilled and experienced bunch and I have them to thank for the oversight and management of their teams. Thank you to Rachel McDowell, Vicki Howarth, Vanessa Brewer and Cath Franks – you all show such dedication and I’m truly grateful.
Keeping Our Children Safe Online
Keeping students safe online is an ongoing concern for schools and parents. The internet has made it a lot easier for children to access inappropriate content. PBS has three layers of safety filters in place to protect our students when using their chromebooks at school. It is important to note that this does not apply to mobile phones and that is why we don’t encourage the use of them at school.
When your child goes on their school profile at home they will have one layer of the school’s cyber safety filters through the Google platform. This is because it is cloud based so our set filtering policies remain in place. However, the other two layers are not.
If a separate home profile is set up on your child’s device, it will not have any school filtering policies in place as it is not part of our network. To keep your child safe, we recommend that you set up your own cyber safety filtering for your WiFi via your internet provider or another reputable cyber safety service.
N4L is a service that offers a “Switch on Safety” filter to keep children safe online beyond the school gate. It’s free for parents to use. Just follow the instructions at switchonsafety.co.nz to apply it to your child’s device. Once activated, children won’t be able to get to unsafe websites such as those with scams, bad software, and content unsuitable for young eyes.
Another excellent resource for parents is Netsafe. If you are wanting to know more about how to keep your child/ren safe online head to their website: https://www.netsafe.org.nz/ Netsafe also provides a free advice service seven days a week.
Email help@netsafe.org.nz; Call toll free on 0508 NETSAFE (0508 638 723); Online report at netsafe.org.nz/report; Text ‘Netsafe’ to 4282
Kid's Quote
A teacher in a junior classroom did something out of the normal routine, a child commented “It’s easy to forget things when you’re old”.
Another child looked at the teacher and said “You didn’t like being called old did you?’.
Using Māori Language at Home
It’s important for all Kiwi to learn te reo. Each week our newsletter will include phrases that you might like to try out at your place. After all it will take the whole nation to keep this unique language alive.
Kei hea – Where is
tō – your (referring to one person)
Kei hea tō pouaka kai? Where’s your lunchbox?
Kei hea tō pukapuka? Where’s your book?
Kei hea tō pouaka kete? Where’s your bag?
Thank You
Thank you to Valerie Roberts who donated her self-published picture book to our school library. The book is titled: “Big Ted’s Adventure at Home” and was inspired during lockdown last year.
Movin' March
For the month of March 2021, Paraparaumu Beach School is participating in Movin’ March – a month-long event that celebrates the benefits of walking, scooting and biking to school. There are lots of prizes up for grabs to get your family walking and wheeling to school this March.
Why walk or wheel?
Research shows walking and biking to school can reduce chaos at the gate and help improve students physical health, confidence, independence, decision making, risk assessment, communication and sense of community.
Live too far away?
Try dropping your children away from school so they can walk part of the way. You’ll avoid the chaos and your children will benefit from the fresh air and exercise.
Children too Young?
Talk with other parents from the school community to develop a walking / scooting bus.
WOW (Walk or Wheel) Passport Challenge
All students will receive a WOW Passport card to be stamped each time they walk, bike or scoot to and from school during March – even if they walk part of the way to school. Once completed, we will collect these to send into the Movin’ March Team in Wellington to go into a draw to win one of 12 $400 My Ride vouchers. There will also be spot prizes given throughout the month.
We will be launching Movin’ March from Monday, 1 March.
WHĀNAU PHOTO COMPETITION
Snap photos along your journey to be in to win epic prizes! The Movin’ March organisation have My Ride vouchers, family passes to fun destinations and Micro scooters to give away. Check out all the details at www.movinmarch.com/parents.
Sports Ambassadors
Paraparaumu Beach School is proud to introduce our 2021 Senior Sports Ambassadors. This awesome group of students will be actively promoting sports and being active by organising and running Movin’ March, running lunchtime games, maintaining the sports equipment, supporting our younger tamariki to learn new games, and helping to run some school sports events. We are grateful for their leadership and service to sports at P.B.S.
Year 7/8 Camp Costs
This year’s camp invoices have been sent home this week and you will see the cost in your Kindo accounts.
A great option in Kindo is to make progress payments in smaller amounts when you can. You are also welcome to bring cash into the office in smaller amounts to be credited against your child’s camp cost.
For further information please email Libby Richardson lrichardson@pbs.school.nz or phone the school office.
Recent Student Achievements
Yachting Regatta: Amy Summers competed in the Queen Charlotte Yacht Club Optimist Regatta in Picton on the weekend. She completed six races and came first overall in the Optimist Rainbow Fleet and first girl. Well done!
Student Leave Forms
Please remember if your child is going to be absent from school for reasons other than sickness, you will need to complete a Student Leave Form ahead of time. These forms can now be found on our school website and submitted online.
Click here to find the Student Leave Form.
Hockey
We have not received any information as yet in regards to hockey. As soon as we do, we will send the relevant information home.
Vicki Wilson
Netball
If your child has indicated an interest in playing netball this season, they would have brought home a notice over the last week.
The permission to play section needs to be returned by:
Years 1-2 11 March; Years 3-6 14 April
Fees need to be paid by:
Years 1-2 11 March; Years 3-8 4 May
The season starts:
Years 1-2 17 March; Years 3-4 10 May; Years 5-8 8 May
We will also need coaches and umpires. Please consider if you are able to take on one of these roles, or ask around friends and family to see if they are keen.
Thank you – Vicki Wilson
Ezlunch is Celebrating Turning 10
Every ezlunch order delivered to school Monday 8th – Friday 19th March will go in the draw
to WIN party bags for your whole class to enjoy, including a $10 ezlunch voucher per child.
Go to ezlunch.co.nz (or direct to our school shop on mykindo.co.nz) to log in and place your
order.
