Acting Principal's Message
Kia ora koutou,
Today’s newsletter is packed with useful information for our whānau, with a few highlights being:
- More free tickets to tomorrow’s FIFA World Cup match – Wednesday 7pm South Africa v Italy
- Some photo highlights from last week’s events
- Dates for your calendar
Thank you for supporting the Student Council’s Little Heart Day fundraiser for Heart Kids New Zealand last Friday. Together we raised $934.00. That’s a fantastic effort! We have a handful of students with heart conditions at PBS so to be able to support a charity that they will hopefully benefit from is heartening!
And thank you to all of the parent helpers that enabled our students to take part in events last week. We had 120 girls from Years 5-8 attend the Football Girls Day Out. It was a great opportunity for the girls to meet professional Phoenix football players and participate in a sport that they might not be familiar with.
Apologies if you missed out on the free tickets we had for Saturday’s FIFA football match, but hopefully you were able to secure some for tomorrow’s game. We still have 20 free tickets available- South Africa v Italy, 7pm kick off in Wellington. If you would like them please contact the office as soon as you can.
We have a number of student desks that are surplus to requirement. We will display them on the pavers by Rm 17 on fine days. If you’d like one for your child/ren at home, please help yourself or chat with JT, our school caretaker, about arranging pick up.
This Thursday afternoon, teachers will be attending the launch of our area’s Kāhui Ako. This is a community of learning where local schools work together to form common pathways that will ultimately benefit all of our ākonga/learners. Exciting times ahead.
Kia pai te wiki. Have a great week.
Noho ora mai rā, nā
Sarah Chambers
Acting Principal
Upcoming dates for your calendar:
- Wednesday, 2 August Storylines National Story Tour – Te Moana (Year 5 & 6)
- Tuesday, 15 & Wednesday, 16 August – Tātahi Class photos & Portraits (Year 1-2, Rm 16), sports teams and extra curricular groups
- Monday, 21 August – Tātahi Little Dog Barking Show
- Tuesday, 29 August – Senior Winter Tournament 9am – 3pm, Epro8 Internal Event Year 5 & 6
- Wednesday, 30 August – Epro8 Internal Event Year 7 & 8
ACTING PRINCIPAL’S GREAT NEWS CORNER:
Sharing good news spreads positivity, changes attitudes and ultimately leads to more people feeling encouraged and happy
Last Wednesday we had 4 students represent PBS at a Wellington Regional Chess event. This was the first time we’ve sent a chess team so it was a great experience for those involved. Well done Jamie, Amy, Griffin and Devin! Thank you Eric Gunawan for transporting and supervising them on the day.
Welcome to Our Recent New Students
Leo – Rm 18
Emmy – Rm 25
Hannah – Rm 25
Willow – Rm 25
Have You Checked Out Our Community Notices Directory?
Do you need to advertise your business, an upcoming event, need child care, or looking for a gift or new club to join? Check out the PBS Community Directory on our website https://kapiti.pbs.school.nz/
Using Māori Language at Home
Learning another language provides many benefits including greater academic achievement, greater cognitive development, and more positive attitudes towards other languages and cultures. So, let’s give it a go and help to revitalise this unique language to Aotearoa for our tamariki. Each week our newsletter will include words or phrases that you might like to try out at your kāinga/home.
Ngā Tae (colours)
Mā – white
Kōwhai – yellow
Karaka – orange
Pango / Mangu – black
Paraurī / Parāone – brown
Kākāriki – green
Whero – red
Māwhero – pink
Waiporoporo – purple
Kikorangi – sky blue
Kahurangi – blue
Kiwikiwi – grey
When you want to ask your child/ren what whānau rōpu (family group) they are in you can say:
Pātai (question)
He aha te tae o te rōpu whānau? (What is the colour of your whānau group?)
Whakautu (answer)
He whero te tae o te rōpu whānau (The colour of the whānau group is red)
He whero. (It’s red)
Mid Year Learning Summary
At PBS all our reporting is online throughout the year. Parents can access their child’s learning progress via the @Schoolapp for students in Years 3-8 and SeeSaw for students in Years 0-2. The 2023 Mid-Year Learning Summary was accessible in the last week of term 2.
To Open the Learning Summary: On the @Schoolapp dashboard click on the icon called “Learning Summary” this will take you to another window. Click on “Learning Summary Mid-Year 2023” and this takes you to a window where you will be able to download the mid year learning summary.
What else can parents see? Online reporting, via the Learning Space (access to the student portal), Spotlight (published evidence) the Blog and Seesaw gives parents the opportunity to log in and view their child’s progress and evidence of their learning at any time during the school year. Throughout the year teachers will upload progress on your child’s reading, writing and maths, as well as general comments on learning, attitude and behaviour.
When you are viewing reading, writing and maths comments about your child via these portals, you will notice a reference to the NZ Curriculum level your child is working at, at the beginning of the comment: For example EL1 = Early Level 1, L1 =Level 1, EL2 = Early Level 2, L2 = Level 2 and so on.
NB: Typically students in Years 0-2 are working at NZ Curriculum Level 1, Years 3-4 students are working at NZ Curriculum Level 2, Years 5-6 students are working at NZ Curriculum Level 3 and Years 7-8 students are working at NZ Curriculum Level 4.
What are the benefits of online reporting? The benefits of reporting online mean that the information parents are receiving about their child’s progress is more timely and accessible. When we used to write paper reports we recognised that by the time the reports were sent home at mid and end of each year, the assessments and comments were already outdated due to the 6-8 weeks it takes to compile them. This new way of reporting also enables teachers to support students with individual goals throughout the year as opposed to sitting and writing reports for blocks of time which have all passed by. With Spotlight, the Blog and SeeSaw students have greater ownership of their learning, especially when they can upload evidence to show their achievements. Furthermore, parents have the ability to comment on their child’s progress, which helps to encourage and reinforce the gains they are making.
Why are we using SeeSaw for Years 0-2? We have assessed the Spotlight tool for use with Year 0-2 students and feel it does not yet cater well enough for their needs. Therefore, we have made the decision to broaden the Junior team’s use of Seesaw to include reporting.
Year 3 - Year 4 Netball
I am aware that the season has now finished but please hold onto your child’s netball top until we have had the school photos for teams taken. The date for this is 15th or 16th August.
Ngā mihi, Vicki Wilson
School Photos -15 & 16 August
School photos will be taken on these dates for Year 1 and Year 2 students, Room 16, Netball, Dance, Hockey, Basketball, Kapa Haka, Sports Ambassadors, Student Councillors, Road Patrollers, Band, 48Hour Film Crew.
See below for details on ordering.
Student Art Work
Girls' Footy Day Out Tournament
Last Tuesday, we took over 120 Year 5 and 8 girls to a truly remarkable event organised by the Kāpiti Coast District Council – the Girls’ Footie Day Out Tournament held at Mazengarb Reserve. The day was made special with players from the Wellington Phoenix FC Women’s Reserve team and Kāpiti Coast United Sports Club, who offered warm encouragement and support to all the teams.
All our participants had a fantastic time, displaying great enthusiasm and team spirit while representing Germany throughout the day. The girls enjoyed a memorable day, from fun warm-ups with the Phoenix players to roundrobin games of Futsal and a massive dance party during lunchtime.
Congratulations to Eleora Biju, who was selected by the Phoenix Stars and won a voucher for a free training session at the Ricky Herbert Football Academy. We also extend heartfelt thanks to our amazing parents for supporting and managing the teams.
Future Student Achievements
If your child has an achievement you would like us to share in our newsletter, then please send details (and a picture if you would like) to mbarfoote@pbs.school.nz
