Acting Principal's Message
Kia ora koutou,
Today’s newsletter contains information about:
- Te reo Māori night classes
- Fancy Feet and Wheels Parade – Get ready for Friday, 5 April!
- Parent Voice surveys
I hope everyone had an enjoyable Easter weekend. I suspect many, many hot cross buns were eaten based on the excellent recent camp fundraiser!
Welcome to Week 10 of Term 1. Despite this being a very short week, there’s a lot happening such as beach walks, Rippa rugby, Life Education sessions and Friday’s Fancy Feet and Wheels Day. Keep an eye on the school calendar or communications from your child’s class teacher to stay up to date with everything that’s happening.
Last week’s NZEI teacher union meetings were largely focused on learning support. Learning support is massively underfunded in Aotearoa and waiting lists for students to receive support from specialists (e.g. Resource Teachers of Learning and Behaviour, Speech Language Therapists, Educational Psychologists, Occupational Therapists etc) are long. This results in students not being able to fully connect with their learning. The flow on impact is huge too, which was highlighted in the recent Education Review Office report. New Zealand teachers are increasingly being faced with challenging disruptive behaviours, as the number of students with complex needs increases. Time spent managing behaviours reduces quality learning time.
Unfortunately, there’s no quick fix, but sufficient government funding of additional resource teachers, individualised programmes and teacher aides would be an effective step towards schools being able to better meet the needs of all their ākonga/learners.
Ngā mihi nui
Sarah Chambers
Acting Principal – Tumuaki
Upcoming dates for your awareness:
- Friday, 5 April Fancy Feet and Wheels Day Parade – 9.15am
- Friday, 12 April – Last day of Term 1, Whole School Assembly – 9.30am – Wear your whānau colours! Come join us and hear our Whānau Chants!
DEPUTY PRINCIPAL’S GREAT NEWS CORNER:
Sharing good news spreads positivity, changes attitudes and ultimately leads to more people feeling encouraged and happy
Jonny and Harold from Life Education are based with us until the end of the term. Students have been enjoying visiting the truck for unique lessons that link with our curriculum. It has been great hearing the excitement and positive student responses as they exit the mobile classroom.
Welcome to Our Recent New Students
There were no new students this week
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/
Te Reo Māori Night Classes Be in Quick!
We are delighted to let you know that Paraparaumu Beach School will be hosting Te Reo Māori night classes for adults again this year! These Kāuru Education evening classes were so popular last year, we can’t wait to start up again.
Even better news…this year we are offering three separate classes (Level 1, 2 and 3). Classes will take place on Wednesday nights at school (starting in Term 2) and each are limited to 30 people, so get in quick!
Timing: Wednesdays at PBS from 6.30pm – 8.30pm
Programme duration: 20 weeks (two hours each week)
To Register: Click on this link (Yes we are aware it says “Paraparaumu School” not “Paraparaumu Beach School” but this is the right form)
Registration closes 22nd April.
Using the @School App
I will regularly highlight a button on the @school app. This week it is:
This button takes you directly to the current newsletter.
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.
Source: Reomāori.co.nz
Parent Voice Survey
Thank you to the parents who took part in our face to face focus groups around communication channels and the @school app. We are following this up by sending out an online survey, as requested, for those parents who were unable to make the focus group.
You will have received an email with the survey link today. If you have a spare 5 minutes, we’d appreciate your feedback.
School Vision Statement Survey
As our Board finalises the new Strategic Plan for 2024 – 2026, we are keen to redevelop our school’s vision statement and would appreciate your feedback. We believe that a strong vision statement is needed to inspire us as a community and capture what we strive for.
Our current vision statement, “Preparing our tamariki with the skills to shape their world,” felt right when we first developed it, however, it does not resonate as effectively now, particularly for our Māori students. In te ao Māori, the world shapes individuals rather than the other way around.
What’s a vision statement? According to the Ministry a school vision statement “briefly describes the future the school community sees for itself and what students who are confident, connected, actively involved, life long learners are expected to be like.”
As you can imagine, brainstorming options has been difficult. You can give us your feedback by selecting the vision statement/s you like the best via the survey form emailed out to you last week (Link: https://forms.gle/qngWut4cSC6HYpR9A) or you can create one of your own to share with us. Together, let’s create a vision statement that we can all proudly remember and live by.
Thank you for your feedback, it matters to us.
PBS Board
**** Fancy Feet & Wheels ****
To celebrate the end of Movin’ March, we will have our Fancy Feet and Wheels Parade at school this Friday, 5 April. We are hoping to hold the parade at 9.15 am.
Decorate your bike, scooter and feet, take part in the parade and win great spot prizes.
Interschool Ki o Rahi
On Tuesday, 26 March 90 Te Motu students took part in the Kapiti Schools Ki o Rahi event at Matthews Park. It was a fantastic day out, and the students had an awesome time. Many thanks to all the parents who gave up their time to help us with management and transport.
Hockey 2024
Registrations are now open for school hockey for the winter season. Hockey is a super fun and inclusive game, and we can take registrations from players with any level of experience, and from Years 1-8. All games are at the Kapiti Turf at Mazengarb.
More details can be found in the Google Form at this link:
https://forms.gle/oydBb16dmn9GJPXc6
Please contact Caty Spencer cspencer@pbs.school.nz if you have any questions about school hockey.
Netball
Year 7 & Year 8 – This week teams will be announced. At least two of these teams will need an umpire. In previous years it is only PBS Acers and PBS Blazers that did not need to provide an umpire. Therefore, if your child says they are in PBS Conquerors or PBS Dynamites please consider if you can be the team’s dedicated umpire. Teams cannot play on a Saturday without an umpire.
Year 3 – Year 6 – please continue to return your child/(s) registration form if you would like them to play this year. These all need to be back by tomorrow – Thursday, 4 April. For teams to be registered in the Kapiti Netball Competition they will need a coach. Please consider if you are able to do this for us.
Year 3 & Year 4 – players will play on a Monday at 4-5pm at Te Atiawa Netball Courts.
Finally, Kapiti Netball have informed schools that all teams will need a dedicated scorer. Below is the information received:
In 2023 we rolled out the live Game Day Scoring app for some of our Senior and College teams. This proved very successful and based on this we will be rolling out the live Game Day Scoring to ALL grades in 2024.
The App is very easy to use and means that teams can register directly on the App and do not have to come up to the control room on a Saturday to register the team.
Each team is required to provide a dedicated scorer that has a phone with the App downloaded. The scorers stand together on the northern side of the court (facing the pavilion) and each scorer scores for both teams.
Please follow this link to take you to our webpage for full instructions and videos https://www.netballkapiti.org.nz/game-day-app
Clubs and colleges will have to register their players each week using the App before you will be able to score your games.
If anyone has any questions at all please do not hesitate to get in touch.
Kind Regards
Sue Huss | Coastlands Netball Kapiti Centre Manager
Out of Zone Applications Open for 5 Year Old New Entrants
If you have any children due to start school soon that you have not let us know about, or if you have friends or neighbours who don’t currently have a child at PBS, but may be hoping to enrol a student here in Terms 3 or 4, please ask them to contact our school office as soon as possible. Thank you.
“Out of Zone” applications for Terms 3 and 4 for 5 year old new entrant students was advertised in the Kapiti Observer last week
Applications close at 12 noon on Monday, 6 May.
Kid's Quote
A young student was in the medical room. When asked what her name was she only gave her first name. When asked what her last name was, she replied, “I don’t know. My mum didn’t tell me!”
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
Waitārere Forest Run
The P.B.S Team is currently leading the team registrations for the Waitārere Forest Run with 41 participants. If you would like to join our friendly, supportive team to cheer each other on, regardless of your fitness level, we invite you and your whānau to join us. This event is on Sunday, 14 April. It’s a fantastic opportunity to meet others and walk or run alongside our tamariki.
Registering under the PBS Team will entitle you to a 20% entry discount.
For more information about this event, visit https://waitarereforestrun.co.nz/. When you register, join the PBS Team using the password PBSTEAM.
If you have any questions, please contact Hillary Houston at hhouston@pbs.school.nz.
