Principal's Message
Tena Koutou
The end of the 2021 school year is nigh (12.30pm tomorrow). I want to start by thanking everyone in our PBS community for supporting us and helping out in the good times and challenging times this year. Whilst there have been many new wonderful memories created, I ask you to take a minute to remember the five precious PBS parents we lost. With our PBS Aroha fund, we hope to send a little Christmas cheer their way on behalf of us all. To those families, you are in our hearts.
Throughout the year, I have loved seeing kids participate in daily learning and social activities, including the Years 5-8 camps in Kaitoke and Nelson. Whilst some inter-school events and outside opportunities were cancelled, our students were still able to get involved in sporting and community activities including school athletics, beach and estuary cleanups, kapa haka, planting, our fun run, feet and wheels day, Movin’ March, blogging, PBS cross country, and much more. I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again, seeing the rich learning opportunities on offer at PBS makes me want to be a kid again. Thanks to my teaching staff for facilitating all of the above and more.
It’s no wonder that in a school our size it takes a huge team to keep all systems running smoothly. As a result there are a number of people and groups who I wish to either acknowledge, congratulate and/or thank in this final newsletter. So in no particular order…
- Our fabulous Board: Zoe Pearson, Pem Chambers, Kate Fiske, Jim Dryburgh, Lisa Patterson and Cath Franks thank you all so much for your active participation in the school. Your opinions, insights and robust conversations are valued as they enable our school to keep moving forward. Our school is so fortunate to have people with the perfect balance of integrity, tenacity, wisdom and kindness on its Board.
- Our incredible PTA: At PBS we are so lucky to have a driven and hardworking PTA. We appreciate the way you work away, throughout the year, raising additional funds and completing special projects for our students. Your redevelopment of the sandpit has been a great hit with students, and the Fun Run was an absolute blast. Furthermore, we are delighted with your most recent contribution of $10,000 to refurbish the old ICT suite into a studio/green screen/maker space. Thank you all so much for your mahi!
- Congratulations to Caty Spencer and Kyle Ressor who both started here as beginning teachers at the start of 2020. Both have now completed their first two years of fulltime teaching and have officially graduated as Fully Registered teachers. Your colleagues are so proud of your growth and development! Big thanks must also go out to your tutor teachers, Larisa Mckenna, Ginny Hawke and Bek Winter, for their mentorship and support of you both over the last 24 months. Ka mau te wehi!
- Thank you and a fond farewell to the amazing Gill Snowsill and Shelley Evans, both long standing and talented PBS teachers. We will miss the expertise and talents you have both brought to our school over the years. We wish you all the very best in wherever your education journeys take you next. Stay in touch!
- Thank you to Angie Busing and Kaye Gilman for stepping in at mid-year to take over teaching in Room 12, when Brenda Staples relocated back to America. Brenda left big boots to fill and you both addressed this with positivity and experience.
- To my amazing PBS Crew: Our Admin staff, Teacher-Aides and SENCO Carrie Reid, Teachers, Syndicate leaders, regular relieving staff, John Trask and his cleaning team, and senior Leaders Vicki Wilson (AP) and Sarah Chambers (DP) thank you, thank you, thank you. Our ability to work as a team and uplift each other makes this school such an awesome place to be a part of. Mahi pai koutou!
- Last but by no means least, to our Year 8’s leaving, I wish you all the very best. I loved seeing you all dressed up for your Leaver’s dinner last week. You have all grown and matured so much over the last year. It has been a pleasure watching your learning growth and achievements, especially as a large percentage of you have attended here since Year 1. You are ready for your next adventure now, so aim high, remember your CREST values and don’t forget us.
Best wishes for the festive season and some relaxing time over summer.
See you in the New Year!
Jess Ward – Tumuaki ~ Principal
Welcome to Our Recent New Students
There were no new students this week
Message From the Board
Seasons Greetings from the Board
Well, the 2021 school year draws to a close, and the summer beckons. Hooray!
We are so lucky to have a sense of strong teamwork at PBS that sees the staff, Board and community all working to make sure that PBS is a good place for everyone to learn and to achieve to the best of their ability. This teamwork and support has been especially visible this year with the challenges we’ve all faced. It is interesting how the goals in our strategic plan of growing our community, building resilience, and achieving excellence continue to feel so relevant for us all. On behalf of the Board, I want to thank the PBS staff for their commitment to our students this year, and to our parent community for their support. Thank you too, for those who have found the time to complete the Board survey, we really value your feedback.
This teamwork and the commitment to the students means it has still been a busy, positive and productive year at PBS. Even despite having various inter-school events not able to run, there have been many opportunities for students to participate in and contribute to the life of the school, challenge themselves, and excel in many different ways. We are lucky to be able to celebrate some of these accomplishments in prizegivings this week, even having virtual performances from our breath-taking kapa haka group. Congratulations to all those whose achievements were recognised! We hope that students all take away a sense of accomplishment with them this year, and are all able to reflect on what they’ve worked hard at this year, what they’ve learned, what they’ve enjoyed.
Best wishes to all our PBS community for a safe and relaxing summer break.
Ngā mihi
Zoe
On behalf of the PBS Board
Board Survey
Thank you to the 134 parents who have already filled out our School 2021 survey. If you haven’t done so yet then please check your emails for the link. I will re-send this email to you all again today.
By doing this survey you have a chance to win a $200 PREZZY Card! Unfortunately there seems to be a ‘techie gremlin’ in the prize link which is allowing some people to enter and not others!! If this happens to you, don’t panic just send me or the office (jward@pbs.school.nz or office@pbs.school.nz) an email to let us know and we will enter your name into the prize draw manually 🙂
This survey should take no more than 7-10 minutes. Your answers will be completely anonymous. The survey will be open until Sunday, 19 December. Thank you in advance for completing the survey as your feedback is very important to us.
New Covid-19 Protection Framework (Traffic Light System)
Further to the information in last week’s newsletter, our region remains at ORANGE.
It is likely that as we move into 2022 we will experience more cases of Covid in the wider Wellington region. The Ministry has already provided schools with step-by-step guides on how to manage Covid cases in schools in preparation for this event. I have provided one of these guides at this link in case you’re interested in the process PBS would take- Steps to take if there is a Covid case at your school
I am also working on a more personalised Traffic Light plan for PBS, so that parents can read more about how this system looks for our school. I’m a little time-poor at the moment, but I hope to complete this and send it out to you all before Christmas.
If you’d like to learn more about the framework visit COVID-19 Protection Framework.
Contributions
If you have any school contributions outstanding for this year we would really appreciate your support. Payments can still be made, via KINDO for school donations, payments for Education Perfect (Year 7-8), IXL and Tech Centre costs (Year 7-8) etc. Every little bit helps us tremendously. Thank 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.
Kapai tō mahi e hoa ma – Good work my friend
Kid's Quote
Student: “I hurt myself on the playground”
Office staff member looking at the child’s arms and legs: “Oh dear, where did you hurt yourself?”
Student: “On the playground!”/
Student Work
Making a Robot
“First I drew a picture of Fixer Robot, then we picked out some wood. We used a saw to cut the wood. We sanded the rough patches and then we painted him bright colours, red, orange, green and blue. We picked out screws, hooks and other things for his antennae, eyes, ears and tail. We gave him an on and off switch and a control panel. I love my Fixer Robot.”
By Opetaia
A Final Message From the Student Council
Lost Property
Lost property will be out on display on any fine days remaining of the term. Anything that is unnamed or unclaimed will be sent to the Koha shed. There are several towels, jackets, and a pillow; along with a wide variety of tops.
EPro8
This term saw the annual Epro8 regional competition take place. Despite public health restrictions the full competition was able to take place. PBS did exceptionally well this year with two of our Year 7/8 teams making through heats and semi-finals to the Wellington regional grand final. While they both finished unplaced in the final, this was the first time that our school has had two teams make it all the way through.
Massive congratulations to Cuinn, Max, Tyler and Tyler, Isobel, Sam, Adam and Chester! They all demonstrated remarkable perseverance, teamwork and resilience throughout all three events, competing for a total of seven and a half hours over the three events.
End of Year Reporting
NB: The @Schoolapp has changed its name to @school Mobile in the App Store/Play Store
At PBS all our reporting is online. 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.
On the @Schoolapp dashboard click on “learning space” which takes you to your child’s “spotlight learning portal”.
What we need parents to do? We require every parent to register for the @Schoolapp (now called @school Mobile in the App Store/Play Store) regardless of the age of your child. Although the Spotlight portal is accessed through the @Schoolapp so are many other functions we would like parents to be aware of e.g. checking your child’s attendance, checking how often your child visits the medical room and general notices. Please make sure you have downloaded this app and click ‘notifications’.
What will parents see? Online reporting, via the Learning Space, 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.
Important Notice to Year 3 Netball Players
Please ensure all netball tops are returned by tomorrow (Wednesday). If they are not returned, a $20 charge will be added to your Kindo account.
Thank you.
School leavers - Notice re Ezlunch/Kindo School Shop
If your family is leaving our school and moving to another school that does not use ezlunch or Kindo for school payments, you will need to close your account.
If you’re not sure about the new school: log in, go to My Details and click on the list of schools, scrolling to find your new school. If your new school is NOT on the list, use the ‘close account’ button on that screen. You can choose to donate your balance to school or have it paid out to your nominated bank account.
End of Year/Start of Year Ezlunch Orders for 2021/22
The last day for ordering lunches this year was Monday, 13 December.
The first day for ordering lunches in 2022 is Friday, 4 February.
From the Parenting Place
Here’s a great article that holds relevance as we head into the summer holidays. Just click on the link highlighted below.
Whether it’s exploring a new swimming spot, racing bikes to the dairy for an ice block or leaping off the couch into a pile of cushions, summer holidays offer our kids wonderful opportunities for freedom and fun. Which sounds equal parts exciting and alarming for parents! It’s a good time for some bold conversations about staying safe and making good decisions in the face of risk.
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
Advertise in our Community Directory
PBS has launched an online community directory for the Kapiti Coast.
The Paraparaumu Beach School Community Directory is an online, user-maintained list of businesses, events, and opportunities in the Kapiti area and gives local businesses the opportunity to support PBS while promoting themselves and improving their search engine visibility. It has replaced the community notices section of our school newsletter.
To view the new community directory and for instructions on how to advertise, please click here
