Principal's Message
Kia Ora parents, caregivers and whānau
Welcome to Term 2 and ten weeks of great learning and fun activities!
It’s good to be at the ORANGE setting now, as this allows a little more freedom to hold events, hold singing sessions inside (great for Kapa Haka purposes) and welcome parents back on site. There are lots of events taking place this term, so please make sure you stay up-to-date by reading these weekly newsletters.
The BIG EVENT we are working towards this term is a huge school-wide celebration of Matariki – the Māori New Year in June. We are planning to have lots of activities throughout the school day on Wednesday, 22 June and then into the evening for families to attend. We hope you will be able to join us. We will tell you more about this soon, but in the meantime please put this date in your diary.
Some other key dates for your Term 2 diary include:
- Fri, 6 May – Whole School Assembly (if the weather is fine) 9.15am – All Welcome
- Fri, 20 May – Pink Shirt day (Part of Bully Free NZ Week)
- Mon, 6 June – SCHOOL CLOSED for Queen’s Birthday (Nationwide holiday)
- Tues, 7 June – SCHOOL CLOSED for Staff Only day
- Wed, 8 June – Interschool Cross Country event
- Wed, 22 June – School celebration of Matariki – day time and evening events at school
- Fri, 24 June – SCHOOL CLOSED for Matariki (Nationwide holiday)
PRINCIPAL’S GREAT NEWS CORNER:
Sharing good news spreads positivity, changes attitudes and ultimately leads to more people feeling encouraged and happy
I’m delighted to let you know that Matenga Baker has been employed to deliver Waiata Māori throughout the school. Previously, Rangi Halbert filled this role before he was snaffled up by the corporate world 🙂
We feel privileged to have Matenga joining us each Friday to weave both tikanga and te reo through waiata Māori. Matenga is currently studying at Te Wānanga o Raukawa in Otaki. We are looking forward to our first session this week. Kei te hikaka matou!
Ngā mihi nui
Jess Ward
Tumuaki ~ Principal
Welcome to Our Recent New Students
Quin – Rm 29
Ruby – Rm 22
Hawiki – Rm 22
Lucas – Rm 23
Advertise in our Community Directory
Have you checked out our community directory yet? PBS has launched an online community directory for the Kapiti Coast.
In the directory is an online user-maintained list of businesses, events and opportunities in the Kapiti area including job advertisements.
To view the new community directory click here and for instructions on how to advertise, please click here
Board Elections - September 2022
As highlighted in our last newsletter, the three-yearly school Board elections will be held in September. As we get closer to the election date, we will provide information and updates about the election process and how you can participate. We also hope to offer opportunities for you to speak with current Board members about the role. Please start thinking about whether you are interested in contributing to the governance of PBS – I can certainly vouch for how rewarding the role is and what a privilege it is to be part of a strong and supportive team.
Ngā mihi,
Zoe – Board Chair
NB: If you’d like to know more about the role of the Board, there is useful information on the New Zealand School Trustees Association (NZSTA) website at https://www.nzsta.org.nz/assets/Information-for-parents/A-parents-guide-to-the-role-of-the-board-of-trustees.compressed.pdf
Cultural Signage - Keep the Ideas Coming
One of the things we wish to create is multicultural signage at the Gray Avenue entrance to our school . We would love to hear your ideas for what these welcome messages should say.
So far I have received messages in Afrikaans, Slovak, Bulgarian, Chinese, Irish and Indian -thank you! Keep the ideas coming, as I know we have students from many other cultural backgrounds at PBS. Therefore, if your child or family identifies with a cultural background from another country or ethnicity please give us ideas, in your own language, for the welcome messages we could display. Follow this Google link to send us your thoughts. https://forms.gle/5fMtVBZgoJp27Bf78
Thanks in advance for your valued input.
Covid Update
The Government’s decision to move to Orange was made on public health advice. As with other parts of NZ, our school experienced a peak of Omicron cases in late March/early April. Cases at PBS have notably decreased, but we still need to remain vigilant of our own health.
Mask Wearing at Orange
Face masks are no longer required at school. However, public health advice is that masks continue to be strongly encouraged when indoors. Wearing a mask is a key health measure that slows the spread of COVID-19 in indoor settings.
Students:
Parents can decide if they want their child to wear a mask when indoors at school. However, we would like your child (Years 5-8) to still have a mask available in their school bag just in case. There may be times that we’ll ask them to wear a mask– for example, when we are having an assembly in the hall. If there are a high number of cases at school or in the community, we may ask that masks are worn in classrooms again for a time.
At Orange, students aged 12 and above are still required to wear a face mask on school or public transport.
Staff:
School staff will support your decision making on this front. Staff will also be allowed to decide for their own personal wellbeing whether they wish to wear a mask at school as well.
Visitors:
At PBS we prefer that visitors to the school, including parents and whānau, wear a mask whenever they are indoors on school grounds.
We will continue to keep all the other health measures in place at school that we know slow the spread of COVID-19. These include ensuring our indoor spaces are well-ventilated, maintaining good hand hygiene and cough and sneeze etiquette, appropriate physical distancing whenever we can and, most importantly, staying home if we are sick.
We are looking forward to a few less restrictions and returning to school life that is a bit closer to normal.
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.
Hea = Where
Kei te haere koe ki hea? Where are you going?
Kei te haere au ki ngā whare hokohoko. I’m going to the shops.
From the Student Council
Kia ora PBS Whānau! Bullying-Free New Zealand Week is being held from 16-20 May in con-junction with Pink Shirt Day, on Friday, May 20. The theme for the week is: He kōtuinga mahi iti, he hua pai-ā rau: Small ripples create big waves. For us at PBS it’s all about KINDNESS. We’ve got plans for each day of the week to support this kaupapa and we’ll share it with you next week on our school facebook page, but this is a little heads up to start checking your drawers and cupboards for all your pink gear!
Spotlight News
What is in the App? Money Stuff
Whether you want to check what you have paid, download a tax receipt, order lunch, pay for a school trip or sports activity these buttons will take you to the right place.
Kid's Quote
In the weekend I saw a former PBS student out and about. He asked how things were going at school. He finished by sharing his memory of how “the staff at PBS really care about the kids”, which he said wasn’t the case elsewhere.
This made me so proud of my staff and our community.
2022 Kiwi English, Maths & Science Competition
The University of Canterbury is delighted to offer the annual Kiwi English, Mathematics and Science competitions for Primary, Intermediate and Secondary schools in years 5 to 10. The skills-based Kiwi competitions are written by New Zealand teachers for New Zealand students and closely align with the New Zealand Curriculum. The online competitions will be run in the last 3 weeks of Term 2 and the first week of Term 3.
Parents/caregivers will be provided with an individual student report outlining student performance distributed by the school. All participating students will be awarded a certificate and a prize will be awarded to the top student in each competition. The cost for a student to participate is $9.50 per competition entered.
Register via KINDO. The closing date is Tuesday, 10 May 2022.
Please contact your child’s teacher if you are unsure if your child should be participating in these competitions.
Recent Student Achievements
Golf: Congratulations to Callum Rice who won the Royal Wellington 9 Hole Junior Golf Open last week with a great round of 38! This is a competition for kids aged 18 and under in the Wellington region. This season the Paraparaumu Beach Golf Club (PBGC) entered a team of Juniors in the Interclub 9 Hole Competition held from February-April. Callum was also part of this team, which included three 10 year olds and a 16 year old. None of them had ever been in Interclub com-petitions before, but performed really well as a team, and proudly represented PBGC – managing to make it into the finals, finishing 3rd overall on Sunday – a great result for their first season!
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
Win Mum Flowers for Mothers Day with Ezlunch
Support PBS - Give Mum even more this Mother's Day with an Entertainment Membership!
