Principal's Message
Kia ora whānau
Welcome to the last newsletter for 2022! The weather today genuinely feels like summer and the smell of sunblock is thick in the air. I’m glad the weather made it possible for so many of you to turn out for our end of year assembly last year. Let’s hope this sun continues.
On behalf of the Board and my
staff I want to thank our parent/caregiver and whānau community for all your wonderful support and aroha again this year. It has presented many challenges again, due Covid-19, however we are now learning to live with it and accept that our own health is our responsibility. This year I think our massive Matariki celebration felt like the turning point for bringing the community back together. The outlook for 2023 is equally positive as we want to offer even more opportunities for whānau to get involved in!
And personally, I wish to pay my gratitude to my wonderful staff team. Every year I count myself incredibly lucky to be surrounded by hard working people, who inspire me with their ideas, keep me smiling with their good humour and make my job more manageable with their efforts. PBS CREW, you simply rock!
One big change for the start of 2023 is that we will be holding “Meet the Teacher” 10 minute slots on the day before the kids come back to school. Parents will be able to book themselves a slot between 11am – 4pm on Tuesday, 31 January, to either pop into school and meet the teacher face to face, or to zoom in with the teacher. These slots are inclusive of children, so please bring them along. All bookings will be done via the Skool Loop app. NB: See the instructions later in this newsletter.
PRINCIPAL’S GREAT NEWS CORNER:
Sharing good news spreads positivity, changes attitudes and ultimately leads to more people feeling encouraged and happy
Well done to our Senior Girls Basketball Team who came second in their grade this year. The final saw our team show incredible spirit and determination. We are incredibly proud of their work this year and their overall achievement.
From our Christmas Elves to yours – Merry Christmas and have a safe and fun festive season.
Jess Ward
Tumuaki ~ Principal
Welcome to Our Recent New Students
There were no new students this week
Season’s Greetings from the Board - Ngā mihi o te Kirihimete me te Tau Hou
Well, the 2022 school year draws to a close, and the summer begins. Hooray!
This year has been another challenging year in many ways, and as with the previous two years, we have all had to adjust to different ways of doing things, processes and practices. The goals in our strategic plan of growing our community, building resilience, and achieving excellence continue to feel so relevant for us all. 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. On behalf of the Board, I want to thank the PBS staff for their commitment to our students this year, and also thank our school community for your support.
This teamwork and the commitment to the students means it has been another busy, positive and productive year at PBS. 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 last week’s full school assembly and in the senior prizegiving this week. We hope that all students 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, and what they’ve enjoyed.
An ongoing part of the Board’s work plan this year has been reviewing the student, staff and community surveys that took place late last year/early this year. The feedback has been invaluable to the Board for evaluating progress on our strategic plan and for shaping how the strategic goals are implemented in the annual plan, as well as providing useful reflection on current practices for the staff. Next year will be another big year of planning for the next strategic plan (2024-2027); luckily the new Board is full of energy, enthusiasm and experience to take on this task!
Best wishes to all our PBS community for a safe and relaxing summer break.
Ngā mihi
Zoe
On behalf of the PBS Board
Meet the Teacher Bookings - Tuesday, 31 January 2023
Bookings for Meet the Teacher on 31 January are now available through the Skool Loop App. See details below to download the app and to make your booking(s).
PBS Aroha Fund
One thing our school community is rich in is KINDNESS. It’s something we work hard to promote amongst our students. When we know someone is in need we try to give some additional support because not everyone’s circumstances are the same. We do our best as a school to ensure every child has equal opportunities regardless of finance or personal circumstance. Our PBS AROHA fund was set up to enable our whole community to offer support to such families.
The PBS AROHA fund enables anyone in our school community, including businesses, to donate money to help those in our school community who find it hard to make ends meet. It also means that we can provide lunches when kids don’t have any.
If you would like to contribute to this fund you can find it in KINDO labelled PBS AROHA. You can contribute $5, $10 or $20 at any time during the year. If a local business wants to make a contribution they can contact Libby on lrichardson@pbs.school.nz
Please talk to the office or to me, if you would like to know more about our PBS AROHA fund. All discussions will be confidential.
Giving a little means a lot!
Kid's Quote
Recently Rooms 4, 7 and 8 won a regional Christmas Dance-Off competition organised by KCDC. The prize was free ice creams from Mr Whippy. When the Mr Whippy van arrived on site, students from other classes saw it and tried their best to muscle in 🙂
One student was heard calling out “I’ll dance for ice cream!”
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
End of Year Reporting
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.
Learning Summary (was Reports) On the @Schoolapp dashboard click on the icon called “Learning Summary” this will have a downloadable mid and end of year report which wiil be accessible in the last week of school.
What else can 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.
Fundraiser for Ellies K9 Home & Rescue
Last week, Room 4’s Student Volunteer Army fundraised for Ellies K9 Rescue. Ellies K9 Rescue is a dog organisation that helps to rehome dogs in need of help. They rely only on money from volunteers as they are not funded by the government. They are often puppies that have been abandoned and in desperate need of help. Our goal was to raise enough money to buy a crate to keep the puppies safe.
Our platoon held a movie for Te Moana where students paid a gold coin entry and we sold popcorn, marshmallows and did face painting. We are grateful to the syndicate and Kay, our amazing teacher aide, who donated money that was gifted to her as a leaving gift. We have raised together $430.00 for this caring charity.
Student Volunteer Army Foodbank
Recently Room 4s Student Volunteer Army has been working on a fundraiser for the local Foodbank. We wanted to fundraise by doing a movie for the Ngaru and Tātahi syndicates. To watch the movie, students brought a can of food and were given tickets for a raffle draw at the end with spotprizes. Tātahi raised 168 cans and Ngaru raised 123. Altogether, 291 cans of rood were raised.
We have been learning to fundraise and help others in need. It is important to help other people, especially around christmas time when there can be extra stresses on families.
Thank you to Tātahi and Ngaru Syndicate for supporting us and bringing in cans of food so we can help others.
By Ruby and Emilie Room 4
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
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/
Below is an example of what you will find in the What’s Happening section:
