Newsletter Issue 5

Kia ora, Nameste, Talofa, Konnichiwa, Guten Tag, Gidday, Vannakkam, ni Hao, Kia orana, Hola, Salam, Sa wat deekha, Dia Dhuit, Goeie Dag, Bonjour, Καλημέρα, Mālō e lelei, Greetings everyone

It is hard to believe another term has flown by in a flurry of activity! As you will see from the newsletter, the learning activities continue to be in full flow right up until our last day.

We would like to take this opportunity, however, to wish our families some quality time together over the term break. We hope it is a chance to mix up the routine or take things a little slower. Our students, teachers and support staff will certainly be ready for a rest after a busy term with lots of sickness!

I would like to acknowledge the way in which the Bellevue Staff show resilience, flexibility and empathy for one another during these challenging terms when, despite it being difficult, maintaining continuity for the children remains the top priority.

Learning:

BSLA - I was privileged a couple of weeks ago to both observe and teach the Better Start Literacy Approach in a Year 4-5 classroom. In my observation, I was struck by the well paced, interactive and varied teaching techniques as well as the active engagement of every learner. The teacher, after less than a full term of training, was confident and competent working quickly through a range of tasks which provided a great balance of challenge and accessibility for all the children in the room. It was clear how each facet of the reading process and spelling was broken down into manageable blocks for the children who were experiencing great success and transferring this into transcription. It is early days for our Year 4-6 kaiako (teachers) so no doubt they will refine what they do over time. This is the ‘art’ of teaching that ‘structured’, ‘scripted’ and ‘scientific’ approaches benefit from being balanced with. However, from what we can see there is much to celebrate about this approach being consistent across the school.

Te Wiki o te reo Māori - We are right in the midst of te wiki o te reo Māori and the school is alive with song. You can read more about what we are doing to celebrate this special week later in the newsletter.

Year 5-6 Opportunities - Over the last two weeks our Year 5-6 students have been busy with Road Patrol training - you will now see our Year 5 students ‘shadowing’ their Year 6 peers to gain confidence before taking on this role. They have also attended the Capital Futsal Festival - you can also read more about this later.

Home Learning

Term 4 Home Learning will follow a similar format to Term 3 and will be sent home at the end of the first week back. As part of this look out for some more suggestions about how you can support your child’ s learning at home with fun ideas for everyday activities that build capability in Literacy, Mathematics and the Key Competencies.

Student Council - Onesie Day

Our thanks to the student council for their organisation of, and to you for your support of, our Onesie Day on Friday 12th September. This event saw us beat our target of $350 - $400 with a fabulous total of $409.60 to support Wellington Free Ambulance! A special shout out to the four students who collected the money on Friday for all their preparations and for counting the funds so carefully.

Property Update

As always, we encourage you to enjoy our grounds and playground during the break. This also helps with school security and discourages vandalism.

We are awaiting confirmation of some work being done to repair the West end of the hall and the little block beside the driveway during the break. If this goes ahead, please continue to adhere to all health and safety signs and keep your children clear of any construction zones that will be fenced. Other than some minor repairs around the school and on the accessible walkway, we do not expect other work over the break.

The bottom of the ramp is looking amazing thanks to the planting team and their adult help so please take a moment to appreciate our new donated plants if you are in the school.

Annual Emergency Evacuation & Reunification Practise

This important school safety event is taking place the first Friday after the term break. Please see the additional information, including a link to the letter sent home to families, later in the newsletter. Importantly please note the below information which has historically caused difficulties for families on the day. Please consider this in planning for the 10th October.

• NO CHILDREN WILL BE ALLOWED TO WALK HOME or LEAVE THE SCHOOL GROUNDS WITHOUT AN EMERGENCY RELEASE ADULT (As held on school records) and only after this adult has signed them out.
• KELLY CLUB WILL NOT BE OPERATING (as they would not operate if a real emergency took place during the school day). Should the emergency occur during ‘after school time’, Kelly Club follow their own emergency release procedures. (Please talk to Kelly Club so you know what they would put in place).

Miniball Manager

We are in desperate need of a parent volunteer manager for our Miniball team for 2026. If you are able to support our students to have this wonderful extra curricular opportunity next year, please do get in touch with Cassie via Seesaw. Unfortunately, if we have no parent manager we cannot offer this to our tamariki.

Swimming Payments - Your Help Please

We continue to offer annual swimming lessons in response to demand from families for this important opportunity indicated through our bi-annual Health and PE survey.

Currently we are $5,000 in deficit for the payments made by school to the swimming providers. As you will be aware, schools operate on minimal budgets and deficits like this impact what we are able to provide in other areas of the curriculum.

If you have forgotten to pay for your child’s swimming, please do contact the office to organise this.

An overview of payments made:

• Year 6 swimming payments are at 76%.

• Year 4/5 swimming payments are at 75%.

• Year 3 swimming payments are at 83%.

Upcoming Dates To Be Aware Of:

• October is ADHD Awareness Month - At the end of the upcoming break we move into ADHD Awareness month. The goal of this month is to provide reliable information and resources to help people thrive with ADHD. The website HERE has some great resources for helping us to understand ADHD.

• Teacher Strike - You may have seen in the news that teachers, support staff and principals have voted to strike. This is not an action we take lightly, but you will be very aware of the challenges faced by schools currently and we need the government to take this seriously. The potential date for this is Thursday 23 October. We are sharing this with you so you can be prepared, but please note this has not yet been confirmed and we will keep you updated as we know more.

• 2026 Additional Teacher Only Days - The Minister of Education has approved two teacher only days, in addition to those we have already shared, for teachers to continue to build their understanding of all that is required to implement the new curriculum areas. Following our big focus on Literacy in the first half of 2025, we will be continuing to work on Mathematics in 2026 with our Te Korowai ō Horokiwi cluster colleagues. We are firming up dates in early March and August and will confirm with you as soon as we are able.

Our next newsletter will come home on Wednesday 15 October.

Reminders Only -

• School Organisation for 2026 School planning for 2026 is underway. We would like to draw your attention to the ‘School Organisation’ section of this newsletter in case you wish us to consider anything for your child’s class placement for 2025.

• Emergency Evacuation & Reunification - End of the first week of Term 4 - Friday 10 October. More information is included later in the newsletter and also will come home via email.

• The Te Korowai ō Horokiwi Kapa Haka Festival at Newlands Intermediate that our Kapa Haka group is participating in has been confirmed for Friday 24 October.

• Term 4 Teacher only day - school is closed on Tuesday 29 October (the day after Labour Day) for a Staff Development day. Teachers will be taking part in Mathematics professional development as part of the NZ curriculum refresh.

Ngā mihi nui

Annette

A reminder that our fortnightly newsletters can also be found on our Bellevue Website - scroll down to view 'previous Bellevue Newsletters' - and for more timely updates, you could follow our closed group Bellevue Facebook Page, if you are not already.

To assist our families with locating our Attendance Procedures, please note that the below link now takes you to a 'quick link' on our website to the Attendance Procedures in PDF form.

Please do always contact the office (office@bellevue-newlands.school.nz), or call and leave a message for absences. Do not reply to this newsletter as your message may not be seen.

Haere mai ki te kura o Bellevue. Welcome to the following student and their whānau. It is great to have you in our Bellevue Learning Community.

Amy - Room 2

• Xièxiè/Thank you to Xinhua Wang for visiting the library during Chinese Language Week and sharing with students how to write their names in Chinese. Students enjoyed this activity and appreciated the opportunity to try using traditional Chinese calligraphy brushes.

• Thank you to all of the parents and whānau who helped with transport and supervision for the Capital Football Futsal Festival. Your help is truly appreciated!

• Thank you to all the whānau who helped supervise Kahikatea’s trip to The Science Roadshow. We really appreciated your support.

This week is Māori langauage week. This annual celebration marks the 50th

anniversary of the first Te Wiki o te Reo Māori and carries the theme "Ake ake ake - A forever language".

Te Taura Whiri i te Reo Māori (the Māori Language Commission) has launched a range of nationwide activities to help all New Zealanders get involved in this year’s golden anniversary of Māori Language Week. If you are interested you can find out more here.

Bellevue School is celebrating Te Wiki o te Reo Māori with students with our Waiata Nui (Big Sing) today. Classes have been working hard to practise their waiata.

Following the newsletter today, the second of two letters outlining what you need to know for our whole school emergency evacuation and reunification practice will be emailed home. An image is included below.

Please read this carefully and, if required, be sure to check in with the office about your emergency contacts before Tuesday 7th October.

You will understand that there is a great deal of preparation that goes into making this practice as safe and streamlined as possible so we appreciate your assistance with timely contact.

Finally, we do understand that this practice creates an interruption in the busy lives of our community and so we thank you for your support and understanding.

Please follow this link to a copy of our advance warning letter that will be emailed home as a PDF also.

Annual Emergency Evacuation 2025.docx.pdf

Have a great break everyone!

Weet-Bix Kids TRYathlon 2026

Entries for the 2026 Weet-Bix Kids TRYathlon open on Wednesday 10th September. The Wellington TRYathlon will be held at Kilbirnie Park on Sunday 15th March 2026 at 7am.

If your child is interested in taking part, please register them as part of our school group by following this link. More information about the event can be found here.

Capital Football Futsal Festival

Children from across the school eagerly participated in the Futsal Festival from Monday 8 - Wednesday 10 September. A huge thank you to those parents who assisted with transport and supervision, we could not have sent as many teams without you all! The children all had a fantastic time and displayed our values throughout.

Touch Rugby - Term 4

If your child is interested in joining one of our Touch Rugby teams in Term 4, please follow this link to sign up. Registrations will close on October 1st, or when teams are full.

On Friday 12th September senior students took action and got together to plant around our new accessibility walkway. Students planted over 100 plants that not only look amazing, but will provide homes for our native manu (birds) and aitanga-a-pēpeke (insect family). Our tamariki showed care, resilience, collaboration and genuine hard mahi (work) as they took on this huge task. We are so proud of them. And it would not have been possible without the support of our community.

Huge thanks goes to Toby Dixon for supporting the vision and making it happen; Arb Innovations, Jay Street Community Gardens (Fionna Sheppard and Timothy Turnidge), Paul Fraser at Mitre 10 Crofton Downs, and Lucy Moore for plant, potting mix and mulch donations; Chandra from EnviroSchools for teaching and working alongside our tamariki; Sarah Melton and Ethan De Boer for supporting teachers and tamariki on the day.

“You are never too small to make a difference” - Greta Thunberg

This term, our Mānuka hub has been focusing on the importance of keeping rubbish out of our waterways. We've been learning to identify different types of waste and what we can recycle.To put our learning into action and help protect the environment from pollution, we spent a morning at Pukehuia Park last Friday for a cleanup. We worked hard picking up rubbish and, as a reward for our efforts, we got to have fun playing in the now-clean park.

Check out some photos from our successful day below!

Special thanks to the parents who helped Mānuka Clean up day.

On Friday 24th October (week 3, term 4) our year 4-6 Kapa Haka students will be performing at Te Korowai ō Horokiwi Kapa Haka Festival held at Newlands Intermediate School. We are very excited to be able to meet with other schools and share our skills in front of whānau and friends.

Students will experience a pōwhiri in Te Reo as they are welcomed onto the marae of Newlands Intermediate School, and then the five schools of the Newlands cluster will share their learning through waiata and haka. If you are planning to join us for the pōwhiri at Newlands Intermediate, we respectfully ask that wāhine/women wear knee length skirts/dresses and tāne/men wear long pants.

The pōwhiri starts at 9:30 and the approximate time of our performance is 10:50. Whānau are welcome to watch. You do not have to stay for all the performances. The audience will be seated on the stage. Please enter and exit at the beginning or end of performances only. A separate notice for Kapa Haka students has been posted on Seesaw.

• As our tamariki spend more time online, it’s​ important parents and whānau help them​ stay safe. Now is a great time to talk to them​ about how we use the internet and digital​ technology.

• Netsafe has created an Online Safety Parent​ Toolkit so parents, families and whānau have​ all the information they need to talk about​ online safety.

• If you or anyone in your whānau needs​ support, you can contact Netsafe on the​ details below.

Link: https://netsafe.org.nz/parenttoolkit/

Term 4 is always busy! At this time of year we begin looking at the number of students we anticipate in each year level to make decisions about class organisation and placement for the following year.

At Bellevue, providing the best environment for learning is at the forefront of our decisions. The number of classes we start the year with is dependent on the staffing entitlement received from the Ministry of Education. This is based on the number of students in the school.

Our teachers are capable of teaching at all levels of the school and so we can allocate teachers to classes no matter the structure of the school or where they were teaching the previous year.

When looking at class composition, we aim to meet each child's needs regardless of the whānau class or mix of year groups. Our team of skilled educators takes the following factors into account when considering class placement for students:

• Individual needs and achievement

• Peer relationships

• Learning groups and friendship groups

• Age and year group

• Gender balance and number of students

• Siblings in other classes and year groups

Students are asked for the people they work/play well with. We are committed to making the most appropriate placement, considering all the information.

If there are any factors we may not be aware of that you believe are important for us to take into account please contact the school over the coming month - by Friday 10 October (end of the first week of Term 4) at the latest.

You can talk with your child's teacher or a member of the leadership team or email us at:

Anne Smith (Deputy Principal Year 0-3) annes@bellevue-newlands.school.nz,

Cassie Woodhouse (Hub Coach Year 4/5) cassie@bellevue-newlands.school.nz

Megan Walters (Hub Coach Year 3) megan@bellevue-newlands.school.nz

Deeann Daniels (Deputy Principal Year 4-6) deeann@bellevue-newlands.school.nz

Annette Borgonje (Principal) annette@bellevue-newlands.school.nz

Once again, please make sure that you have contacted us before 10 October so we can take this into consideration when planning classes early next term.

There are still many instances of unsafe driving up the kindergarten driveway and parking unsafely include parking on the footpath. As this is an ongoing safety risk, one side of the cul de sac will be blocked off with bollards to prevent this happening over the coming month or so.

Please note also that access to the kindergarten driveway and walkway to the school from Link Road will be fully closed between 1 - 3 October (during school holidays) due to removal of the large pine trees near the cul de sac. Please consider this if you are walking through during the holidays as you will need to take an alternative route on these dates.

Term four is just around the corner, along with the warmer weather - well here’s hoping! A friendly reminder that term four (and term one) are sun smart terms and students MUST wear a wide brimmed hat when they are outdoors for activities such as PE and Sport, morning tea and lunchtime. Please ensure your child has a named sunhat ready to go!

Please follow the link to order online: www.lunchonline.co.nz

Username bellevue-newlands, password 'grow'

Monday 15 September to Friday 19 September

Te Wiki o te Reo Māori

Friday 19 September

Final Day of Term 3

Monday 6 October

First day of Term 4

Fijian Language Week

October is ADHD Awareness Month

Wednesday 8 October

Rimu Tōtara Trip - Walking Tour/Te Papa (pp 15 October)

Friday 10 October

Whole School Evacuation

Monday 20 October

Year 6 Camp Parent Helpers Meeting 6-7pm

NZ Athletics (pp 3 Nov)

Friday 24 October

TKOH Kapa Haka Festival (Years 4-6)

Monday 27 October

Labour Day - School closed

Tuesday 28 October

Staff Only Day - School closed

Wednesday 29 October

Board Meeting # 7 - in Staffroom

Wednesday 29 - Thursday 30 October

Visit from Wellington Free Ambulance

Friday 14 November

FUNRun (pp Friday 21 November)

Wednesday 19 - Friday 21 November

Year 6 Camp

Thursday 18 December

Final Day of Term 4 (12:30 finish)