Newsletter Issue 1

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

Nau mai, haere mai, and welcome to Term 1, 2026!

A very warm welcome to all our new students and families joining us this year, as well as a welcome back to those returning to our school community.

We are delighted to introduce the following students who are new to our school:
Mānuka – Elizabeth, Sky, Liunidas, Kobe, Eli, Dhriya, Mehtab, Aurion, Willa, Deniz, Zielina
Nīkau – William, Aviraj, Francis, Kgotso
Rātā – Aaradana
Rīmu Totara – Anaya

For our new families, Bellevue’s guiding values are shown below and fall under the concept of Aroha. All of us within our school community strive to embody these values in our day to day learning and interactions.

The year has begun in a calm and positive way, with students transitioning smoothly into their new classes. Across the school, learners have been reconnecting within their hubs while class kawa and shared routines and expectations are being established to support a settled and successful year of learning. There is a strong emphasis on developing effective learning dispositions, including perseverance, collaboration, resilience, risk-taking, and confidently managing oneself within the learning environment.

Meet the Teacher / Whānau Picnic

It was fantastic to reconnect with families at our Meet the Teacher/Whānau Picnic event on Friday 30 January. It was a lovely afternoon, with the Board of Trustees providing sausages and ice blocks, and the slip ’n’ slide, once again proving a big hit. A big thank you to all those who helped make the event such a success!

As a follow up to this event, we ask for your help in gathering important information about your child or family for the 2026 year digitally as well as providing us with any feedback, by completing our whanau inventory. Please find it Here.

Professional Learning Day - School closed Monday 2 March

A reminder that there is an upcoming Teacher Only Day on Monday 2 March, when the school will be closed to students while staff attend professional development on the refreshed curriculum. Bellevue will be joining other local primary schools for our third day of Ministry of Education - led professional learning, with a focus on the refreshed Mathematics Curriculum.

Attendance Target and Attendance Management Plan for 2026

From Term 1 2026, all state and state-integrated schools in New Zealand are required to implement an Attendance Management Plan. Our full attendance management plan is HERE. A summary of the key points is here: Bellevue Attendance Management Summary Sheet. These are both linked under Attendance on the Parent Portal - A-Z Information page of our website.

Communication from School

This newsletter comes home fortnightly with key news, reminders and updates from across the school.

For more hub learning focused communications, as well as contact with the teacher, you will need to check you have access to your child’s Seesaw page. Our Bellevue Website has term dates and longer term information about the operation of the school - take a look at the Parent Portal - and you may wish to follow our closed group Facebook Page for quick updates or reminders.

Phones/Smart Devices at Bellevue

At Bellevue our policy has always been to discourage phones or smartwatches (with access to data) at school. If they do come to school, they must be handed in to the teacher at the beginning of the day. These are locked away and returned to the students at the end of the day.

If you need to contact your child urgently during the day, please call the office. Similarly, in the event of an emergency at school where the care and safety of the children will be our first priority, your first contact would be from the school rather than your child.

If your child has a smartwatch that does not have access to data they may wear it, however, please remind them that they are not to use this to take photos of anyone in school. Please see our SchoolDocs policy for more information.

Ngā mihi nui

Deeann

Acting Principal

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.

Yummy Apple Stickers

We are collecting Yummy Apple stickers and bag labels again this year! This is an amazing initiative that allows us to replenish something from our Sports Shed in Term 4 each year. Please bring in any bag labels and stickers to give to your child’s whānau teacher.

Safe and positive online experiences - Hector’s World Episode 7: Class Acts

Our tamariki have been learning about digital citizenship, and have been sent home with their Student User Agreement form. Please ensure that you go through this with your child before signning and sending it back to thier whānau teacher. A fantastic reasource to support this conversation is episode 7 of Hector's World. Hector and his friends show what it looks like to learn to participate responsibly in a digital society.

If you would like to continue the conversation further, here are some prompts to help:

- What it means to be a digital citizen

- How we should treat other people online

- What to do if you see something online that makes you feel uncomfortable

- What it means to think critically about information you find online.

Watch the episode and download the full parent conversation guide for episode seven.

• An accessible carpark is in the carpark, if you need to use this then open the gates and drive in.

• Please note that there is no vehicle access to/from the car park via Bancroft Terrace during road patrol times: 8:25–9:00 am and 2:15–3:15 pm. Vehicles parked on the school grounds during these times will be required to wait until the road patrol has finished before exiting. This is to ensure the safety of our students.

• Please be mindful of our neighbours driveways, do not park over them or turn around in them during drop off and pick up time, or stop on any yellow lines.

Do you have a child turning five soon or next year or know someone else who does? Parents of students who live within the home zone and intend to enrol their child at any time in 2026-2027 are asked to please notify the school as soon as possible to assist the school to plan appropriately. It helps us to know as early as possible how many students will be enrolling as a five-year-old. Interested families may collect an enrolment pack from the office or from our website.

Out of zone enrolment applications are now being accepted for the third enrolment period of 2026 (Saturday 4 July 2026 to Friday 25 September 2026). Up to five (5) places are likely to be available for out of zone students.

The deadline for out of zone enrolments is Friday 27 March 2026.

Please have a look at the school website for more details: https://www.bellevue-newlands.school.nz/enrolment.

The latest Scholastic Book Club brochure was sent home last week. Orders are due by Thursday 26 February.

If your child requires medication to be given at school, please make sure you have completed an Medication Authority Form. All medication is required to be kept in the school office. You can collect a form from the office or email office@bellevue-newlands.school.nz.

A friendly reminder that term one (and term four) 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!

Have a go at tennis this summer!

We have some spaces available in our junior tennis programme at your friendly local club, Newlands-Paparangi Tennis Club.

We're offering a discounted membership for the rest of the season which runs from now until September. Membership costs $95 which gets you access to the courts as well as a place in our Term 1 weekly group sessions led by our friendly coach, Tash. Group sessions are on Tuesday or Wednesday depending on age and no experience or equipment is needed. Running from now until April.

You're welcome to come and have a go before signing up so if you're interested in trying tennis then just get in touch with our junior convenor at nptclubjuniorconvenor@gmail.com

You can also find more information about the club at our website https://clubspark.kiwi/NewlandspaparangiTC

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