Positive parenting support

As part of the psychosocial response to the COVID-19 pandemic, The Ministry of Health are offering free access to the Triple P Parenting programme enabling:

Families to learn strategies/tools to feel confident about parenting during the effects of this COVID-19 pandemic
The workforce to have tools to provide evidence-based, responsive, and helpful ways of supporting whānau.

Two options enabling access are provided:

1. Practitioners can register and request codes for parents to access the programme

2. Or MOE regionally can complete registration online, with the parents name and this will be automatically sent to the Werry Workforce Whāraurau. The parent will then receive an access code by email from the Triple P Online Client Management System.

If this seems of interest please make contact with Tumuaki-Principal Chris Bell.

https://www.triplep-parenting.net.nz/nz-uken/find-help/triple-p-online/

Reading at Home

Epic is a leading digital reading platform—built on a collection of 40,000+ popular, high-quality books from 250+ of the world’s best publishers—that safely fuels curiosity and reading confidence for kids 12 and under.

Parents get a 30 day free trial.

Behaviour, safety and wellbeing

We continue to work hard with children at school promoting our Ko Wai Au values of whānaungatanga (friendship and cooperation), aroha (kindness), resilience (the ability to deal with hardship, both social and academic) and responsibility (doing the right thing).

We recently asked the children using a Ministry of Education supported survey about how they feel about elements of our school. They told us there were issues around social situations, and without specifically saying so, have indicated they need more help. Below is an example of answers they gave us for just a small number of the questions:

We have responded to their feedback proactively with recent changes to behaviour policy, and renewed effort in teaching social strategies in the classroom.

As a reminder of the new behaviour policy we have established 4 bottom line behaviours we are seeking to remove entirely from our school. They are itemised here, along with consequences.

I have already taken firm action with a very small number of students who may have questioned how serious we were in our intent.

We will keep you updated with progress as it happens, and we welcome your feedback and input at any time. Please speak to principal Chris Bell. 

Abstract Art - Room 3

 We were so lucky to have one of our school mums Monique come in today to support the children producing their own abstract art. We shared some photos here but follow the link at the bottom for many more.

https://photos.app.goo.gl/RY1cevPp8arqgc2S7

Our school gardens

 The children were very keen to help Matua Danny today in the school marae, Te Wao Nui a Tane. As we approach spring time we are looking to beautify the school grounds, and a working bee is on the cards. We will send out information soon about how you might be able to help.

Market Day at Springbank

 Supporting our friends at Springbank School

POSTPONED UNTIL SUNDAY 18TH OCTOBER

Worm Farms

 As part of Room 3's “Sharing the Planet” theme, Phoenix looked at the use and reuse of natural resources during lockdown at home. He shared a video he made when he was building a worm farm with his mum.

Looking at the use of his food scraps, he came up with the idea of building worm farms at school where many students have fruit and vegetables scraps at morning tea and lunchtime.  Phoenix asked his mum and organised a team of interested students to join into his action plan and help with the building. 

There are lots of other photos of the days activities. Please follow this link https://photos.app.goo.gl/SNQHbBUA9QwckRgU6

Internet Safety at home

If you have any concerns about what children may be exposed to online, at home then https://switchonsafety.co.nz/ are offering support. They have made understandable instructions available to allow you to make adjustments to your child's device settings, effectively adding an extra layer of filtering and protection on that device.

I am sharing the instructions for Chromebooks below. Go to the website https://switchonsafety.co.nz/ for instructions relevant to other device manufacturers.

Please be in touch if there are any questions you have about keeping your children safe online. 

2020 School Photos

We have been so lucky to once again have the support of Renee Zotov Photography for our school photos in 2020. We are offering the same options as last year for getting photos of your child/children.

A reminder - Covid-19 Level 2

Alert Level 2 applies from midday today.
At Alert Level 2 it is safe for all students, children and staff to attend school and early learning. There will be appropriate precautions in place, and we will be following these recommendations from the Ministry of Education.

• Children and staff who are at higher-risk of severe illness are encouraged to take additional precautions when leaving home.
  
  
• Please be alert to illness and ask anyone who is presenting as unwell to go home, or ask parents and caregivers to come and pick the child up.
  
  
• Messaging about good hand hygiene and cough and sneeze etiquette to be reinforced.
  
  
• Soap and water is very appropriate for washing hands, particularly if hand sanitiser stocks are low. We have plenty of both.
  
  
• For schools, children, young people and staff should be far enough away from each other so that they are not breathing on or touching each other, coupled with good hygiene practices and regular cleaning of commonly touched surfaces. There does not need to be a specific measurement but where practicable and reasonable 1 metre can be used as a guide, particularly between adults.
  
  
• Physical distancing of 2 metres is recommended for parents and caregivers, from people they don’t know (to align with public health measures outside the school grounds).
  
  
• Support your community by displaying the QR code posters for the NZ COVID Tracer App. Please download the app and scan the posters available at school.

A reminder also that the top gate will remain locked and hand sanitiser will be available at the bottom gate for all.

Classroom Renovation

Please follow along as we continue to add photos to the photo album.

The builders and project manager tells us that we are looking good for the beginning of term 4 this year. Fingers crossed. The children are very excited a they see the changes happening.

2020 Renovation - Top Block

64 new photos added to shared album

Audio Reports

Kia ora koutou, parents, whānau and caregivers,

By now you should have received your child's audio report from the Bay Academy in your email. This is a significant change to the usual written style of reporting you may have become used to. 

We have trialled this innovative initiative as a way to provide more personalised feedback to you and your child. We think that the combination of the usual report style information combined with the intonation of the teachers voice communicates more overall.

Already we have received much more positive feedback from you than at any time in the past for written reports. We hope this reflects a positive change. I wanted to share one particular piece of feedback as an example (names removed):

Wow Sarah,

Miharo!! Amazing!

We love this new way of reporting!

We are so grateful for this amazing heart felt, personal and detailed report you have created for us.

It was so comforting for us all to hear how well you know and support our girl to grow both academically and socially.
We appreciate the time and effort you have put into this report.

We all sat as a whanau and listened, praising Quilyn with all the pride we have when hearing all your positive and constructive encouraging feeding back, so we can also check in on her progress and encourage at home.

Nga mihi aroha Nui!

Please feel free to continue to send feedback, either positive or otherwise to my email principal@boi.ac.nz or to the classroom teacher. We will evaluate this initiative in a few weeks once we have gathered views and opinions from as many as possible.

Ngā manaakitanga

Chris Bell, Principal.