Give a little page for new playground

Hi whanau, caregivers and community

Please can you help us fundraise for our new playground

Many thanks

 

https://givealittle.co.nz/cause/we-need-a-new-playground

What's happening soon at school

 Wednesday 6 April     Wear Blue and yellow day fundraise for ukraine children, sausage sizzle $2

Monday 11 April         Book character day dress up and bake and book sale, brings gold coins

Wednesday 13 April   School photos

Thursday 14 April       Last day of term 1, holidays

Monday 2 May           Term 2 starts 

Notice for Board of trustees by election

 School Board of Trustees Election

Nominations are open for the election of 2 parent representatives to the board of trustees.

All eligible voters will receive a nomination form and a notice calling for nominations – you can use this form to nominate yourself or someone in your community. 

If you need more nomination forms, contact the school office. Hard copies will come home today for each family.

Nominations close at noon on Friday 25 February 2022. You may provide a signed candidate statement and photograph with your nomination.

The electoral roll is held at the school and can be viewed during normal school hours.

As nominations are received, there will be a list of candidates’ names kept at the school up until election day, which you can view.  

Voting closes at 4pm on March 30th 2022.

Signed Toni Taylor

Returning Officer

Green Gold Award Achieved

We are excited to announce the awarding of the Enviroschools Green Gold Award to Bay of Islands International Academy by the Northern Regional Councils Enviroschools team. Following the successful reflection day described below by coordinating teacher Jenna Grant, the school went on to celebrate its success two weeks later.

Covid restrictions were not going to hamper Bay of Islands International Academy’s Green - Gold status reflection day. With a smaller group than planned the day began with a powhiri in the stunning and spiritual outdoor marae, Te Waonui ā Tane, nestled in the school pollination gardens. The waiata filled the hearts of all present and set a tone of appreciation.

The reflection group were students from years 2 - 8 and not all were part of the enviro team, we felt this was appropriate to show a balanced view of the schools culture. Morag facilitated the day with Zoe, Susan Karels and Poppy, our Board of Trustees chair. The day was in keeping with our school's culture and was “organic” with the students at the heart of all the activities.

It was a breath of fresh air to hear students talking of the journey their kura has been on to become more sustainable and future focussed.

“When I came to this school there was loads of rubbish, then when I came back from Ireland there was none.”

Some evidence that was shared included;

• A vegetable garden that runs as a business selling produce to community and local shops
• Ngahere kura - a forest school program for year 5 and 6 students in a nearby bush area
• Outdoor loose parts play area for younger students
• Students being a part of the strategic planning process
• Room 5 writing to the government and signing a bill to support a marine reserve
• Visits to project island song
• Our locally famous trapping team working hard to eradicate pests on the peninsula
• Only Rain Down the Drain painting project
• And one of our very own students being awarded to Blake Young Leaders award

The reflection process showed our progress from silver status where we set goals to spread the kaupapa across the school and into the wider community. As we put our evidence next to the guiding principles we realised that this was very much achieved. All classes plan units of inquiry with a sustainable future in mind. The year long unit of inquiry has an environmental focus so the curriculum is accessed year round and with many different perspectives. So many of our projects have reached outside school and are valuably connected to the wider community.

Due to uncertainty over covid restrictions we chose to collate our evidence in a website (just in case), with a bit more work and our status update to add we hope to share this with our wider community.

Being an IB school we are more than familiar with the inquiry cycle and the ongoing reflective process. From here we will recognise what we have and then look to the future about what we can continue working on.

Looking ahead, we aim to continue our “sharing the planet” and “how the world works” units that inquire into environmental concepts and allow students from across the school to think about local and global issues and solutions. This year some students have been selected to input into our school’s strategic plan. Having surveyed our community we have identified an opportunity to enhance our outdoor space.

We couldn’t be more proud of the hard work the students have put in and their inspiring passion to create a more sustainable future. The tears at the reflection day show just how important Enviroschools is to our students. We are looking forward to seeing what the next few years hold for us. Yeah for green gold status!

Pearl jab at Lake Manuwai

 

Camp at School 2021

Camp at school for Rooms 2,3 and 4 was again a great success. Our tamariki love the opportunity to work and play together as one. A full days activity list was created by the teachers and students that flowed on into the evening, including setting up the camp sites and tents, a camp fire with toasted marshmellows and spotlight as the night closed in.

The night was long for teachers as they settled children down in their sleeping locations and comforted any who were a little hesitant as their heads hit the pillow in the knowledge that Mum or Dad were not as close by as normal. By the time the morning arrived everyone was rested and happy, and all that remained was a hearty breakfast and the wait for parents and whānau to arrive for pickup. 

A big thanks again  to teachers for their willingness and enthusiasm to help create a wonderful experience.

        

Arohatia te Taiao

 

Sir Peter Blake Young Leaders Award

 At last weeks school hui it was a great pleasure to announce that a young person from our school had been granted a Sir Peter Blake Young Leaders Award. The award was presented to Arran Grant for his leadership of the school pest trapping programme.

Arran has taken leadership of this trapping programme and has guided a small team of his peers to maintain a regular programme of pest trapping around the school. Arran and his team and also taken their work into the community and have shared their journey in presentations to other groups, including at the local Whitiora Marae, to show the benefits to our environment of their actions.

Massive congratulations to Arran.

If you are able to help in anyway, big or small, we would love to hear from you.

 Kia ora koutou,

Thank you to the families and students who have completed the strategic planning surveys. The time taken to generously and thoughtfully give your feedback is so valuable and very much appreciated.

One particular area that has come through loud and clear from our entire community, is the desire for our playground and outside play opportunities for our tamariki to be improved.

Another message that came through was the willingness from our community to support and contribute to the growth and opportunity at our school.

The board are therefore putting out a call to whānau and our wider community… a call to anyone who has a little time, energy, advice, experience or enthusiasm to support a fundraising drive!  

We aim to get a fundraising working group set up in term 4 so we can start to brain storm, strategise and work with our students to formulate a plan of action - to fund and create an awesome playground and outdoor play opportunities for our school.

If you are able to help in anyway, big or small, we would love to hear from you.

You can drop in to see Toni in the office or have a chat with Chris. You can also email me on emailpoppy@gmail.com, or any of the other board members if you’d like further information or conversation.

We are really excited to see what we can achieve together for our children.

Kia pai tō rā whakatā, have a great weekend!

Poppy

Board chair on behalf of the board of trustees

Raffles - Newsletter coming home today

 We have two beautiful raffles to fundraise for our kapa haka uniform and for our junior playground.

Korowai raffle $20 per ticket , 4 prizes to win.

A day in the bay on a 38ft launch raffle, $10 per ticket, kindly donated by one of our families.

You can buy a ticket at office or bank online ref name and which raffle korowai or boat

Bay of islands international academy

12-3091-0078850-01