Bula

It was wonderful to see everyone at Learning Conversations last week,  The opportunity to connect with plenty of time can be difficult before and after school, so I hope the timings worked for you.  We would love to hear from you about anything that you like or anything you think could be improved with Learning Conversations.  Please come in and chat or email me principal@lyallbay.school.nz.   If you didn't make it to the Learning Conversations you are welcome to book a time with kaiako.  Please just email them some dates and times that suit and they will fit you in as soon as they can. 

We ran some more Structured Literacy information sessions last week too.  If you are still interested in finding out more about this programme for our Huetepara tamariki (Yr 0-2), then please chat to hub kaiako.  Alternatively, Amanda and I are happy to chat with you too.  

Congratulations to the Onepū Touch team who won the A grade final!!  An outstanding season from the boys ( Paddy, Koa, Toby, Cohen C, Floyd and James). 

Well done to all our sports teams, floorball, touch, and mini-polo.  You have all worked hard as a team, improved your skills and had fun.  A huge thank you to all coaches and co-ordinators, your roles are so important for our tamariki, not only in learning the skills of the game, but also how to be a good team member, how to win and how to lose with grace, and to always be proud of who you are.  New sports notices have gone out on HERO for Term 2.  If you are unsure of anything please contact Ms Cowan.  Some Term 1 sports fees are still outstanding - please pop into the office to settle any unpaid accounts before the end of term.

The newsletter is published every two weeks on Tuesdays.  The newsletter is available on HERO and on our website.  In each newsletter, some kupu will be shared with you to help us all to develop our te reo Māori.  This week's kupu are based around desires and wants, seeing as the holidays are almost upon us some of these may be useful ... pirangi  - desire/want,  maumahara - remember, mōhio - know, whakapono - believe, tūmanaku - hopeful, aroha- love, mauāhara - loathe. 

With Autumn truly upon us we seem to have increased the amount of lost property.  Please come in and check through the last property bins.  One is in Maranui, between Maranui e toru and Maranui e whā, the other is on the stairs up to Onepū.  If you could name all of the clothes that come to school then we can return them easily.  If they aren't named then they are put in the lost property bin.  At the end of term all lost property is donated to charity. 

With Autumn comes the end of Daylight Saving.  This weekend clocks are turned back on Sunday at 2am to 1am.  The purpose of daylight saving is to make the most of the hours of daylight we are given by the changing seasons.  The tilt that the Earth sits on gives us our four seasons, but it also means that we are exposed to more sun during the summer and less during winter.  So, when summer kicks in and the days get longer, many countries set their clocks forward an hour to make the most of the sunlight and higher temperatures.  On the flip side, when we are coming into winter - like we are now - the Earth's tilt means we get fewer sunlight hours, so we turn our clocks back. 

In last week's newsletter, we mentioned that our gardens have had a facelift and now we are looking to do some plantings later in autumn, so they look more like the picture above.  Dave and Alex have some native plants ready, from cuttings, seedlings, and donations.  This is not enough to fill the gardens, making them great places for bees, butterflies, bugs and tamariki.   We are looking for natives, small trees, shrubs, ground covers, flax and grasses.  Please drop any plants to the office or to Eke Ngaru.  If you don't have any plants, but would still like to help out, a Bunnings or Garden Centre voucher would be appreciated.  Another way to help is to chat to Dave or Melanie about helping with planting.  We are also landscaping the area behind the dental clinic.  If you have any landscaping skills or are happy to help with digging and moving soil and plants please let Dave or Melanie know.  You can email principal@lyallbay.school.nz, or let us know at the office.  

A reminder for you that once a child is enrolled in school it is a legal obligation to ensure they attend school each day for the whole day.  There are new Ministry of Education processes in place for children who are away for five or more days in a term, or when absences are unexplained.  We will also be following up on children who are regularly picked up early without an explained reason, as they are missing important education. 

We are finishing this term with some sad news that two of our kaiako are leaving us.  Izzy Newman (Taniwha) is returning to the UK until the end of the year.  Kiri Koning (Ahu) is off on a new adventure visiting family overseas.  We wish you both all the very best and hope to see you again soon.  Both Izzy and Kiri have brought wonderful teaching pedagogy to our tamariki, added to our school culture with wellbeing initiatives and new PE and playground activities.  Learning Through Play has flourished for the tamariki in their hubs too.  They will be sorely missed.  We will be welcoming Kate Woodward back into Ahu.  Kate joined us last year and has been working in different hubs releasing kaiako this term.  Ché Hancock will be joining us in Taniwha.  Ché is an experienced kaiako, spending many years in ECE.  I am sure you will welcome her with open arms as she gets to know our fabulous kura. 

This is the last newsletter for the term.  We wish you all a wonderful holiday break, time to get used to turning the clocks back, and no making of school lunches! 

Kia pai te wiki
Melanie

Board of Trustees Update:

On Monday the 18th of March we had our second board meeting for 2024.  This was held in the Staffroom at 7pm. 

Our meeting always opens with a whakatauki, mihi or pepeha from one of our board members.  Melanie shared a whakatauki to open our meeting.  After the usual administration functions were completed we moved an item up the agenda and had a presentation from Jo Graham about the Beach School Initiative.  The feedback received so far from children has been very positive and the links made to maths, science, and social sciences were evident in the amazing photos of student learning that were shared.  All of the school has now been for at least one session and Jo said the children have, so far, reported the sand as the only downside!  The Board is excited to continue hearing the amazing learning the students are doing during beach school. 

After Jo shared we reviewed our policy reviews scheduled for this meeting.  The policy for this meeting was Te Tiriti ō Waitangi Board Responsibility.  This policy and all our school policies are on the School Docs website and available at any time through www.schooldocs.co.nz  If you wish to read them or provide feedback on the policy being reviewed, simply go to this website and type in Lyall Bay School.  When prompted the username for the community is lyallbay and the password is maranui.

Following the policy discussion the Board was updated on the Education Review Office (ERO) visits that are scheduled to begin this term.  ERO has changed the way it works with schools to more of a partnership model and we look forward to the team working with us at Lyall Bay School.  ERO will initially be checking our compliance with the new legislation around cellphones in schools and one hour a day of reading, writing, and maths.  The board was assured that all classes at Lyall Bay are compliant with this legislation already. 

A short conversation was had about the maths curriculum report that was shared with the board and the extra support that is being put in to support learners in this curriculum area.  We also discussed briefly the wellbeing initiatives that are happening around our kura and would like to thank Friends of Lyall Bay for the fantastic Summer in the Bay event.  We are also very appreciative of all the teachers who gave up their Sunday afternoon and attended this event.  It was so nice for families to have this opportunity to see their child's teacher in a different setting.  Our children also loved it and had a great time. 

The Principal’s Report was shared with the Board.  This includes a breakdown of student achievement in core curriculum areas.  We discussed the extra support being offered to students in reading, writing and maths.  We also had some conversations about the BSLA program that is now up and running in Huetepara.  We anticipate this will have an impact in not only reading but writing as well. 

The board meeting finished with a Whakatauki from Matt Hunt. 

Our next meeting is on Monday the 13th of May at 7pm.  Members of the school community are welcome to attend these public meetings.