Week 3- 25 October 2023 - Term 4

Principal's Message

Kia ora Koutou

Welcome  to Anh Bao who is joining her sister at  Northland School.  

We also welcome Max and Arabella to our staff, they will be assisting running Before school care and will join the Teacher Aide team. We farewell Bridget who has moved to Nelson and Jack who is going overseas. Thank you for supporting all the students at Northland in your Teacher aide and before school roles. 

Last week we celebrated the love of reading, literature, story telling, and enjoyed a visit from Fifi Colston. Fifi shared motivations for her writing and illustrations of the many Children’s books she has written. We concluded the week with a Character Parade on Friday. There were some great costumes and clever ways that students thought about their favourite books. A huge thank you to Erwin and our student librarians who worked hard to organise all the activities and spot prizes on the day.

Parent Survey - We appreciate the 55 families we have heard from so far, please take 5-10 minutes to tell us what we are doing well, what we need to sustain and what we can improve on for everyone in our community. https://www.surveymonkey.com/r/LZHVRV3

Following on from the survey we will be hosting face to face meetings/hui to discuss aspects that are highlighted in parent responses. The meetings will be a mix of before school, after school, early evenings and during the school day. The dates for these will be Friday 17th November, Monday 20th November, and Wednesday 22nd. Times will be confirmed and sent out on the community feed. 

If your child is attending school before 8.30am we really appreicate them going to the library for Before School Care so they are appropriately supervised, this is a health and safety measure.  Classrooms are open from 8.30am and supervised by teaching staff.

We have the Voting Box in the school office, please cast your Vote for Board of Trustees, this closes on Wednesday 15th November.  

If you would like to come and chat or have questions or concerns please get in touch with any of the senior leadership team, Andrea, Jane and Judith.

Ngā mihi nui

Andrea

Northland School Parent Survey

Each year Northland School (in conjunction with its Board of Trustees) refreshes and updates the school's strategy for the forthcoming year.  The purpose of our strategy is to identify and focus on areas of opportunity that can help the school to deliver its long term goal and objectives (i.e. 'to reach great heights' through the creation of 'a community of confident, kind, curious, active, and creative learners').

Our strategic planning work takes into account various different sources of evidence. One of these sources is the views and experiences of parents within the Northland School community.

The purpose of this survey is to collect your views - as the parent of a child/children at Northland School - to gauge the impact of initiatives and developments in the last two years and to inform our planning for 2024 and 2025.

Our strategy influences the things the school identifies as being most in need of greater focus (and therefore focuses on). As such, our strategy affects all learners at Northland School. This survey is looking at 3 pou/pillars that we are particularly interested in: learning - ako, relationships- whanaungatanga, and wellbeing - oranga. We ask you to spend the 5-10 minutes that's required to respond to this survey, and in doing so, ensure that your views are represented in our planning efforts on behalf of your children.

The information collected through this survey will only be used by the Northland School Board of Trustees for research purposes, to inform and support our strategic planning work. All data will be compiled into a single set, and any qualitative information you provide will be anonymised by the survey administrator, so that you cannot be identified.   

The survey is being sent (via e-mail) to all parents/primary caregivers of children at Northland School. We understand that parents/caregivers are extremely busy people, and we appreciate any information you can provide. Individuals who receive the e-mail survey are welcome to complete it in an individual capacity, or to provide a combined response (with the other parent/caregiver) if this is more convenient. For parents with more than one child at the school, we invite you to consider whether a single overarching response is possible, or more than one response is required to account for different learning experiences at Northland School.

https://www.surveymonkey.com/r/LZHVRV3

2024 Enrolments

2024 Enrolments

To help us with our planning for next year we do need to know the number of students who will be attending.  If your child is in Year 1 – 7 and is leaving at the end of the year, please let us know as soon as possible.  If you have children due to start at Northland School in 2024, please check with Julia and Ann in the office to ensure that we have these details recorded.

If you know of children from other families who are likely to start next year, please encourage their parents to contact us. The more information the school has about potential in-zone enrolments the better equipped we are to provide the best possible class organisation for the coming year.

Northland School Champs PB4L

We are Northland CHAMPs! 

We are excited to continue on our Positive Behaviour for Learning (PB4L) journey and make it visual around the school. Our values are a key part of what PB4L will look like at Northland School and will underpin decisions we make. To keep them front of mind, we have been able to make the perfect acronym to describe what we want to be. 

C - confident (whakamanawa)

H - hikohiko (active)

A - auahatanga (creative)

M - manaaki (kind)

P - pataitai (curious)

As part of our PB4L journey, we have been starting to talk about expected behaviour in different areas in the school. We have started with the playground, office and library, as well as talked about expected behaviour during eating time. We have made matrices of expected behaviour using CHAMP which will start to appear around the school. 

We want CHAMP to become part of our everyday school language as a way of acknowledging students. For example, being a classroom CHAMP, a library CHAMP, an athletics CHAMP or a friendship CHAMP. We look forward to encouraging many different types of Northland CHAMPs. Keep a lookout for our community workshop.

Playground Matrix

We have worked with students, staff and parents to inform our expectations when we are in the playground. The playground matrix is visible around the school, helping us to show how we can be Northland Champs in all spaces. Our school values are at the heart of our positive behaviour for learning frameworks that we are developing together. You may like to talk about this at home. 

Zones of Regulation

At Northland School we use the Zones of Regulation as a way of helping students understand their emotions and learn strategies to regulate. When students are regulated they can learn their best.
Emotions are placed under colours - red, yellow, blue and green. These colours demonstrate the intensity of the emotion. Students have created posters for Northland School which are displayed around the different spaces and in the playground.

Each class has a check in system where students place themselves in one of the four
zones. This is a way for teachers and other students to be able to check in with each
other.   There is also a sensory box in each space. This is where a range of calming tools are
kept, some spaces have special spaces set up for children to go to and regulate.
Lessons for the Zone of Regulation are explicitly taught in Terms 1 and 2 but revisited
throughout the year. In Terms 3 and 4, students will learn a variety of strategies so that they are continually building their strategies kete.

Library News

Book Week, the week that was

Northland School’s annual Book Week started on Monday 16 October 2023 with a visit from a local author and illustrator, Fifi Colston. Ruru Iti and Ruru Nui classes were visited first by Fifi.   Luca P (Ruru 2) proudly led the Karakia and Whakatauki.  The students were all engaged and tuned in to her presentation.

After morning tea,  it was years 4-8’s turn to listen to Fifi over at the Kotare space.  This time, Zoe R led the Karakia and Whakatauki for the group.  Fifi spoke of her experience and how she got into illustrating books, creating puppets, writing books and designing costumes.  There was so much interest but sadly it was time for lunch.

On Tuesday,  a number of Kotare and Tieke students had a chance to play the Kahoot game which was created by Olivia K (Kaka 5).  There were around 17 teams who participated, each team being made up of  between 1 - 3 students.  In the end, Maya H (Tieke 1) and Alexis MG(Kotare 1) won, having answered all the 20 questions correctly!

The library was closed during the morning tea playtime on Wednesday except for some Ruru Iti and Ruru Nui students who came to listen to Erwin read a new book “The House of Madam M”.  Some students even stayed a little longer to hear the story “All the Things You Will Do”.

Thursday was Kaka’s turn to be at the library for a Kahoot game which was created by Kaitlyn J (Kaka 5) and Millie Shipman (Kaka 7).  The competition was quite tight but in the end, the team composed of Matilda S, Evie BC and Pippa N, all of whom are from Kaka 6, were victorious.

Book Week concluded on Friday with students and staff dressed as their favourite book characters.  All throughout the day, walking in the school grounds were fairies, unicorns, prince and princesses, dinosaurs, pirates, athletes, gladiators and much more.

Northland School Requests

• Northland School Shirts be returned to the office asap

Sports - News Events Achievements

We would like to share some of our students' sporting achievements. Nico and Oscar did a brilliant job representing both Western Zones and Northland School at the Interzone swimming competition that was held on the 14th September at the Wellington Regional Aquatic Centre in Kilbirnie.  Fortyfive schools from across the Wellington region had swimmers entered in the 6 different events on the day. 

• Nico C – 8th in 25m Breaststroke and 11th in 50m Freestyle for year 4 boys
• Oscar H – 5th in 25m Freestyle, 5th in 25m Breaststroke and 11th in 25m Backstroke for year 6 boys.
• Oliver H - competed in the National Cross Country competition held in Christchurch at the end of September. Oliver came 4th place for Year 7 boys in the country and we are very proud of his achievement. 

Athletics Day - Wednesday, 1st November,  we look forward to our school Year 4- 8 Athletic’s at Ben Burn Park.  If you would like to cheer students on we will be there from 9:30 onwards.

Team Ruru will be holding their Athletics and Cross Country at Northland Park on 22nd November from 12-2pm.   

Weetbix Tri-athalon

I have created a Weetbix Tryatholon school group, so please make sure to sign your student up through our school group. The tryatholon is on Sunday the 17th of March 2024. It's an engaging and fun event for kids of all ages. More information can be found here: https://tryathlon.co.nz/locations/wellington/ 

email   rachelp@northland.school.nz  

School Working Bee

Sunday 5 November  11am till 2pm.  Matt George has kindly offered to co-ordinate a working bee at Northland School,  pop this date in your diary, sausage sizzle will be onsite at school.

We have a number of areas that we would like to spruce up around our school. A few of the jobs are putting the new nets on the repaired soccer goals on the tiger turf, weeding areas at the Tennis courts, school entrances, cutting and pruning, spreading compost, adjusting the basketball/netball hoops to the correct height. We will have a sausage sizzle during this event too.

If you are able to help please contact Matt George who is coordinating this event for us and will be able to make sure you have the tools you need ready on the day.   Matt  021 026 53991     email  mattgeo23@gmail.com  

Home & School - Hoodie Orders

Discount week - HOODIES, T-SHIRTS and SUN HATS

There have been some requests to be able to purchase the hoodies, hats and t-shirts all year round. We have listened and have now set up the website to take orders all year round. In addition to this there will be 3 special discount weeks next year. The last week of Term 1, 2 and 3 will offer a 10% discounted ordering week and free shipping directly to school.  

We are going to kick this off with a special discount week to order items.  The discount week runs from Wednesday 25th October to Wednesday 1st November. Use the code ‘UNIFORMWEEK’ for 10% discount and free shipping to the school office.  Click on the link to order directly. 

https://www.theoutfitters.nz/collections/northland-school-uniform?ls=MI69jVtWRpu2rkXtxr7f7g

Northland School doesn’t have a school uniform, so purchasing these items is completely optional.  For those of you with children participating in sporting events, you can choose to purchase your own school sports shirt or borrow one from the office.

BSC - Before School Care

Before School Care.  The cost from 7:30-8:30 is $10 or  from 8-8:30, the cost is $5. We are fortunate to be able to continue to provide this for you to make your mornings run well. 

Our Value Curious - Pātaitai

Our quality is  -  Caring is giving love and attention to people and things that matter to you. When you care about people, you help them. When you do a careful job, you give it your very best effort. You treat people and things gently and respectfully.

Term Dates

Term 4     Monday 9 October - Friday 15 December  12pm         TOD  24 November    Curriculum Refresh

2024 Dates 

Tuesday 30 January Open day for families from 1pm 

Term 1 Wednesday 31 January-Friday 12 April      TOD 28 March   

Term 2 Monday 29 April - Friday 5 July                   TOD 31 May 

Term 3 Monday 22 July - Friday 27 Sept 

Term 4 Monday 14 October - Wednesday 18 Dec

2 more TOD dates will be confirmed by the MOE 

Community Notices

Check out our  New Notice Board in the school office, come in out check it out !