September 4 2024, Week 7

Principal's Message

Wednesday 4th September

Kia ora koutou

Welcome to Spring, we are thankful today we finally have sun and no rain!

Last weekend was the end of winter sports codes. I was fortunate to watch the Wests Roosters Year 8 Rugby players versus the Under 55kg Wellington College team. It was great to see so much potential on the field and a great initiative to support Year 8s transition to College. Our netball teams have enjoyed a great season and I would like to mention our Year 8 girls who have been wonderful coaches for the younger teams this year and also umpired every Saturday after playing for their own team. 

A huge thank you to many of our parents who have been coaching Netball, Rugby, Basketball and Football this season and for some of you, this is the last season as primary school parents. Thank you for your contribution to the community.

We had a robust day of professional development on Friday and are seeing the benefits of our teaching in Literacy; The Code, spelling and handwriting. We have been encouraged to look further into how we teach composition so that our students can produce quality sentences, paragraphs and demonstrate fluency. We know our students are making good progress and in particular we have seen a huge improvement in handwriting throughout the school. 

During the last few weeks we hope you have enjoyed the variety of sharing learning posts on HERO. The purpose of these posts is to provide you with a view into what is occurring in the classroom. In these posts, we have tagged some of the learning dispositions that are evident in the work or experience that has been shared. If you haven't read these posts we encourage you to do so. 

On HERO, we can see that over 70% of our families have booked a 15 minute slot either tomorrow or next Wednesday. Thank you for seeing the value in meeting with teachers to discuss progress, goals and next steps for the remainder of the year.

We are pleased to share some feedback from Wellington Girls Principal, Julia Davidson. 

“We've just had the results back from our  Yr 11 students who sat the Literacy Numeracy co-requisites in late May at Wellington Girls College. (We hadn't chosen to do any of the testing before this year, so this was our first attempt.) Over 90% for both Reading & Writing and just under for Numeracy. This stems from the work you guys do in our amazing primary schools. So do what you're doing - we love it and our kids have benefitted hugely!”

Some of our staff are meeting regularly with the colleges, through Kahui Ako, to share our teaching and learning approaches and to gain understanding about the requirements for the co-requisites. We know mathematical thinking is important, the ability to apply skills to solve problems, and be accurate in workings. The importance of times tables and basic operations being essential and fluent. To support our students to have success in maths, we have implemented basic facts across the school this year to support all students to be confident. We are learning from our work in literacy that regular practice and review helps to consolidate learning. 

This morning I attended a presentation by Dr Judith Locke and would highly recommend parents attend her presentation tonight. She focused on building resilience, developing boundaries and the impact of over parenting. Judith is a highly regarded speaker and the author of The Bonsai Student - Developing Resilient Teenagers. She is speaking at Wellington College 7.00 to 8.30pm. 

Looking forward to the Quiz night next week, we have two tables of staff and are preparing for the challenge!

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

Ngā mihi nui

Andrea

NIWA

We are so proud of the 28 children who attended NIWA last Thursday. All students spoke with judges about their findings, the process and what they would adjust. We have some great results to share;  Harriet and Oscar received Highly recommended. Ethan received a prize from New Zealand Institute of Chemistry, Oscar won a prize from NZ Institute of Food Science and Technology, and Harriet received a prize from NumberWorks’n Words, Te Herenga Waka -- Victoria University of Wellington School of Psychology.

One of the judges, a professor in Mathematics and Stats, made a point of coming over today and complimenting the teaching that had gone into the Northland School Science Fair exhibits. He particularly noted the ability of the children to craft hypotheses, which he said could only be down to their teaching (he may have used the word 'exceptional').

He said they had done a better job than many of his own students and talked about a conversation he had had just yesterday with one of his PHD students who couldn't pinpoint a hypothesis like they could!

Such fabulous feedback about science teaching at Northland School.

Mathswell

On August 19th, Northland School sent two teams of six to Mathswell. Mathswell is an event where lots of schools bring one or two teams to compete in a fun and challenging competition. Each team splits up into two subgroups of three, one for problem solving and one for multi choice. Those groups compete in round 1 and then switch categories for round 2. After round 1, the top half competes for the cup while the bottom half competes for the plate. 

In the problem-solving round, you have 15 minutes to answer 13 questions; you have two tries for each question. In the multi-choice round, you would choose from a, b, c, d, or e. Every point answered was worth 1 point, and the team with the most points won the round. 

Both of our teams did well and everyone enjoyed it.

Summary from the Mathswell Team

2025 Enrolments and Out Of Zone

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 2025 please check with 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.

Applications for Out of Zone Enrolment for Terms 1 and 2, 2025 close on Thursday 26 Sept 12 pm. Enrolment at Northland School is governed by an enrolment scheme, details of which are available from the school office. 

The Board of Trustees has determined that there will be only are a few spaces in Years 1 -4 that will be made available to eligible out of  zone students for enrolment.

For more information about our school

visit www.northland.school.nz 

Please email office@northland.school.nz for application forms.

Applications close on Thursday 26th September 12pm.

Open Day

Do you know families in the area with school age children looking to enroll? We are having an open day on September Thursday the 12th which you may want to invite them to. It will be a great opportunity for families to have a walk around and learn what Northland School has to offer. 

Onsie Day

On September 13th (Friday Week 8) We have Onesie Day! 

You can wear your PJ's or a onesie to school and bring a mug for hot chocolate, (GF and DF options available). We are fundraising for the Wellington Free Ambulance so we would like you to bring a gold coin donation.

Cultural Day - Friday 20 September

Our annual Cultural Day is coming up again this term on Friday 20 September (week 9). It would be great to include as many cultures as possible and we would love it if you, or anyone in your family, is able to share their culture with different groups of up to 12 children for about 25 minutes at a time. You could share a traditional activity, craft, video, song etc. or any combination of these. 

There will be 4 sessions on the day: 9.30am - 10am, 10am - 10.30am, 11.30am - 12pm, 12pm - 12.30pm. 

Please email me if you are able to participate. It is possible to do just two of the sessions, if that suits you better.

Ngā mihi, Nathalie nathaliel@northland.school.nz

Learning Conversations Book on HERO

Learning Conversations are planned for Thursday 5th September and Wednesday 11th  September from 3:15- 8pm. These are 15 minutes for teachers and parents to discuss progress and goals. To book an appointment time please go to the HERO app and select School Bookings.

The focus of these conversations is on progress since you received the mid year report. Our first session is this Thursday 5th September and then next Wednesday 11th. If you have not booked yet please go onto HERO and make a booking. If you are unsure how to do this, please go to the HERO page on the website for details, https://www.northland.school.nz/our-school/hero/. 

Calendar Art

The student’s have been busy creating art work that can be made into affordable Calendars, Cards, Diaries, Mouse Mats and Sketch Pads.

Each product is made from your own child’s art.

These make unique Christmas gifts for family and friends and are perfect for posting overseas.

Follow these instructions to place your order online:

1/. Go to www.kidsartworks.com

2/. Use the Entrance Code that you will receive on Friday 6th September: KZ*….. (add in your entrance code from your welcome letter e.g. “KZ3452”)*

3/. Enter your child’s room & name when prompted

The order is open from 6th September until  20th September

Payment can be made over the website via credit card or account2account.

Civil Defence Emergency Contact Form

We would like to remind you to return the civil defence emergency form back to the office. It is very important that we have your  contacts up to date before we undertake a reunification drill during term 4. All of these details will be entered into HERO.

PhotoLife - School Photos

We wanted to let you know that we have spoken with Photolife regarding the school photos. They agree with our concerns and are very apologetic. They are wanting to work with us to make this right. 

PhotoLife have offered to re-edit the images and tidy up the groups to a satisfactory standard at NO extra cost and are happy to extend / redo the FREE DELIVERY period so that no parents miss out on the opportunity to order.

For those of you that have already ordered and are wanting replacements, we have been advised that these will be replaced at NO extra cost. We will advise once we have more information on how this will be done.

This is a great result and we want to thank you all for your patience while we have been working through this. We will update you once we know dates for ordering. 

Quiz Night!

The Home & School Committee have arranged a quiz night to raise funds for STEM resources. Reach out to family, friends, workmates, sports teams, and get a team together for a fun night out! There will be spot prizes, games, and we have some great prizes from delicious restaurants, eateries, and producers including Bebemos, Nolita, The Botanist, Otto, and Elysian Foods. 

Tables are already filling up so get in quick! Get a team together and book a table! 

Thursday 12 September at The Shepherd's Arms on Tinakori Road.

Quiz starts at 7pm but the tables are available from 6pm if you want to go earlier. Teams of 6, $120 per team - if you don't have a group of six, we can arrange a team.

To register your Team, or if you have any questions, get in touch with H&S homeandschool@northland.school.nz. 

Sport Shirts - Cleaned and Returned

Can we PLEASE have all sports shirts returned to the school office.  Can you please check bags, draws and under the bed - we are missing many many shirts, thank you.

Library News

What's New?

Our school library has these new book series called “Seriously Silly Stories”. These books give a hilarious twist to much-loved fairy tales.  They can be found in the same shelf as the books written by Susan Anita Jones in the Junior Quick-Reads area.

Also, more Rainbow Magic books are added to our current library collection.

School Lunch Options

Subway  - Every Monday - order online through  www.lunchonline.co.nz

Sushi  -  Every Tuesday - order online through  www.ezlunch.co.nz

Pizza   - Once a month - available the 1st Friday of each month, $6 per pizza  order forms available on the school website or in the school office.

Apps available for Subway and Sushi through the school website.

Western Zone and School Sports Days

Western Zone sports day are usually held on a Tuesday with the Thursday of the same week being the postponement day.  Information is sent home separately for each of these events, with updates on HERO or the school website.

WZ Swimming 26 September 

School Athletics Day  23 October (Wednesday)

WZ Athletics  1 November  (Friday)

Term Dates

2024 Dates 

Term 3 Monday 22 July - Friday 27 Sept                    

Term 4 Monday 14 October - Wednesday 18 Dec   

Our teacher only days are 

Term 4  Tuesday 29 October 

2025 Dates

We have confirmed the dates for 2025. We will have an open afternoon for families on January 29th to help the transition back into school, see the class space and meet the teachers in the learning space. This is prior to the first day of school on 30th January.   We are yet to confirm Teacher Only Days and once these have been decided we will let you know.

Term 1 - 30 January - 11 April  

Public Holiday- Thurs 6th Feb- Waitangi

Please note Easter and ANZAC day are within the Term holiday in 2025

Good Friday - 18th April

Easter Monday - 21st and Easter Tuesday 22.

ANZAC Friday 25th April

Term 2 - Mon 28 April - 27 June 

Kings Birthday - Monday 2nd June

Matariki - Friday 20th June

Term 3 - 14 July - 19 September 

 Term 4 - 6 October - 17 December    Labour Day- Monday 27th October

Community Notices