Newsletter Term 3 Week 5

NEWSLETTER

TERM 3 WEEK 5 2024

Kia ora e te whānau,

We are mid-way through the winter term and the illnesses are definitely impacting tamariki and whānau. Please take care of yourselves – it’s always a challenging time. Sickness is also impacting our staff. This is not ideal and we do our best to get relievers to support us when staff are ill, but the pool of relievers in our region is incredibly low and most of the time we put teachers who are supposed to be on release back in classrooms or share students with other classes. I think it is important our whānau know that we do the best we can with these disruptions. Just last week a local school asked two classes of students to stay home because they didn’t have enough staff to cover the number of students on sight – so it isn’t just Bulls School being affected.

The safety and well-being of our students is paramount. Once we have established that we move to work on rich, interesting learning programmes that motivate and encourage your child/ren to learn and move themselves along their own continuum of understanding.

We want to extend our thanks to all the parents who participated in our recent Aspirational Conversations. Your involvement is crucial in fostering strong partnerships between home and school, and we appreciate the time you took to discuss your child’s progress. We have over 80% of our whānau come to these. 

The data below is based on a teacher judgement which is made mid and end of year. To make this judgement teachers rely on classroom teaching sessions, anecdotal notes, and a range of assessments both formal and informal. It is important to remember that many factors influence and impact a students learning pace, including individual learning styles, classroom dynamics, external influences, identified (and sometimes unidentified) learning disabilities to name a few. Not every child progresses at the same rate. Our school is fortunate to have a Board of Trustees that invests heavily in additional staff (both teaching and support staff) to be able to meet the variety of needs in our hubs.

I also want to acknowledge the hard work and dedication of our teaching staff. They are committed to providing the best possible education for every student while managing a diverse array of responsibilities. Their efforts are integral to creating a positive learning environment, and we are grateful for their continued enthusiasm and professionalism.

Kia pai to rā, have a great day Kim Gordon – Tumuaki

Final word: 

Please get in behind our BSSG’s upcoming Community Event Kathryn Berkett – see the flyer further down in the newsletter). We have been fortunate enough to get the support of the Marton Lions Club to the tune of $800! This contribution will go towards Kathryn’s fee but this is honestly an amazing opportunity. Kathryn is incredibly relatable and we know many of our tamariki and whānau are struggling right now. Having some tools and strategies can be the absolute game changer. 

Share this flyer around to family and friends. They won’t be dissappointed.  

Our Kapa Haka group are busy practicing for their upcoming Tattoo performance on the 14/15 September. Our group are the opening act, alongside Manchester Street School. This is a fabulous event held at Manfield Stadium, and we encourage you to head along and watch. How can I support our tamariki? The Sunday matinee 15 Sep is the main show and tickets are already available to the public and are selling fast. Tickets to the Sat evening show are not yet available to the general public. However, community groups, sports groups, families and friends of the performers may purchase tickets. If they reference the purchase to our particular group (Bulls School and Manchester St School combined group), $15 of their ticket price will come to us as a fund raiser! So we strongly urge families, friends and supporters to come along (preferably to the Sat night show).

Tough Kids

On Friday of week 3 we had 81 Year 3 – 8 students participate in the Rangitīkei Tough Kids event. We had a great day out and managed to squeeze in all our races before the rain came bucketing down! Our students gave it their best and had blast. Thank you to our whanau who supported, encouraged, and helped our students out on the day. Congratulations to these students who were placed in the top 10:

Year 4 Boys: 2nd place: Jack B, 9th place: Callum 

Year 4 Girls: 10th place: Katalina 

Year 5 Boys: 10th place: Beckett 

Year 5 Girls 6th place: Emily, 10th place: Lydia 

Year 6 Boys 1st place: Jack K, 7th place: Oliver B

Year 6 Girls 10th place: Peatalita 

Year 7 Girls 6th place: Sina 

Year 8 Boys 2nd place: Gus 

Year 8 Girls: 9th place: Libby

SUBSCRIBE TO APP GROUPS 

Di has refreshed this and named each group with 2024 so you know it’s relevant and up to date. You will all need to join the groups specific to your tamariki.

This has important notices for either the whole school or specific groups eg: Bus Students, Sports, Cultural, Hubs, etc that you can join according to what your child’s involved in.

Many notices or reminders go out via the APP so it is an important tool for parents to be aware of what is due eg: permission slips and dates for events offsite, transport required etc. This is also an efficient way to provide absence notices.

In many cases, parental permission may be given via the app as well.

UNIFORM EXPECTATIONS

Our uniform and the way we wear it is connected to our PRIDE values. Taking PRIDE in our kura and our appearance as well as acknowledging the necessity to be sunsafe sits behind our decision to introduce a Bulls School Bucket Hat as a part of our regulation uniform. This has been an expectation since the beginning of 2023. Hats are available online or in-store for $20 and they come in 2 different sizes. Once you have yours PLEASE clearly name/label it. Matching 175 potae to 175 heads is much simpler when they are clearly named.