Tēnā Koutou, Talofa Lava, Malo e Lelei, Namaste, Ni sa bula, Noaia’e mauri, Fakalofa lahi atu, Kia Orana, Ni Hao, An Nyung Ha Sai Yo, Nay Ho, Hej, Hallo, Sawat Dee, Cześć, Goeie Dag, សួស្តី, Здравствуйте, hola. Greetings to our school families.
This week I wanted to take the time to acknowledge the huge team effort that Lockdown’s require.
Everyone ends up in a delicate balancing act, between work life, and home life, and there’s no escaping it – it’s really hard. We appreciate the work done by our school parents and whanau, to support our SBS students with their learning. I fell into the trap of not really feeling I was doing anything well during the last Lockdown – meeting the needs of your own children, as well of the demands of your job can lead you to focus on the gaps, or what isn’t getting done. Ultimately, as individuals, we have to prioritise what we do, allow ourselves to adjust expectations and timelines, and make sure we schedule some guilt free “me time” into the day! Well done to all our multi-tasking parents!
We had 102 replies to our Lockdown Learning parent survey, which is a high percentage of our parent community, when you consider that many families have multiple students here at school. We have detailed the results below. Your feedback, combined with those that popped in to chat in person, allows us to tweak what we do.
Nga mihi,
Kathryn Ramel
Principal
Welcome to our new students – we hope you enjoy your time at our school!
Nixon W, Zara H, Ollie R, Brohdi P, Hope L, Leo S, Cody S, Aliyah H
School Diary
Week 6: 15 Mar – 19 Mar
- Mon 15.3 YOE 21 Day Challenge Ends, Travelwise Workshop for Monitors 9:30am – 2:00pm Silverdale
- Tues 16.3 Swimming Zone Day (Mahurangi College Pool – Yr 4-6), Junior Swimming (leave school ~9.20pm, return ~11.20pm) – tbc weather, PTA Meet and Greet with Kathryn Ramel 7:00pm in the Staffroom (details below)
- Weds 17.3 Year 5 Camp Mangawhai Depart 9:00am
- Thurs 18.3 Junior Swimming (leave school ~9.20pm, return ~11.20pm) – tbc weather
- Fri 19.3 Year 5 Camp Mangawhai Return 2:30pm
Week 7: 22 Mar – 26 Mar
- Thurs 25.3 League Taster Day – whole school (Sessions with classes)
- Fri 26.3 Full School Assembly 2:10pm in the hall. (If at Level 1)
Week 8: 29 Mar – 2 April
- Fri 2.4 Good Friday
Come and find out about joining our PTA
Thank you to our current PTA Exec Committee who have all put in so many hours to support our school. We are looking at welcoming new parents and new ideas as we plan to support our school for the future, and also anyone interested in putting themselves forward for a leadership role. Interested to find out more? Come and meet with Kathryn Ramel, next Tuesday 16th March, 7:00pm, in the staffroom.
Please note the Easter Holidays Coming Up – Easter Tuesday
The Easter Holiday period does not fall in the school holidays this year, and because of this, can sometimes catch parents out. The school will be closed for Good Friday, and Easter Monday, but all schools New Zealand also close for Easter Tuesday. This is one of those funny, historic throw backs, to when New Zealand only had 3 school terms (and the same amount of holidays – just distributed differently). Schools closed for Easter Tuesday to allow for a longer “mid term break”. Nowadays, Easter often falls within the school holidays anyway, and Easter Tuesday is overlooked, but when it occurs in term time, Easter Tuesday is still legislation, and as such is followed. We simply work open for an extra day at the end of the year.
Results From our Home Learning Survey
Thank you to everyone who completed our recent survey on Home Learning during the last Lockdown. We are constantly reviewing how we handle schooling during Lockdowns – we realise that we will never get a model that is 100% perfect for everyone, as families have different needs and expectations, but try our best to get it as right as we can. We have made the commitment this year, to move away from extended digital work, and instead will provide hard copy packs. Our “contactless pickup” distribution seemed to go smoothly, so in the event we have another Lockdown, we will do this again, straight away.
- Results of Lockdown Learning Survey March 2021
- Other Feedback Given:
I quite enjoyed the weekly schedules that were online for the first lockdown, however the hard copy packs also worked great for our family this time around. We really appreciate all the hard work and planning that goes into keeping the kids learning from home
The hard packs were good, and its nice to be set extras from the teacher in a “if you want to” way. We did a bit extra than the packs as the girls were keen for more.
Would of liked a better range of subject matter in home learning packs and clearer direction on how many worksheets per day
I haven’t used the online learning with my child before so hard to compare but it was difficult to get my sone to sit down and do the hard copy learning everyday
Maybe add a reading book to the pack like they would get at school. We just read a book but would be great to carry on with the level they are on
Thank you for the efforts put into home learning
Year 5 Camp Mangawhai – now on next week
Our Year 5 Camp to Mangawhai was scheduled to go ahead during the last Lockdown. Huge thanks got to Mr Port and Miss Thomas who we able to rebook and reschedule the camp activities and providers for next week (we were incredibly lucky that another camp booking was cancelled, and the facility became available – that never happens!) We wish all our Year 5’s a challenging but fun camp, and look forward to seeing the photos, and hearing all about it!
SBS Saturday Netball Teams
$10 School Polar Fleeces
We have a limited number of second hand school polar fleeces available for $10. See Marissa in the office, or email her if you are interested mbale@snellsbeach.school.nz
Speech Language Therapy Sessions Here At School
One of our school parents, Kendall Stewart is a speech language therapist. Give her a call, text or email to discuss your child and whether Speech Therapy could help them. 0275888879 kendall.stewart@me.com
And a reminder:
Keeping in touch with what’s happening at SBS
Schools are busy places – especially in Term 1. The weather is warm, and classes are often out and about with events on. We strongly encourage parents to make sure they are in our communication loop by:
- ensuring that you are in our email database. You will receive the newsletter and other important notices direct to your inbox. This normally happens at enrolment, but sometimes only one parent’s email is used. We are happy to add parents and whanāu – please email us at admin@snellsbeach.school.nz and we can add you in.
- following us on our school Facebook page
- downloading our free school app. You will be sent notifications and reminders as necessary. To do this simply go to App Store (Apple) or Play Store (Android) and download the “Skool Loop” app. Once this is installed, use the drop down box to select “Snells Beach School”.
- please also update us if your phone number or emergency contacts have changed. There is honestly nothing worse than sitting with a sick or unwell child in the sickbay, and not being able to contact parents.
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