SCHOOL CLOSES FOR THE YEAR ON Friday 14th December AT 1.30pm Please ensure that you have made arrangements

for your children from this time. (no after school care on this day)

今年学校最后一天，十二月十四号周五下午一点半 1:30pm放学。

请家长及时安排时间，按时接孩子回家，当天下午没有 after school care

Wednesday 12th December 2018

Dear Parents, Caregivers and Whānau,

I would like to take this opportunity to thank everyone for their contribution to the children’s education this year. People often talk to me about the school’s great reputation and this is very much a team effort with children, parents, staff members and the community combining to create a fun and fulfilling place of learning.

Well done to all of the children who have done their best to achieve so well during 2018. The adults that support you, love to see you all enjoying your learning and hope that you enjoyed getting feedback about this in your end of year report.

Congratulations to the Year 6 students who were recognised at yesterday’s Graduation. You can be proud of the progress you have made at BHB and we look forward to hearing about your future success.

To those of you who are leaving us for the last time on Friday, good luck to you all. We are very much aware that for some parents, this brings the close to their connection with the school. I would like to take this opportunity to thank you all for the work you have done over the years to support us to help your child.

We would also like to take this opportunity to thank this year’s newsletter sponsors who help us by reducing the cost of keeping families up to date with what is happening at school. Whilst a lot of parents like the digital versions, a number of people tell us that they also like the hard copy so we are happy to continue to provide this. I hope you all have a wonderful holiday break.

Neil Robinson Principal

CALENDAR OF EVENTS TERM ONE 2019

(Mon 4th Feb– Fri 12th April)

School Commences Monday 4th Feb 8.50am Fri 8th Feb -Chinese New Year Children come to school in Cultural clothes Wed 6th Feb -Waitangi Day – No school Wed 13th Feb -Family Teacher Meetings -SCHOOL CLOSES 12.45PM Thurs 14th Feb -Family Teacher Meetings Fri 15th Feb -2.00pm Rimu Assembly Tues 19th Feb -2.30pm Pohutukawa Assembly Mon 25th Feb -2.00pm Kauri Assembly Tues 26th Feb -2.30pm Kowhai Assembly Fri 1st Mar -2.00pm Rimu Assembly Tues 5th Mar -2.30pm Pohutukawa Assembly Mon 11th Mar -2.00pm Kauri Assembly Tues 12th Mar -2.30pm Kowhai Assembly Fri 15th Mar -2.00pm Rimu Assembly Tues 19th Mar -2.30pm Pohutukawa Assembly Mon 25th Mar -2.00pm Kauri Assembly Tues 26th Mar -2.30pm Kowhai Assembly Fri 29th March -2.00pm Rimu Assembly Mon 8th April -2.00pm Kauri Assembly Tues 9th April -2.30pm Kowhai Assembly Fri 12th April -2.00pm Rimu Assembly Fri 12th April -Term One Ends

Pictured above are the 2018 Graduation

Prize Winners. Congratulations to you

all.

EARLY FINISH THIS FRIDAY

A reminder that school closes for the year Friday 14th December at 1.30p.m. There will be

no After School Care at all on that day. The Blockhouse Bay library have once again asked parents not to leave children unattended at the school library and this of course means when school closes early next week as well. Please note as well that the school office will close at 1.45pm on Friday.

CONGRATULATIONS TO OUR TROPHY WINNERS Well done to all of the year 6 children who received their Graduation Certificates yesterday. The following children were also recognised for their hard work and talent at this special occasion: John Davies (Excellence in the Arts) - Amelia Hu Jack Cooper (Service to the School) - Seletima Gallaher Walbran-Oakley First Class (All Rounder) - Harmann Mahey Sportsperson of the year: - Montel Tupou Matenga Leadership Award - Xiao Yang Shen Dux (academic excellence) - Gabrielle Gu

FAREWELL (sort of) Teacher Tracey Waller has been a dedicated staff member who has worked across the school for 5 years. She has been offered a job working with Mindplus who provide gifted and talented education to children from around this area and will therefore be leaving her current position as a part-time teacher. However, she will be teaching some of our children as part of this work and will be also teaching some children at the school as a SPELD teacher. There is also the possibility that Tracey will be working here on occasions as a relieving teacher. Congratulations Tracey and good luck with these exciting new job opportunities!

LOST AND FOUND CLOTHING?

With the recent changing of rooms and this week’s swimming, we have had a number of uniform items misplaced recently. As the year comes to an end, could you please check any uniform pieces at home to make sure they are clearly labelled and return any that have been mistakenly brought home? We have a large number of unclaimed clothing items at school and these will be displayed in the Te Whau (PAC) foyer tomorrow. All items left after the 13th December (TOMORROW) that are un-named, will be given away as we do not want to be storing these until next year.

FLIPPA BALL RESULTS Well done to the teams for this season. It has been challenging but you have grown in your skills and flourished in your confidence. Well done! Dec 2nd Results YEAR 4 YEAR 5/6 BHB Tiger Sharks 0 v Monte Marlins 7 BHB Mako Sharks 1 v 8 Westmere Sharks Player of the day: Ronin for his great defending skills Dec 9th Results YEAR 4 YEAR 5/6 BHB Tiger Sharks 0 v Kadimah Sealions 2 Friendly Game - BHB Mako Sharks v MLPS Blue Player of the day: Oliver for his great work in the mid field Player of the day: Jack Harris for his

excellent defending skills

INTER SCHOOL ATHLETICS 2018 RESULTS Over 30 Children from Year 3- 6 proudly competed at Mt Smart Stadium on Friday 30th November for the Inter school Athletics. It is an achievement just to be selected and all of our athletes gave it their best on the day. There were some very exciting races throughout the day. The following children achieved excellent results overall. GIRLS

Risden Brown 2nd Place 3rd Place

10 & Over 11 Year

800m 100m

Jessie Jackson 2nd Place 2nd Place

9 & Under 9& Under

400m Long Jump

Mia Bradley 3rd Place 10 Year 100m

Divya Rana 1st Place 10 & Over High Jump

Selitema Gallaher 3rd Place 10 & Over High Jump

BOYS

Dylan Tearle 1st Place 10 & Over 800m Filipe Macedo 3rd Place 10 & Over 800m Nate Meikle 1st Place

1st Place

2nd Place

9 & Under

9 Years

9 & Under

400m

75m

Long Jump

Jai Sohal 2nd Place 9 & Under 400m

Stewart Gibbs 3rd Place 10 Years 100m

Andy Yu 2nd Place

3rd Place

3rd Place

9 Year

9 Year

9 & Under

50m

75m

Long Jump

Abraham Li 1st Place 10 & Over High Jump

School Leavers – notice re Kindo school shop If your family is leaving our school and moving to another school that does not use Kindo for school payments, you need to close your account. If you’re not sure about the new school, log in, go to My Details and click on the list of schools, scrolling to find your new school. If your new school is NOT on the list, you will need to close your account. Send an email to hello@mykindo.co.nz requesting to close your account. This request will need to:

1. Be emailed from your mykindo account email address

2. State the current balance on the account 3. Provide the bank account number for refunding the balance (or ask for it to be forwarded to the

school) Refunds and account closures will be actioned during January/February.

LOOKING FORWARD TO 2019

2019 TERM DATES Term One - Monday 4th February – Friday 12th April Term Two - Monday 29th April – Friday 5th July Term Three - Monday 22nd July – Friday 27th September Term Four - Monday 14th October – Thursday 19th December

PURCHASING OF STATIONERY IN 2019

Details about how to order your child’s stationery for 2019 was sent home with the children’s reports yesterday.

Please contact the school office before the end of this week if you have any questions about this process.

Stationery can be purchased online through Officemax. It will not be sold from the office in 2019.

Go to www.myschool.co.nz/blockhousebayprimary . Enter your child’s name (you “do not” need to enter a

“Student ID”).

1. Choose ‘your child’s team e.g. Rimu’ stationery pack and this will link you straight through to your child's stationery requirements.

2. Your order will be delivered to your home. 3. Bring to school on the first day of Term 1 – Monday 4th February 2019.

If you are unable to purchase the stationery online, please come to the school office on either Thursday

31st January or Friday 1st February 2019 between 10.00am-2.00pm. and we will help you with

this.

Other Options for Stationery purchase: Some parents prefer to source the stationery for other suppliers other

than Officemax or use existing items from home. In the past, this has led to some children coming to school without

some items or low quality items which were not useful for school. However, we have decided to continue with last

year’s system, where people can either order on-line as they have done previously, or go and source the items

themselves. We do need to emphasize though that the children need to have exactly the correct stationery items

for the year. Thank you for your support with this.

MEET THE FAMILY MEETINGS

Next year we will again be holding 'Meet the Family' meetings early in the term. The purpose of the meetings is

for students, parents, families and teachers to meet face-to-face early in the year to get to know one another

better and so that parents can share information and priorities about their children. We would like to work

together to help your child learn the best they can in 2019.

We are holding the 'Meet the Family' meetings on Wednesday 13th February and Thursday 14th February and

parents will be able to book a 15 minute block of time that suits them. Bookings will open at the start of school

and details will be available in the first newsletter of the year.

So that all families can meet the teacher, we will need to close early at 12.45pm on Wednesday

13th February. (Thursday 14th is normal finish time of 3.00pm) We look forward to seeing everyone at the 'Meet

the Family' meetings in February.

PARENTS OF YEAR 4 CHILDREN A reminder to parents of Year 4 children that we would like all of the Year 5 and 6’s to have their own Chromebook at school next year. Please note that this is a Chromebook not just any Laptop computer. More information about this was send out early this week but if you have any questions, please contact the office and we will organise someone to give you a call.

FUNDRAISERS AT BLOCKHOUSE BAY NEWS

Thursday 13th December - free sausage sizzle Children can order in class in the morning but don't need to pay for this one! Thanks for all of your support with our fundraising events this year. We will be needing a new Chairperson next year so if you might be interested, look out for our first meeting date in the newsletters next term or email fab@blockhousebay.school.nz

Like our Facebook page- Blockhouse Bay Primary School FAB

PRINCIPAL’S SOAPBOX There are two major things happening with education at the moment with the findings of the recent review out recently and ongoing negotiations regarding the pay and conditions of school staff continuing to be unresolved. The Review came up with a number of initiatives which have the potential to change the educational landscape in New Zealand, depending upon how many are adopted by the government. In my opinion, most of these will be positive but as with all ideas, the devil is often in the detail. I think everyone is hoping for a speedy resolution to the industrial action between the government and school staff both at primary and secondary level. It is a distraction that no-one needs and is linked in to the Educational Review’s objectives of securing a well-trained and well-remunerated teaching profession. The government sure has a lot to think about in this area! Merry Christmas everyone!

Pictured here are our Interschool Athletics team who competed at Mt Smart Stadium last week. Results follow in the newsletter .

The staff at

Blockhouse Bay

Primary would

like to thank you

for your support

in 2018 and wish

you all a very

safe and Merry

Christmas