T2 | W4 – Whānau hui: local curriculum, contruction @ school, whanaungatanga, Samoan language week, stay connected, Puni reo poitarawhiti

FRIDAY 27th MAY

PRINCIPAL UPDATE

Thank you to all whānau who attended our learner hui this week. Working together helps your children get the best educational experiences possible.

Keeping this in mind, the poster on the right gives more information about our upcoming local curriculum whānau hui in two weeks time. There will be 4 different meeting times on the day, please try and come along to one of them. It odesn’t matter which one, they’ll all be the same.

Our local curriculum are the values, skills and knowledge which are taught, and influence our school culture. We want to get this right. Last week, Te Puāwaitanga whānau shared some insightful thoughts about what they wanted for their children while at Birkdale and when they left.

Here’s Makena with some of the aspirations and knowledge whānau of Te Puāwaitanga want for their tamariki. We’ll do our best to help them achieve them!

Ngā mihi nui

Natasha Teinakore

BUILDING AT SCHOOL

You may be wondering what all the building is that is going on. The Ministry of Education informed us just before the holidays that they were going to start the second part of the of the access way upgrades. This is to ensure that our schools grounds are inclusive and accessible for all students no matter their ability. Permanent wheelchair ramps are being added to pathways where previously there were only stairs.

That means for the the next little while Mānuka and Rīmu have shifted classrooms while the concrete is being levelled out outside their classrooms. This is being prioritised by the contractors and we’re hoping they’ll be able to be moved back in soon. The students and teachers in Rīmu and Mānuka have been so resilient with all the changes. Thanks team!

WHANAUNGATANGA

Last week, I went outside for playground duty and was pleased to see groups of students who had organised games to play. What was especially pleasing to see was how inclusive the groups were: students from very different friendship groups were playing together, being tolerant and patient. What a great display of the family-like relationships we promote through our school value: MANAAKITANGA.

PACIFIC LANGUAGE WEEKS

Why? Pacific languages are a key cornerstone for the health and wellbeing of Pacific people. History shows us that a loss of language leads to a loss of culture and identity.

Since 2010, the Ministry for Pacific Peoples have been supporting Pacific Language Weeks, promoting and raising awareness of the diversity of our Pacific languages in Aotearoa. Birkdale wants to do our part as just over 30% of our student population identify as Pasifika. This will be a commitment that will become more established and stronger each year. We will need the support of local expertise moving forward. We will only be recognising the language weeks that our students belong to, the first being ‘Samoa’. This year, we are keeping it mainly school based but eventually we’d like families involved in the planning and activities of the weeks.

Read the poster below for information on what is happening this coming week:

KEEP CONNECTED!

We still get many messages from parents that feel they are missing out on information.

All important information directly involving your child’s learning will be sent via email. You will receive a notification to check emails through the school app. If we have your correct email address, it has been sent – our programme allows us to check which emails have been opened. This helps us ensure vital information is not missed. Do we have your correct email address?

School notices (e.g. TODs), reminders, school events, calendar dates are notified with as much notice as possible through our newsletters and then pushed through our school app.

You can also use the app to notify of absences and click to email teachers directly. Very useful.

Seesaw is exclusively for classroom communication. Although, we are still sometimes using it while people are getting used to where to find information.

Engaging with social media is a personal choice which is why we don’t communicate important information through our Facebook page. It’s mainly used as an easy way to celebrate, share and occasionally remind.

Want to know what’s going on and when?DOWNLOAD THE APP!

Go to your app store – search and download ‘kiwischools connect’ and find ‘Birkdale Primary’