TERM 3 – Week 10 – Birkdale Primary School

FRIDAY 22nd September

Kia ora e te whānau o Birkdale,

Term 3 is nearly over and what a successful term it’s been! Students have been involved in leadership days, rippa rugby, basketball, dance/exercise with Hīha dance, filming for Inquiry and recording a music video in Choir. With such a busy term, everyone is ready for a well-earned break.

Attendance: Winter has really hit our attendance rates this term. Average school attendance has dropped from 88% to 82.5%. While we appreciate some absences can’t be avoided, our goal (and the Ministry of Education’s) is still 90% attendance for all students. That averages to 1 day absent every couple of weeks. Students with persistent absences are referred to attendance services for extra support in attending school. Reporting to attendance services is an obligation the school has and we are accountable to the Education Review Office if we don’t follow this process.

Next term, we’d love to see an increase in attendance across the school – if your child needs to be away, please phone the office or leave a message. You can do this through the school app as well.

Ngā manaakitanga,

Whaea Natasha

2024 TERM DATES

Term 1 – 7th February – 12th April

Term 2 – 29th April – 5th July

Term 3 – 22 July – 27 September

Term 4 – 14 October – 20 December

SPORTS

BASKETBALL

Congratulations to our Y5/6 Kahurangi Basketball team who won their division in the Harbour Basketball Tournament for Semester 1. They worked hard as a team and were undefeated all season. Semester 2 has now started and we look forward to following their results. Thanks Flynn and Nathan for coaching. Well done team!!

RIPPA RUGBY

We had four teams representing the school. Thank you Whaea Carly for taking them down. Of the 4, two teams won their competition and came away with the trophies. Next year we’ll be defending them!

NETBALL 2023

Netball for the year is over. It was a great season for Birkdale. We were able to enter 4 teams, when last year we had none. This year was a year of learning and growth. A lot of the girls hadn’t played before. Thank you to all the coaches and managers that supported our teams. We couldn’t have entered them without you. Thanks to Whaea Tahlea for organising them all!

Sports Fees

If you have sports fees outstanding, please pay them asap. Sports is user pays. We won’t be entering your child into teams unless fees have been paid.

NETBALL – Year 1 and 2

Our Year 1 and 2 Future Ferns had a huge learning curve as it was for most of the girls their first-time playing netball. The rules are different, the court is shorter and the game time is smaller but the few weeks that the girls were introduced to the game, their improvement in understanding the game was huge. We had struggle, we had tears, we had commitment and most importantly we had fun and laughter.

Thank you to all our volunteer coaches and manages for our sports teams. We couldn’t do it with you.

PROPERTY UPDATE

Durham Hall will be refurbished inside over the holidays and into the new term. The area will be fenced off (I know more fences!!!) with no students allowed to come in and out. Contractors will be working on the hall for about 6 weeks in total.

SKiDs (after school care) will operate out of Nikau for about 4 weeks into Term 4. This is the classroom that leads off the basketball court by the big trees.

Courts: You may be wondering what is happening on our courts. They were damaged with the big trucks coming over to install the playground. We are getting quotes to try and replace the whole court as the entire court is uneven and not a great surface to play on. The long term goal is to have turf on the Netball courts.

School speakers: Unfortunately our outdoor school speakers were taken last week. That’s why you can’t hear the bell outside and we’ve returned to our traditional bell. We are trying really hard to keep our grounds open for the community to use out of school hours so hope this isn’t an ongoing battle.

SAVE THE DATES!

TERM 4

Week 1

11 Oct – House Assembly wear house colours

Week 2

19 Oct – Shake out earthquake day @ 9.30am

Week 3

Mon 23 Oct – Labour Day (school closed)

24 – 27 Oct – Auraki Yr 5/6 EOTC Camp

Week 4

30 Oct – Photolife Class & Individual photos

31 Oct – Yr 4 trip to Millenium pools

30 Oct – 02 Nov – Learner Hui

1 Nov – House Assembly wear house colours

Week 6

13 Nov – Teacher Only Day

16 Nov – Birkdale Family Picnic

Week 7

22 Nov – House Assembly wear house colours

23 Nov – Interschool Athletics

Week 8

23 Nov – Saver day for Interschool Athletics

Week 9

4 Dec – BOT Meeting

Week 10

14 Dec – End of year prizegiving 2023

14 Dec – Y6 Graduation Celebration @ 4-6pm

Week 11

20 Dec – End of Term 4 – 1pm finish

OUT OF ZONE ENROLMENT BALLOT

2024 Enrolments

The Birkdale Primary School Board has advised there are limited out of zone placements available at Birkdale Primary School for Auraki 2024 enrolments.

Places are available in the following year groups.
Year 0 – 10 places
Year 1 – 3 places
Year 2 – 3 places
Year 3 – 5 places
Year 4 – 5 places
Year 5 – 5 places
Year 6 – 5 places

For more information about our school and zone area please visit our website at https://www.birkdaleprimary.school.nz/enrolment-information/

Applications for 2024 Auraki out of zone enrolments must be received by the school no later than 12.00pm on 11th October 2023. If a ballot is required (i.e. if the number of applications exceeds the number of vacancies available this will take place on 18th October 2023. We will contact applicants, by email with the outcome of your application by 19th October 2023.

Please click on the link below to fill out an application for this ballot

APPLICATION FOR 2024 OUT OF ZONE BALLOT

Ngā mihi
Birkdale Primary School Board

2024 Rumaki Enrolments

We have a limited number of places for new starts in Te Puāwaitanga. We need to ensure we have staffing to cover the needs of our current learners.

If you intend to enrol your child into Te Puāwaitanga ANYTIME over 2024, please fill in this expression of interest before Oct 18th. You may miss out otherwise. If we have more interest then places available, then selection will be based on the priorities stated on the form.

ABSENCES

Thank you for keeping your child/ren at home when they are sick. Please remember to phone or message the office when your child is away. We are sometimes sending up to 30 messages home and not getting many responses back. Your child is recorded as Truant if we don’t receive a reason.

If your child is absent due to illness for more than 3 days, a medical certificate will need to be provided for their absence to be marked as “justified”.

If you have any further questions around absences, please contact the school office.