Term 1 – Week 7: Newsletter – Birkdale Primary School

THURSDAY 23 MARCH

PRINCIPAL’s UPDATE

STRIKES and CONTRACTS

I thought it might help to put the strike last Thursday in context as I know it felt unexpected for a lot of people. Thursday’s strike felt like an unfortunate necessity for teachers and principals still feeling frustrated with the governments offer. The teacher and principal’s union have been in negotiations for some time, but have been unsatisfied with the offers by the government. Some of the conditions still needing to be met:

– More funding for learners that need extra support.

– Better pay for beginning teachers; they currently get a little more than minimum wage.

– Resourcing for support staff.

We have good teacher vs student ratios at Birkdale this year and are seeing the benefits in class. We have this because we prioritised it and have funded it ourselves. This isn’t how it should be. We shouldn’t have to prioritise one need over another.

We know our strikes put families in tricky situations, especially primary school ones. But we hope you understand the need for the government to meet some of these conditions. Our work conditions are your child’s learning conditions.

Noho ora mai

Whaea Natasha

SCHOOL LEADERS | KAIĀRAHI TAUIRA 2023

Over 2022 and 2023, we have been developing our school leadership programme. Year 5 and 6 students who aspire to be leaders have opportunities to apply for roles that suit their skills and disposition. They are developed in these roles throughout the year and grow to understand the resposibilities that are a part of being a leader.

Not all roles are suitable for leadership ‘training’, our house leaders are one of those roles. Students applying for a house leader position must have demonstrated in prior years, responsibile leadership in and out of the classroom.

House leaders are our school’s head student leaders and represent the student body in meetings and when visitors need assistance. They are the ‘face’ of our school and so, when selecting them, each student who applied needed to present a speech to their peers and teachers on why they should be the new house leaders for 2023.

Most of the time, House leaders will be Y6 students who have had long enough to have a proven track record in leadership.

This year I’m proud to share that our 2023 house leaders are:

KŌTARE HOUSE LEADERS

Olivia Smith | Ayden Figota

TUI HOUSE LEADERS

Mya Leonard | Bryan Haggitt

PŪKEKO HOUSE LEADERS

Leah Toohey | Katrelle Opetaia

Property Updates!

COLA

Construction on our new COLA (Covered Outdoor Learning Area) has now started. The foundations have been laid – we’ll wait for them to set before the rest of the work can continue. This could tak eup to 6 weeks weather dependant.

PLAYGROUND

Our new playground now has funding generously provided by: The Lion’s Foundation, Pub Charities and the Board of Trustees as well as the money raised over the past few years by the school.

The playground will start being fabricated soon, with installation planning to take place during the mid-year holidays at the end of Term 2 – EXCITING!!!

KEA HOUSE LEADERS

Thomas Smeaton | Blake Macleod

HEAT PUMPS

We are soon installing 19 heatpumps through the classes. If you’ve been in any of our rooms you will have felt how cold they get in winter (and toasty in summer).

COHORT ENTRY

If you haven’t given feedback on our proposal to move to cohort entry for new entrants, and would like to – please fill in the survey by by clicking here.

COHORT ENTRY – means that we will have 2 starting dates for New Entrants each term. The first starting time would be the beginning of term, in W1. The second, halfway through the term usually, W5.

Advantages: Groups of students would start together. The teacher will then be able to track and better cater for them as a group moving forward. At the moment, we have students starting as soon as they turn 5 and showing up continually through the year. This can be disruptive for the Reception/ New Entrant classes learning and means that new students are sometimes expected to just jump right in.

Possible Drawbacks: 5 year olds would need to wait until the next entry date, beginning of term or half-way through before they could start school. This would be at the most a 4wk wait or at the least the next week.

This would not affect older students starting new at school, as there aren’t as many. Only 5 year olds. Please take the time to give your feedback on this initiative . I will feedback to the Board of Trustees the responses.

LEARNER HUI

What a great turn out from whānau wawnting to make a difference in their child’s learning. If you were unable to meet during the learner hui week, please make a time to meet with your child’s teacher before end of the term. Strong learning partnerships include you!

We’re learning Te reo Māori!

All teachers at Birkdale Primary have committed this year to learning te reo Māori in some formal capacity. Our TAs didn’t want to be left out and have started learning after school as well – Kia mau te wehi!