Paraparaumu School

PRINCIPAL’S Corner

Dear families and friends of our school

Teacher Only Day Friday 10 th March

A reminder that school will be closed this Friday for a teacher only day. Staff will be taking part in some professional development in and around traditional Maori games. This promises to be a fun and educational day.

School Road Crossing

A reminder to please be very careful around the road crossing during drop off and pick times. Our road patrollers are newly trained and need lots of help to grow their confidence. Please listen carefully to them and obey their instructions. Please also be aware of where to park and where not to. Cars parked in the wrong place can obstruct the view of our Road Patrollers. Your co-operation is appreciated.

ETAP: You should have received via email last week instructions on how to load our new parent app onto your phone called ETAP. This is now the preferred way to communicate with the school for absentees, Kindo, Newsletter, School Website & Calendar. Please contact the office if you have not received this.

Testing: Every year we administer standardised tests in late February and early March. These help us identify areas of strength and weakness and help us to help your child with their future learning. We are undertaking Progressive Achievement Tests (PATs), for Reading Vocab and Comprehension. Children in Years 4-8 are completing these assessments. Whilst we want good, accurate results, we will not be making this a stressful time for your child and we would appreciate your support with this approach. It does not matter how the children perform, we only use these tests as a diagnostic tool to direct future teaching and learning. It is however important that your child is at school for these assessments.

Mathletics, Reading Eggs & Reading Express:

I do encourage you all to sign your child up for these web-based programs at $26 for a whole years access. It really does make homework exciting and helps reinforce what is being taught in class.

Nga mihi nui ki a koutou – warm regards to you all.

Steven Caldwell
PRINCIPAL

Student of the Week

Te Ahi Room5 Year2

Te Ahi you have had a fantastic start to Year 2 and Room 5. You have started the year by being ready to learn and making the most of all learning opportunities. Your ‘can do’ and positive attitude makes you a role-model to your classmates. You are a kind, caring and fun-loving girl who is there for your friends when they need an extra hand. You are helpful around the classroom, and consistently help to keep it tidy. You are enjoying expanding and sharing your knowledge of the history of Aotearoa, and the incredible historic journeys of Māori adventurers acrossTe Moana-nui-a-Kiwa (The Pacific Ocean). During class discussions you enrich everyone’s learning with knowledge from your whānau. You are a role model for showing our school values and I am looking forward to seeing you grow throughout the year. Keep up the awesome work Te Ahi.

Congratulations to our Whiz Kids	Room	P.A.R.T Certificates
Caden	1	Ayah
Te Mahea	2	Taire Robati-Busby
Halo	3	Destiny
Manaia	3	Milan
Parker	4	Tamati
Billie	5	Mikahail
Madelyn	6	Ollie
Maata	7	Tim
May	8	Hunter HC
Molly	12	Shaela

WOW Passport Challenge

Let’s get stamping! We’ll stamp your walk or wheel trips at the gate and all entries will go in the draw to win one of 12 x $400 MYRIDE vouchers (you don’t have to complete cards to go in the draw!). If your family lives too far away, why not park a short distance away from the school gate and walk or wheel the rest of the way? For more information see our Park&Stride tips or try parking around the block.

Raptors Swimming Club

The Raptors Swimming club are running a swimming training session in the lead-up to our Interschool Swimming Festival. Details for interested children are below: On this Sunday, 12th March 10 -11am – a pre-training session ahead of the Primary School Interschool swimming sports – feel free to share with family and friends with primary age children. Registration required, gold coin at the door.

https://events.humanitix.com/swim-ready-swimming-sports-training-session-by-raumati-swimming-club

PLAY YOUR PART

For the rest of the term we will be focusing on the value of ‘AROHA’. What does this look like? What does this sound like? Why is aroha important for our students?

Aroha increases a positive outlook, so children have greater attention spans, are more willing to learn, and are better creative thinkers with better results at school. Showing aroha has many physical and mental health benefits, including increased happiness and reduction of stress.

Some ways you could encourage your child to show aroha is to:

Hold the door open for someone.
Do a chore for someone without them knowing.
Tell a joke.
Return someone’s trolley at the supermarket.
Leave a kind letter in a library book.
Feed the birds.

Part winners	Room	P.A.R.T
Ceira	2	Positivity
Te Ahi	5	Respect
Shaela	10	Respect

Netball 2023

Reminder: come and give netball a go at our preseason hands on ball session – Friday 3.30pm – 4.30pm on the school netball court.

We are still looking for a few more year 5 and 6. For more information please check out the link below. The registration form link is included on this page.

https://www.sporty.co.nz/paraparaumuprim/netball-2/information-3