Dear Baverstock Oaks School Community,

Kia ora, Tenā koutou, Fakaalofa lahi atu, Bula vinaka, Malo e lelei, Talofa lava, Taloha, Kia orana, Ni hao, Buenos días, Chao, Malo ni, Habari dobar dan, Namaste, Salam.

Welcome

A very warm welcome to all the new families who have joined our school community this term. We are excited to build strong and positive connections with you and your whānau.

We are thrilled to welcome Rochelle McCormick, who has joined us as the new teacher in Room 19. Rochelle will be teaching in our 5-year-old roll growth class. We are delighted to have her as part of our Baverstock Oaks family!

Here are our proposed term dates for 2026:

Please ensure any holidays are planned during the term breaks, so your child can maintain over 90% attendance throughout the year.

When speaking with parents, the common wish is for their children to be both happy and successful. Unfortunately, we are seeing some students falling behind in their learning, and in over 95% of these cases, poor attendance is the main factor.  Currently, 25 students fall into the chronic attendance category, having already missed 15 days or more this year. Mrs Campbell and I will be contacting families where we have concerns about a child's attendance and academic progress.  We are always here to support parents if they have any issues getting their children to school.  Please don’t hesitate to contact your child’s teacher and they will confidentially resolve any issues.  We are here to help.  

The following information has been shared with schools by the Ministry of Education and Health:

If you're ever unsure whether your child should come to school due to illness, the Ministry of Education has produced helpful guidelines to assist with these decisions.

Currently, we are falling below the Ministry of Education target of having 80% of our students attending 90% of the time.  The following diagram shows how we are tracking as a school.  

There are currently 150 of our students not meeting the 90% attendance target.  

Researchers at the Education Review Office (ERO) are doing some research about school attendance. They want to hear your thoughts about what makes a difference. Please help by clicking on this survey link: Parent and Whānau survey.

Collecting Students Early 

Recently, we've noticed an increase in early child pick-ups, with one day last week, approximately 15 parents collecting their children before the end of the school day. While we understand the need for occasional early pick-ups due to appointments, this practice can disrupt our office staff, teachers, and the learning environment for our students.  

Early pick-ups can deprive your child of valuable learning time. We encourage you to consider utilising our After School Care program if you anticipate difficulty in picking up your child at the designated time. This ensures that your child's learning experience remains uninterrupted while accommodating your schedule.
 

Teachers can quickly identify students who arrive tired and not ready to learn. Often, they tell us they were up late on their devices. Occasionally, parents even ask me to have a chat with their child about limiting screen time!  While we understand how tricky it can be, remember — you are the parent and it's your rules that matter at home. If you're looking for strategies to help manage device use in the evenings, you may find this article useful.

The following has been set up by the Government and Ministry of Education to help parents support their child in learning at home. 

We are looking forward to another exciting and productive term of learning!

Please don’t hesitate to reach out to your child’s teacher by email if you have any questions, or even just to share some positive feedback about the great work happening in the classroom.  

We have ‘Learning Conversations’ coming up in Week 9 on the 25th and 26th June.  Look out for details regarding bookings for this special time to connect with your child/rens teacher/s.  

Noho ora mai,
Genee Crowley
Principal/Tumuaki

Fun, Fitness, and Growing Our Words!

Room 1 had a fantastic end to Term 1, finishing off with a fun exploration of our cricket skills.  The excitement has continued into Term 2, where we’ve been lucky enough to have Marist join us to teach rugby skills. Students have been learning new drills, playing games of tag, and most importantly, having fun while staying active! Throughout it all, Room 1 has been working hard to develop their sportsmanship and build a strong sense of whānau.  Ka pai, Room 1!

In addition to our sporting adventures, Room 1 has also been focused on growing our vocabulary.  We've been exploring new words through big books, picture books, non-fiction texts, and rich discussions across the curriculum. Our classroom now features a vibrant word wall, where we continue to add new and exciting words to help grow our word knowledge.  We’ve also been taking part in fun oral language activities to support our use of descriptive language and build confidence in communication. It's been a busy and exciting start to the term!

In Room 2, students have been embracing the theme of whānau (family) as they explore what it means to be part of the Baverstock Oaks community.  As part of this journey, students have been learning about different cultures and traditions, deepening their understanding of what connects us all.  One highlight has been creating beautiful tapa cloths—artworks traditionally made from the bark of the paper mulberry tree.  Tapa is highly valued in many Pacific cultures and is used to mark important occasions.  Through this hands-on experience, students have gained a greater appreciation for Pacific heritage and how celebrating our differences helps build a stronger, more connected school family.

Room 13 have recently finished learning about a famous New Zealand artist named, Rita Angus. 

Sophia is here comparing her first sketch of her self portrait created in Week 3 to her finished art piece in Week 8.  Sophia said that she is happy to see the improvement that she has made after building on her sketching and shading with her portrait and her pastel smudging and blending skills.

Lucas Choi is an avid art fan. He enjoyed learning about Rita Angus' style of art. He worked hard to create a realistic look with his hair strokes and his facial features. Finding the use of a mirror helped him with shadow and light. 

Room 14 students have been enjoying doing their maths mastery maps, giving them the power and ownership over their own learning. The students are showing more enthusiasm as they choose the maths activity they will do for the day, working individually and in groups to complete the tasks. Students who are going to maths support are enjoying learning fractions using materials. 

We are also learning music this term and we have been looking at the different instrument families as well as learning about rhythm and beat before we head down to the music room to practice for our class orchestra. 

In addition, the students have been super excited to have science this term and are very interested in learning about the different forces and are investigating and writing their observations on the findings. 

Room 22 has had a busy and exciting few weeks filled with creativity, exploration, and cultural celebration!

We’ve been working hard to create some excellent self-portraits, inspired by Kehinde Wiley.  Our process began with designing colorful backgrounds that reflected our individual personalities.  After having our photos taken, we sketched the outlines of our main facial features and used special sketching pencils to carefully shade in the details we saw. Finally, we put everything together — and voilà!

In science, we had a fantastic time making oobleck!  This gooey, mysterious substance fascinated everyone, and we loved observing its unusual properties.  The hands-on experience inspired us to get creative with language, writing similes to describe how oobleck looked and felt.  It was a fun and messy way to blend science with descriptive writing.

As part of Language Week, we also learned a traditional Dutch dance and performed it in front of the Year 6 whānau. The students embraced the challenge with enthusiasm and energy, mastering the steps and bringing the routine to life. It was a joyful and lively way to celebrate another culture — and we all thoroughly enjoyed the high-energy performance!

Room 23 has had a busy and exciting start to the term! In Literacy, we’ve explored a mini ANZAC unit, where students researched, summarised, and collated important information before presenting it to the class. We’ve also been working on descriptive writing, using our five senses to bring our ideas to life.  A strong focus has been placed on grammar and spelling, helping us make meaningful links across the curriculum.

In Maths, our focus has shifted to accurately measuring using appropriate tools, converting between metric units, and exploring angles up to 360 degrees.  We are also developing our understanding of area and perimeter.  Students will build their knowledge of decimals, percentages, and fractions over the coming weeks as they explore how these number forms connect.

Morning fitness has remained a highlight each week, and we’ve loved our rugby skill sessions with Marist Eastern every Tuesday afternoon.

Room 23 continues to grow as confident, capable learners—keep up the great mahi!

At Te Whanau Awhina we focus on learning life skills, general knowledge, social and communication skills and most of all - having lots of fun!  Check out our photos. You can see that learning takes on so many forms!  
Learning the steps to wash a car and giving it a go!

Using cutting skills in our cooking and learning about healthy eating.

Look at our delicious fruit kebabs! It’s easy to have 5 healthy fruit and vegetables a day.

Making Easter treats - yum!

Enjoying playing with our home made playdough.

Last term Mrs de Leeuw chose six kids to go on YouTube!!!  Yes, Youtube!!
Suzy Cato has a channel that promotes kids books and we got the opportunity to review some books that then

go live on YouTube to promote literacy, books and reading.
Students had to read and then review a book and answer some questions.  Each student was filmed in our lovely library.

Once the filming is edited and checked by Suzy, they will all be up on YouTube for everyone to see.

Check out Suzy Catos channel -  'kids talk about books' to  see some previous reviews.  The first of our superstars are up now.

Here's the link to Lorishke - click here and to Lucas - click here

The rest will be up in a few weeks and shared on BNN as well.

Well done to Kaira, Lorishke, Lucas, Kaden, Beauden and  Aaira  - you did a great job.

Here's some pictures of filming in progress...

Later this year, the board's triennial elections will take place.  As in previous years, our returning officer will be Bernardine Vester of My School Election.  This year, these elections will be electronic (unless you opt for postal voting).  In accordance with the Privacy Act 2020, we need to advise you that parent contact details (name, address, email and mobile phone number) will be shared with our provider for election purpose only.  If you have any objections, please contact the school office.

Click on the link to view our full calendar:  https://www.baverstock.school.nz/8/embedded_items/1-calendar

The 2nd hand uniform shop is open fortnightly on a Thursday from 8.30am - 9.00am.  
Open days:  Term 2:  15 May, 29 May, 12 June, 26 June

Tidy uniform donations are welcome to be dropped off at the school office (no socks or hats please).  
For any enquiries please email Mrs McLoughlan on [email protected]