Balmoral School Newsletter - 21 February 2025
Upcoming Events
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Turanga (Year 7) Camp
01 Apr 2025 - 04 Apr 2025 |
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Year 1 Ballot Closes at 1pm
1:00 PM - 2:00 PM |
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Polyfest Trip
All day |
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School Tour - Domestic Only (Not International)
9:30 AM - 10:30 AM Recurring event |
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Year 2 Western Springs Trip
All day |
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Market Day
3:00 PM - 3:30 PM |
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Primary assembly - Whānau Mahira
9:10 AM - 9:45 AM |
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End of Term 1
All day |
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Term 2 starts
All day |
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Whakatau
9:15 AM - 10:00 AM |
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HPV1 Year 8 Girls and Boys Immunisaton
10:00 AM - 12:00 PM |
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School Tour - Domestic Only (Not International)
9:30 AM - 10:30 AM Recurring event |
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School Tour - Domestic Only (Not International)
9:30 AM - 10:30 AM |
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Te Tumuaki / Principal
Kia ora e te whānau
We're already three weeks into the term, and it's been a busy and exciting start to the year! Our tamariki have enthusiastically embraced school life, and it's terrific to see so many of them involved in the wide range of opportunities available.
Tamariki have been very active, signing up for various after-school sports clubs, including netball and basketball. It's fantastic to see their enthusiasm for these team sports. Our choirs are also underway, and lunchtime clubs allow students to explore their interests and connect with others. A special shout-out to our first intermediate central zone tennis team, who represented us this week at tennis! We're incredibly proud of their efforts.
These activities wouldn't be possible without the dedication of parents and teachers. Their commitment to supporting our students, whether coaching, transporting, or simply cheering them on, makes a huge difference. Thank you for everything you do to make these valuable experiences happen.
Looking ahead, we have upcoming events, such as primary swimming sports, class photos, PTA meetings, a maths parent workshop, a cultural day, and our Pasifica fono. I encourage you to check the school website for more details.
Ngā mihi
Malcolm
Staffing Changes
This week, the Board of Trustees accepted the resignations of two valued staff members, Deborah Gray and Joe Teague. Both will leave us at the end of Term 2. They have been integral members of our Whānau Leadership Team and have significantly contributed to our school community.
Deborah Gray's departure marks the end of an era. Her connection with our school began long before she joined the staff as a parent and early parent representative on our school board. Joining our team in the mid-2000s, Deborah played a pivotal role in developing our engaging, play-based early years curriculum. Her expertise also extended to Reading Recovery, where she supported many students. Deborah's dedication to our youngest learners has been truly appreciated.
Joe Teague will be returning to the UK with his family. During his time here, Joe has taught across different year levels, including NE and Year 8. More recently, he served as our Year 8 Whānau Leader and our Philosophy for Children coach. Joe's passion for fostering critical thinking and philosophical inquiry in our students has been inspiring and enables our tamariki to see the difference between fact and opinion.
We will genuinely miss Deborah and Joe. Their extensive teaching expertise, skills, and remarkable leadership have greatly enhanced our school. We deeply appreciate their talent in simplifying complex theories on play and critical thinking into everyday learning.
We thank them for their dedicated service and wish them all the best in their future endeavours.
Teacher Shortage
I am deeply concerned about the availability and supply of teachers in New Zealand schools. For years, principals have warned the Ministry of Education, the public, and our politicians about the growing teacher shortage.
This morning on Radio New Zealand, the Ministry of Education confirmed that New Zealand will be short 1,500 teachers this year—nearly one teacher for every school in the country.
The critical question now is: Who in New Zealand is ultimately responsible for ensuring we have enough teachers to meet the needs of our children?
School Closed Friday 14 March
Teachers will participate in a Professional Development (PD) day around the Curriculum refresh of Mathematics. This is the first of two Ministry of Education-directed Professional Learning days for Maths.
To book your child into The Village Square Trust for the day click here (Balmoral School).
School is closed for the children on this day.
School Conferences 25th and 26th March
A Wider School Community
Last week, we welcomed two very different groups to our school. Both groups left deeply impressed by their experiences.
The first visitor was an American teacher who had read about our approach to learning. Intrigued by our focus on enjoyment to encourage participation in the curriculum, he wanted to see firsthand how our new team utilised play in the younger years and how, as students moved up through the school, we continued to foster enjoyment through our inquiry-based learning. He was also interested in our restorative practices and our philosophy for children and how these elements all came together to shape a school culture that is productive and inclusive—one where every individual feels they have something valuable to contribute.
The second group consisted of ten people who attended our school in 1960 and 1961. Two of our Year 8 students showed them around on Friday afternoon, and when the group returned to the office to speak with me, they couldn’t stop talking about what they had seen. They were amazed at the students' involvement in their learning, even on a hot Friday afternoon. They saw children deeply engaged in the curriculum everywhere they went, and the students' care and genuine curiosity toward them left a great impression. The group noted how dramatically the school had changed since their time here in 1960, particularly with new facilities like the school pool, auditorium, music suites, a dedicated philosophy room, and the gymnasium. Their visit reminded them of the joy of being at school, and they were clear that they wished they could still be part of our school.
On Monday, I received a touching email from them and a generous donation to support the continued growth of our tamariki. Moments like these remind me how privileged and fortunate we all are to be part of this incredible school community—a community we have all worked hard to build together.
Safety at the School Gate
Last week a parent received a $130 fine after school for illegal and irresponsible driver behaviour outside our school from the NZ Police. We have asked the police to return to our school to police the poor driving behaviour that our staff witness daily. They have said they will be back with zero tolerance.
Parking Infringement Fines Increases!
Recently, the fines for various parking matters have increased, some quite significantly.
Auckland Transport have updated the ‘Safety at the School Gate’ flyer to reflect these new increases.
The Balmoral Literacy Team Needs Your Help!
We are involved in a research project with AUT that is about building a community of readers. We need as many whãnau as possible to be involved with this to ensure all voices are heard. The first meeting to start planning our reading community will be on April 8th.
If you are someone who loves Reading, Writing, Illustrating, Researching
Or if you are just keen to share ideas with student representatives, teachers, other families and AUT, then please contact Trish at trish@balmoral.school.nz
Supporting Your Child’s Maths Learning at Home
Mathematics is all around us! Parents can play a key role in supporting their children’s learning by making maths a hands-on and engaging part of everyday life. It’s important to make it fun and hands-on!
Years 0–2: Exploring Statistics in Daily Life
Young children naturally sort, compare, and make sense of the world around them. Help them explore statistics by:
Sorting and Grouping – Ask your child to group toys by colour, size, or shape. Count how many are in each group. Prompt questions: I love how you sorted the …. Can you share with me how you grouped (link this word with sorted) the ….? Can you sort them in another way?
Noticing Patterns – Look for patterns in nature, clothing, or routines (e.g., stripes on shirts, steps in a daily routine). Prompt questions: What did you notice? What would come next?
Keeping Simple Tallies – Record the weather each day or track how many birds visit the backyard. Prompt questions: What did you notice? I wonder if there will be the same number of …. Tomorrow? What do you think? That’s cool; how did you figure that out?
Years 3–8: Exploring Numbers in Real Life
Remember to listen to your children’s ideas and how they worked things out and wonder if their strategies can be used in another context.
Older children can strengthen their number skills through real-world applications:
Cooking and Measuring – Double or halve a recipe to practice fractions and multiplication. Prompt questions: That’s cool. Can you share with me how you worked that out? I wonder if it will work on …..?
Shopping and Budgeting – Let your child calculate discounts, total costs, or change when shopping. Prompt questions: That’s cool. Can you share with me how you worked that out? I wonder if it will work on ….. (eg another discount item)?
Estimating and Checking – Estimate distances while walking or the number of items needed for an activity, then check if the estimate was close. Prompt questions: That’s cool. Can you share with me how you worked that out? Let’s test it. Let’s see if we use it to….
Encourage curiosity, problem-solving, and discussion—math is everywhere, and learning together makes it fun!
Primary School News
Pānui (news) from Whānau Hiringa
Inquiry in Hub 7
In Inquiry, we have been building connections with each other by sharing conversations about cultural traditions and family practices related to food. We have also been thinking about what foods are special to us by writing and reading recipes.
We are planning to have a shared food experience with the hub to try new foods, and learn what foods are special to people in our class and their families.
Everybody is bursting with excitement about the shared eating experience. We've been making sure people write what's in the food so people who are allergic know what's in the food!!! 🥞🍩
Hub 13 - Our Start to the Year
In the past three weeks, our hub has been trying to persuade the teachers to have a shared lunch. So, in inquiry we thought it would be a cool idea to make decorations for the shared lunch so we can represent all our cultures and whakapapa (ancestors).
Our hub has been divided into three groups led by our teachers, Abhishek, Sarah, and Andrea. All the groups have important jobs so we can finish the decorations in time for the lunch. Abhishek is leading the first group in preparing bunting. The group has to find out everyone in the hub's nationalities and draw them on flags to then hang around the classroom. The second group, led by Andrea, is focused on making posters to advertise the shared lunch and to help express everyone's cultures. Finally, the last group, led by Sarah, is making paper flowers to put around the food that we bring. Everyone is so excited to bring cultural food for the shared lunch.
We also have been working on lots of different recipes in writing. Learning how to put together a recipe and what different foods look and taste like in different countries. We have been taking notes on recipes we have viewed being made then rewriting them in our books.
If you are wondering where all this interest in food is coming from, it all started when our teachers brought in a food from their culture to share with their classes.
We all are looking forward to this year and our hub has really settled into 2025 together, while learning and having fun. Thanks for reading this newsletter.
Written by Zoe Kayes and Thea Bruns.
Intermediate School News
Clubs
It has been a busy time over the last two weeks with most of the clubs up and running. From Scrabble to Showquest, Kawepūrongo (student newspaper) to crochet, it is great to see so many of our tamariki taking advantage of everything Intermediate has to offer.
Well done to everyone who auditioned for our bands this year, and congratulations to the new bands. With Alex now working three days per week, there are a smaller number of bands, which meant some very, very close calls had to be made. Our wonderful itinerant music teachers are running a band 'class' after school. You can find details about this in the music/community section of the newsletter.
Central Zone Tennis
This week saw both our girls and boys tennis teams in action at Windmill Reserve. Everyone showed great sportsmanship, and were encouraging of both their teammates and others. Special congratulations to Bea and Pippa who came second in the Year 7 girls competition, Timeus who came third in the Year 7 boys competition, and Ethan and Daniel who came second in the Year 8 boys doubles. Thanks to all the parents who were able to accompany them.
Message from the Library
Music Lessons
Community News
