Term 3 Newsletter 5

From the Acting Principal

Student Led Conferences

It was wonderful to welcome so many of you into our learning spaces for the student-led conferences last week. This is one of the most important dates on our learning calendar and we trust that you gained some valuable insight into your child’s successes as well as next learning steps.

Curriculum Updates

In the past couple of weeks we have completed our consultation for the refreshed English curriculum and will continue to build our plan around implementation in the new year. Already, some teams are incorporating some of the new curriculum achievement objectives into their termly planners for Term 4. We are thankful that we have such innovative and adaptable teachers who are willing to give this a go.

The published Maths and English Refreshed Curriculum documents are due to arrive early in Term 4.

Our Year 1 teachers, who began the Better Start Literacy Approach (BSLA) two weeks ago, are seeing the benefits of the programme. Noting that it takes a lot longer than expected when starting out. We have heard that it does become a bit more automatic and natural with experience. These teachers are demonstrating high levels of dedication and grit to complete their training and provide the best education to your children through this new approach.

Our Year 2’s and 3’s gained a lot from their couple of professional development days on Structured Literacy too.

Further work will be put into this, as well as other initiatives on our Teacher Only Day on Monday 21st October.

Mental Health Awareness Week

This week, as we focus on staff wellbeing through activities like healthy eating and yoga, we also encourage our families to take a moment to prioritise their own mental health. Whether it’s spending time together, practicing mindfulness, or simply taking a break, let’s all make space for our wellbeing during Mental Health Awareness Week.

Sports Events

HPPA Boys Football – Tuesday/Wednesday

We took a squad of fourteen boys to compete in a two-day long 9-a-side tournament at William Green Football grounds. 21 teams entered the tournament and the competition was fierce. Our team was learning to play together each game and by the end we were playing together with a lot of confidence. It was a great couple of days of football.

Champion of Champions Gymnastics

9 of our amazing gymnasts qualified for the Champion of Champions competition where they competed against many other schools around Auckland. It was a fun day consisting of vault, floor, and beam routines for the girls and vault, floor and bar routines for the boys. It was an awesome atmosphere being surrounded by such talented gymnasts and the team had a great time demonstrating their love for gymnastics while upholding the school values of Excellence and Resilience.

HPPA Netball

We took a group of 12 netball players to compete in the HPPA netball tournament where both teams played a total of 6 games each! It was a great day where we got to see talent from schools all over East Auckland. Both teams had awesome wins where all of our Thursday training paid off. The students showed a great amount of Excellence and Resilience as they persevered through the day, consistently trying their best

Uniform for Term 4

It is time to start thinking about sun safety again as we head into Spring and therefore we ask that our students wear their PMPS navy school hat every day in Term 4. We also encourage the use of sunscreen. The key differences in uniform for Term 4 include, no long pants and wearing hats instead of beanies. The start of a new term is always a good time to update your knowledge about the uniform expectations – you can check out our uniform webpage for more information.

Salvation Army Cans

We want to thank everyone who contributed food items to the Salvation Army. It is wonderful that we have such a supportive community who look out for the needs of others.

Thank you Pigeon Mountain Primary 20240911 (1)

Parking and Safety Reminder

We have received concerns from local residents about unsafe and inconsiderate parking around our school, this includes Marina Heights, Loloma Drive and Gardenia Grove. Some parents have been parking illegally, often citing weather conditions as the reason. While we understand that drop-off and pick-up times can be challenging, we must ensure that road rules are always followed to keep everyone safe, regardless of the weather.

Additionally, students have been observed running across roads and through alleyways to cars parked in unsafe locations, creating further risk. This is not only dangerous for our children but also disrespectful to residents trying to access their homes.

We ask all parents and caregivers to please respect our local community, follow road rules, and prioritize the safety of our children. Let’s work together to prevent accidents before they happen. Your cooperation is greatly appreciated.

Visitor Expectations Reminder

We often have to remind our parents of this visitor policy: We encourage visitors to consider privacy issues when sharing photos and videos taken at school events.

When discourage photography around school unless taking photos of wall displays etc. that do not have our students in them.

For more information on our School Policies please visit SchoolDocs:

https://pigeon-mountain.schooldocs.co.nz/

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