Tena koutou, Malo e lelei, Kia orana, Fakalofa lahi atu, Bula vinaka, Ciao, Namaste, Al Salaam a’alaykum, Ni

hao, Merhaba, Konnichiwa, Hola, Annyong hasayo, Greetings

Balmoral School Newsletter

Te Kura o te Roto a Rangi 19 Brixton Road, Mt Eden Auckland 1024

Phone 638 7960 Fax 630 1944

Email office@balmoral.school.nz

w w w . b a l m o r a l . s c h o o l . n z

Vision

To value diversity and to develop curious, confident and

connected learners.

Friday 2 March 2018

Dates to Diary

NZ Post Cricket Tuesday 6 March , Melville Fields

CZ Swimming Wednesday 7 March

CZ Cricket Boys Friday 9 March

HPV1 Y8 girls & boys Immunisation Tuesday 13 March

PTA Meeting Tuesday13 March 7.30pm

CZ Orienteering Thursday 15 March

Y8 Polyfest Friday 16 March

HPV1 Y8 catch-up Tuesday 20 March

CZ Cricket Girls Tuesday 20 March

Y7 Piha Mill Camp Tuesday 20 – 23 March

School Conferences Tuesday 27 March, 3-6pm &

Wednesday 28 March, 1-7pm

Easter Holidays Friday 30 March – Tuesday 3 April

Term 1 ends Friday 13 April 3pm

Term 2 begins Monday 30 April

Whanau Blogs

Turanga http://whanauturanga.blogspot.co.nz/

Aparangi https://aparangibalmoral.blogspot.co.nz/

Canteen Days Wednesday, Thursday, Friday only

Please check the calendar on our school website (www.balmoral.school.nz)

for up-to-date events and times

Tena koutou e te whanau, he mihi nui kia koutou katoa

Dear Parents, Whānau and Caregivers

Last week I read an article on the importance of play in the development of a

child.

Children learn and grow by their own real experience and the effort they put

in. It is never what we do to children that educates them but more importantly

what we enable them to do. To be able to explore, test ideas, make mistakes

and to have the confidence when they are struggling to understand that they

are not there yet is at the heart of our curriculum at Balmoral School.

They need the opportunity to see, feel and understand for themselves that

enables them to grow. If we watch children at home when they are young we

can see all the above happening through play. So play is a very real part of

education in action and is a natural way of learning to understand and

control the world.

Play will look different at different ages in our school but it is essentially

providing opportunities for pupils to answer their question about their world to

gain greater understanding.

Kia pai to mutunga wiki (Have a good weekend)

Naku noa

Malcolm Milner

Principal (Te Tumuaki)

Property News

Enabling works:

We were pleased that the fences were taken down on the field last week and

pupils now have access to the field behind the Shires. The weather certainly

played havoc with grass growth.

We have asked the MoE for a programme of works on the installation of the

four new relocatables near the primary playground and are still waiting for

clarification on this. It should be a short duration piece of work lasting only a

few months.

Main redevelopment works:

Staff have been involved in looking at the colours for the new classrooms. The

initial design of the building is complete, and it has followed MoE guidelines for

natural light, ventilation and area. These new classrooms also have to be

Modern Learning Environments or so called open plan.

The Ministry maintains a set of design guidance documents that establish

design principles for working on school property, and these guidelines help to

ensure that new buildings and infrastructure align with key design objectives

such as flexibility, durability and cost-effectiveness as well as responding to

environmental factors such as prevailing winds, sunlight, and ground

conditions.

The design will go to a design review panel in April. This is a group of

independent specialists engaged by the Ministry of Education who check the

building complies with the code and MoE guidelines. After this, detailed

design and tender processes will continue until the end of 2018, with target

award to a contractor in December 2018.

The redevelopments work will be staged so that the school can continue to

operate unhindered during construction. The building of the Gym /

Intermediate school / Primary school and Central Auckland Special School

(CASS) Unit; are for this reason to a large extent sequential. Durations are

estimated to be 3years (ie all of 2019, 2020 and 2021).

It is important to the Board that the community is aware of the Ministries

intended duration, so that expectation can be managed. For many involved

that have been working on this for many years now, our children like yours will

have left the school before the rewards can be enjoyed. More positively

expressed, it will be a tremendous legacy for those that follow.

School Donation

Always at this time of the year there are the usual newspaper and radio

discussions about school donations and costs. Often these discussions can be

emotive and contain inaccuracies, some people even saying the politically

correct line that education is free.

At our school we are fortunate that parents value education and contribute

through the school donation. These donations not only help to enhance our

outstanding facilities, which all children and community members get to use,

but increasingly they are having to be used to maintain essential programmes

and enable us to continue to support our pupils and develop our staff. The

Board of Trustees and staff appreciate this generosity.

Parents also contribute further to our school through the Activity contribution.

This enables us to offer a large variety of exciting activities outside the

classroom, ranging from performances, speakers and various trips outside the

school. These experiences provide amazing opportunities for positive learning

in the real-world. An example is, where our intermediate students are given

the opportunity to participate in athletics at Mt Smart on an international

standard athletics facility rather than the normal school field. We are reliant on

your commitment and contributions would not be able to help offer these

exciting and additional valuable activities, without your commitment.

Many schools over the last decade have closed their school pools as they are

very expensive to maintain and school funding is very tight. As part of our

property grant we receive from the Ministry of Education for pool running

costs$7.41 per M2 qualifying area, amounting to $1,593 per year. Actual costs

are approximately $20,000 per annum to pay for the chemicals, water

heating, repairs, testing charges replacement pumps, and filters, without

taking into account the cost of the pool maintenance with Don and Ivan

working daily in the pool enclosure. In 2015/6 we invested close to an

additional $60,000 to repair damage to the pool surface. We believe a school

pool is considered ‘public wealth’ in that not only can it be shared with the

wider community over summer but it is also used to develop our greatest

resource, our young people. As such, we all get to benefit from this public

wealth.

We are also continuing to see costs go up and resourcing from the MoE

reduce. In 2018 our school’s contribution to reading recovery was .5 of a

teacher or the equivalent rate of $37,500. Without the school donation we

would not be able to offer this level of support for our pupils.

This year we have already had teachers leave during term time. The generous

donation support we receive from our community means that when these

teachers leave we can employ (at additional cost above staffing) the new

teacher to work alongside them. We believe this helps with induction of the

teacher and reduces stress on the children in the classroom.

There are numerous other examples where Ministry of Education funding falls

short of the actual expenditure incurred.

Unfortunately all schools are in the same position as us and are driven to raise

funds, not only through donations, but also using a variety of fundraising

options from school fairs to selling chocolates.

So once again thank you for your contribution and continued support of our

pupils. This voluntary donation is used to support and develop your children

and our community resources. Together, we can continue to develop a

wonderful neighbourhood school with fantastic facilities and a broad, exciting

and challenging curriculum to enhance the learning pathway.

Staffing Changes

Last week Kirsty, our English as a Second Language Teacher, resigned. Kirsty

has accepted a position as a senior advisor with the Ministry of Education in

supporting schools with the teaching of children from non-English

backgrounds.

You would all be aware the difficulty schools are having finding teaching staff

in the current climate. We have advertised this position nationally and

internationally and are hoping to appoint by the start of Term 2.

Last Friday Lauren Polglase (Hard Materials Teacher) left for her maternity

leave. We wish Lauren and her family all the best as they await their new

arrival. Thankfully Sharon Browne who has relieved in this position before will be

teaching multi-materials.

The teacher shortage has already begun to impact on the number of relief

teachers available. Already we have had to split classes when we haven’t

been able to find a teacher to cover some sick staff members. My apologies

for this but we are at the mercy of the availability of teachers to work at these

times. My prediction is that this scenario will get worse as the year progresses.

Paid Union Meeting

Tuesday 13 March 1pm

We have been notified by the NZEI (Teachers Union) that they will be holding

a paid union meeting on Tuesday 13 March from 1pm. This means that almost

all of our teaching staff will not be at school during the afternoon.

We ask that wherever possible parents make alternative arrangements for

their child/ren at this time.

Further information will come out from our school on Monday 5 March.

Intermediate News

Tēnā koutou Intermediate Whānau,

Amazingly, we are now about halfway through our term. There have been

many sports events happen already, including our softball, table tennis and

cricket teams who have been out this week representing our school

admirably. We will share the details of how they did when we have confirmed

results. Our swimming sports day was held last week in somewhat variable

weather, well done to everyone who competed, and supported others.

This week we held our first Pasifika Parents BBQ of the year, and it was great to

see many people enjoying the volleyball, the food and the chance to meet

other families. We look forward to meeting more of all our families as the year

progresses.

Below you will find the first articles from our student reporters for the year. We

hope you enjoy reading them.

Nā mātou noa, nā

Trish and the Intermediate Team

Student Council News

The Council have started working through the charities we would like to

fundraise for this year. We are now going back to classes to get their input.

Our Road Wardens have talked to us about how many cars are parked in the

wrong place at the end of the day, and how cars do U-turns right by the

crossing on Brixton Road. Some parents are also not using the crossings to

cross over both Brixton Road and Eldon Road. Please can you make sure that

you are following the instructions of the Road Patrol Wardens so that we can

keep everyone safe.

News From Room 3

Bands at Balmoral By Jackson Boswell, Rm 3

This year our two great music teachers, Alex & Sarah, have put together four bands -

Kaiawa, Ruru, Tui & Korora. Kaiawa & Ruru are both Intermediate bands, whereas Tui is

Primary & Korora is an orchestra.

Auditions were held in week three. There was a great turnout of all kinds of musicians, who

were all very good. Although everyone did well, only some of them made it in.

Congratulations to everyone who made it in, and to those who didn't, keep practising as

there are more musical opportunities throughout the year.

The bands have started brainstorming possible songs and will start rehearsals this week. Alex

& Sarah have brought some new gear, including a Korg Synthesizer which could lead to

some new and interesting styles of music.

In class music lessons we have learned about synthesizers & what they can do. It has been

really fun and I can't wait for what Alex has in store for the rest of the year.

The start of this year has been great and it looks like it will only get better.

Aspiration Portraits

By Zainab Raval, Rm 3

Room 3’s past few weeks have been very exciting. I have gotten to know a lot of new

people. The best part is that we have been doing plenty of art. My favourite art piece was

creating the aspiration portraits.

The aspiration portrait task made our brain and imagination run wild. Creating aspiration

portrait let us think creatively. We had to imagine what we’d would like to be and what we

would look like in twenty years’ time. I drew myself as a vet/explorer and who goes around

the world saving endangered and cute animals. I wrote that after I’ve saved the animal I

get to have a tour in the country and spend a whole week there on a vacation.

The challenging part was the drawing. It was challenging but at the same time it improved

my art skills.

Swimming Sports

Swimming sports

This year on the 23rd of February we spent the day at the pool and had our Balmoral

School Swimming Sports. We all had so much fun and it was good to see everyone giving it

a go in the competitive and non-competitive races. All the houses chanted their chants

loudly with pride. Sam Wright and myself both broke balmoral school records, Sam broke

the record for 50m backstroke with a time of 41.22 and I broke the record for 50m butterfly

in 31.19 seconds. The relay was won by Te Hau who also won the overall points for the day.

Congratulations to everyone that participated and thank you to the teachers that made

this day happen.

By Anna McGowan

As I was walking into the pool with my housemates a wave of nervousness struck me. When

I got called up for my race, I was focussed on one thing, getting into the finals. I know it

wasn’t just me feeling like this, loads of others were wanting to do their best for themselves,

their house and their class. My favourite moment was the house relay, all the spectators

raced to the barrier to watch the close finish between Te Ahi and Te Hau, all you could her

was people cheering for their house. This moment was the highlight, with Te Hau winning

the relay, and swimming sports for 2018.

By Sam Wright.

Swimming Sports 2018

On Friday 23rd February, Balmoral Intermediate held their swimming sports event. After

being postponed for 2 weeks because of rain, the event was finally held.

During the morning, before the first races, it started to pour down with rain. At first, everyone

thought that swimming sports was going to be cancelled for the third time in a row, but

thankfully the raining stopped and the races started, letting the racers get back to business.

The audience were seated in their house groups, and they were able to eat whenever they

wanted.

After lunch, the intermediate students lined up in their classes waiting to come back in to

the pool area, to come back and watch the last races. The last events were mainly fun

ones and the finals for the winning racers.

At the end, everyone went back to their classes and took off their props and house clothes.

We had a great day at the Intermediate Swimming Sports.

By Liam Helliwell, Rm 3

Scooters and Bikes

This week, a junior school child had a very near miss whilst scooting down the

school driveway. The driveway is steep and it is very easy to lose control, it is

also meant for cars not scooters. There have also been a number of incidents

where young children, parents and grandparents, have been bumped into

and so we are asking, again, for our community to support us in telling your

children that they must not ride their bikes or scooters on the school grounds.

This is not because we want to stop them from having fun but because with

870 students, and rising, it is simply unsafe and not courteous to our whole

community.

We ask for your continued support in this matter.

Walking School Bus

Welcome back to all of our superstar walkers and of course

our amazing parent volunteers!

It looks like our numbers are growing with an increase in

younger siblings joining some of our buses this year which is

great.

If your child is new to school or you have thought about

joining one of our buses and you’re keen to know more,

please get in touch with Merrin Rosnell (karmer@xtra.co.nz). We have Walking

School Bus week 12th – 16th March which is a fun filled week of themed dress-

up days - Colourful, Crazy & Fun!

Class Photos 2018

Community Notices

Hello everyone it’s Rosa here from room 4,

I am doing a project for school which involves collecting second hand soccer and rugby boots

and giving them to children in Mangere who cannot afford to buy boots. Without boots they

cannot play soccer or rugby.

If you have any boots that don’t fit your children anymore, please can you drop them into

room 4 in the mornings - I will need them all by 16 March please?

Thanks Rosa

p.s Please tell all your friends!

Driven a few kilometres with the holiday break?

Perhaps your car needs a check up?

Call us for all your WOF’s, vehicle servicing & maintenance.

All makes & models old or new.

See your friendly local team.

PH: 6387866

385 Dominion Rd, Mt Eden

(Behind g.a.s petrol station. Entrance on Paice Ave)

www.balmoralautorepairs.co.nz

Hi, my name is Adam Bateman and I used to go to Balmoral Primary and Intermediate. I am Year 12 at Mt

Albert Grammar and I am doing the "Relay for Life" to raise funds for cancer research. As part of this, I need

to raise money. The suggested target is $200, which is quite a lot. I have done a lot of babysitting for my

street (and my family - I still have a little brother and sister at Balmoral Primary). If you want a baby sitter

until March 11, I am available for a reduced rate of $10 an hour which will all be donated to cancer

research. I've attached the website link for you. References are available if you need them. If interested, my

phone number is 0278298829. Thank you!

https://rflaucklandnorth2018.everydayhero.com/nz/adam

Help Adam make a difference

rflaucklandnorth2018.everydayhero.com

Please show your support by giving through Adam's Supporter page and sharing to spread the word

about Cancer Society Auckland Northland Division