Campbells Bay School Number 32 13 October 2014
77 Aberdeen Road, Castor Bay, Auckland City 0620 Ph 09 410 7444 : Fax 09 410 5963 : Safety Check 09 410 9551 Email admin@campbellsbay.school.nz : Website www.campbellsbay.school.nz https://sites.google.com/a/cbsprimary.org/campbellsbayschool/
Principal’s Awards Coming Up Thursday, 16 October KOS meeting, 2.00pm in PA Room. See page 2
Waterwise, Rm 13
Thursday, 23 October Waterwise, Rm 14
FOCBS meeting in staffroom, 7.30pm. All welcome
Congratulations to the following children who received awards at assembly on the last day of last term. Well done to the following children: Hayley Judd (Rm 1), Charlotte Lin (Rm 2), Oscar Marsh (Rm 3), Ava Hickman (Rm 4), Matthew Heng (Rm 5), Liam Habets (Rm 6), Tayler Jones (Rm 7), Flynn Logan (Rm 9), Summer Carkeek (Rm 12), Jessica Houten and Maggie Yu (Rm 13), Sophia Roughan anad Charlotte Ross (Rm 14), India Stephenson (Rm 18), Reese Steinberg (Rm 19), Holly Wells (Rm 20), Zane Carter (Rm 21), Josh Ford (Rm 22), Alex Foster (Rm 23), Mason Roper (Rm 24), Ryan Knight (Rm 25), Annalise Johnson (Rm 26), Joe Leith (Rm 27), Jenna Kelly (Rm 30), Coco Mauger (Rm 31), Lucy Rich (Rm 32), David Beskhyroun (Rm 33), Thomas Christopher (Rm 34), Hadley Deed (Rm 35), Levi Harvey (Rm 36).
Congratulations to Leo Schumacher who received the MRE Award. Leo is pictured with his Mum and Dad and Jenni from MRE. Well done Leo.
Welcome Elun Xu, Blake Hulme Roarke Dooney Rio Mauger Cynthia Yang James Anderson Aelah-Summer Lotriet, Elisha Cristobal Joshua Shorter Isla Fernandes Jialin Huang Tana and Piri Wilson Oscar and Arabella Neville Abigail Aubrey
Mathathon! We have our final total of this outstanding fundraising effort school wide as $24,137.35. Once again we are delighted with the contribution and effort of every child and their main supporters, YOU!
Health and Physical Education Survey A survey will be emailed to you tomorrow from the office that we would like you to complete for us. Your feedback will support us in our endevour to meet the needs of our students when developing and implementing Health and PE programmes. We appreciate your time and your response.
2014 Term 4 13 October—17 December
2015 Term 1 3 February—2 April Term 2 20 April—3 July Term 3 20 July—25 September Term 4 12 October—18 December
Welcome We extend a warm CBS welcome to our youngest students who started their time at school today in Room 37 with their teacher, Jo Pearson.
NSW English Competition Congratulations to the students who participated in the 2014 English contest in the University of NSW International Competition and Assessment for Schools’. Students received awards as follows: High Distinction: The top 1% of entrants in each year level in NZ. Distinction: The next 10% of entrants in each year level in NZ. Credit: The next 20% of entrants in each year level in NZ. Merit: The next 10% of entrants in each year level in NZ. 101 CBS students participated in the English assessment. Year 4 High Distinction: Angela Dong Distinction: David Beskhyroun, Ronan Giles, Fletcher Sergant. Credit: Vanessa Burmeister, Jacob Hailes, Jessie Jamieson, Kaiah Kerekere, Maria Lee, Samuel Rea-Rankin, William Smith, Daniel Wong, Edison Yang. Merit: William Jun.
Thursday, 23 October, 7.30pm in the staffroom. This meeting will have an agenda item to discuss whether the school will have a gala in 2015. If you have strong feelings on the topic and would like to be involved in organsing it, please plan to attend the meeting. In order for this event to go ahead we need a team of at least five people who are able to focus on organizing it.
Year 5 Distinction: Abigail Lyons, Zac Manning, Kayla McHugh, Michael Peng, Sean Price, Eleanor Ray-Chaudhuri. Credit: Matthew Browning, Marcus Fraser-MacKenzie, Emma Jiang, Sally Leach, Sophia Lee, Benjamin Strawbridge, Hayley Taylor, Sophie Tucker, Kevin Zhu. Merit: David Escat, Cam Kemp, Aimee Klapf, Joseph Pettigrew, Kyra Smithson. Year 6 High Distinction: Amber Fraser-Mackenzie, Sophie Hepper, Gabriel Wright. Distinction: David Heng, James Houliston, Tyler Jamieson, Leo Schumacher, Amy Smith, Oliver Xu. Credit: Alex Haslemore, Cooper Heath, Jenna Kelly, Andrew Lu, Karina Malyutina, Sarah Penny, Jack Quested, Caitlin Reid, Dalton Silbiger, Claire Snelling, Abigail Tsang. Merit: Andy Lee, Kelly Zeng.
MKR Help! Josh and I need your help. Tonight and every night when MKR is on there is a chance for the contestants to win $20,000 over the course of the competition. If Josh and I should win, we will donate ALL of it to Ronald McDonald House to cover an entire years food budget for the family kitchens. Vote at www.mkrvote.co.nz in the Viewer’s Choice section for 'Team Josh and Aaron.' You have 2 votes every night – one for best of the night and the other vote is the overall series winner which is called ‘Viewers Choice’. Make sure you vote for us in the viewers choice vote every time. Tell everyone you know to vote. We're the only team donating the money if we win. Vote every time MKR is on. Thanks Aaron. (Aaron is a parent of CBS and a very generous one at that!) Best wishes Josh and Aaron
Next Meeting
Starship Mobile Phone Schools Appeal
If you have an old mobile phone you longer use, we would love to have it for the Starship Appeal. Pop them in the purple box in the office.
Phones collected help raise funds to keep the Starship National Air Ambulance Service. Phones collected are counted towards our schools chosen rewards from the Starship Mobile Phone Schools Campaign, i.e. cameras This campaign helps to ensure NZ landfills are free of an array of hazardous toxic substances.
Parent Survey Last term many parents completed a survey seeking feedback on various aspects of the school. Results and analysis of the survey form are on page 5 of this newsletter. Thank you to the many people who took the time to provide us with valuable feedback. We take the information supplied to us seriously as we are always looking to improve.
Keeping Ourselves Safe - Term 4 Health Programme Keeping Ourselves Safe is a child protection programme where children and young people learn and apply a range of safety skills they can use when interacting with others. Students recognise the differences between healthy and unhealthy relationships and those who have been or are being abused are encouraged to seek help. We will be teaching this programme schoolwide in Term 4. The New Zealand Police supports this as it recommends that schools use the learning activities in Keeping Ourselves Safe within a whole-school approach. An information booklet for each family will come home and an information afternoon will be held in the library 2.00pm on Thursday 16 October for those interested in more information. “Not Self, but Service”
Shared Cultural Lunch On Thursday 25 September the bilingual classes celebrated other cultures by holding a shared luncheon. We had yummy food from China, Korea, Japan, Iraq, Sweden, Germany and Iran. Thank you to the parents who made food, prepared food and helped support the students' learning. It was a lovely day, enjoyed by all. Prue Fagg, ESOL Co-Ordinator
Waterwise Kayak Trials At the end of Term 3, in perfect conditions, the top kayakers from each Year 6 room assembled at Lake Pupuke for our annual regatta trials. The whole team competed superbly, and to the best of their ability. The course was the actual regatta course- a huge triangle. It was a particular challenge as it was also the last day of the school production. Final results were: Girls 1st 2nd 3rd 4th 5th
Boys
Olivia Kelly Georgia Heron Jasmine Foley Sophie Hepper Katie Clark
1st 2nd 3rd 4th 5th
Joshua Bilyard Monty Welch Josh Christie Ryan Morell Oscar James
Sports Photos and Results Weekly sports results can now be found at: https://sites.google.com/a/cbsprimary.org/campbellsbayschool/sport/sportsresults Could all managers of sports teams email news and results to Liz Brotherton, lizb@campbellsbay.school.nz
Term 4 Sports
There are lots of sports starting this term with the focus for many on participation and having fun with friends - touch rugby, summer netball and hockey. We have 23 touch teams across the whole school. Any gear bags not yet collected for this can be done so from my office. Games start next week - Thursday 23 October. On the more competitive side we will be selecting our school athletics team who will represent CBS at the interschool competition held at Sovereign Stadium on 25 November. Teachers will be keeping an eye out for those doing well in the different athletics disciplines during PE sessions and they will put forward their top students to our school trials on 11 November. The team will be selected from these trials by the teachers running them. Our top boys and girls cricket teams (already selected earlier in the year) will be attending the Champion of Champions tournament at Eden Park on 19 November where they will be competing against schools from all over Auckland. Miniball and flippaball continue as usual. The next round of sports photos will be taken on 24 October and will include all our touch teams and summer netball and hockey teams. More sports information can be found on the school google site under ‘Sports’. Please contact Liz Brotherton if you have any queries - lizb@campbellsbay.school.nz Congratulations to our school tackle rugby team who performed brilliantly at the semi finals day held in the last week of Term 3. They just missed out on the top spot having put their heart and soul into all their games. Thanks so much to James Bilyard and Mark Pattimore who gave up so much of their time to coach these boys. Also, well done to Rhys Pattimore who was part of a Forrest Hill Soccer club team who competed and won a tournament held in The Gold Coast during the holidays. “Not Self, but Service”
Kapahaka Costumes Kia Ora! Our kapahaka group will be performing at the Onepoto Culturual Festival in November. We are making new costumes for the group—approx. 75. We need your help making the costumes. A couple of hours would be great, or more time would be wonderful. Be creative, share some refreshments with other helpers and provide your child with an amazing costume. Choose a time that is convenient for you and choose how much time you can spare and come along What times? Monday 20 Oct - 9am—3pm Tuesday 21 Oct - 1pm—3pm Wednesday 22 Oct - 9am—3pm 6pm—9pm Thursday 23 Oct - 9am—3pm Where? Performing Arts Room / Ruma Whakaari Toi There will be sewing machines available and there is some hand sewing to be done as well. If you wish to bring a sewing machine that would be really helpful too. Some tasks to be done: Cutting material Making the bodice straps Sewing the seams Overlocking the bodice Threading elastic through skirts Stitching on the fringing Sewing the decoration to boys’ shirts Come along and share the school spirit—’Not Self, But Service’. Tea, coffee and baking will be provided. Contact Euphymya 027 454 1072 with any questions and to let me know you are coming. Kia Kaha Euphymya Lavelle
A Celebration of our Winter Hockey Success Our winter hockey success was celebrated on Thursday 25 September with a prize giving and morning tea in the PA Room. All 11 winter hockey teams attended the prize giving along with their coaches and managers and many of the parents who have showed their support throughout the season. We were lucky enough to have Fynn Edwards, a junior black stick who recently attended the youth Olympics, come along and present certificates and trophies to the various winners. It was a happy and fun morning of celebration and a fitting end to a great season. CBS Prize Giving Award Winners: Team
MVP (most valuable player)
MIP (most improved player)
Bluestix
Isabella Gaze
Abigail Tsang
Whitestix
Sophie Tucker
Lucy Jobbins
Comets
Katie Clar
Amy Smith Jessica Houten
Storm
Victoria Lane
Sarah Son
Magic
Daniella Hall
Holly Karathanasis
Swifts
Cerys George
India Stephenson
Panthers
Ryan Morrell
Lachlan Thorne
Tigers
Taylor Ford
Teodor Morris-Mandell
Eagles
Cameron Maunder
Lucas Day
Falcons
Mairav Rajput
Jayden Anderson
Hawks
Oliver Managh
Daniel Rea
We will have pictures of our prize winners in next week’s newsletter A second prize giving was attended by six of our teams and a coach on the evening of the 25 September. They attended the Harbour Junior Hockey prize giving held at Pinehurst School. The following teams received awards on the night: CBS Eagles (Cameron Maunder, Cameron McGlashan, Alex Logan, Max Gulliver, Callum Walker, Cambell Brighouse, Lucas Day and Josh Ford) – Winners Yr 3 and 4 Boys A Grade CBS Storm (Taylor Haslemore, Sasha Roberts, Sarah Son, Mikayla Crawford, Victoria Lane, Hannah Moore and Anya Young) - Winners Yr 3 and 4 Girls A Grade CBS Magic (Holly Karathanasis, Daniella Hall, Abby Duncan, Grace Duncan, Ashley Brown, Maddy Ford, Drew Briggs and Carla Pethers-Boak) - Runners up Yr 3 and 4 Girls B Grade CBS Falcons (Matthew Knight, Mairav Rajput, Alex Bielby, Jed Barlow, Tom McDonald, Jayden Anderson, Finn Davidson and Dan Ibbotson) - Runners up Yr 3 and 4 Boys B Grade CBS Whitestix (Sophie Tucker, Britta Keer-Keer, Zoe Meacher, Lucy Jobbins, Romy Ward-Gilmour, Cara Clark-Howard, Mikaela Keer-Keer and Lizzie Blount) - Sportsmanship Award Yr 5 and 6 Girls CBS Swifts (Catherine Chen, Kate Jobbins, Deeja Urlich, Ava Cunningham, India Stephenson, Chloe Gielen, Charley Burbidge and Cerys George)- Sportsmanship Award Yr 3 and 4 Girls Karen Morgans (mum of Izzy Gaze) - Yr 5 and 6 Girls Coaches Award A huge thank you once again to all the players, coaches, managers, parents and supporters who made the season so much fun and such a success.
Girls’ Cricket Team Our CBS girls cricket team did a great job at the quikhit tournament held at the end of last term. They were undefeated and won their pool so will go on to play in the Champion of Champions tournament on 19 November at Eden Park.
“Not Self, Self, but but Service” Service” “Not
Results of Service Quality Survey - August 2014 Headlines, in a way, are what mislead you because bad news is a headline and gradual improvement is not. Bill Gates The intention of the survey, in the context of striving for continual improvement, was to: Provide information on the educational quality of the school. Identify strengths and weaknesses of the school. Find ways in which the school could improve. Provide information to help better understand your needs.
Results Importance Ratings In terms of the most (1) to the least (10) important features (as listed in the survey), the importance ratings from parents are as follows. (August 2013 Service Quality Survey results in brackets): The teaching staff are excellent teachers. (2) The school provides a safe environment. (1) 3 Staff have positive relationships with students. (3) 4 Students enjoy their time at school. (4=) 5 Parents are well informed about their child’s progress. (4=) 6 Individual student needs are addressed (6) 7 Staff have an open door policy. (7) 8 Student behaviour modification techniques are effective. (8) 9 Computers are well utilised. (9) 10 The community has opportunities to be informed about programmes in the school. (10)
Performance Gaps These record the gap between the importance of an issue and the performance of the school (both, as perceived by parents). Therefore a smaller rather than a larger gap is desirable. A guideline for analysing the gaps is as follows: 0.0 – 0.5, the school is very largely meeting the expectations of its parent stakeholders. 0.6 –1.0, the school should be cognisant of these service features and should devote resources to them after the higher priority service features have been attended to. >1.0, indicates areas of priority for the school to attend to. (Smith, UNITEC, 2000)
Performance Gaps The teaching staff are excellent teachers
2014 0.4
2013 0.5
2011 0.5
2004 0.6
The community has opportunities to be informed about programmes in the school
0.1
0.0
0.0
0.1
The school provides a safe environment
0.4
0.4
0.3
0.5
The parents are well informed about their child’s progress
0.5
0.7
0.6
1.0
Individual learning needs are addressed
0.6
0.8
0.5
1.2
Computers are well utilised in classrooms
0.0
0.2
0.1
0.9
Staff have positive relationships with students
0.3
0.4
0.4
0.5
Students enjoy their time at school
0.3
0.4
0.3
0.5
Behaviour modification techniques are effective
0.4
0.5
0.4
0.7
Staff have an open door policy
0.2
0.3
0.3
0.3
Narrative 215 surveys were returned. We have 475 families in the school. This survey format has been used since 2004 when it was first introduced to the school in conjunction with UNITEC. Hence, the baseline data from the first year of the survey has been included in the table, above. It is of interest to compare the 2013 service feature results with previous results and with the 2004 baseline data. As you will see, some service features have remained with the same gaps as they were in 2013 and others have reduced, while one has increased by 0.1. We do not pay much attention to very small movements (+ or – one) in service features. What we are looking for are trends and any outliers that would be a cause for concern. If you go back ten years there are some fairly obvious areas that have undergone improvement. For example, in 2004 we were particularly concerned at the service features concerning parents being informed about the progress of their child (1.0); individual learning needs (1.2); and the utilisation of computers in classes (0.9). Last year we were concerned two service features: (a) that parents being well informed about the progress of their child and (b) individual learning needs being met were moving the wrong way. Hence, we did a follow up survey and established focus groups to ascertain how we could improve our performance in these two areas. As can be seen, we have improved. We are aware there is room for further improvement. As Bill Gates is quoted as saying, incremental improvement isn’t the stuff of headlines, but that does not make it any less important that we seek to improve. Often this involves asking questions that we don’t always like the answers to and then taking action. This is what we did when we substantially modified our mid-year reporting to parents on student achievement.
Comment on each Service Feature The teaching staff are excellent teachers (0.4) I wrote the following last year and have repeated it as it has pretty much stood the test of time. “This feature has a trend that is pretty much constant since the survey started in 2004. Bearing in mind that the standard of ‘excellent’ is a very high bench mark, we are pleased with the continuing results in the context that we are always looking to improve our performance. The last review of the school from the Education Review Office (2011) had this to say: ‘Students are confident, articulate and enjoy positive relationships with each other and their teachers. They are enthusiastic about and well engaged in classroom activities, and are able to work independently and co-operatively. They are supported by settled learning environments, clear routines and high teacher expectations. Classrooms are well resourced and students can access a variety of materials to support their learning’.”
The community has opportunities to be informed about programmes in the school (0.0) A boring but rewarding trend where we seem to be getting things just about right as far as our parent community is concerned. Not perfect, but close.
Parents are well informed about their child’s progress (0.5) As mentioned earlier, this service feature was a clarion call for us last year and we spent a lot of time asking further questions, listening and working out ways we could improve. As a result of our further research we sought to improve our reporting by making explicit ‘next learning steps’ in reading, maths and writing, while also introducing reporting on the key competencies; the behaviours we expect students to display. We are not there yet but we are now headed in the right direction.
Individual learning needs are addressed (0.6) This is another service domain that has shown an improved compared to 2013 (0.8). In this instance, we haven’t changed what we do a great deal but we have changed how we communicate what we do. We have a multitude of ways of working with students who have had individual needs identified. We are now being more explicit by communicating with parents of students receiving individualised programmes. Shortly, we will be making available to all parents the extent of individualised programmes to support student learning across every year level, while, obviously, protecting the right to privacy of students.
Computers are well utilised in the school programme (0.0) This service feature has come a long way since 2004 (0.9). In an ever changing world in terms of technology, this is a very positive result, reflecting the resources that have been devoted to providing students with access to technology to assist their learning. Technology is now firmly embedded into the day-to-day life of students at school. However, technology will never replace teachers!
Children enjoy their time at school (0.3) The school provides a safe environment (0.4) Staff have positive relationships with students (0.3) Behaviour techniques are effective (0.4) Each day at school there are over 850 people (students and staff). According to the formula* that determines how many possible different interactions there could be at school in a day, there are 360,825 such (possible) interactions! Bearing in mind that in reality such a figure is never likely to be approached, it is, nevertheless, food for thought in terms of the scope for people - people interactions at school. Hence, when we are looking at the four service features (above) it puts into some context the day to day reality. These four service features encompass the important aspect of safety in the broadest sense of the word. While the scores are encouraging we are aware that the increasing number of students at the school can influence the experience children have at school. The social and emotional environment children are part of at school is critical in terms of their learning in the broadest sense of the word. We do not always get aspects of this right for everybody all the time. You can be assured that we are constantly monitoring these aspects of the school experience and we always welcome specific feedback.
Staff have an open door policy (0.2) I wrote the following last year and it remains true now. “This is an interesting one, as the open door policy has a catch to it! Namely, that the door must be opened by prior arrangement if you wish to discuss an issue pertaining to your child. This is to ensure that teachers are not interrupted when preparing for lessons and that time can be scheduled for the parents and the teacher to devote quality time to issues of concern. As teachers are so obviously ‘available’ by being in the classroom it can be tempting to have a ‘quick chat’ about your child. Unfortunately, ‘quick chats’ can sometimes result in much longer chats! They can also lead to unfortunate misunderstandings when the conversation has to be hurried. Please, always make an appointment if you wish to raise an issue with your child’s teacher, just as you would with your lawyer, doctor or other service provider. However, if you want to come into the class after the 8.30am bell has sounded to have a look at your child’s work, or be a ‘guest’ of your child as they show you around the room, this is absolutely fine. It is also fine to greet the teacher! Having written all that, it seems that we have it ‘about right’ in terms of how we operate our open door policy.”
The Survey: In conclusion The two service domains that I described as being stand outs in 2013 are still the worst performing but both are down from 2013 and from 2004 when we started the questionnaire, namely: Parents are well informed about their child’s progress: 1.0 (’04), 0.7 (’13) 0.5 (’14). Individual learning needs are addressed: 1.2 (’04), 0.8 (’13), 0.6 (’14). These two service areas will continue to receive our attention as our quest is to improve. On the whole, we draw the conclusion that the school is performing well in the eyes of parents, but there are areas for further improvement.
Written Comments From a total of 201 surveys returned, 57 people took the opportunity provided to make written comments (67 in 2013). Most of these can be placed under the following headings: happy; reporting to parents; concerns and IT. The single biggest number of written comments pertained to the category: happy, with 30 such comments (20 in 2013). Two people raised concerns about class size compared to 11 in 2013. Seven people raised the issue of IT safety (0 in 2013). This is probably indicative of the increased use of technology throughout the school and the consequent greater awareness of issues pertaining to IT. We will be sharing more information about IT safety and digital citizenship at school shortly. Reporting to parents produced four comments compared to six in 2013. As previously mentioned, reporting to parents is a constant ‘work on.’ Concerns covered a range of issues, often specific to an individual.
Finally Your feedback is important to us. One of the frustrating things about an anonymous questionnaire is that there are a small number of people who have specific concerns that we cannot properly address because we don’t know who they are. Hence, if you have a specific concern or if you would like to discuss an issue – please contact me either by email (principal@campbellsbay.school.nz) or call and make an appointment. * In any group of "N" people (like your family), the number of possible relationships (R) is [ N x (N-1) / 2 ]. So, for example, in a family of six adults and three children, R = [ (9 x 8) / 2 ] = 36 possible relationships to maintain. John McGowan
“Not Self, but Service”