Newsletter – 12 September 2023

Principal’s Message: 12 September 2023

Dear Parents and Caregivers,

We have had another busy exciting fortnight at Cockle Bay School with the Glitter and Gold disco, Wacky Wednesday and lots of sporting success!

Our netball teams competed in the HPPA competition on Thursday 31 August with the CBS Blue team placing 3rd overall and CBS Green team placing 2nd overall. We had 3 Mathex teams compete at Bucklands Beach Intermediate with our A team placing 2nd overall primary school. Our soccer team competed in a 2 day tournament at William Green Domain and placed 5th overall out of 24 teams. We also had a friendly lunchtime netball game against Owairoa this week too. We are so proud of our teams for the practice they put in prior to the event and the sportsmanship and effort they showed on the day.

This week is Māori Language Week, an annual event across New Zealand that exists to celebrate the culture and language of the Māori people. At Cockle Bay School we are celebrating ‘Kia Kaha’ making the language stronger by having a waiata of the day, phrase of the day and some fun class challenges. Our Senior leaders are reading Māori legends and we have exciting lunchtime activities for students to join in with – poi making, learning how to use a poi, weaving and whai (sting games), rākau stick and an art challenge. We hope to post photos and videos of our celebrations on our Cockle Bay School Facebook page.

We are a Positive Behaviour for Learning (PB4L) school which means we teach behaviour through our school values – caring, collaboration, continuous improvement and celebration.

Our focus last week was reminding students to seek the support of our peer mediators in the playground and to use the Wheel of Choice to help us solve minor playground problems and make good choices. We are a big school, with lots of beautiful play spaces. While we encourage students to use our peer mediators and wheel of choice first, we have a strong presence of duty teachers in the playground at morning tea and lunchtime. Duty teachers actively walk around specific areas and monitor student behaviour. They wear a high-vis jacket so that they can easily be spotted. Our focus this week is to keep cloak bays and stairwells clear and tidy. 

Just a reminder that in Term 4 we have two Teacher Only Days booked (20th October and 13 November). On these days our staff will be working with a facilitator on the new curriculum refresh in literacy & communication, and mathematics. 

A reminder that our Out of Zone applications for 2024 close on 11 October.

Our staff and students have been working very hard to put the final touches on our production ‘Madagascar Junior’. We have sold out each of the four performances and I know that it will be an amazing opportunity for our students to perform in an auditorium with lights, costumes and an enthusiastic audience. 

It will be a busy end of term and on behalf of the Senior Leadership team I would like to thank our staff for their hard work and support. It is because we have such dedicated, hard-working staff that we can offer the students of Cockle Bay School so many incredible extracurricular, academic and cultural opportunities.  

Kimberley and I have thoroughly enjoyed the opportunity to take on the Acting Principal role this term and look forward to welcoming Dorothy Bigwood back at the start of Term 4.

We wish you a safe and restful September school holiday.

Best regards,

Phebe Rossiter (Acting Principal)

A message from the Class Councillors

Our School councillors have had many responsibilities that have encompassed a wide array of tasks, including engaging in meaningful discussions with their younger students in the buddy class program and crafting effective advertising for numerous fundraising endeavours, benefiting both our school and the local community.  Furthermore, they have embarked on diverse projects, such as the”Jammies for June” campaign, providing support to the local Salvation Army, and raising funds for essential school needs.

Uniform Shop

The next opening of the uniform shop will be Monday 9th October – 8:30 am-9:15 am and 2:30 pm-3:15 pm.