To keep account of all children, it is important that parents/caregivers notify the school office, (03) 478 0706 or office@broadbay.school.nz of any absences or lateness before 9:00am. Any unexplained absences will be followed up by a phone call to home and other contacts if necessary.

The Board of Trustees sets the voluntary school contribution on an annual basis. We endeavour to keep these to a minimum. Each family will be notified of these near the beginning of Term 1. Currently this contribution is $25 per child per term. Each year there are some special activities for which additional contributions are requested, such as school camps and swimming.

We have a school assembly approximately every three weeks on a Thursday afternoon at 2:25 pm; these are usually held in Room 1. These gatherings are an opportunity for the students to showcase what they have been learning and celebrate special achievements. Families and community members are most welcome to attend our assemblies. See our online calendar for dates.

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Our school’s main fundraiser is the annual book rummage, which is held in October and organised by our wonderful parent committee, Friends of Broad Bay School. In addition to the books, there are general rummage and craft sales, food stalls, and fun activities such as face painting. This is the time of year when the school needs as many people as possible helping out in various roles. All information about the book sale is communicated well in advance through the school newsletter. We are sure you will enjoy being involved!

Unfortunately, we are no longer collecting bread-tags. Due to some companies opting in for cardboard tags (yeah!), this has contaminated the process and is no longer viable. Thank you for your ongoing support.

Some of our students catch the public bus home at the end of the school day. The bus leaves Broad Bay at 3:05 pm, and children catching the bus leave school at 2:55 to ensure they get to the bus stop in time. While we would like to have an adult escort the children to the bus, because the children leave during class time when teachers are needed at school, this is not always possible. Because it is a public bus service, not a school bus, it is parents’ responsibility to ensure children’s safety when catching the bus. We ask that parents please teach children to walk safely to the bus stop, that children catching the bus do not cross the main road, and that once they reach the bus stop children remain inside the bus shelter until the bus arrives.

Two camps are held for our senior students each year. These are an outdoor education camp, held in Term 1, and ski camp, which is held in Term 3. These camps are usually limited to students in years 7 and 8, although year 6 students sometimes have the opportunity to attend, depending on numbers.

Class outings add a lot of value to our learning programmes. On enrolment of your child you will be asked to sign a consent letter allowing your child to participate in low risk-level school trips. Trips involving an overnight stay, and activities with higher risk levels (e.g., sailing) will require a separate permission slip. Class teachers will advise parents of upcoming trips and will occasionally request help with transport. This help is greatly appreciated and helps us to offer a wide range of experiences to our students.

We do not have a school uniform, but ask that children wear clothing appropriate for a school environment and current weather conditions. In the summer children need wide brimmed hats and clothing that covers their shoulders. All clothing should be named. For inter-school sports and cultural events, we wear a Broad Bay School sports top, and ask that families provide children’s own black shorts and running shoes. We want to ensure that children are able to participate in sports and other events effectively and comfortably - please wear suitable footwear for these activities! Sports tops are printed at the school. When children begin school here, we ask them to bring in a plain black t-shirt (these can usually be obtained cheaply from K-Mart or the Warehouse) and we will print it with the Broad Bay School Logo.

We value open communication between the school and our families. You are welcome to contact us at any time by phone or email. If you would like to speak to a particular staff member face-to-face, the best times to do so are before or after school. We recommend that you get in touch first to arrange a time, to ensure that the staff member you would like to speak to is available when you call in. It is also very helpful if you can let the staff member know what it is you would like to discuss, so that they can be prepared to answer any queries you have.

A school newsletter is sent out by email each Wednesday during the school terms. Parents/whanau are encouraged to look out for this and stay up to date with happenings. A hard copy is available from the office upon request. Our school website, www.broadbay.school.nz includes links to the newsletters and also contains lots of other school information. Please ensure that you keep us up to date with any changes to your phone number, email address, or residential address, so that we are able to contact you when necessary.

At Broad Bay School, we aim for communication to be open, honest and respectful. We welcome parents bringing any concerns to us, as we then have the opportunity to make our school a safer and stronger learning environment. We wish to emphasise that early discussion of a concern often reaps the best outcome, therefore we encourage you to discuss any issues that arise with an appropriate person as soon as possible. For the health and safety of the children and school community, we ask that you communicate your concern or complaint with a calm and measured approach. Below is a link to our Concerns and Complaints Procedure.

Students regularly use ICT devices at school as part of their learning. We have clear policy and procedure around the correct use of these tools and the internet. At enrolment, children and their parents are given a detailed description of how we handle cyber-safety at Broad Bay School, and are asked to sign a cyber-safety agreement (see link below). We also obtain parental permission to display children’s pictures and work on the school website and/or newsletters. All students in all classrooms go over cyber-safety procedures at the start of Term 1 every year. We acknowledge that the digital space is constantly changing and we welcome any suggestions on how to maintain children’s safety in this context.

If you would like to enrol your child at Broad Bay School, please complete the online form at the link below (or pick up an enrolment pack from the office and return the completed forms to us before your child is due to start school). We are required to take a copy of the birth certificate (or passport) and immunisation record of all New Entrant children. These items must be sighted by Fiona in the office prior to your child’s first day at school.

In the 6 weeks prior to your child turning 5, they will be invited to join the New Entrant class for visits from 9:00 am until 11:00 am on a day that is mutually agreeable. This will help your child to learn the school routine, build an understanding of expectations, and start to develop friendships.

Our school is privileged to be situated in a beautiful location on the Otago Peninsula. As an active Enviroschool, we respect and care for our environment and foster this value in our students. Our school has a well-established garden, which includes a hothouse, compost bins, and a worm farm, and children are involved in all aspects of the gardening process. We encourage waste minimisation and recycling, and are a collection point for community recycling initiatives. We regularly participate in activities that promote local ecosystems, such as planting natives and clearing weeds at the Smiths Creek. New ways to improve sustainability are always being developed, and we’d love to hear from you if you have any suggestions on how we can further reduce our environmental footprint.

Joining Friends of Broad Bay School is a great way to get to know the school and its people. This is our school’s group of parents who work together to raise funds and provide resources and opportunities that enhance our children's learning. We meet regularly during school terms to process funding requests and to organise a range of social events and fundraising ventures, including our annual Book Rummage. The funds raised subsidise a number of school projects, camps, and other special extension activities. All whanau/caregivers are welcome to be part of Friends of Broad Bay School. Meetings are advertised in the school newsletters and on the whanau Messenger group. For more information, or to join, please email friendsofbroadbayschool@gmail.com.

We have recently launched the Garden to Table program at our school. This program sees children enthusiastically getting their hands dirty and learning how to grow, harvest, prepare and share fresh, seasonal food. Established in 2008, Garden to Table Trust is a registered charity that works with thousands of primary-school-aged children all across New Zealand, helping them discover a love for fresh food and skills that will last a lifetime. The programme is curriculum-integrated and provides real-world learning opportunities, taking learning outside the classroom. We welcome contributions, donations, and/or people power!

It is everybody’s responsibility to maintain our children’s health and safety while at school. We take care in providing the safest environment possible and ask that you help us in this by letting a staff member know as soon as possible if you become aware of something that could be a safety hazard, and making a note of it in the hazard register by scanning the QR code on the window of our front entrance. The hazard register is a file that sits at our front desk. You can read our Health and Safety Policy on p. 52 of our Policy Framework - see link below.

Accidents do happen unfortunately, and it may be necessary at times to contact parents/caregivers. Therefore, it is essential that we have a current record of contact people and their phone numbers. Please let us know as soon as possible if your details have changed.

This comes home in your child’s book bag. Please check the book bag daily for a reader and any notices. Research tells us that supported reading at home contributes to a learner’s success. Please talk with your child’s teacher for ways to help with this at home.

Our school’s contact hours are 8:30 am to 3:00 pm. Outside these hours, classrooms are not open and teachers are not available to supervise children, as this time is needed for teachers’ preparation and meetings. School starts at 9:00 am, the morning tea break is from 10:45 to 11:15 am, and the lunch break is from 12:30 to 1:30 pm.

Please label your child’s clothing so that any found items can easily be returned to their owner. Lost property will be placed in the green box in the hallway outside the library. At the end of each term, items not collected will be donated to charity.

Children are supervised while they eat at the beginning of the morning tea break and at the end of the lunch break. We encourage the children to eat their healthy and filling food. We promote healthy eating at school and have a no-sugary-treats-or-drinks guideline. Duty teachers also supervise the children while they play during morning tea and lunch breaks. Explain to your child that they can approach the duty teachers if they have any problems.

Please make the classroom teacher and the office aware if your child has any medical condition. If your child may require medication to be dispensed at school, please hand the medication, with clear instructions, to Fiona in the school office. No medication is given without parent/caregiver approval. Staff members have basic First Aid skills.

We will conduct assessments of your child’s knowledge and learning after 1 month, 6 months, and 12 months at school, and at the time of their 6th birthday. These assessments allow us to check that your child’s learning is progressing as we would expect, and to identify any ways in which we might be able to better support their learning. The information obtained from these assessments will be shared with you.

We truly value and welcome the involvement of parents/caregivers and whānau at Broad Bay School. There are many ways of being involved, including:

• Helping with our annual Book Rummage
• Helping with children’s reading
• Coaching or co-ordinating sports teams
• Board of Trustees
• Supporting trips and visits
• Friends of Broad Bay School
• Library duties
• Working bees
• Swimming
• Water education
• Sailing

We are always looking at new learning opportunities for the children, so if you have any other skills you would like to share please let us know! Any member of the community helping us at school is asked to sign a Volunteer Agreement, to ensure that they are aware of the school’s requirements regarding appropriate conduct and health and safety. There is a link to this agreement below.

The playgroup is an informal group, co-ordinated by local parents who meet on Friday mornings, 10am to 12pm, in the school library. The school library is a warm area to sit and play, enjoy our toys and books, and have morning tea together. A gold coin koha for the morning tea kitty is appreciated when possible. All welcome!

The Public Health Nurse visits our school on a regular basis and is available to discuss any concerns you may have. Our Public Health Nurse is Ria Brodie.

Telephone: (03) 476 9810 or Email: ria.brodie@southerndhb.govt.nz

Written reports of children’s progress and achievement across the curriculum will be sent home in Terms 1 and 3. During the year there will also be opportunities for student/parent conferences with teachers. We also provide Electronic Student Folders, containing samples of your child’s work across all learning areas plus many photos of your child’s learning stories (a link will be shared with you by the teacher).

We have our own yachts, kept at the Broad Bay Yacht Club, and run a sailing program for our year 7 and 8 students over the summer months.

Many of our students choose to get involved in sporting activities. Often this is achieved through partnering with other schools to form teams. Opportunities to take part in sports will be detailed in the newsletter as they arise. Please let us know if there is a particular sport your child would like to take part in, and we will try to find a team for him or her to join. Please let us know if you would like to co-ordinate or coach a team - we would love to have you on board! Louise Crowl is our sports co-ordinator, so please contact her with any sports-related enquiries.

Our lists of required stationery can be viewed (and purchased through Office Max) using the link below. Items do not necessarily need to be purchased new at the beginning of each year. For example, exercise books that are only partly full can continue to be used the following year. We do not sell stationery at the school, but the required items are readily available at most stationery outlets.

It is school policy that all children wear a broad-brimmed hat when outside during Terms 1 and 4. Caps are not acceptable. Please apply sunscreen to children before school during the summer months, and ensure that children’s shoulders are covered. Sunscreen is available in all classrooms. We ask that parents model sun-smart behaviour when at school.

We take our students to Moana Pool for 10 lessons with professional instructors each year (usually during Term 2). We need parent helpers on our trips to the pool to ensure a good adult-child ratio for children’s safety. A request for helpers will be sent out via the newsletter a few weeks before swimming lessons start. A financial contribution is requested from families in order to make these swimming lessons possible, but we also seek grant funding to subsidise their cost, allowing us to keep the amount requested from families as low as possible. We do not have a school swimming pool, but it is possible for families to hire keys to the Portobello and Macandrew Bay School pools for use over the summer months.

Our open-water safety program was launched in 2019. Researchers from the University of Otago emphasise the importance of teaching water safety skills in open water, as we can’t assume that skills learnt in a swiming pool will generalise to natural settings. Our students and parents greatly enjoy our beach sessions (held during Terms 1 and 4), which strengthen not only children’s water safety skills, but also their connection with the natural environment, which in turn promotes health and wellbeing and the importance of our roles as kaitiaki of our local environment.

Our students regularly take part in off-site activities, including sporting and cultural events, technology at DNI, and various Education Outside The Classroom experiences. Often buses are used to transport students between the school and off-site venues, but sometimes teachers or parents transport students by car. We follow a strict transport procedure to ensure everyone’s safety in these situations. Safety belts and booster seats are used as required by law, and prior to transporting students, drivers are required to complete a Transport Safety Form (see link below). This form confirms that the driver is currently licensed, their vehicle used for transporting is registered and has a current WOF, and that they will adhere to all road rules.

We encourage families to keep valuables, toys, and other special items at home. We cannot accept responsibility for these items at school, and personal items that are lost or broken at school are not covered by our insurance.

Every Thursday is wheels day, when children are invited to bring their wheels to ride on the tennis court at lunchtime. Any wheels are welcome - bikes, scooters, skates, and skateboards. Children must wear a helmet and ride only their own wheels - no sharing.