Kia ora koutou

Admin Team

Debbie Crocker Finance	Prue Lye Administration	Julia French Administration
Shaun See IT Support

After School Care

Melina Arnold ASC Superviso	Julie Gee ASC Supervisor	Audrey Young ASC Assistant

Carmen Williams Caretaker	Kim de Waard Gardener

As there's a lot of discussion in the media about learning in schools, new initiatives, and the curriculum, we want to take this opportunity to share how learning in Writing looks at our school.

We believe writing is a powerful way for children to express themselves and for us to understand their world. At our school, our daily writing program is guided by real-life events and each child's developmental stage. While we often focus on personal narratives, we also explore other forms like letter writing, persuasive writing or writing reports, helping students develop a range of writing skills.

All learning is carefully aligned to the new curriculum’s learning statement for that child's year group. We understand that some ākonga (students) may need targeted intervention or extension, so teachers tailor learning to meet their specific needs. It's important to note a shift in benchmarks within the new curriculum. This may mean that ākonga who were previously achieving at an expected level may now be assessed differently.

Phase 1 (Years 0-3)

In our junior school, our writing program focuses on building foundational skills. We encourage writing daily, using a mix of inspirations such as responses to stories, personal experiences, and even poems.

• Shared writing is a key part of our program, where the class works together to create a piece of writing. This is a great opportunity to learn about the building blocks of writing, such as what makes a letter, a word, or a sentence, and how punctuation works.

• Guided writing happens in smaller groups, where teachers provide targeted mini-lessons on specific skills, like using capital letters correctly or adding full stops.

• We use Structured Literacy activities regularly to help children understand the relationship between sounds and letters (phonics) and to practice segmenting words for spelling.

• Handwriting is taught regularly, ensuring children develop clear and legible writing skills.

We regularly assess children's writing progress through teachers using indicators based on the curriculum, which also informs their next steps. A phonics check and writing moderation with other teachers is also used. Children's writing is celebrated and displayed in classrooms, and they have opportunities to share their work with classmates.

Phase 2 (Years 4-6)

As children move into the middle school years, our writing program expands to include a wider range of motivations, such as memoirs, responses to literature, and factual writing. The focus remains on writing with a clear audience, purpose, and task in mind.

• Teachers plan for daily writing, encouraging students to use a variety of strategies. This includes writing to learn across different subjects, demonstrating their understanding of concepts through written work.

• Shared writing continues to be a valuable tool, often exploring texts like class novels to highlight features of writing, such as language conventions and punctuation.

• Instructional writing takes place in flexible groups, allowing teachers to address specific learning needs through mini-lessons on areas like adding detail or structuring paragraphs.

• We continue to use a Structured Literacy approach through a "Word Study" program to target specific learning needs in spelling and word knowledge.

• Handwriting is practised regularly, often linked to our word study program or Exciting Writing Books.

We foster a culture of self reflection, feedback and improvement. Teachers use different coloured pens to provide feedback and suggestions for improvement, and students are encouraged to share their writing in a sharing circle to receive constructive feedback from peers and teachers. We use various effective literacy practices to make writing engaging and meaningful.

There are targeted writing groups in classes for ākonga who may need extra support or want to build their confidence. Assessment of writing is done in a range of ways, including writing moderation and using curriculum learning statements to make Overall Teacher Judgements (OTJs), which help us determine achievement levels and next learning steps.

Last week we welcomed our new Caretaker, Carmen Williams who will be taking care of our grounds and a new Learning Assistant, Rob O'Neill who will be working in classrooms around the school. Nau mai haere mai, it is wonderful to welcome you all to our kura.

In a couple of weeks, we will be holding our Parent Teacher conversations.  These are an important part of our reporting to families about your child/ren’s progress.  Your child's teacher will also provide you with your child's written report at this time.  Interviews will be held in your child’s classroom between 3.30 - 5.00pm on Thursday 26th June and 8.15am - 3.00pm on Friday 27th June.

If English is your second language, please bring along a translator friend or family member if you think this would be helpful. 

Please click here to make your booking. Event code ygp94. If you are uncertain about how to book or do not have a computer at home, please contact the office, and we will help you. The bookings are on a first-come, first-served basis within the timetable. Each appointment will be for 15 minutes, and further times can be arranged if there is more that needs to be covered than the time allows.  

Please note that this is a conversation between parents and teachers only. School will be closed for students on Friday 27th June. 

Matariki signals the Māori New Year.  It is a time of renewal and celebration in Aotearoa, New Zealand that begins with the rising of the Matariki star cluster.

Across Aotearoa, people come together to remember their ancestors, share food, sing, tell stories and play music.  Matariki festivities highlight the tangata whenua view of the world.  They remind us of the cycle of life and natural ways of marking the passing of time.

A couple of weeks ago, we were lucky enough to have four police officers come in to show off their working police dogs. Vinnie was one of the police officers who talked to us about police dogs and the job of being a police dog handler. This was awesome, as some of the classes in the Senior School have been learning about how humans use animals.  He shared with us the process they take from a puppy to a working dog. All of the police dogs are German Shepherds. Vinnie told us that the dogs love their jobs and always want to go to work.

We learnt that the dogs can do a lot of different things. For example, they use their excellent sense of smell to find people.  If a thief or someone the police officers are looking for is hiding somewhere, such as a cupboard, garden shed, or anywhere else, the police dogs follow the scent and will sit outside and bark, allowing their handlers and other police officers to do their job.

After Vinnie and the other police officers answered loads of questions, we went outside to the backfield while the police dog handlers went to get their dogs. Then the handlers brought them out to the field and demonstrated what they do for their jobs with a few tricks and obedience.  They also demonstrated with Obi (one of the dogs) how fast they can run when he chased after one of the police officers who was dressed up as an offender who wasn’t stopping after being asked by the police officer. Obi chased after him and latched onto his arm (he had a protective bite sleeve on). The dog handlers also showed us their tracking by finding Mr Mason’s Keys that were hidden in the grass. 

All of this showed us that police dogs are really helpful and work as a team with their handlers.

Written by Pippa and Sara

Due to weather, unfortunately we were not able to participate in the South East Hamilton Winter Sports tournament over the last two weeks however we've instead been running an in school competition over the lunchtimes this week. Throughout the week we've had the teams who would have been in the tournament participating in Football, Rippa Rugby, Netball, Basketball and Hockey. They've been having heaps of fun, learning about healthy competition and giving their absolute best. It's been a wonderful opportunity for our tamariki to show off their sports skills that they practice in their out-of-school sports teams with the rest of the senior school. Well done to everyone who has been involved!

Last Thursday, Mr Williams and Miss Stretch took 47 senior students to Arbor Day at Minogue Park. Hillcrest joined 14 other schools and helped plant over 10,000 trees! Arbor Day is part of a city wide plan to make Hamilton a city within a park, helping native animals and providing lots of green spaces for the city to enjoy in the future. A massive thank you to the Hamilton City Council for organising the day and for providing free buses so that schools could attend. The council also had some ‘Kids in Nature’ stands where children could learn more about some important Enviro topics. It was amazing to see our students getting stuck in and learning how to plant trees correctly. Hopefully they are inspired to plant some native plants in their own backyards. 

Every three years, School Board elections are held across New Zealand for all State Schools.  Have you considered standing for a board role at Hillcrest Normal School.  

Being a board member is a meaningful way to be involved in your local community.  As a board member, you can make a valuable contribution to current students and develop our school for future generations.  

At Hillcrest Normal School, our board membership is a combination of 5 parent representatives, a staff representative and the principal.  More information is available on the School Board Elections website.  

We will send you further details on nominations when the confirmed information comes to hand.