Address: 282 Victoria Avenue, Remuera, Auckland | Telephone: (09) 520 0602
E-mail: [email protected] | web: www.victoriaave.com

Newsletter: Term 1 Week 7 – 16 March 2017

Dear Parents

I was at a principals’ meeting this week and one of the principals made a comment about parents not understanding education jargon. This applies to every profession and all service industries.

We all have jargon and acronyms relevant to our work. If I were reading an engineer’s report, I wouldn’t expect to be written in basic English so lay people could understand it. Doctor’s reports, police reports are full of legal jargon and even our photographer parent uses jargon that relates to his profession.

So today I thought I would help you out with a glossary of terms and acronyms that you might have come across when reading your child’s school report, or perhaps when you have read an article about education. Hope this helps you decipher our jargon!

ALLiS	Asian Language Learning in Schools	3 year contestable funding initiative to raise the profile of Asian language teaching and learning in schools
APPA	Auckland Primary Principals Assoc
asTTle	Assessment tools for teaching and learning	Assessment tool, developed to assess student achievement and progress in reading, mathematics, writing
CoS or CoL	Community of Schools or Community of Learning	Group of schools working together to achieve a shared objective with the view to improving achievement from ECE to secondary. Part of the government IES policy.
CRT	Classroom Release Time	All teachers are entitled to 45 minutes per week release. This is covered by an additional staffing component.
ECE	Early Childhood Education	Preschools and kindergartens
ELL ESOL	English Language Learners, English spoken as another language	Non English speaking students are referred to as ELL or ESOL and schools get funding per ELL / ESOL student.
ERO	Education Review Office	Evaluate schools based on a 3 – 5 year cycle
GloSS	Global Strategy Stage	assessment to identify the strategy stage students are operating at in maths
IES	Investing in Educational Success	Government initiative to raise achievement
IKAN	Individual Knowledge Assessment of Number	Assessment to identify knowledge stage students are operating in in maths
JAM	Junior Assessment in Maths	Maths assessment tool
MLE or ILE	Modern Learning Environment or Innovative Learning Environment	Used to describe current thinking about teaching spaces and furniture
MOE	Ministry of Education
NumPA	Numeracy Project Assessment	Maths diagnostic interview. Assesses a student’s knowledge in all five knowledge domains and strategy in all three strategy domains.
NZEI	New Zealand Educational Institute	Primary teachers’ union
NZPF	New Zealand Principals Federation
OTJ	Overall Teacher Judgements	Term used to describe teachers’ informal assessment of where students sit against National Standards
RPPA	Remuera Primary Principals Assoc
RTLB	Resource Teacher of Learning and Behaviour	Schools apply for RTLB support for any student who has learning or behavior needs which cannot be fully supported by the school.
SENCO	Special Needs co ordinator	Every school has a SENCO who has responsibility for special needs students / programmes in a school
STAR	Supplementary Tests of Achievement in Reading	Reading test done in Year 3

There, now you are all experts!

Kind regards

Janice Adamson

Swimming Sports

What a great day for our swimming sports on Tuesday. There was so much effort put in by the swimmers, the parent helpers and the staff who organised and ran the event so well. Everyone including swimmers, classmates and parents entered into the spirit of the competition and gave their all!

Eat My Lunch

Thank you to all the families at the school who got behind our community initiative in conjunction with Eat My Lunch. We are pleased to say that because we ordered 238 children’s lunches on Friday (and received donations for a further 20 lunches), 258 other children in Auckland did not go hungry. – great effort and a huge thank you to Katherine Fippard and Shelley Cunningham (PTS) for organising.

Click Here to view our BLOG PAGE.

DRAMA/SPEECH LESSONS: Click here for information
MUSIC LESSONS: Click here for information on Musiqhub music lessons

AFTER SCHOOL ACTIVITIES:
FOR TERM 1 2017
Click here for details on these activities.
Also:
Click here for After School and Holiday Community Based Programmes and Activities for 2017

What’s Ahead?
PLEASE CLICK HERE TO VIEW OUR ONLINE CALENDAR

IMPORTANT DATES AND TIMES

School Times
School starts:      8.50am
Interval: 10.30-10.50am
Lunch:               12.30-1.25pm
School finishes:   3.00pm

Term Dates for 2017
Term 1: Wednesday 1 February to Thursday 13 April 2017
~ Waitangi Day Monday 6 February ’17
~ Good Friday 14 April
Term 2: Monday 1 May to Friday 7 July 2017
~ Queen’s Birthday Monday 5 June ’17
Term 3: Monday 24 July to Friday 29 Sept 2017
Term 4: Monday 16 October to Friday 15 December 2017
~ Labour Day Mon 23 October ’17

Stationery Sales
Tuesdays and Thursdays: 8.30-8.45am

Uniform Shop
– half way up dragon drive in the old dental clinic
OPEN FRIDAYS only: 8.15-8.45am
Orders and payments for uniform can be made online on our website ~ Click here Save

Lunch Orders
1. ‘Daily Lunch and Catering’ ordered through ezLUNCH: Mondays, Tuesdays and Thursdays – ONLINE ORDERS ONLY
Join ezlunch today and Place an order Sushi is available through Daily Lunch and Catering
2. Pita Pit: ordered through ezLUNCH: Thursdays – ONLINE ORDERS ONLY
Join ezlunch today and Place an order
3. Subway: Wed and Fri – ONLINE ORDERS ONLY
Register to order online at www.subwayrialto.co.nz

School Dental Service
8b Ngaio St Orakei Ph5200603.
The dental team will be posting letters to all new entrants to our school as required.

Remember to ‘like’ Victoria Avenue School on Facebook.

NIT NIGHT TONIGHT!!
PLEASE, PLEASE CHECK FOR NITS – a number of classes have reported nits and if your infected child is not treated then many others will be!
Here is a link from NZ Health for info and treatment.
http://www.health.govt.nz/your-health/conditions-and-treatments/diseases-and-illnesses/head-lice