Newsletter 6 May 2026, week 3

Term 2, Week 3 – 6 May 2026

Changes to the way we report to parents

Kia ora Whaanau,

We’d like to like to take the opportunity to update you on some changes that have been made in school reports.

From the start of 2026, the Ministry of Education introduced a new national framework for primary and intermediate school reports.

While schools must still provide written reports at least twice a year, these will now include mandatory common components for students in Years 0 – 6:

Standardised Progress Descriptors: Achievement in Reading, Writing, and Maths will be measured using five specific descriptors: Emerging, Developing, Consolidating, Proficient, and Exceeding. (Further explanation below)

Detailed Narrative: Teachers will provide context on why a specific progress descriptor was chosen, alongside guidance on how you can support your child’s next learning steps at home.

Official Assessment Results: Reports will include results from specified tools such as PATs, or   e-asTTle and Phonics Checks.

Attendance Record: A summary of your child’s attendance, reflecting the government’s increased focus on regular school presence.

Some of these changes are new and some are already included in Waterlea School reports. To ensure our kaiako have a consistent approach to applying the new progress descriptors to the new Maths and English curriculum, we have changed the timeframe for when mid-year reports and Teacher Led Conferences will take place, a few weeks later than usual. We have included these dates below and you will also find them on the Waterlea School Calendar 

Enjoy the rest of this week.

Ngaa mihi,

Andrea Jamieson and the Waterlea Team

Staff News – Welcome to our SWiS (Social Worker in Schools)

Kia ora Waterlea Whaanau

My name is Nino Pangatungan (Registered Social Worker), and I serve as the new Social Worker for Waterlea Primary School through ME Family Services. My role involves providing professional social work support to students and their whaanau, promoting wellbeing, safety, and positive engagement in learning.

I work collaboratively with families, school staff, and community agencies to ensure that appropriate support and resources are accessible when needed. All referrals for social work support can be made directly through ME Family Services.

If you would like to make a referral or discuss support for a student or family, please feel free to reach out.

I look forward to working with Waterlea Whaanau in the future.

Professional Contact: nino@mefsc.org.nz

Referral Email: referrals@mefsc.org.nz

Mobile: 022 694 1051

Office: 09 256 0810

Attendance

Our attendance rate as a school for the third week at school for Term 2 is at 96%. This  continues the trend of high attendance since the beginning of the term. As always, please remember to let the office know if your child is going to be away and the reason for the absence. This information will allow us to enter the correct attendance code for your child. You can phone the office on 096364233 or email reception@waterlea.school.nz.

If your child is going away during the school term please email principal@waterlea.school.nz with the details for the absence and the dates your child will be away.

Keep up this great start to Term 2 ensuring your children are coming to school each day!

This week is sign language week

Here is a fun little video for you to review the signs you learned yesterday! Nice To Meet You!  Greetings Song in NZSL | New Zealand Sign Language for Kids

The theme for today is ‘family’ and ‘colours’. We have attached some resources that have some basic family vocabulary for you to try and to share with those you work with.

Just a reminder that if you are not sure about the hand movements then the New Zealand Sign Language Dictionary is an excellent place to check: https://www.nzsl.nz/. They have videos for all signs so you can check the correct way to sign. There is also an accompanying app you can download on your phone called NZSL Dictionary.

Have fun this week learning sign language.

No more pods, competition closed

Watch this space next week for final total collected….

Important Dates

06 May – Today 3.15pm – 4pm – Learning in the Senior School Parent workshop

                    in Room 6

07 May – Ihumatao Rm’s 25 & 13 – More information coming from teachers

8 May – MANA Assembly – 9:45am – 10:30am

               PTA & parent meeting before assembly

12 May – Rms 14 & 15 Ihumatao – More information coming from teachers

13 May – Year 4 – 6 Weekly swimming begins

14 May – Royal Oak Visiting Waterlea – 2027 Intake – 2:00pm – 2:30pm

15 May – Ihumatao Rm’s 24 & 12 – More information coming from teachers

                 PTA & Parent meeting 2.45 – 3.45pm 

20 May – Year 4 – 6 Swimming

22 May – MANA Assembly – 9:45am – 10:30am

22 May – Ihumatao Rm’s 10 & 11 – More information coming from teachers

27 May – PTA & Parent meeting 7.30 – 8.30pm

01 June  – Kings Birthday – School Closed

01 June – Samoan Language Week

03 July – Last day of Term 2

Term 3

20 July – First day of Term 3

21 July – Mid-year reports go home

23 July – 2 – 7.30pm Teacher Led Conferences, children go home at 1pm

News from the PTA

We need your help!!

Our PTA is losing four members. We love what we do, however we can’t support an entire school community without more help.

The PTA plays a big role behind the scenes. For instance, we:

• Recently paid for the entire year 5 and 6 classes to attend Outdoor Education after their funding was cut.
• Contribute to classroom resources so teachers aren’t reaching into their own pockets for basic supplies.
• Manage the second-hand uniforms to keep things affordable for families.
• Paid for the teacher’s recent numicon professional development and equipment.
• Organise fun, whole school activities too like sausage sizzles, casual clothes days and an annual disco. 

But we’re stretched thin. Events that bring our community together, like quiz nights and the Brick Show, may not happen in the future because we don’t have enough hands to help.

We know everyone is busy. We are too. Many of us take annual leave from work just to run events and support the school. That’s why we need to share the load. Even a small contribution of your time can make a real difference.

You don’t need special skills or lots of free time – just a willingness to pitch in when you can. Whether you’d like to join the PTA committee or help out occasionally as a parent volunteer, we would love to meet you.

This is your school community too. With more people involved, we can keep doing the things that make our school special and do them even better.

We’d really love to see you at one of our upcoming events in May.

Regards,

The Waterlea PTA

Senior School Learning

The topic for the Senior School BSLA reading for the start of Term 2 has been The Solar System, so we took advantage of the sunshine and had a go at mapping out a scale model of our Solar System on the field. We decided on the scale and Room 7 made planets that had the correct diameter for the scale we chose. The distance between each planet had to be paced out accurately.

Our Solar System is huge! This was a really fun way to get some idea about it’s vastness.

Free Nit Shampoo and comb

We have free Nit Buster held in our school office. If this is something that you would like, please let the office know.

Important Weekly Notices

LUCKY BOOK CLUB   LUCKY BOOK CLUB   LUCKY BOOK CLUB

LAST DAY TO ORDER IS THIS FRIDAY 8 MAY

Kapai to all the wonderful families who have supported our library by purchasing books!

You can download your sticker collection sheet here if you would like your own one, or pick one up at the office