Kia ora koutou BDS whānau, Week 8, Term 4, 2022
Today was a perfect day for our Junior tamariki to have their athletics day. It is so wonderful to see so much activity and fun on our field.
The building of our six new classrooms is well underway and on the last day of school, we are able to have the sod turning ceremony for the land where our new classrooms are being built. Your invitation and explanation of what this involves is below in this newsletter. If you are attending please RSVP to office@botanydowns.school.nz for catering purposes.
This week is very busy with some staff moving classrooms to prepare for 2023 due to our new build and also Rooms 14 and 15 now being renovated. Year 6 students are preparing for camp and we are so fortunate to have been able to go ahead. It is a busy, happy time at our kura.
We are all looking forward to seeing you at prizegivings this week if you are able to attend, and a reminder that reports will be going home on Friday.
Have a good week everyone.
Ngā mihi nui,
Vicki Parkins, Principal (vickip@botanydowns.school.nz)
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Coming up @ BDS…
Wed 7 Dec – Middle prizegiving, 9.15-10.15am
Thurs 8 Dec – Junior prizegiving, 9.30-10.30am
Fri 9 Dec – Senior prizegiving & Yr 6 Graduation, 9-11.30am
Mon 12 Dec – Yr 6 camp departs (return Wed 14)
Tues 13 Dec – Yr 3-4 Big Day In
Wed 14 Dec – Yr 1-2 Big Day In
Thurs 15 Dec – Yr 5 Big Day In
Fri 16 Dec – Last day of 2022 – finishing at 12.00pm
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2022 BDS Magazine
You still have time to order your copy
– deadline extended to Wed 14 December
Only $20 – Payment options include:
Kindo
BDS bank account number: 12-3089-0059300-00
School office by Eftpos
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Back to School Stationery 2023
We’ve teamed up with OfficeMax to make getting school ready faster! Your child’s class list is available now on the OfficeMax MySchool website – myschool.co.nz.
We encourage you to order early to ensure your child has all their stationery requirements ready to go for the start of Term 1. Don’t wait until mid-January when the ‘team of 5 million’ get home from holiday – order now and avoid the back-to-school rush.
This year OfficeMax has introduced Laybuy*, so you can pay in 6 weekly, interest-free instalments – and still get your order right away. Or you can pay by internet banking, credit card, or debit card.
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Please Let Us Know…
Please email the office (office@botanydowns.school.nz) to let us know if:
- you have a child turning 5 over the holidays, or in Term 1
- your child in Yr 0-5 will be leaving BDS over the holidays
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Fun Run Fundraiser
Thank you once again for your support for our Fun Run. We are very excited to have raised over $25,000 – enough to complete our turfing project. We are so grateful for all of the donations and were pleased to be able to reward students who were randomly selected to win major prizes as well as our top fundraisers at last week’s assembly.
Congratulations to our bronze award winner – Lexie Aucamp, our silver award winner – Lieol Strickland, and our gold award winner – Tai Smith. All of these individuals raised over $500 each – an amazing effort! Our top class award goes to Room 8 who raised a combined total of over $2000. They will be enjoying a well-earned pizza lunch with Mrs Parkins this week.
We couldn’t have organised the Fun Run and given away so many prizes without the support of the following local businesses: New World Howick, Bull Electrical, Matassa Property Services, LA Plumbing, Crest Clean, Paradice Ice Skating Botany, sKids Botany Downs, Office Max, and Bridgestone Tyre Centre Botany Hub. Thanks for your support!
Kate Keenan, Fun Run Coordinator (katek@botanydowns.school.nz)
 Some of the students who won prizes as part of our Fun Run Fundraiser
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Year 6 Students
Congratulations on completing your final year at Botany Downs School. You may choose to wear no uniform for the last day of school! We wish you all the best for 2023.
Yr 6 – no uniform on Friday 16th December 2022 (optional)
If you would like to donate your school uniform to the PTA to sell to other families in our community please drop them into the box in the school office foyer – thank you for your kindness!
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BDS Learning and Fun
Year 2, Room 2 – We have been growing these fabulous beans!
Year 5, Room 16 – Me tiro whakamuri, kia anga whakamua. If you want to shape Aotearoa New Zealand’s future, start with our past.
Room 16 learnt how our histories have shaped our present day lives. We travelled through time and researched key events from the past including The Great Migration, Kupe, James Cook & Tupaia, The history of Te Reo, Land Wars, and more.
We constructed a timeline and then each student chose a specific time/event/significant person from the past. We studied, researched and used resources from our local Marae to help create posters and presentations.
You can see our posters displayed on our classroom windows. Bring a device and scan our posters for more information on each event.
Mā te kimi ka kite, Mā te kite ka mōhio, Mā te mōhio ka mārama. Seek and discover. Discover and know. Know and become enlightened.
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Children Turning Five
If your child is turning five in the next six (6) months please ensure you enrol them as soon as possible. Our roll is steadily growing and we need to plan for classes and teachers during the year. Please collect your enrolment pack from the office, or email office@botanydowns.school.nz
Joanne Hughson DP/SENCo – Year 0-3 (joanneh@botanydowns.school.nz)
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Reminder: all BDS library books need
to be returned this week
Search in classrooms, in school bags, under beds, in the car, behind the couch – all those places books like to hide in!
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There’s Still Time to Sign Up
For Summer Reading…
Why read over summer? Research shows that reading ability can decline during the summer break. In order to help prevent this we are encouraging students to borrow school library books over the summer holidays. This opportunity is open to students currently in Years 0/1-5.
Parents/caregivers: if you would like your child to take advantage of this opportunity, please complete and submit the following form: Summer Reading Permission form
Summer Reading:
- for Yr 0/1-5 students who are returning to BDS in 2023 and have no current overdue library books
- students will be able to borrow up to 10 books in Weeks 8&9 to read over the summer holidays (borrowing of library books will close in Week 7 unless a form has been received)
- books borrowed must be returned in Week 1 of 2023
- by submitting a form, parents/caregivers agree to take responsibility for all books borrowed
- a list of books that your child has borrowed will be given to help you keep track of the books
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