Newsletter, Week 5, Term 1 2023 – Botany Downs Primary School

Kia ora koutou BDS whānau, Week 5, Term 1, 2023

Congratulations to our tamariki who are our House Leaders for 2023. This is a marvellous achievement and you and your whānau should be very proud. We would also like to acknowledge all students who are showing leadership in our school. Further updates of leadership will be presented in our upcoming newsletters.

Thank you to our Chinese Community who attended our information-sharing opportunity in Mandarin. It was a valuable opportunity to connect with myself and other members of our community who speak Mandarin. Thank you Miss Liu for your translation skills and Mrs Keenan for organising this event.

In this newsletter we have included our Botany Downs School Strategic Plan and Annual Plan which has been underpinned by our vision, capabilities, values, and the NELPS (National Educational Learning Priorities) that we have been working on. We welcome feedback and comments. Please email vickip@botanydowns.school.nz

Ngā mihi nui,
Vicki Parkins, Principal – Tumuaki (vickip@botanydowns.school.nz)

Coming up @ BDS…
Thurs 2 Mar – BDS Swimming Sports, 9.00-11.30am
Mon 6 Mar – PTA meeting
Mon 13 Mar – Yr 5 camp departs (returns Tues 14 Mar)
Wed 15 Mar – BOT meeting
Thurs 16 Mar – Yr 6 parent camp meeting, 6.00pm
Wed 22 Mar – Jester’s Pie Day (online orders close Tues 21, 11am)
Wed 22 Mar Parent/teacher interviews, 3.20-5.10pm
Thurs 23 Mar – Parent/teacher interviews, 3.20-7.40pm
Fri 24 Mar – BDS Powhiri, 9.15am

Upcoming Year 0/1 Curriculum
Information Sessions

These sessions are to provide whānau with information about our teaching and learning programmes in our Year 0/1 classes and will assist parents with ways they can support their tamariki with their learning at home too.

This is also a time to mix and mingle with other Year 0/1 parents over a cup of tea/coffee and will be held alongside our existing Bright Sparks sessions.

Wednesday 1 March from 9-10:15 am –
we will be holding a Literacy information session
for whānau of our Year 0/1 tamariki.

Please reply to joanneh@botanydowns.school.nz if you are attending this session.

Joanne Hughson, Deputy Principal

SCHOOL NEWS

Botany Best Awards

Botany Best: Wickus Botha, Noah Ellis, Hannah Jung, Jermyan Mose,Gemma Williams, Demi Tseng, Mannat Gahunia, Ruby Buckley, Nevaeh Tupai, Ethan Liu, Olivia Huang, Nicholas Luo, Yashika Yashika, Mieke Botha, Cooper Ellis, Damian Roberts, Logan Baker, Skylar Yip, Riley Thornton, Fedya Chibel, Owen Thornton, and Connor Henderson.

These awards will be presented at Friday’s school assembly.
Assembly start time is 9:10am; please be inside and seated by 9:05am.
This week’s assembly item will be from the Bucket Drummers.

BDS House Leaders

It is our pleasure to name our 2023 House Leaders:

Batten– Eric Guo, Evie Zhu, Muhammad Ahmad
Blake – Cooper Jiang, Sienna Tye, Luise Peng
Hillary – Dion Choi, Emily Su’a, Vera Zuo
Sheppard – Saket Andala, Darya Shahamiri, Arya Lawn

The Red Cross cyclone disaster appeal: The House Leaders’ first social action is to raise funds to support those severely impacted by the recent cyclone. We will be collecting donations every day this week! Please bring a gold coin to the hall before school to donate to the Red Cross NZ Disaster Fund.

Ngā mihi nui,
Mr Yoon, House Leader Support (sojungy@botanydowns.school.nz)

Lunchtime Clubs

A number of lunchtime sports and cultural activities have started this term. Children who have signed up should attend on the following days:

Senior Swimming Sports

As part of our selection process for the HPPA Swimming competition your child will be participating in our Senior School Swimming Sports event. Children have been chosen based on their current ability level for the different strokes as assessed by the swimming instructors and their teacher during swimming lessons.

The Senior Swimming Sports will take place this Thursday 2 March (Week 5) at the Botany Downs School pool, starting at approximately 9.30am.

Timetable: 9:30am start time and will continue in the following order:
(Please note that specific times for specific events will not be possible because it depends on student numbers, swimming speed, number of heats and semi-finals if necessary).

The event will run without stoppages until all swimmers are finished with their events. So all students competing need to bring something warm to wear when not swimming and their water bottle, morning tea, and lunch.

Thank you for your support and if you would like to help on the day please let Mr D’Ambrosio know by emailing joed@botanydowns.school.nz.

Joe D’Ambrosio, BDS Swimming Sports Co-ordinator (joed@botanydowns.school.nz)

Crossing the Road Safely at BDS

On Monday the Year 1 classes learnt about the importance of crossing the road safely by using the school road patrol.

We also talked about walking on the footpath, crossing only on the zebra crossing (white striped lines) and not stopping or parking on yellow lines. This ensures our road patrol can see clearly and keep everyone safe. Thank you for your cooperation.

Kylee Holmes, Teacher in charge of Road Patrol and Travelwise (kyleeh@botanydowns.school.nz)

Learner Agency at BDS

Our learners are at the centre of everything we do, therefore ākonga voice is vital! Here are some examples of how we encourage and support Learner Voice:

Learning and Fun @ BDS

Year 6 2022 – It made us very proud to see the model pā made by last year’s Year 6 classes on display at our local libraries. Here is Room 19’s model at Howick Library:

Year 1, Room 8: Room 8 has had a wonderful start to Term 1…

We enjoyed our first swimming lesson:

We created our Picasso self-portraits:

We also shared what we are “super” at:

I am super at playing with my friends. Gemma

I am super at swimming. Billie

I am super at riding my bike with two wheels. Rosie

Year 2, Room 3 – Some Swimming Stories By Room 3

I like swimming because Taylor teaches us new things with the boards. Mila

In swimming, I like to jump off the board. Naoki

I like swimming because Wayne is so funny. Also, in the changing room,
if we are the first ones to get out, we will get a sticker. Vito

I like swimming because the pool is warm and Wayne is funny.
I also like it because it is fun to jump off the big blue board. Chloe

Year 5, Room 26 – Pointillism: an art technique used by George Seurat where he used dots to create his amazing artwork. We used this technique to create our artwork in Room 26.

LIBRARY NEWS

Scholastic Book Club…

Brochures will be coming home this week for the Scholastic Book Club. It is a great opportunity for you to help build your child’s love of reading, with books for all ages and interests!