Newsletter, Week 9, Term 1 2023

Kia ora koutou BDS whānau,                                                                  Week 9, Term 1, 2023

Our Learning Conversations held last week were very successful, and we had very positive feedback. It was fabulous to see our learners participating in these conversations.

Our Pōwhiri to welcome all our new whānau to our kura was very special and we had amazing support from our community who attended. Thank you to Mrs Takaiti, Mr Insley, and our outstanding Kapa Haka group. (More information below).

Another very busy week with our Year 3 students having a great day at the Cricket Festival, thank you Mrs Keenan and parents for making this possible, our Maori and Pasifika Whānau Hui on Wednesday, Community Constables Matt Green and Darren Bullent are visiting our kura to take lessons on “I am Unique” and “Confident Me”, our third Bright Spark Session for our new Year 0 parents on Wednesday, and don’t forget our No Uniform day on Wednesday from the PTA. Finally,  thank you Mrs Holmes and our Travelwise students for organising our Big Walk from Booralee Park today.

We are very pleased that the painting of our school is starting in the next school holidays, and then will be continued over the year, with the final painting completed at Christmas.  Our colour is Resene Triple Sea Fog which will really showcase our students’ art as this continues to grow.  Our doors and seats will be a lovely “pop of colour” with  Resene Boost.

The third stage of our canopy turf has been completed and it looks amazing.  This has been made possible by your support with our fundraising from our Fun Run and the PTA.  Your support really does make a difference.

Mr Huskinson is asking for parent help for our Table to Garden Programme that we are establishing (all details below).

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

Coming up @ BDS…

Wed 29 Mar – No Uniform Day
Wed 29 Mar – Whānau Hui, 4.00pm in Room 27
Mon 3 Apr – Yr 6 camp departs (return Wed 5 Apr)
Mon 3 Apr – PTA meeting
Thurs 6 Apr – ANZAC special assembly
*whānau welcome to attend*
Thurs 6 Apr – Last day of Term 1
Fri 7 Apr – Good Friday (public holiday)
Mon 10 Apr – Easter Monday (public holiday)
Mon 24 Apr – Teacher Only Day
Tues 25 Apr – ANZAC Day (public holiday)
Wed 26 Apr – First day of Term 2
Week 2 – Book Week
Fri 5 May – Book Character Dress-up Day & Parade 

Safety of our Students

We are having an increasingly large number of students arriving at school before 8.30 am. The safety and wellbeing of your tamariki are very important to us. They are not supervised and will also be very cold waiting for classrooms to open and to run around. If you are slightly before 8.30am we ask all tamariki and whānau to wait on our hall deck. 

If you need to come to school after 9.00am please use our front gates and report straight to the office as all our other gates will be shut for the safety of our tamariki. Please always close the gates when you leave the school.

SCHOOL NEWS

End of Term Certificates and Values Award

End-of-Term Certificates: Kayla Martins-Fouche, Charlotte Pitcaithly, Nella Ranchhod, Nicholas Botha, Jack Berkett, Joanna Qiao, Alfred Wang, Hunter Collins-Preiss, Chloe Cooke, Abdullah Muhammad, Roxas Eason, Dana Kim, Stella McHardy, Amelia Dellow, Muhammad Ahmad, Brisha Mehta, Mika Nel, Tiana Parsons, Gloria Wang, Shana Chen, Adam Shawani, Dehan Meyer and Abigail Harrison.

BDS Values: Relationships / Whanaungatanga

At BDS we are…

• Friendly, welcoming, and kind
• Caring and supportive
• Active listeners 
• Helpful
• Communicating positively

Values Award – Relationships: Shawn Kim, Zahara Williams, Curtis Li, Vion Lee, Datis Bassam, Ryan Hu, Darcey McCrindle, Poko Marsters, William Pirie, Emma Kamakorewa, Mene’ Nel, Matakeu Marsters, Sienna Tye, Duncan Luo, Olivia Sun, Raewyn Bua, Theia Saunders, Shane Hwang, Jaspreet Kaur, Zoey Van Wyk, Bruno Hussey, Young Xu and Ruby Turner.

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 Orchestra.

Whānau Hui – 29 March

Nau mai, Haere mai!

This is an invitation for our Māori community to share your views on how we can best meet the needs of our Māori tamariki; assist in Māori related activities; contribute to and promote student awareness and pride of their cultural identity of themselves or their peers and their surroundings. 

Botany Downs Primary will be holding a Whānau Hui on Wednesday 29th of March at 4.00pm in Room 27.

Please RSVP to: marki@botanydowns.school.nz

Year 0/1 Curriculum Information Sessions

These sessions are to provide whānau with information around 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 current Bright Sparks sessions. All parents of our current Year 0/1 students are warmly invited!

Wednesday 29 March from 9:15-10:15 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.

No Uniform Day – Wednesday 29th March 

Remember to bring a gold coin donation – you can pay by Kindo, or with cash on the hall deck before school or give it to your classroom teacher.

Book Week 2023 is Coming!

Find your taonga – books are the treasure!

We are excited to share some more information about what we have planned for Book Week next term:

• Scholastic Book Fair – will be open each morning from 8.30 – 9.00am, and Mon-Thurs afternoon from 2.30-3.30pm. Come along for some bargains on great books and other popular items!
• Special Guests – will be coming on Tuesday to meet our Year 4-6 students, and on Thursday to meet our Year 1-3 students.
• Competitions – Colouring-in, Book Fair prize draw, Guess the Teacher’s Favourite Book, and X Marks the Spot.
• Book Character Dress-up Day – and parade! Whānau are welcome to come along to watch the parade on Friday 5 May.

It’s time to get thinking about potential book character dress-ups! Check out these sites for inspiration:
30 Last Minute Costumes
109 Easy Last Minute Costume Ideas
32 Best Book Character Costumes
75 Simple Book Costume Ideas

Remember, you don’t have to spend a lot of money on a costume to look great – get creative!

Pōwhiri

On the 24th of March, we had a Whole School Pōwhiri to officially welcome our new staff, new tamariki and their whānau into our Botany Downs School community. It was wonderful to see so many of our whānau attend the special occasion.

The morning began with a powerful Karanga (a call of welcome) led by Emily and Pamela, this was followed by a chant performed by our Kapa Haka. Our tamariki were equally impressive with the respect shown throughout the ceremony.

As our whānau entered the hall, they were embraced with great mana and passion. Deputy Principal Mr Insley welcomed our visitors with his Pepeha (introductions) followed by a waiata sung by our Kura. On behalf of our Manuhiri (visitors), Qais delivered his whaikorero (speech) and received a beautiful Koha (gift) created by Room 8. 

After the formalities and lifting the tapu, Mrs Parkins ended our Pōwhiri by welcoming our whānau to join us for morning tea and our new tamariki enjoyed biscuits. 

We wish all the best for our new staff, new tamariki and their whānau this year.

Mrs Takaiti, Kapa Haka Lead teacher (michellet@botanydowns.school.nz)

HPPA Cricket

Congratulations to the school cricket team who participated in another three games against Owairoa, Our Lady Star of the Sea and Cockle Bay last Tuesday.  We displayed whanaungatanga (relationships) and manaakitanga (respect) and manawanui (resilience) during the day.

Mrs Holmes, Cricket Coordinator (kyleeh@botanydowns.school.nz)

BDS Enviro Club

Construction in the school from 2022 spelled the destruction of the gardens/orchard that the school had been nurturing for more than five years. To replace what has gone, the Enviro club with the help of Principal, Vicki Parkins, found space in the school grounds and turned these into gardens to grow food and flowers.

The Enviro Club students along with teacher, Tom Huskinson, caretaker Paul Laloli, and gardener, Colin Maisey, have transformed parts of the school environment from concrete to lush vegetable gardens.

The before and after photos of the school gardens tell the story. The small gardens around the school constantly produce food that is picked, plucked, pickled, and prepared.

Before, during and after planting the gardens next to Rooms 15 and 16.

Before, during and after planting the gardens next to the flagpole and basketball courts.

From next term, Botany Downs school will begin the Garden to Table programme on a small scale. Garden to Table empowers tamariki/students to grow, harvest, prepare, and share great food.

We are reaching out to our community to find parents, grandparents and or caregivers who are keen cooks or gardeners interested to help our students learn how to plant, grow, harvest, prepare, cook (as well as eat!!) produce from the garden. 

We are looking for volunteers who can help each week on Friday afternoon from 12:00-3:00pm starting from next term. If you like cooking and/or gardening, your experience and passion would be greatly appreciated by the teachers and the students. 

Anyone interested in helping please contact Mr. Tom Huskinson via email at tomh@botanydowns.school.nz.

Thank you,
Tom Huskinson, Enviro Club Coordinator

Wheels Reminder…

Besides walking, active transport to and from school includes bicycles and scooters. Students must wear suitable footwear, a Standards-approved helmet, and any necessary safety gear.

• Students using scooters must be considerate, give way to other pedestrians and be aware of sneaky driveways.
• Students may not use wheels in the school grounds during school hours, unless it is an organised school event.
• Students must place their cycles in the cycle stands.
• Cyclists are expected to observe the road rules – hand signals, looking behind, mounting/dismounting, keeping well left, etc. Cyclists may not “double” other students to school.
• Each cyclist must wear a Standards-approved cycle safety helmet and have a roadworthy bicycle.

The police recommend that no child under the age of 10 should cycle to school unless accompanied by an adult.

Learning and Fun @ BDS

Year 1, Room 7 – In Room 7, we started our school year with learning about ourselves. What we like to play, eat, how we are feeling, and how to keep ourselves safe. Therefore, in Art, we learnt how to draw ourselves, and used cut-out coloured paper to fill in the background.

Year 5, Room 11 – Room 11 were lucky enough to make marble runs with Mrs Richards.  They enjoyed designing their backgrounds, measuring, and working out the best angles for their ramps.

We shared them with our whānau during the recent learning conversations and then took them home.

Year 6, Room 17 – We have been working on self-portraits in Room 17. The students had a photo of themselves that they traced around and then they used Ben-Day dots to fill in themselves. The koru pattern represents their school house. They were able to use student agency to design the frame for their portraits and showed great imagination.

Face-to-Face Community Workshops for the
Changes to Planning and Reporting 

The Ministry of Education are holding face-to-face ākonga, parent, whānau and community workshops, where they will be talking about planning and reporting. The programme, Te Whakangārahu Ngātahi | Planning Together, is focused on preparing for the upcoming changes to planning and reporting legislation and requirements. 

They would like to share these preparations with you, to not only ensure you are in the know, but also to gather your feedback on the proposed supports – e.g. the tools, resources and support channels to be developed. They need your voice and help co-creating these supports, to ensure they are fit for purpose and add value where it is needed. 

These workshops will be held at the following places from 6.00 – 8:30pm:

• Tuesday 28 March:  Bluelight, Papakura.  159 Dominion Road, Papakura
• Wednesday 29 March: Henderson Intermediate School: 70 Lincoln Road, Henderson 

If you’d like to take part in either of these workshops, you can email planning.together@education.govt.nz to register your interest.  Food and drink will be provided, and they look forward to seeing you there. 

Further information on planning and reporting and the consultation process can be found here: Te Whakangārahu Ngātahi: Planning Together for Ākonga Success – Our School, Our Community – Conversation space (education.govt.nz).

LIBRARY NEWS

COMMUNITY NOTICES

Art Competition for Kids…

For school-going children and families – create a work of art that best shows what makes East Auckland the best place to live. 

There are three entry categories, and each winning entry will receive a prize pack of family fun vouchers! Follow the link below to find the entry form and more information… East Auckland Tourism Art Competition

Entries all in by 6th April.  Have Fun!

SPCA Photography Competition for Kids…

Pay the kindo way: https://botanydowns.school.nz/kindo/