Newsletter – Week 2, Term 3 2023 – Botany Downs Primary School

Kia ora koutou BDS whānau, Week 2, Term 3, 2023

Our Year 6 tamariki had a busy week last week with a trip to the museum and a visit from Howick Intermediate Principal, Deputy Principals, and Student Leaders. Both were very successful events.

Below we have included our School Capabilities. We are continuing to develop these in our teaching and learning.

Our tamariki are busy with physical education lessons, fitness and sporting activities. Please send PE gear to school so the students may get changed to participate in these activities.

Last week the drain outside Rooms 20 and 21 was not able to take the amount of rain that fell and it flooded the entrance to the steps of these classrooms. We moved all of Year 4 tamariki to Rooms 16-19 for the first block until the water drained away. Luckily the Year 6 students were at the museum so we could use their rooms. I am now working closely with the Ministry of Education to get this problem resolved.

We are still not able to open our senior playground and addition to the junior playground as we need several fine days in a row so the sand can be placed in the turf underneath the playground. We are hopeful that this will happen next week. Both areas look amazing.

We would like to send a reminder to look out for the emailed newsletter from your class teacher which outlines the topics to be taught this term and other helpful information.

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

Coming up @ BDS…

Wed 26 July – Somerville Int coming to visit Yr 6
Wed 2 Aug – PTA Jester’s Pie Day
Tues 8 Aug – HPPA Cross-country
Wed 9 Aug – No Uniform Day – Fancy Dress theme
Mon 14 Aug – ICAS English
Tues 15 Aug – Senior Speech Final
Tues 22 Aug – ICAS Science
Wed 23 Aug – Junior (Yr 0-3) Cross-country / BOT meeting
Thurs 24 Aug – HPPA Speech Final
Fri 25 Aug – HPPA Lit Quiz

Policies and Procedures –
SchoolDocs 2023 Term 3 Review

SchoolDocs provides a comprehensive core set of policies and procedures that are tailored to the needs of Botany Downs School. SchoolDocs updates, modifies, and creates policies in response to changes in legislation or Ministry guidelines, significant events, reviews/requests from schools, and regular reviews.

Our SchoolDocs policies and procedures can be found via our school website on the link below:

Policies and Procedures – School Documents

For Term 3 the following policies relate to Learning Support and are up for review:

Learning Support Coordination
Identify Learning Support
Gifted Learners

If you would like to participate in reviewing the policies, please click on the link above and follow the instructions.

If you have any questions or queries please contact Mark Insley, Deputy Principal (marki@botanydowns.school.nz)

SCHOOL NEWS

School Assembly Friday 9.10am

We invite you to attend our school assembly on Friday at 9.10 am. We will be presenting our Botany Best Certificates and Values Bookmarks. This week our item will be presented by Room 11.

Congratulations to our following tamariki who have shown their Botany Best: Neil Olarte, Aaria Jones, Rosanna Siew, Si Fan Zhu, Nathan Tokai, William Scott, Arzoyi Arora, Yasmine Alsharefi, Vincent Liu, Sonny Palalagi-Waru, Emma Kamakorewa, Logan Hunter, Blake Manson, Mandy Belding, Evie Zhu, Arvin Cheng, Iraison Su, Harley Tye, Skylah Hubbard, Riaan Karthick, Liam Forrest and Amber Belcher.

Congratulations to the following tamariki who have displayed our value of Responsibility-Kaitiakitanga: Jaskiran Kaur, Ethan Symons, Kyle Forrest, Grant Leslie, Mohsin Rana, Sebastian Fisher, Luca Takaiti, Alfred Wang, Zachary Bradbury, Felix Cao, Joy-Ellen Tokai, Zerahiah Turner, Joseph Nong, Keddy Wang, William Lu, Ismail Almayah, Carter Kenny, Skylar Yip, Liam Cho, Julian Kim, Cameron Burgess, Samarveer Parmar.

BDS Capabilities

This term our Botany Best certificates will be presented to reflect the skills and knowledge our tamariki are developing within these Capabilities.

A curious child uses their passions and interests to explore the world around them with a wondering mind. They ask questions to guide inquiry and develop next steps. They experiment, use tools in a variety of ways to sort thinking and develop understanding. Akonga gather and analyse data to find answers to their questions and share their learning effectively.

Akonga understand that te Tiriti O Waitangi celebrates the unique place of Māori culture in Aotearoa New Zealand. They know their whakapapa, are secure in their own cultural identity and respect the cultural identity of others. They celebrate diversity and can value perspectives that may differ to their own. Akonga are connected to their environment and the wider world and take action to make it a better place.

Akonga are active participants in designing their learning and can share this. They can seek and act on feedback and feedforward using a variety of assessment tools. Akonga reflect on their learning. They show an awareness of their audience and can effectively communicate using a variety of literacy skills.

Akonga have the confidence to drive their own learning. They can reflect on and celebrate their individual successes and the success of others. They believe in their own abilities as a learner and can apply learning to a range of situations. Akonga show determination, can manage themselves and have a growth mindset to be the best that they can be.

Year 0-2 Curriculum Information sessions

On Wednesday 2 August we are presenting a Junior Literacy session for our Year 0-2 whānau.

If you would like to find out more about our Structured Literacy programme, including reading, writing, and spelling, and how you can further support at home please come along! Mrs Shirley Johnston our Year 0-1 Team Leader will be presenting this session. There will also be time for discussion, and lots of questions of course!

On Wednesday 9 August we will be holding a Junior Maths session taken by Mrs Joanne Hughson.

Both sessions run alongside our current Bright Sparks sessions and are from 9:15 am – 10:15 am in the staffroom.

Please RSVP to Joanne at joanneh@botanydowns.school.nz if you are interested in attending either or both of these curriculum information sessions.

Year 6 Museum Trip

The Year 6 whānau had a blast exploring the Auckland Museum! We went to learn about the migration of early Polynesian settlers to Aotearoa New Zealand. In our free time we looked at all sorts of rocks, mummies, volcanoes, and even nose-flutes. Thank you to our parent helpers.

Travelwise Update

Car Drop Off and Picking Up: Please be mindful of our neighbours when dropping off your child. We are still having some parents parking across the driveway and on the yellow lines. Thank you to those who are parking further away and allowing their child to walk to avoid congestion and also following the road rules.

Bus: Auckland Transport provides a bus service for Botany Downs students and students from neighbouring schools in the afternoon. The Bus stop Id is 2042. The timing point for this bus to depart the stop at Botany Downs is at 3.20 pm. Students use the Kadina Walkway, go through the park and up to the block of shops.

Please note that there will be no staff monitoring this bus stop.

The bus route has been emailed previously in a separate bus email, but can also be found on the AT website.

Howick Intermediate Visit to BDS

Last week the Howick Intermediate Principal, Deputy Principals, and students came and spoke to our Year 6 Students. It was great to see the older students explaining what happens at intermediate.

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)

Learning and Fun @ BDS

Year 2, Room 3: We have decided that we have had enough rain and would like some sunshine. Our rainbows remind us that sunny days will be here soon.

Year 6, Room 17: For inquiry this term we are learning about New Zealand History. To enrich our learning we took a trip to the Auckland Museum to learn about how Māori arrived in Aotearoa. We learnt about how they traveled here in waka, some of the technologies they used like a cordless drill, and some of the musical instruments they made. We also got to hold a Moa bone!

The Moa was so big!

Darya is amazed by the nose flute.

We met Peter and Barbara the T-Rexs!

LIBRARY NEWS

Read Around the World Competition

Tying in with this term’s inquiry theme of different cultures and countries is a fun reading competition in the library.

To enter, students need to read six fiction books set in different countries and have their book ‘passport’ signed by their teacher. Completed ‘passports’ go into the draw to win a Hoyts movie voucher.

Teachers have details and passport sheets. Entries close Monday 19 Sept (last week of term), and the prize is drawn Tuesday 20 Sept.

Happy reading!

Books can be returned: at lunchtime; before school; during a class visit; to Botany Bob in the front office if the library is closed.