Newsletter – Week 10, Term 3 2023

Kia ora koutou BDS whānau,                                                                  Week 10, Term 3, 2023

A sincere thank you to our BDS whānau who helped dress our tamariki in their cultural clothing and also provided food for a shared lunch. The response to our Cultural Day was outstanding and the sharing of our different cultures was invaluable and so special.   

Following on from our Cultural Day are our Cultural Performing Arts Evenings this week.  Practices are being held and the celebration of cultures is such a wonderful part of our kura.  Our tamariki and kaiako are really looking forward to our Cultural Performance Evenings this week and we warmly welcome our community to our kura to watch and enjoy this event.

In this newsletter we have an explanation and photographs of the events last week where our Kapa Haka visited Te Whare o Maraiki Marae, and our Choir performed at the Holy Trinity Cathedral in Parnell where they won the Audience Award for the Favourite Gala Performance.  Thank you so very much to our staff and parents who receive a special mention below.

This week is Chinese Language Week and to acknowledge this we will be sharing some phrases in Chinese in our classrooms this week. As a school, we held our Chinese Speech Competition last week and this week we will have two students representing our school in the HPPA Cantonese and Mandarin Competition. Students, staff, and parents also receive a special mention below.  

Term 3 has been a very busy term with high attendance, engaged students, and many sporting, cultural and the arts activities. Our newsletters have been full of the celebrations of our tamariki. 

Thank you to all the staff for their mahi and dedication to every aspect of learning and pastoral care at our kura and to our BDS whānau who have supported us during the term. 

We wish you all a happy and safe holiday and we look forward to the warmer weather in Term 4.

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

Coming up @ BDS…

Wed 20 Sept – Cultural Performance Evening Yrs 0-3
Thurs 21 Sept – Cultural Performance Evening Yrs 4-6
Fri 22 Sept – Last Day of Term 3
Mon 9 Oct – First Day of Term 4
Wed 11 Oct – Year 0/1 Zoo trip
Sat 14 Oct – NZ General Election (voting booths available at BDS) 
Tues 17 Oct – HPPA Mathex
Wed 18 Oct – School Board meeting
Thurs 19 Oct – HPPA Rugby
Mon 23 Oct – Labour Day (public holiday)

SCHOOL NEWS

School Assembly Friday 9.10am

We invite you to attend our End of Term school assembly on Friday at 9.10am. We will be presenting our End of Term Principal’s Awards. This week our item will be the BDS Orchestra.

End of Term Principal’s Awards

Congratulations to our following tamariki who are receiving a principal’s award: Wickus Botha, Juping Qi, Kyle Forrest, Ayeza Zahidani, Mira Ong, Bianca Zhang, Luca Takaiti, Elliot Cheng, Aliya Christian, Harkirat Gill, Ansh Patel, Mene’ Nel, April Adams, Pamela Sekona, Indy Clifton, Dion Choi, Sariah Hooker-Mason, Reuben Tate, Isla Jones, Khleigh Velasco, Sui Gu, Yara El Chami, Lucas Pope, Jacob Kong & Gary Taing.

Our Capabilities

Our Values

House of the Term

Congratulations to Hillary who won the House of the Term. As a reward for earning the most points in Term 3, all students who are in Hillary House had a free no-uniform day today.  Throughout the term students earn house points for doing their Botany Best, demonstrating our school values and competing in events on House Competition Day.

Cultural Performance Evenings – THIS WEEK!

Our tamariki and kaiako are very excited to perform at our Cultural Performance Evenings this week and we warmly welcome our community to our kura to watch and enjoy this event.

Please note that due to seating capacity, we do ask that parents and caregivers enter and leave the hall as per the timetable below after each year level has performed. Your understanding of this is greatly appreciated.

Please note; if your child is part of Kapa Haka, Choir, Orchestra, Dance or Bucket Drummers you may stay and watch their performance.

Kapa Haka Marae Visit

Our Kapa Haka travelled to our nearby Marae, Te Whare o Matariki. This trip was a culturally enriching adventure for our tamariki. The day began with a formal Pōwhiri, which was followed by speeches and shared kai. 

During the visit, our tamariki had the opportunity to listen to stories about the seven waka, particularly Tainui waka’s arrival in Aotearoa, as well as the history of Ngai Tai’s settlement in our local area. 

They enjoyed a bush walk, sang waiata, expanded their kupu, and explored the museum’s treasures. As our visit came to a close, our Kapa Haka members showed their appreciation by sharing their experiences and thanking Whaea Tiani, Whaea Manaia, Whaea Karen, Whaea Sue, and Matua Hemi for making us feel welcome.

Michelle Takaiti, Kapa Haka Coordinator (michellet@botanydowns.school.nz)

Culture Dress Day & Shared Lunch

It was fantastic to see so many students and staff dressed in clothing to represent their culture on Friday. Every class also enjoyed sampling food from around the world during their shared lunch.

We have been studying different cultures and Aotearoa history as part of our Inquiry and this was a great way to learn more and also celebrate our diversity as a school. We really appreciate the way our whole school community supported our Cultural Day and shared lunch – thank you!

Sharmila Raj, Inquiry Leader (sharmilar@botanydowns.school.nz)

NZ Choral Federation –
Auckland Region Kids Sing Evening Gala Concert 

Last week, the school choir went to perform at the Holy Trinity Cathedral in Parnell. It was our first time singing at this event and we were pleasantly surprised to find out that our choir had won the audience favourite award! This could not have happened without the dedication from the students as well as our staff. And a special thanks goes to our student accompanist, Rafa Zhao and the parent helpers who took countless days off work to support the choir; Miriam Bua, Jared Bua, and Fay Wang.

Iris Liu, Choir Coordinator (irisl@botanydowns.school.nz)

Chinese Language Week & Speech Competition

This week is NZ Chinese Language Week and as part of our school celebrations, last week we held our Mandarin and Cantonese Speech Competition. Congratulations to the following students who entered: Memphis Kwok, Ruian Zhang, Rafa Zhao, Cindy Zhou, Nora Khong, Gemma Yee, Madeline Wong, Chloe He, Jonathan Huang, and Katrina Guo.

They worked hard to write and practise their speeches in their own time and all did a great job presenting on the day. Thank you to our judges (Daphne Tam, Iris Liu and Yuan Zhou) who had the difficult task of selecting the winners. Well done to the following students who earned a place: Katrina Guo (1st), Chloe He (2nd), Madeline Wong and Rafa Zhao (3rd=).

Thank you to Miss Liu for coaching these students throughout the term and to the parents who also helped their children at home. Good luck to Katrina Guo who will represent our school in the HPPA Mandarin Competition this week and Memphis Kwok who will represent us in the HPPA Cantonese Competition.

Kate Keenan, ESOL Teacher (katek@botanydowns.school.nz)

Children Turning Five – Enrolment 

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)

Fun and Learning @ BDS

Year 2 – Room 4: has been working so hard preparing for our Cultural Evening performance, including learning a dance and making our own maracas to use as part of our dance. We had so much fun making our paper mache maracas! Paper mache requires concentration and a willingness to get your hands gluey!

Year 6 – Problem Solving in Room 18: Every Thursday in Room 18 we focus on problem solving for maths. It is a lot of fun and it has really improved our maths skills. It is a great chance to work with others, share ideas and practice our new maths skills. We like to use different strategies to solve problems and then share these with our classmates.

Here is one of the problems that we solved this week. Have a go at home! What strategy will you use?

On the farm there are 10 paddocks. Each paddock can hold either 3, 6 or 9 animals. How many animals could be on the farm?

This is a fun problem to solve because there is more than one answer.

Student Success…

Vito Feng in Room 3 has been competing in the Auckland-wide Athletics in the U8, 2km division. He won all five of his races, gaining the Grand Prix trophy, and also gained trophies in the cross-country championship, and road championship. Congratulations Vito; a super effort of hard work and determination!

LIBRARY NEWS

Cartooning Session @ Howick Library

Talented author and cartoonist, Stu Duval, will be delivering a workshop on cartooning techniques at Howick Library, on Friday 6 October, 2.00pm.

Materials and humour will be supplied. This programme is suitable for children ages 7-13.

 More information here:  Cartooning with Stu Duval Info

Stu Duval’s Cartoon session is coming up at the Howick Library

School Holiday Events @ Auckland Libraries 

Looking for some fun, FREE things to do these holidays? Check out the activities on offer at our wonderful Auckland libraries: Auckland Libraries Treasure Hunters

COMMUNITY NOTICES

Click here to register: After School Soccer Registration

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