Kia ora koutou BDS whānau, Week 8, Term 4, 2023
During the next two weeks some classes will be moving classrooms as we begin reorganisation for 2024. We thank you in advance for your patience and understanding as we begin this process.
We need to have quite a major reorganisation of our classrooms and their year levels for 2024 for Years 3, 4, 5, and 6, in preparation for our Year 5 and 6 students moving into our six new classrooms.
Although your child may be finishing the year in another classroom to help with this process, they will still be staying with the same teacher until the end of the year.
Your class teacher will email you when the class is moving and which new classroom they will be spending the rest of the year in.
In the newsletter next week we will be able to provide you with the teachers and the year levels they are teaching for 2024.
The Weet-Bix Try-athlon was a huge success and we owe a huge thank you to Mrs Jeffs who helped organise this event again for BDS. Our students had so much fun and it would not have been possible without parent support, thank you.
Please remember to purchase our school magazine as soon as possible as the closing date for orders is nearly here, December 1. We have limited numbers available.
Our murals and signs need to be taken down over the coming week due to our school being painted in the holidays. They will all be going back up with our other murals that were completed this year with Howick College students.
Ngā mihi nui,
Vicki Parkins, Principal – Tumuaki (vickip@botanydowns.school.nz)
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End-of-Year Dates
Wed 6 Dec – Yr 3/4 Big Day In
Thurs 7 Dec – Yr 0/1/2 Prizegiving 9.15-10.30am
Fri 8 Dec – Yr 0/1/2 Big Day In
Tues 12 Dec – Yr 3/4 Prizegiving 9.00-10.30am *note time change
Wed 13 Dec – Yr 5/6 Prizegiving & Yr 6 Graduation 9.15-11.30am
Thurs 14 Dec – Yr 5/6 Big Day In
Fri 15 Dec – Last day of 2023 – school closes at 12 noon
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Dates for 2024
Term 1: Thursday 1 February – Friday 12 April
Waitangi Day – Tuesday 6 February (public holiday)
Good Friday – Friday 29 March (public holiday)
Easter Monday – Monday 1 April (public holiday)
Easter Tuesday – Tuesday 2 April (school holiday)
ANZAC Day – Thursday 25 April (public holiday during term holiday)
Term 2: Monday 29 April – Friday 5 July
TEACHER ONLY DAY – Friday 31 May
King’s Birthday – Monday 3 June (public holiday)
Matariki Holiday – Friday 28 June (public holiday)
Term 3: Monday 22 July – Friday 27 September
Term 4: Monday 14 October – Tuesday 17 December
TEACHER ONLY DAY – Friday 25 October
Labour Day – Monday 28 October (public holiday)
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Botany Best and Values
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 the Junior Kapahaka and the Junior Dance Group.
Congratulations to our following tamariki who have shown their Botany Best by displaying our Capabilities: Lexi Tsai, Hannah Shadbolt, Anthony Song, Sophia Cheah, Daniel Turner, Gracie Grainger, Sakura Erskine, Maci Lund-Finn, Alfred Wang, Zachary Bradbury, Suxi Yan, Julius Ming Peterson, Micah Harrison, Roxas Eason, Dongju Lee, Savneet Thind, Jerry Xi, Rui Li, William Goosen, Eric Guo, Ruby Chen, Lexi Storey, Rehoboth John, Mika Nel, Isabella Liang, Taye Yon, Amelia Berkett, Liam Cho, Bruno Hussey, Lukas Stoltz, Mary Yu, Lisa Zhang, Justin Qiao & Anthony Zhou.
Congratulations to the following tamariki who have displayed our value of Resilience/Manawanui: Wickus Botha, Kayla Martins-Fouche, Andrew Liang, Jasmine Yip, Layla Gallagher, Jermyan Mose, Fraser Shadbolt, Nathan Tokai, Baraa Almayah, Billie Turner, Arzoyi Arora, Mili Li, Riley Wu, Mason Ludick, Hanro Stoltz, Isher Singh, Aaryan Verma, Venuja Nanayakkara, Nicolas Long, Blake Manson, Callum Budd, Chloe He, Landon Bishton, Katrina Guo, Mieke Botha, Ryan Baker, Hasrat Dhillon, Lance Miguel, Aidan Sameer, Irome Cormack, Cameron Ellis, Harlen Hadrup, Cynthia Liang, Memphis Kwok, Lycan McCord, Oscar Wong, Jia Zhang, Troy Viljoen, Lillias Fisher, Dayton Huggins, Sana Shikoda, Ann Wang, Abigail Harrison & Ian Lopez Woo.
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School Magazine
Limited numbers – order now!
At BDS we celebrate the year at our kura with photos and stories in our school magazine. This is a wonderful summary of the school year and we know many of our whānau treasure this magazine.
School Magazine – $20
Purchase your 2023 Botany Downs School Magazine NOW!
Deadline December 1 (Week 8 Friday).
Order now:
Pay via Kindo OR BDS bank account number 12-3089-0059300-00 OR
pay at the school office by EFTPOS
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Back to School Stationery – Order Now!
We’ve teamed up with OfficeMax to your back to school shop super easy,
Your child’s class list is already loaded. Just go to myschool.co.nz/botanydowns. Simply add your details, check that you want everything on the list, then click and confirm — and OfficeMax will get your delivery underway with free delivery on orders over $70^.
You can pay by internet banking, credit card or debit card. Laybuy* is also available, so you can pay in 6 weekly, interest-free payments and still get your order right away. Plus you’ll be helping our school earn school rewards* that we use to purchase much needed extra resources for our school.
We encourage you to order early to ensure your child has all their stationery requirements ready to go in plenty of time for the start of Term 1.
So go ahead and beat the back to school rush, order today and give them the best start possible.
*Terms and Conditions apply, see myschool.co.nz/laybuy for details. ^Exclusions apply, see myschool.co.nz/delivery for details
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Weetbix Try-athlon
Last week 36 students took part in the Weetbix Try-athlon out at Mountfort Park in Manurewa. It was a great day, weather-wise and participation-wise. Everyone gave it their best and all had a great time. They were all awarded a medal from a few of the Black Ferns who came out to support everyone.
Rachael Jeffs, Sports Coordinator (rachaelj@botanydowns.school.nz)
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Teacher Celebration
Last Friday evening at Ormiston Junior College we celebrated the Provisionally Registered Graduate teachers from the Howick Pakuranga area. A noisy group of staff from Botany cheered for Sophie Kirtlan as she now becomes a fully certified teacher! Congratulations Sophie!
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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)
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Fun and Learning @ BDS
Year 3, Room 12: We have been creating information reports about different animals and presenting them on slides. We have been learning about researching using keywords and note-taking to help us write the information in our own words. Here are some snippets from our reports.
 By Autumn Jacobs
 By Hanro Stoltz
 By Quintas Wang
 By Sophie Klee
Year 6, Room 16: We are learning to swim at Lloyd Elsmore with the Field of Dreams Organisation fieldofdreams.org.nz/community-swim.
This is an excellent programme for our tamariki as we are an island nation surrounded by water. The swim instructors offer scaffolded lessons on water safety, learning to stay afloat, learning to dive, and survival skills out in the water!
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Summer Reading 2023 – Register Now!
After a successful Summer Reading programme last year, we are excited to offer this opportunity once again for our students.
- For BDS students in Years 0/1-5 only. Students must be returning to BDS in 2024.
- By giving permission to take part, parents agree to ensure books are cared for and returned in the first week of Term 1 2024.
- Parents/caregivers also agree to reimburse the school for any lost or damaged books.
- Only students who have had a form signed are able to borrow books. Borrowing will be available in Weeks 9 & 10.
- Registered students will be able to borrow up to 10 library books for the summer.
Why sign up for Summer Reading? The best way to improve literacy skills is to keep practising them. This is particularly important over the long summer holidays, and it helps to keep students reading levels up. Plus, it is a fun thing to do!
If you would like your child to borrow school library books over the summer, please complete and submit this form: Sign up for Summer Reading
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 A variety of different sports each week!
Thursdays after school. Get your kids into Active!
Click here for more information and to book in: Botany sKids Active
Cost per session: $15 – includes kids going straight to skids for afternoon tea,
then walking over to sports shed at 3.30pm
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