Week 2, Term 3, 2024
Kia ora koutou Parents and BDS Whānau,
Our tamariki love being back at school and they are very busy in their classrooms with new learning, and happily playing with friends in the playground.
Next week we welcome back Mrs Radue who will be starting up a class of our new five-year-olds in Room 10. We are fortunate to have such an experienced, dedicated teacher who knows our school.
Important Notice for Parents:
- Please do not send your child to school before 8:30 a.m as there is no supervision available at this time. Children arriving early will have to wait outside in the cold until the 8:30 a.m bell. If you require supervision before school, sKids offers an excellent before-school programme.
- We appreciate that our playground is a popular spot for families to gather after school. However, please be aware that there is no adult supervision on the playground during this time. For safety reasons, children should not be left on the playground unsupervised.
Thank you for your understanding and cooperation.
Ngā mihi nui,
Vicki Parkins, Principal – Tumuaki (vickip@botanydowns.school.nz)
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Coming up @ BDS…
Fri 2 Aug – No Uniform Day: Olympic theme
Mon 5 Aug – PTA meeting
Wed 7 Aug – PTA Jesters Pie Day
Fri 9 Aug – House Competition Day
Tues 13 Aug – HPPA Cross-country
Wed 14 Aug – School Board meeting
Thurs 15 Aug – ICAS English
Tues 20 Aug – ICAS Science
Mon 26 Aug – ICAS Maths
Fri 30 Aug – HPPA Lit Quiz
** click here to view more of the school calendar **
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Policies and Procedures – SchoolDocs 2024
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
If you would like to participate in reviewing the policies, please follow the instructions below. The review closes on 27th September.
- Visit the website https://botanydowns.schooldocs.co.nz/1893.htm
- Enter the username (botanydowns) and password (best).
- Follow the link to the relevant policy as listed.
- Read the policy.
- Click the Start your review button at the top right-hand corner of the page.
- Select the reviewer type.
- Enter your name (optional).
- Follow the prompts to show that you’ve read the topic and enter your feedback if you’d like to comment.
- Agree to the privacy statement and click “Submit review”.
For Term 3 the following policies relate to Learning Support and are up for review:
- Concerns and Complaints
- Media
- Performance Management
- Protected Disclosure
- Staff Conduct
- Staff Leave
If you have any questions or queries please contact Mark Insley, Deputy Principal: marki@botanydowns.school.nz
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Yummy Apple Sticker Collection
Please help us to get some new sports gear! Simply collect the Yummy cut-out labels from bags of apples (each cut-out label is worth 10 stickers) and individual Yummy apple stickers, and fill up a sticker collection sheet.
By collecting these stickers we are entitled to our school’s share of the $200,000 free sports gear prize pool. We are Collecting Yummy Stickers until 22nd October.
Yummy apples are available from: New World, PAK’nSAVE and participating Four Square stores. The more you collect, the more sports gear you get so get going and start collecting your Yummy cut-out labels and stickers now!
Any questions please contact Joe D’Ambrosio Sports Coordinator: joed@botanydowns.school.nz
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World Vision 40 Hour Challenge
Last term our School Councillors organised our 40 Hour Challenge to raise money for World Vision to work with nature to restore forests, fight the impacts of climate change, and regreen our future. We had 21 amazing students who completed their challenges and raised a fantastic amount of $1,519 for World Vision. He tino pai!
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Year 6 Intermediate Visits
The Year 6s have had two great presentations from Howick and Somerville intermediates which gave the students information about what to expect for the exciting jump to Intermediate school.
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House Competition Day – Olympics Edition
To celebrate the Paris Olympics, our school will be running the House Competition Day with an Olympic flair! This will be a whole day event on the 9th August (Week 3 Friday). Our ‘opening ceremony’ will begin at 9:10 a.m on the basketball courts. We hope to see you there!
For this special event, students are to come to school in their PE gear. Please refrain from face/body paint, however, colourful socks and ribbons are allowed as usual.
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PTA Notices
Whittaker’s Chocolate Fundraiser: Boxes of chocolates have been distributed today to the eldest child in each family. All the information you need to sell the chocolates is enclosed in the box. Please note that due to rising supply costs chocolates are to be sold for $2.50 per bar this year.
Everyone who sells a full box of chocolates goes in the draw to win one of 10 $20 Time Zone vouchers, pay online and receive two entries into the draw!
The three families that sell the most boxes of chocolates will win:
1st place – a family pass to Rainbows End, valued at over $200
2nd place – a family pass to Sea Life Kelly Tarlton’s, valued at over $150
3rd place – a family pass to Butterfly Creek, valued at over $80
All money and/or unsold chocolate must be returned by Friday 16th August.
This fundraiser is managed by the PTA, if you have any questions please email pta@botanydowns.school.nz
This is one of our major fundraisers for the year so we thank you in advance for your support!
Olympics No Uniform Day – Friday 2nd August: Donate $2 via Kindo or to your class teacher and wear your favourite Olympic themed sports or country clothing.
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School Assembly
We invite you to attend our school assembly on Friday at 9.10 a.m. We will be presenting our Botany Best Certificates and Values Bookmarks. This week our item will be from Room 17.
Our BDS Capabilities
Congratulations to our following tamariki who have shown their Botany Best by displaying our Capabilities: Yasmine Alsharefi, Nelson Wang, Oliana Aoelua, Emma Hughes, Vincent Wang, Allen Maifea, Lucius Huang, Avery Ip, Rosy Xu, Petr Bertyaev, Skylah Hubbard, Adam Hamayun, Lucus Chen, Kaylin Walker, Teagan Andrew, Matthew Petersen, Christopher Le, Lucian Hadrup, Hoor Laghari, Shangyuan Cao, Noah Ellis & Areesha Fazal.
Our BDS Values
Our focus value for the first half of Term 3 is:
Congratulations to the following tamariki who have displayed our value of Relationships – Whanaungatanga: Sujin Yu, Yugo Tsuchiya, Tyler Bernard, Bille Turner, Selina Wong, Rubleen Kaur, Kaida Jones, Vaice Gasologa, Sophie Liu, Liam Cho, Julius Ming Peterson, Francis Sekona, Michael Joseph, Daniella Zhao, Leo Han, Ofa Fifita, Angela Wang, Wiandre Nel, Ethan Symons, Layla Gallagher, Chloe Jack & Jennifer Wu.
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Fun & Learning @ BDS
Room 5, Year 1: Room 5 students have created some wonderful rainbow sentences and art to match using pastels and water colours.
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Student Success…
Liam Cho (Rm18) and Ethan Liu (Rm20) competed in the New Zealand Robot Olympiad 2024 (NZRO) competition held at the University of Auckland during the school holidays. They won GOLD in both the Creative Robot and Battle Cube pair sections in the Lower Primary Special Division.
Their success has resulted in them being selected to represent NZ in the upcoming International Robot Olympiad 2024 which will be held in Busan, South Korea. What a fantastic achievement – congratulations!
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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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Scholastic Lucky Book Club
Issue 5 brochures of the Scholastic Lucky Book Club will be sent home today/tomorrow. If you would like to purchase items please note:
- orders close – 3.00 p.m Wednesday 7 August
- orders and payment is preferred online – instructions can be found on the back page of the brochure
All purchases help the school to purchase valuable resources for the library and classrooms PLUS you help to grow your child’s reading skills, and reading enjoyment – thank you so much for your support!
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 Registration for our Term 3 After School Soccer is now open! To register: click here
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Speech and Drama
We’re thrilled to announce the start of Speech and Drama lessons at Botany Downs School, and we can’t wait to meet your children! Currently, we’re in the process of collecting enrolments for Term 3. To secure a spot for your child, please fill out the form below:
Lessons are held after school on a Tuesday, at Botany Downs School. Our dedicated teachers will provide a fantastic platform for students to develop their confidence, public speaking skills, self-esteem, creativity, manners, and leadership abilities – all vital elements in shaping them into their best and most successful selves.
Through engaging activities and relatable scenarios, each 30-minute lesson promises to be exciting for your children! The fee is $220 per term and speech and drama is beneficial for all ages from year 0-6. Everyone is welcome!
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English
Arabic
Chinese (Simplified)
Dutch
French
German
Italian
Japanese
Korean
Maori
Portuguese
Russian
Samoan
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