Newsletter – Week 4, Term 3 2024 – Botany Downs Primary School

Week 4, Term 3, 2024

Kia ora koutou Parents and BDS Whānau,

Literacy Open Morning on Monday 19 August

Parents and BDS Whānau – we are excited to invite you to our Literacy Open Morning!

9:00 – 9:20 AM (Hall): Join us in the hall for a welcome session. Our team, including Vicki Parkins, Mark Insley, and Joanne Hughson, will give an overview of the literacy programmes at BDS.
9:20 – 10:15 AM (In Classrooms): After the hall session, you will move to your child’s classroom to observe literacy activities in action. The bell will ring to signal the end of the session.

We look forward to seeing you.

Botany Downs School Olympics:
Living Our Vision – Our Best, Always

We recently held the Botany Downs School Olympics, a fantastic event where our students truly embodied our vision of “Our Best, Always.” It was very special to see everyone embracing our school values while having a lot of fun.

A big thank you to Mr Yoon and to all our staff for their organisation and enthusisam. We were also delighted to see so many parents coming into our kura and supporting our young athletes. Your presence made the day even more special.

Road Patrol Volunteers Needed on Tuesday and Thursday Term 3

We need your help to keep our tamariki safe. We’re looking for parent volunteers to supervise our road patrol students on Tuesdays from 8:20 am until 9:00 am and again from 2:50 pm until 3:15 pm. Also on Thursday from 8.30 am to 9.00 am. Your assistance is so important in ensuring the safety of our children during these busy times.

If you are available to help supervise one of these times, please let us know. Your support makes a big difference.

Please contact Kylee Holmes (Travelwise Coordinator) kyleeh@botanydowns.school.nz.

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

Coming up @ BDS…

Wed 14 Aug – School Board meeting
Thurs 15 Aug – ICAS English
Mon 19 Aug – Literacy Open Morniing
Tues 20 Aug – ICAS Science
Mon 26 Aug – ICAS Maths / Senior Speech finals
Fri 30 Aug – HPPA Lit Quiz

** click here to view more of the school calendar **

SCHOOL NEWS

Kids Talk About Books

Last term six students had the exciting opportunity to review selected books for Suzy Cato’s Kids Talk About Books programme. They were each given a book to read, and then were filmed sharing their thoughts about the book. The filming took place in the library during Book Week and the students enjoyed this unique experience.

A huge thank you to: Lisa, Flynn, Evan, Henil, Reuben, and Ashley for being awesome book reviewers; Suzy Cato for this opportunity and for supporting and celebrating New Zealand children’s books; Claudia Robin-Gunn for making the filming session fun and relaxed for our students; and to Mrs Keenan for connecting Botany Downs with Kids Talk Books.

The videos are available to view at this link here: https://www.youtube.com/@KidsTalkAboutBooks

Be sure to subscribe so you catch more fantastic book reviews when they are added!

Drop & Go

Thank you everyone for using our Drop and Go Bay so respectfully in the mornings. Our Travelwise Leaders are there to help direct cars right to the end and assist children walking on the crossing through the Drop and Go Bay.

A reminder that we are asking you to only turn left into and out of the Drop and Go Bay. You can turn left when you leave the Drop and Go Bay and still get back to Botany Road without having to do a U-turn near school.

International Student Powhiri

Our international students and their families were officially welcomed to Botany Downs School last week by our Kapa Haka group. They also watched our choir and orchestra perform.

Thank you to our talented students who are part of the Kapa Haka, choir and orchestra, our Ambassadors, Mrs Takaiti, Miss Liu, Mr Insley, and Mrs Parkins for providing such a warm welcome.

Kate Keenan, International Director

Olympic-themed House Day

Our Olympic-themed House Competition Day was a great success last Friday. The sun was shining, and every class joined in with our opening ceremony, proudly parading the flags of the country their class represented.

All students took part in a fun version of these Olympic sports: basketball, gymnastics, badminton, hockey, shooting, long jump, hurdles, table tennis, dance, sprints, and sport climbing.

This was a great way to demonstrate how well our school values align with the Olympic values. Thank you to Mr Yoon for organising this awesome day and to all of the staff involved with running events.

School Assembly

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 from Room 7.

Our BDS Capabilities

Congratulations to our following tamariki who have shown their Botany Best by displaying our Capabilities: Yaya Wang, Aliya Christian, Max Han, Sakura Erskine, Konnor Oti, Parris Singh, Hajar Al-Jumaily, April Adams, Xena-Leigh Hamilton, Michael Booth, Ayla Mii, Anisa Tamihana, Evan Feng, Ali Moshtagh Askari, Ayden Sharp, Harlen Hadrup, Kate Henry, Young Xu, Samreet Thind, Arissa Ezra Fesolai, Leon Lo, Azalea Ngo, Nella Ranchhod & Hannah Shadbolt.

Our BDS Values

Congratulations to the following tamariki who have displayed our value of Whanaungatanga / Relationships: Lavinia Chen, Navya Kumar, Jayden Coetzee, Gracie Grainger, Ava Belle Collins, Scarlett Hudson, Jorawar Singh, Jayson Holmes, Ranaya Galahitiyawa, Jayden Bischoff, Olivia Wang, Micah Harrison, Aaryan Verma, Joy Qu, Mika Nel, Tracy Liu, Jerry Zhang, Mason Ludick, Wesley Yang, Leanna Xu, Ariyan Atrushi, Alice Chen, Mengxi Lu & Ozias Su’a.

PTA Notice

Whittaker’s Chocolates Fundraiser: Thank you to everyone who has returned payment for their chocolates and to those who have sold additional boxes.

All payment and/or unsold chocolates
must be returned by 9am this Friday, 16th August.

Get in the draw for one of ten $20 Time Zone vouchers by selling your whole box, and receive a bonus entry for paying online.

The three families who sell the most chocolates will win vouchers from Rainbows End, Sea Life Kelly Tarlton’s and Butterfly Creek. Winners will be announced at assembly on Friday 23rd August.

This fundraiser is managed by the PTA, if you have any questions please email pta@botanydowns.school.nz

Howick Intermediate Production Visit

Last week our Year 6 students had the pleasure of going to Howick Intermediate to see their production of Mary Poppins.

What an amazing opportunity it was and the actors were nothing short of spectacular! If you have a chance to go, you should see it. All of the Year 6 students and teachers loved it.

Fun & Learning @ BDS

Year 2: On Monday, the Year 2 classes came together for our own version of the Olympics – ‘The Potato Olympics’. Each child brought a potato to school to train into a potato athlete. Our day started with designing our potatoes and writing a profile about our potato athlete. After that, we joined together for an opening ceremony with our potatoes. The teachers held different events for our potatoes to compete in. There was running, weightlifting, gymnastics and diving.

At the end of the events we closed the games by presenting medals to children who had displayed our school values during the games – relationships, respect, resilience and responsibility.

It was a fun day with lots of learning that integrated all areas of our curriruclum.

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)

LIBRARY NEWS

New Zealand Book Awards for
Children & Young Adults 2024

Congratulations and best of luck to all the finalist authors, illustrators and publishers in this year’s New Zealand Book Awards for Children & Young Adults (NZCYA). The winners are being announced this Wednesday evening in Wellington.

We are thrilled to have most of these books available for our tamariki to read and enjoy!