Week 5, Term 3, 2024
Kia ora koutou Parents and BDS Whānau,
We were delighted to welcome so many parents and caregivers to our Literacy Morning. It was a proud moment for us to showcase our literacy programmes and highlight the amazing work happening at BDS. Our message is that we value sharing your child’s learning journey with you.
I presented an overview of our programmes, assessment methods, and valuable tips on how to support learning at home, and Mr Insley and Mrs Hughson provided a comprehensive explanation of literacy at BDS. For those who could not attend, the PowerPoint presentation is available at the end of this section of the newsletter.
We look forward to seeing you and your whānau at our Celebration of Learning on Tuesday, 24th September, from 3:15 pm – 5 pm. During this time, our classrooms will be open for you to explore, and your child will have the opportunity to proudly share their learning with you across all curriculum areas.
On Tuesday last week, our students represented our kura with great enthusiasm and demonstrated outstanding values at the recent HPPA (Howick and Pakuranga Principals Association) Cross-country event held at Lloyd Elsmore Park.
A special thanks goes to Mr D’Ambrosio for his superb organisation of the event, and to Miss Hill and Mrs Hughson for their support. I was fortunate to be at the finish line to witness the determination and effort of our runners. Well done to all participants for their incredible effort.
Wishing you all a great week.
Ngā mihi nui,
Vicki Parkins, Principal – Tumuaki (vickip@botanydowns.school.nz)
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Coming up @ BDS…
Wed 21 Aug – HPPA Gymnastics
Mon 26 Aug – ICAS Maths / Senior Speech finals
Wed 28 Aug – PTA Jesters Pie Day
Fri 30 Aug – HPPA Lit Quiz / Junior Cross-country
Mon 9 Sept – PTA meeting
Tues 10 Sept – HPPA Boys Soccer / HPPA Rehu Tai Speech finals
Wed 18 Sept – PTA Jesters Pie Day / School Board meeting
Fri 20 Sept – PTA School Disco
Tues 24 Sept – Celebration of Learning:
classes open 3.15 pm – 5.00 pm
Fri 27 Sept – Last Day of Term 3
** click here to view more of the school calendar **
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Junior School (Year 0-3) Cross-country
Date: Friday 30th August
Saving Day: Friday 6th September
Venue: Botany Downs School
We are delighted to share our upcoming Junior School Cross-country date. Our students have been training hard for this event and the cross-country is an opportunity for our ākonga to challenge themselves both personally and competitively. It is an expectation that all students participate. If your child cannot, for any reason, compete, please notify their teacher via email prior to the event. If the event is postponed, notification will be sent via the school app and email. Please see the save day date above.
Students will need to come to school wearing their PE uniform which includes house PE shirt, shorts and running shoes (Year 0 can wear any top in their house colour if they do not have their PE uniform yet). They may also need their school jumper or fleece jacket. A water bottle is necessary.
Programme: Please note the first race will begin at 1:30pm and subsequent races will begin on completion of the previous race.
Supporters: We would love you to come along to support the students and we have a designated supporters area. Please ensure you remain off the course where students are running.
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HPPA Cross-country
On August 13th BDS took our top 30 runners from Years 4, 5 and 6 combined to Lloyd Elsmore to compete against seven other local schools in the HPPA Cross-country event.
BDS showed great sportsmanship and resilience cheering on our amazing runners while also congratulating athletes from the other schools as well. While we didn’t come away with a spot on the podium, we did have some runners placed in the top 10 and many others landed solidly in the top 30. Well done team!
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Rocket Challenge
Last term the Year 6 team participated in a Rocket Challenge. As part of the challenge the students had to design and fly a rocket. During the design process, they learnt about Newton’s Laws of Physics and some of the engineering behind building rockets. They also had to create a video of their learning which was entered into a competition to win Lego. We won 2nd place in the competition and have won the following prize: an epic LEGO set! It includes:
- classic space mission set (1700 pieces)
- space explorer rover and alien life set (311 pieces)
- creative space planets set (450 pieces)
- blue base plate x 2
If you would like to see our winning video you can find it on our school website.
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PTA – Whittaker’s Chocolate Fundraiser
We had an amazing response and sold a lot of chocolates! A huge thank you to everyone who sold chocolates and helped to make this fundraiser a success!
We will be announcing the winners of the top seller prizes and doing the Timezone prize draw at assembly this Friday 23rd August.
We kindly request that all money and/or unsold chocolates are returned as soon as possible.
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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 be the Junior and Senior Dance Groups, and a Tongan dance group will perform – Ofa Fifita, Francis Sekona and Saane Fifita.
Our BDS Capabilities
Congratulations to our following tamariki who have shown their Botany Best by displaying our Capabilities: Andrew Chan, Jordan Claasen, Tyler Bernard, Jack Berkett, Grace Marshall, Fraser Shadbolt, Angela Wang, Reyna-Lee Brown, Amber Ren, Samantha Tokai, Leo Cowarin, Lily McIvor, Adalyn Cox, Riaan Karthick, Jaden Li, Sergio Guillen, Jon Wu, Joy Mii, Richie Lewis, Samarveer Parmar, Eleanor Booth, Stark Zhang, Miles Maceachen & Matthew Samuriwo.
Our BDS Values
Congratulations to the following tamariki who have displayed our value of Whanaungatanga / Relationships: Lachlan Marck, VJ Mose, Aaron Qu, Blake Coxen, Blake Sills, Vincent Wang, Mawada Khammas, Suzanna Kamakorewa, Alana Sahni, Charlotte Koka, Sidney Chai, Nature Parsons, Ansh Patel, Damian Odendaal, Henry Tuwai, Jasper Gu, Charlie Carson, Scarlet Cheng, Siale Palalagi-Waru, Tyler Sanders, Abigail Harrison, Kyle Forrest, Angela Huang, Xavier Marck & Ella Blake.
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Fun & Learning @ BDS
Year 3, Room 27: We have been researching pictograms from the Olympic Games today and in the past. We have completed dyed artwork on these depicting the Olympic Rings and the student’s chosen pictogram from the 2024 Olympic Games.
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Student Success…
Cellotastic Achievement! On Sunday 18th August, Elliot Cheng (Year 2, Room 1) competed in the West Auckland Performing Arts Competitions (WAPAC) and came 2nd in the Under 9 Instrumental Section. Congratulations Elliot and keep up the fantastic work!
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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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Malo e Lelei! Tongan Language Week
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New Zealand Book Awards for
Children & Young Adults
Congratulations to the winning authors, illustrators and publishers of last week’s book awards. You can find out more about these wonderful books here: 2024 award winners
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 2025 ENROLMENT APPLICATIONS
Enrolment applications are currently being accepted and need to be completed online through our website: www.somervilleintermediate.school.nz
In-zone families are encouraged to complete and submit their enrolment applications, as soon as possible, for processing prior to the end of Term 3.
Out-of-zone enrolment applications will close 4pm Wednesday 4th September 2024. The ballot will be held on Wednesday 11 September 2024, and all out-of-zone applicants will be notified of the ballot results via email, to their Priority 1 caregiver within 24 hours.
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