Week 2 Term 4, 2024
Kia ora koutou Parents and BDS Whānau,
Welcome to our first BDS Newsletter for Term 4. How wonderful it is to see spring in full bloom. The warm weather has brought plenty of opportunities for engaging learning outdoors, with happy faces all around as students play and prepare for a busy and exciting Term 4.
Last week, we sent out a special edition of our newsletter via email in a slightly different format than usual. It welcomed everyone back and outlined our new prize-giving format, with key dates and year levels included. Please take a moment to review that information if you haven’t yet—it’s full of important details.
Term 4 is time for our summer uniform and hats. Please ensure your child is wearing a hat. Footwear consists of black sandals or black shoes. Black socks or BDS socks can be worn with black shoes. Please, no white shoes or socks. We are very fortunate to have a Fitness T-Shirt but this is not to be worn instead of our yellow BDS T-Shirt. Thank you.
We are pleased to let you know that our school has the opportunity to receive Ministry-funded maths resources for Years 0-6. These resources, aligned with the updated maths curriculum, include games, workbooks, detailed teacher guides, and lesson plans to enrich our teaching programmes.
Our team is carefully reviewing these resources to ensure we provide the best possible support and learning experiences for our tamariki. We are looking forward to seeing how these tools enhance the maths learning journey across all year levels in 2025.
Ngā mihi nui,
Vicki Parkins, Principal – Tumuaki (vickip@botanydowns.school.nz)
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Coming up @ BDS…
Wed 23 Oct – Yr 5 trip to Butterfly Creek
Fri 25 Oct – Teacher Only Day
Mon 28 Oct – Labour Day (public holiday)
Tues 29 Oct – Yr 4 trip to Museum (Rm19 & Rm 20)
Wed 30 Oct – Yr 4 trip to Museum (Rm17 & Rm 18)
Wed 30 Oct – PTA Jester’s Pie Day
Thurs 31 Oct – Yr 0/1 trip to Butterfly Creek
Fri 1 Nov – Yr 4-6 Athletics Day / Gumboot Friday
Mon 4 Nov – PTA meeting
Tues 5 Nov – Yr 3 trip to Museum (Rm 29 & Rm 30)
Wed 6 Nov – Yr 6 Howick Intermediate orientation visit
Thurs 7 Nov – Yr 3 trip to Museum (Rm 27 & Rm 28)
Thurs 7 Nov – Yr 6 Somerville Intermediate orientation visit
** click here to view more of the school calendar **
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Reminder: Teacher Only Day
this Friday 25 October
(No Fruju Friday this week because of Teacher Only Day)
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Policies and Procedures – SchoolDocs 2024
Term 4 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 13th December.
- 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 4 the following policies relate to Learning Support and are up for review:
- Finance and Asset Management Policy
- Managing Income and Expenditure
- Financial Conflicts of Interest
- School Donations and Activity Payments / Attendance Dues and Other Income
- Expenditure
- Asset Management and Protection
- Property Planning and Maintenance
- Prevention of Bribery, Corruption, Fraud and Theft
If you have any questions or queries please contact Mark Insley, Deputy Principal (marki@botanydowns.school.nz)
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 Enrolment Information
Parents and caregivers of in-zone students enrolling at Howick Intermediate School in 2025 should submit their application forms as soon as possible.
All applications are done online on their school website: https://www.howickintermediate.school.nz/enrolment
They will only be accepting applications for in-zone enrolments for 2025.
You can confirm if you are living in-zone on this link: https://www.educationcounts.govt.nz/find-school
Howick Intermediate New Parent Information Evening
Wednesday 6 November – 7:00pm in our school hall
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Term 4 Clubs & Sports
For Term 4 we are very fortunate to have the following clubs and sports available for students to be part of. A big thank you to all of the teachers responsible for their time and effort.
Clubs:
- Art Club (Year 4-6)-Mrs Jacobs
- Enviro Club (Year 3-4 and Year 5-6 groups)-Mrs Stankovic and Mrs Andrew
- Dance (Year 1-3)-Miss Smith
- Kapa Haka (Year 4-6 and Year 1-3 groups)-Mrs Takaiti
- Choir (Year 5-6 ) and Orchestra (Year 4-6)-Miss Liu
- Junior Drawing Club (Year 1-3)-Mrs Lee
- Heritage Language (Year 1-6)-Mrs Keenan
Sports:
- Athletics (Year 4-6)
- Table tennis (Yr 6)
- Touch rugby (Team has been selected already)
- Weetbix TRY-athlon
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2023 Prizegiving Cups to Return
It is now the time of the year when we require cups that were awarded at last year’s prizegiving to be returned to the school for this year’s names to be engraved.
If your child received a cup or trophy at last year’s prizegiving, please return it to the school office as soon as possible – thank you.
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New World Howick Heroes
We are thrilled to be selected as one of three schools to win a share of $3000. This money will go towards upgrading our outdoor play spaces. Thank you to Howick New World and everyone who nominated our school.
During the month of October if you are shopping at Howick New World, please add tokens to the BDS box to show your support – we really appreciate it!
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Gumboot Friday 1st November
Gumboot Friday is an annual event that raises money for free youth counselling. The event also serves as a platform to raise awareness about mental health and provide support to those who may be struggling with their mental well-being.
To support Gumboot Friday, our Botany Downs School Councillors will be collecting gold coin donations on the hall deck from 8.30-9am on Friday 1st November. It would be awesome to see as many children wearing their gumboots as possible to support this worthy cause. Our councillors are also running a colouring-in competition with a prize for the best colouring for each year level.
Gumboot Friday 1st November, gold coin donation, wear your gumboots!
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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.
We enjoyed a bush walk, sang waiata, expanded our kupu and explored the museum’s treasures. As our visit came to a close, our Kapa Haka showed their appreciation by sharing their experiences and performing. We would like to thank Whaea Taini, Whaea Manaia, Whaea Sue, Whaea Rangiatea and Matua Hemi for always making us feel so welcome.
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HPPA Cantonese/Mandarin Speech Competiton
In Week 10 of Term 4, Rafa Zhao (Room 16) and Emma Lee (Room 16) represented our school in the HPPA Mandarin and Cantonese Speech Competition held at Wakaaranga School. They presented their speeches confidently in front of the judges, students and parents from 10 schools. Emma placed 1st place in the Cantonese Speech Finals. A special thanks to Fay (Rafa’s mum) and Miss Liu for driving the students to the venue. Ka pai Emma and Rafa!
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ICAS Results
SCIENCE: Congratulations to all the Year 5 and 6 students who took part in the ICAS Science Assessment exam. We now have the results and certificates. These certificates will be handed out at the Year 5 and 6 team assemblies. Please see below for students who achieved excellent results.
Year 5:
Merit (top 45% of participants): Cynthia Liang, Memphis Kwok
Credit (top 35% of participants): Nora Khong, Mason Huang, Lisa Huang, Dylan Davis, David-Lee Bezuidenhout
Distinction (top 10% of participants): Rafa Zhao, Oscar Wong
Year 6:
Merit (top 45% of participants): Khrish Ranchhod, Reuben Apperley
Distinction (top 10% of participants): Justin Qiao, Jay Kim
ENGLISH: Congratulations to all the Year 5 and 6 students who took part in the ICAS English Assessment exam. We now have the results and certificates. These certificates will be handed out at the Year 5 and 6 team assemblies. Please see below for students who achieved excellent results.
Year 5:
Merit (top 45% of participants): Cynthia Liang, Michael Joseph, Flynn Hodgson, Dylan Davies
Credit (top 35% of participants): Rafa Zhao, Nora Khong, Shane Hwang, Lisa Huang, Ron Du
Year 6:
Merit (top 45% of participants): Tanush Tailor
Credit (top 35% of participants): Jay Kim, Justin Qiao
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Weetbix TRY-athlon 2024
The Weetbix TRY-athlon is on again this year. It is being held on Wednesday 20th November at Mountfort Park in Manurewa. If your child is aged 6 to 11 and is interested in taking part in this event, registrations are now open. You can join our school team by clicking on the link below. Last year we had a great group of kids take part. Please note: you need to be able to take your own child out to Mountfort Park with their bike for them to compete.
We will be having training sessions after school this term. Days for training will be confirmed next week. If you can not make the training you can still take part in the TRY-athlon on the day.
If you would like to register please fill in the form as an individual form then when it asks for a school add Botany Downs.
Here is the link: register for South Auckland TRY-athlon
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World Choir Games 2024
The World Choir Games, the biggest choral competition and festival on the globe, came to Aotearoa for the first time ever in July this year. It was by far the largest choral event to be held in this country. More than 11,000 singers from over 30 countries arrived in Auckland to compete and perform.
One of our students, Raewyn Bua (Room 22), was selected to be part of the children’s choir (aged 7-14) that represented New Zealand to perform at the opening ceremony of the World Choir Games 2024 at Spark Arena. What a great honour – well done Raewyn!
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Cross-country Cups for 2024
Presented at School Assembly in Week 4
We will be presenting our Cross-country Cups for Years 3 -6 to our talented long-distance runners. We invite you to attend our school assembly on Friday 8 November, at 9.10 am.
No School Assembly this week (Week 2) due to Teacher Only Day.
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Fun & Learning @ BDS
Year 2, Room 4: Classroom Celebrations
We have enjoyed the warmer weather and watching the trees bloom – we have a whole “spring” wall in our classroom. During Te wiki o Te Reo Maori we practiced words we already knew, and learnt some new words too.
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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
Brochures for the Scholastic Lucky Book Club will be coming home today/tomorrow. This will be the last issue for the year, and your chance to get ready for Christmas – books are always a great gift idea!
Remember: every purchase made helps build your child’s literacy skills, and helps the school to purchase valuable literacy resources – thank you!
 Orders will close 3pm Wednesday 30 October.
Online orders and payments are preferred – see the brochure for details and info.
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Want to learn new skills, get outdoors, and have fun? The skills you learn in athletics are the perfect foundation for almost any sport.
Every student can give athletics a go. Our local athletics club is Pakuranga Athletic Club: they are welcoming new members now, and we encourage students to get involved and get active.
Contact details for all athletics clubs nationwide are available here and become a member.
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