Newsletter – Week 3, Term 4 2023 – Botany Downs Primary School

Kia ora koutou BDS whānau, Week 3, Term 4, 2023

Thank you very much to Irene Liang who has been on our School Board for the past three years. We have appreciated your dedication and support during this time. At our last School Board Meeting Jess Storey was co-opted to continue as Board Chair for the foreseeable future.

The Fun Run is gaining huge momentum and we are thankful and very impressed with the support you are giving this event. Class competitions are really getting underway.

Our Year 0-3 Sandpit is now completed and our tamariki are having so much fun in the sun playing together. The sandpit will be closed after school and in the weekends, please do not walk on the cover. Thank you.

We have also included a shade cover to provide protection from the sun. Our Rooms 20-23 have also had shade sails installed and this is making such a difference now the sun is shining. We are keeping our Communication Survey open for one more week. It is a quick three-question yes or no survey and then an optional place for comments. Thank you very much.

Communication Survey

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

Coming up @ BDS…

Wed 25 Oct – PTA Jester’s Pie Day
Thurs 26 Oct – Senior school athletics
Fri 3 Nov – Gumboot Friday
Mon 6 Nov – PTA meeting
Wed 8 Nov – Yr 3&4 Poetry recital
Wed 8 Nov – Howick Int orientation visit: 9.30-10.30am
Thurs 9 Nov – Somerville Int orientation visit: 1.00-.2.45pm
Fri 10 Nov – FUN RUN
Mon 13 Nov – Teacher Only Day
Wed 15 Nov – School Board meeting
Thurs 16 Nov – HPPA Athletics
Fri 17 Nov – School Disco
Fri 24 Nov – Junior Athletics Day
Wed 29 Oct – PTA Jester’s Pie Day

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

SCHOOL NEWS

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 singing from our Year 2 and Year 3 teams.

Our Capabilities

Congratulations to our following tamariki who have shown their Botany Best by displaying our Capabilities: Nathan Zhu, Benjamin Duckworth, Jurgens Lewis, Curtis Li, Paige Monsanto, Kainan Wang, Navya Kumar, Ezra Goh, Anyi Wong, Atlas Timpson, Lexi Jones, Lauren Hayes, Kyle Gouws, Helaina Jamalidogaheh, Rex Zhao, Venuja Nanayakkara, Lucius Huang, Blake Manson, Sartre Miguel, Liam Goldsmith, Daisy Kuo, Vhenzkate Masias, Flynn Hodgson, Wathsilu Parangama, Jayden Bischoff, Zainab Ali, Kate Henry, Paris Cormack, Julian Kim, Khrish Ranchhod, Reuben Apperley & Matthew Petersen.

Our Values

Congratulations to the following tamariki who have displayed our value of Manaakitanga: Kacey Wang, Damien Davey, Jax Bloem, Hannah Jung, Willow Cox, Eason Dong, Christian Perry, Mira Ong, Lachlan Marck, VJ Mose, Aahana Perera, Hunter Collins-Preiss, Tanya Kumar, Nevaeh Tupai, Amisha Charlie, Savneet Thind, Raymond Palalagi-Waru, Indy Clifton, Roselynne Tokai, Evie Zhu, Yi Sen Qi, Tere White, Mackenzie Scott, Iraison Su, Mika Nel, Sebastian Birchler, Wynand Bloem, Khleigh Velasco, Anya Fang, Mila Ritchie, Dehan Meyer, Jia Zhang, Henil Tailor, Owen Huang & Rion Mose.

BDS Fun Run

Thank you to everyone who has already signed up for our Fun Run Fundraiser, it is off to a great start!

Well done to Room 2 who is the first class to reach a combined total of $1,000: all of the students in Room 2 have earnt themselves a free ice block that they will be able to enjoy at school one day this week.

Congratulations to last week’s spot prize winners. There is still time to sign up and get in the draw for this week! Sign up here: botanydownsfunrun.raiseit.co.nz/hub

NZ Shakeout

Last week our whole school successfully took part in New Zealand’s Shake out – our national earthquake drill. Here are the students in Room 12 remembering to Drop, Cover, and Hold!

Year 0-2 Curriculum Information sessions

On Wednesday 25 October (tomorrow), we are presenting a Junior Literacy session for our Year 0-2 whānau. The session will include information around the current evidence based changes that are happening in how we teach reading, writing, and spelling. You will also find out about our Structured Literacy programme, and how you can further support your child’s learning. Mrs Shirley Johnston our Year 0-1 Team Leader will be presenting this session. There will also be time for kōrero, and lots of questions of course!

On Wednesday 1 November, we will be holding a Junior Maths session.

Both sessions run alongside our current Bright Sparks sessions and are from 9:15 am – 10:15 am in the staffroom.

Please RSVP to Joanne at joanneh@botanydowns.school.nz if you are interested in attending either or both of these curriculum information sessions.

Gumboot Friday – 3rd 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 3rd 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 – 3rd November, Gold coin donation, wear your gumboots!

HPPA Touch

On Thursday last week our school touch team participated in the HPPA Touch Competition against 24 other teams. After many hours of training the team were able to put their newly learned skills into competitive games. The team competed with positivity and pride, managing to score a number of tries and winning a game.

Awesome effort BDS Touch team!

HPPA Mathex

Last Tuesday four Year 6 students competed in the HPPA Mathex Competition against 21 other schools. The competition is a series of 25 maths questions that teams solve in 30 minutes.

Our team were very competitive and certainly had their maths brains challenged. Excellent effort Mathex Team!

Weetbix TRYathlon

We are only five weeks away from the South Auckland Sanitarium Weet-Bix Kids TRYathlon. Don’t forget to join the school TRYathlon team. So far we have 24 students registered and we would love to get more! Please use the link below to register:

Join the Botany Downs TRYathlon Team!

Participants need to be entered by midnight on Wednesday 25th October to take advantage of the special Early Bird price of $52.50 and save $16.50 off the full price of $69! As well as the option of having their TRYathlete pack either couriered to their home or included in the School Courier delivery.

Entries will continue to remain open but participants who enter after this date will need to collect their TRYathlete pack at the Early Pack Pick Up or on the event day.

We will also start training after school from Wednesday the 25th October from 3:15 – 3:45. Participants will need to have their bike at school on these days and we will only be doing the bike and run as our pool is out of action at present.

Tokelau Language Week

This year’s theme for Te Vaiaho o te Gagana Tokelau is “Ke Olatia ko ia Tokelau i tana Fakavae – Tokelau to Prosper Within its Foundation”.

Niue Language Week

Last week, we immersed ourselves in the rich culture of Niue. Siale, from room 27, performed a traditional Niuean dance and blew us away. We extend our thanks to Siale for showcasing her heritage and enriching our understanding of Niuean culture.

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)

Fun and Learning @ BDS

Year 0/1 – Room 6: Happy Spring! In Room 6 we are excited to be welcoming Spring. To celebrate this we created our own koru. The koru is a spiral shape based on the appearance of a new unfurling silver fern frond. It is an integral symbol in Māori art. It symbolises new beginnings.

To start each child drew out their own koru shape in pencil, they then traced over the lines in black marker. We tried a new technique with our pastels by combining a darker colour with a lighter colour to create some depth and then used our fingers to rub it and create a beautifully smooth texture. Room 6 has done a stunning job in creating these beautiful works of art.

Year 6, Room 19: Room 19 spent time learning about how voting works and took part in NZ Elections learning with great interest. Here is what the students had to say:

“I learned that the elections have the word beehive and a bunch of other new words that I used.

I really enjoyed the part where we made our own party and posters, as well as voting for our classmates’ parties and listening/watching the debates.” Luise: The P&B Party

“When we started learning about the elections I wasn’t that interested at first but when we started forming our own parties and learning more and more about NZ politics it was a blast!

We learnt about different parties like Act, Labour, National, Green, NZ First, Maori etc. Also, we got to vote for our very own parties that we formed so now I am really interested in NZ politics.” Milan: Chief Executive of People’s Party

“I learned about the NZ Elections and seats in Parliament. One thing I really liked about the election learning was our class vote and policies.” Arya: ALL Party

“In class, we learnt about the NZ Elections. We learnt about where the members of parliament (known as MPs) sit. We also learnt about the different types of parties which was interesting. We had a go at making our own election parties. Saket and I have a party called The Truthful Group known as T.T.G. I hope I do it again because it was really fun.” Qais: T.T.G

Student Successess…

Congratulations to Ruby and Luke Buckley on their successful weekend competing in the BMXNZ North Island Titles competition and earning fantastic results!

Ruby competed in the 9 Girls NI3 (North Island 3) division:

Motos – 1st, 3rd, 2nd, 1st, 2nd, 2nd

Semi-finals – 2nd

Finals – 3rd