Newsletter – Week 7, Term 4 2023

Kia ora koutou BDS whānau,                                                                  Week 7, Term 4, 2023

Our School Disco last Friday was so successful and our tamariki had so much fun. A huge thank you to our PTA (Parents and Teachers Association) who spent many hours to make this event so special. It was awesome to see so many of our BDS whānau volunteering to support our PTA on the night.

We were so proud of our choir and orchestra who performed at Stockade Hill on Friday night. They were amazing. Thank you so much Miss Lui for making this possible.

Last Thursday Mrs Jeffs, Miss Kellett, and Mr Insley took 50 students to compete in the interschool athletics competition. Our students showed their Botany Best and we were all very proud. Our results are outlined below.  

The colours look great on our newly painted Rooms 1-20 and it has been confirmed that our whole school will finish being painted in these colours during the school holidays. This will be wonderful as we have a lot of beautiful artwork waiting to be put up. All our existing murals will be taken down for repainting and then put up again too. 

Our Fun Run donations have made such a difference and we are able to purchase items that the Ministry of Education does not fund that enhance our school for our tamariki.

From this year’s Fun Run we have:

• Topped up our wonderful grant from Basketball NZ for our new basketball hoops
• Painted new lines for sports and games on our asphalt
• Ordered a new shade sail for over the sandpit 
• Made our new sandpit much bigger than our old sandpit
• Installed a new shade sail for playground games and  lunch eating over in our Year Four area

Absolutely amazing thank you!

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

Coming up @ BDS…

Thurs 23 Nov – BYOD meeting for Yr 3, 4 & 5 parents
Fri 24 Nov – Junior Athletics Day
Wed 29 Nov – PTA Jester’s Pie Day
Mon 4 Dec – PTA meeting
Fri 8 Dec – No Uniform Day
Wed 13 Dec – School Board meeting
** click here to view more of the school calendar **

End-of-Year Dates

Wed 6 Dec – Yr 3/4 Big Day In
Thurs 7 Dec – Yr 0/1/2 Prizegiving 9.15-10.30am
Fri 8 Dec – Yr 0/1/2 Big Day In
Tues 12 Dec – Yr 3/4 Prizegiving 9.15-10.30am
Wed 13 Dec – Yr 5/6 Prizegiving & Yr 6 Graduation 9.15-11.30am
Thurs 14 Dec – Yr 5/6 Big Day In
Fri 15 Dec – Last day of 2023 – school closes at 12 noon

Dates for 2024

Term 1: Thursday 1 February – Friday 12 April
Waitangi Day – Tuesday 6 February (public holiday)
Good Friday – Friday 29 March (public holiday)
Easter Monday – Monday 1 April (public holiday)
Easter Tuesday – Tuesday 2 April (school holiday)
ANZAC Day – Thursday 25 April (public holiday during term holiday)

Term 2: Monday 29 April – Friday 5 July
TEACHER ONLY DAY – Friday 31 May
King’s Birthday – Monday 3 June (public holiday)
Matariki Holiday – Friday 28 June (public holiday)

Term 3: Monday 22 July – Friday 27 September

Term 4: Monday 14 October – Tuesday 17 December
TEACHER ONLY DAY – Friday 25 October
Labour Day – Monday 28 October (public holiday)

SCHOOL NEWS

Bring Your Own Device (BYOD)

BYOD (Bring Your Own Device) Meeting 
2023 Year 3, 4, 5 parents 5-6pm in the staffroom
Thursday 23 November 2023

In 2024, our Year 4, Year 5, and Year 6 students may bring their own devices to school each day. Students who do not bring their own devices will continue to have access to school-owned devices. 

Please visit the following link for more information on recommended devices your child could bring: https://www.pbtech.co.nz/education/byod/botany-downs-school 

At Botany Downs School, we highly recommend a Microsoft or Chrome OS device.

The minimum screen size should be 11″ as our testing program will not work with smaller screens.

If you do decide that your 2024 Year 4, 5 or 6 child will bring their own device in 2024, BYOD agreement forms will be sent home at the beginning of the 2024 school year. Students are unable to bring their device until a completed form is returned to school.

For any enquiries please email Mr Yoon: sojungy@botanydowns.school.nz

School Magazine

At BDS we celebrate the year at our kura with photos and stories in our school magazine. This is a wonderful summary of the school year and we know many of our whānau treasure this magazine. 

School Magazine – $20

Purchase your 2023 Botany Downs School Magazine NOW!
Deadline December 1 (Week 8 Friday).

Order now:
Pay via Kindo OR BDS bank account number 12-3089-0059300-00 OR
pay at the school office by EFTPOS

PTA – James Russell Signed Books for Purchase

Botany Downs School PTA has partnered with Kiwi best-selling children’s author James Russell to give you the opportunity to buy his books, personally signed to your child. A great Christmas gift for keen readers and $5 from every book purchased will go towards our ongoing fundraising.

Details of all books can be viewed at www.dragonbrothersbooks.com where the first few pages are available to read to see if they might suit your child.

Order forms were distributed last week, please return them with payment by Tuesday 28th November.  Any questions, please email pta@botanydowns.school.nz.

Interschool Athletics

Last Thursday Mrs Jeffs, Miss Kellett, and Mr Insley took 50 students to compete in the interschool athletics competition. There were 11 schools involved in the day and Botany had some great results:

Ashley Cajayon – 1st: 8 Year old Softball Throw 
Logan Hunter – 2nd:  8 Year old championship 70 m and 100m 
Khleigh Velasco – 1st: 8 year old age group 70m, 100 m and Softball throw
Gurparvan Singh – 3rd: 9 year old age group 70m
Wiandre Nel – 2nd: 9 year old 2nd  softball throw
Roselynne Tokai – 1st: 10 year old championship 100m / 2nd: 10 year old high jump
Gemma Brealey – 1st: 10 year old  age group 70 m / 2nd: 10 year old age group 100m
Lachlan Mchardy – 1st: 10 year old high jump
Richie Lewis – 1st: 10 year old softball throw
Tanique Bischoff – 2nd: 11 year old high jump
Stella McHardy – 1st: 11 year old softball throw
Saket Andala – 1st: 11 year old softball throw

Logan Hunter, Owen Huang, Matthew Peterson, Gurparvan Singh – 2nd: 9 and under boys relay team:

Diwali Celebrations

Festival of Lights, Diwali is a celebration of good over evil. The dark night is lit up with diyas, candles, lights, and fireworks. There is lots of delicious food to eat too. Tanya performed a beautiful Indian dance to help our school celebrate this festival.

Request for Lego Donations

Miss Heath, our Learning Support Coordinator, is requesting that if there are whānau with Lego no longer needed at home we would be very grateful for any donations. We are specifically needing a variety of mini figures and small build kits (with instructions included) but loose bricks would also be appreciated. 

Please send any Lego donations to the school office or directly to the LSC office. Thank you.

Susan Heath, Learning Support Coordinator (susanh@botanydowns.school.nz)

Stockade Hill Performance

Last Friday, our school orchestra and choir participated in the Stockade Hill Christmas Lights Performance in Howick. The orchestra played “A Million Dreams” and “Christmas Allsorts”. The choir sang “Pokarekare Ana” and “Twelve Days of Christmas”. It was our first time performing at the event. The spirits were high, even in the rain. Thank you to all the parents and teachers who came and supported us!

School Disco

Friday night saw the return of the school disco and what a huge success it was.  With over 450 tickets sold there were plenty of happy excited faces and lots of dancing.  The PTA would like to thank all the parent helpers and staff who made this amazing event possible.

Fun Run

We were thrilled to be able to hand out so many prizes at our assembly last Friday.  Congratulations to the students who were randomly selected to win vouchers and to our top four individual fundraisers who made a huge effort to raise so much money for our school. Room 8 raised the most as a class and today enjoyed a pizza party with Mrs Parkins. Room 1 and Room 13 also enjoyed free ice blocks as a reward for raising over $1000 as a class.

We really appreciate everyone’s support!

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 4, Room 23: In Room 23 we have been learning about animals and their habitats. We learnt about what animals need to survive in their environment, which led us to thinking about the food chain. We understand that there are different parts of the food chain, and if one is missing, it can affect the entire ecosystem. After lots of research about the food chain, we created this awesome artwork which shows our understanding of producers, herbivores, carnivores and omnivores, and how they all work together to make the food chain.

Year 5, Room 26: Working hard on their animal habitat dioramas…

Student Success

On our recent Teacher Only Day, Lexi Storey of Room 19 spent the day drawing and painting her bedroom wall.  She created her own wall mural.  First, she sketched it out on the wall freehand and then painted it by herself. Below is the final result. Well done Lexi!

LIBRARY NEWS

Summer Reading 2023 – Register Now!

After a successful Summer Reading programme last year, we are excited to offer this opportunity once again for our students. 

• For BDS students in Years 0/1-5 only. Students must be returning to BDS in 2024.
• By giving permission to take part, parents agree to ensure books are cared for and returned in the first week of Term 1 2024.
• Parents/caregivers also agree to reimburse the school for any lost or damaged books.
• Only students who have had a form signed are able to borrow books. Borrowing will be available in Weeks 9 & 10.
• Registered students will be able to borrow up to 10 library books for the summer.

Why sign up for Summer Reading? The best way to improve literacy skills is to keep practising them. This is particularly important over the long summer holidays, and it helps to keep students reading levels up. Plus, it is a fun thing to do!

If you would like your child to borrow school library books over the summer, please complete and submit this form: Sign up for Summer Reading

COMMUNITY NOTICES

A variety of different sports each week!

Thursdays after school. Get your kids into Active!
Click here for more information and to book in: Botany sKids Active

BNZ Breakers

The school holidays are nearly upon us – keep the kids entertained by taking them to an action-
packed game of basketball and show them the best of New Zealand basketball.

The BNZ Breakers have 8 Auckland games remaining this season and every single game promises plenty of fun, giveaways, and entertainment for the whole family. Choose the dates that suit you and get behind the BNZ Breakers. Tickets are on sale at www.ticketmaster.co.nz

Pay the kindo way: https://botanydowns.school.nz/kindo/