Week 3, Term 2, 2024
Kia ora koutou Parents and BDS Whānau,
At Botany Downs School, we value our parent and caregiver thoughts about what we do. Please take a few minutes to complete this survey regarding our Health and Physical Education Curriculum. Your feedback is greatly appreciated and will be used to support our future decision making in designing and delivering this important curriculum learning area.
Health and Physical Education Survey 2024
This Thursday we celebrate our amazing Support Staff. We truly appreciate their hard work and the high level of skill and passion they bring to our kura as well as the wonderful support they give our tamariki and teachers! Thank you Trish Toussaint, Aroha Bishop, Nancy Marston, Tash Ferguson, Wendy Willetts, Lucy Agius, Kirsten Hartnoll, Deon Stuart, and Vanessa Hatley-Owen.
Ngā mihi nui,
Vicki Parkins, Principal – Tumuaki (vickip@botanydowns.school.nz)
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Coming up @ BDS…
Wed 15 May – PTA Jester’s Pie Day
Fri 17 May – Pink Shirt Day
Wed 22 May – PhotoLife Class & Individual Photos
Thurs 23 May – PhotoLife Sibling Photos
Fri 24 May – HPPA Rugby Day 1
Sun 26 May – PTA Bricks, Books and Bake Sale
Tues 28 May – HPPA Netball Day 2
Wed 29 May – HPPA Girls Soccer Day 1
Fri 31 May – Teacher Only Day
Mon 3 June – King’s Birthday (public holiday)
Tues 4 June – PTA meeting
Wed 5 June – PTA Jester’s Pie Day
Thurs 6 June – HPPA Soccer Field Day
Fri 7 June – HPPA Rugby Day 2
** click here to view more of the school calendar **
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PhotoLife Class/Individual & Sibling Photos
On Wednesday 22 May our class and individual photos will be taken. On Thursday 23 May sibling photos will be taken. Please ensure that your child is wearing the correct winter uniform for both days.
A separate flyer will be coming home today with more information and a consent form for siblings’ photos to be taken.
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Pink Shirt Day: Friday 17th May
Pink Shirt Day is an event celebrated globally and is an opportunity to celebrate our school environment where we all feel safe, valued and respected.
At Botany Downs, we encourage students to use our school values, skills and strategies to keep themselves and others safe. Classes will continue to engage in activities to promote a safe environment where everyone feels respected and valued. We pride ourselves on having no tolerance for bullying.
Students are encouraged to wear pink as we Kōrero Mai, Kōrero Atu, Mauri Tū, Mauri Ora – Speak Up, Stand Together, Stop Bullying!
If you would like to make a donation, please visit the following website: Donate to Pink Shirt Day
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Book Week – What a Week!
What a wonderful week we had celebrating books! It started on Monday with a staff flashmob at the grand opening of our Where’s Wally themed week of fun and events. Lunchtimes saw students doing activities in the library, and running around the school finding Wally in various classroom windows.
We had two award-winning authors, Heather Haylock and Anne Kayes, come to visit and on Thursday we all evacuated to the field to read!
The Book Fair is always popular with students purchasing books and other goodies. A huge thank you to the PTA for their help running the sales: Jena, Joe, Natasha, Sarah, and Rachel, as well as Nancy who stepped in to cover.
On Friday we finished the week with our fun dress-up day. It’s great to see the students celebrating their favourite book characters, and we are always impressed with the creativity shown. Thank you, parents, for supporting your children to take part and congratulations to the costume winners:
Well done also to our other competition winners:
Wally in the Window: Alexander, Room 18
Colouring Competition: Junior – Leo, Room 3, Middle – Miles, Room 29, Senior – Ryker, Room 22
Happy Book Poster: a joint project by Tiana and Isla, Room 22
Thank you to everyone for getting behind Book Week, and thanks to the Book Week staff team for their work organising and making it lots of fun: Mrs Hughson, Miss Smith, Mrs Fromont, Miss Chand, Mrs Jeffs, Mrs Holmes, and Mrs Hatley-Owen.
Be sure to check out our school Facebook page for more photos…
 Creating bookmarks in the library
 Room 19 visiting Te Hikoi Korero / Storywalk
 BDS loves reading!
 Dress-up Day
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Botany Best & Values
We invite you to attend our school assembly on Friday at 9.10 am. This week our item will be from Room 18.
Values
Congratulations to the following tamariki who have displayed our value of Responsibility, Kaitiakitanga : Corwin Zhang, Aliya Christian, Hannah Biddick, Makarios Tufue, Otto Ward, Rubleen Kaur, Daisy Huang, Xena-Leigh Hamilton, Dillon Jardine-Trail, Joy-Ellen Tokai, Cordelia Prentice, Lianie Vorster, Lillias Fisher, Lucas Chen, Mila Ritchie, Teagan Andrew, Anthony Zhou, Aris Ezra Fesolai, Gurparveen Singh, Ayeza Zahidani, Devansh Manseta, Zahara Williams & Xiyue Wang. 
Botany Best
Congratulations to our following tamariki who have shown their Botany Best by displaying our Capabilities: Brody Tynan, Amanda Kim, Finn Roosenbrand, Hugo Liang, Amelia Mun, Hajar Al-Jumaily, Kaida Jones, Vaice Gasologa, Logan Baker, Sarah Shawani, Dante Eason, Hadassah Shamuel, Gus McCrindle, Oscar Wong, Ryker McCallister-Lee, Dara Inventor, Chloe Cooke, Jeremiah Valentine, Cameron Burgess, Connor Rudman, Daisy Wu, Vion Lee & Ian Wang.
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PTA Notices…
Brick Show – Sunday 26th May –
This is the last week to pre-purchase tickets and donate books and raffle items. Buy your tickets on Kindo by Friday 17th May. Tickets will also be available on the day of the event. Book and raffle donations are accepted daily outside the hall from 8.30-8.50am until Friday 17th May.
Remember to keep working on building your best LEGO® brick creation for the upcoming competition at the Brick Show. It’s time to unleash your creativity, show off your skills and be in to win one of three LEGO® sets. Grab those bricks and start building something amazing. Let’s see what incredible masterpieces you can create!
Thank you for your support.
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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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Missing a Teddy?
Someone’s friend was left behind in the library during Book Week. They are having fun and being looked after but are ready to go home now…
Please pop into the library to collect them.
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Auckland Writers Festival –
FREE Family Events This Weekend!
The annual Auckland Writers Festival opens this week and Saturday 18 and Sunday 19 features Pukapuka Adventures – fun events for children. There are loads of FREE events to enjoy… click here to view: Pukapuka Adventures
 
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Pakuranga College is seeking to employ a Homestay Co-ordinator to work in our International Students Department.
This is a fixed term, part time position for 20 hours per week and will include working during the evening, weekends and school holidays.
Please see our school website for further details https://www.pakuranga.school.nz/work-with-us/.
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HJ Elite Academy – After School Soccer
Registration for our Term 2 after school soccer programme is now open. To register click here.
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