Newsletter – Week 9, Term 2, 2022 – Botany Downs Primary School

Kia ora koutou BDS whānau, Week 9, Term 2, 2022

Thank you to all our BDS whānau who came to celebrate Matariki and see the performance of our sensational kapa haka, and spent time in classrooms and sharing morning tea. We have some great photos below.

The staff have had another very successful TOD and this time has been invaluable for us to make progress with our BDS Learner Capabilities, Values and Learner Agency. Later on in the year we will be asking for participation in focus groups and responses to further surveys. Thank you once again for your support and input into surveys.

Our parent conference bookings are open and we all look forward to seeing you next week on either the 6th or 7th July. During these conferences we will share your child’s progress and achievements in their learning, and this is also an opportunity to discuss the mid-year report.

Please look further below for our report explanation. We will also identify some next steps and ways that you may help at home. You are welcome to bring along your child. These parent conferences will be held on site and face to face. For Health and Safety reasons and to keep everyone as safe as possible mask wearing is compulsory unless you have a mask exemption pass from the Ministry of Health. School reports will be sent home on 5 July.

We have a very busy week ahead with the hockey and rugby field days, World vision, Cross-country and on Friday the Crazy Hat Day. Please do keep your eye on the school calendar and please scroll right through the newsletter so you are informed and can share all the wonderful activities that are happening.

Ngā mihi nui,

Vicki Parkins Principal vickip@botanydowns.school.nz

Coming up @ BDS…

Thurs 30 June – Yr4-6 Cross-country
Fri 1 July – Crazy Hat Non-uniform day
Week 10 – BOOK WEEK
Wed 6 July – Parent/teacher interviews, 3.20-5.10pm
Thurs 7 July – Parent/teacher interviews, 3.20-7.40pm
Fri 8 July – Book Character Parade / Last Day of Term 2
Mon 25 July – First Day of Term 3
Wed 27 Jul – Howick Int visiting Yr 6 / BoT meeting
Thurs 28 July – Somerville Int visiting Yr 6
Mon 8 Aug – Stardome trip Yr 6
Thurs 11 Aug – Howick Int open day / Stardome trip Yr 5

Kadina Place School Gate

Kadina Place Gate to School Closed from Wednesday 29 June 2022
Until Further Notice

Due to the safety of the students at BDS we need to close the gate entrance to BDS from Kadina Place on Wednesday 29 June until further notice.

Furthermore, if you are entering through Booralee Ave gate you will need to walk across the field as the pathway will be blocked.

Thank you for your understanding.
Astley Construction

Parent Teacher Interviews

SCHOOL NEWS

Botany BEST & Values

Botany BEST: Adam Shawani, Yara El Chami, Ali Moshtagh Askari, Fedya Chibel, Jasgun Mavi, Hallie Bredenbeck, Tiana Parsons, Finn O’Neill, Charlotte Walsh, Wickus Botha, Mika Nel, Sui Gu, Isabella Liang, Sean Hwang, Milan Gahunia, Landon Bishton, Ruby Chen, Luke Chang & Simon Huang.

Values: Greta Xie, Max Fu, Emma Kamakorewa, Gracie Grainger, Alfred Wang, Enoch Liu, Azalea Ngo, Connor Rudman, Yongha Kim, Nathan Christians, Hasrat Dhillon, Lanxi Han, Muhammad Ahmed, Mighael Nel, Tanique Bischoff, Ben Wynyard & Ayla Richards.

End of Term Certificates – Junior School: GenasisTaylor-Wihongi, Zean Wang, Oliver De Bruin, Cordelia Prentice, Mia Cajayon, Elliot Cheng, Gabriella Venter, Finn O’Neill, Chloe Jack, Joshua Chuah, Bree Clark, Skylar Yip, Isla Jones & Jon Wu.

This week’s assembly is for Years 0-3, and will be held on Friday, 9.10am.

SchooI Board Parent Election 2022

Nomination round

Our school will be undertaking a parent election for three (3) School Board vacancies. This process will start with the issuing of nomination papers to our caregiver community by Friday 15th July 2022.

We have employed CES to undertake the election process on our behalf. This year with legislative change, our nomination form and full instruction on how to place your nomination into our own School’s Election website will be emailed to you if we have your email address in our database or you will receive it by post if we don’t have your email in our database.

Nomination papers will also be available at the school office. The school will send those on to CES for processing upon receipt from candidates.

Nominations close on Wednesday 3 August at 12 noon. Election day is Wednesday 7 September.

We look forward to your participation in this process.

Year 4, 5 and 6 Cross-country

Date: Thursday 30th June

Saving Day: Friday 1st July

Venue: Botany Downs School

Course Length: Year 4 and Year 5 – 1.5 km. Year 6 – about 2 km.

Cross-country is an opportunity for students 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.

Students will need:

Sunscreen if sunny
Running shoes (because of health and safety around the footpaths and cross country course)
School PE uniform
Water bottle
School jumper or fleece jacket

Programme: (Please note the first race will begin at 1pm and subsequent races will begin on completion of the previous race. We are unable to give start times)

12.45 pm – Assemble on field
1.00pm – Year 4 Girls
Year 4 Boys
Year 5 Girls
Year 5 Boys
Year 6 Girls
Year 6 Boys

Supporters: We would love you to come along to support the students. Please ensure you remain off the course where students are running.

To help with the organisation of our Year 4, 5 and 6 Cross-country we do require some parent assistance. If you are able to help please email Mr D’Ambrosio in Room 18: joed@botanydowns.school.nz

Waste Audit at Botany Downs Primary

On the 10th of June this term, students and Mr. Huskinson carried out our fourth waste audit on the rubbish in Botany Downs Primary. The aim is to reduce the amount of rubbish the school sends to landfill. Reducing the amount of rubbish that goes into the ground has a positive effect on our local environment. This will also reduce the amount the school pays for rubbish collection.

A waste audit involves gathering all the trash that the school produces in a day and sorting the rubbish into categories to see what the students and staff are throwing out each day.

What Did We Find?

Botany Downs Priamry School produced 15.26 kilograms of rubbish on the 10th of June this year. Below is a graph of what was in the rubbish:

Almost half (42.9%) of the rubbish is paper that is recycled. The school sends this paper to be remade/recycled into office paper. This is an excellent result and a big increase from previous years, where much of the paper rubbish was not recycled and sent into landfill. Well done to students and staff!!

Another 41% of the rubbish is organic waste, either food waste (19.3%) or hand towels from the bathrooms (22%). BDS was composting hand towels and organic food waste in 2019, but this stopped with Covid and now the organic wase and hand towels are not collected and are going into landfill. This is not good for our local environment, and costs the school money as the school skip-bin ( a very large red bin) needs to be collected more often.

The school will start composting the hand towels next term. To do this we will mix coffee waste with the hand towels, so we can make compost for our school gardens.

This will reduce the amount of rubbish we pay to have collected by more than 20% and have a positive impact on our local environment by reducing the amount of rubbish going into landfill.

Tom Huskinson, Enviroment Team Teacher in Charge, (tomh@botanydowns.school.nz)

Matariki Celebration

What an amazing week celebrating Matariki at BDS. The whole school engaged in a range of meaningful learning. Our school celebrated Matariki by sharing Māori cultural traditions, telling stories, singing waiata and creating art. We ended the week with a beautiful performance by our Kapa Haka, an art walk through and a shared morning tea with whānau.

A huge thank you to everyone who supported the special occasion.

Ngā mihi o Matariki, te tau hou Māori.
Michelle Takaiti, Māori Curriculum Teacher (michellet@botanydowns.school.nz)

Book Week Reminders

Book Week is coming up next week (Week 10) and we are all excited as we get to dress up for the Book Character Parade on Friday 8th. Thank you also to those parents who have offered to assist with the Scholastic Book Fair Sales and to all of you who are already preparing costumes for the parade. We look forward to seeing all the different characters, big and small, short and tall!

We are also excited to welcome our special guests: Spangle the Storyteller on Tuesday (Yr0-2) and author Peter Millett on Wednesday (Yr 3-6).

Spangle the Storyteller

Peter Millett, author

Also, remember to bring your soft toy friend to school to read to on Wednesday! We hope you have a great week celebrating books!

Book Fair helpers needed… please contact our librarian, Vanessa Hatley-Owen, if you can spare some time to help run the Book Fair (taking payments, helping shoppers etc): vanessah@botanydowns.school.nz. Your help is greatly appreciated!

Sharmila Raj, Book Week Coordinator, (sharmilar@botanydowns.school.nz)

Update on Written Reports for 2022
Following on From November 2021

The purpose of a written report is to communicate clear, dependable information about a child’s learning, providing a formal evaluation of their progress and achievement. Written reports are completed twice per year.

To assist with how we show progress and achievement for the essential subjects of Reading, Writing and Mathematics, there is a graph that accompanies the teacher comment. The graph shows your child’s progress based on an Overall Teacher Judgement (OTJ) made by the class teacher at the Mid and End of year for each Year level. The OTJ is indicated by a black dot.

To make an OTJ, teachers use a triangulation of evidence that includes:

Observation of Process (informal assessments) e.g. classroom observations, work books
Learning conversations e.g. conferencing, discussions
Tool Outcomes (standardised testing) e.g. e-asTTle

Due to Covid 19 lockdowns teachers were unable to carry out all of the necessary evidence to make an OTJ at the End of Year for 2021, therefore, your child’s teacher added a Covid Indicator. This is represented by a red dot and indicates the progress your child may have made if they were completing learning at school. See example below of what the red dot looked like on our new progress and achievement graphs.

This year your child’s report in July 2022 will be a true indicator of their progress since July 2021 within their NZ Curriclulum Level.

Covid Indicator Red Dot Example:

Property Progess…

The photos below show some of the work underway on the Junior turf, and the road needed to prepare for the classroom move:

BDS Learning and Fun

Year 3, Room 6 – We read a poem called “Truggle Tree Monsters”. We dyed some Tree Truggle Monsters and added crayon and feathers. We are very proud of our monsters.

Children Turning Five

If your child is turnng 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 Deputy Principal Years 0-3 (joanneh@botanydowns.school.nz)

LIBRARY NEWS

Scholastic Book Fair – Week 10!

As part of our Book Week, the annual Scholastic Book Fair will again be open next week, full of wonderful books to purchase at great prices. The Book Fair will be open daily (see times below). By supporting the Book Fair you not only help develop your child’s reading skills, you also help the school gain valuable resources – thank you!