Kia ora koutou BDS whānau, Week 1, Term 4, 2023
Welcome back to the final school term for 2023 and a very warm welcome to our new whānau who are joining us this term. Term 4 is always special as we head into summer.
We also welcome back Miss Sophie Hill from her overseas adventures. Thank you to Ms Tineke Oed for her dedicated and enthusiastic teaching of Room 4 during Term 3.
Our Cultural Performance Evening was a huge success in the last week of term. The performance items were outstanding and the audience turnout and enthusiasm was exceptional. Thank you to Mrs Sharmila Raj who was our school leader for the evening and to our amazing Deputy Principals, Team Leaders, staff, and tamariki for all your mahi to make the evenings such a success.
During the holidays we have had many property developments and it is well worth visiting the school just to see how our kura is developing. We now have: our road to the hall completed, our concrete paths fixed, the holes in our tarsealed area patched, a new pathway to the senior playground and the surrounding areas grassed, new netball hoops in the senior turfed area, and our new, very flash, basketball hoops funded partly by a grant from Basketball New Zealand. We are still on track for our new build of six classrooms to be completed this year and in the school holidays, the rest of the school will be painted, the teacher’s car park extended and the haul road reworked into a road without stones.
Thank you to all our BDS whānau who completed the survey. We had the highest responses from any survey we have sent home. We are very pleased indeed with the results as you have shown us by your responses that teaching and learning, relationships with whānau, and school culture are seen as real strengths at BDS.
Using these results and a few other short surveys and focus groups in the near future, we will begin creating our new Strategic Plan for 2024-2025. We will be sending out the results in pie graphs in a separate email.
It is wonderful seeing everyone rested and ready to be back to school.
Ngā mihi nui,
Vicki Parkins, Principal – Tumuaki (vickip@botanydowns.school.nz)
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Coming up @ BDS…
Wed 11 Oct – Year 0/1 Zoo trip
Sat 14 Oct – NZ General Election (voting booths available at BDS)
Mon 16 Oct – Yr 4&6 Swimming @ Lloyd Elsmore begins
Tues 17 Oct – Yr 5 Swimming @ Lloyd Elsmore begins
Tues 17 Oct – HPPA Mathex
Wed 18 Oct – School Board meeting
Thurs 19 Oct – HPPA Rugby
Fri 20 Oct – Fruju Fridays begin
Mon 23 Oct – Labour Day (public holiday)
Wed 25 Oct – PTA Jester’s Pie Day
Thurs 26 Oct – Senior school athletics
Fri 3 Nov – Gumboot Friday
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
** click here to view more of the school calendar **
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SchooI Board Parent Mid-Term Election 2023
Nomination round
Our school will be undertaking a mid-term parent election for two School Board vacancies.
This process will start with the issuing of nomination papers to our caregiver community by
Friday 22nd September 2023.
We have employed CES to undertake the election process on our behalf. This year with
legislative change, our nomination form and full instructions 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 11th October at 12 noon.
Election day is Wednesday 15th November.
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Our Capabilities
Our Values
Our focus Value for the first five weeks of Term 4 is Respect, Manaakitanga. Please read the poster below to see how we show Manaakitanga at BDS:
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Term 4 Summer Uniform
Term Four is time for our summer uniform which includes our BDS hat. The accompanying footwear is either sandals or plain black shoes with the matching socks, depending on whether your child is wearing a skort, shorts, or a tunic.
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Weetbix Tryathlon
Don’t forget to join the school Tryathlon team. So far we have 17 students registered and we would love to get more! Please use the link below to register:
Click here to join the Botany Downs team!
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Property Update – Photos…
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Cultural Performance Evening
Two outstanding evenings with performances from cultures all across the world! Our tamariki showed how talented they were and the support from our whānau was incredible. The kaiaiko of our kura led these evenings with a lot of haumāuiui. Ka pai BDS!
Sharmila Raj, Inquiry Coordinator (sharmilar@botanydowns.school.nz)
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HPPA Chinese Speech Competition
Congratulations to Katrina Guo who won second place in the HPPA Mandarin Speech Competition at the end of last term and Memphis Kwok who won third place in the HPPA Cantonese Speech Competition. We are very proud of these achievements!
Kate Keenan, ESOL Teacher (katek@botanydowns.school.nz)
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Language Weeks
Over the holidays we celebrated Tuvalu Language Week and this week is Fijian Language Week – please see details below.
Yesterday was a South Korean language celebration. Every year, on October 9th, Koreans celebrate the Korean alphabet, or Hangul (한글), for Hangul Day.
This year’s theme for Macawa ni Vosa Vakaviti – Fijian Language Week is Me vakabulabulataki, vakamareqeti, ka vakaqaqacotaki na vosa vakaviti, which means, Nurture, Preserve and Sustain the Fijian language.
This year’s theme for Vaiaso o te Gana Tuvalu – Tuvalu Language Week is Fakatumau kae fakaakoi tau ‘gana ke mautu a iloga o ‘ta tuā
Fakatumau kae fakaakoi tau ‘gana ke mautu a iloga o ‘ta tuā means ‘preserve and embrace your language to safeguard our heritage identities’.
Kate Keenan, ESOL Teacher (katek@botanydowns.school.nz)
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2024 Enrolment at Howick Intermediate
Please ensure you have enrolled your Year 6 child if you are in-zone for Howick Intermediate – information is available on their website here: Enrolment for Howick Intermediate
They have a new parents information evening coming up on Wednesday 8 November 7:00pm in their school hall.
Year 6 Botany Downs students will visit Howick Intermediate for an Orientation on:
Wednesday 8 November, 9.30-10.30am
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Schedule of Orientation Visits to
Somerville Intermediate 2023
Date: Thursday 9th November 2023
9.15am -10.20 am: Cockle Bay & Owairoa Schools
11.00am -12.15pm: Point View & Willowbank Schools
1.30pm -2.30 pm: Shelly Park, Botany Downs, and contributing schools not named
Also on Thursday 9th November the New Parents evening will take place in the Somerville Intermediate gymnasium at 7pm. This is an opportunity for the parents to attend for an overview and ask any questions.
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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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Fun and Learning @ BDS
Year 3 – Room 25: Bula vinaka! This week, Room 25 celebrated Fijian Language Week by creating their own tropical masi flowers out of card.
They started by cutting petals out of card and decorating them with traditional Fijian patterns. From there, they coloured them in using felt pens so they were nice and colourful. Lastly, they folded the petals to make them look three dimensional before hot gluing them together to make the flowers.
Room 25 had so much fun creating these!
Year 4, Room 20 – Do you know the story of Te Pakuranga-Rāhihi? (The Battle of the Sun’s Rays)
The story of Te Pakuranga-Rāhihi is the story of Tamareia, Hinemairangi and the great battle known as Te Pakuranga Rāhihi.
Tamareia was a young chieftain of the Waitakere. Tamareia fell in love with Hinemairangi. Hinemairangi was the daughter of the Tūrehu chief of Hūnua-Papakura, Koiwiriki. The Tūrehu were the fairy people who lived in the forests and mountain tops.
Koiwiriki became very angry and started a battle. The battle was known as Te Pakuranga Rāhihi. The battle began at Ōhuiarangi (Pigeon Mountain).
We were inspired to paint portraits of Tamareia and Hinemairangi.
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Student Successes…
Raymond and Sunny played in the Global Games in Christchurch where Sonny was named MVP for one of the matches. They also went on to play in the Niuean Rep Team for League, and Raymond was named Tackler of the Match for the PYC tournament.
Siale and her brothers have now moved into playing Tag, representing Counties Manukau, and will move into the Oceania comp for Touch.
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Competition Winners!
Congratulations to Gemma Green and Henil Tailor; the lucky winners of last term’s reading competitions!
 Gemma won the ‘Just’ series review competition for Year 5&6
 Henil won the ‘Read Around the World’ competition
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Summer Hockey is Here!
Macleans College is excited to host Summer six-a-side hockey for Primary and Intermediate School aged students!
Ideal for school teams, a group of friends, or hockey teams who are looking for a social hockey competition over the summer!
Grades:
Intermediate School Grade – for players who attend intermediate school in 2023. Mixed teams (boys and girls)
Primary School Grade – for players who are in year 5 or 6 in primary school in 2023. Mixed teams (boys and girls)
Competition Dates:
Term 4 2023: Tuesdays, starting 24th October – 12th December (8 weeks of competition)
Game times between 4pm and 6pm
Venue: Macleans College Hockey turf (Oliver Road)
$280 per team (min 6 in a team, max 10)
The nitty gritties:
- Six-a-side mixed teams (team size max 10 players)
- Playing on 1/3 of a turf
- Games will consist of two 15 minute halves
To REGISTER a team please fill out the form below we will send you a confirmation email :
Registration Link : https://forms.gle/6xT3Hy1PhMwgRY5u9
Entries close Wednesday 18th October.
Entry fees to be paid to: ASB 12-3089-0341410-00
Use SUMMER HOCKEY and your team’s name as reference
For more information, please contact Margie or Liz at: macleanssummerhockey@gmail.com
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Click here to register: 
