Newsletter – Week 6, Term 4 2023 – Botany Downs Primary School

Kia ora koutou BDS whānau, Week 6, Term 4, 2023

Our Fun Run was a huge success! Our tamariki had so much fun and it was great seeing friends and family coming along to support on the day. Thank you so much to our amazing BDS whānau who raised over $24,000. Outstanding! Our parent helpers were really appreciated and the Les Mills instructors did a great job warming everyone up before the run. A special thank you to Mrs Kate Keenan who organised this event, a huge job, and to our teaching team who have provided motivation and encouraged friendly competition between classes. Sensational.

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

Coming up @ BDS…

Wed 15 Nov – School Board meeting
Thurs 16 Nov – HPPA Athletics
Fri 17 Nov – School Disco
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
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
Labour Day – Monday 28 October (public holiday)

SCHOOL NEWS

Botany Best and Values

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 from the choir.

Congratulations to our following tamariki who have shown their Botany Best by displaying our Capabilities: Jaskiran Kaur, Kayla Martins-Fouche, Skyla McCallister-Lee Carolyn Xu, Jasmine Yip, Whitney Chan, Ruoxi Wang, Mohsin Rana, Kelvin Gu, Sarah Tbakhi, Zara Watson, Ryan Hu, Minji Kim, Elizabeth Valentine, Harkirat Gill, Hanro Stoltz, Zerahiah Turner, Evan Guo, Dhrishiv Katal, Khanak Khanak, Caden Van Niekerk, Sienna Tye, Caroline Animu, Aydan Boparai, Yi Sen Qi, Zaria Cormack, Carter Kenny, Huntr Bishton, Lisa Huang, Ryker McCallister-Lee, Ruian Zhang, Nikita Winterstein, Marcus Ismail, Zean Wang, Camilla Chen, Gemma Green, Gurparveen Singh, Christopher Le, Wiandre Nel.

Congratulations to the following tamariki who have displayed our value of Manawanui/Resilience: Eric Li, Emily Green, Le Zhi Liu, Rosanna Siew, Keileb Dell, Nicholas Botha, Boan Zhang, Daniel Turner, Nina Phanwa, Tyler Bernard, Deandre Stanley Hunt, Athena-Lyn Parkin, Andrew Chen, Chenxi Zhao, Shorya Saharan, Quintus Wang, Dante Eason, Sebastian Zuo, Milan Li, Uriel Su’a, Dana Kim, Yuri Kang, Jade Lundgren, Max Yang, Rishi Biju, Madeline Wong, Kayla De Lange, Saket Andala, Dylan Davis, Nathan Christians, Lucas Chan, Sidney Chai, Schyler Daniels, Shane Hwang, Harley Tye, Nature Parsons, Arlie Clements-Goh, Liam Forrest, Tanush Tailor, Lisa Zhang, Lucian Hadrup.

Fun Run

We had a fantastic Fun Run on Friday and were so proud of all our students who showed their Botany Best and worked hard for their donations! Thanks to the Les Mills trainers who generously gave their time to take every class through an awesome warmup. Thanks also to John Russell Schoolwear for sponsoring the inflatables that really added to the excitement of the day! Thanks to the staff, students & parents who helped and to those who came to watch.

Congratulations again to the classes who raised a combined total of over $1000. Today Rooms 1 and 13 enjoyed their free ice blocks as well as Room 2 who were given a second free ice block as they raised a massive $2,220! We really appreciate everyone who has supported our fundraising and are so pleased to have raised over $24,000 to go towards enhancing our outdoor spaces and play areas.

At our assembly this Friday, we will announce our major prize winners. Thanks again to our sponsors Matassa Property Services, Paradice Botany, and Playground Creations.

Kate Keenan, Fun Run coordinator (katek@botanydowns.school.nz)

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

Year 3/4 Poetry Recital

On Wednesday, 16 finalists from the Years 3 and 4 classes recited their poems to the Middle School. They all performed with confidence and we are very proud of their efforts. Thank you to our judges; Ms Heath, Mrs Hughson and Mrs Hatley-Owen. It would not have been an easy decision!

Congratulations to all of our finalists. The results were:

1st – Henil Tailor, Room 25
2nd – Cooper Ellis, Room 20
3rd – Emma Lee, Room 22

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 – School Disco on Friday –
Get your tickets and vouchers today!

Year 0-3 5.30pm – 6.30pm
Year 4-6 7pm – 8.30pm
Ticket Price – $6 per child

Prepaid vouchers available ($4, $6, $8, $10)
Pre-paid vouchers can be used to buy glowsticks, food, drinks, and treats: all items are $2

Tickets and vouchers are available for purchase through Kindo until
midday on Wednesday 15 November, or at the school office via cash or EFTPOS

School Sports Shirts

We are having an amnesty on school sports shirts. If your child has represented the school in any sports this year or previous years and you have forgotten to hand back the shirt they borrowed can you please return it to the school office, no questions asked by the end of the week.
Thank you.

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 1, Room 9: We have been loving our Inquiry this term! For Art we each picked two animals and combined them together to create a new animal. We then wrote about what they looked like and where they lived focusing on adding details to our writing. Here are our amazing new animals and some fantastic writing.

My animals are a dolphin and a cheetah. It is called dolphtah. Its colour is grey, yellow, and brown. It lives in the ocean. My animal eats fish. My animal has sharp claws.
Demi Tseng

My animal is a fox combined with a butterfly. It has beautiful wings so it can fly. It is medium size. It lives in the forest. It has green and purple circles on its wings. It eats grass.
Elliot Cheng

My animals are a bunny and a butterfly. It is called a bunnyfly. It lives in the sky. Its colour is white, pink and purple. It also has cute eyes and a love heart nose. My animal eats carrots. Olivia Chen

Year 6, Room 17: Room 17 students have been learning how to sketch. After learning some techniques we sketched cans, looking at how the light was reflecting off them. We then did some weaving to use as a background for the cans.

Student Success…

Rafa Zhao has been playing tennis for more than three years and has had great success this year. In May he won the 2023 Cockle Bay Tennis U10 Club Champs, and is the club U10 Boys Singles Champion. In October he won the Tennis Northern Junior Tournament Sunday series and won the U10 Boys Singles. He is also a maths whizz and competed successfully in several competitions:

KSF Math Competition – High Distinction (Middle Primary Division)
Australian Mathematics Competition – Distinction (Middle Primary Division)
ICAS Mathematics – High Distinction (Year 4)

Congratulations on your wonderful achievements Rafa!

LIBRARY NEWS

Library Closed for Stocktake

Please note: the library is closed this week for our annual stocktake. Books can still be returned to Botany Bob (after-hours return bin located in the office foyer) – this is especially important for overdue books – please return them this week. Thank you.

Summer Reading 2023

After a successful Summer Reading programme last year, we are excited to offer this opportunity once again for our students. Registrations will open next week for students in Years 1-5 who are returning to BDS in 2024.

Why sign up for Summer Reading? The best way to improve literacy skills is to keep practising. 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!