Newsletter – Week 6, Term 1 2025 – Botany Downs Primary School

Week 6, Term 1, 2025

Tēnā koutou te whānau,

Our Year 6 students had an absolutely amazing time at camp in Chosen Valley. With the support of our fabulous teachers and wonderful parent helpers, the students embraced a range of exciting and challenging activities. Our tamariki built confidence and supported each other along the way.

The perfect weather made it even better, allowing everyone to fully enjoy the outdoor adventures. A huge thank you to all who made this camp such a fantastic experience.

Our Year 5 students will return from their camp at Willow Park this afternoon, Tuesday. Camps provide wonderful opportunities for our tamariki, with Year 5 students preparing for Year 6 and the exciting experiences ahead. We look forward to hearing about all their adventures.

A sincere thank you to our BDS whānau who have already contributed their school donation. Your support makes a real difference to our school and our tamariki. The School Board is not asking for an Activity Donation, this year, this will be directly related to school trips in our permission letters that go home.

Payment Options:

KINDO https://www.botanydowns.school.nz/kindo/ (If you have a KINDO account please use this as it will give you your tax receipt straight away)
Direct debit to our school bank account 12-3089-0059300-00
Payment can also be made at the office by Eftpos or Credit Card

Please contact our executive officer Trish Toussaint (trisht@botanydowns.school.nz) for any further questions about payment. Thank you.

Our tamariki are engaged and challenged with the new learning taking place from our four specialist teachers: P.E (Physical Education), STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering, Arts and Mathematics), Performing Arts, and Environmental Science. Thank you Mrs Marck, Mrs Jacobs, Mrs Childs, and Mrs Else for providing these quality learning opportunities in 2025.

We are incredibly proud of the teaching and learning at BDS. Our dedicated teachers support every student on their learning journey, and our Annual Plan reflects our commitment to continuous growth and improvement.

This year, we are embracing the new curriculum, Te Mātaiaho, while continuing to empower our tamariki through learner agency—encouraging ownership of learning through assessment and teaching sequences.

Strong connections with our whānau remain a priority, and we look forward to taking you on this journey with us. Together, we can support our students to thrive.

2025 Annual Plan – Key Focus Areas

Our 2025 Annual Plan is now available in full on our website: Annual Plan. Here are some key focus areas for the year:

Teaching and Learning (Ako)

Strengthening literacy and numeracy through Te Mātaiaho
Professional development for teachers in English and Mathematics
Enhancing student achievement through targeted learning strategies

Empowering Learners (Ākonga)

Supporting students to take ownership of their learning
Using assessment tools to guide teaching and learning
Encouraging student engagement and goal setting

Building Strong Relationships (Whanaungatanga)

Strengthening partnerships with whānau and the community
Providing opportunities for whānau to engage in learning conversations
Celebrating student success and cultural connections

We always welcome parent feedback on any aspect of our kura. Please contact me on: vickip@botanydowns.school.nz

Have a great week everyone.

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

Coming Up @BDS

Wed 12 Mar – PTA Jester’s Pie day / Cricket day
Thurs 13 Mar – Yr 5&6 Swimming Sports
Wed 19 Mar – School Board meeting, 6.00 p.m
Thurs 20 Mar – Grandparents’ Day; 1.30 p.m
Tues 25 Mar – Yr 3 Howick Historical Village (2 classes)
Wed 26 Mar – HPPA Swimming day
Wed 26 Mar – Yr 3 Howick Historical Village trip (2 classes)
Fri 28 Mar – Cricket final day / No Uniform day
Wed 2 Apr – PTA Jester’s Pie day
Tues 8 Apr – Pōwhiri, 10.00 a.m
Fri 11 Apr – ANZAC Special Assembly / Last day of Term 1

Grandparents’ Day Invitation

We warmly invite all grandparents to join us for Grandparents’ Day. This is a wonderful opportunity for tamariki to share their learning, show their school environment, and spend time with the special people in their lives. We welcome other special people who play a grandparent-like role in our students’ lives. We look forward to celebrating this special time together.

Date: Thursday 20 March
Location: Meet in the School Hall then you will go to the classrooms
Time: 1.30 pm

SCHOOL NEWS

Sports T-shirts

We have a large number of sports t-shirts still out from last year’s sports events.

If you could please have a hunt around at home for them and send them back to the school office or Mrs Jeffs in Room 26 by the end of the term that would be great. We need them for all our sports events that are coming up in Terms 2 and 3.

School Assembly

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 Year 4, Room 19.

Our BDS Values

Congratulations to the following tamariki who have displayed our value of Manaakitanga, Respect: Dhrishiv Katal, Uriel Su’a, Nathan Tokai, Alana Sahni, Willow Cometti, Xena Leigh Hamilton, Timi Yu, Kai Du Plessis, Gloria Wang, Flynn Hodgson, Juping Qi, Jasmine Yip, Lexi Tsai, Harper Annan, Braxton Bills, Chevy Davis, Sarah Shawani, Isaac Su’a, Rosie Chin, Logan Baker, Blake Coxen, Connor Swanepoel & Minji Kim.

Our Capabilities

Congratulations to our following tamariki who have shown their Botany Best by displaying our Capabilities: Hareni Pirapakaran, Vaice Gasologa, Abby Bi, Scarlett Blanco-Zijp, Hridaan Dave, Isabella Hudson, Ryker Christian, Movindu Konara Mudiyanselage, Leroy Singh, Mia Jack, Rosanna Siew, Naoki Yamagata, Shangyuan Cao, Evan Guo, Yara El Chami, Autumn Jacobs, Jaspreet Kaur, Shane Hwang, Harley Key, Hannah Binning, Jordan Claasen & Jiale Yu.

Fun & Learning @ BDS

Year 2 – Last week Room 2 learnt about what lives in the sea and how we can take care of our water. We enjoyed painting sea creatures. Room 23 are our buddy class and they helped us draw pictures of “What Belongs in the Ocean.”

Year 4 – Room 18 has enjoyed getting to know each other over the first five weeks of school. They have been sharing their ‘passions’ with the class, and have also written about the ‘Best Part of Me!’ In their writing, they used interesting adjectives and awesome similes to make their writing interesting to read.

Children Turning Five – Enrolment

If your child is turning five before June 2025 please ensure you
enrol them as soon as possible.

We are planning for classes and teachers into 2025 and this is made much easier if we have accurate numbers of new entrants even as far ahead as the middle of next year! Thank you.

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)

LIBRARY NEWS

Scholastic Book Club

Brochures will be coming home today/tomorrow for the latest Scholastic Book Club offer. Purchases made help to build your child’s love of reading and their literacy skills, and also help the school to provide books and resources: thank you!

Order and pay online via the Scholastic website: Scholastic Book Club orders
Instructions can also be found on the back page of the brochure.

Orders close: Wednesday 19 March, 3.00 p.m

Book Donations – Thank You!

A very big thank you for recent donations of new and pre-loved books to our school library from: Michael Joseph, the Cooke family, the Hartnoll family, and International Student Daniel Zhao. We greatly appreciate these kind contributions to our collection.