Newsletter – Week 2, Term 2 2025 – Botany Downs Primary School

Week 2, Term 2, 2025

Tēnā koutou te whānau,

A huge thank you to our Book Week leaders, Mrs Hughson and Mrs Hatley-Owen, and their fantastic Book Week team for organising such a memorable celebration of reading.

We would also like to thank our parents and whānau for the incredible effort that went into the children’s Book Week costumes, your support helped bring the magic of stories to life.

Throughout the week, our staff and tamariki fully embraced the joy of reading, with activities like Stop, Drop, and Read, teachers swapping classrooms to share stories, exciting quizzes and competitions, and our popular Scholastic Book Fair in the library.

It was a fun-filled week that celebrated imagination, storytelling, and a shared love of books.

On Wednesday 21 May, we will be farewelling Mrs Joanne Hughson, our Deputy Principal/SENCo Years 0-3. Joanne has been a key leader at our school, making an incredible difference to both student learning and teacher development.

She has led our assemblies each Friday with warmth, positivity, and enthusiasm, helping our tamariki celebrate their learning. Our Koru Kids Hui, organised by Joanne, has ensured every new five-year-old feels welcome and valued as they begin their school journey. Joanne has also played a major role in leading professional development for our staff as we embrace our new curriculum, and she was an important part of developing our new school values and capabilities.

Joanne is now heading off to an exciting new opportunity, helping to set up a brand-new school, Te Kura Rau Iti, which will open in 2026 in Flat Bush. We know she is the perfect person for this amazing role. While we are thrilled for her, she will be greatly missed by students, staff, and whānau alike.

We thank Joanne for everything she has given to our school and wish her all the very best for this exciting next chapter.

Thank you to Mrs Rachel Ryan, who will become our Acting Deputy Principal, and to Mrs Courtney Stewart, who will take on the role of Acting Year 4 Team Leader. We are grateful for their experience, professionalism, and dedication in stepping into these leadership roles until our newly appointed Deputy Principal begins in Term 3.

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

Coming Up @BDS

Wed 7 May – School Board meeting, 6.00 p.m
Fri 9 May – PTA Mothers’ Day Morning; 8.00 – 9.00 a.m
Wed 14 May – PTA Jester’s Pie day
Fri 16 May – Pink Shirt day
Wed 21 May – PhotoLife school photos
Thurs 22 May – PhotoLife school photos
Fri 23 May – Interschool Rugby
Fri 30 May – Teacher Only Day
Mon 2 June – King’s Birthday (public holiday)
Tues 3 Jun – Interschool Hockey
Wed 4 Jun – PTA Jester’s Pie day
Fri 6 Jun – Interschool Rugby
Mon 9 Jun – PTA meeting, 7.00 p.m
Tues 10 Jun – Yr 4 Tip Top visit: Room 19 & Room 17
Wed 11 Jun – Yr 4 Tip Top visit: Room 18 & Room 20
Thurs 12 Jun – Soccer competitive day
Fri 13 Jun – No Uniform day / Soccer competitive day
Fri 13 Jun – World Vision 40 Hour Challenge begins

SCHOOL NEWS

Term 2 Clubs

During Term 2 we are very fortunate to have the following clubs available for students to be part of during lunch times. A big thank you to all of the teachers responsible for your time and effort.

Travelwise
Choir
Orchestra
Kapa Haka
Enviro
Dance – Senior and Junior
Senior Art
Junior Art
Chess

DP Mark Insley (marki@botanydowns.school.nz)

Term 2 Sports

This term the class focus for PE is Large Ball Skills. This includes developing kicking, and passing and catching skills to support sports such as Netball, Basketball, Soccer and Rugby.

Interschool sports this term include:

Gymnastics
Netball
Rugby (rippa)
Hockey
Basketball
Soccer

Lead Teacher: Rachael Jeffs (rachaelj@botanydowns.school.nz)

PTA Notices

Mothers Day Morning – Celebrating All the Special Women in Our School Community
Friday 9th May | 8:00–9:00am | Courts outside the Hall

Join us for a morning of connection and appreciation as we celebrate not only mums—but all the amazing people who fill a mother-like role in the lives of our tamariki.

Enjoy a warm drink, a bite to eat, and a chance to relax and connect with others before the day begins. Everyone who attends will also go in the draw to win a beautiful basket of goodies, kindly donated by the PTA!

Please note: food and drink will be provided for mums and caregivers only.

We look forward to celebrating with you!

Pink Shirt Day 2025

Botany Downs is taking part in Pink Shirt Day on Friday, 16th May. Run by the Mental Health Foundation, Pink Shirt Day is the day Aotearoa New Zealand comes together to take a stand against bullying.

Did you know that:

Aotearoa has the third highest rate of school bullying out of 36 OECD countries
people who are bullied are far more likely to experience mental health issues

Pink Shirt Day works to reduce bullying by celebrating diversity in all its forms and supporting schools to be safe, supportive, welcoming and inclusive for everyone. By choosing compassion and standing up for each other, we can reduce bullying in Aotearoa and foster spaces where everyone feels they belong.

To celebrate this important day our house leaders will be selling cupcakes for $1 before school in front of the hall. We are also encouraging students to wear something pink. We will have a colouring competition and other initiatives within our classroom programme.

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.

Our Values

Congratulations to our following tamariki who have shown our focus value of Responsibility / Kaitiakitanga: Rubleen Kaur, Nicolas Long, Otto Ward, Allen Maifea, Jenuki Perera, Sakura Strickland, AJ Aisea, Kaisley Zhang, Amisha Clarke, Michael Booth, Hannah Shadbolt, Terry Sui, Ayeza Zahidani, Kyle Forrest, Olivia Wang, Kruz Oti, Adam Shawani, Charlie Gao, Mason Huang, Levi Perry, Ethan Du, Corwin Zhang, Billie Turner & Finn Roosenbrand.

Our Capabilities

Congratulations to our following tamariki who have shown their Botany Best by displaying our Capabilities: Boston Bills, Jayson Holmes, Lucius Huang, Coco Hussey, Willow Cometti, Cheng Lin Hong, Theodore Salomon, Cooper Jack, Umama Adil, Baran Amiri, Ava Tang, Anna Yu, Warren-Leigh Paul, Anthony Song, Harper Timms, Ansh Patel, Sophie Chen, Vivaan Sharma, Archie Barson, Kadu Kunde Pinheiro, Karen Yang, Lexi Jones, Malika Wineera-Selwyn & Baraa Almayah.

Student Success

In the school holidays, Rafa Zhao participated in the following junior tennis tournaments and obtained the titles listed below:

Tier 2 Tecnifibre Tennis Central Open: 10 & Under Boys Singles Winner and 10 & Under Boys Doubles Runner-up
Tennis Northern Tier 3 Autumn Junior Championships: 10 & Under Boys Singles Winner and 12 & Under Boys Doubles Runner-up.

Congratulations to Rafa on his hard work to achieve these great results.

Fun & Learning @ BDS

Room 1, Year 2: We had an amazing Book Week with lots of reading and fun activities in Room 1. We enjoyed listening to stories read by different teachers. We loved the Pajama Day, sharing books with our soft toy friends. The Author Visit and the Character Parade were absolutely fantastic too!

Room 20, Year 4: Room 20 had a wonderful time celebrating book week.

On Monday, we were surprised to see our teachers dressed up as fairy tale characters!

Each day we were on high alert for our “stop, drop, and read” mission, and loved seeing who our mystery teacher reader would be.

On Thursday, we listened to our guest author, Leonie Agnew, share what it’s like to be a writer. Best of all, we brought our cuddly toys to school and stayed warm and cosy in our jammies.

Friday was the big event, the character parade! Can you guess our favourite stories?

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