Newsletter – Week 3, Term 2 2025 – Botany Downs Primary School

Week 3, Term 2, 2025

Tēnā koutou te whānau,

Last Friday, our wonderful PTA hosted a special Mother’s Day Breakfast to show appreciation for the incredible support they have received from our BDS whānau throughout their fundraising efforts. The morning was a beautiful celebration of the relationships that make our school community so strong, and a meaningful way to live out our value of kaitiakitanga/relationships, caring for and supporting one another. Thank you to everyone who joined us and helped make it such a memorable occasion.

A huge thank you to our amazing PTA for organising the sale of chocolates, hair ties, and bows to help raise funds for our playground and new sports uniforms.

Keen to Get Involved in our PTA (Parents and Teachers Association)
This wonderful group of our BDS whānau meets in the staffroom once a month from 7:00 p.m to 8:30 p.m to help organise fundraising and celebration events. It is a great social catch-up and a chance to meet new friends while supporting our school. Their Botany Bulletin newsletter is always full of helpful information and fun ideas. You can do as much or as little as you like, all help is welcome and appreciated.

Thank you PTA… you are amazing!

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

Coming Up @BDS

Wed 14 May – PTA Jester’s Pie day
Fri 16 May – Pink Shirt day
Wed 21 May – PhotoLife class photos
Thurs 22 May – PhotoLife sibling photos*
*form to request sibling photo is coming home Tuesday 13th)
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: Room19 & Room 17
Wed 11 Jun – Yr 4 Tip Top visit: Room18 & 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

Policies and Procedures –
SchoolDocs 2025 Term 2 Review

SchoolDocs provides a comprehensive core set of policies and procedures that are tailored to the needs of Botany Downs School. SchoolDocs updates, modifies and creates policies in response to changes in legislation or Ministry guidelines, significant events, reviews/requests from schools and regular reviews.

Our SchoolDocs policies and procedures can be found via our school website on the link below:

Policies and Procedures – School Documents

If you would like to participate in reviewing the policies, please follow the instructions below.

Visit the website https://botanydowns.schooldocs.co.nz/1893.htm
Enter the username (botanydowns) and password (best).
Follow the link to the relevant policy as listed.
Read the policy.
Click the Start your review button at the top right-hand corner of the page.
Select the reviewer type.
Enter your name (optional).
Follow the prompts to show that you’ve read the topic and enter your feedback if you’d like to comment.
Agree to the privacy statement and click “Submit review”.

For Term 2 the following policies relate to Learning Support and are up for review:

Planning and Preparing for Emergencies, Disasters and Crises
Communication During an Emergency, Disaster or Crisis
Emergency Closure
Emergency Management
Disaster Management
Crisis Management

Mark Insley, Deputy Principal (marki@botanydowns.school.nz)

New Webspace for Parents and Whānau
Available from the Ministry of Education

A new webspace is available that provides practical videos, activities, and resources to support learning that is easy to understand – empowering whānau to take a more active role in their child’s education.

The webspace includes ‘parent-friendly’ versions of both The New Zealand Curriculum and Te Marautanga of Aotearoa, so they’ll know exactly what their child is learning, why it’s important, and when they’ll be learning it.

You can explore the new webspace and view the available resources here:
Parent Portal – Ministry of Education

SCHOOL NEWS

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. You can find out more about it here: Pink Shirt Day

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.

PTA Notices…

Whittaker’s Chocolate Fundraiser:

Our delicious Whittaker’s chocolate fundraiser is underway. Each family has now received a box containing 36 bars, with each bar sold at $2.50- totaling $90 per box.

Please return the payment along with the slip provided in the box by Thursday, 29th May. If you’re keen to support further and would like an additional box to sell, simply indicate this on the form.

Thank you for your continued support – every sale helps our school!

New Hair Accessories in School Green:

We’re excited to announce that we now have hair accessories available in Botany Downs School green. These were showcased by a group of fantastic models at assembly last week and will be available for purchase daily this week only from 3:00 to 3:30 p.m, outside the staffroom.
Prices: $6 bow hair clip, $5 set of two scrunchies. Limited stock available.

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 will feature a performance from our choir, and Mrs Hughson’s farewell.

Our Values

Congratulations to our following tamariki who have shown our focus value of Responsibility / Kaitiakitanga: Newyear Lealamanua, Zoe Neemia, Mohsin Rana, Jireh John, Amber Ren, Grace Marshall, Hosanna John, Amalia Mahabeer, Carter Limu, Amelia Berkett, Taika Murray, Leo Tong, Leon Lo, Benjamin Duckworth, Sophie Klee, Zean Wang, Lily McIvor, Emma Lee, Nikita Winterstein, Bella Hu, Mira Ong, Hugo Liang, Jack Berkett & Gracie Grainger.

Our Capabilities

Congratulations to our following tamariki who have shown their Botany Best by displaying our Capabilities: Lucas Bercich, Lynda Li, Grace Zhao, Max Wang, Madison Hall, Kaeson Moodley, Ivy Chen, Emily Kim, Dante Eason, Dillon Jardine-Trail, Stark Zhang, Eleanor Booth, Hannah Jung, Ethan Symons, Ayla Mii, Allen Wang, Nature Parsons, Sebastian Birchler, Olivia Mansfield, Huntr Bishton, Vincent Liu, Zara Watson, Navya Kumar, & Konnor Oti.

House Cup Competition

Congratulations to Sheppard, this week’s House Cup winners:

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