Newsletter – Week 3, Term 3 2025

                                         Week 3, Term 3, 2025

Kia ora koutou Parents and BDS Whānau,

Please would you take a few minutes to complete the survey below by clicking on the blue link. We really value our partnership with you and would appreciate your thoughts and feedback.

Your input is important in helping us shape the strategic direction of our school for 2026–2027, and to help us continue to strive for “Our Best Always.”

There is a comment box at the end of the survey if you’d like to share any additional ideas.
Thank you for your time and support.

BDS Survey

Last week, our Year 4–6 students took part in our cross country event at Millhouse Reserve. It was a beautiful day, and the students truly showed their Botany Best, supporting and encouraging each other every step of the way.

A big thank you to Mrs Jeffs for her excellent organisation and to the whānau who came along to cheer the tamariki on. Your support helped make the day extra special.

Thank you for emailing or phoning before you come to collect your child during the school day. This certainly saves your wait time as we are able to have your child ready and waiting at the office.

Have a great week.

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

Coming Up @ BDS

Tues 29 July – School Board meeting, 6.00 p.m
Thurs 31 July – BDS Dance Extravaganza, 6.30 p.m
Wed 6 Aug – Nominations close for School Board Elections
Wed 6 Aug – Yr 5&6 Speech finals
Mon 11 Aug – ICAS English / HPPA Speech finals
Wed 13 Aug – HPPA Gymnastics
Tues 19 Aug – Netball Non-competitive day
Wed 20 Aug – PTA Jester’s Pie day
Thurs 21 Aug – ICAS Science
Mon 25 Aug – ICAS Maths
Wed 27 Aug – School Board meeting, 6.00 p.m
Fri 29 Aug – HPPA Lit Quiz / Daffodil day

Nominations Are Open

The nomination process for our School Board elections has started and nominations are now open. We have five (5) spaces for parent representatives on the Botany Downs School Board. We have appointed Schooled Election Pilot as the Returning Officer for the election. They will be handling the election process and you will see communications directly from them.

Everyone who is eligible to vote in the election will receive a nomination pack (either via email or post). The info pack will contain everything you need to nominate yourself or another member of the community. If you are going to nominate someone else, just make sure they know about it and will accept the nomination! It will also include information about who isn’t able to be a School Board member.

If you need extra forms, or want a copy of the nomination form in Te Reo Māori or another language, just contact the Returning Officer from Election Pilot directly on 0800 VOTENZ (0800 868 369) or election@electionpilot.nz.

Don’t leave things to the last minute, because elections close at noon on Wednesday 6th August 2025.

You can email in your nomination, complete it online at www.boardelections.nz or fill it in and drop it off to the school office. You can also send in a candidate statement and smiling photo with your nomination.

A copy of the electoral roll is kept at the school office and is available to be checked during usual school hours.

Policies and Procedures – SchoolDocs 2025
Term 3 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. 

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

For Term 3 the following policies relate to Learning Support and are up for review:

• Child Protection
• Abuse Recognition and Reporting
• Food and Nutrition
• Safety Checking
• Police Vetting
• Missing Student Procedure

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

SCHOOL NEWS

Senior Cross Country

Our Senior School Cross Country was held last week. It was so awesome to see so many students trying their best and taking part in the event. It was such a great day and congratulations to the following winners.

A group of our top runners will go to the inter-school competition next week.

Rachel Jeffs, Cross Country Coordinator (rachelj@botanydowns.school.nz)

Choir – The Kids Sing Festival 2025

Next week, our school is going to The Kids Sing Festival held at the Holy Trinity Cathedral in Parnell. The Kids Sing is a choral festival for Primary and Intermediate schools held in nine regional centres and involving around 4,500 children nationwide. Our school choir will perform three songs during the day session and one song at the gala concert. 

Date: Monday 4th August
Location: Holy Trinity Cathedral in Parnell
Time: 
Day session – 2:00 – 3:30 p.m (gold coin donation at entry)
Gala concert – 6:30 p.m (ticketed event)

You can purchase the ticket for the gala concert here:
https://events.humanitix.com/2025-the-kids-sing 

Some photos from the last time we participated in this event:

School Assembly

We invite you to attend our school assembly on Friday at 9.10 a.m. We will be presenting our Botany Best Certificates and Values Bookmarks. This week our item will be from Room 15. We will also have our choir performing.

Our Values

Congratulations to our following tamariki who have shown our focus value Relationships / Whanaungatanga: Hareni Pirapakaran, Lincoln Takaiti, Lucius Huang, Coco Hussey, Lloyd Singh, Inaya Galahitiyawa, Grace Ren, Aariz Zahidani, Jaden Li, Tristin Van Rooyen, Mac He, Jurgens Lewis, Breeannah Clark, Lillias Fisher, Keziah Muruganathan, Venuja Nanayakkara, Laurayne Soafa, Lycan McCord, Aidan Sameer, Ethan Ellis, Sebastian Fisher, Nelson Wang, Andrew Chan & Sarah Tbakhi.

Our Capabilities

Congratulations to our following tamariki who have shown their Botany Best by displaying our Capabilities: Zane Bshennaty, Avery Ip, Mohsin Rana, Allen Maifea, Corbyn Grainger, Amara Pavadia, Chenuthi Konara Mudiyanselage, Luna Hunter, Antonio Vatuvei, Yunyi Yan, Eleanor Booth, Kainan Wang, Natalie-Mae Tokai, Riaan Karthick, Tina Tian, Rex Zhao, Kiaan Kapadia, Skylar Yip, Aidan Malez Ocampos, Harlen Hadrup, Daniel He, Elizabeth Ilalio, Billie Turner & Erik Hu.

PTA Women’s Self Defence Workshop

We had some wonderful women in our community who participated in this amazing workshop over the last two weekends. Incredible skills were taught and fun was had by all.

A huge thank you to the instructor Rida Vivier, for her time and knowledge to teach us these practical life skills and how to gain the confidence needed.

Also, thanks to our stuntman Jayden, who kindly gave his time and experience to help us learn and practise it all.

Thank you all for supporting our PTA.

Fun & Learning @ BDS

Year 1 Rimu, Room 4: Room 4 has been learning about Pirates. We drew our own pirates and then created incredible pictures of pirate ships with maps. To finish off our unit we made pirate hats. The children have loved reading about pirates and writing about them too.

Pirates are smart and pirates are brave. My pirate is kind to everybody.
Ranaya Galahitiyawa

I like pirate Polly because pirate Polly is brave and kind. I like pirate Polly because she is the best!
Coco Hussey

Pirates are clever. My pirate is Polly. I like pirates. Polly is on a ship and she loves me.
Lennon Wallace

Year 6 Kauri, Rūma 25: Rūma 25 has been learning about cultural dances as part of our Cultural Inquiry.

We researched the history of each dance, who performs it, and explored what other cultural dances it might be similar to. Working in groups, we investigated a variety of dances from different cultures.

We were even lucky enough to have a hands-on experience learning about K-pop – and had so much fun giving it a go ourselves!

Enrol Now if Your Child Turns 5 Before April 2026

We are currently planning classes and staffing for 2026, and having accurate numbers of new entrants — even those starting mid-year — greatly helps us with this process. Thank you for your support.

Enrolment packs are available from the school office, or you can request one via email: office@botanydowns.school.nz 

Rachel Ryan, DP/SENCo – Year 0-3 (rachelr@botanydowns.school.nz)

LIBRARY NEWS

COMMUNITY NOTICES

Register here: Cockle Bay Tennis Club 50th Jubilee

Registrations for our Term 3, After School Soccer Development Programme are now open! 
To register: click here 

Pay the kindo way: https://botanydowns.school.nz/kindo/