Newsletter – Week 5, Term 3 2025 – Botany Downs Primary School

Week 5, Term 3, 2025

Kia ora koutou Parents and BDS Whānau,

We are so proud of our BDS Choir for bringing home a gold medal last week. Since this award, Miss Iris Liu, has now been awarded the Conductor’s Professional Development Award. Congratulations, Miss Liu and thank you for sharing your talent, passion, and dedication with our tamariki.

Congratulations to all our tamariki who represented us at the HPPA (Howick and Pakuranga Principals’ Association) Cross Country. Standing at the finish line, I witnessed our tamariki showing their Botany Best. A huge thank you to Mrs Jeffs for her fantastic organisation that made everything run so smoothly, and to Mr D’Ambrosio for his enthusiastic support of our students.

On Friday and over the next few weeks, we will farewell our short-term international students. Their time with us has provided a rich cultural experience for everyone. The friendships and connections they have made have deeply enriched our school community and created lasting memories. We truly value these relationships and wish them all the best in their future journeys.

Thank you to everyone who has put their name forward for our upcoming school board elections. It is great to see such strong support for our school and commitment to our tamariki.

As we have more nominations than spaces, an election will be held. Details about the voting process will be shared soon.

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

Coming Up @ BDS

Wed 13 Aug – HPPA Gymnastics
Mon 18 Aug – PTA Bake Sale
Mon 18 Aug – Keeping Ourselves Safe Parent Meeting, 3.15 p.m
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
Tues 26 Aug – School Board Meeting, 6.30 p.m
Fri 29 Aug – HPPA Lit Quiz / Daffodil Day
Thurs 4 Sept – Junior Cross Country / Chinese Speech Competition
Fri 5 Sept – No Uniform Day / Father’s Day Morning
Tues 9 Sept – Netball Competitive Day
Wed 10 Sept – PTA Jester’s Pie Day
Thurs 11 Sept – Year 2 Kōwhai Trip to Howick Historical Village
Fri 12 Sept – PTA School Disco
Thurs 18 Sept – HPPA Mandarin Speech Competition
Thurs 18 Sept – Visual Arts Evening
Fri 19 Sept – Last Day of Term 3
Mon 6 Oct – First Day of Term 4

SCHOOL NEWS

Keeping Ourselves Safe Programme

As part of the Health curriculum, we will be teaching the Keeping Ourselves Safe Programme, which is run in conjunction with the New Zealand Police.

We will be holding a parent information meeting on Monday 18 August, in the staffroom at 3.15 p.m. Constable Pauline Orpet will run this meeting for any parents who have any questions on what the programme will cover.

Year 0-3 Cross Country

On Thursday 4 September, we will be hosting the Junior Cross Country on our school field. All Year 0-3 students will be participating.

The approximate start times are:

Year 0 Rimu Boys & Girls 1:30
Year 1 Rimu Boys 1:40
Year 1 Rimu Girls 1:50
Year 2 Kōwhai Boys 2:00
Year 2 Kōwhai Girls 2:10
Year 3 Pōhutukawa Boys 2:20
Year 3 Pōhutukawa Girls 2:35
Prize Giving 2:45 (If time allows)

Please note, the start times are a guide only – we advise you to arrive early to avoid disappointment.

Saving Day: Wednesday, 10, September 2025

Speech Finals

Congratulations to our Year 5 and 6 Speech Finalists!

We are incredibly proud of all our students who took part in the speech finals this year. A special congratulations to our Year 5 and 6 finalists who impressed us with their courage, confidence and powerful words: Reuben Tate, Quintus Wang, Cooper Ellis, Liah Van Wyk, Hasrat Dhillon, Lucas Pope, Rafa Zhao, Henil Tailor and Lisa Huang.

A big ngā mihi to our winners:

1st Place – Lucas Pope
Speech: Planting Trees or Planting Change

2nd Place – Quintus Wang
Speech: Whenua

3rd Place – Lisa Huang
Speech: Voices Fade, Whenua Remembers

Standing up and speaking in front of an audience takes bravery and each of you should be proud of your efforts and achievements.

Ka rawe koutou! Keep using your voice to inspire and make a difference.

HPPA Cross Country

Last Tuesday, Mrs Jeffs and Mr D took 25 students to the HPPA Interschool Cross Country. Vito Feng did an awesome run and came 2nd in the Year 4 Boys race. Ayden Sharp also had a great run and ended 11th. A number of our team made the top 30 in races of up to 100 students. They certainly showed their Botany Best and represented our school well. We are so proud of their efforts.

PTA Notice

Bake Sale – Monday 18 August
Our bake sale is almost here. Each item will be $1, with a maximum of three items per student. Payment can be made in advance via KINDO or given in cash to your child’s teacher on the day.

Year 0-2: please drop off homemade or store-bought baking to the hall (not the junior canopy as previously communicated) between 8:30 a.m and 8:50 a.m on the morning of the sale.

If you have a child with allergies and are contributing allergy-friendly baking, please clearly label it with all ingredients. Thank you for supporting this sweet fundraiser.

Father’s Day Morning – Friday 5 September
We warmly invite the dads, stepdads, koro, uncles, and father-figures of our school community to join us on Friday 5 September from 8:00–9:00 a.m outside the hall. Enjoy a hot drink, a tasty bite, and a relaxed morning connecting with others.

Every guest will be entered into the draw to win a hamper of goodies, kindly provided by our PTA.

Food and drinks will be provided for fathers and male caregivers only. We look forward to celebrating you.

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 Year 4 Tītoki, Room 20.

Our Values

Congratulations to our following tamariki who have shown our focus value Relationships / Whanaungatanga: Mawada Khammas, Starzia Erskine, Liz Huang, Titus Parsons, Max Wang, Hridaan Dave, Caityn Grisselle, Ivy Chen, Emily Kim, Scarlet Cheng, Stark Zhang, Jas Kaur, Jenna Van Zyl, Mila Biddick, Caelin Ramiah, Jeremiah John, Chloe Morgan, Autumn Jacobs, Ron Du, Lan Li, Rosy Xu, Bianca Zhang, Annieheta John, Malika Wineera-Selwyn & Jiale Yu.

Our Capabilities

Congratulations to our following tamariki who have shown their Botany Best by displaying our Capabilities: April Adams, Olivia Walsh, Amelia Mun, Archie Brown, Lloyd Singh, Ephraim Kazaroho, Omar Almohamad Sharif, Thishen Gunasekara, Kurl Matutes, Ozias Su’a, Jasmine Yip, Tushita Arun Kumar, Breeannah Clark, Krystal Chen, Chaz Grisselle, Alofa Vaolele, Lianie Vorster, Mackenzie Scott, Hasrat Dhillon, Kaylin Walker, Sakura Erskine, Elizabeth Ilalio, Connor Swanepoel & Saane Fifita.

Fun & Learning @ BDS

Year 1 Rimu, Room 9: This term, our Year 1 Rimu learners have been exploring how to keep themselves safe at school, at home and in the community. They proudly learned to call 111 in an emergency. We also talked about some of our amazing community helpers like police officers, firefighters, doctors, ambulance drivers, teachers and postal workers and how they help keep us safe every day. As part of our learning, the children had fun colouring and decorating paper hats to represent different community helpers.

Year 5 Tōtara, Room 21: Our class celebrated Cook Islands Language Week by exploring the language, beginning work on Cook Islands brochures, and learning about tivaevae – the colourful, patterned quilts that are a special part of Cook Islands culture. We explored the designs and the stories behind them, then created our own bright paper versions using symmetry, shapes, and bold colours.

Student Success…

Congratulations, Liam Cho – NZ Robot Olympiad Champion!

We are incredibly proud to share some exciting news from the Year 5 Tōtara Team!

Liam Yihan Cho, has achieved exceptional success at the New Zealand Robot Olympiad (NZRO) 2025, held during the second school break at the University of Auckland. The NZRO is recognised as one of the most prestigious robotics competitions for school students worldwide.

Liam competed in the Junior High division and brought home two incredible medals:

Gold Medal – Line Tracer Relay
Silver Medal – Cyber Robot

As a top performing competitor, Liam has also been selected to represent New Zealand at the International NZ Robot Olympiad 2025, which will take place in Gold Coast, Australia this December!

Congratulations Liam on this amazing achievement!

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

New Zealand Book Awards
for Children & Young Adults

The winners of this year’s book awards will be announced tomorrrow night (Wed 13 Aug). Good luck to all the finalist authors, illustrators and publishers!

Over the last few weeks in the library, we have read all of the Best Picture Book finalists and Mataali’i by Dahlia Malaeulu, Darcy Solia & Liz Morris was voted as Botany Downs School’s favourite. We are excited to discover if we have chosen the same winner as the judges!