Week 6 Term 1 2026
Kia ora koutou Parents and BDS Whānau,
Another exciting week of camps is underway, with our Tōtara Year 5 students heading off to their overnight camp at Eastern Beach. This experience provides wonderful opportunities for our tamariki to build confidence, strengthen friendships, and enjoy learning outside the classroom.
A big thank you to our dedicated staff: Helen Antrobus (Camp Leader), Michelle Takaiti, Summer Young, and Kirsten Thomson, and Mark Insley, for organising and supporting this special experience. We are also incredibly grateful to our parent helpers who generously give their time to make camps like this possible.
We know our tamariki will have had an amazing time and created many special memories together.
We have three more weeks of swimming to enjoy. It has been wonderful to see our tamariki making the most of this opportunity to learn to swim. With the support of our two very experienced swimming instructors, we are already noticing an amazing difference in the students’ confidence and ability in the water.
Please remember to keep sending togs and a towel on your child’s swimming day so everyone can continue making the most of these lessons.
Have a great week everyone.
Ngā mihi nui,
Vicki Parkins, Principal – Tumuaki (vickip@botanydowns.school.nz)
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Coming Up @ BDS
Wed 11 Mar – HPPA Cricket (Pool A) / PTA Jester’s Pie Day
Fri 13 Mar – Senior School Swimming Sports Day
Wed 18 Mar – Pōwhiri
Fri 20 Mar – No Uniform Day
Week 8: Mon 23 – Fri 27 Mar – BOOK WEEK
Wed 25 Mar – HPPA Swimming / Grandparents’ Afternoon, 2.00pm
Thurs 26 Mar – HPPA Cricket Finals Day
Fri 27 Mar – Book Character Dressup Day & Parade
Wed 1 Apr – PTA Jester’s Pie Day
Thurs 2 Apr – Last Day of Term 1
Mon 20 Apr – First Day of Term 2
Mon 27 Apr – ANZAC Day (public holiday)
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Message from the School Board
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.
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
- We can also organise payment over the year if this makes it easier for you.
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BDS Little Library Box
Ruru is getting ready for Book week in Week 8!
Our amazing new Botany Downs School Little Library box is located just outside the school’s front gates.
Children can donate, take or swap a book.
- Only children’s books from home can be used in this box please.
- Please also ensure No School Library books are placed in it.
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Book Week Coming Soon – Week 8!
Special Guests:
We are excited to announce our special guest authors who will be coming to visit our tamariki for Book Week. All are award winning authors and we can’t wait for our tamariki to be inspired by them!
Year 1&2:
www.minkystapleton.com
Year 3&4:
www.sallysutton.co.nz
Year 5&6:
www.gracikim.com
Book Fair:
The Scholastic Book Fair is an exciting part of our Book Week celebrations. Held in the school library, the Book Fair offers a wide range of fabulous books and stationery for our tamariki to purchase at special prices. Each class has an opportunity to visit the Book Fair to have a look at what is on offer, and whānau are also welcome to come in the morning and afternoons to check it out too.
The Book Fair is open for purchasing:
Monday- Friday morning 8.30-9.00am AND
Monday-Thursday afternoon 2.45-3.30pm
Payment by cash or EFTPOS
**Every purchase at the Book Fair helps the school to provide valuable books and resources for the library and classrooms – we thank you for your support.
**Every purchase has a chance to WIN a lucky spot prize. Fill in the form and go into the entry, the winner will be drawn on Friday.
Competitions:
During the week, students have the opportunity to enter our Book Week competitions. Both the colouring in and 3D animal entries must be completed and handed in by the end of Thursday 26 March.
Colouring in – ask you teacher for a colouring in sheet!
Make a 3D animal – get creative!
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Grandparents’ Afternoon Invitation
We warmly invite all grandparents to join us for our Grandparents’ Afternoon in Week 8. This year our Grandparents’ Afternoon takes place as part of our annual Book Week.
We would like our grandparents to bring along a favourite picture book to share with their grandchild and friends. We also welcome other special people who play a grandparent-like role in our students’ lives. We look forward to celebrating this special time together.
Date: Wednesday 25 March
Location: In the classroom. Please come to the office if you are unsure.
Time: 2:00 pm
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PTA Notice
Lunch Orders via Dollar for School:
Just a friendly reminder that families can order lunches for their child to be delivered directly to school. St Pierre’s Sushi is available on Wednesdays and Domino’s Pizza on Fridays, with $1 from every order going back to our school to support our students.
Available on Wednesdays |
 Available on Fridays |
— an easy and tasty way to support our school community!
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Fun & Learning @ BDS
Kōwhai Year 2: Room 3 have written stories about – ‘Being the Best Me, unless…’
Come and visit Room 3 to read more stories!
Pōhutukawa Year 3: For the past few weeks, Room 29 has been celebrating Chinese Lunar New Year. We explored traditional Chinese patterns and then used them to decorate our fans and lanterns. We learnt how to say ‘Happy New Year’ and ‘Thank you’ in Chinese, and we also read books to help us learn other Chinese words.
We have had so much fun learning about Chinese culture!
Tītoki Year 4: Room 17 have been inspired by the artist, Ema Frost. She uses feathers and completes amazing portraits. We hope you like ours.
Tītoki Year 4: In Room 18 we have been spending lots of time with our Year 1 buddy class doing a range of activities and building on our whanaungatanga (relationships). This week we were working with our buddies to design a new school logo!
We also have a pet praying mantis called Sparkle that the class is very fond of!
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School Assembly – Seniors
This Friday is our Senior (Year 4-6) assembly at 2.15pm. We will be handing out Botany Best awards, and Values Bookmarks to the following Year 4-6 students. This week’s assembly item will be Tītoki Room 17. All whānau are welcome to attend.
Our BDS Capabilities
Congratulations to our following tamariki who have shown their Botany Best by displaying our Capabilities: Aliya Christian, Yasmine Alsharefi, Amanda Kim, Asher Oostendorp, Olivia Leaumoana, Elizabeth Valentine, Joanna Qiao, Jordan Claasen, Violet Liu, Jurgens Lewis, Xavier Marck, Isabella Wayne, Kyle Forrest, Juwon Vaga, Jenna Van Zyl, Ariyan Atrushi, Damian Odendaal, Mary Manu, Fyodor Chibel, Sophie Klee, Ali AlSharefi, Lillias Fisher, Odette Apperley, Kruz Oti & Mikaele Atoa.
Our BDS Values
Congratulations to the following tamariki who have displayed our Value of Respect / Manaakitanga: Emma Hughes, Fayzon Vaga, MacKenzie Kim, Zara Watson, Luca Takaiti-Kerr, Hailie Chan, Rylee Thompson, Austin Brookdryk, Joshua Chuah, Anna Yu, Ozias Su’a, Kacey Wang, Eli Adams, Leo Tong, Braxton Sills, Anika Du Preez, Roxas Eason, Adalyn Cox, Ali Moshtagh Askari, Maemi Yumul, Emma Kamakorewa, Petr Bertyaev, Aryan Karthick & Autumn Jacobs
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Enrol Now If Your Child Turns 5 in 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)
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We’re currently inviting young performers aged 7–18 to audition for our upcoming production.
Alice in Wonderland Jr is a fantastic introduction to musical theatre. It gives young people the chance to build confidence, develop performance skills, make new friendships, and be part of a supportive and creative team environment. Whether students are experienced performers or completely new to the stage, we warmly welcome them to get involved.
Community theatre provides an incredible platform for students to grow not only as performers, but as individuals. They learn teamwork, responsibility, resilience, and communication skills, all while having an amazing time bringing a classic story to life.
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