Junior Jottings Number 18

Dear Parents and Caregivers,

It will be September this week and it's hard to believe that we only have four weeks left of this term and that daylight saving is just around the corner.

The production items look fabulous already and the children are starting to get excited about their roles. We have working bees this Thursday and Friday morning so please come along to room 3 where Mrs Cody or myself will show you how we want the ears and tails to be made. We are also adding a symbol to the T shirts so these will need to be cut out and hot glued on. Thank you to those parents who have already sent along the costumes for their child to their classroom. If you have not, could you please do so by this Wednesday?

The Junior School item will be on first in the production and each child needs to be at school for all four performances. With our youngest children on stage first they can then go straight home to bed. Next week I will let you know which class we want your child to be brought to and collected from straight after each performance. We will also let you know what time they need to be at school to get ready and what time they need to be collected.

Last Wednesday evening our school was host to the 'Literacy Bus' Tour. We had over fifty teachers from throughout the Wellington area visit our classrooms to observe what we have been doing in the areas of literacy, ICT, Inquiry and mathematics. They were very impressed with what they saw and made many positive comments about the lovely children's work on display. Many of them also want to come back and observe lessons in action.

Daffodil Day

Some of our senior students organised the 'Daffodil Day' appeal last Friday. If your child missed out and would like to purchase a daffodil this week they may still do so for a gold coin donation. Please come to the school foyer for this.

This week

The Life Education programme will finish later on this week. The children now have an understanding of what a balanced diet is and the importance of eating a variety of foods from each group of the food pyramid.

Sandra Blair and myself will be attending a course entitled 'Supporting Speech Sound Development in Schools' after school on Tuesday.

Our 'Starting School at five' evening for parents of preschoolers will be this Wednesday September 1st at 7 p.m. in the school staffroom.

Working bees for production costumes as mentioned above will be on Thursday and Friday morning.

On Friday morning Miss Jones and myself will be going to Wellington to a special seminar where we will listen to Dr Barbara Watson speaking. She is an internationally renowned expert and will be sharing her expertise with us in the latest trends in literacy teaching and learning.

On Friday afternoon we will also be having our Full School Assembly. We will be saying farewell to Mrs Drinkwater during this assembly.

Have a great week.

Kind regards

Maureen Buckley

Deputy Principal

Junior Jottings Number 17

Dear Parents and Caregivers,

Wow! It's all go at the moment at school. Last week, we had a very successful Duathlon as well as visiting the Life Education classroom. Visits to the Life Education classroom continue this week along with preparations of our items for the up coming production. All children from our newest five year old to our year eight children will be taking part in the production. We have productions every two years. Please be in quick to purchase your tickets from our school office as over four hundred children will be involved. We can only have a certain number of people in the hall at one time due to fire regulations so once the tickets are sold there are unfortunately no more.

Staffing

We warmly welcome Gina to room 2 for the next seven weeks. She is a student teacher and is doing a great job already.

After the holidays Mrs Mills-Smith will be back to teach our new five year olds in room 16. She is currently teaching in year 7 and 8 and is joining us on Thursday mornings for the preschool visits.

Production update

All year 0 and 1 children (rooms 1, 2, 3 and 4) will need a plain black t shirt and black footless leggings or trackpants if a girl and a plain black t shirt and black trackpants if a boy. Please send them along to your child's classroom by this coming Monday. Year 2 children will have brought home a separate notice about the clothes that they need for their item. We are making the headgear for the rats and props next Thursday and Friday morning from 9 to 12.30 p.m. so all those people who have kindly offered to help please meet in room 3. Please also bring along any hot glue guns that you have that we could use. If you are not available on these two dates but would like to help by making some things at home could you please email me?

A Friendly Reminder

Over the past few weeks we have noticed that some children are coming to school later and later each day with some not coming till after 9.15 a.m. which means that they have already lost forty minutes of learning. Over a week this amounts to more than three hours while over a school year this adds up to at least five and a half weeks. Some children arrive in dribs and drabs so learning is continually being interrupted with teachers' having to repeat instructions over and over. If your child is late they start off on the wrong foot and are unsettled for quite a large part of the day. Just a friendly reminder that school starts at 8.40 a.m. The morning routine is to arrive at school by 8.35 a.m. so that the children have time to take out their bookbag and drink bottle and be ready on their classroom mat for the day's learning by 8.40 a.m. All classes begin the day with fitness and call the roll at 8.55 a.m. If your child is not in the classroom by then they are marked absent. If you know your child is sick and that they are going to be absent because of this or appointments or are going to be late due to unavoidable circumstances please phone the school office and leave a message on the phone for Carole and Sue. We have to account for the whereabouts of every child and keep records of every child's attendance so Sue and Carole would love to spend less valuable time on the phone tracking down thirty or more children on a daily basis. If your child is late please go to the office and let Carole and Sue know. Please also let us know if you are experiencing any problems getting your children to school in the mornings and we can support you. Some children are also being picked up late at the end of the day. School finishes at 2.55 p.m. If you are caught up and know you will be late please phone our office, Teachers can then inform your child so that they are not worrying.

'Starting School at Five' Information Evening

The next information evening for parents of preschoolers is next Wednesday September 1st at 7 p.m. in the school staffroom. All welcome.

Kind regards

Maureen Buckley

Deputy Principal

Junior Jottings Number 16

Dear Parents and Caregivers

It's hard to believe that we are already half way through this term but we still have lots of learning experiences ahead.  Wow! What a fantastic event the Duathlon was. It was all set out and well organised - thanks to Mrs Cody for doing all the preparations behind the scenes so that the event could run as smoothly as it did. All the children did so well in their events. They ran so fast and pedalled and scooted around the course amazingly quickly. They were very proud of their efforts and so were we. They tried very hard in spite of the muddy field and managed to get to the finish line. Thank you so much to all the parents and caregivers who came along to support the children trying their best. Special thanks also to those parents who helped out with the event. Your help was greatly appreciated.

Our next learning experience will also be this week.

On Wednesday the large Life Education truck will arrive in our playground and will be here for the next two weeks. Every student in our school will be visiting the Life Education truck for two sessions with the educator. Our Junior School will do the progamme entitled 'Food for Energy'. The focus for this programme is the body's need for a balanced diet and ties in well with our current inquiry involving changes in food.

The key messages are that - humans need a balanced diet for energy, what is a balanced diet and how does food give us energy? The focus will be on the food pyramid, foods we need lots of and some of every day as well as identifying treat foods that are not every day foods. We will be learning to understand what the food pyramid is, tell what a balanced diet looks like and describe how food gives us energy. The $4 cost of the programme will be taken from your child's activity fee.

There will be a parent session in the truck this Thursday August 19th at 9am to 9.20am where the educator will outline what the programme involves. Please go along and have your questions answered by Jo.

The students will keep away from the truck during the day while it is parked in our grounds. Could parents of pre schoolers please ensure your child also keeps away from the truck?

The Production

Thank you to all those parents who have kindly offered to make the ears and tails as part of the costumes. The working bee time and date are yet to be confirmed. All year 0 and 1 children will be rats. The Year 0 and 1 boys need to have a black t shirt and trackpants while the year 0 and 1 girls need to have a black t shirt and either black leggings or trackpants. Could your child please bring them to their classroom named and in a plastic supermarket bag by Friday August 27th? We need to add some felt to the t shirts so please just send along a black t shirt your child has or buy a cheap one. Details of year 2 costumes will follow next week. All classes are practising their items in preparation for the production. It is pleasing to see that so many parents have already purchased their tickets for the show. If you have not as yet purchased any please see Sue at the office before they sell out.

Hooked on Books

This programme finishes this week. Thank you so much to all those parents who gave up their time week after week to listen to our children read. This extra time you have given each of the children has made such a difference. Thank you so much. Your efforts were greatly appreciated.

Mathematics

Thank you to those parents who attended the mathematics evening last week. I hope you had your questions answered. It is New Zealand mathematics week this week. You could do some counting or cooking together at home, shopping with a small list so your child makes the purchases and gets change or even play some board games together. Please go to www.nzmaths.co.nz for some activities to help your child. Click onto the jigsaw puzzle piece labelled families or if you want to extend your child further click on 'bright sparks.' Please also go to room 6 blog and click on any of the links on the side bar. Let your child observe you doing mathematics every day in a positive way and this will ensure that they have a positive attitude to mathematics.

Have a great week.

Kind regards

Maureen Buckley

Deputy Principal

Junior Jottings Number 15

Dear Parents and Caregivers

What a fabulous day it was on Tuesday. The sun was shining which allowed all of our children to take part in a well organised soccer tournament. They loved learning and practising new ball skills and being members of a team. They were tired but very happy at the end. The organisers from Sportzone commented on how well the children got on together and played to the best of their ability. Thanks to Sportzone for all the work that they did and to Mrs Cody for organising this great event. Thanks also to the parents and grandparents who joined us to support the children.

Thank you to the Days Bay Playcentre four year old group for visiting room 1 on Thursday. The children enjoyed showing you what they do at school and were very impressed with the way all our visitors joined in with the activities in the classroom.

Thank you also to those parents who have returned the portfolios.

Speech and Drama classes

These classes are being offered for year 2 children only and started on Friday. They are for half an hour and are held at school. If you would like your child to take part please contact Sue in the office to complete a registration form.

Mathematics Evening

A repeat of the information evening about what your child does at school in mathematics will be held this Thursday August 12th at 7 p.m. in room 3. I will outline the various stages of mathematical development that all children progress through and some ideas of how to help your child at home. All welcome.

Duathlon

This great event has been organised and will be held next Monday August 16th here at school. A newsletter from Mrs Cody with all the details about this event was sent home today. If you have any queries please do not hesitate to ask. We look forward to seeing many of the parents and families joining us for this fun event. We hope that the weather will be fine but if not the postponement date is Tuesday September 7th.

Vision and Hearing testing

This testing will be held for some of our New Entrant children on Tuesday 7 September.

Full School Assembly

We have assembly this Friday August 13th at 1.30 p.m. in the hall. All welcome.

Production

We are currently putting together the items for our part in the school wide production. We will be having a working bee at school in a few weeks time to make ears and tails as part of the year 1 costume. There will not be any sewing involved in this. We will just be glueing and plaiting fabric. If you would like to be part of this working bee please contact me as soon as possible.

Have a great week.

Kind regards

Maureen Buckley

Deputy Principal

Junior Jottings Number 14

Welcome to Term 3!   Hello everyone and welcome back to another term. I hope you have all had a lovely restful holiday break and enjoyed spending quality time with your children. I have enjoyed hearing or reading about some of the wonderful adventures the children have had. You will have read Mrs Cody's term overview and see that we have planned a lot of exciting learning experiences for your child.

We warmly welcome our new students and their families, who have just joined our Junior School, and also Mrs Ryan, back from her Science fellowship.

Reporting to Parents

At the end of the term, we gave you a written report containing your child's next learning steps, met you for a parent and teacher conference to discuss the progress your child has made, showed how your child was tracking against the National Standards and also gave you a portfolio of samples of your child's work. As teachers, we moderate across the year group to enable consistency throughout each curriculum area to show which level your child attained - a not yet, sometimes, mostly and always. Sometimes the 'not yet' means they have not yet covered that particular area or they are not developmentally at that stage.  I would like some feedback about this process. e.g. did you get too much information, not enough information, have a good understanding of where your child is at in their learning and how you could help them, was the reporting in language that you understood etc. Please email me your comments.

Portfolios

Please return your child's portfolio to school, if you have not already done so, as soon as possible?

Homework

This term Year 1 children have started the Spelling Rockets and Basic Facts carriages. They do these along with daily reading of their reader and Reading Rockets. We trialed this last year and, from feedback from parents, we modified them this year to begin in term 3 for a twenty week period. The homework is designed to give your child success and to support the learning that occurs during the school day.  We try to keep homework in balance - not too much, not too little.

Most importantly, we want every child to be read to aloud by their parent every day for five minutes and also for your child to read to you every day. This is the single factor that makes a marked difference in children's learning, compared with those who do not.

The reading and spelling rockets contain two hundred and ninety words that research has shown children and adults need to master. They are the most commonly used words in reading and writing. Children learn at different rates with some children completing the rockets faster than others. Some children may take one year, some two, while others are still learning these words in years 3 and 4 but they still get there in the end.

The mathematics carriages are based on the developmental stages of basic facts learning, so begin with addition with zero and one.

We also want our children to continue with their after school activities of play dates, gymnastics, dance, sport etc so please adjust the homework to suit your family needs. You may decide that your child will work on two or three of the spelling words instead of ten or you may do the reading rocket only etc. We do realise families are busy and have more than one child to care for so we do not want families or children under any stress about homework or even staying up late to get it done. All the homework should take about ten minutes per day. If you have any questions please do not hesitate to ask your child's teacher.

Parent Evening about Mathematics

Last term I ran a parent's session about Mathematics and many people were unable to attend. I am running the same one again on Thursday August 12th in room 3 at 7 p.m.

This week

* All classes will be taking part in a soccer tournament on Tuesday, if it is fine, with Sportzone. These providers will involve your child in a range of ball skills. The $3 cost has been taken from the Activity fund. Please make sure that your child wears suitable clothing and footwear on Tuesday. Please note - We will be having an early lunch at 12 o-clock on that day only.

* Hotdogs are available every Wednesday of this term as usual.

* Orders for Scholastic Book club close on Wednesday.

* Days Bay Playcentre are visiting room 1 on Thursday August 5th. 

Term Dates

Our 'Hooked on Books' programme continues each day for three more weeks.

School assemblies this term will be on August 13th, September 3rd and September 24th. You are all most welcome to join us for these in the hall from 1.30 p.m. Seating for you is provided across the back of the hall.

Our 'Starting School at Five' parent information evening for this term will be at 7 p.m. on Wednesday September 1st in the school staffroom. If your child or someone you know in our area has a child starting school later this year or early next year could you please phone our office on 562 8409 to let me know so that I can work out the staffing that is needed.

We have a 'Duathlon' planned, which will involve your child running and biking and/or scootering around a course set out at school. Please let your child's teacher know if your child is unable to ride a bike or scooter or if they do not own a bike or scooter for this event.

Later in the term, we will be taking part in the Life Education programme and also your child will be in our school wide production, which we are currently working towards. Tickets for the production are available from our school office and my advice is to purchase them early. You will receive more details regarding the production e.g. costumes etc, shortly. If your child is allergic to face paint could you please contact me?

Best wishes for a great week.

Kind regards

Maureen Buckley

Deputy Principal