Junior Jottings Number 2

Dear Parents and Caregivers,

It certainly has been an eventful week and our thoughts are with those family members and friends who have been affected by this week's Christchurch earthquake. All offers of support will be gratefully appreciated.

Next week

On Monday afternoon all our Junior classes will be visiting thelocal beach area, depending upon tide times. We are going to explore our local environment as part of 'SeaWeek' to take advantage of this lovely weather at present. We will be following up this experience with recount writing when we return to school.

SeaWeek - February 26 - March 6

This is an annual event which involves a wide range of events, activities, opportunities and competitions. The theme this year is "Back to the future - the culture, history and traditions of the sea - Kia kaha tangata moana". It is an opportunity for both adults and children to learn more about our marine environment and share experiences of the sea. If you would like more details please go to seaweek.org.nz

Full School Assembly

Families and friends are invited to join us for whole school assemblies. They are held in the hall from 1.30 p.m. on Fridays. Our next one is this week. Seats are reserved in rows along the back of the hall for you.

Reading

At school we are trying to develop a life long love of learning and especially in reading as this is the key to future successes in a range of areas. It is imperative to create this love of reading and books as early as possible so it is especially important for parents and caregivers of babies, preschoolers and school age children to read aloud to them for at least five minutes every day. This daily habit makes a huge difference to learning compared to those children who have not had this. Listening to stories helps children to increase their attention span, improve their oral language and listening skills, broaden their knowledge of the world around them, create a love of language and enjoy a loving, special relationship with the adult who is doing the talking and reading of the stories. At school we continue all of this as well by also reading aloud and discussing the ideas in quality books.

Learning to read is an extremely difficult task for children to do. Books that we send home are designed to be easy as this ensures that the children have immediate success for their efforts.  They are quick for families, especially those who are often time poor with so many other after school activities. Often we send home the same book three times depending upon your child's reading level.

The first time may be to share and discuss, or to use strategies to work out unknown words or to build alphabet sound knowledge.  The next time you child may havemoved up a few more reading levels and can read it to you with minimal support while the third time it is very easy. This is when your child is working on fluency, intonation or thinking or research skills. We know some of the titles that your child brings home may not appeal to you as adults but we only purchase quality reading materials for our children that have been researched as ones that have strong motivational appeal. There is a wealth of fantastic books available at our local Eastbourne library that your child can also take out to practise their growing skills. As learning to read and write require mastery of a multitude of skills simultaneously children progress at different rates over their first three years at school. Please support them and if you have any questions please do not hesitate to ask your child's teacher.

Pataka Museum

All children from rooms 1,2 and 3 will be going by bus to Pataka Museum on Tuesday March 8th while the children from rooms 4, 5 and 6 will be going the next day on Wednesday March 9th. We will be leaving school at 9.15 a.m. and returning by home time. Parents are invited to join us for the trip. We are, however, unable to take you on the bus but can arrange car pooling and we unfortunately can not have preschoolers at Pataka. If you would like to join us for this trip please let me know by next Friday March 4th.

Grandparent's afternoon

As part of our current inquiry where the children are learning about their history we will be inviting grandparents to school for an afternoon. We will be doing this on Monday April 4th at 1.30 p.m. in our hall so please ask your child's grandparents (or a family friend who could be an honorary grandparent) to pencil this date into their diary. We would like the grandparents to bring along items that they have used/had when they were younger so that we can make comparisons showing the children how things have changed over time. e.g. toys, telephones, clothing, food etc

Have a lovely week.

Kind regards

Maureen Buckley

Deputy Principal

Junior Jottings No.1

Dear Parents and Caregivers,
Welcome to Junior Jottings number 1 for 2011! School is busy already and we have had another great week of learning. I have been in each of the classes since the term began and am very pleased with the quality work I have seen the children producing. They have settled into their classroom routines and are working very well together. Classes are starting to exhibit some of the children's artworks with sketching and portraits adorning the walls. Have a look at the classroom blogs as well to see examples.

Aquatics Education

In the holidays, all staff attended the 'State Kiwi Swim Safe Professional Development' workshops. As part of this, we are so fortunate to have expert swimming instructors working with your children. They are employed to give swimming and water safety instruction for each class for half an hour daily over a two week time span and at no cost to us. Classroom teachers will implement the aquatics programme outside of these sessions. Under their expert guidance, these instructors have ensured that the children have made amazing progress already. They have been assessing the children's skills in the water in an effort to ensure they attain the levels on the certificate. Please note that from this week there are some changes to days and times so please check with your child's teacher to ensure your child comes with their correct gear on the correct day. We will have swimming for the next three weeks until the Eastbourne Pool closes.

Assessment

Each child is taking part in a range of assessments in a range of curriculum areas so that their teachers have a starting point for the next learning steps. Over the holiday break many children have not had daily reading, writing, mathematics and spelling practice and may be at levels lower than they were at the end of last year. e.g. Your child may at the moment bring home a reading book that is very easy. This will occur until all testing has been completed and children have been grouped accordingly. It is important at this stage of the term, for children to get back into the daily habit of homework, experiencing success and for parents to continue reading aloud to them also on a daily basis.

Mind maps

This year every child will be learning how to do a mindmap. Please ask them about it and for further information please go to 'The Learning Den' blog by Sarah Richardson.

Toys

Children have been bringing expensive and precious toys to school. We discourage this but if toys do come to school it is the child's responsibility if they become lost, damaged or broken. Parents please talk to your child about this and also have a peek in their bag from time to time to see what they are bringing.

Sunhats

Thank you all very much for supporting our sun safe message by ensuring your child has a suitable hat (not a cap) at school each day. Hats need to be named.

Capital E National Festival of Arts

We will be taking all classes to Wellington to see three shows in the arts festival, over one day. We are going to see 'Grimace', 'Passing Wind' and 'Boats' so that parents who are booking for shows in the festival know which ones we will be attending. Further details will be given closer to the time.

Pataka Museum

As part of our Inquiry 'Here's our History' in March we will be going on a trip to Porirua to take part in a range of activities at Pataka Museum, that we have booked with the education officers. I will also give details of this at a later date.

Buddies

All classes have met their big buddies and have planned further activities with them. The younger buddies are delighted to see them in the playground as well. Ask your child about their buddy.

Before school

A lot of children are coming to school early, some even before 8 a.m. Please ensure your child stays at home until 8.30 a.m. We offer before school care for children if you need to leave Eastbourne early. If you need to take advantage of this service, please contact our school office. We also have children arriving too late to school, which disrupts their learning and that of the other children. Please ensure your child is at school in their classroom by 8.40 a.m.

Have a great week enjoying this beautiful weather.

Kind regards

Maureen Buckley

Deputy Principal

Welcome to 2011!

Dear Parents and Caregivers
Welcome and hello! Please click on the Junior School Blog to read the Term 1 newsletter for an overview of what is happening in our Junior School throughout the term. The 'Junior Jottings' will be published each week on Fridays on this blog.
Thanks
Maureen Buckley
Deputy Principal