Dear Parents and Caregivers
What a wonderful term it has been! It is hard to believe that already that the term has flown by and that at the end of next week it will be holidays. We warmly welcome all new families and students who have joined our Junior School and hope you have all settled in well. It has also been pleasing to see the efforts that the children have been making and the progress in their learning that has been achieved. 

We are also happy to welcome new staff as well as let you know of changes to staff in our Junior School. Mrs Elizabeth Sullivan is now teaching full time in room 2 with our newest five year olds. Mrs Raewyn Roberts is teaching in room 3 and will do so for term 3 along with the Thursdays and Fridays she has already been doing. Mrs Christa Pitman and Miss Nicolette Fisher are releasing the teachers in rooms 4 and 5. We are also fortunate to have Michelle Fisher, Suzanna Anderson, Karen Tattersall and Alison Furminger, working as teacher aides, supporting the learning in our classrooms. 

Curriculum afternoons and evenings
Thank you to all those parents who attended the sessions. I do hope you are more informed about what your child does in their first two years at school in literacy and numeracy as well as have some more ideas on how to support them at home. If you couldn't attend and would like the notes please email me and I will send them home with your child. If you have any questions please do not hesitate to ask me. 

Hooked on Books
Thank you so much to the parents and grandparents who willingly give up their time to listen to students read. We do appreciate it. If you would like to do this either each week or fortnightly for an hour in the afternoon please do not hesitate to contact me.

Science and Inquiry 
This term we have had a huge focus on Science. Each classroom has taken part in a wide range of experiments so please ask your child what they have been involved in. We also had a fun Science week and were very lucky to have outside experts come in and share their knowledge with the children. Mrs Ryan showed everyone some fun experiments that can be done with dry ice including the inflation of balloons. The inquiry topic involving sound, magnetism and electricity has captured the children's curiosity and they are asking myriads of questions. Mrs Ryan has also been running a Science club at lunchtimes for some students. The students have also worked on Matariki. 

Cross Country and moveMprove
The students have also been keeping fit over the term. They have been involved in fitness activities as well as running and games involving large balls. They were very enthusiastic in the Annual Cross Country run and did extremely well. We were delighted to see that all the students completed the course despite it being difficult for some students to accomplish. They showed great perseverance and determination and did not give up even if they did not win. Thank you so much to all the parents and extended families who joined us for the event and supported your child's efforts and the efforts of others in such a positive way. 

Each week the students have been doing a gymnastic programme in the hall called moveMprove run by outside providers. This programme involves the children doing a series of warm up activities and then moving from station to station before cooling down again. Each week activities of increasing difficulty are added to every station. It finishes next week and it is great to see the progress that the children have made over the past seven weeks. As an example, some children were scared to get up on, let along walk along the beam at first but now they go forwards, backwards, side by side and even carry hoops above their heads as they do it and they are smiling and very proud of their achievements.

The Arts
Students from rooms 1, 4, 5 and 6 have had sessions involving Performing Arts with Mrs Hooke, which they enjoyed very much. Rooms 2 and 3 will have a turn next term. 
Painting has been the focus for Visual Art and the students have had many opportunities to learn about the colour wheel and mix different colours together. They have learnt about primary, secondary and tertiary colours and shading and tints. They have also used both acrylic and water colour paints. The work on display in classrooms is amazing especially as the children are aged between five and seven years! Please also stop and have a look at the fabulous work by rooms 4 and 6 that is currently on display in the office foyer. 

Reporting to Parents
Tomorrow all students in rooms 1, 4, 5 and 6 and a few students in room 3 will be bringing home their reports in their book bags. If your child is new to our school or has started school this term they will not have a written report as they will have had parent and teacher six week conferences instead. 
The reports should give you a clear picture of where your child is currently and should reflect what was discussed at the parent and teacher conferences held in term 1. 
There are two different reports - one that is Anniversary and one that is a Mid Year progress report. The Anniversary one will give you information of where your child has achieved in the National Standards in reading, writing and mathematics. The mid year progress report will give you expected progress towards achieving the standard. 
Please do not stress if your child is below the standard e.g. your child may have just recently turned six and are reading at level 11 (end of blue) To meet the standard they need to be at Level 12 (beginning of green level) so they are nearly there. In their next Anniversary report next year they may be reading at Level 17 or above which is 'at' for after two years at school. To be 'well above' your child needs to be consistently achieving at least one year above their chronological age. 

You will see that there are categories for 'not yet', 'at times', 'mostly' and 'always'. Sometimes the 'Not yet' means that they have not covered it in class as yet e.g. multiplication in mathematics but they will next time or it can mean that your child is not at that stage of their development or has not yet achieved every aspect of the descriptor. 'At times' means that they may from time to time achieve some of the aspects but are not consistent. 'Mostly' means that on a day to day basis they more than often achieve this aspect but can still make errors whereas to get 'always' that has to be consistent and achieved every time. Please do not focus on the National Standards area but instead read the comments as this is where your child's teacher has written their next learning steps which is what they need to practice. The reports are moderated across the year groups so if your child is in year 2 in room 5 they are compared with the year 2 children in room 6. This is the same for the year 1 children in rooms 1, 3 and 4. If you have any questions please do not hesitate to contact me or your child's teacher. 

Celebration of Learning 
Parents and family members are invited to visit your child's classroom between 3 p.m. and 6 p.m so that your child can share their learning with you. The process for this is that your child will show you their books and talk to you about their next learning steps. You can then ask them questions about what they share and have a look around their classroom at their learning that is on display. 

Achievements in Literacy and Numeracy 
We are very pleased to congratulate Tilly Enge and Estelle Languette who have both completed their Reading Wall - great effort! 
Warmest congratulations also goes to Adreeta Acharyya who has achieved 32 Mathletics certificates so far this year and Eloise Bothwell who has got our first Gold Mathletics award. Well done to you both! What a fantastic effort! 
Silver Mathletics awards go to Luke Sherwin, Connor Johnstone, George Saunderson, Joe Kanjanaphat. Congratulations! 
Bronze Mathletics awards go to Nicholas Davidson, Satchel Wilson, Thomas Keenan, Sebastian Thompson, Claire Bennett. Congratulations! 

Reading Eggs and Mathletics Subscriptions
Each child has a login and password for Mathletics. If you have misplaced yours please don't hesitate to contact me. The subscription for Mathletics is $20 and is part of the activity fee that parents pay each year. 
Reading eggs is a voluntary subscription for students aged from 3 to 13 years in the areas of reading, writing and spelling.  Parents who wish to have this pay the fee of $22 to the school office.

School finishes next Friday July 8th at the usual time of 2.55 p.m. Please have a lovely, restful holiday break with your children. We look forward to working with them and you in term 3. School starts at 8.40 a.m. on Monday July 25th. The students will still need to bring their slippers in term 3. 

Kind regards
Maureen Buckley 
Deputy Principal 

on behalf of the Junior School team 
Mrs Barbara Ryan, Mrs Elizabeth Sullivan, Mrs Raewyn Roberts, Mrs Liz Knowles, Mrs Janelle McKay, Ms Morag Roberts, Mrs Jo Salisbury, Mrs Sue Steele, Mrs Christa Pitman, Miss Nicolette Fisher, Mrs Suzanna Anderson, Mrs Sandra Blair, Mrs Alison Furminger, Mrs Karen Tattersall, Mrs Carolyn Murphy, Mrs Carolyn Littlefair, Mrs Brenda Anderson, Mrs Rachel Cope, Mrs Kathryn Kokich and Mrs Michelle Fisher.