JUNIOR JOTTINGS BLOG

Junior Jottings

2011-12-08T01:03:00.000-08:00

Dear Parents and Caregivers,

Another busy week has raced by leaving only one more week until school closes for the summer break.

Thank you to all those families who supported the 'Silent art auction' evening last Friday. It was an amazing event with lots of people mingling whilst bidding and eating. To those people who managed to purchase an artwork we hope that you and your family gain much pleasure from it in the years to come.

Our Junior athletics was thoroughly enjoyed by the children. Congratulations to everyone who tried their best at the different events. They made up the class relay teams with rooms 1 and 5 being the winners. Special congratulations to the following students who got in the first four placings to make up the relay teams.
Year 2 -
Henry Evans, Jack Evans, Ryan Swift, Lachlan McFarlane, Lucy Mirfin-Newman, Alexandra Irvine, Amy Schoenborn, Mia Schoenborn, Evie Wilson, Chelsea Summers, Esme Cochrane, Gemma Grant, Maui Morrison, Finley Morley, Jasper McLaren, Sebastian Campbell, Alana Grant, Holly Churchman, Grace Manson, Emily Jones, Kahu Rolfe, Lachlan McLachlan, Rory Moffat and Maz Cameron.

Year 1 -
Joe Dickson, Ben Drummond, Daniel Brownsword, Harry Rookes, Sarah Caddis, Harriet Travers, Ruby Wells, Poppy Neal, Abigail Miller, Amelia Swift, Amber Reid, Maija Berry, Alexa Knowsley, Ana Zuijderwijk, Ted Woolley, Felix Pummer, Fraser Neilson, Harrison Allen, Seren Lewis, Pania Rolfe, Elsie Wilson, Frances Penney, Theo Potter, Cameron Bentley, Barney Cass and Kieran Kerr.
Our annual Christmas concert was extremely well supported on Wednesday afternoon. The children looked great dressed in an array of Christmas costumes and they performed the songs superbly. We hope that everyone enjoyed themselves. Thank you to everyone who supplied food towards the party and a big thank you to Lisa Caddis and Emma and Molly Daley for kindly giving up their time to make copious cups of tea and coffee.

Every Friday some of our Year 2 children attend speech classes. The following children sat speech examinations recently and should be very proud of their efforts and of course the results. They took part in preliminary and gained high distinctions. Congratulations to
Ryan Mahoney, Lucy Harris, Dan Walker, Pippa Geldermans, Lucy Mirfin-Newman, Leon Medcalfe and Olivia Morphew.

Your child's report, portfolio and a letter containing classlists for next year came home with your child today.
On the report forms for Year 1 and 2 you will notice that we have added National Standards information. Some of our year 1 children have not been at school for a year as yet so their placement is based on working towards where they will be placed after one year at school. Those children who have been at school for one year are placed according to after one year at school while those in year 2 are placed according to after two years at school. As children start school at different times throughout the year the placement is based on the level they were at when they turned six or seven.
Most of our children are working at or above on the National Standards and those that are below are only just. e.g. in reading, when your child turns six to be at the standard they need to be reading at Level 12. A few of our children are at Level 11 so are just below. If your child is at Level 13 or more then they are above. Year 2 children need to be at Level 16 to meet the standard.

With the tick system to gain 'always' they must be consistently doing that aspect. Some children will get marked in 'not yet' or 'at times' often because they are not at that stage as yet or are just beginning that stage in their learning. The report is also graded according to development. For example in mathematics the children move through each of the stages from solving problems using materials, then solving problems without materials to bein able to count on or count back to solve problems. This process takes the children two years to work through. If you have any questions please do not hesitate to ask. I am available next week so please email me or phone the office to make an appointment.

Throughout the year I test each child as near to their sixth birthday as possible on a range of literacy tasks called the Observational Survey. I have met with most parents throughout the year to share your child's results with you. If you have not been able to meet with me can you please email me or pop into room 3 if you would like to meet me after school before the end of the term so I can arrange a suitable time with you?

Next week
On Monday all children from throughout the school will move to their 2012 classroom to meet with their new teacher. They will then return later to their usual classroom for the remainder of the year. This meeting is a way for the children to mix with both new and old friends so that over the holidays they do not stress about who their teacher will be and who will be in their class next year.

On Tuesday we would like all those parents and caregivers who have helped out at school throughout the year to come along to the hall and join us for morning tea. We really do appreciate all the support you give to the children in their learning.

On Wednesday, if it is fine, the instructors from Kelly sports will be here so our children can take part in a fun sports day. Some children were disappointed with the cancellation of the Cross Country so I organised Kelly sports to come to school instead. If it is wet on Wednesday we will carry this over to term 1 next year. On Wednesday your child will need to wear clothing and footwear suitable for the activities being held on our school field. Please ensure that they also have a sunhat and are wearing sunscreen.

On Friday there will an assembly especially for the Year 8 students as they leave our school and move onto secondary school. The assembly starts at 11 a.m. You are very welcome to attend along with the parents of the year 8's. The year 8's are currently having a fabulous time in Abel Tasman as part of their Education Outside the Classroom programme and on their return will have a special formal evening. At the assembly we will also farewell other students who will be leaving our school for other schools both around New Zealand and overseas. When the assembly has finished the children will return to their classrooms so that teachers can ensure that they are ready for you to pick up at 1 p.m.

At the end of the year there are still a lot of things to do. Teachers will be providing the Ministry of Education with information, updating achievement data, completing individual files containing your child's progress ready for their teacher next year and also planning for next year. They will also be repairing any items and doing stocktakes of equipment, resources and books. Your child will not be bringing home any reading books this week. If they have any books at home could you please ensure that they are returned before the end of the week? Reading books cost over $10 each so we really appreciate their return so they can be used in next year's programmes.

Office staff will be doing end of year returns and ensuring all financial areas are completed so settlement of any accounts would be greatly appreciated. Parents will be checking the lost property please for any clothing items that may belong to your child. The clothes have been on display for the children to take but often they do not recognise their own clothing. If it is named we can easily return items to your child but any clothing remaining at school on Friday will be given away to charity.

The children will be bringing home all their artwork, tote tray contents and exercise books as well. Please make sure that they bring their school bag each day. On Friday morning every classroom will be packed up ready for cleaning and of course locked so any items that the children leave at school that day will not be able to be retrieved until next year. Please make sure that your child does not bring special items and toys to school this week.

Some children will be leaving for their holiday before Friday. If you intend to do this could you please let your child's teacher know?

The children from rooms 1, 2 and 5 were unable to go swimming today. The pool had been booked by another school and we were not informed of this earlier.

Have a great week.

Kind regards

Maureen Buckley

Deputy Principal

Junior Jottings Number 25

2011-12-01T18:25:00.000-08:00

Dear Parents and Caregivers,

What a wonderful time the children have been having during our 'Education Outside the Classroom' week. They have enjoyed the variety of Visual Art activities and especially loved making the bracelets with the special U.V. beads, as part of our Inquiry into being Sunsmart. They were absolutely amazed at how quickly the beads changed colour even though it was a very cloudy day. Due to the deterioration in the weather we had folk dancing in the hall instead of athletics practice. We hoped for an improvement in the weather by Tuesday morning but unfortunately the rain continued and caused the ground to be too slippery to run on and also too wet to sit down on while waiting for races. I know some children and parents were disappointed that the event did not go ahead but that was the only day that we had booked Bishop's Park for. The children continued with their Visual art projects and also practised songs for our upcoming concert. The trip to Avalon Park on Wednesday went well with the children tired, hot and very happy. Special thanks to Mr Bradley Allen for his surprise visit with his police car and also for his patience at letting all the children have a turn in it. The trip to our local beach on Thursday morning also was amazing. The children made some fantastic sculptures and their creations certainly showed their imagination. Today the athletic sports went really well. The children did an incredible job at each of the activities. Thank you so much for all the family members who came along to support their efforts.

'Starting school at five' Evening
Thank you to those prospective parents who joined us for the information evening on Wednesday night. If there are any other questions please do not hesitate to ask.

Silent Art Auction
All co-operative art pieces from around the school have been completed and will be on display in the hall from 6 p.m. tonight. Please come along and enjoy the evening by tasting the fruits of the school vegetable gardens along with a catch up with your friends and a drink or two.

Next week
There will be swimming once for each class during the week. Children need to bring their swimsuit, named towel and named goggles (if they wish) in a swimming bag or named plastic supermarket bag. They also need to wear clothing that is both quick for them to undress and then redress independently.

Christmas Concert and Party
On Wednesday December 7th at 1.30 p.m. we invite you to join us for our annual Christmas concert to be held in the hall. The children need to dress in Christmas colours and also bring along a plate of food to share for the party, which will be held at the end of the concert outside under the sunshade if it is fine.
Could all donations of food please be placed in the hall on the trestles beside the hall kitchen before school on Wednesday morning?
We also need some volunteers to help make the tea and coffee. If you are able to help with this please let Mrs Barbara Ryan in room 1 know.

Stationery
Please go online to place your order. Tick the box for the correct year group. Children in year 2 will be in rooms 4, 5 and 6 while children in year 1 will be in rooms 1, 2 or 3. If you are unsure of your child's year group for 2012 please do not hesitate to ask. Orders will be delivered to your home. This stationery lasts for the whole year. Parents who wish to cover their child's books with duraseal over the holiday break may do so but all children need to bring their stationery pack with them to school on the first day of term 1. There are also extra items that need to be purchased from our school office once we are back at school.

Reports, Portfolios and Classlists
On Friday your child will bring home their portfolio and report. Enclosed with this will be the class that your child has been placed in for next year. If your child is currently in year 2 it is quite likely that they may have the same teacher again due to the fact that both Ms Capper and Mrs Naik have taught many of the current Year 2's and also when some of them were in Year 1. No portfolios, reports or classlists will be given out during the day. Everyone will get them at hometime. If your child is absent from school on Friday they will get theirs on their return to school. Please open the envelopes at home and not in the playground. On Monday December 12th the children will be visiting their new classroom and meeting both old and new friends and their teacher for 2012.

Hats
Recently the Home and School committee sold hats for fundraising. Some people missed the cut off date for ordering so if you would like to order a hat please contact me in room 3 so that Mrs Annette Sliper can collate any late orders.

Sunscreen and water bottles
Could you please ensure your child has sunscreen applied before they come to school and also please send along some more with them to be reapplied whilst at school. With this sudden increase of warm weather it is very important that each child is protected from the sun's rays. Please also make sure that every day your child has their named drink bottles at school so that they do not become dehydrated.

Parent and Adult Helpers Thank you Morning Tea
Please join the staff for morning tea in the hall at 10.30 a.m. on Tuesday December 13th. We have really appreciated the support you have given to the children and staff throughout this year.

Have a great week
Kind regards

Maureen Buckley
Deputy Principal

Junior Jottings Number 24

2011-11-24T19:51:00.000-08:00

Dear Parents and Caregivers

We are hoping that all this strange weather that we have had over the past week settles down and stays fine and warm so that the children can enjoy the Education Outside the Classroom (E.O.T.C.) activities that we have planned for them.

The fine day programme is as follows:-

Monday November 28th

8.40 a.m. Jumpjam in the hall

Visual art morning where the children will be taking part in a variety of art activities. Among these will be the making of a bracelet using special beads. These beads change colour according to the Ultra Violet light and let children know when they need to seek shade.

1.30 p.m. Due to the inclement weather we have experienced lately we will be doing a final practice of athletics on the field during the afternoon in readiness for the events later in the week and not folk dancing as previously planned.

Tuesday November 29th

The long awaited Junior School 'Cross Country' will take place.

All children from rooms 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6 and 16 will leave school at 9.15 a.m. to walk to Bishop's Park. They will sit in their 'House' groups until their event is called.
The order of events is as follows - Year 2 boys, Year 2 girls, Year 1 boys,Year 2 girls, Year 0 boys and finally Year 0 girls.

WHAT TO BRING - morning tea, a drink of water and to wear their sunhat together with clothing and footwear suitable for running in. They can dress up or wear items in their 'House' colours. Please ask your child which 'House' they are in but if you are unsure please do not hesitate to ask your child's teacher. We will return to school together at the end of all the races. If it is wet the event will be cancelled. Parents and caregivers are very welcome to come along and support the children in their efforts.

1.30 p.m. The children will be having a rehearsal of the forthcoming Junior School Christmas concert.

Wednesday November 30th

8.40 a.m. Jumpjam in the hall as usual.
At 10 a.m. all children from Rooms 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6 and 16 will board buses which will transport them to Avalon Park. Parents, caregivers and families are very welcome to join us at the park during the day but we are unable to take you on the buses. We have planned some activities for the children to do at the park as well as enjoy the equipment there. They will leave the park at 2 p.m. to return to school by hometime. If it is wet the visit will be cancelled.

WHAT TO BRING - morning tea, a cut lunch and a drink of water together with a sunhat, suitable footwear and clothing so that they are not restricted in their play.

Thursday December 1st

'Beach Morning'
At 9 a.m. the children will walk to the beach near the wharf/swimming pool area. They will be making sand sculptures as well as partaking in a range of activities at the park next door. They will all return to school by lunchtime.

WHAT TO BRING - Morning tea, a drink of water, buckets, spades and sand toys (all named) as well as sunhat and suitable footwear.

1.30 p.m. Children will be continuing with the art works that they began earlier in the week.

Friday December 2nd

The 'Junior School Athletics Sports.'
9 a.m. Room 16 will undertake the events till 9.45 a.m. on our school field.
9.50 a.m. Rooms 1, 2, 3, 4, 5 and 6 will then begin their rotation of activities.

Morning tea will be at the usual time of 10.30 a.m. followed by the rest of the activities which will conclude by lunchtime. If it is wet the whole event will be cancelled.

The wet day 'Education Outside the Classroom' programme involves the children staying at school and working on a variety of visual art, and technology and construction activities.

N.B. The children will not be bringing home reading books and poems or being tested on Reading Rockets, Spelling Rockets or Basic Facts carriages over this week.

URGENTLY WANTED
Each classroom needs clean newspapers preferably the DomPost size. If you have any to spare please send it along to school on Monday.

Diary Dates
Next Week
Monday November 28th
Jackie Jennings, the Vision and Hearing Tester, will be here working with our New Entrants and also Year 7 children. If your child is tested by her on Monday, they will bring home a note containing their results for you.

Choir Visit
I will be taking a Choir of Year 5 and 6 students to the Retired Citizen's Christmas Function where they will be performing an array of songs from different countries around the world that they learnt during the recent Rugby World Cup event.

Wednesday November 30th
Our 'Starting School at Five' Information evening for parents of preschool children will be in the school staffroom at 7 p.m. If you have friends or neighbours with preschool children please let them know.

Friday December 2nd
'Silent Art Auction' Evening from 6 p.m. in the hall. Please come along and see the lovely art works on display. Gold coin donation.

Week 7
Wednesday December 7th - Our Junior School Christmas Concert and Party
This will be in the hall from 1.30 p.m. In the morning, your child needs to come to school dressed in 'Christmas' colours (e.g. green, red) and bring along a plate of food to share for the afternoon tea after the concert.

Friday December 9th - Your child will bring home their portfolio of work to share with you along with their report and a letter containing which class they will be in next year.

Looking ahead to 2012
The enormous task of sorting out class placements for 2012 is about to take place. This is an extremely difficult job and involves serious consideration of the individual learning needs of every single child along with a wide number of other factors coupled with the constraints of small class numbers. I spend many hours talking and observing the children, both inside and outside of their classrooms, along with meeting parents trying to aleviate any concerns they may have regarding their childs' learning and of course consult with current and former teachers' before the final classlist is actually sent home. I try to ensure each child has some of their friends however, sometimes this is not always possible. Children, sometimes, are split from some of their friends because their learning is being impeded while others are split as they need to branch out and make more new friends.

Week 8
Monday December 12th
Children will be moving to their new classroom to meet their teacher and new classmates for 2012.

Tuesday December 13th
We cordially invite all parents, caregivers and friends of the Junior School who have helped us in anyway this year to a 'Thank you' morning tea at 10.30 a.m. in the hall. We really appreciated the support that you have given us in our classroom programmes and with trips.

Friday December 16th - Last day of term 4, 2011.
There will be a 'Leaver's Assembly' where we farewell our Year 8 students as they move to high school along with any other children who are leaving.

Swimming
As we have E.O.T.C. next week and the pool is booked by other people from outside the Eastbourne area, our Junior children will only have one class swim before the end of the term. The session will involve fun, water confidence activities. If it is wet or cold, however they will not be going to the pool.

The days and times are as follows

Tuesday December 6th:
11.00 a.m. - Room 16
11.45 a.m. - Room 5
1.30 p.m. - Room 1

Thursday December 8th
11.00 - Room 4
11.45 a.m. - Room 6
1.30 p.m. - Room 3

Friday December 9th - 11.45 a.m. - Room 2

Stationery for 2012
You will have recieved a notice about stationery for next year. Please go online and make your order. If you need any further information about this please do not hesitate to ask Sue at the office.

Resources - Reading books
Please have a look around home and return to school any reading books or any other items belonging to school, as we will be doing a stocktake at the end of the year. The reading books the children bring home cost between $10 and $ 15 for each copy to replace so we really appreciate getting them all back ready to be used again next year.

Have a great weekend. I look forward to seeing you at an event next week.

Kind regards
Maureen Buckley
Deputy Principal

4 November 2011

2011-11-03T20:16:00.000-07:00

Dear Parents and Caregivers

Welcome everyone to the last term for 2011 and a warm welcome to those new families who have recently joined us. It has already been very busy at school.

Disco
The disco was well attended and lots of fun for the children. They were very tired at the end of their first week back but still had plenty of energy for dancing. Thanks go to the Home and School for organizing this and to staff who also attended.

Cricket
On Wednesday afternoon the children in Year 0 and 1 participated in some cricket skills sessions.

Full School Assembly
Rooms 1 and 3 will be performing a partner dance on stage that they have been learning with our Performing Arts teacher, Mrs Hooke, at Full School Assembly on Friday.

Reports
Teachers are currently writing reports on the children’s progress that they have made throughout the second half of the year. If your child has recently joined us in term 3 or 4 they will have a meeting with their teacher to discuss their progress instead of a written report.

At the end of week 7 your child will be bringing home their portfolio showing examples of the progress that they have made in a range of curriculum areas along with the report.

Next week
The children have started learning a variety of Athletics skills and will continue to do so each week. These lessons will be held on Monday afternoons (weather permitting) so please ensure that your child wears suitable shoes for this. The children will have the opportunity to show you what they have learnt later this term at our Athletics Sports Day.

National Nude Food Day
This will be launched on Wednesday November 9th. It is designed to educate children about healthy food choices and how these choices impact their own mental and physical well-being and the well-being of our planet.

As a Green Gold Enviro school we are also encouraging the children to have see through lunch boxes with compartments for different foods that do not require packets or gladwrap.

Scholastic Book Club
The children bring home pamphlets from time to time and if you wish to purchase any of the books that are featured please send your order and payment to the school office or your child’s classroom. Payment is by a cheque made out to ‘Scholastic Books’ or you can place your credit card details on the order form. We are unable to accept cash. Closing date of the latest order is November 9th. If you need items to be kept aside for Christmas without your child’s knowledge please let us know.

Hats, Sunscreen and Water
Thank you for ensuring that your child has a named sunhat to wear at school each day. As part of our Inquiry about keeping ‘Sunsmart’ your child will be learning about the importance of protecting their skin from the U.V. rays. You can administer sunblock on your child before they leave home each day and they can also bring along some in their school-bags, which they can reapply during the day. Please ensure that it is named. As the weather is getting warmer we are encouraging the children to drink more water so please make sure that your child has a named drink bottle at school on a daily basis.

Class Photographs
On Tuesday November 15th, the children in rooms 3 and 16 will be having class photos and individual photos as most of them had not started school when the school wide photographs were taken. If parents of children in these rooms would like sibling photos taken as well could they please ask their child’s teacher for a separate envelope. All envelopes need to be returned to school by Friday, November 11th, 2011.

Education Outside the Classroom Week for Years 0, 1, and 2
The following is an overview with the more finer details to come at a later date.

Monday – This will involve visual art in the morning and Folk dancing in the afternoon. Parents and caregivers are welcome to come along to watch the dancing.

Tuesday – Cross Country – This will be held at Bishop’s Park during the morning and after this the children will be returning to school to complete the art works from the previous day. Please join us to support your child’s running efforts.

Wednesday - Visit to Avalon Park We will be leaving school at 10 a.m. and the children will all be going by bus to the park. They will spend the day there and return back to school before hometime. Families are very welcome to come along and join us at the park for the day but need to go by private car as there will not be room on the bus. If it is wet we will not be going or having a postponement day. The children will instead stay at school and do a range of activities.

Thursday – Beach day – We will be visiting our local beach and taking part in a range of activities there.

Friday – Athletics – The events will all be held at school throughout the morning so please also come along and join us.

If you have any queries please do not hesitate to contact your child’s teacher or myself.

Have a great week

Kind regards
Maureen Buckley
Deputy Principal

Junior Jottings Number 20

2011-10-02T12:40:00.000-07:00

Dear Parents and Caregivers

The term has certainly gone fast and it is hard to believe that next week is the last week of term. Each morning the children have been doing running practice in preparation for the Cross Country that was postponed from earlier this year. Please make sure that your child wears appropriate shoes and clothing for this.

Slippers and Sunhats
Over the next week your child will be bringing home their slippers. Please make sure that your child has a named sunhat to wear from the first day of next term. You can still order one from the school office. Orders close 7 October.

Meetings with Parents
I have enjoyed meeting with parents over the past two weeks about class placements for next year. If you would still like to meet me about your child next week please email me on buckley@muritai.school.nz so I can sort out a suitable time and day.

Toolbox Parent Groups
The next Parent group programme entitled 'The Middle Years' (6 to 12 years) Make the most of these years while your children still want to be part of your team. These will be on Fridays from 10 a.m. and 12 p.m. from October 28th to December 9th in Lower Hutt. These small group courses involve a trained facilitator and are tailored to your needs. There are six sessions and they are positive, practical and fun. The sessions cover topics such as building character and self esteem, emotional resilience, discipline and much more. It costs $67.50 per person or $90 per couple. If you would like more details about this course please contact Natalie Alabaster Ph 934 8483 or Email HuttTBX@Parentsinc.org.nz or book online at www.TheParentingPlace.com They also have programmes for The Early Years (0 to 6 years) and Tweens and Teens (12 years plus) at other times of the year. If you are interested in these please also contact them using the above details.

This week
We are looking forward to being in the audience of the 'Wearable Arts Show' and seeing the amazing costumes our siblings, buddies and older friends have made. We will be watching the dress rehearsal this afternoon and some of us will also be attending the shows. There will be early lunches on Monday and Tuesday due to the performance times.

On Friday we will be having assembly in which we will be farewelling Mr Skilton. You are very welcome to join us for this. School will be finishing at the usual time.

Next term - Diary dates
Monday October 24 - School will be closed for Labour Day holiday
Tuesday October 25 - First day back at school
Monday November 21 - Swimming starts
Junior School Education outside the classroom week - November 28th to December 2nd
Junior School trip to Avalon Park Wednesday November 30th
'Starting school at five' information evening - Wednesday 30 November
Junior School Christmas Concert and afternoon tea - Wednesday 7 December
Last day of term 4 - Friday December 16th

Enjoy the rest of the World Cup matches and this lovely weather.

Kind regards

Maureen Buckley
Deputy Principal

Junior Jottings number 19

2011-09-25T15:39:00.000-07:00

Dear Parents and Caregivers

What another lovely week we have had. We have been watching our older siblings and buddies making their Wearable Arts costumes and are looking forward to seeing the show later this term.

It is hard to believe that daylight saving is here already. The children will be bringing home their slippers at the end of the term and will need to bring named sunhats on the first day of Term 4.

Calendars
Thanks to everyone who ordered the calendars, diaries or cards. They will arrive back early next term.

Hot dogs
These are on Wednesdays till the end of this term. Thank you to those parents who have given up their time to do this.

Hooked on Books
This programme will be finishing at the end of this term. We really appreciate the time that parents have given to listen to our children read. You have made such a difference to their learning.

Term 4
We have planned some exciting learning experiences for your child including an Athletics Day, Cross Country run, Education Outside the Classroom and Christmas concert. Our Inquiry will be focusing on how to keep safe in the sun and water. In writing we will be introducing the children to poetry and in Visual Art we will be doing more mixed media art and printmaking. Dates of the planned events will be in next week's Junior Jottings.

Meetings with Parents
To all those parents who would like to discuss their child's classroom placement for next year and have not made an appointment as yet please email me.

Home and School 'Hat' fundraiser
You will have received notices about the surf hats and bucket hats that are on sale. These are really good quality and Cancer Society approved. With the events mentioned above the children dress in their 'House' colours so a sunhat in their colour would be great. You could also purchase hats for friends or other family members. Siblings are all placed in the same 'House' when they come to school.

Full School Assembly
Our next Full School Assembly will be on the last day of the term and not next week as the cat walk for the Wearable Arts show will be put up in the hall instead.

Have a great week.

Maureen Buckley
Deputy Principal

Junior Jottings Number 18

2011-09-18T14:27:00.000-07:00

Dear Parents and Caregivers

Once again the weather has been unsettled with a mix of hail, rain, thunder and lightning and sunshine. Our beach clean-up was postponed from Monday afternoon to other days during the week. Some of our students joined their buddy classes while the rest of the Junior school went down to our local beach area on Friday morning.

As part of Conservation week we have been observing and discussing what children have been placing in our school rubbish bins. Mr Ray took a photo of the contents of one of the bins and the children discussed and sorted what they found in them. On Friday at the full school assembly children from Rooms 3 and 16 made a few statements to everyone about what they had found out. They reminded everyone which bins to put which rubbish into and also to use see-through lunchboxes with various compartments for their morning tea and lunch. They explained that we need to reduce the use of wrappers and suggested one big bag of chippies for example could be divided up and its contents placed into resealable snaplock bags each day instead of a little bag every day.

'Starting school at Five' Information Evening
Thank you to those parents and prospective parents who came along to school on Wednesday evening. I hope you had all your questions answered and are now further prepared for the transition from pre-school years to school.

Calendar Orders
This Friday September 23rd is the last day for orders of calendars, diaries and cards. Please send your order along to the school office. These make great gifts for family members and friends, especially those who are difficult to buy for, at Christmas and they also look lovely in parents' offices.

Looking ahead to 2012
Planning is well underway for next year including programmes, classes and staffing. To help with this, could you please email me on buckley@muritai.school.nz, or phone our school office on 562 8409 if you have a child in your family, your pre-school or neighbourhood who will be turning five in 2012. I need their name and date of birth, parents name and a contact phone number.

Planning for 2012 for children already at school
I will be holding parent conferences for anyone who has a concern about their child's classroom placement for next year. It may be that you have twins you are considering splitting or not, or you have a child with a birthday in April and are considering them spending longer in the Junior school or you have a change in family or personal circumstances that I need to be aware of, etc. I am available for appointments over the next two weeks (Wednesdays, Thursdays or Fridays) to meet with you to listen to your concerns and make decisions appropriate for your child. Please email me with your name, phone number, what you would like to discuss and a selection of times/days that suit you. I will then contact you to confirm our appointment time.

Jumpjam
This will be the last week that the Junior School will be doing Jumpjam as the rest of the school needs the hall to get ready for their fantastic wearable arts show. A special thanks goes to those parents and caregivers who have joined in with the Jumpjam routines each day. Your children are so pleased that you do this alongside them. Fitness will still continue each day but will involve other activities like ball skills, running, movement to music, P.M.P. activities and skipping with ropes.

Have another great week!

Kind regards,

Maureen Buckley
Deputy Principal

Junior Jottings Number

2011-09-08T20:02:00.000-07:00

Dear Parents and Caregivers,

The long awaited World Cup has arrived and today the children were dressed in a myriad of colours supporting the different teams. They looked amazing! Over the next few weeks the children will be learning a little bit about the countries with teams taking part.

Next Week
Conservation Week - September 11th - 18th
This years theme is 'We love you New Zealand. Show New Zealand that you love it!' On Monday September 12th all of the Junior School will be going to our local beach during the afternoon to clean up the area of any rubbish. The children will be wearing gloves while they do this. Have a look at the Department of Conservation website to see what other activities you and your family can do together.

'Starting School at Five' Information Evening
The information evening for parents of pre school children will be held in the school staffroom next Wednesday September 14th at 7 p.m.

Calendars
The children have all been very busy creating their artwork for their calendars. The completed works are on display in classrooms and also on some blogs. The art works can also be made into a set of cards or a diary. These make very good Christmas presents for family members especially those people who are hard to buy for. The orders will be back in time for overseas posting. Please have a look at the children's work and get your orders into the school office by September 23rd.

Enrichment
Every two weeks the children of our Junior School move to another classroom for an afternoon to take part in a range of Enrichment opportunities. When they work in room 3 with Mrs Heath they participate in construction activities. As part of this she needs some empty cardboard boxes and empty 'gladwrap' rolls. If you have any could you please send them to room 3.

Have a great weekend.

Kind regards

Maureen Buckley
Deputy Principal

Junior Jottings Number 16

2011-08-25T15:32:00.000-07:00

Dear Parents and Caregivers,

Wow, what a week we have had weather-wise. Last week it was snowing and this week brilliant sunshine with September next week and daylight saving only a month away. Everyone has certainly been talking about the weather. The children were very excited to see, feel and be literally immersed in the snow. There have been lots of discussions in classrooms about snow, ice and the water cycle. One of the youngest children thought it was Christmas and that Santa would be coming from the North Pole. Last week's snowfall will certainly be etched in the children's memory forever. Please enjoy the following stories some of our five and six year old's have written about the snow and the power cut that also occurred.

The Eastbourne Snow - by Room 3

I made a snowman and I made a snowball. It was fun and I throwed my snowball at my whole family.
By Fraser

I held the snow.
by Logan

I went to McDonalds but they had a powercut so I went to the pizza shop but I didn't like the pizza.
By George

I really liked it when the lights went off. It was cool. I really liked it. I had candles. My cat was there too.
By Ted

In the power cut I got a torch and we lit candles.
By Ella

I couldn't reach my dinner. I couldn't see it.
By Theo

I was throwing snowballs. It was fun. I throwed snowballs at my brother's hat.
By Ana

The Scary Power

I was playing my Playstation when all of a sudden my TV went off. I ran into the lounge and I asked mum if that was a power cut. I cuddled mum with a blanket then my power came back. I was happy.
By Ethan Room 4

The Nasty Storm

I was doing my homework. Suddenly it went dark ... I was scared. Mum got her mattress from her bed. Me, Paige and mum slept in it. Ella slept on the couch and it was noisy. Mum lit the fire so it was warm. She had a special radio. It was fun. I heard thunder and I looked at the sky light and I saw light. It was lightning. Mum lit the candles.
By Ruby Room 4

Parent Conferences

Thank you to those parents and caregivers in room 4 who came along to school to meet with Miss Naik. If you have any questions about your child's learning please do not hesitate to email your child's teacher so they can answer them for you.

Portfolios
There are still a few portfolios at home. Can you please send them back to school as soon as possible?

Immunisations
Sue, in the office, needs the immunisation details of your child. Please pop in and see her, along with the necessary paper work, as soon as possible.

Diary dates

* Full School Assembly dates - September 2nd, 16th, and October 7th. All welcome!

* Our next 'Starting School at five' evening for parents of preschoolers will be on Wednesday,
September 14th at 7 p.m. in the school staffroom.

Have a great week.

Kind regards

Maureen Buckley
Deputy Principal

Junior Jottings Number 15

2011-08-11T19:54:00.000-07:00

Dear Parents and Caregivers
Welcome to term 3! I hope you have all had a lovely holiday and are now back into the routines of school. A warm welcome to the new families who have recently joined our Junior School.

The last week of term 2 was busy with parent conferences, portfolios, dress up day for the Orphans of Nepal and staff (including Mark our caretaker) reading favourite stories in the library at lunchtimes. We enjoyed meeting with you to discuss your children's progress and hope that you have a better understanding of what they are learning at school and how you can support this at home. Room 4 parents are meeting with Ms Naik this week. If you have any questions about your child and their learning, please do not hesitate to contact us.

If you have not returned your child's portfolio could you please do so as we need to place this term's work samples in them. You get to keep the portfolio at the end of the year.

Over the holidays, you will see that rooms 4, 5, 6 and the Rainbow Room between rooms 2 and 3 were refurbished. They look wonderful and are a lovely environment for the children to work in. Thank you for your patience last week while the builders completed the work.

Peace Week
This week the children have been involved in some fun activities, organised and run by the children in years 5 and 6. As part of Peace Week our Junior children have had the opportunity to wear white clothing, have their face painted, play sports on the field, learn origami and do some colouring in as well as be an audience to a wonderful talent show and cooking demonstration, during the lunchtimes.

Immunisation
Please bring your child's immunisation details (in Plunket book or a print out from your doctor) to the school office so that the register can be up dated.

Full School assembly will be next Friday August 19th at 1.30 p.m. in the hall. You are very welcome to join us.

Free Parenting Programme!

Parenting is one of the hardest jobs, but one that comes with little training. This free (award winning) Incredible Years Parenting Programme, funded by the Ministry of Education, will be delivered in Wainuiomata by Family Works/Presbyterian Support Central. It is open to anyone who would like practical step-by-step ideas and strategies for parenting children between the ages of 2 and 8. Topics include setting boundaries, handling misbehaviour, praising and rewarding, playing and much more!

The programme starts on Wednesday 24th August 9.15am - 11.45am at 102 Main Road Wainuiomata and runs each Wednesday for 14 weeks. Help with childcare and transport is available for the course.

To secure your place please contact Jill ph (04) 528 4164 or email Jill.Clarkson@psc.org.nz

If you have any questions about this excellent course please do not hesitate to ask Mrs Buckley in room 3.

Hooked on Books
This very successful programme has started again and will go for the rest of the term. The adults who have been listening to children read can see marked improvements in each of the children. Feedback from their parents has been very positive . Thank you if you have been helping with this. If you would like to join in, please let me know.

Folk Dancing
Last term the children learnt some dances as part of our Dance programme and this will continue for the next two weeks. In term 4, when the weather is much better, parents will be invited to see what they have been doing.

Enrichment Programme
This programme started yesterday and will continue for the rest of this term. It involves all the children in the Junior school being part of a 'Tree' group e.g Pohutukawa or Kowhai. Each 'tree' group is made up of children in year 0 to 2 working on different activities in each classroom. In Room 1 they will be doing ball activities, room 2 music, room 3 construction, room 4 drama, room 5 French, room 6 art and room 16 te reo Maori. The children move around to a different classroom each time. They all absolutely loved it yesterday so please ask them what they did.

Have a great week.

Kind regards
Maureen Buckley
Deputy Principal

Junior Jottings number 14

2011-07-07T19:33:00.000-07:00

Dear Parents and Caregivers

It is hard to believe that the end of term is already here and I am writing the last Junior Jottings for the term. The time has just flown by and the children are looking forward to a holiday break. Many of them have been unwell over the past few weeks so holidays will give them a chance to recover fully and return ready for more exciting learning experiences that we have planned for term 3.

Room 1 had a fabulous visit to Weltec Electrotechnology department. Thank you so much to Caryn - Joe's mum, for inviting them to see Science in action. Please visit room 1's blog to see what they did there. If you have a workplace or skill that you would be willing to share with the children please do not hesitate to let us know.

This week
* We said fond farewell and thank you to Mrs Skilton today. She left us today after teaching at Muritai for five years, to embark on a new adventure and we look forward to seeing her again in the future.

* The reports and portfolios come home today. We hope that you enjoyed the work that your child has covered over the past six months and can see improvements. We are looking forward to meeting you next week to discuss their progress and next learning goals. Please go online, using the code, follow the prompts and book a time. If this is a problem for you please call into the school office and talk to Sue or Carole. Please return the portfolio on Monday next week or bring it with you to discuss at the conference.

Birthday invitations
Everyone loves parties and it is great for the children to invite their friends and classmates to these occasions. We have, however, had some parents give out invitations to children at school in front of children who are not being invited. We have had to deal with those upset children so in light of this please refrain from giving party invitations out to children during the school day.

Next week
* The Junior School will continue with their folk dancing on Monday and during the week they will be visiting across the road to see the 'sustainability' houses that the year 7 and 8 children have made. If you get a chance please pop into room 24 and have a look at the work they have done.
* We also have Jackie coming to test the eyes and ears of our youngest children. If this involves your child they will bring home a letter containing their results on Tuesday.
* Each day during lunchtime the children will listening to stories being read aloud by staff members in our library.
* Parent and teacher conferences will be held on Wednesday and Thursday. A reminder that school finishes at 1.50 p.m. on these days. Please pick your child up at this earlier time. If you are unable to collect your child at this time you can collect them from the hall at 3 p.m.
* The Annual Book Fair will be taking place at the same time as the conferences. Please pop into the library and purchase some books for your family.

Dress up day
On Friday July 15th the children can dress up as their favourite book character and bring along a donation for the privilege. This donation will be used to purchase library books for the Orphans of Nepal.

* There will be a full school assembly at 1.30 p.m. on Friday in the hall. Everyone is welcome to join us.
* Over the holidays rooms 4, 5 and 6 will be having some building work done which is very exciting.
* Other exciting news in the holidays is that Miss Naik in room 4 will be getting married. On behalf of the Junior School we wish her a wonderful wedding day and our best wishes for a fabulous future with Ryan.

Thank you so much for your continued support. We do appreciate the help that you give your children in their learning and the ways that you support us in the classroom programmes. The "Hooked on Books" programme will continue in Term 3. The adults doing this currently are amazing. If you would like to listen to children read please do not hesitate to email me. Happy holidays everyone and we will see you back on Monday in the hall for Jumpjam at 8.40 a.m.

Kind regards

Maureen Buckley
Deputy Principal

4 July 2011

2011-07-03T20:02:00.000-07:00

Dear Parents and Caregivers

Kia Ora Koutou
This week is Maori Language week and the children will be learning some te reo and waiate. Sincere thanks goes to Arini Poutu for giving up her time to talk to the Year 2 students last week about Matariki.

Reports and Portfolios
Next Friday July 8th the children will bring home their report, which will be found inside the front cover of their portfolio. The format for the Year 1 and Year 2 reports is the same but the levels of achievement can be different between them in some areas. The report is designed to show where your child is at currently and what their next learning goals are in Literacy and Numeracy.

Each report is designed in curriculum areas from Level 1 of the New Zealand Curriculum, which children achieve over their first two years at school. Each report has key indicators of what we would like the children to be attaining by the end of this year and general comments including more specific goals that need to be attained and would benefit from support at home.

Each of these areas is marked with a tick in one of four columns. The columns are graded as NY - Not Yet, AT - At Times, M - Mostly and A - Always. Many children, particularly our younger children, will get Not Yet in many areas. There are many reasons for this including the fact that they have not been at school very long or have not been taught a particular skill yet but will have by the end of their first two years at school.

An example under ‘Written Language’ is where one indicator in both the Year 1 and Year 2 reports says ‘is able to sequence their ideas into a beginning, middle and ending.’ Year 1 children may get Not Yet or At Times because they are either not at the stage of writing even one sentence independently, let alone three or more that begin to show the structure. A Year 2 child may also get Not Yet or At times if they are only doing a beginning and an ending for example. They would get Always if they consistently wrote their stories using this entire structure independently.

Please note that this can take a child until the end of their second or third year at school to fully achieve this. The teachers in both year groups have met together and moderated for each of the indicators in the reports so that there is consistency across the year group regardless of which classroom they are in.

Mathematics
The indicators correlate to the mathematical development stages

Year 1:
Stage 2 - able to solve problems by counting all the objects where children need to use materials, blocks, fingers etc to work out the answers
Stage 3 - able to solve problems without using materials,often called imaging where children mentally picture objects.
Stage 4 - able to count on or back to solve problems. We expect te children to have completed this stage at the end of two years at school.

Year 2:
The above indicator is also on the Year 2 report
Counting forwards and backwards goes in the ranges of 0 to 5, 0 to 10, 0 to 20 and by Year 2 - 0 to 100 and beyond.
Year 1 work on identifying numbers to 100 and beyond whereas the Year 2 children know this and learn skip counting e.g. 2,4,6,8 forwards or 8,6,4,2,0 backwards up to and from 100.

Basic Fact knowledge
When it says ‘knows basic facts to 5’ for example, the child needs to know every combination of basic fact for each equation before ‘Always’ is given.

An example of just one equation is
2 + 3 = 5, 3 + 2 = 5, 3 + ? = 5, ? + 2 = 5,

5 – 3 = 2, 5 – 2 = 3 ? - 3 = 2, ? – 2 = 3
They then learn basic facts to ten and then in Year 2 basic facts to twenty. Many children know 4 + 1 = 5 for example but find it very hard when they have to learn change unknown and change, i.e. ? + 1 = 5 or 4 + ? = 5

We have set up the Basic Facts carriages as part of homework to help support the learning of basic facts. Year 2 children began this during Term 2 and Year 1 will start theirs in Term 3.

For Your Information - Language used in the reports include:
A high frequency words – these are the most common words that research shows children need to know for success in reading, writing and spelling. There are two hundred and ninety and we have used these words as a basis of our reading and spelling rockets. Children of course can read, write and spell lots of other words too.
* Decoding – this is where the child recognizes or can work out an unknown word by a variety of strategies but their reading may not flow or even make sense.
* Letter sound knowledge – children need to know all twenty six sounds of the alphabet, e.g. a very good understanding of the sounds and be able to apply them independently in all literacy areas. They may know the names of the letters but no sounds. The sooner they learn and use the sounds the faster their progress in all literacy areas will be.
* repeated addition to solve multiplication problems – This is where the children know, eg 2 + 2 + 2 + 2 = 8 which helps them understand it is the same as 4 x 2 (please note this has not been taught in Year 2 as yet but multiplication and division will be in term 3 so children will have ticks in the not yet column).
* share a set of objects out evenly to solve division problems is where for example 12 objects will be sorted to solve 12 ÷ 4 = 3 or 12 ÷ 3 = 4 or 12 ÷ 6 = 2 or 12 ÷ 2 = 6 or 12 ÷ 1 = 12
* double and halving is where children know the doubles 1 +1, 2 + 2 , 3+3 to 10 + 10 while applying the reverse is halving e.g. half of 14 is 7, half of 4 is 2 etc

Please note – Children in Rooms 3 and 16 who started school this term will not have a written report as they will have a comprehensive interview instead. You will receive one at the end of term 4.

Please read the report alongside the samples of work in the portfolio. Sit down with your child and ask them to explain each part of their learning in the portfolio to you. Ask them what they enjoyed, found hard, are working on, etc

We hope you can see a big improvement in what they have already achieved this year and where they need to go next in their learning. We look forward to meeting with you to discuss their progress at the upcoming conferences.

Parent Conferences
These will be held on Wednesday July 13th and Thursday July 14th so please make sure you have made your appointment time. School finishes early on both these days at 1.50 with interviews starting at 2pm. Go to School Interviews, put in the code LZ83V and follow the prompts to ensure you choose a time that suits you.

Scholastic Book Fair
Every year our school runs a Bookfair to coincide with the parent/teacher conferences. Any books you purchase can be taken home on the night and every purchase made goes into a prize draw. Eftpos will be available. Anyone who would like to volunteer some time to help in the library during the fair please do not hesitate to contact Jo Salisbury on salisburyjo@gmail.com

Vision and Hearing Testing
On Tuesday 12 July Jackie will be coming to school to test the vision and hearing of our youngest children. If they are tested during that day they will bring home a notice from her containing their result.

Orphans of Nepal
For many years we have been supporting the Orphans of Nepal as we believe it is extremely important that the students think of others around the world, who are less fortunate than themselves. This year we are having a ‘Book Character Dress Up Day’ on the last day of the term – Friday July 15th. This is an opportunity for your child to come to school dressed up as their favourite character from a book and make a monetary donation for the privilege. The money raised will be used to purchase library books for the orphanage. During the last week of school the children will be able to suggest titles that they think the children would enjoy and we will purchase those and send them over. Over the week we are also doing some other fun activities around books and reading. The library will be open during lunchtime for children to listen to many favourite stories being read aloud by different staff members. There will also be exchanges between buddy classes sharing books and related activities.

Have a great week and I hope you manage to stay warm.

Kind regards
Maureen Buckley
Deputy Principal

Junior Jottings number 12

2011-06-23T20:19:00.000-07:00

Dear Parents and Caregivers

THIS WEEK
Room 16 started on Monday with Mrs Mills Smith teaching our youngest children. A warm welcome is extended to her and the new children in our Junior School.

Cross Country
We are hoping that our Junior School Cross Country will be held next Tuesday June 28th at 1.45 p.m. The course has been plotted for Bishop's park (not William's Park as previously). All children will come to school as usual on Tuesday morning and will be walking down to Bishop's Park together leaving at 1.30 p.m. Once at Bishop's Park the children will sit in their designated House areas. The Year 0 and 1 races will be first at approx. 1.45 p.m. This will be followed by the Year 2 races. We will all return to school together. Your child needs to wear appropriate clothing and footwear for the event. They can wear something in their House colour. Your child also needs to bring a drink bottle of water as there are no drinking fountains available. If you have any queries please do not hesitate to ask.

LAST WEEK

Matariki
On Friday we had Arini Poutu, visit our Year 1 classes. We especially thank her for giving up her time to talk about Matariki. Her presentation was very well prepared and extremely well received by the children and she will be returning to talk to the Year 2's. She explained what Matariki means, why Maori celebrate at this time of the year and what it means to Maori. She also spoke about the Matariki Festival at Te Papa and showed video footage of the Kapahaka performance which featured Pania and Kahu from our Junior School. She gave a demonstration of poi and then the children all sang a waiata called Nga Tamariki o Matariki together.

Starting School at Five Evening
Thank you to those new parents who came along to school on Wednesday evening to help support their child in the transition to school. If you have any further queries please do not hesitate to contact us.

COMING UP

Parent and Teacher Conferences
The conferences will be held in the last week of this term. Please make an appointment so that we can share your child’s learning with you,discuss their next learning steps and how you can help with this at home. You will also receive a report and portfolio before this in week 10 which you need to bring with you to the conference. You can book an appointment by going on-line to School Interviews, putting in the code LZ83V and follow the prompts. Alternatively, you can see Carole or Sue in the office.

Health
Please continue to check your child's head for head lice and treat if necessary. Chicken Pox and colds are also going around at the moment. If your child is unwell please keep them at home.

Hope to see you all on Tuesday afternoon at Bishop's Park supporting the efforts of your child and their friends during the Cross Country.

Kind regards
Maureen Buckley
Deputy Principal

Junior Jottings Number 11

2011-06-09T19:52:00.000-07:00

Dear Parents and Caregivers

I hope you all had an enjoyable break with your children over Queen's Birthday holiday weekend.

CROSS COUNTRY
Thank you for your patience with the postponement of our Cross Country. We will be having it on Tuesday June 21st at Bishop's Park with a postponement date of Thursday June 23rd instead. We hope the weather and especially the condition of the fields will be better by then. A letter will come home about the event closer to the date. Thank you very much for all the offers of transport. We really appreciate your support with this.

STARTING SCHOOL AT FIVE INFORMATION EVENING
There will be an information evening for parents and caregivers of preschool children in the staffroom next Wednesday June 15th at 7 p.m. Please inform your friends and neighbours, especially if they have children who attend preschools out of the Eastbourne area.

RESEARCH
Thank you to those parents who have signed permission slips for the research. If you would like your child to take part please return your form by Monday.

WANTED

Can you help? Miss Jones in room 6 is collecting clean, plastic takeaway food containers (like the one shown) which she needs to take to the SPCA to use as part of their feeding programme for the new kittens and puppies. If you have any to spare can you please send them along to her in room 6.

HEADLICE
Please continue to check your child's head as we still have some children with nits. Nitsy Pixies, owned by parent Lisa Daniels, has a new method for eradicating these pests. If you would like to learn more, you can collect a brochure from the office.

MATHEMATICS
Each week I am going to explain different aspects of number, which are important for development of numeracy and how you can support this at home with your child. The children progress through stages over their first two years at school. The focus goes through the numbers 1 to 5, then 1 to 10, then 1 to 20, then 1 to 50, then 1 to 100 and beyond.

Counting - We emphasize counting forwards and backwards in each of the above ranges of numbers as well as from different starting points e.g. from 24 or 12 not just 0 or 1.

The number before or after - We say a number and expect that your child will instantly recall the number that goes both before and after it e.g. we say 15 and we would like your child to say 14 or 16 without them counting all the way from one. We do this both orally and by recording.

Skip counting - This is when we ask your child to count in two's, fives or tens both forwards e.g. 0, 2,4,6,8,10 and also backwards 10,8,6,4,2,0.

Each of these aspects are part of the written report on your child's progress which you will receive later this term together with their portfolio showing samples of their work. If you have any queries please do not hesitate to ask.

Best wishes for a great weekend.

Kind regards

Maureen Buckley
Deputy Principal

Junior Jottings Number 10

2011-05-30T18:24:00.000-07:00

Dear Parents and Caregivers,

It is hard to believe that we are nearly half way through this term. Teachers are busy writing reports and compiling samples of work in the children's portfolios ready to share with you all later in the term.

Cross Country
We are hoping that this lovely fine weather will continue for our annual Cross Country event next Tuesday. Thank you to those parents who have offered to help with transport. We will contact you on Friday to give you further details. The children have been preparing for their events and are looking forward to showing you.

'Jump to it' show
This Thursday morning the children from years 1 to 6 will be the audience for a show in our school hall. The show involves stories from the latest New Zealand Book Awards and the children have enjoyed learning new songs togo with the stories. The cost for this has come out of the activity fee.

Research
A local Eastbourne student, Jacqui Wall, is undertaking research as part of her degree at Victoria University. For this she needs children aged five and six years old to take part. If you would like your child to be part of the research or wish to have further information could you please email me as soon as possible?

Teacher Only Day
This Friday the teachers will be at school having professional development. After School Care are running a programme and taking children to the Zoo. If you need your child to be supervised please contact Amanda O'Brien on 562 7718 or o'brien@muritai.school.nz

Headlice
Once again some children have been getting headlice. Please check your child's hair on a regular basis and treat them if necessary. One of our parents has set up a new business called Nitsy Pixies which uses a machine rid children of head lice. For more information, visit http://www.nitsypixies.co.nz/ or email lisa@nitsypixies.co.nz and 0800 nitsypixies (648 797). There is a discount of $10 for all Muritai School referrals

Jumpjam
Well done to those parents who joined in with the Jumpjam routines. You were amazing! Let's have everyone doing it together in the hall each Monday, Tuesday and Friday.

Homework
Every day your child has reading homework. They will bring home a reading book on Monday to Thursday while on Fridays they bring home their poetry book to share with you. We also have Reading rockets beginning with our year 1 children who have attained Level 5. Once the twenty nine levels of this have been completed they then move onto the Spelling Rocket. Year 2 begin the Spelling Rocket at the beginning of the year. Once they have completed this they have the revision and tricky rockets. Our Year 2 children will also be beginning the Basic Facts carriages. They will be starting these at different levels according to where they are in their mathematics development. The Year 1's will be beginning their Basic Facts carriages at the beginning of Term 3. If you have any queries please do not hesitate to ask.

Have a great week. Enjoy your long weekend break and we look forward to seeing you all at the Cross Country on Tuesday.

Kind regards
Maureen Buckley
Deputy Principal

Junior Jottings number 9

2011-05-19T19:26:00.000-07:00

Dear Parents and Caregivers,

Hello and Welcome to Term 2! The children have had a great start to their learning and are very calm and settled at school. It is hard to believe that three weeks have already flown by! Before assembly last Friday we had a powhiri for our newest students and staff. We hope that they will enjoy their time at Muritai. A warm welcome is also extended to those families, who are new to our Muritai Junior school.

Science is everywhere!
We celebrated National Primary Science week in the first week of the term. As a whole school we went out to our field to watch the launch of a rocket. Please have a look at the different classroom blogs to see what happened or ask your child to explain. Since then we have involved the children in lots more hands on experiences related to Science. This term they will cover aspects of sound, magnetism and electricity. Ask them to share their discoveries with you.

"Hooked on Books"
Thank you very much to all those parents who have been listening to children read as part of the Hooked on Books programme. We do appreciate the time that you are giving up to support the children in their efforts.

Reading
Sometimes parents do not know what to do when their child is learning to read. Please do not hesitate to ask your child's teacher if you are unsure. One way to help is to build up the letter sound knowledge of your child. The sooner a child learns all the sounds that are associated to the alphabet letters the better as this speeds up their progress in reading, writing and spelling. The following are some suggestions or prompts that you could use to help while listening to your child read.

1. Questions to use when your child is attempting to use strategies to work out unknown words

* Why did you stop?
* What did you notice?
* Try that again and think what would make sense and look right?
* Think about the picture
* What does it start with?
* It could be but does it sound/look right?
* You said .......does that sound/look right?

2. To increase comprehension, ask some of these questions sometimes.

During the reading

* What has happened so far in the story?
* What might happen next?
* What might have happened if .....?
* Why something has happened?
* What do you know about the (character's name) so far?

After reading

* Ask what your child thought about the story. Why?
* What was their favourite page/part? Why?
* What was the best (scariest, funniest, most interesting) part?
* What was the story about?

We want learning to read to be a pleasurable experience for both the child and adult. After a long day at school your child may not wish to do their homework straight away or they may have other commitments, so please do not persevere with reading if they are tired, instead try again in the morning when you are all fresher. As the texts get longer you may like to read one page and your child the other page. This is providing them with practice and you are modelling fluent reading. If you only can spare five minutes a day to read aloud to your child then you have made a huge difference to their learning. You are creating a life long and worthwhile habit.

Disco
What a wonderful time the children had at the disco. They really enjoyed themselves and are looking forward to another one in the future. Thank you to those parents who organised and manned the disco. Your efforts were appreciated. The Home and School Committee organised this event. If you are interested in joining the committee please do not hesitate to contact me.

It is a great way to get involved with your child's school and to meet new people as well as have fun.

Cross Country
We are having practices for the cross country run on days when it is fine. If you would like to take your child to Williams Park for further practices and to familiarize them with the area that we will be running on then please do so. The course for the Year 0 to 2 involves running from the front of the Pavillion at Days Bay, going around the field next to Wellesley before ending up back in front of the pavillion. The year 2 children run around the field twice. (Map is on Room 3 window) If you would like to help with transporting our youngest children to and from Williams Park or being a marshall please complete the forms that were sent out this week and return them to your child's teacher as soon as possible.

Yummy Apples
Once again we are asking the children to bring along Yummy apple stickers and also coupons from the outside of the apple bags. We are collecting these stickers this term and next before sending them away to be redeemed for sports equipment, which the children use during lunchtimes.

Slippers
The children are wearing slippers inside this term and next. Please ensure that your child's slippers are named as so many of them are the same colour and size.

Lunches
The children are able to purchase hot dogs in a roll on Wednesdays throughout terms 2 and 3. If you would like your child to order one please place $3 in an envelope and hand in to your child’s teacher. Muritai Munchies are available on Mondays and Fridays. Please put an envelope with your child's name, room number and order together with the correct money inside it to the hall kitchen before school. There is a locked box marked Muritai Munchie to post orders into. We have had a lot of wasps lately so the children have been eating their lunch inside. This is a good opportunity for parents to lessen the amount of sweet items that are in lunch boxes.

Jumpjam
We do Jumpjam before school on Mondays, Tuesdays and Fridays at 8.40 a.m. We ask that the adults who come into the hall at this time please join in with their child and do the Jumpjam routines as well. It is a great way for you to keep fit and your child loves you doing it with them. Please have your conversations outside the hall as it is too hard for the children to concentrate on the routines with lots of background noise. Mrs Skilton and Miss Capper are training up some of our Year 2 children to be Jumpjam leaders so children from the other Junior classes only have the opportunity to go on stage on Fridays.

Winter weather
The weather has been so changeable lately and unfortunately some of our children have not been feeling well. Coughs, sore throats, and vomiting are currently going around. Please take your child to the doctor for treatment and keep them at home in bed to help stop the germs from spreading to others. Please also remind your child to wash their hands before eating and after the toilet. They count to ten twice or to twenty while washing their hands at school and can do the same at home.

Indoor Games
As the weather gets colder the children will be staying inside more during the lunchtimes. If you have any board games, puzzles, cards or equipment that you no longer use, could you please send them along to your child's class for wet day use.

Have a great week.

Kind regards

Maureen Buckley
Deputy Principal

Junior Jottings Number 8

2011-04-07T18:10:00.000-07:00

Dear Parents and Caregivers,

What a wonderful day we had on Monday! The visit to school from 'Grandparents' and 'Grandfriends' was just fantastic. We sincerely thank all the visitors who made the huge effort to join us from all over New Zealand and also from overseas for this occasion. We even had lots of ex Muritai students attending and currently we have children in our Junior School who are the fourth generation of their family to attend Muritai school. We were absolutely amazed at the wonderful objects and stories that the adults shared and the children were so proud to share their learning. The teachers were also very humbled by the positive comments that the grandparents made to each of them. Many commented about the wonderful classroom environments and said their grandchildren were very lucky to be going to school now. Special thanks to the parents who poured copious cups of tea and a big thank you to all the families who sent along food for the afternoon tea. We are sorry that we could not invite the parents to the afternoon as well due to very stringent fire regulations we have in the hall.

Thank you everyone who helped to make this a day that the children will remember for a very long time.

African Drummer

Yesterday the whole school had a visit from Eddie who is originally from East Ghana. He has worked with lots of different musicians including Bob Marley and bands like Split Enz. During his performance for the children, he played many different and unusual instruments and explained what they were used for, how they were made and then demonstrated different rhythms on the drums interspersed with African words. Some of our Junior children also stood up in front of everyone and played some of his instruments.

Helping at School

If you are interested in helping out at school we need adults who can listen to children read in our 'Hooked on Books' programme. If you or anyone you know of in the community would like to do this can you please let me know. Thank you to those four parents so far. The more adults we have the more children are supported, and adults do less turns on the roster. If you can spare half an hour e.g. 9 to 9.30 or 2.15 to 2.45 p.m. on a weekly or fortnightly basis next term please let me know before the end of this term.

Scholastic Books

The latest catalogue has come home and if you would like to place an order please do so at the office before Friday April 15th.

Sunhats and Slippers

The children will be bringing home their sunhats next Friday. In terms 2 and 3 the children, throughout the school, wear slippers inside the classrooms so please send along a pair to be kept at school (named). Holiday homework for the parents - can you please make sure that your child can get their shoes on and off unaided and especially that they can tie their own shoelaces.

Blog Comments

Many of the parents and grandparents have commented on how much they enjoy the blogs. The children would love to read some comments that you have. Please follow the instructions to post a comment.

1. Go to the blog and when you have decided on a post you would like to comment on, click the word 'comments' at the bottom of the post.

2. Write a comment in the box, Give the students some positive feedback about their work. e.g. What did you like? What did you find interesting? What did you learn? You could even ask a student or class a question. Sign your name in the box at the end.

3. You now need to choose an identity. If you have a Google account you can sign in using this (or sign up to Google or Blogger.) You can click 'Anonymous' if you would prefer.

4. Now click on 'Publish your comment.'

5. Your comment will then be sent to the classroom teacher for moderation.Once they have approved it, your comment will appear on the blog.

You may like to become a 'follower' to your child's class blog as well.

Next week

'Pink Shirt' day - We will be wearing pink shirts on Thursday in support of 'No Bullying.' Your child will bring home more details about this early next week.

Working Bees

Please pop on your 'comfy casuals' and join us on either Tuesday, Wednesday and/or Thursday between 4 and 6 p.m. for working bees around our school. Please put your name on the notice in the office if you can help.

School finishes at the usual time of 2.55 p.m. on Friday April 15th and resumes for Term 2 on Monday May 2nd at 8.40 a.m.

It is hard to believe that eleven weeks have already flown by. Thank you to everyone who has supported the children in their learning and the staff in their teaching this term. It is very much appreciated. Have an enjoyable holiday break.

Kind regards

Maureen Buckley

Deputy Principal

Junior Jottings Number 7

2011-03-31T18:31:00.000-07:00

Dear Parents and Caregivers,

The children are really looking forward to 'Grandparents and Grandfriends' Day on Monday. We have been very impressed with the efforts grandparents have made to join us for this occasion, especially those who have had to travel long distances. Over this week, the children have been busy writing about their grandparents including character descriptions, what they enjoy doing and about activities they do together. They have also drawn pictures to share with their visitors and have enjoyed discussing how their lives today compare with the childhoods of both their parents and grandparents. One thing that they are amazed at and they cannot believe is that there were not any computers. Thank you to all those parents who have completed and returned the information and family tree sheets to help with the discussions. Before Monday, can you please inform your child's grandparents and grandfriends that they need to come to the school hall and be seated at 1.30 p.m. We are then going to move to your child's classroom to share items of interest together before culminating in a shared afternoon tea. We hope to be finished by 3 p.m. but chatting over afternoon tea may take a little longer.

Could your child please also place a plate of food for the shared afternoon tea on the trestle table in the hall before school on Monday? If your child does not have a grandparent or grandfriend please let us know so that they can join with another child.

If there is a grandparent who is prepared to stand up in front of everyone in the hall and share their item of interest can you please email me before Sunday with their name and the details of the item. I also need a couple of extra adults to help serve the tea and coffee during the afternoon tea. If you are able to lend a hand please also email me by this Sunday.

Hutt Valley Mobile Community Ear Clinic
Ear problems affect many children. The Mobile Community Ear Clinic provides free checks for children from 0 to 18 years old. This service is provided by a Registered Nurse who has special training in Ear Health. The clinics are run by appointment only between 9.30 a.m. and 2.30 p.m. on Tuesdays, Wednesdays and Thursdays. If you would like to use this service, please phone 570 9002 to make your appointment.

Parenting Courses

If there is anyone who would like to attend parenting courses please let me know and I can give you the details.

Wasps

At the moment we have a lot of wasps around. The children are eating their food inside the classrooms and then going outside to play.

Gates

If you are coming in or going out of the gates can you please make sure that you close them as we have two busy roads on either side of our school.

Classroom Blogs

Please have a look at these from time to time to get a snapshot of what your child does in their busy school day. We know that they may not tell you what they have been doing so have a look at the blogs. The children always love reading the comments that people have left on the blogs.

Coming up

We will be having a drummer come to school to give a performance before the end of this term. Further details will be given next week.

School finishes on Friday April 15th at the usual time of 2.55 p.m. and starts again in term 2 on Monday May 2nd at 8.40 a.m. with Jumpjam in the hall.

Term 2

We have planned another term of interesting learning experiences for the children. We will be having a Science focus with the children involved in a wide range of science experiments. We will also be doing lots of painting, folk dancing, and running practices for the Annual Cross Country run, to name but a few. Portfolios, reports and parent conferences will be at the end of the term.

Room 3 will be full and our next New Entrants class - Room 16 - will start in May with Mrs Mills-Smith as the teacher.

'Hooked on Books' Programme

This is a programme carried out at school where parents come in for approximately half an hour, usually in the morning when they drop their child at school or just before home time and listen to individual children read. If you are interested in helping with this programme during term 2 and are able to give up some time could you please email me by the end of next week with the days that suit you so that I can organise a roster.

Kind regards

Maureen Buckley

Deputy Principal

Junior Jottings number 6!

2011-03-24T18:11:00.000-07:00

Dear Parents and Caregivers,

We have had another lovely week at school and are looking forward to sharing our learning with our grandparents or grandfriends on Monday April 4th. Parents should have received a newsletter this week outlining the details of this occasion. Please send along an item to school this week. The item (keepsake) needs to be connected with a grandparent that your child can bring along to share i.e. an object that has a personal or emotional connection to a grandparent, something that evokes feelings and memories. It can be small and inexpensive e.g. a shell collected at the beach on a visit together, a book that they enjoy, something that has been handed down to them etc. Talk about the story of their keepsake with them so that they can share this at school. We will return all of the items.

Thank you for sharing your childhood experiences with your child. They have really enjoyed hearing about what you and your parents did when you were young. Thanks too for completing the family tree sheets and returning them to school. If you have any questions, please do not hesitate to ask your child's teacher.

School photos
The taking of photos will continue next week as follows -
Monday - March 28th - Room 6 at 9 a.m.
Tuesday - March 29th - Room 1 at 9 a.m. and Room 4 at 11.00 a.m.
Wednesday - March 30th - Room 2 at 9 a.m.
Friday - April 1st the children will be having sibling photos. Please send along a hairbrush.

Earth Hour
Tomorrow is Earth hour. This is a global event organized by World Wildlife Fund and is held on the last Saturday of March annually. Households and businesses are asked to turn off their non-essential lights and other electrical appliances for one hour to raise awareness towards the need to take action on climate change. It starts at 8.30 p.m.

Assembly
There will be a full school assembly next Friday April 1st at 1.30 p.m. in the hall if you would like to join us.

Enjoy the lovely weather in the last week before we put the clocks backwards next weekend as Daylight saving ends.

Kind regards
Maureen Buckley
Deputy Principal

Junior Jottings number 5!

2011-03-17T18:21:00.000-07:00

Dear Parents and Caregivers,

The Junior school have had another exciting and varied week. They have been into Wellington on a double decker bus to watch three shows, had an earthquake drill practices both inside and outside and today a trip to the park and beach. They have also done their usual classroom learning.

Our Trip to Wellington
Please enjoy a recount of what happened as published here. It was written by Grace in Room 6 on Thursday.

On Wednesday we went to Capital E. The first thing that we did was we went on the double decker bus. The bus ride was long but it was fun. When we got there we watched a show at the theatre. The first show was called 'Grimace.' The first show was the best. It had a witch and it had a princess and it had a prince and it had a giant. The princess was very flexible. She could do lots of things like bending her legs and jumping and hanging off bars, then we had morning tea. After that we watched another show. The other show was about instruments. The instruments were made out of tubes and gloves and he also made an instrument out of a carrot and he drilled the carrot until it made a sound. The next show was called 'Boats.' It was about two sailors. One of them had been out to sea. He was up in the crow's nest when he was born. There was a raging storm and he poked his head out and yelled, "I'm ready to come out now." Suddenly, she shouted to her husband "My baby is ready to come out now." The father rushed up the ladder then he was born. He looked up and now he was safe.

Please ask your child which show they enjoyed and why. Thank you for your patience on our late return.

Fitness
Every day at 8.40 a.m. the children take part in a fitness programme so that their bodies are warmed up ready for the days learning. On Mondays, Tuesdays and Fridays they do Jumpjam in the hall, which is an exercise to music programme, while on Wednesdays and Thursdays they do fitness outside or in their classroom. The fitness outside could be skills with movements like running, hopping, jumping etc or with equipment like large or small balls, ropes etc. while the fitness inside could be particular songs, bean bags, happy sticks etc. Parents are very welcome to come into the hall and do the Jumpjam routines alongside their child but if you do not wish to then please go outside for your private conversations as it is too hard for the children to hear the music.

School Photos
Orders have now closed and we have created a timetable for your child's class photo. It is as follows -

Monday 21 March - 9 a.m. - Room 5
Wednesday 23 March - 9 a.m - Room 3
Monday 28 March - 9 a.m. - Room 6
Tuesday 29 March - 9 a.m. - Room 1 and at 11.00 - Room 4
Wednesday 30 March - 9 a.m. - Room 2

Family and sibling photos will be taken on Friday 1 April. Please send along a hairbrush for use before the photo. If you have any queries please do not hesitate to ask.

Earthquake drill
We practise the 'Turtle' position so that each child knows what to do in the event of an earthquake occurring. Ask your child to demonstrate to you what they have been practising.

Starting School at Five evening and Six week Parent Conferences
We have enjoyed meeting parents and caregivers this week and sharing what your children are working on at school. We operate an 'open door' policy at school which means that you can email us to make an appointment to discuss your child's learning at any stage throughout the year. It does not mean staying in the morning or coming in and out of your child's class throughout the day. We will be having parent conferences for the entire school next term.

Grandparent's Afternoon
On Monday, you will be getting a separate notice with the details about this occasion. Please mark the date in your diaries - Monday 4 April at 1.30pm.

Have a great week.

Maureen Buckley
Deputy Principal

Junior Jottings number 4

2011-03-10T16:11:00.000-08:00

Dear Parents and Caregivers

Another week has flown by and already we are over half way through the first term. The children had a fantastic trip to Pataka Museum and Aotea Lagoon playground this week. The programme at Pataka involved Linda and Margaret, the Education officers, explaining how life was for children and their families a long time ago and how it compares to our lives today. The children discussed black and white photos of daily life one hundred years ago and then rotated around six different activities. The children were absolutely fascinated with how the children had to do their school work on slates and write with pen and ink. They loved dressing up in the olden day clothing and found washing by hand very tricky. They enjoyed playing marbles and found it very interesting to compare old and new objects e.g. telephones and cell phones, plastic milk bottles with glass ones. The playground at Aotea Lagoon has just been refurbished and was a great place to visit. The children loved using the different equipment there and did not want to leave. Thank you so much to the adults who joined us for the day. Your help was greatly appreciated.

NEXT WEEK

Capital E trip
On Wednesday all children from rooms 1,2,3,4,5 and 6 will be going by bus to Wellington for the Capital E National Arts Festival. We will be leaving straight away at 9 so please make sure your child is at school by 8.40 a.m. at the latest. The children need to bring morning tea, cut lunch, drink bottle of water, sunhat and wear sensible walking shoes. They will be attending three shows over the day at Downstage Theatre, Capital E and Paramount Theatre. The cost of the three shows is $19.50 per child and is taken from the activity fee that you have paid. We do not need adult help on this trip as this is provided by Capital E. Capital E are also very generous and have provided free buses for us to attend the shows. This is wonderful as another $10 per child would have been added to the cost and we would not have been able to go. The buses leave Wellington at 2.30 p.m. so the children will be returning to school a little after 3 p.m. If your child usually catches the bus home could you please make arrangements to collect them on this day?

Starting School at Five Information Evening
We will be meeting parents and caregivers of preschoolers in the staffroom at 7 p.m. On Wednesday 16 March to discuss the transition to school. If you have a friend or neighbour that has a preschooler, who may be interested in coming along, particularly if they attend preschool outside of the Eastbourne area, can you please give them the details. Any queries please contact me.

Visiting the Beach - Exploring our local Environment
Next Friday March 18th all of rooms 1, 2, 3, 4, 5 and 6 will be leaving school at 12.15 p.m. and heading to Bishop's Park. We will be having lunch there and using the playground before going to the beach. Families and friends are very welcome to join us. Please let your child's teacher know if you are attending.

Grandparent's Afternoon
The details for this are - Monday April 4th at 1.30 p.m. in the school hall until hometime.
Please invite your child's grandparents to this. The programme includes sharing in the hall, visiting the classrooms followed by afternoon tea. We would like the grandparent to bring along a special item to share with their grandchild. More details shortly. If your child has a grandparent that can not attend could you please let your child's teacher know so that we can match them with a 'surrogate' grandparent for the afternoon.

Have a lovely week.

Kind regards

Maureen Buckley
Deputy Principal

Junior Jottings number 3.

2011-03-07T14:22:00.000-08:00

Dear Parents and Caregivers

We have had another interesting week of learning. On Monday, we all went to the local beach to explore our local marine environment. The children created amazing art forms in the sand and enjoyed the opportunity to share their skills with their friends from the other junior classrooms and they can't wait to do it again. Thank you to those parents who joined us. The next day they wrote wonderful recounts on the experience. On Tuesday, we joined the whole country in a 2 minute silence. The entire school met outside on the field under the flagpole, where the flag was flying half mast, to give us the chance to reflect on the tragedy that had occurred in Christchurch. Our thoughts are with those who have been affected and we offer our sincere condolences to those whose family members and friends have died. On Friday, everyone was dressed in red and black to show their support for Canterbury and together raised an amazing $2,600 towards the relief fund. Well done everyone. Your donation will be greatly appreciated.

Children's day - March 6th 2011

On Sunday it was Children's day so I hope everyone got the chance to spend some quality time with their families and do some fun activities together.

This Week

It is the last week of swimming and some classes may have different times so please check with your child's teacher for any changes.

Trip to Pataka

Today rooms 1,2 and 3 will be going by bus to Pataka Museum while on Wednesday rooms 4,5 and 6 will go. We need more parent help for tomorrow. There is no space on the bus but we have parents who are taking their vehicles and would welcome some adult company. Please let me know if you can come. You need to bring morning tea and lunch with you although there is a cafe at Pataka if you would prefer to purchase items for yourself, not the children.

The children will be in small groups and Linda, the museum education officer, will lead each session including writing on slates and playing old fashioned games.

Starting School at Five Information Evening

Parents and caregivers of preschoolers are invited to our 'starting school at five' information evening on Wednesday March 16th at 7 p.m. in the school staffroom.

School Photos

Details of school photos were given out on Friday.

Integrated Learning Therapy

Carol Laubscher, of Integrated Learning Therapy will be visiting our school once a week, as from Term 2 this year, to offer Child Centered Play Therapy. Play Therapy is beneficial for children experiencing trauma, having learning difficulties or behavior problems, as well as others. Spaces will be limited. Please contact her on www.integratedlearningtherapy.co.nz

Have a great week.

Maureen Buckley

Deputy Principal

Junior Jottings Number 2

2011-02-24T18:30:00.000-08:00

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

2011-02-20T14:28:00.000-08:00

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!

2011-02-11T19:46:00.001-08:00

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

Junior Jottings Number 27

2010-11-28T19:37:00.000-08:00

Dear Parents and Caregivers

The carnival today was just amazing! Thank you so much to everyone for the effort you have put in to make it such a successful and enjoyable day. We were so lucky with the weather and hope that it will continue this week for our 'Education Outside the Classroom' programme.

Monday - We will be having Zebong - a fantastic story teller share some Fairy Tales with the children.

Tuesday - We are going to Capital E to see the Christmas Wonderland. Parents are invited to join us for this. Please contact your child's teacher if you would like to come. It will cost $6 which includes joining us on the bus. Just a reminder that children from rooms 1, 2, 3 and 16 may get back to school a little past 3 p.m. as their show finishes at 2.30 p.m.

Wednesday - We will be doing activities at school including using the parachute. Please send along your child's swimming gear each day even if it is not your child's usual timetabled day as we may be able to get in extra swims when other classes are also out and about.

Thursday - We will be leaving school at 10 a.m. and going by bus to Avalon Park in Lower Hutt. You are very welcome to join us for the trip but you will need to take your own car as there is no room on the buses.

Friday - We will do activities at school and these include our enrichment programme and full school assembly.

Teatowels

These sold like hot cakes at the Carnival. We only have a few left so if you would like one please send along $10 to your child's teacher or to Miss Jones in room 6.

Speech Awards

Each week some of our Year 2 children have been attending speech lessons with Jan Avison. They were assessed by an outside ajudicator and I am very pleased with the results. The children achieved badges and certificates and were either commended or highly commended with two children and achieving Distinction. This is a superb achievement by all the students as it is the first time we have offered this programme. We would like to continue next year so if your child will be year 2 and would like to take part (or year 3 if they have already worked on the programme this year) please let me know.

Reporting to Parents

Next Friday December 10th all children will be bringing home their portfolio of work to share with you. They will also have a report and National Standards information as well as the class that they will be in next year.

On Monday December 13th all children will be visiting their classroom for 2011 and meeting their teacher. We do this to prepare your child in advance. They then know who will be teaching them, who will be working with them and which classroom they will be in.

Christmas Concert
This will be at 1.30 p.m. in the hall on December 9th. On that morning, your child needs to dress in Christmas colours and bring along a plate of food to share.

Kind regards

Maureen Buckley

Deputy Principal

Junior Jottings No 26

2010-11-20T23:52:00.000-08:00

Dear Parents and Caregivers

Another week has zoomed by and the Carnival is finally going to be this week. The children are looking forward to this event. We are hoping for the weather to be settled for it.

Swimming started last week but some classes could not go due to the cool winds we were experiencing. We want the swimming programme to be a pleasurable experience for the children so here's hoping we will all get a chance this week.

Last week we had some cricket players from Milo Cricket work with the children teaching them some ball skills. It was fantastic and the children certainly loved every minute.

TEA TOWELS

They will arrive this week in time for you to purchase at the Carnival on Sunday. The teatowel features each child in our Junior School who has drawn themselves. It is a lovely memento for the children of their Junior School year and also a great gift for grandparents, family and friends for Christmas or birthdays, both here and overseas so look out for them on sale beside the cake stall. Only $10 so be in quick as numbers are strictly limited.

Can you help?

Richard Dobson, the teacher in room 7, is making up the Haunted House for the Carnival. If you have any items that he could borrow for decorating this could you please name them and send them along to school.

This week - Week 7 - November 22nd to November 26th

* Swimming continues ( if it is warm enough) for each class

* Photos for rooms 1 and 16

* Starting School at Five information evening 7 p.m. on Wednesday in the staffroom.

* Stationery orders for 2011 close on Friday.

* CARNIVAL on Sunday 10 - 3 p.m. Thank you so much for all your help with this.

Next week - Week 8 - November 29th - December 3rd

This will be our Junior School "Education outside the Classroom' (E.O.T.C.) week.

On Monday, we will be entertained at school, by a storyteller called 'Zebong' who is coming all the way from Hamilton especially for us.

On Tuesday, we will be going by bus to Capital E for the 'Woodland Christmas'. Rooms 2, 4, 5 and 6 will be leaving at 11.30 a.m. and returning to school at 1.30 p.m. Rooms 1, 3 and 16 will be leaving school at 12.45 p.m. and may, however, be a little late getting back to school as the show ends at 2.30 p.m. and it depends upon traffic and road works between Wellington and school.

On Thursday, all classes will be going by bus to Avalon Park in Lower Hutt. We will be leaving school at 10 a.m. and spending the day there as part of our Inquiry unit. We will leave there at 2 p.m. to return to school. Your child needs to bring morning tea, a drink and lunch as well as sunhat and sunblock and wear suitable clothing. If it is wet we will, of course, not be going and there will not be a postponement date. Parents and families are very welcome to join us at Avalon Park during the day.

On Wednesday and Friday we will be doing a range of activities at school.

Please note that during E.O.T.C. week, your child will not be bringing home a reading book to share with you. Please continue to read to them each night. They could also read books that they already have at home or else they could go to the library to get some out to read. They can, of course, still practise their reading rockets, spelling rockets and basic facts.

$5 donation

Thank you very much to those parents who have already sent along five dollars to the school office, towards the transport costs for our trips to the ballet, Capital E and Avalon Park.

Parents of students in room 2 need to phone our school office this week if they would like an appointment to meet Ms Capper for a parent/teacher conference.

Week 9

We will be having our Junior School Christmas concert on Thursday December 9th at 1.30 p.m. in the hall. Please note that it is Thursday afternoon and not Wednesday. On that day, the children will need to wear clothing that is in the Christmas colours of red or green. e.g. a red t shirt and they can also adorn themselves in Christmas Santa hats, antlers etc They will also need to bring a plate of food to share with them to school in the morning as after the concert we have a little end of year party for everyone.

Reporting to Parents

We will be sending home your child's report along with their work samples in their portfolios on Friday December10th.

Last day of term 4 will be Friday December.

Next year the children start school on Wednesday February 2nd.

Looking forward to seeing you all at the Carnival.

Kind regards

Maureen Buckley

Deputy Principal

Junior Jottings 25

2010-11-16T14:19:00.000-08:00

Dear Parents and Caregivers

At last the good weather has arrived and it was just perfect for our Athletic Sports last week. All the children did really well in their events and we were very proud of their efforts. Thank you to those parents and caregivers who joined us to support the children too. We hope you were impressed by their achievements.

On Friday, the disco was thoroughly enjoyed by the students too. Thank you for your support with this annual Home and School Fundraising event.

Swimming
This week the pool is open and all classes will be going swimming. The children in rooms 1, 2 and 5 will go to the pool on Mondays and Wednesdays while the children in rooms 3, 4 6 and 16 will go on Tuesdays and Thursdays. We also have pool time on some Fridays. Each child needs to bring their swimsuit and a towel (named) in a plastic supermarket bag or swimming bag to school on the morning of their swimming day. We will be focusing on being safe in and around water.

Milo Cricket

On Thursday and Friday of this week we will be visited by some cricketers. They will be running some small ball and batting sessions with all the children.

'Starting School at Five' Information Evening

Parents and caregivers of preschoolers are very welcome to come along to our staffroom next Wednesday November 24th at 7 p.m. to discuss the transition from pre school to school.

Carnival - Candy floss

I am looking for a few extra people to be on the candyfloss rosters - either Saturday morning or on Sunday. If you can spare an hour or so then please do not hesitate to contact me. I also need two large chillybins on the carnival weekend. If you can help with this please let me know.

Full School Assembly

Parents and caregivers are cordially invited to this week's assembly in the hall at 1.30 p.m. on Friday November 19th.

Photos

Next Wednesday the photographer will be here at 9am to take New Entrant photos for rooms 1 and 16 only.

Room 2 Conferences

As Mrs Cody has left, Ms Capper will be holding parent/teacher conferences on Tuesday November 30th and Wednesday December 1st between 3 and 6 p.m. If you would like an appointment please contact our school office on 562 8409.

Christmas Concert/Party

The children have begun learning some songs to perform at our annual Christmas concert and end of year party. The concert will be held in the hall from 1.30 p.m. on Thursday December 9th.

Stationery 2011

Please return all stationery orders for 2011 to school before Friday November 26th. Buying the pack ensures your child starts the year the same as everyone else and has all the stationery items that they require for the entire school year. As we expect the children to produce work of high quality we source high quality stationery items for these packs.

If you are moving out of the area or your child will not be returning to our school next year could you please let me know as soon as possible?

Have a great week.

Kind regards,

Maureen Buckley

Deputy Principal

Junior Jottings Number 24

2010-11-07T11:16:00.000-08:00

Dear Parents and Caregivers

What a busy few weeks the children have had. Last week we went to 'The Nutcracker Suite' ballet which was an amazing performance. The children enjoyed it immensely and were absolutely enthralled by the show. Having had visits earlier by the dancers helped the children to understand the different movements in the show. The behaviour of the children was very good and it was a pleasure to take them out as for many children it was their first school trip on a bus. Thanks to Ms Jones for booking the ballet for us in March.

Junior School Athletics
This annual event is being held tomorrow Tuesday November 9th if fine. The postponement date is next Tuesday November 16th. The programme is as follows - 8.45 to 9.25 a.m. - room 16 - our newest children will do some events. At 9.30 a.m. all other Junior children from rooms 1 to 6 will come out on to the courts and will be seated in their groups. Each child is in a group and will stay in that group for the duration of the Athletics sports. Each group will take part in a rotation covering six different events. At 9.45 a.m. we will start the rotations. There will be three events followed by morning tea, a further three events and then relays. Each event will be approximately fifteen minutes and we aim to finish at 12.15 p.m.
Parents and families are very welcome to come to school and watch the events. Parents with pre schoolers please ensure that you keep them back from the events and off the equipment.
All children need to wear appropriate clothing and suitable footwear. Please ensure that they are dressed in shorts, t shirt, sneakers and have sunhats, water and sunscreen applied.
We want all children to participate in all events and show you their skills in athletics. It is a fun day but also an excellent opportunity for them to challenge themselves and strive to be the best that they can be.

Disco - Year 0 to 3
On Friday November 12th the Home and School Association are holding their Annual Disco. All children go home at the usual time and return to the hall at 5 p.m. The cost is $5 to be paid at the door. Parents and caregivers are very welcome to stay and either watch or dance. If you leave your child please return promptly at 6 p.m. to collect them as the hall needs to be swept and set up for the next disco.

Teatowels
Every child in our Junior School has drawn themselves and currently their pictures are being printed onto a teatowel. The teatowels will be available for sale at the Carnival from the Junior School teachers beside the cake stall at a cost of $10 each. They will not be pre sold and we have limited numbers so be quick to purchase one. They are made of good quality linen and are light to post for Christmas.

2011
Planning is well underway for next year. If your child has a birthday particularly in March or April and you are thinking that they would benefit by staying longer in the Junior School could you please contact me via email or school office to make an appointment to discuss this?

Literacy Tests
As soon as your child turns six they take part in a range of literacy tests. If you have not seen the results as yet and would like to please do not hesitate to contact me to arrange an appointment.

Chicken Pox
Currently some of our children are unwell with the chicken pox. If your child is affected they need to stay at home. Once the spots have scabbed over they may return to school as the infectious time is before the spots appear.

Activity Fee
Although we have budgeted very carefully throughout the year we did not bank on a rise in both GST and diesel prices. e.g. last week's bus trip cost $15 per child instead of the $10 we thought it would. We have planned our Education Outside the Classroom activities involving some trips away from school. We would appreciate if parents could pay $5 per child to the office to cover the increased transport costs?

Starting School at five information evening
The next information evening for parents with preschoolers is on Wednesday November 24th at 7 p.m. in the school staffroom.

Have a great week.

Kind regards

Maureen Buckley
Deputy Principal

Junior Jottings Number 23

2010-10-25T16:01:00.000-07:00

Dear Parents and Caregivers

I hope you had a lovely long weekend with your family. Last week we had visitors from the Education Review Office whowere very pleased with what they saw in the classrooms and around our school. Thanks goes to our students, who continually try to be the best that they can be, to our staff, who maintain high expectations of learning and to our families who support the students in everything that they do. ERO's report will be published later in the term.

Welcome to our Junior School Team!

We welcome Ms Annabel Capper into room 2. Annabel has been working alongside Mrs Cody and Ms Gain getting to know the children she will teaching full time from next week. We also welcome Miss Sally Ingram, who will be team teaching with Mrs Mills Smith in room 16 with our New Entrants until the end of the year.

Calendars, diaries and cards

The children have completed their art work for these and they are currently being displayed in classrooms. This is the first year we have offered diaries. Samples are on the office counter. The calendars make great gifts for Christmas, especially for grandparents and are light for posting overseas. Orders close with your child's teacher on Monday November 8th at the latest.

Carnival

This great event is just over a month away. Please put your name down to help. I am again co-ordinating the candy floss, drinks and ice creams stall and need to borrow two large chillybins and some aprons, particularly ones that have a pocket at the front, to use during the carnival weekend. If you are able to help with these please let me know as soon as possible.

Teatowels

Each of our Junior School children have drawn pictures of themselves. These pictures are currently being collated by Miss Jones to form a tea towel. Further details about orders of the completed teatowels will follow shortly.

Ballet Workshops

Today, all children in our Junior School will be taking part in workshops about the Nutcracker. Next Thursday November 4th, the children will be going by bus to Wellington to see the school show of 'The Nutcracker.' It is for an hour and not the entire ballet.

Junior School Athletics

Every week the children have been learning new athletic skills which they will have the opportunity to show you at our annual Junior School Athletics. They will be held at school during week 5 with further details to follow next week.

'Education Outside the Classroom' Week - November 29 - December 3

Planning for this week is well underway. Confirmed activities so far include a storyteller and a trip to Avalon Park. We will be having a visit from Zebong - teller of tales, who is coming to us especially from Hamilton. As part of our current inquiry about playgrounds we will be visiting Avalon Park.

This week

Tuesday - 'Ballet' workshops

Wednesday - Teachers' union meeting - This meeting is during the afternoon but all children will stay at school as usual and be collected from the hall.

Friday - We say fond farewell and best wishes to Mrs Mikaela Cody, who is taking parental leave. She has been a wonderful team leader and superb teacher of room 2. We wish her much happiness as she starts a new journey.

We also say a huge thank you to Ms Priya Gain who will also be leaving room 2 on Friday. She too has done some amazing teaching through the 'Mantle of the Expert' programme that she has been operating. Priya is not leaving our school, however and will continue to work in other areas of theschool on her fantastic programme.

Friday is also World Teachers Day.

Have a great week.

Kind regards

Maureen Buckley

Deputy Principal

Junior Jottings Number 22

2010-10-18T18:40:00.000-07:00

Dear Parents and Caregivers,

Kia ora and welcome to Term 4! It is hard to believe how quickly the year is flying by. The children have returned to school refreshed after their holiday break and have quickly settled back into the routines of school. They are certainly delighted to partake in Jumpjam again. Parents are very welcome to join in with the routines as well. Have a look at the classroom blogs and see what other learning they have been involved in already.

A warm welcome is extended to Mrs Margs Mills Smith and our newest five year old children who have just begun their school journey in Room 16. We also warmly welcome the other new children in rooms 1, 3 and 5 and their families to our Junior School.

Carnival

The countdown has begun and it will soon be here! It is a fabulous day so please put your name down for a job or two. It is a great way to meet new people and have some fun along the way! Put it in your diary now - Sunday 28 November.

Calendars

You will have received notices about our Annual Calendar fundraising. The children have made their designs and these are currently being displayed in classrooms. They are available for parents and caregivers to come in and have a look. This year your child's artwork can also be made into cards and diary covers. They make a great Christmas present and should be back in time for overseas posting. Please send along your order to your child's class teacher with the correct money. If you have a child in another classroom you will need to send along a separate order to their class.

Clothing and Footwear

It is pleasing to see the children are wearing their wide brimmed named sunhats outside in spite of the changeable weather we have been experiencing lately. Thank you for supporting this sun safety message. Please ensure also that your child wears suitable clothing and footwear on Thursdays as they are learning different skills in athletics in preparation for our Athletics Day later in the term.

Head lice

Once again we have noticed some children have head lice. Please check your child's hair on a regular basis and treat their head immediately if you discover any eggs.

Full School Assembly

This Friday we will be having assembly for the whole school in the hall at 1.30 p.m. Please come along and join us.

Next week

On Monday, school will be closed due to the Labour Weekend holiday. On Tuesday, the children will be taking part in some ballet workshops.

Events Coming up during the term

* Disco - further details will follow shortly

* Athletics - as mentioned above

* 'Starting school at five' information evening for parents of preschoolers will be on Wednesday November 24th at 7 p.m.

* Education Outside the Classroom Week - November 29 - December 3 - more details to follow closer to the time

* Reporting to Parents - At the end of the term your child will be bringing home their portfolio of work samples showing you the progress that they have made throughout this year along with their written report and information on how they are progressing with the National Standards.

* Christmas concert - December 9th

* Last day of this term is Friday December 17th

Have an enjoyable long weekend!

Kind regards

Maureen Buckley

Deputy Principal

Junior Jottings Number 21

2010-09-20T17:11:00.000-07:00

Dear Parents and Caregivers

Amazing, awesome, spectacular, superb, fantastic, colourful, wonderful, etc - I could go on and on but there really are no words that can explain how fabulous the students were in the Production performances last week. Over the past few weeks they have learned the different parts of their items and they certainly looked very confident and happy up on stage. The New Zealand Curriculum identifies five key competencies - they are thinking, using language, symbols and text, managing self, relating to others and participating and contributing. I think every student showed achievement in each of these areas throughout the production and the lead up to it. I hope all parents, extended families and friends also enjoyed the show and were as proud of the efforts of the children as we were.

Thank you so much to our adult face painters who did a fantastic job. You managed to get through 70 faces in less than fifteen minutes each time, so well done! Thank you also to our costume makers. You also whizzed through felt shapes, tails and head gear so quickly. The children really looked gorgeous! Thanks to everyone who helped throughout the week. Your support is greatly appreciated.

Junior Playground

Last week we had new blue safety matting put down under the Junior School playground.

THIS WEEK

Clean up New Zealand

Junior classes are joining their buddy classes, either during last week or this week, to clean up litter around our beach area as part of the annual Clean up New Zealand week.

Whacky Hair Day

This Friday we are having a whacky hair day with proceeds going to the Special Needs School in Christchurch, who were not only affected by damage in the earthquake but also by thieves who stole much used equipment necessary for working with children with special needs. Your child can decorate their hair and bring along a donation for this privilege. If we raise $1,000 or more Mr Chadwick, a teacher in Year 7 and 8, will cut off his dreadlocks.

Full School Assembly

There will be an assembly this Friday at 1.30 p.m. in the hall. All welcome.

Reading Books

If you have any reading books at home could you please send them back to school. We will be doing an inventory and as a result no reading books will be coming home with your child after Wednesday this week. Children can of course still practise the daily habit of reading by getting books out from the Eastbourne library or perhaps reread some books that they already have.

Yummy Apples

The collection of stickers for this competition isnow closed. We now eagerly await the arrival of new P.E. gear that we have earned through collecting the stickers.

LOOKING AHEAD TO TERM 4

We have already planned another great term of exciting learning experiences for your child. We will be having Jumpjam again in the mornings, going to the Ballet, experiencing Education outside the Classroom, swimming, athletics, using technology in our inquiry as well as learning in all the other curriculum areas.

SunSmart

In term 4 all children need to wear a wide brimmed sunhat at school (not cap) so please send your child along to school on the first day of next term with a named hat. Our 'no hat no play' policy starts from the first day. If your child is not wearing a hat, they will be playing under the sunshade area.

Room 16

Mrs Mills-Smith will be starting a new Year 0 class in room 16 straight after the holidays. Room 1 is now full.

Thank you for all your support this term. Have a relaxing holiday break with your children. We look forward to seeing them all again on Monday October 11th at 8.40 a.m. ready for another term of learning.

Kind regards

Maureen Buckley

Deputy Principal

Junior Jottings Number 20

2010-09-12T18:28:00.000-07:00

Dear Parents and Caregivers,

Yay! It's Production Week! The children have looked forward to this and are very excited. For many it will be their first time on stage. The costumes are all complete -thank you so much to parents and teachers for the effort these have involved. The extra staging is up, the music and lighting are ready and now it is time for the big event. Many of our children have been away with sickness and holidays so it has been hard for them to quickly learn their parts but they have managed. I know you are going to be so proud when you see your child up on stage under the bright lights. Being on stage is not easy for everyone so they are doing well, especially our newest five year olds who have just started school. The children will be involved in both a technical walk through and a dress rehearsal before opening night on Tuesday at 7 p.m. Pre-schoolers from the Learning Centre, Playcentre and Kindergarten are very welcome to come to the dress rehearsal on Tuesday.

Production Update

Please bring your child to room 1 (if they are year 0 or 1 - children from rooms 1, 2, 3 and 4) or room 2 (if they are in rooms 2, 5 and 6) at 6.30 p.m on Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday nights. Children will get dressed into their costumes in these rooms. Every item of clothing that your child takes off is to be placed in the plastic bag that has their name on it. Please help them to get their costume on.

The year 0 and 1 children, who are rats, will then go to room 3 to have their faces painted before returning to room 1 to be lined up ready for their performance. At the end of their performance they will be returning to rooms 1 or 2 and getting changed back into their clothes. Costumes are to remain at school till the end of the week.

Parents are very welcome to wait in room 1 or 2 while children are on stage. The show starts at 7 p.m. and the Juniors are at the beginning so we envisage that they should be finished by 7.20 p.m. at the latest. We can confirm this after the dress rehearsal on Tuesday. If you have any queries or worries at all please do not hesitate to contact me.

Normal classroom programmes will continue throughout the week. We are sending home browsing books with your children this week so that they keep up the daily habit of reading. We realise that time is at a premium so are not worried if your child does not get the chance to do their homework. Browsing books are ones that your child has chosen and are at a level much lower than they have in class. They are designed to be easy and quick but provide practice of their reading skills.

Royal New Zealand Ballet

Last Wednesday we had a visit from dancers from the Royal New Zealand Ballet company. They showed us their warmup exercises at the Barre and then performed some excerpts of different ballets. The children were enthralled by their every movement. It was indeed a superb performance. We are going to attend a ballet in Wellington later in term 4.

Yummy Apples

This is the last week for Yummy Apple stickers and bag tags to be brought into school. They will be parceled up and sent away and in return we will receive some lovely sports equipment so please send along any stickers you have by this Friday.

Clean up New Zealand

In the last week of term all classes will be going to different areas of our local beach with their buddies to clean up any litter.

Earthquake in Christchurch

Many of our families have been affected by the recent earthquake so we are having a Whacky Hair day on the last day of school. Your child can wear their hair in an interesting way and bring along a gold coin. The money raised will be given to the Christchurch Mayoral Fund. It is a good opportunity for our children to think about others in their time of need. Please have a look at the poster that the Fundraising committee students have made advertising this event as you pass through our office. Take a peek at the photos of our teacher Mr Chadwick, with and without dreadlocks. Mr Chadwick has agreed to have his dreadlocks cut off if the school can raise over $1,000. Please help us to achieve this figure by giving generously.

Portfolios

There are still a number of portfolios that have not been returned. Could you please send them back to school this week?

Head lice

Once again some of our children have head lice. Please be vigilant and check your child's hair and treat them if necessary. They are very annoying for both the child and the parent especially as they love clean hair and keep returning. I have pamphlets available if any parent would like a copy.

Looking forward to seeing you over this week.

Kind regards

Maureen Buckley

Deputy Principal

Junior Jottings Number 19

2010-09-06T15:28:00.000-07:00

Kia Ora Parents and Caregivers,

A huge 'Thank you' to all those fabulous parents who gave up their time to make our Production costumes. You were so amazing, very organised and so fast that everything was finished on Thursday morning. We are very grateful to each one of you. The children are certainly going to look so fantastic up on stage next week.

PRODUCTION UPDATE

For the evening performances, we need all children to be at school at 6.30 p.m. All Year 0 and 1 children will go to room 1 while all Year 2 will go to room 2. Children will be getting dressed into their costumes in these areas and then will go into room 3 to have their faces painted. They then return to rooms 1 and 2 to await their stage performance. At the end of their performance they will return to these rooms to be collected by their parents (or other adult as designated by the parent) at 7.30 p.m. If you have booked tickets for an evening show please arrange for your child to be collected by another adult, relative, friend or someone in your social network. Please inform your child's teacher on the day the name of the person who will be collecting your child if it is not you.

It is a long day at school for our youngest children and usual programmes will continue throughout the week so we need them to be picked up and taken home to bed as soon as possible. The children will also become more tired as the week progresses. Staff members need to go home to their families and also teach each day so please do not be late picking up your child. Once you are watching the show you will stay in the hall until the performance is over so you will be unable to come and collect your child and take them back into the hall. Your school age child/ren will have the opportunity to watch the entire show at the dress rehearsal.

WANTED - Can you help?

Adults to do face painting in room 3 at 6.30 p.m. each night of the production. If you can help please add your name to the roster in room 3. The face painting of year 0 and 1 involves drawing whiskers and a pink nose. It is not full face or intricate.

Thank you to the lovely pre school parents who attended our 'Starting School at five' information evening last week. I hope you now feel better informed about what lies ahead for you and your child.

If you are or know of anyone who has a four year old child who will be enrolling with us could you please phone our school office 562 8409 with details of your name, your child's name and date of birth and your contact phone numbers so that I can contact you. I am working out staffing for next year and need to know how many children will be turning five throughout 2011.

VISION AND HEARING TESTING

If your New Entrant child was tested by Jackie Jennings they will have brought home a blue pamphlet outlining their results. This test is a screening test only. If you have concerns with your child's vision or hearing please contact an optometrist, developmental optometrist or audiologist.

EMERGENCY DRILLS

In light of the recent event in Christchurch and the rapid rising of the Hutt River this weekend, please be reassured that we practise emergency drills at school. We teach the children what to do in the unlikely event of a fire, earthquake or tsunami occurring while at school so that they know how to respond in an emergency situation if required. We have plenty of the necessary supplies of food and water. It is a timely reminder that if you have changed your contact numbers both cell phones and home or changed addresses or workplaces please inform Sue at the office so that all our details on your child are correct.

BALLET

On Wednesday we will be visited by the ballet and all children throughout the school will be attending this performance. The cost of this show will be taken from your child's activity fee.

WEEK 10

During the last week of the term we will be involved in the Annual 'Clean up New Zealand Week' project again. All Junior children will be working alongside their big buddies to clean up an area of our beach. The younger child will search and point out where the rubbish is to their bigger buddy who will then pick it up and place it in a rubbish bag ready for collection by Hutt City Council. The big buddy will be wearing gloves for this.

On the last day of the term, Friday September 24th, school finishes at the usual time of 2.55 p.m.

Kind regards

Maureen Buckley

Deputy Principal

Junior Jottings Number 18

2010-08-29T19:46:00.000-07:00

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

2010-08-22T03:06:00.000-07:00

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

2010-08-16T16:43:00.000-07:00

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

2010-08-09T15:11:00.000-07:00

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

2010-08-01T18:55:00.000-07:00

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

Junior Jottings Number 13

2010-06-28T19:51:00.000-07:00

Kia Ora Koutou

The last week of term 2 already is here and the children have certainly achieved a lot in the past ten weeks. We hope that when you read your child's report last Friday you gained a clearer picture of their areas of strength and also the areas that need further development. We are looking forward to meeting with parents and caregivers this week to discuss the progress that your child has already made this year and show you where their next learning steps are and how you can help them with these. We will also be discussing their report and sharing their portfolio of work samples with you. Please feel free to ask your child's teacher any questions. Any parent who has had a child turn six this year and has not already seen their six year old testing and would like to, please call our office to make an appointment with me during conferences this week.

Special thanks to the children who have been hosts or presented items at each of this term's Junior Assemblies. You have all done very well standing up in front of about 120 people.

This week

Just a reminder - School will be closing early on Tuesday and Wednesday so please pick up your child at 1.20 p.m. on each of these days. Any child who cannot be picked up early will be supervised in the hall. They will be watching a movie until the usual hometime.

Book Fair

This will be open on Tuesday and Wednesday from 1.30 - 7 p.m. in the library. Purchases you make at this time mean that your child can take the book or books away immediately and that a percentage from each sale also enables us to purchase more books for our library which in turn benefits your child further.

Senior Students Science Fair

Throughout this week some of the year 7 and 8 students will be bringing their science exhibits over to our classrooms so they can explain them in more detail to our younger students. Room 24 is still open this week for adults and families to browse the science fair projects.

Thursday

There will not be any preschool visits this week.

Friday

'Dress up green' day - this is an opportunity for your child to dress up in green and donate a gold coin to the Orphans of Nepal Trust. Money raised will be used to purchase seeds and vegetables for the orphanage garden.

Lost Property

Please have a look through the clothing and take anything that belongs to your child. Any clothing left at the end of the term will be donated to charity.

Head lice

We have had a few cases of head lice lately. Please check your child's hair regularly and treat if necessary. If you are not sure what to look for please ask or visit your local chemist for advice.

Mrs Mills Smith

On Friday we say fond farewell and thank you to Margs Mills Smith who has been teaching in room 1 this term. She will be teaching in the senior school next term and will be returning to teach the next New Entrant class later this year. We sincerely thank her for all the work that she has done with the children in Room 1 and for our Junior team.

Full School Assembly

You are cordially invited to attend our full school assembly in the hall at 1.30 p.m.

School closes this Friday at the usual time. Planning for next term has been completed. We have planned a new event for early next term, a duathlon, which we know the children will enjoy. We also look forward to our school wide production. Further details about these will be given next term.

Parenting Courses

Recently I gave out information about the Incredible Years programme. I now also have information about a different parenting programme. The next course begins in term 2 for parents with children aged 6 to 12. They also have courses for parents of children aged 0 to 6 and 12 to 18. If people are interested in any of these courses, please email me and I will pop the information into an envelope and put it in your child's bookbag to bring home to you this week.

Parent Workshops

Recently I held workshops for parents to explain a little about what their child does in maths, reading and writing each day at school. The following are some of the points mentioned during the sessions.

Numeracy

What you say and do can make a very big difference to your child's success in mathematics. Here are some ways in which you can encourage them and help them learn.

1. Discuss the numbers you come across ( e.g. numbers on letterboxes when you are out walking) Ask them what the next number would be, ten more, one hundred more, the number before, ten before, one hundred before.

2. Explore counting in lots of ways - count forwards and backwards from different starting points. e.g. start counting at 5 instead of 0 or 1. Count in twos, fives and tens both forwards and backwards.

3. Play mathematical games at home. e.g. board games, adding scores together

4. Help your child to manage time and money. Ask them the time in o'clock, half past and also in digital. Give them 50 cents to spend and they have to work out what they will buy and what change they will get.

5. Work out problems around your house. e.g. there are 20 biscuits in this packet how many will each person in our family get?

6. Take an interest in how your child figures things out and ask them how they worked it out so they can explain their thinking. There is usually more than one way to solve a problem. If your child uses a strategy that works, praise them. If yours is different, that's OK.

Your child will be working through the different stages of number development in their mathematics programme along with the strands of geometry, measurement and statistics. In Number, they will be learning to solve a range of mathematical problems and calculate these in their head whenever possible instead of using a calculator or pen and paper. To reach the stage of working out problems in their head it is essential that they have explored new mathematical ideas with a range of equipment e.g. their fingers, pegs, blocks etc. They will also be showing that they understand maths using diagrams and pictures as well as equipment and they will be explaining and recording their ideas in a variety of ways.

Children in their first two years at school progress through stages 0 to 4.

O - Emergent - Students at this stage are unable to consistently count a given number of objects because they lack knowledge of counting sequences and/or the ability to match things in one-to-one correspondence. 1, 2, 3, 5, 9,

1 - One to one counting - This stage is characterised by students who can count and form a set of objects up to ten but cannot solve simple problems that involve joining and separating sets, like 4 + 3.

2 - Counting from one on materials - Given a joining or separating of sets problem, students at this stage rely on counting physical materials, like their ﬁngers. They count all the objects in both sets to ﬁnd an answer, as in “Five lollies and three more lollies. How many lollies is that altogether?”

3 - Counting from one by imaging - This stage is also characterised by students counting all of the objects in simple joining and separating problems. Students at this stage are able to image visual patterns of the objects in their mind and count them.

4 - Advanced counting - Students at this stage understand that the end number in a counting sequence measures the whole set and can relate the addition or subtraction of objects to the forward and backward number sequences by ones, tens, etc. For example, instead of counting all objects to solve 6 + 5, the student recognises that “6” represents all six objects

and counts on from there: “7 , 8 , 9, 10, 11.”

Each of these four stages contain the areas of addition and subtraction, multiplication and division and proportions and ratios.

Reading

Each child progresses through the stages of emergent, early and fluent. The emergent stage is the magenta coloured books and is where your child consistently learns to read from left to right, learns all the sounds of the alphabet letters, builds up a bank of at least thirty known words and matches their finger to each word as they read.

They then move to the early level which is the books on the colour wheel from red to yellow to blue to green. The text gets longer, smaller in size, there is less recurring patterns and not all the clues are found in the pictures. We expect our children to reach level 12 ( green) by the end of their first year at school. The fluent level is Orange and above.

On the report you will see Instructional reading age which is the guided reading age. If your child is aged five and has 6.0 - 6.5 then they are above their chronological age but if your child is six and has 5.0 - 5.5 then they are below.

At each of the levels your child is taught different skills and strategies to work out unknown words. They are asking questions of themselves as they read like - does that make sense, does that sound right or does that look right? If not they are expected to use strategies like go back and reread to work out their error or read on to the end of the sentence if they are at the fluency level.

At each stage there is discussion which could involve prediction skills, retelling of the story in the correct sequence, in depth inference questions to discussion of characters.

Books are graded according to colour and also according to approach e.g. S for shared, G for guided and I for independent. This means that your child may read the same book three times over their two years at school as sometimes it is shared with the class or group, or it could be when your child is working with the support of their teacher or they can independently read it themselves.

Each day your child is involved in reading rotations where they are doing a wide range of literacy activities. These include listening post, library books, rereading familiar books, making something in response to a text or instructions, alphabet sound activities, role plays, Letterland and Smartphonics activities, writing activities, working with dough and magnetic letters to name a few.

You can help your child by ensuring that they learn all the letters of the alphabet, both upper and lower case and their corresponding sounds. The sooner that they pick up this knowledge the sooner they progress in reading, writing and spelling. It is imperative that they practise their home reading each day and that you are the cheer leaders saying how fantastic they are as learning to read is a difficult process. It is also vital that you read to your child every day so that they can enjoy books in a calm, positive and relaxing environment. Five minutes reading aloud to your child on a daily basis makes a huge difference to their progress.

Writing

Each child moves through different stages in writing as well. The first stage is the emergent stage and contains the scribble stage. This is where children make marks on paper, dots, dashes and random shapes. Following this they learn to write their name and a mixture of letters and numbers that do not relate to the picture they have drawn. Later on they begin to write a mix of all letters but although their story has meaning, it is lost over time. At the next stage, they then begin to put down some words that they can spell e.g. I am or I like or I went (where they go through a safe stage) and some initial letters for other words they try to write. Their written story matches their brainstorm. (this is a picture of their idea that they have drawn).

They then move to the early level where they are using letter sounds to spell all unknown words, adding adjectives (WOW words), increased output and stories showing structure of a beginning, middle and ending.

The next stage of the fluent writer encompasses all of the above as well as writing in different genre like reports and explanations.

Learning to write is also a difficult process as it involves lots of different things all at once. First the child has to decide on an idea and then draw it. They then have to compose a story to match this. They need to think of an interesting beginning to interest their audience. Before they start their first word they have to remember what it starts with and how to actually form the letter accurately and then remember to write it in sequence as well as hold the pencil correctly without forgetting what their story is about.

How you can help at home involves the provision of a wide range of writing materials e.g. felt pens, vivids, whiteboards, fancy papers, chalk and blackboards, glitter pens, magnetic letters, plasticene, dough etc, Encourage your children to write a letter or make a card to thank a person who has given them a gift. They can write in the sand at the beach or paint words with water on the concrete outside. For those of you who enjoy messy play there is always goop and shaving cream. Also encourage them to learn the letter sounds and write them. Remind them to pinch their pencil so that the grip is correct and that letters start at the top and go down so that they can practise the correct formation as well.

Be a role model yourself and let your child observe you reading and writing in a range of contexts.

The above are just a synopsis of mathematics, reading and writing, which I hope you find useful but if you have any questions please do not hesitate to ask.

On behalf of the Junior Team, I wish you a safe and enjoyable holiday with your children and look forward to hearing about their many adventures when they return on Monday July 19th.

Kind regards

Maureen Buckley

Deputy Principal

Junior Jottings Number 12

2010-06-20T18:49:00.000-07:00

Dear Parents and Caregivers,

Last week

As part of Matariki, the children have been involved in string games, activities using poi and sticks and they have also learned some new waiata. They will continue these activities this coming week. Ask them to share with you what they have been doing.

Performing Arts

We were very impressed by the performance of rooms 2, 5 and 6 on stage at assembly on Friday. They have been working with Mrs Hooke each week and performed superbly.

Cross Country

Every day we seem to be experiencing weather from each of the four seasons. We have been waiting for the first fine day that would be long enough between rain to hold the Junior School Cross Country run at Bishop's Park. Last Monday was the first time we could actually do this. Mrs Cody made a quick decision just before morning tea to do the event straight after morning tea while the weather was still fine. We did not want to tell the children too much in advance in case the weather changed for the worse (as it had the week before) and have them upset and disappointed again. Parents of our older children taking part in the Cross Country events involving other schools will know how sad their children are when the events keep on getting postponed. I apologize to the parents and caregivers of our junior children and understand that you may have liked to attend but felt even if we had emailed you, giving you approximately fifteen minutes notice, (and even if you read the email straight away) it would have been impossible for many of you to change your plans. The children did their best and were back at school within half an hour. We do have some photos which we will put on the screen in the office foyer for everyone to see. We hope that next year the Cross Country run will go ahead on the proposed day in May.

Science Fair

Last Wednesday we visited the classrooms across the road to see the Science Fair exhibits that our Year 7 and 8 students have been working on. We were absolutely amazed at the fantastic array of experiments and asked lots of questions about each of them. We also visited their classrooms and were extremely impressed with the fabulous high quality art and work that we saw. This week some of the students will be bringing their science displays over to our junior classrooms to explain them in more depth. The displays will be up in room 24 (the green house) until the end of term so please feel free to pop in for a visit during school hours.

Mrs Ryan

On Thursday Mrs Ryan came to school to meet the students of room 1 and visiting preschoolers and their families. She will be coming back full time to teach them on the first day of term 3. She also went across the road and helped to judge the Science Fair displays, which would have been an extremely difficult job. She has added more things to her science blog so please have a look at some of what she has been involved in.

This Week

Monday and Tuesday

Gymnastics - We will be finishing gymnastics next week, as next term the children in years 3 to 6 will be having their turn with the equipment.

PALS - we hope the weather will be fine for us to do this at lunchtime.

Friday

Full School Assembly and reports will be coming home with the children in rooms 2, 3, 4, 5 and 6.

'Hooked on Books'

We are delighted with the progress the children are making while on the 'Hooked on Books' programme and sincerely thank all those kind adults who give up their time each week to listen to our children read. The programme will not run next week and will start again on the first week of Term 3. The programme will finish in Week 5 of next term. If any adults are unable to help in term 3 could you please contact me so I can alter the roster.

Parent Conferences

Please ensure you have made your conference time by this week. Go online, enter the code and follow the instructions on screen. Anyone having difficulty with this please contact Sue or Carole in our office. At the conferences your child's teacher will discuss their report and portfolio of work with you and answer any questions that you may have.

Headlice

There are a number of schools around the district experiencing an outbreak of head lice, including Muritai School. We ask parents/caregivers to be vigilant and to please check and treat their children's hair for head lice. Simple hair conditioner used together with a nit comb every day for 2 to 3 weeks is a cheap and effective treatment. There are also a number of products available from pharmacies who will be more than happy to help find the best solution for you.

Green Day
On the last day of school we will be hold "Green Day' where children are invited to dress up in green and give a gold coin donation to the Orphans of Nepal Trust. The money raised will used for vegetables, seeds, etc for the orphanage garden.

There will also be a jar of jellybeans in the office. Children can guess how many are in the jar. Each guess costs $1 and the winner of the jar will be announced in the final assembly on Friday. Two girls from the senior school will be in the office before school to collect guesses.

Have a great week.

Kind regards

Maureen Buckley

Deputy Principal

Junior Jottings Number 11

2010-06-13T14:58:00.000-07:00

Dear Parents and Caregivers

Welcome to the latest Junior Jottings. A warm welcome to the new children and their families who have joined us throughout the year. We hope you are enjoying being part of our Junior School family.

'Jungle Bungle'

This show was enjoyed immensely by our Junior School. The children were absolutely spellbound throughout the entire performance and hung on every word that the actors uttered.

Kapahaka Performance

Last Friday afternoon the entire school was mesmerised by the outstanding Kapahaka performance that they witnessed, performed by Year 7 and 8 students from Pukeatua School in Wainuiomata. They certainly exuded pride and commitment.

Parent Workshops

Thank you to all those parents who attended the workshops on reading, writing and mathematics over the past month. I hope you now have a better understanding of what your child does during the day in these areas. If you have any further questions about these or wish to know about any other areas of learning please do not hesitate to ask me. I will put a synopsis of each of the workshops in next week's Junior Jottings so that you can see where your child is at when you receive their report and discuss their progress in the upcoming conferences.

Parent and Teacher Conferences

These will be held on Tuesday 29 and Wednesday 30 June from 1.30pm to 7pm. Please book a time online using the school code VM7KP if you have not already done so. At the conferences you will have the opportunity to ask questions about your child's learning and their portfolio of work samples, their written report, their next learning steps and how you can help them at home. If your child has just started school in room 1, you do not need to book a conference. Mrs Mills Smith will contact parents of children who have been at school for more than 6 weeks to arrange a comprehensive New Entrant Conference.

Reports

Every child in the Junior School, apart from Room 1, will bring home a written report on Friday June 25th showing their progress and next learning steps. All children in year 1 who are in rooms 2, 3 and 4 will have the Year 1 report. All children in year 2 in rooms 2, 5 and 6 will have the Year 2 report. They have achievement across the year level regardless of which room they are in or how long they have been at school. The Achievement Key is 'not yet', 'at times,' 'mostly' or 'always'.

An example on the Year 1 report, in writing it says 'is able to sequence their ideas into a beginning, middle and ending'. Your child may get a tick in the 'not yet' column because they are not at this stage of their writing development or they only write a beginning and an ending and not the middle in their stories.

In mathematics, also on the Year 1 report, it says ' can count forwards within the range of 0 - 100.' They will get a tick in the 'always' column if they can count consistently to 100 and beyond or they may get a tick in the 'not yet' column if they can only count forwards up to, for example, seventy.

Wet Lunchtimes

Over the past few weeks we have had some wet lunchtimes, which has, of course, meant the children have had to stay inside their classrooms. We thank the senior children from years 7 and 8 very much, who have braved the wet and cold conditions to come into our Junior classrooms to play games, read to or draw with our classes.

PALS

We are hoping that it is fine on Tuesday at lunchtime, so that our specially trained Year 7 and 8 students will be able to come over to teach our Junior children a range of fun outdoor games. Special thanks to Mrs Cody and Mr Chadwick for all the organisation, training and supervision that they have done for this programme to get underway.

Found Clothing

We have a mountain of lovely clothes, (unfortunately unnamed) that belong to our students in the 'Lost Property' bins under the stairs of room 10. Please encourage your children to have a look there for any clothes that they have not brought home. Parents and caregivers are welcome to go through the bins too.

Matariki

This starts today June 14th and we are going to do some activities around this, including ti rakau, waiata and listening to myths and legends.

Dyslexia Action Week

This is from June 15 to 21. Last week Sarah, our Learning Support teacher, attended the Dyslexia Conference, in Auckland. She has posted some interesting items on her blog so please have a look at her blog as well as all the other junior school ones.

Best wishes for a warm and dry week.

Kind regards

Maureen Buckley

Deputy Principal

2010-06-01T15:12:00.000-07:00

Junior Jottings Number 10

Dear Parents and Caregivers

Friday was a fabulous day! The children had a fun time taking part in the nationwide 'HeartJam' event. Each class performed their favourite song on stage as well as joining in with all the other junior classes for over half an hour of exercise. The final total of money raised for children with heart problems was $113.80. Special thanks to Mrs Skilton for organising the event for us and also thanks go to the senior children who taught us the movements to each of the songs. Here we are taking part.

In the afternoon we worked with our Performing Arts teacher, Mrs Hooke, who taught us new songs and movements in preparation for the 'Jungle Bungle' show that we are going to be an audience for next week. This show involves the latest stories in the New Zealand Post Awards. Teachers and Sue, our librarian, have been reading the different stories to the children and they are really looking forward to the show. The price is $6 per child and has been taken out of your child's activity fee.

Monday May 31st and Tuesday June 1st

Your child will be taking part in gymnastics. The focus of their lessons will be locomotion, landings and statics. This means your child will be travelling around, using feet, hands and feet and large body surfaces on the floor, in the air, over, under, along, through and around all kinds of equipment. They will be landing on their feet, on their hands and on all parts of their body which is a basic survival skill and they will also enjoy activities that encourage them to improve their balance.

Hotdogs

Every Wednesday during terms 2 and 3 the Home and School committee organise the cooking of hotdogs. The cost is $3 and the money raised from this goes to providing resources to our school. Muritai Munchies happen every Monday and Friday throughout the year.

'Starting School at Five' Information Evening

This will also be on tonight, Wednesday June 2nd in the staffroom at 7 p.m. Please tell your friends and neighbours who have preschoolers in our area about this meeting.

Thursday June 3rd

The information session about 'Writing' will be held in the library at 1.40 p.m. and in room 3 at 7 p.m. Some parents were unable to attend the mathematics sessions. I am happy to repeat the mathematics sessions if there is demand. Please email me if you are interested.

Friday June 4th

We are going to watch the 'Jungle Bungle' show, which should be a lot of fun.

Monday June 7th

School will be closed as it is Queen's Birthday holiday. If you are going away for the weekend I hope you have a lovely relaxing time with your family.

Parenting Course

If you need details of the 'Incredible Years' parent programme please do not hesitate to contact me. Positions for this course are limited to ten and applications are closing this week.

Yummy Apples

Once again we are collecting 'Yummy' apple stickers. If you have any stickers or coupons from the apple bags please send them along to your child's class. Mr Hull sends them away later in the year to be redeemed for sports equipment, which the children use during lunchtimes.

Junior School Reading books

Last year we replenished lots of our reading books costing over $5,000 and were disappointed to find that over the year more than one hundred of them had not been returned. Each book costs approximately $10 and we cannot afford to replace them again. Please have a look around your homes for any of the titles and if you find them please return them to us as soon as possible. We need them urgently for our classroom reading programmes.

School Assembly

Next Friday June 11th we will be having our next full school assembly in the hall at 1.30 p.m. Everyone is welcome to attend this.

Enjoy your long weekend.

Kind regards

Maureen Buckley

Deputy Principal

2010-05-23T17:06:00.000-07:00

Junior Jottings No 9

Kia ora! It is hard to believe that already we are half way through the term and winter is upon us. We know the children were disappointed with last week's weather making the proposed Cross Country too dangerous and uncomfortable for them to do. We hope to do an event for our Junior School later in the term when hopefully the weather improves.

This week -

Today all children in the Junior School began gymnastics in the hall. They will be having these sessions each Monday and Tuesday for the next four weeks. Please could parents ensure that the children wear clothing suitable for the activities on these days.

The Parent Information workshops will be this Thursday in the library at 1.40 p.m. and in room 3 at 7 p.m. The topic this week is reading. All welcome.

On Friday May 28th we are doing 'HeartJam' at 10 a.m. Heart Jam will be New Zealand's largest aerobics class and is about children helping children in their community. The HeartJam routine is choreographed by Brett Fairweather, creator of Jump Jam, to a soundtrack exclusively created by Kiwi band, Minuit. The money our school raises is dedicated to supporting Child and Youth programmes and services for children with heart conditions. This includes National Camps where they can be in a safe and fun environment. Could children please bring a gold coin donation to support this cause.

Next week-

'To School at Five' Information Evening
This evening will be held on Wednesday 2 June at 7pm in the school staff room. All parents of preschoolers are cordially invited to attend.

Information Workshop
The last workshop will be on 'Writing' and will be held on Thursday 3 June at 1.40pm and 7pm

Parenting Course
If you are interested in finding out more about the 'Incredible Years' parenting course, please do not hesitate to contact me. Registrations for the next course close next week.

Have a great week.
Maureen Buckley
Deputy Principal

Junior Jottings Number 8

2010-05-09T18:27:00.000-07:00

Dear Parents and Caregivers

Greetings to you all once again. Your child has had another week of wonderful learning experiences. We know that they are often so busy or tired when they get home after school that they do not share much of their school day with you. Please take the opportunity to have a look at the classroom blogs. It is great to see what your child's class has been doing and you can then click onto another blog of a different age group to see what they also have been doing. Please send a comment about what you see on the blogs. The children love to read the responses.

Cross Country
This annual event will be next week on Tuesday May 18th at Williams Park. The postponement date is Thursday May 20th. You will have received a notice outlining the details of the day but if you have any queries please do not hesitate to ask your child's teacher.

On the day, we need adults to transport our year 1 children to and from Williams Park. We are also desperate for adults to be Marshalls around the course for our older children. This involves first watching your year 1 to 4 child take part in their event and then standing in a particular place around the course to ensure our older children stick to the right track during their event. If you can help with marshalling or transport please contact Mrs Cody in room 2 as soon as possible. We would also like all of the children to dress up in their House colours as they will be seated in their 'House' groups and earning points for their 'House' on the day. As mentioned last week all our year 2 children from rooms 2, 5 and 6 will be going for a walk around the track during this week.

Information Workshops

Thank you to those parents who have informed me of their attendance at the forthcoming information sessions. This week on Thursday May 13th at 1. 40 p.m. in the library I will be discussing mathematics and how you can help your child. The same information session will be repeated at 7 pm in room 3 on the same date. It is not too late to come along so please email me if you would like to attend and have not done so already.

School Production

In Term 3 we have our fantastic school production and every child in our school will play a part. We have started planning for this and at this stage I am compiling a list of adults who would be available to help sew or make some of the costumes and also who would like to do some face painting. If you are interested in helping with this could you please email me?

Can you help?

We need some small cardboard boxes, egg cartons and magazines for the children to use in construction work. If you have any to spare could you please drop them into room 3?

Gymnastics

The children will be taking part in gymnastics later in the term as part of our physical education programme. More details will follow at a later date.

Have another great week! I look forward to seeing you all supporting your child and their friends at our Annual Cross Country next week.

Kind regards

Maureen Buckley

Deputy Principal

Junior Jottings Number 7

2010-05-02T16:47:00.000-07:00

Dear Parents and Caregivers

Kia ora and welcome to this week's newsletter. It is hard to believe that it is already May. The year seems to be speeding by.

Our Inquiry entitled ' Changes in my World' is going well in each of the classrooms. The students in rooms 5 and 6 were excited about their trip to Zealandia last week. Thank you to those adults who accompanied them. Room 3 were lucky to observe the bathing of Joshua's new baby. Thank you Erica for bringing him in along with all the necessary equipment.

Thank you very much also to those adults who began the 'Hooked on Books' programme last week. You are doing a fabulous job and your efforts are greatly appreciated. The hotdogs went down well too. Thank you to those adults who are giving up their time to do this also.

Cross Country

The children are doing well with their Cross Country practice runs on Wednesday and Thursday mornings. The Year 2 children will be walking around the track during the next few weeks. Could the parents of Year 0 and 1 children in rooms 1, 2, 3 and 4 take their child to Williams Park for a practice after school or during weekends before the actual event so that they are familiar with the area. Further details regarding the organisation of the Cross Country will be coming out shortly. If you have any questions please do not hesitate to contact Mrs Mikaela Cody in Room 2 or your child's teacher.

Information Workshops

Over the next few weeks I will be running some information sessions for parents and caregivers. They will be on Thursday afternoons from 1.40 p.m. to 2.40 p.m. in the school library and repeated again the same evening from 7 p.m. to 8 p.m. in room 3. If you have ever wondered how your child learns to read and write and or do mathematics then this is your opportunity to ask questions and find out. I will also discuss some ways in which you can support your child's learning at home.

The dates are as follows Workshop 1 - Thursday May 13th - Mathematics

Workshop 2 - Thursday May 27th - Reading

Workshop 3 - Thursday June 3rd - Writing

Please email me to let me know which sessions you will be attending.

'Starting School at Five' Information Evening

This evening for parents and caregivers of pre-schoolers will be held in the staffroom on Wednesday June 2nd at 7 p.m. All welcome.

Full School Assembly

On Friday May 7th we will be having our usual full School Assembly in the hall at 1.30 p.m. Please feel free to come along and join us. Seating is reserved along the back of the hall for you.

Have another great week!

Kind regards

Maureen Buckley

Deputy Principal

2010-05-02T02:54:00.001-07:00

Junior Jottings Number 6

2010-04-25T14:57:00.000-07:00

Welcome to Term 2! I hope you all had the opportunity to spend some quality time with your children over the holidays. They have come back refreshed ready for the busy term ahead.

We warmly welcome Mrs Margaret Mills Smith and six children who started our latest New Entrant class in room 1 last week. Mrs Ryan will take over this class on her return. We also welcome Mrs Dawn Statham and Mrs Carolyn Murphy who are working during the mornings this term in room 3.

The first week has had the children embedding what they already know and starting a range of new activities.

The cross country run practices for all the students have begun with the children already looking forward to the big event on Tuesday May 18th at Williams Park. The postponement day is Thursday May 20th. Please ensure that your child wears suitable shoes for the practice runs each Wednesday and Thursday morning. Thank you to those parents who have sent along slippers despite this current warm weather. The children love popping their slippers on to keep their feet warm after their run. As well as the running practices, Jumpjam continues our fitness programme on the other mornings in the hall as usual.

Heart Jam - 28 May
On Friday 28 May thousands of children in schools across the country will take part in Heart Jam; New Zealand's largest aerobics class. Our Junior syndicate have been learning a new routine specially choreographed for Heart Jam by Brett Fairweather. Please bring a donation towards Heart Jam on this day and come and watch your children participating in Heart Jam.

On Thursday each class started this term's physical education programme with the children being involved in the learning and playing a range of new games. At lunchtimes the children can also play these games and it is also pleasing to see that they are taking equipment out from the PE shed to use.

Each class has begun a focus on time in their mathematics programmes. Time is a very difficult concept for children to understand and they do not accurately tell the time until they are about seven years old. In their first two years at school, they are learning about the days of the week, seasons, months of the year, calendars and how long it takes for events to occur. Year 1 are learning to tell the time to half past and o'clock on analogue clocks while the Year 2's are working with both analogue and digital clocks and learning about quarter past, quarter to and time in minutes.

Our Visual Art focus is painting and the students have had a fun time mixing primary colours to create secondary colours. They will also be learning about tints and shades over the next few weeks.

Some of our writing this term is being linked to our Inquiry and the children will be learning how to write explanations and reports as well as recounts. Our inquiry entitled 'Changes in my world' is science based and will include life cycles, and physical and chemical properties of common materials and changes that occur when materials are mixed, heated or cooled. Rooms 5 and 6 will be going on a trip this Wednesday as part of their inquiry.

The 'Hearing and Vision' tester came to school on Tuesday and assessed some of our students. You would have received a little pamphlet of the results if this involved your child.

The Speech Language Therapist also visited last week and worked with some of our students.

We had a special assembly on Friday about ANZAC day. Please talk to your child about this as they may have some further questions.

'Hooked on Books' has started this week. Thank you so much to those of you who have volunteered an hour of your time to listen to children read. I appreciate it very much and if there is anyone else who would like to do this could you please contact me?

Room 3 has begun the P.M.P. programme (Perceptual Motor Programme) and are at the moment working with happy sticks. These are wooden sticks that they use to keep in time to music. They will also be using other equipment designed to help with the development of their fine motor skills and eye tracking.

Hotdogs are available on Wednesdays throughout the term. If your child is ordering one please send the money in a named envelope to your child's teacher. 'Muritai Munchies' are available on Mondays and Fridays as usual and orders are posted into the box in the hall kitchen before school. PLEASE NOTE THAT THERE WILL BE NO MURITAI MUNCHIES ON FRIDAY 30 APRIL AND MONDAY 3 MAY.

Scholastic Book club orders close with your child's teacher on Wednesday 5 May. Make cheques to 'Scholastic books' as we are unable to take cash.

If you have any questions about your child's learning please do not hesitate to contact your child's teacher either by email or by phoning the school office on 562 8409 to make an appointment. Staff emails are their surname followed by muritai.school.nz. Please have a look at our new website and while there remember to click around the different classroom blogs. These take some time for teachers and students to put together so comments about the learning that is occurring are greatly appreciated. Have a great week.

Kind regards

Maureen Buckley

Deputy Principal

Junior Jottings Issue 5

2010-03-28T15:42:00.000-07:00

Dear Parents and Caregivers,

It is the last week of Term 1 already and the students are certainly looking forward to a well deserved holiday break. They have worked very hard and have really benefited from a wonderful array of learning experiences over the past nine weeks. These have ranged from a visiting artist, police and lifeguards to visiting the fire station, pool, beach, park and library. The inquiry process has been followed and they have learned how to be safe at school, in the playground, in and around water, in the sun, around the roads and near fire. Please ask them to share their knowledge with you. They have also been assessed in a wide range of curriculum areas and have all made progress on achieving some of their learning goals.

Over the holidays, please help keep up your child's learning by reading to them each day (five minutes makes all the difference!). Ask them questions about the story you have read, get them to read to you or practise some writing and spelling or do some counting forwards and backwards. You could also click onto some of the links on Room 6's blog - see opposite - for some further fun learning. If the weather gets cold or wet, a visit to our local library is always a great place to go.

LAST WEEK
Thank you!
A special thank you to the parents of students in room 3 who attended a meeting on Tuesday evening to find out about assessment on entry to school. Thanks too, to those parents who have also attended six week new entrant conferences. I hope you have a good understanding of what your child is currently learning, where they are heading and some ways you can help them at home.

Thanks also goes to the large number of preschool parents, who attended our recent 'Starting School at Five' information evening. I hope this evening answered all your questions regarding the next stage in your child's life.

'No Sweat' Parenting
I attended this absolutely fantastic evening on Thursday night on how to be a coach to your child. Pio and John were hilarious in their presentation and gave very practical ideas throughout. If you would like any information on parenting, please do not hesitate to contact me as I can put you in touch with the necessary people who can support you. As well as this there are also six week workshops tailored for parents of specific age groups - early years (0 - 6), middle years (6 - 12) and teenagers.

Stationery Items
Some children still do not have all of the necessary extra stationery items needed for their learning. If you are not sure what items your child needs, please see their teacher. Could you please purchase these from the school office before Thursday? We would really appreciate this.

Visit to the Eastbourne Fire Station
A huge thank you to our local volunteer firefighters, who gave up their time last week and the previous one to ensure our children are 'FireWise'. The children had a chance to go into the fire engine and use the fire hose as well as listen to the safety message talk. They should have brought home some pamphlets to reinforce this. Please take the time to read them and discuss the 'escape plan' with your child so that in the unlikely event of a fire at your home they know where to go.

THIS WEEK
Tuesday March 30th
You will have received an invitation, via email, to come along and listen to Laughton King on Tuesday March 30th at 7.30 pm at school. He is a very entertaining speaker who tells us how dyslexia has affected him throughout his life. Come along and learn about 'reaching the reluctant learner.' Koha - $5

Thursday April 1st
This Thursday is 'Autism Mayhem Day'. This is celebrated nationally and means that on this day your child can come to school with 'Whacky Hair' and a gold coin to donate to Autism New Zealand.

School will be closing at the usual time of 2.55 p.m. on Thursday and will re open after the holidays on Monday April 19th at 8.40 a.m.

NEXT TERM
We have already planned an exciting term of learning for your child. One thing that will be happening is the Annual School Cross Country run at Williams Park. Please ensure that your child has the correct footwear for the practices.

Clothing
Sunhats will be coming home this week and next term your child needs to bring slippers to wear inside the classrooms. Please have a look at the Lost Property this week and collect any items that belong to your child.

Later in the term, we will also be having parent conferences and sharing the children's work in their portfolios with you.

'Hooked on Books'
This fantastic reading programme is carried out each year by our wonderful parents and caregivers. If you have some time next term to take part in this then please email me or contact me as soon as possible so that I can complete the roster. I need adults who are willing to encourage and support some of our students with their daily reading during school hours, either once each week or on a two week cycle. The times can be either first thing in the morning when you drop your child off or during the afternoon when you collect them. If you know of any grandparents or other people in our community who have an hour to spare and who would be interested in this could you also let me know? I will run a quick five minute meeting after school in the first week of the term to show you what the children will be doing with you.

Staff
A big 'Thank you' to Miss Tweedie, who has been working with the students in room 3 during the past month. She leaves us to take up a position at Belmont School. We wish her well in her teaching career.

Mrs Ryan is having an amazing time on her Science Fellowship. Please have a look at her blog to see what she has been doing.

We warmly welcome Mrs Margaret Mills-Smith to our Junior Teaching Team once again as she starts our next New Entrant room. This class will begin with six new children straight after the holidays.

Thank you for all the support you have given your child and the staff this term. We have greatly appreciated it and look forward to working with you again next term.

Best wishes for a lovely holiday with your family.

Kind regards

Maureen Buckley

Junior Jottings 8 March 2010

2010-03-10T16:49:00.000-08:00

Talofa
The sun shone beautifully yesterday for Children’s Day. I do hope you took advantage of the many free activities that were available around our region and celebrated the day having lots of fun with your children.
Thank you to those parents and caregivers who attended the meeting last week on the National Standards and New Curriculum. If you were unable to come or if you have any questions please do not hesitate to pop them into the box in the office or ask Matt Skilton, Andrew Bird or myself.

Swimming
This is already our last week for swimming as the pool will close this coming weekend. The children have all made such great improvements in the water this term. Special thanks to the parents and caregivers who have given up their time to accompany classes to the pool and help out.

Homework
This is a friendly reminder to all of those parents who have not as yet purchased the extra stationery items for your child from our school office, to please do as soon as possible. These items include the Readit book, alphabet, dictionary and blend cards and handwriting book, which were extra to the stationery pack. If you are not sure please ask your child’s teacher.

Bikes and scooters
The children are to walk their bikes and scooters in the school grounds before school and straight after school. The bikes are to go in the bike stands and the scooters are to be placed behind the seating in front of our two-storey block. Could you please supervise your child and ensure that they do walk in the school grounds?

Have another great week!

Maureen Buckley – Deputy Principal

DIARY DATES

‘Starting school at five’ information evening for parents of preschoolers

* Wednesday March 17th

* 7 pm in the school staffroom

No Sweat Parenting -‘Become a parent coach’

Join Pio and his mate John for an evening of laughs, fun and choice ideas for raising our kids.

* Lower Hutt Town Hall

* Thursday March 25th

* 7 – 9 p. m.

* Parent Expo

Admission – Free apart from a can for the Lower Hutt Food bank.

This evening is part of a new initiative about parenting. I hope you will all attend this fun evening and I would welcome your feedback to pass on to the organisers.