300415

30 April 2015

Dear Parents and Caregivers

Autumn is definitely here….our annual problem of leaves everywhere reminds
me of this. The leaves have provided lots of fun for children to play in though!
I know many of you will have taken the chance to attend an Anzac service. I
hope that the coverage we gave Anzac Day here at school helped our
students understand the meaning behind the day. Our 30 commemorative
crosses definitely stand out.

Winter sports have started (although hockey got cancelled yesterday unfortunately).
Thanks to our hockey and netball organisers Keren Copeland and Amy Kerslake for all
the background work they’ve had to do. We are lucky to have a good team of about
11 parent/teachers coaches helping out with both netball and hockey - thank you
because we couldn’t enter the teams without you.

Congratulations to our most recent winner of the Principal’s Award for
Caring, Daniel Crack of Room Pukeko

As the air temperatures have become a lot cooler, we would ask that you check
your children have enough warm clothes on them or with them. Our school
uniform polar fleeces are great for warmth but in addition to this children need
to bring a jacket to wear outside on rainy/ particularly cold days. Wearing a dark
coloured thermal top (polyprop) under your polo shirts is also a great idea and
makes all the difference.

On Monday next week school shuts at 12.30. In the afternoon the teachers from Gorge Road and
Tisbury Schools will be coming here. We will be working with them to ‘moderate’ writing. This
means we will be looking at several examples of student writing, grading them under different
categories and then trying to reach agreement in our groups about how each piece of writing
should be graded. It is really important for our teachers to have this opportunity because it will help
us to know that we are on the same wavelength as other schools when assessing writing. It will also
be a great chance to gain new ideas from teachers we don’t normally work with because teachers
are learners too.

“ In learning you will teach, and in teaching you will learn.”
(Phil Collins, musician)

Some reminders
• Last day for foodwrap orders is tomorrow.
• Camp equipment lists were given out today.
• Our Year 7&8’s have the opportunity to attend the Young Leaders Conference in Dunedin on

Monday May 11th. A notice about this will be sent home tomorrow.
• The PTA first aid kits are for sale in the office (order form in last week’s newsletter). A great idea

for a gift or for your own family. They look to be of very good quality.
• Thanks for making sure children have the right shoes for doing cross country training and making

sure that polar fleece uniform tops are named.

Have a great week and to those of you going duck shooting… have fun and good luck!

Regards

Fiona

1 May Foodwrap Orders due For Housing Renovations, Decks and Maintenance, Farm
Buildings, Dairy Sheds and Feed Pads. Qualified Tradesmen.
4 May School Closes 12.30pm
Call Grant 027 544 5791
Bookbus 2pm – 4pm at school
NEIL MACKAY
5 May Headlice Checks
Inspiring International Speaker on Learning Difficulties
Scholastic Bookclub Orders due PARENT EVENING
Friday 15th May 7pm
7 May Y1-4 Fun Ferns Netball starts Ascot Park Hotel

8 May Pita Pit $30 per head or $50 per couple
Bookings essential
14 May First Aid Kids Orders due
Contact (07) 882 1447 or [email protected]
22 May Zone Cross Country (Fosbender Park)

27 May Fun for Four Year Olds 1.30pm-2:40pm

2-5 Jun Kakapo Room camp at Deep Cove

5 Jun Pita Pit

9 Jun Headlice Checks

19 Jun Southland Cross Country

3 Jul End of Term 2

Mother’s Day Winton Races 10th May.

No better way than spend your day at the Winton

Races! Get along to the Winton Races on the 10th of

May for a special treat for Mum and the

Hockey was cancelled yesterday. kids. Great horse racing with the day

Results for Tuesday 28 April: starting approximately
Year 5/6 Steelers won 6 – 3 against St Johns A. Player of the Day
was Lauren McIntyre. Next Tuesday they will play Myross Bush 12.30pm. Come along and let the kids
Shooters at 3:45pm on Court 3.
make crafts, special treats will be made

by your children, horse rides, bouncy castles and face

painting all for free. Be in to win with a Mother’s Day

hamper simply by entering your losing ticket at the

Race Day Office.

A high tea will be available for only $5 where you can

Certificates presented at assembly last week: have a cuppa and a scone and relax and unwind while

Spelling Liam Wilson the kids have lots of fun.

Reading Locky Jacobsen Don’t miss out - entry is free - come along and make

Handwriting Anthony Shanks the day special for Mum! Any questions send an email

Writing Philippa Stratford to [email protected]

Maths Mason Ladbrook

Student of the Week:

Kakapo Room Lauren McIntyre

Pukeko Room Emma Nicol Out of School Music classes

Whio Room Peter McIntyre Music & movement: This class is for children
newborn to 5 years. 9.45 -10.15
Tui Room Gladys Timoko Saturday Morning at Girl’s High, $2 per week.
Music Awareness
Kea Room Olivia Chrystall We have a class starting on May 16 which runs for
6 weeks for students 5-6 years. This is a beginner
Best Bus Behaviour: Anna McIntyre & Senne Byrne class that focuses on beat, rhythm, loud & soft
sounds, high & low sounds. 10.30-11.30, $35.
Principal’s Award for Caring: Daniel Crack If your child is showing an interest in music and
you would like to join either of these classes
Spirit of a Nation: Ethan Brock please contact Deborah on 216-5137
(answerphone) or email [email protected]
School banking is done every Tuesday
morning through ANZ Bank. If you would
like an application form for an ANZ Bank
account for your child/ren, ring the bank
on 0800 269 296

Parents, please let the school know when your child is absent. When a child
is not at school, and we don’t know why, Nicky has to spend quite a bit of
time ringing parents. This is a “must do” for the safety of your children. If
ringing the school is not always the easiest option, you can email
[email protected] or text us on 027 758 1503.

In Pukeko Room over the past 2 weeks we have been Please return to the school office by Friday 1st May
writing about the War. We wrote about if we went to
war and our experience in it. Here are some of our Have you got an hour or two on Sunday 10th May to
war stories. help us gather up & bag pinecones to sell?

The Tough War Where: Dacre (address to be advised)

1914: the 2nd of March. My mate and I were in the tough When: Sunday 10th May 10am
war. We were ready to jump out of the plane. We were on
the ground and charged into the trenches. We were Children welcome to help too.
hitting the Turkish soldiers in the chest. My mate put his
head up and got shot in the head. He was killed quickly. Please complete the tear-off section below if you can
I’m still in the trench and firing my gun hard. help and/or if you would like to pre-order some bags.
We won! The Turkish surrendered. We were going back We also have bags of dry sheep manure to sell.
to New Zealand on the Naval Battleship. Then we saw
the Germans!!! The end. -------------------------------------------------------
By Shaun Hopper
PTA PINECONE FUNDRAISER
War Zone Sunday 10th May 2015

I wake up at 3:00am and get myself ready. I grab my Please send to school office by Thursday 7th May.
gun and some bombs. I am really scared but I know I Yes I would like to pre-order pinecones
have to do this. I whisper to my mate “are you ready?” Number bags required _____ at $5 per bag
Five minutes later everyone starts shouting. I am so (calf meal sized bag)
nervous. Then I shoot 2 people. Yay, I think to myself. I
sit down and I see rats, “EEHHH” I scream. So I got Yes I would like to pre-order dry sheep
back to shooting. manure.
3 hours later I have shot 30 people. Wow, I thought. In Number bags required ______ at $5 per bag
the distance I see someone get shot from my team. I (calf meal sized bag)
felt so sorry for him. I kept shooting. I was thinking to
myself I won’t die, I won’t die. I spend a long time Yes I/we can help collect the pinecones on
shooting people. Sunday 10th May. I understand I will be
I am up really late. More than 200 people have died contacted with further details.
today. But I have to do my part and fight for my
country. I was up till midnight.
By Harriet Johnston

Gun Shot

I wake up at 5:00am. I get my gun ready and off I go.
5 minutes later I’m in a trench ready to fire. I kneel
down and fire. I shot 1 person, yay I thought. I see a
person that just got shot. There’s blood everywhere! It’s
so loud! Guns are firing, bombs are exploding and
people are getting shot.
Next minute I get up and shoot 2 more people, great I
think. I get back down and my friend is still up. I tell him
to get back down but he doesn’t. It’s too late, he’s
dead right in front of my eyes.
The nurse quickly comes over and they take his body
away. All I have to do now is stay in the war and fight
for my country.
By Maia Murdoch

Name:__________________________

Phone:_________________

Total Encl (if bags ordered) $_____________