10 August 2017 Meadowbank School 68 Waiatarua Road, Remuera, Auckland 1050

Phone: 520 3739 www.meadowbank.school.nz

principal@meadowbank.school.nz

School NEWSLETTER

Dear Parents and Caregivers Term 3 has started with a real high. The annual Year 6 Production/Showcase lived to the high standards of previous years. The creative talents of our students supported by the encouragement from their teachers delivered performances that the children will remember for years to come.

We welcome our 23 students and 3 teachers from Jiangbei Experimental Primary School in Ningbo. Following video exchanges with Miss McKevitt’s students in Room 35, we are pleased to be able to show our Chinese visitors what schooling is like in New Zealand. Later this term some of our teachers will be part of a return visit to Ningbo. Such exchanges enable greater cross-cultural awareness, and are supported by our affiliations with the Confucius Institute at Auckland University, and the Ministry of Education’s Asian Language Learning funding.

TERM 1 Thursday, 1 February to Friday, 13 April Waitangi Day, 6 February, Good Friday, 30 March, Easter Monday/Tuesday, 2 & 3 April TERM 2 Monday, 30 April to Friday, 6 July Teacher Only Day, Friday, 1 June, Queen’s Birthday, Monday, 4 June TERM 3 Monday, 23 July to Friday, 28 September TERM 4 Monday, 15 October to Tuesday, 18 December Labour Day, Monday, 22 October

On Thursday, 24 August students can swap their uniform for a gold coin donation to wear mufti with money raised going to the SPCA.

This is our 2nd charity we have held a mufti day for and the SPCA was also chosen by the students.

Schools are required to consult with their communities with regards to their Health Education

Programmes. Health Education falls within the Health and Physical Education Curriculum (which also

includes Sports and Education Outside the Classroom).

Coming home with this Newsletter is a questionnaire regarding our programmes and we are seeking to

know what specifics you may wish us to add or be removed from what we are currently doing.

We ask that these questionnaires be returned to either school office or classroom teacher by next

Friday, 18 August.

Meadowbank has recently joined over 600 other schools using a shared system of policies. By doing so we believe our future policies will more closely reflect a correct legal position. The Board also appreciated that all policies would be on-line; being readily accessible for both the Board and all other members of the Meadowbank Community.

To access the School Docs site, follow these simple steps:-

go to www.schooldocs.co.nz click search for your school start typing Meadowbank, and select it from the drop down menu Enter username : meadowbank Enter password : gully

Enrolment packs have been posted to students who will be starting with us next year where known.

Knowing the names and start dates for our future pupils is important as it assists us with planning our

future staffing, resourcing and pressurising the Ministry regarding future classroom requirements.

If you know of families with 4 year olds who may not have yet received an enrolment pack, please ask

them to contact Carlene in the senior school office

520 3739 or ccallinan@meadowbank.school.nz

At the end of last term a very enthusiastic group of students from Rooms 14, 15 and 16 spent a morning moving bark chip into the School Orchard. The orchard is looking great and with so many helpers it made a big job an easy one especially with the help of our Caretaker Ken who filled all our buckets with bark so we could transfer this to cover the ground so no more weeds would grow!

Fantastic results from our team’s recent participation in the Eastern Zone Gymnastic Championships.

Teams placings were:-

Year 4 Girls - 1st Year 5 Girls - 1st & 3rd Year 6 Girls - 2nd Year 5 Boys - 1st Year 6 Boys - 2nd

Individual placings were:-

Olivia Sue - 1st - Year 3 Girls Sophie Pomfrett - 1st - Year 4 Girls Rebecca Lowe - 2nd - Year 4 Girls Annabel McNally - 3rd - Year 5 Girls Leila Daniels - 3rd - Year 6 Girls Angus McConnell - 1st - Year 5 Boys Jonathan Moody - 2nd - Year 5 Boys Eli McConnon - 2nd - Year 6 Boys

We hope our team can continue its successes in the Central Zone Gymnastic Championships next week.

YEAR 5 & 6 WINTER SPORTS FIELD DAY - TUESDAY, 15 AUGUST This is the high point of the inter-schools exchanges in Rugby, Netball, Hockey and Football.

NORTH ISLAND SKI CHAMPIONSHIPS Best wishes to our team who will be competing on Mt. Ruapehu during the week 28-31 August. Thank you to Scott Clark who has been managing the team.

CROSS COUNTRY Students have been practising for the upcoming Cross Country - please make sure that you have entered the following dates in your diary:-

Year 3 to 6 Cross Country held at College Rifles - Tuesday, 22 August New Entrant to Year 2 Cross Country held at School - Tuesday, 5 September

SPEECH CONTESTS

The Year 5 & 6 speech writing is coming to its culmination. Next week classes

will hold their finals to select who will represent them in the school finals on

Thursday, 24 August.

TALENT QUEST (Year 3 to 6)

We are rapidly approaching the commencement of the annual Talent Quest heats. We are receiving

entries in Singing, Dancing, Instrumental and Drama sections. The finals will be on Thursday,

11 September at 1.30pm in the Bruce McLaren Hall.

TAROONA HIGH SCHOOL BAND

Our regular visitors from Tasmania, Australia will be providing our students with another free

performance which is a real bonus.

Parents are welcome to attend next Tuesday, 15 August at 11am in the Bruce McLaren Hall.

Two events coming up, tonight the FOMS are hosting a Parenting Evening with Justine Lamont “Good to Great Parenting”. A positive parenting talk with a focus on how to raise children who are responsible, respectful and resilient and want to do the right thing. Doors open at 7pm for a 7.30pm start - Bruce McLaren Hall - gold coin entry. Their next event is the BINGO NIGHT on Saturday, 19 August starting at 7pm - Bruce McLaren Hall - come dressed up in your best themed outfit for a fun evening. $40 per person which includes nibbles and a Jesters pie. EFTPos and a cash bar available. Buy your tickets on-line http://bit.ly/SchoolShop2mKmSnd

AUGUST

11 Sharon Holt Sing-a-long 14 Talent Quest Trials commence 15 Year 5 & 6 Winter Field Day Taroona School Band visit 18 Room 20 and 21 Assembly presentation - 2.15pm 22 Senior Cross Country - College Rifles 23 BOT Meeting - 7pm 24 MUFTI DAY Year 5/6 Speech Finals 25 Room 29, 30, 31 Assembly presentation - 2.15pm 28 Dental Van on site North Island Ski Champs (all week) 29 2018 ENROLMENT DAY

A friendly reminder to please be mindful of our neighbours and do not park across

their driveway or use it as a drop-off zone.

Thank you for your support.

At the beginning of the term our Year 1 children

celebrated 100 days at school. Teachers use the

countdown to the party as an engaging way to reinforce

forwards and backwards number sequences, place value,

number bonds and a range of other mathematical

concepts. The children had a brilliant morning dressing

up to represent their idea of the number 100 and

exploring a range of activities based on 100.

The children were involved in a variety of activities

including; a scavenger hunt, building '100 structures',

100 art, 100 pic-collages on the iPads and they also got

to make paper chains.

What a fun day of celebration!