Monday 17 August 2015 Kia ora whanau, Well it has been a fortnight of ups and downs but there has, as usual, been some great learning, and lovely positive kids buzzing around making the most of the frosty mornings with fun things like iced over puddles and the nice sunny days. It has come to my attention that some of our whanau do not appear to know everything that goes on here on a weekly basis – I am going to attempt to rectify this and be more vigilant about including these things in the newsletters but as I said in the last newsletter “if there is anything you want to know about the school or if you have any feedback – anyone is welcome to pop in or ring at any time.” Inquiry:

We are all working on an Animal Kingdom inquiry this term – when we asked the kids at the end 2014 what they would like to learn about this year, animals came up amongst all year levels. Last week the junior classes had a fun time at the SPCA. On Wednesday I went to go see the animals at the SPCA. Mary went to show us the animals. Mary taught us how to look after our pets. Sharnti Weka said they enjoyed: Patting the cats, seeing all the animals, seeing the puppies, walking outside and seeing the shy animals, learning how the volunteers look after the animals, seeing how the dogs acted around new people, seeing where they kept the food and learning where they get the food Learning about what the SPCA does.

Polyfest: Extras with Emma: This is the last newsletter before our Polyfest performance day on THURSDAY 27th AUGUST – we will put out a letter next week confirming details again for whanau. We have 4 groups performing – Junior siva, senior siva, junior kapa haka, and senior kapa haka. Everybody (apart from our real newbies) is in a group – they are doing the opposite to what they did for the Oyster Festival – e.g if they did kapa haka for Oyster Festival they will be doing siva at Polyfest and vice versa. All our groups are performing one after the other. We are on from 9.20 – 10.00am.

Any of you who have been into the school during the day will know that this year we have been in a fortunate position to be able to employ an extra teacher to provide extra opportunities – mainly focussed around our senior students and those we have identified that would benefit from a push in different areas. She currently takes groups around:

- Technology - Problem solving - Junior literacy where they wrote and

illustrated a picture book - Photographers with an ICT advisor – they are

currently working on a digital book that will be put on the internet for others to use about how to use the camera we have

- Senior writing - Junior writing

All of these are skills based groups enhancing the key competencies – all are learning about working to their personal best and being reflective about their learning. Emma is also responsible for working with a variety of kids on Art and Community Projects – this gives many senior students opportunities to explore some of these areas (and make our school look pretty!). She is currently working with groups on a Bluff history timeline we are hoping to put up in the community.

We need everyone here at 8.00am (gulp!) .

This will allow us to get people changed and the first bus pulls away at 8.15.

WHAT EVERYONE WILL NEED: - A school bag to hold all their own clothing, lunch etc. - A packed lunch, preferably with wee nibbly bits also in it

for quick munching on the move - A water bottle - Boys in kapa haka – black undies - ALL girls – hair in a ponytail please if possible

Board update: At the board meeting last week the following data was discussed: • Mid year data – the data was shown in literacy and mathematics – the teachers have analysed all this and the data has been

compared to the end of last year, particularly looking at boy achievement in the literacy areas – this continues to be our highest area of need. The data is showing that our achievement is similar to the end of last year. Analysis included school wide performance across the testing done at mid year. The gaps from this will form the basis of teaching programmes for the second half of the year.

• Mid year literacy and mathematics review which was done using senior student voice asking about contracts, flashcards and dictation –generally the students were positive about what these do for their learning but as always, there are tweaks to be made.

• The results from the second inquiry (History/ War) showed high achievement across the school in the 4 understandings – student engagement was high as there was so much publicity around the ANZAC anniversary and there is some amazing reading material being produced that really engaged the learners.

The complaints procedure draft was discussed and confirmed, and the charter reflected on – where are we at half way through the year with what we set out to achieve. Next meeting: Wednesday 9 September in the school staffroom. Hapori Awhina Update: From the Event Management team:

The big reshuffle of the groups has taken place and now every child is in a team contributing to the school community. The teams are:

- Sports gear - Lunch entertainment - Tidy Kiwi - Media - Tuakana teina - Community - Librarian - School garden - Appreciation

- Event management - Caretaking - Resource - Assistants - Fruit - Milk - Camp fundraising - ICT

Sausage Lunch Friday 21st August

The Camp Fundraising Team are selling sausages in bread for $2.

Orders in by Wednesday 19th please. Order form attached to newsletter.

Chess Club: Year 7/8 happenings:

We had 5 boys go and represent us at our first ever chess tournament a fortnight ago – they all had at least one win and thoroughly enjoyed it! Thanks Brandon and Kirsty for running Chess Club and giving lessons!!

Design: This group of 6 worked last week with Mark Herring, a facilitator we have access to to teach our kids and teachers computer skills. He is working with them on designing logo options for the 2017 jubilee committee.

Languages: Languages with Justine continue – she has been coming in weekly to take the Year 7 and 8 students who choose to do French or German. A few weeks ago they made special bread for Switzerland day – it was delicious!!

Wee hee – new computers and iPads

to use for our learning!

Alison ☺