ews N l o o h c S i u Tahunan I can – I will Ka tāea – ka tutuki School and Community Newsletter No 15 21 October 2014 WELCOME to the following students and their families. Alysia Smith R13 Jack Poole Hargreaves R11 Grayson Rees R2 Zoey Ballinger R2 Grace Batty R2 Liam Whall R2 Tiah Foulds R2 Term 4 is underway and it will be a special one for our Year 6’s and for some staff too, for whom it will be their final one as well. I have reiterated to our senior students the responsibility for backing up a good first impression with the opportunity for making a great last one. Feel free to reinforce this at home! Only 41 happy school days left for the year. - Paul Drummond TEACHER ONLY DAY - October 28th (day after Labour Day) Our staff are joining others in the Stoke Cluster including Broadgreen Intermediate for a professional development day. The school is closed on this day and resumes after the longer weekend on Wednesday 29th October. MANDARIN LANGUAGE LESSONS Thirty five Y3-6 students have started an introduction to Chinese language and culture. The programme is supported by the Confucius Institute and the University of Canterbury. A warm welcome to their teacher Alicia Yang. CAWTHRON SCIENCE EXHIBITION On Friday the 17th of October a group of Year 5 and 6 students SOMETHING TO went to the Victory Community SMILE ABOUT Centre to attend the Cawthron Science Exhibition. We learned how to create voltage with a lemon Q. Did you hear about the mathematician or grapefruit. A grapefruit can who’s afraid of negative produce up to 1.90 volts with numbers? magnesium and copper strips. We also learned that some metals A. He’ll stop at nothing to avoid them! produce enough electricity/voltage to power a tiny light! AMAZING! Q. What was Beethoven’s Other things we saw were; how favourite fruit? high children's hearing skills were A. Ba - na - na - naaaaaaaa! compared to adults, how to make a helicopter with a piece of paper, the algae that live in our rivers and the fire department showed us what happened when water was added to an oil fire. SCARY! - Georgia and Henry (Burrell Centre) Quote - ‘When they tell you to grow up, they mean stop growing.’ - Pablo Picasso TOSSWILL CENTRE Kiwiana Afternoon Programme At the end of last term the Tosswill Centre had a sausage sizzle as part of our Afternoon Programme’s Kiwiana theme. It was great to see so many parents and whanau attend. A huge thank you to Rene and Alex for helping out with the barbecue. We really appreciated it! Tahunanui School News STUDENT PLACEMENT 2015 We are currently planning and considering our organisation for next year. Part of this will be the makeup of classes. We are providing parents with a formal opportunity to have input into their child’s placement. Address your letter to the principal and state your reasons for your request. Letters must be received by 4.00pm Thursday 23 October. Please note Factors considered when forming classes are: academic progress and achievement, social peer group and maturity, behaviour, friends, associations and disassociations, age, physical growth, sibling placement, special abilities or talents, school and year group, roll numbers, teacher compatibility. Please do not request individual teachers as there are staff changes. The DPs will consider this information along with staff input. There is no compulsion to respond. As always, we will make careful decisions in the best interests of all students. You can appreciate the task of making up classes is time consuming and complex. This process aims to provide parents with a constructive and fair way to be involved. Please do not make requests after the due date. Families will be notified of their child’s teacher and class in the final report in December. - Paul Drummond REDUCE, REUSE, RECYCLE MID TERM BOARD OF TRUSTEES ELECTION Nominations are invited for the election of TWO parent representatives for a three year term to the Board of Trustees. Nomination forms have been posted to all eligible voters. Additional nomination forms and a copy of the electoral roll is available for inspection at the school office during normal school hours. Nominations close at noon on 31 October and should be accompanied by a candidate’s statement. Voting papers will be posted early November and the poll closes at noon 14 November. - Returning Officer NEW ENTRANT PARENT EVENING Wednesday 29 October An invitation is extended to all parents of prospective New Entrants to attend this evening in the school staffroom. This is a great opportunity to meet staff and learn how to make a great start to school for your child. During our unit on ‘Trash to Treasure’ we learned all about recycling. Everyone in our class wrote about what we learned and turned these facts into posters that we presented to the class. - Year 2 Room 11 YEAR 3-6 PARENT AND TEACHER CONFERENCES Once again we had a high turnout for parent teacher interviews with a 85% take up. We are heartened by the response as research tells us that school and home collaboration is important for student success. TAHUNANUI COMMUNITY CENTRE Muritai Market - Burrell Park Saturday 29 November 10.00am-2.00pm Family fun, food and music. Grab a stall and sell your unwanted gear or crafts. $15.00 per stall. For further information phone 548 6036. . NINJA NEWS It has been great to see our new vegetable garden getting planted by our students. They are learning a lot about sustainability and successfully growing their own food. The Green Ninjas have plans to create further gardens throughout the school so all students can have this experience close to their classrooms. We plan to paint garden edging and have each student plan and design a panel. This requires extra support, so we are asking for parent help. If you are free on Friday afternoons we meet at 1.35pm outside Room 11 and we would love to see you. If you have any questions please come and see me in Room 11. Thank you for your support. - Heidi Newland, Enviro School Leader NELSON ENVIRONMENT CENTRE On Saturday 25 October at 2-4pm there is a ‘composting workshop’ at the Tahuna Community Centre. A compost bin will be provided along with advice on how to use it effectively. Registration is essential as places are limited. Contact Nelson Environment Centre for more information. School and Community Newsletter 15 21 October 2014 TAHUNA TUATARA AWARD Chloe Room 4 Chloe receives the Tahuna Tuatara Award because her behaviour displays so many of our school values. She is caring, respectful, hardworking and is always willing to lend a helping hand. Chloe is persistent and resilient, she never gives up in the face of a challenge and will keep having a go at tasks she finds tricky. She brings a positive attitude and a smile into Room 4 every single day. Well done Chloe! MUFFY AWARD Charlotte Room 2 Charlotte was chosen to hold Muffy because she is a caring, friendly and helpful student in Room 2. She works independently and gives everything a go. Charlotte is able to question others to find out new information. She is a great role model in Room 2. WIPE OUT Wednesday 5 November We need you!!! We are having another super fun ‘Wipe Out’ family evening again BUT we require lots of helpers!! All we need is an hour of your time to either help supervise the ‘Wipe Out’ course or help with food preparation / sales. For this event to proceed we require parent assistance. A helpers form went home last week. Please complete it and return to the school office tomorrow Wednesday 22 October. Thanks for your help. - Fundraising Group WHOLE SCHOOL ATHLETICS Students are currently practising athletic skills daily and improving fitness levels in preparation for our School Athletics Day on Wednesday 12 November. PARENT SURVEY Every three years the Board surveys parents for their views on the school and its direction. This has been sent via email to all known addresses and a hard copy given to students for those whose addresses we do not have. Thank you for taking the time to participate in this important data gathering exercise. The questions have been designed to be answered quickly and easily. It should take no more than 15 minutes. One survey per family. Results will enable us to plan ahead and to continually improve our school. Responses will be collated and reported in future newsletters. Thank you again for your input. Please complete by Wednesday 5 November. Link to survey https://www.surveymonkey.com/s/VHZY8R9 EMAIL ADDRESSES Newsletters, invoices, surveys and some class newsletters will be emailed to parents and caregivers who have given us their email addresses. If you receive a hard copy of the parent survey we DO NOT have your email address. Please let the school office know your email address or if you have changed it. FROM THE HEALTH PROMOTING SCHOOL GROUP Character Counts Week! 19-25 October. This year’s message is ‘Make Kindness Catchy’ - Make sure your words are seeds, not bullets. Walk to School Day - Wednesday 22 October. Thank you - to the fundraising team for the stools in the Breakfast Club. A big thank you to St Stephen’s Church for the bread donations and the Salvation Army and ENZA for the apples. Lollies in lunchboxes - there is a growing number arriving at school - please keep these as an ‘at home’ treat. Connect with your neighbourhood This is a new private neighbourhood website that allows you to connect with your neighbours and your community free, and as a member you can use the website to interact on topics such as local events, after school activities, crime and safety, lost pets, find a baby sitter, buy and sell things; the list is endless. It is private and safe; only address verified members from Tahunanui can access the Tahunanui site. To find out more or to join visit www.neighbourly.co.nz Food for Families - free dinners every Tuesday evening at the Tahunanui Community Centre New members - are always welcome to our Health Promoting Schools meetings which are held once a term. - Mrs Tambisari, HPS Coordinator LIBRARY NEWS Piñata Smashing Party in the Library! Yes, after a term of paper mache balloons at lunch time in the library, then filling them with shredded paper, confetti, glitter and miniature books, we got to SMASH them up! They started with handles suspended from string and held by two Librarians on either side of the 'Whacking Ring'. Children had turns at trying to burst the piñatas. No injuries recorded! - Mrs Trewavas, Librarian Congratulations to following Term 3 librarians who won awards: Star students - for learning many librarian duties and excellent attendance: Georgia I, Shakira C, Kaitlin S, Brayden H, Zeeta A, Libby G, Henry G, Gabrielle W, Baylee C and Om M. Bronze Award - Brayden H Silver Award - Kaitlin S and Shakira C. RUGBY LEAGUE Tahunanui Blue We took two teams to the interschool rugby league tournament at the end of Term 3. Tahunanui Gold represented us in the competitive grade - trying to win the Simon Mannering Cup. Tahunanui Blue represented us in the social grade playing for the Probands Cup. It was a great (but windy) day, with fun had by all. Tahunanui Gold lost narrowly to Stoke in the 3rd/4th playoff and Tahunanui Blue lost to Richmond in the grand final. Thank you to Todd Seelen for coaching players on the day. - Riley O’H, Gold team, Iesha P-W, Blue Team Georgia I Gold Award The Top Award for all round excellence DANCE AND DRAMA Last term Room 6 did dance and drama with Mrs Pearson. We also did sculptures, hip hop, moon walking , ballet and Jump Jam. If we were good we played musical statues. Rebecca’s favourite was Jump Jam because it contains fitness. Suezanna’s favourite was hip hop because she likes to dance. - Suezanna and Rebecca Year 4 Tahunanui Gold Did you know? Research has found that it is the number of times each day we consume sugary drinks or eat foods high in sugar that increases the rate of decay in our teeth. It is therefore helpful for children to learn which are sugar free ‘anytime’ foods and drinks. Cheese, fruit, raw vegetables, nuts, unsweetened popcorn, milk and water are good examples. Foods and drinks which contain sugar are referred to as ‘sometimes’ foods as they can rot our teeth if they are consumed often. - Nelson Marlborough Community Oral Health Service, Nelson 539 5324, Stoke 539 5321 69 Muritai Street Tahunanui Phone (03) 5486167 Email secretary@cloud.tahunanui.school.nz