14 August

Dear Parents

Last week in the newsletter I mentioned the new National Standards in Literacy & Numeracy to be implemented next year. I also made comment on how these would fit into the new school curriculum from the start of 2010.
Miss O’Neill and I have spent the past two days in a workshop with Lester Flockton – a very well known educationalist who has had a part in writing the curriculum but doesn’t always share the Ministry’s view.
At Sacred Heart we have been using the key competencies of Thinking, Relating to Others, Understanding Texts & Symbols, Managing Self and Participating and Contributing for the past year or so and are in the process of working through each Learning Area to see what it will look like at each year level. Lester’s focus is on ‘children’s needs’ and we look forward to using some of his ideas and suggestions to assist us in this task.

WELCOME to Zane Flawn and his family. We hope they enjoy their time with us at Sacred Heart School.

CONFIRMATION ~ The next children’s session will be held Friday 21st August 3.15 – 4.00 pm.

SCHOOL PARISH SUNDAY MASS ~ Please put the date Sunday 19 September – 10.30am on your calendars.
All children are expected to attend this Mass.

BOT MEETING: The next meeting will be held this Monday 17th August @ 7 p.m. in the school staffroom.

LIFE EDUCATION VAN ~ This week all the children have visited the Life Education Van.
Many thanks to Harold & Theresa.

GOOD LUCK TO: Olivia Thornbury who traveled to Christchurch yesterday as part of the Southland squad competing in the Wharenui Winter Swimming Olympics.

STAGS VISIT ~ The STAGS will be working in the classroom with Room 8 & 9 pupils on Tuesday afternoon.

NETBALL ~ Well done to all the girls who took part in the Southland Netball champs on Wednesday. A special mention to Olivia Thornbury, Sarayha MacDonald and Caitlin Russell whose Year 6 team were runners up.

CONGRATULATIONS ~ The South Island Mini & Junior Motocross Champs were held in Cromwell last weekend the 8th & 9th of August. 157 competitors from all over the South Island and 1 from the North Island competed in 5 races over to two days on a sand based track. Jake Meikle, Josh Cooper, and Mitchell Thompson all from Room 5 competed. Mitchell Thompson competed in a combined 4-8years old Introductory 50cc class, his fastest lap time was 1min 49.59 seconds (48th fastest overall) and finished 3rd in his class. Josh Cooper competed in the 4-7 MX 50cc class, his fastest lap time was 1 min 32.38 seconds (37th fastest overall) and won his class. Jake Meikle competed in the 6-8 years motocross class, his fastest lap time was 1 min 25.55 seconds (19th overall) and finished 6th in his class. A top effort by all three boys amongst some tough competition. Well done!

ICE PACKS ~ Our Ice Pack supply at school is nil, could parents to please have a look at home and return asap.

DAIZYCHAIN FUNDRAISING - Its getting to that time again for spring cleaning.
Parents please remember to place your 2nd hand clothing into the blue bin in the junior corridor.

EASY SHOPPING FOR YOU – EASY FUNDRAISING FOR US ~ Leading stores including Noel Leeming, Bond & Bond, Dominos Pizza, Dell and many more. You can shop for DVD's, fashion, holidays, baby, home, iPods, books, magazines, toys, gifts, electrical and even your groceries! Just select Sacred Heart School (Waikiwi) when you shop or browse online at www.yourfastshop.co.nz This weeks specials: Get the latest DVDs free for 3 weeks from Fatso. $200 off selected laptops and desktops from Dell. Prizes – including the chance to win a $6500 home theatre system with iSUBSCRIBE ! Raise $2.25 for each confirmed online enquiry at the Flight Centre.
Plus the usual hot deals on electrical, fashion, DVDs, gaming, books, gifts and much more !
WHAT’S ON FOR THE REST OF THE YEAR BY THE PTA ~ Major fundraiser this year - Truffles. Due to success with this in the past we are ready to have another go. We will be making these early in term 4 - just in time for Christmas to have in your own freezer or to be used as small gifts (for yourself or for businesses) at that time of the year. As soon as we confirm the date we will advise, so you can pencil this in your calendars to come and support the making of them - it's not all hard work, those who have done this in the past can confirm that you get to know other parents and we have fun at the same time.
PTA disco for the children - we are finalising the date for the end of this term and will confirm next week so you can add this to your calendars.
PTA newsletter - if anyone is interested in advertising their business in the next issue, please contact Juliet Clapperton on 235-7078 before the end of next week.
After the success of the Mothers Day small gifts bought by the children as a surprise for Mum, we think it's only fair that we do the same for all the Dad's for Fathers Day. We ask that each child brings a small unwrapped gift suitable for a small Fathers Day present. The value of the gift should be no more than $2 and may in fact be hand made by your children. For example it could be a small $2 trinket, children’s poems, paintings, pictures etc put together by the children as a gift or art or it could be baking or home made lollies made by children. Non perishable items are to be left at the office anytime between now and Friday 4th September, while perishable items should be delivered on the morning of the 4th September. On this Friday the children will have the opportunity to select and buy a gift for $1 per child, from the gifts brought to the school by all the children. They will then have a surprise gift chosen by them, to give their father without him knowing anything about it.
Car Park - Please remember
Parking - Please use the space wisely, large gaps between cars means fewer cars can park.
Drop Off/Pick Up Area - this is only a drop off and pick up area!
North Road Access - Please do not park directly either side of the North Road driveway.
Parking & Collecting Children - Please don't let your children walk across/through the car park without an adult.
Your help with this makes the car park a safer place for all our children. Please advise all those who also only use the car park sometimes to drop off or pick up your children ie grandparents, caregivers, friends etc.
CLASS HAPPENINGS – Room 5

WOW what a busy start to term 3.
Room 5 has been hit hard with all the bugs and flues that are going around, with having an average of 9 children away each day last week. I please ask that you keep your child home if they are feeling unwell, as we would like to try and keep fighting fit at school.
We have just finished doing our gymnastics unit. We practiced really hard on the following:
- Forward rolls
- Balancing on the beam and jumping/landing off correctly
- Jumping over a 1 level box and land with 2 feet correctly.
We have been and seen Harold in the Life Education truck this week, we learnt all about how we are all different from one another, and that our brain and personality are very unique.
In literacy we have been learning about the features of a report. We have been concentrating on whales and we know lots of facts about them. Mrs Williams can’t wait to see the finished report on our chosen whale. We are trying hard to achieve these objectives:
• Appropriately plan, probably in pictorial form
• Write an observation
• Write a description of a feature
• Writes a simple concluding sentence
• Includes a simple picture