24 May

Dear Parents

It has been a very busy week with Mrs Buxton & I at a Literacy conference in Wellington, and also our school cross country on Tuesday. A big thanks to the teachers and parents for making it so successful.

Next week I am away on an e-Time school tour looking at how schools have integrated devices such as laptops, ipads etc. into classroom use more effectively, especially with ultra-fast broadband almost upon us. Please contact Mrs Buxton if there are any queries while I am away.

Last week I mentioned the Ministers pre-budget announcement regards to class sizes and performance pay. As there hasn’t been any more concrete information, I will wait until the Budget today before commenting on how changes will affect us.

*REFLECTION ON TODAY’S GOSPEL READING (From Lectio Divina)

THE HELPER

Today the Holy Spirit, the third person of the Trinity, is in the spotlight. Jesus is preparing his disciples for his imminent departure, but first he wants to entrust them to the Holy Spirit. Why was this so important? Jesus knows that the Holy Spirit’s main role is to reveal new aspects of God and his Word (15:26). In doing this he will help the disciples understand Jesus better.

The Father, Son and Holy Spirit exist together as the Trinity in perfect love and understanding. So there could be none better than the Holy Spirit to reveal and teach whatever the Father and Son choose to say (16:13). The Holy Spirit remains our personal guide on how to live and share Jesus’ message of love (15:27). We know from this and other passages that the Holy Spirit does this in four ways: he inspired the authors of the Holy Scriptures, people like David, Isaiah, John, Luke and Paul; he reminds us of Jesus’ words; he helps us understand the Scriptures; and finally he fans the fire of God’s love in our lives. It is a mutual love which strengthens Christians on their life journey.

Jesus does not promise his followers an easy life; he does promise God’s help in our trials and our endeavours to be his witnesses to all men (15:26, 16:12).

MEDITATION: The promise of help from the Holy Spirit comes with a purpose, to enable us to speak about Jesus and live in truth. In what ways have you experienced the Holy Spirit helping and teaching you? What does Jesus mean by the term ‘truth’? Does he mean only words and ideas?

PRAYER: Ask the Holy Spirit to reveal more of the Father and Son to you. Ask for his help so you can play your part in continuing Jesus’ work on earth and demonstrate his fruit in your life (Galatians 5:22-23). Prayerfully read Psalm 104 throughout the week. Let God direct you to a few verses at a time. Use these verses to praise the greatness of the God of creation.

Cross Country ~ Congratulations to all the children for their efforts on Tuesday. The weather was perfect which enabled us to get all races completed. The first 6 placing’s in the 9 – 11 yr olds go onto the Zones. Well done to these children who will be going through: Shaun Clapperton, Devan Fiebig, Ben Oosterbroek, Matthew Francis, Jared Rutten, Joshua Cooper, Tylee Fiebig, Sionelle Cahill, Kate Johnstone, Amy Ingham, Emma Brooks, Paris Johnson, Justin McLean, Cory Foleni, Shaun Wilkes, Jake Meikle, Tom Nally, Caleb Brown, Caelan O’Connor, Lucy Blue, Aimee Brookland, Briana Henson, Ella Richardson, Bridie Kinney, Erik Cahill, Callum O’Connor, Rohan MacKenzie, Ben Henderson, Harry Oosterbroek, Kayson Timu, Nellie Boyle, Emma Harrington, Isabella Wild and Georgea Newell.

Room 1 Teacher  ~  Unfortunately Mrs Mitchell has been forced to resign due to an on-going medical condition. We thank her for her input while here and wish her a speedy recovery.

For the rest of the term Mrs McKenzie and Mrs Russell will job share. As the children already know both these teachers, this will mean we can provide more consistency and stability for the children and parents.

BOT  ~  At last night’s Board of Trustees meeting, Ian Harrington stood down from the chairperson position and Megan Roulston was elected the new Board Chair. I wish to thank Ian for his service as Board chair. It is often a thank-less position but vital to the effective running of the school. While I make day to day decisions, the governance role of the Board provides me with the resources and backing to ensure we are doing all we can to enhance your child’s learning.

We also welcomed Paul Brooks as a new Bishop’s Representative on the Board.

Activity Fees ~ Thank you to the families who have paid the Activity Fee. These are due now. Please contact Christine if you require our bank details to make an automatic payment. Families are also encouraged to make smaller payments over a regular time frame, to get this paid.

Activity Fee:                                1 child = $70            2 x children = $100                       3 x children $125

Compulsory Books:                                    Rooms 1 & 2 = $15                                     Room 3 – 9 = $30

No Otatara Bus – Fri 1^st June ~ The Otatara bus will not be running on Friday 1^st June.

Parents will need to make alternate arrangements for their children.

Altar Servers

Saturday 26^th May   7.00 pm                     Aimee & Patrice Brookland

Sunday 27^th May     10.30 am                                     Ben Henderson & Mathew Brooks

Children’s Liturgy                                       Aletta Reid

Ski Trip ~ We will inform you when more information comes to hand. Please do not send money to school until advised.

Achievements

Corbyn Shuttleworth got 5th in the Kartsport Southland Club Champs held last weekend. He was also awarded the driver of the day trophy, the only driver ever to be awarded it twice.

Aubrey Page got ‘Player of the Day” last weekend for the Waikiwi Rippa Rugby.

Georgea Newell who got her 1500 mtr in 36 minutes at Waverley Swimming Club on Monday night.

Aimee Brookland danced at the Invercargill Tap Dance Assn competitions last weekend and got 1^st in:  Novice Waltz over 10yrs, Troupe any age, duo Open 12 yrs & under. 2^nd in: Slow open 10yrs & over, Song & Dance Open 10 yrs & over, Impromptu open 10yrs & over & trio open any age. Aimee also won the Championship Open under 12 yrs & a Special award for Personality 10 yrs & over.

Year 4/5 Netball – Stars & Shooters

Could the players please bring their gym shoes to school on Monday 28^th as we have a Netball Development Officer coming to take the teams for a practice at lunchtime.

PTA

Entertainment Books  ~  If you bought a 2011 Entertainment Book these run out on the 1st June 2012. If you haven't replaced this with the 2012 version or would still like to purchase an Entertainment Book we still have a small number available from the office.

The cost is $55 with $11 from each book coming back to the school to be used to help purchase new science equipment.

School Fair - Sunday 4th November 2012  ~  As Peter has already explained in the past couple of newsletters, the PTA is making arrangements for our bi-annual school fair. This is a special year for the school and a reunion to celebrate its 50 years is being held this same weekend. We are hoping that many past students will attend the school Fair as their last event for the weekend.

In order to make this a special event and run a successful fair, we do need more helpers, and ask for at least one volunteer from each classroom to help with the organising of that classroom’s event, and where possible any other general fair requirements that they may have the ability and time to help with. As an example Room 6 has in the past helped organise and run the Devonshire Tea stall for the day of the fair. The parent helper would co-ordinate a parent roster (using parents from Room 6) for the stall on the day of the Fair, help in ensuring we had all the requirements for this stall i.e. ensure we arrange for scones to be made, that the overall grocery requirements include the coffee, tea, milk, sugar, cream, jam, serviettes, gloves etc. and arrange for any necessary urns. Other types of events include bouncy castle(s), pony rides, cake stall, cake walk, face painting, ice cream van, BBQ, chocolate wheel etc - these get shared out between classes, BOT and the PTA and any willing volunteers. 

The PTA has a working document which tells us what we need to organise, order or purchase, with quantities for all the stalls we have run in the past, so in a lot of cases it's about working through this document and allocating who will organise each requirement for the stalls involved. The more volunteers we have the easier it becomes for all as the jobs are shared amongst many. This is a great event for the school and our community, and we have raised more than

$10,000 from the last few school fairs. We're keen for parents to get involved and to hear about any proven money making ideas which we may be able to add to this year’s fair.

If you are able to help we would love to see you at our first Fair meeting on Wednesday 6th June at 7.30pm at school. If you would like to find out more before the meeting, feel free to talk to your classroom teacher, parents who were here for the last fair or any of the current PTA. Times and days for future meetings will be discussed that night.  We estimate one meeting per month of up to 2 hours. If you would like to be involved but are unable to attend, please feel free to text Susanne Brown on 0212602243 or contact the office.

Todays Tip – Social Skills Social skills are very important at home and school.  Children need skills such as asking for something, asking to play with someone, offering to share, patiently waiting, taking turns or asking for help. ·       Prompt your child to ask for help, take a turn, share something, or give a compliment, then praise them if it occurs.  Let it go if your child does not respond to your prompt. ·       Praise your child any time s/he offers to share or help you. ·       Model and prompt your child with a suggestion of the appropriate words to say. ·       Try to give enough help; so children are successful but not so much help that you take over. ·       Occasionally prompt your child to help another child in some way. ·       Encourage play dates and visits with other children. ·       Praise and encourage children’s ideas and creativity; avoid criticism. Example comments for young children that you can make when encouraging them to: Wait – “Super! You waited your turn and let him go first, even when you wanted to be first.” Asking permission – “That’s very friendly to ask her if she wants to do that first.” Taking turns – “You let her take a turn – how helpful.” More information can be found at http://www.incredibleyears.com

Room 7 Class Happenings

We have enjoyed reading Kyle Mewburn’s ‘Do Not Push’. Last term we enjoyed listening to the kiwi author in person at Sacred Heart. This book grabbed our attention as Cam finding himself in his normally familiar bush with a large red button that reads Do Not Push. Would you push it?

We were excited in writing our own version of events that follows after the button is pushed. Here are a few examples. More can be viewed on our class blog along with some footage from our Cycling Safety session last week.

When I came home my mum was eating ice cream out of the tub.  She never ate any ice cream. She said ‘We will have takeaways every day”. Then I went to the shop. But the door said. “No money allowed in this shop.” I looked for the shop keeper but she was running all over the place. So I took one of the cans and went home.  When I got home my Dad was still in his in his work uniform and he was eating cream ~ Amy

Once everything was all crazy and my parents used waffles for their hats and then eating them with ice cream. Outside everything was going crazy. Kids had no rules. Everything was going crazy. When I was going to school I saw the Principal and the teachers throwing a disco. It was a wild day!

Caleb

One day in the morning I woke up and it was the first of April. “Today I am going fishing “, I said as I packed my gear. I went to the river. I fished for ages. Then I finally got one. It was a brown trout. Then I saw something red on the tail. It was a button. It said” DO NOT PUSH” I thought for a second, should I push it. ”Ok “I thought so I pushed it. The fish turned into a dog. Then I saw some fish fly in the sky. What did I do? I went back to the house and it was upside down. I couldn’t get inside at first, it was very hard but finally I got in. I went to the sink to get a glass of water but only Fanta came out. Oh no! I went outside but the grass was orange. WHY?

 It was time to go to school. I got to school but no one was there apart from some strangers eating ice cream.  I went in to the classroom but it was filled with ice cream and everyone was playing on the computer.  They didn’t let me on at lunch time they were having a food fight at home time they went into the hall. What a weird day ~ Shaun

do not push!  Hey! My name is Emma M. I’m going to tell you my weird, awesome and even weirder story. Ok here it goes.  In the morning on Sunday when there was no school I saw a button on a tree in the backyard. The button said: do not push! So guess what? I pushed it. It looked cool though. When it was Monday in the morning I woke up and I saw mum wearing dad’s clothes, the baby sleeping on his changing table and my sister wearing my clothes! I was not very happy but I went to school. I went back to that tree later and it said: do push with a smiley face too. I pushed it and everything went back to normal ~ Emma

Enjoy reading the book ‘DO NOT PUSH’ which is available in our school library.