 Internet safety
Last week's incident involving some of our children’s safety on the internet has now been resolved due to Netsafe, John Parsons and our local Police Education officers' involvement. The site has been removed. This is a good opportunity to check up on what your children have access to on the internet and what sort of activity they are involved in. There is a staggering number of children in our senior school with access to phones and other devices. Many of the apps they have access to are restricted for much older children. While John Parson’s and teacher’s messages are very clear about sharing photos and messages without consent, this appears to be very common practice. The risks are enormous when they are used on the internet , can cause distress and is bullying. Let’s work together to keep our children safe. Home & Garden Tour We are delighted with the success of this year's Home and Garden tour. Thank you to all of you for your tremendous support in selling raffles, baking and to those of you that helped in the organisation prior, post and on the day. Many of you sold a huge number of raffle tickets as well as a great number sold on the day. The total form raffle tickets alone was over $8K . Your baking was well received with $1,100.00 raised. The total raised is in excess of $15K. This is a fabulous effort from our school community and our staff. This day could not happen without the incredible support of the Home owners. Our eight home owners very generously opened their homes for our benefit and we are so grateful. Bayleys Realty Group and SBS Bank, our major sponsors, contributed to the success and we are grateful to them. Our local businesses have once again generously supported our raffle prizes. We are grateful for your generosity year after year. A special thank you to Kelly Thomson and the Home and School committee for their work in organising this wonderful event for our school. We look forward to some new swings with the funds raised. Class Placements 2026 Teachers are in the process of organising classes for 2026. We will again have 7 classes in 2026 and they will all be composite, more than one year level in each. We have a small amount of flexibility in the make-up of classes. We would like to hear from you if you have any special requests about the placement of your child, i.e. twins in the same class or separated, being the older or younger child in a composite class. We spend a lot of time placing your child in what we believe will be the best place for their relationships and learning. We have not finalised teaching year levels for our staff yet. This is not an opportunity to request a specific teacher. Please send an email to Linda Fraser, [email protected] with any considerations for your child by Friday 14th November. Dolamore Park Many children and parents are disappointed that we have had to cancel the second class visit for the term due to the weather event two weeks ago. With Southland in a state of emergency the Director of Education suggested outdoor education events be postponed. Thank you for your commitment to accompanying us on these visits. Room 3,4 and 14 will still go on November 27th. We look forward to the whole school visit on December 5th. This day will be a fun school community day. We hope that whanau can join us over the lunch hour at least . More details to follow. School Events We hope everyone has signed up to the School App https://schoolappsnz.co.nz/ School events are listed in this space so please transfer to your calendar. If you would like some help to download the App please pop in and see Anneke in the office. Pond in Junior School This space creates so much pleasure, fun and learning. We love it and all fine days from now on it will be played in. A reminder for your children that it is a learning space where plenty of fun and experimentation can be had but it is not a swimming pool. Teachers are clear with the children about the expectations and we are not phoning parents for changes of clothing. Enjoy your weekend. Nga mihi Linda Fraser Room 2 students have been learning to ‘show not tell’ for writing which means they are describing something without actually saying what it is. This type of writing allows the listener or the reader to create a picture in their mind. It's a fabulous genre to use language features such as adjectives (describing words) or similes in, to enrich writing. Below are some wonderfully descriptive pieces of writing showing an emotion. Can you work out what emotion the children are showing? Remember the time…
My feet were stomping, my fists were punching, my face was as red as a West Gore school T-shirt and my eyes were crunched up like a piece of paper. By Brodie Remember the time… I punched the door, I slammed the cupboard, I screamed and it felt like my head was on fire because it was all red. By Aubree Remember the time… I was screaming, my face was screwed up, my feet were stomping, my heart was racing, I was screaming and I was stressed. By Bella Remember the time… When I was kicking out my legs, my fingers were all crunched up like paper, flames were coming out of my head and I was walking like a giant walks. By Manasvi Remember the time… My fists were scrunched up like a ball, my feet were stomping and I got more angry than a gorilla. Reef Remember the time.. My feet were kicking the wooden pillars outside the classroom, my hands were over my face, my fists were scrunched up like an asteroid and my head was going round like a tether. By Ethan Remember the time… My fists were punching the air, my feet were stomping and my eyes were scrunched up. By Milly Remember the time… My head felt like a circus, my heart was pounding like fast Sonic, my fists were curled like a snail and I stomped my feet on my way to my room. By Nash |
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