Newsletter – 18th November 2019 – Pakuranga Heights School

It has been another great two weeks here at Pakuranga Heights School. Our Middle and Senior School Athletics was a huge success. Our students showed great skill and enthusiasm on the day and were very encouraging of each other. We look forward to seeing many of you at the Junior Athletics Day coming up on Tuesday 19th November.

Walking around at break times it is great to see the children respecting sun safe practices such as wearing hats or sunscreen. The weather is still fairly changeable but it is definitely warming up so please continue to encourage your child to make use of the sun cream that is available in every class and bring a hat every day.

It is a busy time of the year as teachers are testing and analysing achievement and progress in preparation for writing your child’s school report. You will receive your child’s report on Friday, 13th December.

School traffic behaviour on Udys Road has definitely improved lately with drivers being more careful and considerate. Thank you for respecting our new pick up rules, this has also shown improvement. Unfortunately the same is not happening on Cardiff Road. We continue to witness dangerous crossing behaviour with some adults completely disregarding the crossing to run across the intersection. Our staff and students are passionate about keeping your children safe so please do the right thing and take advantage of the crossing.

Duty Awards and Graduation

Our senior school duty awards will be held on Wednesday 18th December (1.30am start). The Year 6 Graduation will be on Thursday 19th December (11.30 am start) and the last day of the school term will be on Friday 20th December. School will close at 1pm on this day. We ask that all students attend this special ceremony as it is our chance to celebrate the learning journey of our Year 6’s at Pakuranga Heights School, and to wish them all the best as they make the exciting transition to intermediate school.

Planning for 2020

Planning for 2020 started around the beginning of Term 3. This involves staffing, class lists, curriculum planning, booking events and trips, booking staff professional development opportunities and external providers and resourcing.

At Pakuranga Heights we are always striving to take our learning to the next level. Based on the feedback from The Education Review Office, in 2020 we are looking at fully integrating our curriculum to make learning purposeful and authentic so that all learners are motivated and engaged in their learning. In preparation for this our senior leaders have visited Amesbury School in Wellington to see how this is working and to gain knowledge and ideas for our setting. To capture the essence of the local curriculum we collected student, staff and community voice when deciding on the overarching themes. Several staff workshops and meetings have already been held and two teacher only days have been planned in January to fully prepare staff for this journey. We are excited to see this unfold next year.

Classes for 2020:

The class lists for 2020 have been finalised. As a school, we take great time and care in how we place our students into classes. We consider many aspects for each individual placement. We ensure they have other students working at the similar reading, writing and maths levels, we look at each child’s strengths and next steps for learning, and look at their social and peer groups. We also endeavor to have classes that are well balanced for behaviour and that children experience both experienced teachers and teachers who are early in their teaching career across their time at school. As a team, we appreciate feedback from parents during parent interviews, etc and this is taken into consideration when placing students where possible. You will be notified of your child’s 2020 classroom and teacher in the final week of school.

On a final note, there are only 36 days until Christmas Day.

PTA

PTA Term 4 Update Middle School Playground Replacement Project

Behind the scenes things have been moving along with this project. We have had the quotes back from the 3 companies who we got into quote for us and Playco have won our business. Their design, price, outstanding customer service and eye for detail impressed us. We will work with them to finalize the playground design and work out a time line of when the work will start and be completed.

Grant Application process

Even with the amazing contributions from our Pakuranga Heights School friends and families the PTA sometimes needs a little help financially to get a project across the line. Spending the time Investigating and applying for these grants is a big task and sometimes a lot for one person to deal with. The call was put out for someone to help Tara Fletcher with the Grants and Marnie Rosser came to the rescue. Thank you so much Marnie for putting in that time to help. It is very true that many hands make light work.

Dads Celebration Raffle Fundraiser

Another amazing fundraiser for the school. We made a total of $1,448.68. Huge thank you to all that supported it.
Some of our amazing sponsors:
The Red Boats Fishing Charters, Barkers Mens wear, Hell’s Pizza Botany, Bunnings, Monterey Cinemas, Western Springs passes

Christmas Trees

Tell all your friends and family that PHS is selling trees again! Jump onto Kindo or email PTA on pta@pakurangaheights.school.nz to pre order your tree. Pick up’s and sales of trees will be happening at the school at the disco 6th Dec, Saturday 7th Dec 10-12pm, Friday 13th 3-5pm and Saturday 14th Dec 10-12pm. Or by arrangement with Tara.

Mufti & Disco Day:

Mufti Day – $2 mufti day at school to be either pre-paid via Kindo or paid to your teacher. If your child is coming in mufti please make sure they pay their $2! Otherwise they come in Uniform.

Disco – $3 per person entry. Pre pay entry via Kindo or pay at the door.

3pm – Teachers will have a printout per class of who has paid via Kindo for Disco entry or who have their $3 to pay at the door. They will stamp their hands & walk the Juniors down to the Hall who have paid. Pick up as normal for children who might not be coming to the disco or who might be coming at a later time.
3:15pm – Disco starts for the pre-schoolers and PHS Juniors. There will be teachers supervising.
3:30pm – Cold drinks and food will start to be served
4pm – All other food (ie Pizza and sausage Sizzle) will start to be served
4:30pm – Disco finishes for pre-schoolers and PHS Juniors – All children are to be picked up from the hall and will not be allowed to leave school grounds without and adult or guardian.
4:30pm – 5:30pm – Stay a while longer or come along earlier for some dinner. Dominoes Pizza and sausage sizzle will be available. Cash only.
5:30pm – 6:45pm – PHS Middles and PHS Seniors will enjoy the Disco
6:30pm – Food stalls will be closed
6:45pm – Disco dancing stops and clean up starts. All children are to be picked up from the hall and will not be allowed to leave school grounds without and adult or guardian.

Pak Heights Primary Parent and Community Page

Do you have a Facebook account? If so, please join the Pakuranga Heights Primary Parent and Community Facebook page. This is an online space to connect with other families, ask questions and share local information. Click on the following link or search for Pak Heights Primary and Community. https://www.facebook.com/groups/1352236104787200/?ref=group_browse_new

Upcoming events

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