Newsletter – 1 July 2019

With the end of Term 2 almost upon us, what a busy two weeks of learning it has been here at Pakuranga Heights School. Our students participated in the inter school rugby and hockey tournaments at Lloyd Elsmore Park, the Walking School Bus juice morning, the middle school ASB Getwise programme and all classrooms were involved in a week long of learning about “Art through the Ages”.

Your child’s artwork will be showcased at out Art Exhibition which will run on the same day as the learning conferences on Wednesday, 3rd July from 1pm-7pm. I was fortunate enough to watch our teams participate at the inter school events and as always our students have done the Pakuranga Heights School community proud with their exemplary behaviour and the great sportsmanship they display on and off the field. Thank you to our hardworking and committed staff and parents who continue to provide our students with great learning opportunities.

Last week we farewelled Mrs Libby Morar (Room 3 teacher) who is on maternity leave. We wish Libby, her husband and big brother Ethan all the very best as they await the arrival of their baby boy.

On Monday, Mrs Claire Stretch opened Room 9, our brand new classroom, with 7 brand new students. Room 9 and 10 are the two New Entrant classrooms between the hall and the middle school. A warm welcome to our new students and their whanau who have recently joined our Pak Heights family.

Book Amnesty
A big thank you to all of our wonderful families who searched high and low to find readers belonging to our school for our Book Amnesty. A whopping 496 books, valued at over $5,000 were returned. Congratulations to Room 14 who were the overall winners.

Starting in Term 3 please ensure that your child comes to school with a bookbag in order to take home a reader or library book. These are available at most stores selling stationery or can be purchased at our school office for $5. Students must return their previous home reader, beSet featured imagefore the teacher will issue them with another one. Parents might be asked to pay the replacement cost for any book that their child has lost. Thanks for all of your support with taking great care for our school resources.

Fire Classroom Update
We were notified during the week that, weather permitting, the two new classrooms will arrive on site in the first week of the holidays. The area will be fenced off and work will begin on getting the classrooms fully refurbished and ready for occupation. If all goes according to plan we hope to occupy the classrooms in mid Term 3.

Learning Conferences 
On Wednesday, 3 July we will be holding three-way conferences where teachers will have the opportunity to discuss the data from your child’s report with you.

The first ten minutes is for teachers and parents only and will be an opportunity to discuss your child’s achievement against the New Zealand curriculum levels, and the Pak Heights learner dispositions.

Students are encouraged to attend the last five minutes of each conference so teachers, parents and students can celebrate their achievement together and help focus them on their next steps for learning.

You can still book interview times online.  Simply access the online booking site via the web at www.schoolinterviews.co.nz or the live link on the school web page: www.pakurangaheights.school.nz  then enter the Code: e8dq7  or please ask one of our office staff to make the booking on your behalf.

SCHOOL WILL FINISH AT 1:00PM on Wednesday, 3rd July.Please collect your child/children promptly at 1pm to allow teachers to start their conferences at 1.15pm.

Reading in the holidays
Mem Fox’s Ten Read-Aloud Commandments for Parents

https://memfox.com/for-parents/for-parents-ten-read-aloud-commandments/

1. Spend at least ten wildly happy minutes every single day reading aloud. From birth!
2. Read at least three stories a day: it may be the same story three times. Children need to hear a thousand stories before they can begin to learn to read. Or the same story a thousand times!
3. Read aloud with animation. Listen to your own voice and don’t be dull, or flat, or boring. Hang loose and be loud, have fun and laugh a lot.
4. Read with joy and enjoyment: real enjoyment for yourself and great joy for the listeners
5. Read the stories that your child loves, over and over, and over again, and always read in the same ‘tune’ for each book: i.e. with the same intonations and volume and speed, on each page, each time.
6. Let children hear lots of language by talking to them constantly about the pictures, or anything else connected to the book; or sing any old song that you can remember; or say nursery rhymes in a bouncy way; or be noisy together doing clapping games
7. Look for rhyme, rhythm or repetition in books for young children, and make sure the books are really short.
8. Play games with the things that you and the child can see on the page, such as letting kids finish rhymes, and finding the letters that start the child’s name and yours, remembering that it’s never work, it’s always a fabulous game.
9. Never ever teach reading, or get tense around books.
10. Please read aloud every day because you just adore being with your child, not because it’s the right thing to do.

Emergency Contact 
It is really important we have all your contacts correct including address, cell phone and an emergency contact in case we cannot get hold of a parent. We ring if your child has had any knock to the head or injury we feel needs further medical attention.

Term 3 
School will close Friday, 5 July and reopen for Term 3 on Monday 22 July 2019.

Movie Night – Trolls – 24th May
Thank you to all that came along to the movie night on 24th May. It was another fun night had by all. Thank you to the PTA parents & teachers who helped on the night selling and supervising.Grant Application Success
Last month we put through a funding application to Grassroots Trust to help fund shade sails over the junior playground. Fabulous news, the whole grant application has been approved. Their meeting was on Wednesday 26th June and results were published on www.grassrootstrust.co.nz as well as getting a confirmation email that same day. Special thanks to Robert Findlay, Fiona Bailey, Tara Fletcher and Marnie Rosser for your help. Also huge thank you to the wonderful Pakuranga Heights parents and families for your contributions to the fundraising efforts. We will be working with Shade Systems on the installation of the shade sails. Watch this space for more updates.

Future Fundraising ideas
Since we will be going ahead with the Jnr school shade sail project due to the successful grant application we need a new project to focus on from Term 3. We would love to hear your ideas of what you think the PTA should be fundraising for. Please email pta@pakurangaheights.school.nz so we can discuss at the next meeting.

Entertainment Books
So far we have had a great response for orders of the digital and book memberships of the Entertainment Book so thank you for your support. The book and app can be purchased at any time so if you have returned your book and changed your mind or if family or friends are wanting to buy please don’t hesitate to jump on and buy one. Follow the link –

https://www.entertainmentbook.co.nz/orderbooks/947r91We still have a number of books that have been sent home and have not been paid for. Please make sure they are returned back with child’s name and room number to the large white, marked box in the office ASAP or jump online to claim the book.If there is any issues please be sure to email Tara at pta@pakurangaheights.school.nz.

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

Term 3 PTA Events
–          Mufti Day – Date and theme to be confirmed
–          Mathathon
–          Father’s Day Raffle
–          Adults Movie night – Monterey Cinemas. Date & Movie to be confirmed

Next PTA meeting – Monday 22nd July at 7pm in staffroom. Would love to see you there! ­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­­

 

Walking School Bus Please join the Facebook Page:

Pakuranga Heights School WSB Community
This term the Walking School Bus mascot has been very busy cursing around exciting the kids about being on the Walking School buses. Twice this term a group of WSB parents, Vicky Mailei, Tara Fletcher, Marnie Rosser, Amanda Winter, Jesse Nankivell & Matt Franetovic organised some promotional mornings which the WSB parents and children got to enjoy hot cross buns, biscuits and juice. At these mornings if they are due to get one, the children get their certificates for reaching their next milestone of walks (eg 100, 150, 300 walks to school). They also have the chance to pick a spot prize if Mr Ward pulls out their completed WSB ticket. It is great way to get the parents and children who walk to school together to say thank you and well done. Also we have had a great group of year 4 students who have been trained up to get their leader licences. This means that they get given more responsibility when walking to school and can help the parent volunteer. Huge thank you to Vicky Mailei for running these training sessions.

Next term keep an eye out for when our Milo and biscuit morning will be. Special thank you to Daniel Ward who has been amazing & Matt Franetovic who has dressed up both times this term. The kids LOVED it.

MEGASTARS AWARDS!!!
On the 14th June, Auckland Transport hosted their annual Megastars awards which is put on to celebrate the WSB parent volunteers & teachers. This year there were just over 400 parents and teachers there to enjoy each others company, a delicious buffet dinner and also be congratulated for their work that they do in relation to the walking school bus programme in their school. Pakuranga Heights School was represented by the following parents who were also nominated but sadly didn’t win awards – Vicky Mailei, Tara Fletcher, Marnie Rosser, Amanda Winter, Jesse Nankivell & Matt Franetovic. Jack Hopkinson & Daniel Ward also attended. Huge thank you to the people who nominated the parents. It means a lot.

Just because it is winter doesn’t mean that the walking school bus stops. We keep going and we want you with us! If you would like to be involved with a WSB for the school please don’t hesitate to contact Vicky Mailei on 021 188 2536 or vickymailei25@gmail.com