24 July 2008

From the Principal

Dear parents and caregivers

Our term 3 value is:
Duty
Our key messages with the children are:
Duty is giving to others and giving every job your best effort
Duty is caring for our environment: recycle, reduce and re-use

I hope that the holidays went well and that you had some fun with your children during the break.  They all seemed very excited to be back at school on Monday and I am very pleased with the hard work that I can see going on in classrooms already this term.  We have had a great start.  If you are new to our school – a big welcome to our Papatoetoe Central School family.  We enrolled 14 new students on Monday and our sixth Year 1 class is already full – we are still growing!

PTA:  A special thank you to the parents who came to the meeting on Monday night.  Your support is hugely appreciated.  The PTA is raising funds for the fitness trail along the Great South Rd boundary and to support this,  they will be doing a sausage sizzle on Friday 12 September.  The next PTA meeting is on Monday 25 August.  You are all welcome to come along and join in.  Thank you for your support.  The project currently underway that has been funded by the PTA is the very attractive garden around the totara tree by the school’s main entrance.

Welcome to new staff:  I would like to extend a very warm welcome to our new teachers Catherine Macdonald and Peter Robinson in rooms 22 and 26 respectively.  Both Catherine and Peter have been doing a lot of work in the school up until now and they are both well known around the place.  We are delighted to have them both teaching full time in classrooms this term. We welcome back Taryn Naidoo who has been away on study leave successfully working towards a Graduate Diploma in TESSOL.(Teaching English to speakers of other languages)  Taryn is teaching a class of  Year 1 students in room 4.
Best wishes for a superb weekend.  There will no doubt be many eyes on a certain rugby game in Sydney on Saturday night – go the All Blacks!!!  All the best to the Warriors too – a tough one against the Storm coming up.  Enjoy  the weekend and hopefully you can spend some special time with your lovely children.  

Kind regards
Marilyn Gwilliam
Principal

General Notices

Welcome to our New Students: Papatoetoe Central School welcomes the following new students to our school –
Angel Tahere – Te Miha, Arsha Kumar, Kyra Pretorius, Kavin Mudaliar, Thomas Kit – McCombe, Arushi Suneel, Jashmita Prasad, Jayshal Prasad , Eliza Hickton, Jason Liu, Yuvraj Chaudhary, Toria Park, Shahil Naidu and Nigal Atwal

Class visits to St Christopher's Residential Home:  Tomorrow, Friday 25 July (weather permitting) at 1.30pm,  Room 17 will be visiting St Christopher's Hospital.

Assembly Day:  On Monday, 28 July, Room 17 will lead our assembly.  As always you are most welcome to attend but please make sure that you are seated by 1.15pm.

Rubbish:  As part of our students’ learning about  conservation and reducing rubbish, we want them to become more aware of the rubbish that is created and has to be disposed of each day.  From Monday onwards all uneaten food and lunch rubbish will be coming home in their lunch boxes.
 
Writing Seminar:  On Thursday 31 July at 2.00pm we are holding a short seminar on “The Teaching of Writing”.  This seminar will cover
•    the steps students move through as they learn to write
•    the cycle students follow in order to complete a piece of writing
•    the ways teachers challenge their students to improve their writing.
We will begin at 2.00pm and be finished in time for you to collect your children from class at 3.00pm.  All interested parents are welcome to attend.
Sheila Robinson, Associate Principal

Year 6 Camp:  The fund raising for the Year six camp is well underway and on track for 2008.   Camp stalls are ready to be launched starting next week with our room 27 students busy making all the necessary preparations.  The camp fund raising is a major exercise taken on by the Year six teachers and supported by all staff. We hope that you and your extended families will also support the camp stalls.  All our children participate and thoroughly enjoy the events and activities.

Camp Costs:
Total cost per student for 5 nights @ $215.85  x 130 students  =  $28,060.00
Costs to students’ families @ $120 x 130 students: $15,600.00

Fundraising target:      $12,460.00
Fundraising to date:     Fun Day 2008            $1,726.50
            Obstacle fun run        $7,080.00        Total: $8,806.50

As you can see we have a predicted shortfall so it will be good to have profitable camp stalls this year.  Traditionally our generous PTA has made a contribution of $1,000.00 to help us meet the required total expenses.  PTA support is hugely appreciated.
The Year 6 camp is a wonderful opportunity for our students and a valuable tradition at Papatoetoe Central School.  It is only with your support that we are able to continue providing such a memorable experience for our Year 6 students.     
Susan Fidler, Associate Principal    

Term One Investigative Studies Topics

As we appreciate your input and involvement with your child’s learning, we have included in our newsletter today the topics that the children are studying this term for your information.  We welcome any resources that you may have and invite you to come along and speak to the children if you have something that you would like to share with them.  

Year 1    Science – Physical World – Changes in materials. Health – Staying healthy, Technology – Structures and mechanisms – bridges and chairs        
Year 2     Health – Caring for the body,   Science – Physical World – Wind up toys  ICT - Letterboxes    
Year 3        Health – Caring for the body,   Science – Physical World – Magnets, Technology – Materials - Containers
Year 4        Technology – Electronics & Controls,  Science - Space,  Social Studies – Myths and Legends
Year 5        Technology -  Lego Dacta – Structures & mechanisms, Science – Living World - NZ Indigneous animals,
        Social Studies – Beijing Olympics
Year 6        Our theme for term 3 is "The Olympics"  It is an integrated topic focused around: Health: Eating for performance   Science: Flight,  Social Studies: Heroes of change
Term Events (Another busy term ahead)
    
South Auckland Chess Competition        29 July           
Teaching of Writing Seminar                   31 July at 2pm
Maths week                                             18 - 22 August       
PTA Meeting                                           25 August
BoT meeting                                            4 August       
Family conferences                                  7 August
Teacher only day (Staff Conference)       22 August       
Daffodil Day                                            29 August
Zone Touch                                             2 September       
Cross Country                                         9 September
Sausage Sizzle                                        12 September       
BoT meeting                                           15 September
Zone Gymnastics                                    23 September        
End of term 3                                          26 September