ARDMORE SCHOOL NEWSLETTER

#1 9 February 2016

Clevedon Road, RD 2, Papakura, Auckland 2582 ph 09-299-6228

[email protected]

www.ardmore.school.nz Twitter;@ardmoreschool1

FROM THE PRINCIPAL’S LAPTOP Tēnā koutou katoa Welcome back to 2016. A special welcome to the forty-two new children who have started school and to new families who have joined the Ardmore School community. Listed below is the school organisation for 2016 and email addresses.for staff Principal Ms Brigid Peterson [email protected] Associate Principal Years 0-4 Mrs Desiree McNie [email protected] Associate Principal Years 5-8 Mrs Shirley Stananought [email protected] Junior School Team 3 Room 10 Room 11 Room 12 Room 13 Room 14

Year 0/1 Year 1 Year 1 Year 2 Year 2

Mrs Kate Martin - Team Leader Mrs Carleen Ashford Miss Susan Dooley Mrs Nicole O’Donoghue Mrs Taryn Young

[email protected] [email protected] [email protected] [email protected] [email protected]

Middle School Team 2 Room 1 Year 3/4 Ms Kathy Frantz Room 2 Year 3/4 Miss Cheree Cowsill Room 3 Year 3/4 Mr Sean Crotty Team Leader Mrs Debbie Spick SENCO(Special Educational Needs Co-ordinator)

[email protected] [email protected] [email protected] [email protected]

Senior School Team 1 Room 5 Room 6 Room 7 Room 8 Room 9 Team Leader

[email protected] [email protected] [email protected] [email protected] [email protected] [email protected]

Year 5/6 Mr Matthew Wallis Year 5/6 Miss Julianne Allen Year 5/6 Mrs Trisha Quinn Year 7/8 Mr John Frings Year 7/8 Mrs Mechelle Berry Mrs Shirley Stananought

Please remember if you have any queries or concerns to talk to or email your child’s teacher as soon as possible. If you still have queries or concerns speak to or email the Team Leader and /or the Associate Principal responsible for your child’s area of the school. Thank you to all parents who paid their donation once again this year. This is of huge assistance to the school. Setting up family routines is vital at this time of the year as parents try to juggle family life, work and children back to school. Pack school bags and /or prepare lunches the night before so that there is less to be accomplished in a short time in the morning. It’s important for the children’s sake that they arrive at school with time to organise all they need for the day. I know it is difficult with the hot weather but try to maintain a set bedtime with a quiet story before saying goodnight. Establish a list of the basic tasks that need to be completed in the morning and at night that children can tick off with a sense of achievement. Start with a short list and build from there. Reading is vital to get children underway in their learning. Please make an effort to hear your children read and ask them a couple of questions about what they have read. “Why do you think…” is a great question for developing inference. Parent Interviews - 18th February School closes at 12pm. Educational research highlights the importance of relationships and knowing your learner and their family/whanau. To this end the school has set up a Transition/Goal Setting Interview so that teachers can meet with individual students and their families to hear what they need to know about your child. These interviews will be held on Thursday 18th February. School will close at 12pm and the interviews follow. The school buses will operate from 12 noon.

Booking for the interviews will be available on-line from Wednesday 10 Feb (tomorrow). Tomorrow an information sheet and a form to fill out will be sent home with your child.. If you are unable to attend an interview please complete the sheet and return it to your child’s teacher by the end of next week. Thank you To Simon Goodall who has co-ordinated the parent group caring for the pool over the summer; and his parent group Mr & Mrs Elkington, , Mr & Mrs Clark, Keita Turua, Brandon Smedley and Justin McNabb for their work looking after the pool over the summer and the upcoming weekends. Thank you also to Mark van Boxel who looked after the pool in the two weeks over Christmas and New Year. Internet Safety Vodafone, in association with The Parenting Place and Netsafe have set up a website especially for parents about safe internet use. It’s worth a look as it contains some great information for parents. https://digi-parenting.co.nz/ Student Safety at 3pm Some of you may have read about the five year old who went missing after school as they had wandered away from the school looking for their parent. Today I have reminded all children about where they go after school if they haven’t been met by an adult at 3pm. Teachers have reinforced this message. Ardmore has a number of exits which are all onto a very busy road. We all need to work together to keep the children safe. If you see a child that you believe is not with an adult leaving the school grounds, please help us and bring the child to the office. Please also remember that teachers, including myself, have meetings and professional development after school. While I understand there are odd occasions where parents are held up with traffic, a large number of children are not being collected from school until after 3.30pm. This means that I am late for staff meetings - not a great situation when I am leading them and teachers are having to wait for me. Please collect your children as soon as possible after 3pm. Communication At the beginning of each term the three learning teams in the school, Junior, Middle and Senior will be sending home a newsletter about their learning and special happenings each term. These newsletters are replacing the beginning of year information evening. They will come home with each child as a paper copy and will also be emailed and put on the school website. At the beginning of each term a paper copy of the first newsletter and a calendar of dates will also be sent home. These dates are as at that point in time. There may be additions and alterations as each term progresses. These will be notified through email or newsletters. Please also check the school website regularly. Email subject lines will allow you to decide whether the information is relevant to you.. Each term I will be holding an afternoon tea so that parents can come along to hear the latest happenings and plans for the school and ask any questions they may have. The first of these is being held on Thursday 25th February at 2.30pm in the school hall. Surf SafetyTrips These begin this week. The high number of drownings over the holiday break highlights the importance of children learning the skills associated with swimming at beaches, particularly surf beaches. The school has made these skill building outdoor education trips a bi-annual event because of this. Thank you to all the parents who have offered to assist us. The school couldn’t undertake these trips without you. Donna Reynolds, the school’s Executive Officer, has been very busy over the holiday period and I am happy to announce that we have just heard that she has secured grant funding to cover the travel costs for this trip. As such parents can choose to have a refund of the travel amount or the money will be carried over to cover the cost of the Life Education Caravan in Term Two. Please email [email protected] if you would like to receive a refund. Uniform Bromleywear have informed us that they have no facility to take WINZ payments at the shop in Henderson. They can apparently take other payments. They suggest you order on-line and in the comments section state that you will pick up. This will ensure they have stocks available. Board Strategic Plan Consultation Congratulations to Juliet Lagan whose name was drawn for the $300 voucher from those parents who completed the Board’ of Trustees Strategic Plan Survey at the end of the year. Brigid Peterson Principal

Term Calendar 2016 BoardFebruary of Trustees News Mon

Tue

Wed

Thu

Fri

Sat

Sun

1

2

3

4

5

6

7

8

9 Newsletter

10

11

12

13

14

Surf Trip R8&9 PSG Mtg 7:30pm

Surf Trip R6&7

Surf Trip R1&5

16

17

18

19

20

21

Surf Trip R2&3 Assembly 2pm

Surf Trip R13&14 ECCS Tee Ball & Softball

Parent Interviews School closes 12:00

Surf Trip R10,11,12

23 Newsletter

24

25

26

27

28

Afternoon tea with the principal 2:30pm

PSG family picnic

Sat

Sun

15

22

29

March Mon

Tue 1 Assembly 2pm

Wed

Thu

2

Fri

3

4

5

6

ECCS Swimming

7

8 Newsletter

9

10

11

12

13

14

15 Assembly 2pm

16

17

18

19

20

25 Good Friday

26 Easter Saturday

27 Easter Sunday

Fri

Sat

Sun

1

2

3

ECCS Tee Ball &

21

22 Newsletter

23

24

PSG mtg 7:30

28 Easter Monday

29 Easter Tuesday

30

31

April Mon

Tue

Wed

Thu

Ardmore School Gala

4

5 Newsletter

6

7

8

9

10

Assembly 2pm

11

12

13

14

15 End of Term

16

17

18

19

20

21

22

23

24

25

26

27

28

29

30

Board of Trustees News School Community Consultation On behalf of the Board of Trustees I would like to thank those parents and caregivers who completed the Parent/Caregiver Survey sent out in December 2015. We received lots of valuable feedback which we have reviewed and have started to incorporate into the Draft Strategic Plan for 2016-2019. Thank you to the large number of students who also provided fantastic insights and feedback on what they love about Ardmore School and what they would like in the future. Given the large number of varied responses and the school's budget constraints, the BOT have had to prioritise and focus resources on the areas which will have the greatest impact for students. The 4 key areas of focus (Strategic Goals) for the Draft Strategic Plan are: 1. 2. 3. 4.

Teaching and Learning Environmental Teaching and Learning Professional Learning and Development Community/Partnerships

Underpinning these goals will be our continued focus on creating a supportive, nurturing learning environment whereby all students can flourish. An area of particular focus this year will be to continue to improve on communication. We hope to be able to provide timely information in a variety of different forums to cater for the varied requirements of our school community. In response to the students requests we will look to upgrade the school pool changing rooms, and provide drinking fountains on the school field. More detailed information will be available once it has been signed off by the Ministry of Education. Once again thank you for taking the time to share your thoughts on the future direction of Ardmore School.

Afternoon Tea with the Principal We would like to extend an invitation to Parents and Caregivers to join Brigid Peterson for afternoon tea on Thursday 25th February at 2.30pm in the school hall. This is a chance to meet with the Principal and talk about the direction of the school. If you would like to hear more about the proposed building developments that we hope to have underway later in the year this is a great opportunity to hear more about this exciting project. We hope to see you there.

Board Elections 2016 Board elections occur this year and there are a number of Board Members who are not seeking re-election. If you have an interest in the governance of the school and are considering nomination for the Board I am happy to answer any questions you may have. [email protected] Leanne Wise Chairperson Ardmore School Board of Trustees

ARDMORE PARENT SUPPORT GROUP Term 1 2016 Meeting Dates 10 February – tomorrow night 9 March – AGM 23 March – Gala Meeting All meetings are held in the school staffroom at 7.30pm. We would love to see some new faces. We are They are an informal, friendly gathering where parents get together and discuss what fundraising activities happen within the school and how these funds are spent. There is no obligation to join the PSG, but we welcome everyone's feedback, help and support in assisting the school to provide resources which will benefit all our children.

Subway Lunches Term 1 – FIRST SUBWAY FOR THE YEAR THIS WEEK. Envelopes will be sent home today, please return orders with money to respective classrooms on Wednesday morning. Please return any unused envelopes that you may have at home, and post in the PSG mail box. We would like to minimize waste and recycle any unwanted envelopes. Please Note: If you are ordering lunches for siblings, please make sure each child has their own envelope. Thank you to our lovely parent helpers that take time out each Wednesday morning to make this possible.

EZ Covers (2016) – You can still order your EZ Covers. These EZ Covers are high quality, reusable, recyclable and super quick to put on. Even your 5 year olds can cover their school books now. They are available through the website, simply select from dropdown box Ardmore School and enter the code XFC186 when ordering to donate 10c per book cover to Ardmore School.

PUBLIC NOTICES ‘Young at Art offer children’s after school, weekend and holiday art, craft and clay classes to 5-15 year olds in Pukekohe, Pokeno and our new after school class in DRURY School. For more information or to enrol please contact [email protected],.nz, phone: 0297 712 923 or check out our website: www.youngatart.co.nz. Classes commence from 9th February 2016, bookings are essential.’

Pocket Rockets dance classes are back this year at Ardmore school! Wednesdays afterschool Junior Hiphop 3.15-4.00pm Senior Hiphop 4.00-4.45pm $90 for the term Try your first class free! For more info or to enrol contact Jane & Dayle [email protected] 0211403786 Www.pocketrockets.co.nz

Uniform For Sale size 4 boys shorts 2 pairs good condition $15.00 each ph Karen 020-1110144

Uniform Wanted I am after good condition second hand uniform size 10 and 12 dresses and size 10 culottes. If you can help please call

ph 021 204 2101

PUBLIC NOTICES Are placed in the school newsletter by request, space permitting. Notices are in no way endorsed by, or reflect opinions or interests of those at Ardmore School.