Torbay Newsletter Flying High, Learning for a Successful Future. FORTNIGHTLY NEWSLETTER

11 AUGUST 2016

IMPORTANT DATES AND EVENTS Term Three 25th July - 23rd September Week 3

8-12 Aug

12/8 Bays Cluster Winter Sport Zone Day

Week 4

15-19 Aug

15-19/8 Maths Week 16/8 Rippa Rugby Save Day 3 16/8 PTA Meeting 18/8 Tiritiri Team Museum Trip 19/8 Olympics Gold Coin Mufti Day

Week 5

22-26 Aug

22-26/8 Dental Van here 23/8 Parent Information Evening for Northcross Intermediate School @ 6pm 25/8 Rm 22 & 23 to Auckland Museum

Week 6

Week 7

Week 8

29 Aug 2 Sept

Team Torbay Values

29/8-2/9 Dental Van here 29/8 New Parent Meeting @ 9.30am 31/8 Photolife Team Photos 31/8 Info Session Flexible Learning at Torbay School - Now and Future 6.30pm 1/9 Rakino 3 & 4 Museum Trip 1/9 Enrolment Day Northcross Intermediate 2/9 Parent Helper Training in Tui Room 2/9 Yr 5 & 6 School Speech Competition

5-9 Sept

Commitment Aroha Respect and Responsibility

5-9/9 Tongan Language Week & Money Week 8/9 Assembly @ 2.15pm 9/9 School Disco

12-16 Sep

12-16/9 NZ Chinese Language Week 12/9 BOT Meeting 13/9 Cluster Speech Finals 14/9 60th Celebration/Art/Writing Exhibition 14/9 Open Day Whole School

Excellence Together Everyone Achieves More

Check out our School Website for the latest updates

KEY COMPETENCY / VALUE:

Aroha

DEAR PARENTS KA PAI to the following students who have shared their fantastic learning with us this week— Damien Rm 17, Brooke, Ceci, Tatiana, Kaylene & Kalani Rm 12, Oscar, Nash & Tiaan Rm 9, Alvin, Zoe, Brooklyn, William, Myka & Skye Rm 22, Anna-Sophia Rm 19, Albert Rm 21, Nicholas Rm 18, Ashlee Rm 5. Ka pai everyone! CONGRATULATIONS to the following children who all received certificates from their class teachers this week: Harry & Courtney Rm 1, May-Lee & Logan Rm 2, Kaiya, Jamie, Stephanie, Lucy, Michael & Xanthea Rm 3, Scarlett & Isaac J. H Rm 4, Ashlee & Angelina Rm 5, Jack L & Kane Rm 6, Tyler & Georgia Rm 7, Megan & Isaac Rm 8, Kay, Teagan, Reuben & Edie Rm 9, Soren & Bailey Rm 11, Claudio Rm 12, Jaime & Tristan Rm 14, Caitlin, Renee, Skyla, Jayden & Tayla Rm 15, Jed & William Rm 16, Matthew & Norah Rm 17, Ella & Kyla Rm 18, Lily & Gemma Rm 19, Isobel, Mayer, Matthew & Mandon Rm 20, Sophie & Albert Rm 21, Zoe, Max, Kallum & Mackenzie Rm 22, Grace, Jaime, Olivia & Aysha Rm 23. MULTIPLE LEARNING CONVERSATIONS A huge thanks to all of our Parents and Caregivers who attended Learning Conversations last week. We have had amazing feedback from our learners and community. It is always great to receive positive feedback!! Please find some reflections from our parents shared with you below

Y2 -An excellent opportunity to have my daughter showcase her work and learning in her own way! A very informative session - a great way to see the engagement of the student. Y3 - We really enjoyed the Learning Conversations. Our daughter was really proud and excited to share her learning with us! Great for the parents too! Y5&6 - We had our first experience of the Senior School Learning Conversations last week and we were most impressed. It was so much fun for the whole family, and our son really enjoyed the opportunity to show us around his classroom and lead the activities.

Parent Reflection To be honest I don’t really like coming along to these sessions because it means I have to take a few hours annual leave . It’s tough to see the value in coming along to a 10 minute session where I often leave disappointed with my sons performance. Which inevitably has a negative impact on our relationship and undoubtedly his enthusiasm for learning. So imagine my concern when I was told that my sons teacher said I had to come to the learning conversations meeting, I don’t like coming but if they say I need to come, then I come. I moved my meetings around and told work I needed to leave early because I have been summoned to school, when I depart everyone wishes me good luck. I come along to the learning conversation and see all the parents sitting at tables. Well that’s new to me as I had expected a one on one with the teacher where I am enlightened to my sons antics (surprise!!). I arrive at the Learning Conversation. My son asks if I want to play a game with him. I initially say no because frankly I had taken the afternoon off work and just wanted to get this over and done with. The teacher is free so I steel myself for the bad news…………but it doesn't come. Ok he’s not in big trouble and I’m not a bad parent (what is going on). She tells my son to take me through some of his learning and he leads me away dazed and confused. He asks me again to play a game with him so I say why not. He shows me this maths game, it was so hard even I couldn’t figure it out (I start to appreciate how difficult it is to learn some of this stuff, I start to relax because he’s doing better than me). Then we go over to another station and I’m drawing a picture he asks me what I think it is….I say Alligator he just starts laughing at me…..I’m competitive so decide I’m going to nail it…..he continues to bait me and I realise that we are a lot alike. We go to other stations and thank goodness you have cue cards around what kind of questions I should ask him, to further our conversation. He shows me things he really likes and I’m in awe of his enthusiasm for learning (my view of my child and his learning has altered). He sees more parents come in and tells me he thinks our time is up I look at the clock and it's been nearly 45mins. He whispers to me that he doesn't want to leave yet, he wants to show me something else? I’m so blown away I’m not even sure if I responded. As he rushes off to put his stuff away it suddenly dawns on me that he’s just shared more with me about school than he ever has in the entire year. We get some behaviour news which the teacher gets him to take responsibility for telling me about. He fesses up and we agree that there needs to be some consequences to his actions. He agrees and I’m not angry (ok what’s going on and who stole my child??). I suddenly realise something. Me: “Son, did your teacher really tell you that I needed to come and see them?” Son: “Errr….ummm well maybe they suggested that all parents should come to these not specifically you” Me: “Did you want me to come along?” Son: “Err…..ummmm…..well……(big sigh) ok yes” Me: "I'm glad I came" big smiles As a working solo mum who is the sole provider of 4 taking time off work is a big deal and the reality is that my son knows that too. If it wasn’t for the fact that "The teacher needed to see me" I probably wouldn’t have made the time. And in hindsight that would have been a missed opportunity. In just under an hour I got to see my son as a powerful and enthusiastic learner, I got to see how proud he was to be sharing this with me, and further more I leave proud and powerfully connected to my child and that was worth more to me than a few hours of annual leave. Thank you to you all for this amazing opportunity I’m pretty sure in this conversation I was the one who was doing the learning.

...And what our learners said

SCHOOL TO COMMUNITY MEETINGS

Week

Date

Meeting

Invited

Time

Venue

Wk 6

29/8

New Parent Meeting

All

9.30-10.30

Staffroom

Wk 6

31/8

Information Presentation Mobile Learning & BYOD for Years 4-6, 2017 Focus - Year 3 parents

All Y3 Parents

6.30-7.30

Rm 1 & 2

Wk 6

2/9

Parent Helper Training

All

9.00-10.00

Tui Room

Wk 8

14/9

Open Day 60th Celebration Opening

All

All Day 2pm

School Hall

Wk 8/9

14- 21/9

60th Celebration Art/ Writers Exhibition

All

All Day

Hall & Library

MEETINGS The next PTA meeting will be on Tuesday 16th August at 7.30pm in the Learning Centre MOBILE DENTAL VAN The Mobile Dental Van will be visiting your School this term to examine children who are due to be seen. If you wish to discuss further, please ring your local Dental Clinic (Northcross Intermediate Dental Clinic) on: (09) 479-4236 PLAYER OF THE DAY Hockey - Yr 5/6 Advanced: Lisa Z & Isaac H Hockey - Yr 5/6 Development: Eloise A & Sam V Hockey - Yr 3/4: Carla A Netball - Yr 3/4 Torbay Ferns: Alex S Netball - Yr 3 Torbay Magic: Millie M & Ashley P SCHOLASTIC BOOK FAIR Thank you to everyone who supported our Book Fair. We raised $950 which will be put towards buying new books for our school. Ka pai!

Wendy Sandifer Principal

STUDENT NEWS

Congratulations to Kai F from Rm 20 who won a gold medal at the Brazilian Jiu Jitsu 2016 Gi Nationals on 6th August.

SCHOOL NOTICES

FRIDAY 19TH AUGUST 2016 - GOLD COIN DONATION TO SUPPORT PARALYMPIC TEAM Classes will be split into groups and allocated a country to represent whilst competing in a range of fun theme sports. Gold, Silver and Bronze medals will be awarded. Children can wear mufti to support New Zealand or any country of their choice. More information to follow...

PHOTOLIFE PHOTOS Sport and Group Photos: Netball/Hockey/Little League/Miniball/Basketball/ Flippaball/Student Leaders These will be taken on Wednesday 31st August. Could all children in sports teams please wear their sports uniform to school on the day. The photos will be available to order once the proofs have been returned to school.

At Torbay School we run the Perceptual Motor Programme to assist our Year 1 children in developing their fine and gross motor skills, and we also work with some of our Year 2 and 3 children who need further development with their fine and gross motor skills. The programme is heavily reliant on parent help to assist the children at individual stations which the children rotate around. We run this programme from 9am until 10.30am Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday. If you could help at one or more of these sessions, please see Mrs Huysamen in Room 14 (email: [email protected]) or leave your details at the school office. Any assistance, at any of these sessions, would be most appreciated.

2017 ENROLMENTS If you have a child who is turning 5 next year, please see the office now to complete an enrolment form for your child or download a form from our website: https://drive.google.com/a/torbay.school.nz/file/d/0B-B4rNaKp9M-RXRoNmVfYUNIenc/ view Enrolling your child now helps us to plan for next year and assists us to determine if any out of zone places will be available for 2017. This is very important! If you have a child who is turning five next year and you currently live out of zone, please contact Natasha Derksen in the school office as soon as possible, ph 473 8603.

ENROLMENT AT NORTHCROSS INTERMEDIATE FOR YEAR 6 CHILDREN A Parent Information Evening will take place on Tuesday 23 rd August at 6pm at Northcross Intermediate and Torbay School has been allocated Thursday 1st September as their enrolment day. A notice has been sent home with the Year 6 children, giving full details of the enrolment events.

COMMUNITY NOTICES LOCAL NEWS & EVENTS

Harbour Sport Mud Rush Event - 10th & 11th Sept at Massey University Albany. 2.5km muddy obstacle designed for children ages 6+ but suitable for any age group, adults & families can participate together. Additional info: http://mudmonstermudrush.co.nz/ or Ph The Event Team: 09 415-4610 Marrzipan Drama - Drama classes at Torbay school. Contact Jex on 027 217 0693 or email

[email protected] International Festival Northcross Community Church - Sat 20th Aug, 3pm-7pm. Food, Traditional Games, Crafts & more. FREE entry. Wear your traditional dress. Waiake Girls Brigade - A great Christian organisation where Girls will learn good skills and make new friends. Available for girls 5–18, we have no waiting lists. When: Monday 6pm, Waiake Methodist Church. For more info: Lauretta Hannah 473-8626 [email protected] or visit: www.girlsbrigade.nz Help needed - Lovely young lady in a wheelchair looking for someone to help her around lunchtime for about half an hour. Torbay/Browns Bay area. Please phone Natalie: 473 8965 or 021 0822 1486 North Shore Trampoline Club-North Shore Events Centre, join us in these winter months for inside fun. We have after school classes, recreational or competitive. Birthday Parties available. Check out our website: northshoretrampoline.co.nz Free New Migrant Information Session - 25th Aug 10am-12pm, Norman King Building, Northcote, Topic: How to market yourself to win the job. Call Esther 489 3873 or email: [email protected] Parent Support Forum - Wed Aug 24th, 7-8pm in the Long Bay College Staffroom. Presenter: John Meeske, MSc Psychology, Counsellor Long Bay College. Resiliency Series: Current Issues, Continuing our discussion of teenage resiliency, this 1-hour presentation will look at the ‘Resilient Mind’ and its relation to a few pertinent topics: substance use, social media and gaming. What is our response to these issues as parents and as educators? There will be muffins, tea and coffee provided. Please RSVP for catering purposes by emailing John on [email protected] 2016 North Harbour Schools Trampoline Competition - annual competition on Sun 13th Nov at North Shore Events Centre. Primary, Intermediate & Secondary school students are invited to take part. Entries close Fri 4th Nov. E-mail: [email protected] or Ph: 478-4411

ADVERTORIALS Disclaimer: These advertisements are placed as a community service - publication does not imply Torbay School endorsement.

LEARN KARATE TODAY Not only do you learn Self Defence, but develop Self Esteem, Self Confidence, Co-ordination, Discipline, Focus, and Concentration. Kids 5-5:45pm, Teens 5:45-6:30pm and Adults 6:30-8pm Classes. Mondays and Wednesdays at Torbay Primary School Hall. Give us a call for more information, Shane Rynne Ph: 021959073 or Allister van Mil Ph: 0211325767 Or Visit www.kenpo.co.nz (Albany/Torbay School)

For the latest news and photos of events, sports & achievements go to www.torbay.school.nz Deep Creek Road, Torbay, Auckland • Tel: 09 473 8603 • [email protected] • www.torbay.school.nz