Newsletter 16th September 2024
From the Principal
We have much to celebrate so far this term. In the interschool dance competition our troupe of girls and boys were amazing, sunshade and sandpit opening , as was our cross-country team. The senior and middle school students took part in their speech competitions and the junior school shared their abilities through poetry. There are many changes happening in education at present and even the Ministry is struggling to keep up with the new government directives, however, we are striving to embrace these changes thanks to our dedicated team of teachers.
Teacher Only Days - Structured Literacy
We are reluctant to take any days during school weeks as we know how this impacts on families but the facilitators are often not available during the holidays for various reasons
Our next two days
Friday 27 September (last day of term) - School closed
Friday 11 October (Week 2 of the school holidays)
For new parents - What Is Structured Literacy?
Structured literacy (SL) approaches emphasise highly explicit and systematic teaching of all-important components of literacy. These components include both foundational skills (e.g., decoding, spelling) and higher-level literacy skills
School Events Coming Up In The Next Fortnight
Thursday 19th September - Junior Assembly 9.15am, parents welcome
Thursday 19th September - School Disco - Juniors 3pm - 4.30pm Middles & Seniors 4.30pm - 6pm
Thursday 26th September - Full School Assembly 9.15am
Thursday 26th September - Last day of Term
Friday 27th September - Teacher only day - school closed
Attendance Draw Reminder
All students who attend 90% or more this term go into a $100 voucher draw - 3 draws - one for senior, junior and middle school.
As you are aware the Government is undertaking a huge drive to improve student attendance
Parents and caregiver expectations
Parents are legally required to enrol their children and make sure they attend school every day.
- Parents play a big role in helping their children do well in school. You can do this by making sure your child goes to school every day and letting the school know if they're sick.
- If your child is unable to attend school you must let the school know the reason why.
- Family holidays or taking time off for recreational activities are not acceptable reasons for being absent.
- You are responsible for letting the school know if your children are moving schools and you need to make sure you enrol your children in their next school right away.
Senior Team Planning Days for 2025
The senior team was offsite for two days last week. During the planning days, we discussed and planned for major school events, staffing, best practice school wide, goals, targets, and professional development foci for all staff. During our absence, Mrs. Cheryl Davies - Crooke was in charge assisted by Mrs Antonia Burton . Mrs Davie-Crooke was previously the principal of Halsey Drive school.
Dance Festival
Recently Year 4-6 students took part in the annual HPPA Dance Festival at Somerville Intermediate School. The team performed a dance to Flo Rida’s Club Can’t Handle Me song. The students performed with energy and enthusiasm and were excellent representatives of our school.
Fintan, Sue and Monique
Te Tuhi Art Gallery Trip
This term Pakuranga Heights Senior School walked to Te Tuhi Art Centre. The art topic for our lesson was “I am NZ”. Each student created an etching of a letter that formed a sentence revolving around Aotearoa NZ, for example “Our Home Aotearoa NZ”. The first step of the art was painting a plastic sheet black. After the paint dried each student drew their letter and around each of the letters were some NZ related patterns and images that showed what made NZ a special place. We then used an etching tool to etch out our sketches. Then we chose a coloured piece of paper to create the background and glued this colour piece of paper to the back of the etched artwork to make a wonderful masterpiece.
Chinese Calligraphy Workshops
Last week we had Tui Tuia from the University of Auckland come to school and provide two workshops on Chinese Calligraphy. This was a great opportunity for the students involved to try something new. They learned how to use the traditional Chinese paint brushes and ink to create their artwork. Their final artwork was a panda with bamboo.
School Disco
Celebrating Excellence
Room 17 Explores the Wonders of the Water Cycle
Room 17 has been diving deep into the fascinating world of the water cycle! Students have been learning about the continuous movement of water within the Earth and atmosphere, focusing on the essential stages of evaporation, transpiration, condensation, precipitation, and accumulation. Understanding how each stage contributes to our planet's well-being has been an eye-opening experience for everyone.
To make the learning process even more engaging, students have been practising the "Water Cycle Dance". This helps reinforce these concepts in a fun and memorable way.
Room 18 has been very busy this term. On top of all the learning we have been doing, we managed a trip down to Te Tuhi and learnt how to do etching. We have been spending time with our buddies in Room 9 - even having our very first play in the new sandpit which I think the senior students enjoyed just as much as their buddies!It was great having a pizza lunch after raising the most money in the senior classes for Mathathon - the ice cream was particularly delicious. Making balloon rockets as part of our topic on forces was a great example of Newton's Laws of Motion, and the speed they flew across the room was based on much experimentation beforehand.
From the Community
