Newsletter 14th October 2024
From the Principal
Welcome back
A warm welcome to all our new families joining our school community. The school has been a busy place during the holidays with work going on upgrading our fire system and the main block getting ready for a repaint. Last term we celebrated participating in and sometimes winning major competitions such as StageQuest and the HPPA Science Competition, We also officially opened our new senior sunshade ‘The Hive’ and our very popular sand pit. This term we have our school production ‘Shrek’ a great opportunity for children to experience success.
It is compulsory in Term 4 for all students to wear sun hats if playing outside. Sunhats either the cap or the cricket style hat are available to purchase through the office.
Last day of school this year is Friday 20th December at 1.00 pm
School dates for 2025
Term 1 – Friday 7 February - Friday 11 April
Term 2 - Monday 28 April - Friday 27 June
Term 3 - Monday 14 July - Friday 19 September
Term 4 - Monday 6 October - Friday 19 December
Major School Events this term
More information about trips and events will be sent out closer to the time
Week 1 - Starting October 14th
Niue language week
Junior and Middle School Cricket lessons
Week 2 - Starting October 21st
PTA Meeting - Monday 6:30pm in the staffroom - All welcome
H.P.P.A Mathex - selected students
Junior and Middle School Cricket lessons continued
National Shakeout Day - Thursday Inter-School Touch Rugby Tournament
Week 3 - Starting October 28th
Labour Day – Monday - All schools closed
Interschool Athletics Trials
Board of Trustees Meeting - Tuesday
Junior and Middle School Cricket lessons continued
2025 Road Patrol Training
Week 4 - Starting November 4th
School Production - Thursday performances (see further information below)
New Parent Meeting -Thursday
Week 5 - Starting November 11th
Pakuranga Intermediate Open Morning for Enrolled Students - Tuesday
Inter school athletics - Wednesday
Photolife -Team and New Entrant Photos - Thursday
Full School Assembly - Friday 9.15 am
Week 8 - Starting December 2nd
New Parent Meeting - Thursday
Senior School - BigFoot Adventure - Thursday
Week 9 - Starting December 9th
Board of Trustees Meeting –Tuesday
Student reports go home – December 15th
Week 10 - Starting December 16th
School Duty Awards Ceremony – Tuesday 17th December - 9:15 am
Junior School End of Year Celebration –Wednesday 18th December - 9:15 am
Middle School End of Year Celebration –Wednesday 18th December - 11:45 am
Senior School Graduation Assembly- Thursday 19 December - 9:15 am
Last day of the school year – Friday 20th school finishes at 1 pm
CLASSES 2025
Later this term, once staffing is finalised we will be working on student and class placement.
Every year friends and parents ask me about the difference between composite and straight year level classes. I will attempt to explain the differences and advantages.
Composite classes usually occur when there are too many students for one class, but not enough for two classes of the same year group. The Government provides our staffing based on our numbers so we have to organise classes based on our allocated staffing. Composite classes have a controversial history, with parents often believing that their child may be disadvantaged by being in one. While many can see the benefits of composite classes for the accelerated learning of younger children, they also fear the older students will be bored or held back with easier work.
The key to appreciating the benefits of composite classes is in understanding that growth is determined in stages and not by ages. Ironically, every class is already a composite in terms of the range in school starting ages and the different academic abilities of the students. The Ministry of Education groups student learning into levels, usually over a two to three year period. The emphasis is on the progression of the individual through logical stages of learning. In every class – including composite classes – students are assessed to ascertain their current level of learning. The teachers then design and implement a program that caters for all students’ needs, while keeping in mind the content in the level that must be taught.
Before a composite class is formed, we consider the children’s academic, social and emotional stages and decide which would be the best way of organising the class or classes.
Composite classes can have many advantages for teachers and students:
- Teaching in a composite class compels teachers to think of children as individuals.
- The techniques of group teaching and of individual instruction can be applied in composite classes.
- Learning-through-teaching is promoted when students at different stages of learning can help each other with their work.
- Composite classes can be arranged so that they are a means for catering for the special needs of talented children as well as slower learners.
The latest teaching and learning materials are being developed with composite classes in mind, allowing teachers to simultaneously develop an understanding of learning outcomes at different levels within a Level. Wherever possible, the teaching and learning activities within each Level are parallel to each other, ensuring that teachers can introduce core concepts to the whole class and differentiate instruction for the range of learners in the classroom.
I was more than happy for my own children to be in composite classes.
Should you have any concerns or questions about this please do not hesitate to ring or come and see one of the senior team.
ATTENDANCE
Attendance is linked to both student wellbeing and to achievement. Ministry of Education insights studies show that attending school and kura regularly is, on average, associated with more positive wellbeing outcomes. There’s also a clear connection between going to school regularly and doing well in the classroom.
Schools are required to record and report on attendance. This includes a responsibility to take reasonable steps to make sure enrolled students attend whenever the school is open.
Attendance data supports us to understand attendance patterns and engagement at school. The main measure of this is, regular attendance (defined as attending over 90% in a term). In Term 3, Pakuranga Heights School had 62% of students attending over 90% in the term.
Last term all students with 90% attendance or more went into the draw to win a $100 voucher of their choice. Congratulations to our winners:
Junior School: Enz Cabrera Navarro Room 5
Middle School: Neville Mathew Varghese Room 12
Senior School: Alexandra McIntyre Room 19
This term all students with 90% attendance will once again go into the draw to win a $100 dollar voucher of their choice. There will be one each for junior, middle and senior school.
In addition to the voucher incentive, this term we will be monitoring regular attendance by year level. Each week, the year level with the most students with 90% attendance or more will win some additional play time and at the end of the term the year level that has won the weekly prize the most times will receive an additional reward.
Fintan, Sue and Monique
Shrek the Musical
A group of senior school students have been working hard rehearsing for our school production of Shrek the Musical which is based on the 2001 movie Shrek.
The production will take place in Week 4 on Thursday 7 November at the Pakuranga Intermediate school hall.
There will be two performances, both on Thursday 7 November, the first at 1 pm and the second at 6.30 pm. Tickets are now available for purchase via Kindo. If you need to set up Kindo, please follow the link below.
Any problems with purchasing tickets, please email Claire Stretch claires@pakurangaheights.school.nz
PTA News
All are invited to the next PTA meeting. This will be held on Monday 21st October at 6.30pm in the staffroom.
To access the staffroom go up the external stairs towards Room 5 and turn left at the top of the stairs.
We are also seeking feedback on the Term 3 Disco to assist with future planning. Please click the link below to share your thoughts.
Year 6 Transitions to Intermediate
If you haven't already, now is the time to ensure your Year 6 student is enrolled for Intermediate next year. Enrolling early ensures Intermediate schools are able to understand their roll numbers for 2025 and ensure they are staffed adequately.
This year the Pakuranga Intermediate transition morning will only be available to students who have already enrolled, this event is an important chance for student to see their new school in action and get a feel for what Year 7 will be like. If you have already enrolled you will get more information about this day directly from the Intermediate. Please nore, if your child is attending, there will be no need for you to collect them and return them to school as we will have teachers walk down to collect the students.
Celebrating Excellence
BUDDY CLASS.
Room 19 and Room 8 have been having fun doing buddy class activities every Friday. For the last few weeks, we have been doing buddy art to celebrate Maori Language Week. The focus of the art was hand-eye coordination and the texture of different lines. We used a koru design and then added lines to the background- me fat and some skinny. We had so much fun working with our buddies and can't wait to see what amazing things we can do together next term.
CREATIVE WRITING.
We have been experimenting using AI in our classroom. This term we challenged ourselves to see how precise we could get our writing. We thought up a super hero in our minds and then set about writing a description of this person. We fed the description into AI to bring our character to life. If our result wasn't quite what we had in mind we had to go back and edit our work until we were happy.
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