Hi everyone,
What a busy two weeks we have had at swimming. It has been wonderful to see the children demonstrating the school value, ‘We love challenge' in the way they have listened carefully to the instructors and worked on improving individual swimming skills.
A huge thank you to all the parents who came along to assist us at the pool. We appreciate the time that you have given!



Sleep Sleuths
While we have been swimming, the children have been,  'Sleep Sleuths' researching facts about the importance of sleep. The children brainstormed a variety of questions (wonderings) they had about sleep. We have used a variety of methods to research the answers to our questions, including watching YouTube clips, reading books, reading websites online or articles and texts created by the teacher.
For many of the children, they have grown their understanding about the importance of sleep, the sleep cycle, dreaming, how animals sleep to name a few. Communicating and sharing this learning will be our next focus.
For most of the team, the teachers have taken an integrated approach by teaching reading and writing at the same time instead of giving the children separate reading books and writing on an unrelated topic. This has enabled us to clearly show the link between reading and writing.
Across the team, the children have been given greater agency with their learning by working in a variety of ways. This has looked liked working individually, with a buddy, in small groups, and using a variety of resources.

Next week, we will be exploring sleep spaces and how people sleep around the world. Here are some images which were taken within one literacy block this week which show how we differentiate learning.

We are having the best time at swimming. The children were amazing g at remembering their groups today and we were able to get straight into our lessons.

The Queen’s Commonwealth Essay Competition is the world’s oldest schools’ international writing competition, managed by The Royal Commonwealth Society since 1883. Every year, it offers all Commonwealth youth aged 18 and under the opportunity to express their hopes for the future, opinions of the present, and thoughts on the past, through the written word. The competition will help to build confidence, develop writing skills, support creativity and encourage critical thinking, using literacy to empower young people to become global citizens.
If your child is keen on writing, they might like to enter the competition.

Here are the options for children under the age of 14.

Judges described entries to the competition in 2017 as ‘emotive’ ‘hauntingly assuring’ ’striking’ and as having ‘powerful narratives’, that ‘this letter should be read by everyone’. We expect a similarly high calibre of writing for 2018.

If you want further information, here is the link with all the details.

Welcome back!
We hope that you all had a wonderful time with your children over the two-week break. We have had a stunning first week back and have launched feet first into all our key programmes.

Inquiry
Our inquiry concept continues to explore the theme of SUSTAINABILITY. This term sees the children digging deeper into this concept of well being with a particular focus on sleep.




Cross Country

Next Thursday 10th May, we will be having our very first FULL SCHOOL cross country event. This year we have decided to have this event on the same day, so parents can easily support their child/children on the one day. This also provides us with the opportunity for our older students to support our younger students (tukana teina). We have begun to build up our fitness for this event and will be running each day. Please make sure your child has sensible running shoes at school each day as this will make the training much easier. Running in gumboots or dress boots is not ideal.

Home Learning
We began home learning again this week. Each night the children have 3 simple tasks to complete.
MMM- 1 minute timed test
Reading- Reading their book from school or a personal choice (10minutes)
Spelling- 5-6 spelling words identified as ones they need to learn.
 Your child might like to try these strategies:
Rainbow Write- Write the word in different colours over the top of each other.
Staircase Spelling: Write a letter on each line gradually spelling the word.









Swimming Lessons
As we mentioned at the end of last term, this term we will be going to Aqua Gym for 10 swimming lessons as our tamariki have not had swimming for the past two years here at school. The swimming lessons will be from 14th-25th May. The children will be put into an ability group by the instructors at the pool and we will have 3 sessions each day. The lessons are going to be 30 minutes in duration and ALL children will need a swimming cap for the lessons. This is a wonderful opportunity for the children to grow their swimming capabilities which are so important when living around water.

Parent/ Adult Help
We know we have an incredible group of parents and caregivers in our team and we would really love some adult help to come in to support some of our current programmes.

Ways you can help:
Maths- Helping children with their counting, writing/reading numbers
Reading- Listening to children read
Writing- Supporting children during a writing session
Baking- Coming in to bake with a small group of children

If you are able to assist us, please email or come in and see your home group teacher. We are open to any of your offers and know your help will greatly benefit many of the children in our team!


Dental Van
The dental van will be on site over the next couple of weeks to complete routine dental checks.

Dates for the dairy
School photos- Book that haircut, shine those shoes...school photos are happening on 28th May.