Year 5/6 Swimming Demonstration tomorrow!

Tena koutou katou

Hello to our Whanau

Swimming celebration

It has been fantastic to see the number of committed swimmers persevering throughout our swimming season to improve their techniques and water safety skills.  We have had quite a lot of chilly or unsuitable weather, this has been a challenge for some.

We are all looking forward to the opportunity to celebrate our swimmer’s skills at our celebration at Highlands on Thursday 30  March (there is no postponement day). (The Highland’s pool is heated.)

Year 5/6 will be departing school by bus at 9.30 am to travel to Highlands Intermediate. We aim to begin our swimming sports at 10.15 am with a programme as follows:

- Width/fun Events

- Length Events

- Free swim – fun, fun

Buses will collect children from Highlands at 2.25pm to return to school.

All children will be expected to participate in our swimming celebration. We will be asking students which events they wish to take part in that matches their skill level, personal development and confidence level. These may be width or length events.

The air temperature has started to drop and we ask that all children come prepared with adequate clothing to keep them warm in between events e.g. spare towel and spare set of clothes, perhaps even a blanket to wrap around them if they wish.  We will be encouraging children to eat a slightly larger than normal morning tea before the activities start.  Morning tea, lunch, snacks and a drink bottle are required at the pool.  Encourage your child to be sunsmart with sun hats and sunblock.

We look forward to seeing as many people as possible joining us to enjoy this day. At the conclusion of the events if you wish to take your child home please let the classroom teacher know before leaving.

We do require a few parents to help with allocating places in some of the events. Pop in or email one of us if you are available to help on the day.

Kind regards

Merryl, Brendon, Kim and Anna

Happy St Patrick's Day Everybody!!  

To be sure, to be sure, top of the day to ya!  

Di di diddle i diddle i di!  

Jokes for the Day:

Why can't you borrow money from a leprechaun?

Because they're always a little short.

Why don't you iron 4-Leaf clovers?

Because you don't want to press your luck.

Knock Knock

Who's there?

Irish!

Irish Who?

Irish you a happy St. Patrick's Day!

Final Camp Notice

OUR MISSION:

Maintain a challenging learning to learn community that responds to the interests, needs, and talents of our learners.

OUR VISION:

Positive difference, Creative learner, Effective communicator.

17 March 2017

Tēnā koutou e whānau

Just a few reminders before we leave for camp on Monday… as you can imagine, we are very excited to be sharing this adventure with your child.

• All children and parents will need to ensure they bring a packed morning tea and lunch. Please have a drink bottle that can be refilled during camp.  Also don’t forget to bring sunhats.

• Parents helping with transport ~ thank you.  Please, could you be at school before 8.30am if possible.  Park along the concrete area between the staffroom and the hall.  The transport list will be on the hall window if you need to double check it. Children may start placing their belongings in your car if they are travelling with you (no one is to leave before the teachers).  We will find room for any extra gear in other vehicles if it will not fit in yours. Ask the child(ren) to put gear into the hall that will not fit.  Be filled with fuel, please travel directly to Vertical Horizons Camp. In the case of a hold up while travelling please contact the school, 06 7536436.  We have a form you will need to fill out at school regarding WOF, rego, licences and seat belts. Anna will be seeing to this.  Please have ice cream containers in case of car sickness.  We will all meet in the hall before travelling out to Vertical Horizons soon after 9.00 am.
• We will make a check that inhalers are packed in cars with the student. Please do not give any travel sickness medication to any other child other than your own.

Lollies: As discussed with the students today, we have said that they may like to bring a packet of lollies to share with their cabin mates.  

Medicines:  Please ensure any medicines your child brings is in a named container with clear instructions. This is to be given to the teachers.  Students who require asthma inhalers must have them with them at all times and ensure they are named.

Contact on camp:  There is very little cell phone coverage on camp. The camp managers do have a phone but do ask that this only be used if it is very urgent ~ thanks 756 8770.

Visiting:  We welcome visitors to camp. Please ensure you bring your own meal should you be at camp over a mealtime. You are welcome to join your child in their activities and have a look around the camp.  Please let the teachers know once you have arrived if possible.

It would be great if we could have all campers to school by 8.30 am. We will be back at school on Wednesday the 22nd around 2.30 pm. Children will be released from the hall. It’s important they check in with a teacher before going home with parents.

Gear needed:  If any of you have a sun umbrella that we could borrow, please let us know before Monday.

Thanks and don’t hesitate to contact one of us if you have any queries.

Ngā mihi

Anna and Kim (aka Camp Mothers)

anna@frankley.school.nz, kim@frankley.school.nz

Week 7 Update

OUR MISSION:

Maintain a challenging learning to learn community that responds to the interests, needs, and talents of our learners.

OUR VISION:

Positive difference, Creative learner, Effective communicator.

Week 7  Term 1

Tēna koutou Tūhono whānau,

We hope you had a lovely, long weekend with your whānau and friends.  We have spent some time over the weekend getting our learning environments organised to suit our learners better, as we are always reflecting and changing how things work in Tūhono.  Along with this are the final touches on camp organisation.  We will not be holding a meeting about camp as we have sent out all the information through booklets and newsletters and our weekly updates.  Parents attending camp will receive a clearfile with all of the information needed to help do their job at Vertical Horizons.  If you have any questions, please send us an email.  One request we have is for sun umbrellas.  As we will have sunshine all three days, it does get hot whilst out on the activities and there are a lot of unshaded areas at Vertical Horizons.  If you have a beach umbrella that you wouldn’t mind lending to Tūhono, could you please let us know or drop it off to us at your nearest convenience.

CAMP VERTICAL HORIZONS

Only 7 more sleeps until our Tūhono Camp!  This means that it is definitely time to start gathering up the gear needed and checking you have everything.  Click on this link for a copy of the gear list.  We also have confirmed the camp programme, click on this link to take a look.  You also all received an email last week about the transport organisation to and from camp, please click on the link if you need to check on these.  We also have some keen students that are practising hard for our Frankley’s Got Talent camp concert on the Tuesday night.  We still could do with some more entries, so have a chat to your child about what talents or strengths they could show off to others.  Please ensure that you have paid the camp fee of $155 per child to Robyn at the office.  Also note that the Bingo Night didn’t go ahead as there wasn’t enough interest from our families.

SCIENCE ROADSHOW

The Science Roadshow offers school children an opportunity to explore various science and technology concepts by ‘touch and feel’. It provides a unique, informal learning opportunity that:

• excites and enthuses visitors;
• nurtures curiosity and discovery;
• improves motivation and attitude;
• adds to teacher knowledge;
• supports numeracy and literacy;
• encourages social interaction and cooperative learning;
• provides memorable real life contextual elements and exemplars.

We are looking for 40 students with a strong interest, talent or ability in Science who would like to attend. Names will be recorded on a first in basis. Have a chat with your child about whether they would like to attend. If they do, please return the following form or information to Mr Anderson as soon as possible.

Science Roadshow Notice

BIKING AND SCOOTERING AT FRANKLEY

A lot of discussion has been going on in Tūhono about the expectations around riding bikes and scooters at school.  Our students are being good role models during lunchtimes and after school and taking responsibility for the equipment they use.  Please click on this link if your child bikes or scooters at school to make sure that they are fully aware of the dos and don’ts.

KAPA HAKA

Last week saw the return of the Frankley School Kapa Haka group.  We all met with Whaea Mata, Whaea Bobbie, Mr Ritai and Mrs Trinder to find out what the Kapa haka group was all about.  Last year’s group performed their bracket and we started to learn a new Te Ati Awa waiata “E Nga Iwi o te Motu Nei”.  We look forward to seeing lots more Tūhono faces tomorrow and the next session before we choose our final performance group.

WINTER SPORTS REGISTRATIONS

Even though it’s not officially winter yet, we are well into organising and registering sports teams for the upcoming season.  Just so no one misses out, we have had Miniball (Year 4) and Basketball (Year 5) notices go out, and Netball.  If your child would like to be involved in one of these sports codes, we have plenty of spare notices in Tūhono.  If we have keen hockey players, more details about that will follow.  Also for those of you who are new, we don’t have a rugby or football school team, we only have teams for interschool.  If you were interested in playing these sports, your child would need to join a club.

SWIMMING

Tūhono have been working hard over the past few weeks on goals set by the students.  Most have progressed further than their original goal.  This week we are going to be self-assessing our progress, reporting back on what we have learnt and showing evidence of our learning through a video.  These will then be added to our google slide presentation and shared on the blog.  We will also identify next steps for future learning.  Please note that even though it is getting colder, swimming is still a compulsory part of our physical education programme.  If your child is unable to swim for medical reasons, a note or email needs to be provided to Mrs Trinder.  Note that we are trying to have swims later in the day so that the pool is warmer for our swimmers.

WHĀNAU PHOTOS

Another special display that we would like to have in our classroom is a whānau wall.  This is a place for us to show off and be proud of all of those people that help us in our learning, because the students and we, as teachers, could never do it alone.  Thank you to those families that have already sent their photos in, we are looking forward to seeing more of them.  Could you please send along a beautiful family photo with your child for us to hang on our wall, or alternatively you can email it to Mrs T or Mrs Cribb for us to print it for you.

What a week!  Remember if you want to chat or just have a question, feel free to email us or drop in to catch up with one of us or both of us!

Ngā mihi

Anna Trinder / Kim Cribb

anna@frankley.school.nz

kim@frankley.school.nz

Which Activity Group are you in?

Hot off the press are our Camp Vertical Horizons Activity Groups.  These kids have got together in their groups, made their team names and created a motto to reflect their team.  Which team do you think will take out top team over the three days at camp?

Week 5/6 Update

OUR MISSION:

Maintain a challenging learning to learn community that responds to the interests, needs, and talents of our learners.

OUR VISION:

Positive difference, Creative learner, Effective communicator.

Week 5/6  Term 1

Tēna koutou Tūhono whānau,

We have been so busy the past few weeks that we skipped our weekly update for Week 5, so here is both!  It has been so lovely to get out in the sunshine each day especially the night of the walkathon and for our swimming sessions.  We have spent some time getting ready for camp and are just about at the finishing touches of planning for this event.  Check out our blog for what we have been up to.  Tūhono would also like to welcome Matthew Hay to our classroom who has come to us from Bayview School in Auckland.  Matthew has come from a collaborative learning environment so has settled in quickly and is now part of our whānau at school.

CAMP VERTICAL HORIZONS

Only 16 more sleeps until our Tūhono Camp!  This means that it is time to start gathering up the gear needed and checking you have everything.  Click on this link for a copy of the gear list.  We went out for a pre-visit last week and everything’s looking good to go.  Vertical Horizons is a beautiful setting and Tūhono is going to love it!  A big thank you to the Greenfield, Taiaroa, Scott, Rangi, Cave, Telfer, Ingle, Smithson, and Fox families who gave up an hour of their day on Saturday to run the Sausage Sizzle.  Tūhono appreciates all of your support.  We still have some sausages left over, so Tūhono is holding another sausage sizzle at school this Wednesday.  Order forms will be given out on Monday.  Our next fundraising venture is our Bingo Night at Good Home on the 14th March.  We look forward to seeing lots of teams entering.  Click on this link for further information and click on this link for a copy of the entry form.

BIKING AND SCOOTERING AT FRANKLEY

A lot of discussion has been going on in Tūhono about the expectations around riding bikes and scooters at school.  Our students are being good role models during lunchtimes and after school and taking responsibility for the equipment they use.  Please click on this link if your child bikes or scooters at school to make sure that they are fully aware of the dos and don’ts.

KAPA HAKA

This week sees the return of the Frankley School Kapa Haka group.  Every morning we sing a waiata to start our day, so we can tell there will be some keen Tūhono students wanting to be involved.  Even if your child is unsure, encourage them to come along on Tuesday afternoon to try it out.

WINTER SPORTS REGISTRATIONS

Even though it’s not officially winter yet, we are well into organising and registering sports teams for the upcoming season.  Just so no one misses out, we have had Miniball (Year 4) and Basketball (Year 5) notices go out, and Netball.  If your child would like to be involved in one of these sports codes, we have plenty of spare notices in Tūhono.  If we have keen hockey players, more details about that will follow.  Also for those of you who are new, we don’t have a rugby or football school team, we only have teams for interschool.  If you were interested in playing these sports, your child would need to join a club.

GOOGLE APPS FOR EDUCATION

At Frankley School we are linked up to Google Apps for Education (GAFE).  That is how we are able to set up and monitor gmail accounts for our students.  Today in Tūhono we had a discussion about the purpose of having a gmail account at school and that it is only used for educational purposes (as mentioned in the digital citizen form that you all signed).  The main points that came up were that all emails sent by the students must be cc to their teachers and that they are not to subscribe to Youtube channels, pinterest or any other social media using this account.  To utilise these sites they would need to have set up a personal gmail with your permission as children under 13 years of age are not supposed to have a personal gmail account.  Any of the sites like Twitter or Youtube, that we use in class, the students access through one class account.  The other request we have is that if your child brings along their own ipad or tablet, can they please have the following free apps installed - Google Drive, Google Docs, Google Slides, Google Sheets, Class Dojo, Twitter, Spelling City, Gmail.  We also have asked the students to take some time as home learning to tidy up their emails and they should be checking them every night.

SWIMMING

Tūhono have now set goals for their swimming sessions by looking closely at videos of themselves swimming.  They have been using the Swim Safe modules to choose the skills that they need to master, skills such as streamlining their body, chin to chest and blowing bubbles correctly.  These will be shared on their blogs shortly.  Please note that swimming is compulsory as part of our physical education programme.  If your child is unable to swim for medical reasons, a note or email needs to be provided to Mrs Trinder.

BEING SUNSMART

Thank you to those students who consistently bring a hat to school everyday and wear it at morning tea and lunchtimes.  Even though the weather hasn’t been ideal lately, the sun is just as harmful.  Dojo points are given out to those who bring their hats consistently.

CLASS DOJO

90% of our parents/caregivers have joined up to our class dojo - only 5 more and we will all be connected.  Remember this is a place where you can see what values and attitudes your child is showing throughout the day and what other ones that they may need to work on more.  At this stage, parents/caregivers are definitely winning though as we only have 52% of students connected.  As part of home learning this week, could you please take 5 minutes to have your child sign up as a student so that they can monitor their behaviours as well.  They will need to create a username and password (one that they can easily remember) and their individual code (this was on the original sheet that came home - if misplaced, get them to come see Mrs T).  They will then enter your email address and you will have to verify them before they can start using it.  Any problems, see Mrs T.  There will be participation dojo points up for grabs if they sign up!

WHĀNAU PHOTOS

Another special display that we would like to have in our classroom is a whānau wall.  This is a place for us to show off and be proud of all of those people that help us in our learning, because the students and we, as teachers, could never do it alone.  Thank you to those families that have already sent their photos in, we are looking forward to seeing more of them.  Could you please send along a beautiful family photo with your child for us to hang on our wall, or alternatively you can email it to Mrs T or Mrs Cribb for us to print it for you.

What a week!  Remember if you want to chat or just have a question, feel free to email us or drop in to catch up with one of us or both of us!

Ngā mihi

Anna Trinder / Kim Cribb

anna@frankley.school.nz

kim@frankley.school.nz

Tūhono Superstars so far!

Tūhono have been displaying so many of our Frankley Values and Attitudes over the past few weeks.  This is the basis for awarding our Dojo points and at the end of the week the boy and girl with the highest points is awarded Peppa and Harold.  Let's take a look at where and who they have been with lately.  If you get the chance to spend some time with either Peppa and Harold, where would you take them?

Georgia taking Peppa on a bike ride - can you work out where they are?

Peppa doing some stretches with Sylvia

Harold getting out on the water with Lachlan

19 more sleeps to go until...?

March is here, which means Tūhono and some of Te Pihinga are counting down the days until all 56 of us venture out to Vertical Horizons Camp for two nights and three days of fun, challenge and learning.  To set the scene and get our students mingling a bit more, we have spent the last three days carrying out co-operative group missions.  The first day we were mixed up into teams and sent off outside (on a rather hot afternoon) to find clues around the school that spelled out a special message.  Everyone did an amazing job and we were able to solve the puzzle of "Challenge By Choice", which is the motto of our camp.  Congratulations to Ava, Slater and Aria who won that challenge.

Next up was the Vertical Horizons Quiz Challenge where each team was given a map of the camp, the camp programme and access to the Vertical Horizons Website.  All of the teams took on different roles within the group and achieved success.  Prizegiving will be carried out tomorrow for the winning team.  Mrs Cribb and Mrs T think that it is nearly time for us to choose some people we might like to be in a cabin with.  What are you looking forward to most on camp?  What might be some challenges for you?  What goal are you going to set yourself to achieve?