PUKEKOHE HILL FAMILY NEWSLETTER Phone 092386374 e.mail: admin@pukekohehill.school.nz www.pukekohehill.school.nz

No 26/14 3 September 2014

STAFF IN THE NEWS

Nau mai, haere mai. Welcome

to Mrs Jo Moana who has joined

the Junior Syndicate teaching

team and has begun our latest

new entrant class in Room 28.

TREASURES AND TAONGA

AT HILL

Recently, the multi purpose

room has been full of memories,

historical artefacts, taonga and

treasures! As part of their

Culture Concept, senior students

have been displaying and

talking about their “treasures”.

From beloved teddy bears,

military medals, books and

jewellery passed down through

the generations, tapa cloth and

carvings ..... each artefact has

special significance for students

and their families.

What is also impressive is how

students have been able to talk

about their treasures and answer

questions from all their visitors.

Congratulations to our senior

children and thanks to families

for your support.

GROUP DAY CROSS

COUNTRY

CHAMPIONS

Congratulations to the 32

athletes who represented

Hill at the Central Group

champs last week after

qualifying from the school

cross country. Best wishes

to our team at today’s

Franklin champs.

Top 10 placegetters in their

Group Day age group races

were:

Georgia Carter (2)

Bradley Morrison (3)

Tory Jones-Bruce (4)

Aiden Hall (6)

Mason Johnston (7)

Sarah Carpenter (7)

Niamh Baxter (7)

Bella Earl (9)

Carl Hayman (9)

PTA PIZZA THURSDAY

TOMORROW

Something different! Thanks to

all those who have ordered

pizza for lunch tomorrow.

Orders have now closed.

A reminder that the Lunchbox is

closed tomorrow.

Determined runners. Check out

their new sports shirts too!

ART EXHIBITION

IMPRESSES

Congratulations to our Year 4

students from Room 23 who

recently had a selection of their

artworks exhibited at Franklin

The Centre.

WORM TEA FOR SALE

Be in quick! Worm Tea is for

sale outside Room 1 on Fridays

from 2.30 – 3.10pm. It’s not for

drinking! It’s for your garden,

ideal for fertilising roots of

indoor and outdoor plants.

1 litre $2 and 2 litre $4.

Made by our EFS students.

Seth, Blake and Manroz

OPEN EVENING AND

BOOK FAIR COMING

Make it a date! On Thursday 18

September, you are invited to an

Open Evening and Book Fair at

Hill.

An excellent opportunity to visit

your children’s classes as well

as calling in to the multi purpose

room to choose great books at

great prices

PARENT ROAD PATROL

SUPERVISOR NEEDED

Can you be a Road Patrol hero?

A parent road patrol supervisor

is urgently needed to help our

Ward St student patrollers on

Friday afternoons. Please see

us if you can help.

DAFFODIL DAY NEWS

Thanks Hill community! Your

support for the Cancer Society’s

Daffodil day appeal at school

last week raised over $565 and

was a great example of

the “making a

difference” focus of

our school Vision

Statement.

CLASSROOM

HIGHLIGHTS

Each month, several teachers

and classes present Highlights

reports to the Board of Trustees

and parts of these are shared in

Family Newsletters.

Room 19 Highlights:

Room 19 has 31 students that

are in full swing of a busy Term

3. Developing independence and

becoming motivated learners

has been a major focus within

the class. The children have

learnt that for them to be

effective learners they must be

able to ‘own’ the learning

process. Therefore we have

spent considerable time

developing our goal setting and

reflection skills.

Children are expected to

understand themselves as

learners and be able to identify

and use the traits of an effective

learner. When asked the

question, ‘what do great learners

do?’ they were able to

confidently give a variety of

responses.

These were some

examples:

Take risks, ask for help

when needed, they

demonstrate

determination, believe

in themselves, challenge

themselves, accept

failure, learn from their

mistakes, reflect on

their work and go back

and improve it, use

initiative, never give up, follow

the success criteria, use

knowledge for good, focus, go

the extra mile, co-operate with

others, give 100%, make

connections with the learning,

choose the risky path – not the

safe path!, improve their skills,

don’t settle for average, use

imagination, be creative, they

strive to understand, they put

themselves on the path to

awesomeness!

The Culture concept has

provided many exciting learning

opportunities and allowed many

of the children to share their

expertise about their own

culture and learn about other

cultures around the world. A

major skill focus has been to

compare different cultures with

our own and the children have

been fascinated by just how

different other people around

the world live their lives. We

have also been developing our

skill of writing open questions

for inquiry.

An extension of sharing about

our own culture has been our

Treasures Taonga Exhibition

that they are excitedly preparing

for the rest of the senior school

to view. The children were able

to identify a range of family

treasures and talk confidently

about why they were valuable to

them and their families. It was

amazing what family history

and precious treasures were

unearthed as a result of this unit.

Writing has continued to be a

major area of development this

year and the class have been

benefiting from some excellent

professional learning in the area

of using Assessment for

Learning. We have consolidated

our skills of identifying and

using a range of success criteria

to help them become more

successful in their writing. They

are also developing the skills to

self-assess against them. The

ability of the children in Room

19 to talk about their learning

and identify next steps has

improved greatly. Having the

children taking greater control

of their own learning has been

extremely beneficial. After

identifying an overall weakness

in our development of ideas

through the use of exciting and

precise vocabulary, we have

been working really hard in

class lessons to improve this

writing trait.

Mathex has had our heads

reeling for the last few weeks as

we have tried to get our heads

around some pretty curly math

problems. In groups of 4 the

class have been becoming more

proficient in putting much of

their algebraic thinking skills

into practice as well as

transferring their other math

knowledge into new and varied

contexts. All the hard work paid

dividends when one of our R19

teams won the Hill School

Mathex competition and another

one came 3rd equal. Well done

teams. 7 of our class then

continued onto the Franklin

ASB Mathex Competition

where we placed 3rd equal and

10th out of forty teams.

The class have been heading off

to Patumahoe School each

Tuesday to receive free

swimming lessons with Fulton’s

Swim School. Increased

confidence, endurance and skill

across the group has been

evident already. We have also

been training hard for Cross

Country. Children have been

calculating the distances they

train and have been aiming to

run the equivalent of a half of in

some cases a full marathon. All

this training paid great

dividends.

We have already accomplished

so much this term; it is hard to

believe that we are only half

way through!

COMMUNITY NEWS

Pukekohe Metro

Cricket: Registration at

the Bledisloe Park

clubrooms for new and

existing members is

today on Wednesday 3

September 5.30-7.30,

and on Saturday and

Sunday 6-7 Sept 10am-

1pm. For ages 5 year and

up. Contact Amanda at 238

8099 or 021 879 737.

Pukekohe East Tennis

Muster: Saturday 13 Sept

10.00am at Pukekohe East

Courts, cnr Runciman rd and

Puke east Rd. Any queries:

mccort11@slingshot.co.nz

March Against Child Poverty:

Join the march to end child

poverty in NZ. This Saturday 6

September leaving from

Britomart at 11am to Aotea

Centre.

Young at Art are running art

and craft workshops in the

spring school holidays including

cartoons, printing, painting and

many others. We also offer clay

workshops, after school classes

and Arty parties. For more

information please check out

www.youngatart.co.nz or

contact anna@youngatart.co.nz

or phone 0297 712 923.

Counties Fitness (151

Manukau Road, Pukekohe) are

having an Open Weekend,

Saturday 6th and Sunday 7th

September. FREE entry and lots

of giveaways. See our Website

or Facebook page for more

details and timetable

www.countiesfitness.co.nz or

092381888.

40 Years of PLOC: A musical

show celebrating the people and

musicals performed over the last

40 years by Pukekohe Light

Opera Club. Suitable all ages. 8

shows starting this Thursday 4

Sept to 7 Sept and then 11 – 14

Sept. Adults $20, senior and

students $16. Tickets available

from GNS supplies or

tickets@ploc.co.nz or

0220483214. Also door sales.

Kids After School Holiday

Programme: There’s

something for everyone at our

Kids After School October

holiday programme. Don’t be

disappointed and book today by

checking out our website at

www.kidsafterschool.co.nz. Or

visit our programme at

Pukekohe Hill School for more

info.

Graeme Rix

Principal