Week 4 NEWSLETTER

from the principal

Our Vision: Together we Nurture, Explore and Create for a Better Future

Awesome effort DPS for ‘Pink Shirt Day’ last week. It marked the end of anti-bullying week…and it may seem strange to talk about bullying in relation to our school vision, but our vision is designed to create a place where these anti-social forms of behaviour aren’t tolerated, and children are educated about how to ‘Nurture’ others around them.

Most widely accepted definitions of bullying behaviour are based around the following four things:

Bullying is deliberate - harming another person intentionally.
Bullying involves a misuse of power in a relationship – there is real or perceived imbalance that may be based on physical size, age, gender, social status, or digital capability and access.
Bullying is usually not a one-off but is repeated, or has the potential to be repeated over time. It is when one student (or group of students) keeps picking on another student again and again to make them feel bad.
Bullying involves behaviour that can be harmful – it is not a normal part of growing up.

Bullying is a word sometimes used to describe a lot of things that are not actually bullying. These other behaviours are just as serious and upsetting, but may need to be sorted out in a different way.

Sometimes there may be a fight or argument between students. If this happens once, or with a friend and they can sort it out, it is not bullying. Not liking someone, a one-off mean or spiteful act, or isolated incident of aggression are not bullying. They aren’t great…but they aren’t bullying.

At DPS we have our strong PRIDE values. These are taught weekly, and part of that teaching is around what behaviours are acceptable, and how we do them. Children are praised often for making the right choice…we reward the positive, prosocial choice that our great DPS Kids make. Golden Time is a weekly reward accessible for all students…have a great week, show PRIDE and you get 30 mins of something awesome on a Friday. Fail to meet these expectations, and you will lose some of that golden time. We have weekly Circle Time…a supercharged class meeting where we can unpack any issues that may be going on in the playground or classroom, and teachers again get to teach the right, prosocial behaviour that we want to see.

We also value relationships highly…it forms a huge part of our curriculum. No significant learning can occur without a significant relationship. Getting to know our learners, and their whānau, means that we can Nurture the unique talents that each child brings in through the gates each day. We can help them Explore new learning, and Create deep understanding. This can be as simple as teachers being in class before school to greet children and whānau, or as big as our staff taking sports out of school time to build those relationships.

We are a large organisation…add in the adults and we have over 400 people onsite here at DPS…friction is bound to happen at times. I’m proud of the team here, we are excellent at dealing with issues when they crop up from time to time and pride ourselves on making sure parents are in the loop with any incidents. As always…reach out to us if you think there is an issue, and we will look into it.

Well done - Nikora and Colt

A chance to celebrate these two wonderful lads…our Rimu students have been curious about eels, and have been doing some learning in class about them. A bunch of these children had the chance to head to the Mangatepuku Stream, the stream that we have been restoring behind the school pool. Nikora and Colt were chosen by Joe to lead some learning about the creek, and its inhabitants…and both the boys were absolutely awesome. They were knowledgeable, shared their learning well with the 5 year olds, and showed the deep, caring relationship they have with the creek and the tuna that live there. The Rimu kids and the staff were super impressed…well done lads!

COVID

Very low case numbers continue to be the pattern, and that has brought back high attendance which is great. This is not to diminish the COVID menace…it is still circulating through the community (another awesome graph from John Hart below…a very long, stubborn tail has developed) and means that we still have to be vigilant. I’m grateful for you guys for keeping students at home who are unwell, and I’m grateful for the mask wearing that is still strong in the school. Please keep informing us if your child has picked COVID up, we are tracking numbers both for ourselves and for the Ministry of Education.

DPS Cross Country

On tomorrow! Children have been training for weeks now, and tomorrow they get to put it all into action. Always a great event…and this will be the first event that we will be able to have whānau into school for a long time…all welcome!

Give A Little

Another cause to support, one of our DPS Kids this time. Leia is new to the DPS whānau, starting with us in Term 1. She made an immediate impression though, a great start to school. Leia is working hard at the moment to be able to return to school, and to adjust to a new way of being. Any support you might be able to offer I know would be appreciated. The Give a Little page can be found here

Upcoming Dates

We have 3 short weeks at school this term that you need to be aware of:

Week 6: Monday 6th June is Queen’s Birthday Weekend…no school that day
Week 7: Friday 17th June is a Teacher Only Day for all the Masterton Primary Schools…no school that day
Week 8: Friday 24th June is the new Matariki public holiday…no school that day

A MESSAGE FROM OUR NEW PUBLIC HEALTH NURSE

Kia Ora

My name is Sophie Blackett and I am Douglas Park School’s new public health nurse. I will be running in-school clinics every Wednesday from 9am-12pm. I can see tamariki about any health and wellbeing concerns you may have. Referrals can be made by teachers or parents by emailing me at sophie.blackett@wairarapa.dhb.org.nz. Students are also welcome to come and have a chat with me about anything- no referral needed.

I look forward to meeting and working with you and your whanau.

Nga Mihi,

Sophie

writing - Miss Mac's Writing class

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What's on at DPS?

Cross Country

We had an awesome DPS Cross Country on Friday. Well done to all the runners who participated and congratulations to all children who placed in their race.

An extra congratulations to Hillary - the house champions on the day.