Week 2 NEWSLETTER

Road Patrol Feedback

Our awesome Road Patrol got a good shout out on social media this week. The Facebook page ‘Masterton Matters’ posted a great message from a local truckie…recognising the mahi these kids do day in, day out. Nice to get a positive message like that (especially for a social media page normally associated with negativity). Our kids (and the kids from other schools) do an amazing job making sure that pickup and drop off times are as safe as can be.

Parking

Speaking of school drop off, we’ve had more complaints from neighbours around parents parking in, or across driveways. While I appreciate it can be a busy time trying to collect kids, it is a pretty basic courtesy to not do that. We also have places across the street that need access for their people in and out, and that is Te Rangimarie Marae, and the Kōhanga Reo. The marae is used as a medical clinic, and the Kōhanga is an early childhood centre. I’m asking (once again) that we be respectful to those around us. Lots of space on Essex Street or Pownall Street to park…and it takes the kids just a minute to get there.

Attendance

You will probably have seen in the media that attendance across the New Zealand schools hasn’t been great recently, clearly a big decline since the start of the pandemic. The numbers the media talk about are those children who are not attending ‘regularly’...which is attending school 90%+ of the time. The table below shows the thinking from the Ministry, and the impact on time at school across the year. As you can see…even being present at school 90% of the time…which sounds pretty good…means a month of school has been missed. While the research isn’t entirely solid…it is generally accepted that achievement is linked to attendance, and that poor attendance does have a negative effect on learning performance.

Is it an issue at DPS? Not in general…our overall attendance tends to be around 93-96%...and even in the last 2 terms (dominated by COVID and the flu illness that went around) we maintained attendance at roughly 90%. But…within that average there are children at school with attendance much lower than 90%.

We sent out a bunch of letters at the end of Term 2 just to highlight attendance for some whānau. We will do this twice a term. We acknowledge and appreciate the balancing act with illness, and the schools message to keep children home when unwell…but, part of that balancing act is making sure parents are aware of their child’s attendance and what it means for learning.

Learning Conversations

These are held every two terms, and normally in the last week of the term…but we have a change. With the Year 5 & 6 students at camp in Week 10, we are going to shift the Learning Conversations back a week to Week 9. Wednesday 21st and Thursday 22nd of September.

The Wardrobe Man

One day, at 12 o’clock, thunder struck. I suddenly woke up. I’d just had a strange nightmare about my wardrobe. I decided to get out of bed and check it out, just to be sure.

It looked just the same as usual, dusty and full of cobwebs, but something was off… I just couldn’t put my finger on it. Then this crazy old man jumped out. He was wrinkly and had no teeth. The man fell to the floor. He was as thin as a pencil.

I helped him up and asked, “where did you come from?” but because he had no teeth all he said was, “”mgkun ewsjd bah”. Luckily, I could speak gibberish, so I translated. He said wardrobe. “” How long were you in there?” I asked. “gpeng,” he replied (which in gibberish means 90 years). That was when my house was first built! “You poor thing,” I replied. That was a very long time to be stuck in a wardrobe. I decided to hand him over to the FBI for further investigation.

By Preston

Fight for Friends

On a nice sunny day in the park, we were having a delicious lunch. Then we heard a rattling noise coming from the tree. Suddenly, ninja pigs came out of nowhere. “Where did they come from?” I asked.

I told my friend, “Oh, they’re so cute”. We wanted them to be our friends. “If you want to be our friend, you have to fight us for it,” exclaimed one of the ninja pigs.

Bang! Crash! Kapow! They started to fight us. It was really dangerous but we eventually beat them. Now we are all friends.

By Mara

The Dark Forest

Once upon a time, me and Jordan decided to explore a dark forest. We weren’t scared of anything.

Later that day, the sun started to go down. “Are we lost?” Jordan asked. We couldn’t get home because we don’t have a car and, even if we did, we were not allowed to drive it. Now we were starting to get a little bit scared

It started to get cold. In the distance, we could see a cottage, perfect for 2 people. Me and Jordan decided to go inside so we could get warm.

Suddenly, a gloomy shadow appeared beneath the front door. The mysterious person it belonged to knocked 3 times. Knock! Knock! Knock! Me and Jordan were terrified! The door swung open and it was a big bad wolf. We screamed and pushed the wolf aside as we ran for our lives.

After running for hours, we discovered a footpath. As we were following the path, we were finally found by Jordan’s mum. She took us home and we sat by the fire to get warm. We were never going into that forest again!

By Ruby

Awesome to see so many DPS taking part in the funsticks programme this year. Look out later this term for the Summer Hockey sign ups!

Miniball - Games start Monday 15th and Wednesday 17th August.

Please pay any outstanding fees to the office or pay online. Use your child's name and Miniball as the reference

Douglas Park School

12-3290-0064275-00