Week 4 NEWSLETTER

from the principal

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

I love our school vision, and I love being a champion for it…it tends to be the first thing in my weekly newsletter for that reason.

Our youngest turned 5 today…an exciting milestone for any young person, and for whānau. Like all parents we had to make a decision about where he would go for his schooling, and like some of you…we live out of the Douglas Park School zone. We had to apply for a place for Emmett and went through the agonising wait like other parents to see whether there was a place for him.

So why Douglas Park? Why not send him (and his brother) to our local school?

Simply…I like what we are striving for here at DPS, I like the learning experience our people get, I like our values…and I wish that I had had the chance to attend a school like this myself. My experience of schooling as a child wasn’t amazing…and by the time I got to college I was quite put off from learning. Back then success was defined as being ‘good’, doing well academically or being great at sport. Outside of that…schools didn’t seem that interested in other forms of success.

I love that our DPS Kids find success daily here…those that want/crave academic success get that chance, alongside those that may find formal learning hard…but have just built the most amazing 3D design. I love walking through the rooms and seeing happy kids, and seeing them so engaged in what they are learning/experiencing. I love seeing the challenge in the learning process, seeing the challenge in the play/making, or seeing the children challenging themselves climbing a tree. I love that our eldest Henry comes home excited about his day…could be his writing, could be the bugs he found at morning tea, could be the creation he built…but he is happy. And I love that our youngest, Emmett, is going to get to experience all of this starting Monday…to work Together with staff and students, be Nurtured into finding his passions, to get to Explore his world, to learn to Create new knowledge and new things, and that this place will help develop him into a great young person who wants to help make a Better Future for those around him.

Athletics Day!

Another epic Term 4 event, what a great day we had at the sportsbowl last Friday! The weather was great…fine, not too hot and a lovely breeze to keep our great athletes cool. The children were amazing…really dared to dream tackling the events, pushing themselves. Hillary won the house relay…I think across the race all 4 of the houses led at some point, so it was a great one to watch.

Massive thanks to Hayley for the organisation, and the staff for the training in the leadup and for making the day run so smoothly. Huge thanks to all our great parent volunteers who ran events for us. It means a lot…it allows events like this to function so well, and it shows our children a real example of service/being a great volunteer (and well done to the parents who raced against our kids…what a finish!). Further thanks to the FODPS team for providing an ice block to all the children when we got back to school.

Eliza McCartney

Exciting times, next week we are being visited by Eliza McCartney…Olympic medalist! This has been a while coming, a prize won by one of our awesome parents. She will be coming to school, giving us a prize of sports gear and then taking part in some mini-athletics activities. I look forward to hearing her speak to the school, no doubt she will have great words around hard work, perseverance and setting yourself goals.

As part of her coming to Masterton we have reached out to the local sports cluster and have arranged it so she also will head down to the inter-school athletics day. Again, this is us as a school trying to live by our vision…the idea of service. We could keep her for ourselves…and that would be great, but have decided to give all the athletes from the Wairarapa schools the chance to interact with an Olympian.

For the Calendar

We have one confirmed half day this term.

Monday 28th November: School closes at 1pm. Staff are heading out with Joseph Potangaroa to look at local sites significant to the area

Calling all 4 Year Olds!

While our Out of Zone applications have closed for the year, we are still keen to hear from any of our in zone families who will have children starting with us next year. This information is invaluable, and allows us to plan our class and team setups much more effectively. If you have a younger sibling (or know of people looking to attend DPS) please flick an email to the office and let us know. office@douglaspark.school.nz

Writing - rimu

Here is some writing from some of youngest DPS learners.

Order Subway online or at the office for delivery to school friday

SPORT

Summer Sports are well under way. If you are yet to pay your fees, these are now overdue.

Find the draws here. (Please note that some draws come out weekly or are yet to be set for the season.)

Athletics Day

We had a fantastic Athletics Day on Friday last week. All students participated with PRIDE.

A huge thank you to the parent volunteers who came and ran events on the day and another thank you to the FoDPS who supplied ice blocks to all students on our return to school. They were very well received after a tiring day. This year, MTF Finance provided us with a gazebo for the event - thank you.

Below are our DPS results. Year 4-6 students who placed in the top 3 and met the qualifying standards have received a notice to attend the Masterton Inter-school Athletics Competition.

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