Week 8 NEWSLETTER

from the principal

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

I know I write about this a lot, but here I go again…I love the learning that we have on offer for the children here at Douglas Park. We know the basics are important, that reading, writing & maths are foundational skills that all children need to develop. We work hard at this, and we get great results academically for your children.

But…we also know that learning is much broader than just ‘the basics’, and that if we just focused on them we would be doing the children a disservice. Equipping children for a ‘Better Future’ means helping develop them into great people, into great learners ready to tackle anything..in short, they need to be equipped with our four Core Beliefs (Collaboration, Creativity, Critical Thinking and Learner Agency). These four dispositions will serve our children well now and into the future. We teach these Beliefs, we make sure our classrooms give children the opportunity to enact them, and we design our learning so children get to live them.

We’ve just brought back the DPS Kid Shields as a way of recognising these fortnightly in celebration time…each fortnight we celebrate one learner from each teaching team who has lived our core beliefs, and we share a story about them. A video is put together, and shared by the Lead Councillors at celebration time. Have a watch below:

HERO - Our School App

You may have seen (and a paper note came home yesterday) that we have updated our school app HERO to a more powerful version called Premier. Most of the changes are for caregivers, and a couple of really useful features are now available:

The added function that will really be most useful for you is the ability to ‘Report an Absence’. Clicking this link will allow you to send a message to school saying that your child will be away from school, and to give a reason. Saves a call to us…or us calling you after 9am once we have done the roll.
The app home screen now has a lot more functionality. You can still access the normal things (notices, HERO posts about your children, their academic information) but it now also includes Term Dates, a calendar of events and links out to our school facebook page.

HERO is our preferred method of communicating, and now this applies to reporting absences. Using the HERO to report an absence means the information goes right to the office, right to the place where we check the daily roll for each class.

Everyday we have children away for a variety of reasons…roughly 30 children away on any given day. But, of these 30 children, between 10-20 of them we don’t know why they are away as the office hasn’t been informed. This means 10-20 phone calls to whānau after 9am to try to make sure that your child is safe at home. Sometimes these calls balloon out when we can’t get hold of caregivers, we start calling emergency contacts…and this all adds up to a lot of time spent chasing reasons for absences each day.

Using the app…when we start the school day we can see your child is going to be away and the reason for the absence. Thanks in advance for using this feature! You can download the app from either the Google Play Store, or the Apple App Store…or use this link to access it via your computer.

Strike!

Thanks for your support of the teacher strike last week. As I’ve been saying in the newsletter, we know it was an inconvenience…but…the profession is in a state of crisis, and we need the government to hear that. Local educators gathered outside the town hall…and it was great to hear the support of passing motorists in their morning commute. I headed down to Wellington and spent some time at the rally outside Parliament as well…again, great support from the community. I have a meeting with our local MP tomorrow to share my stories with him of the inequities in the system, and particularly the funding and staffing gap between primary schools and secondary schools (we get a raw deal in comparison!)

Negotiations for primary teachers are set to start again next week on the 29th March. Fair warning to the community…our secondary colleagues have already set another potential strike day (also next week) unless the government offers something more substantial. No word yet as to what the next moves will be for the primary teachers in terms of industrial action, but we will keep you in the loop.

Got Younger Siblings?

We are just updating our enrollment records for the year. If you have a 4 year old at home that will be attending DPS this year can you please let us know. Flick an email to the office: office@douglaspark.school.nz . This information lets us plan out classes, and to manage our numbers here at DPS.

Teacher Only Days - Reminder

We have two upcoming teacher only days:

Thursday 6th April: This is all of the primary schools in Masterton closing for a day of professional learning. Again I am one of the organisers, and it will be a day of powerful learning for our educators. This TOD makes Wednesday 5th April the last day of the term
Monday 24th April: This is a teacher only day to look at the new NZ Curriculum. All schools in NZ have the first two weeks of term 2 to have a TOD, and many are choosing Monday 24th April as the very next day is ANZAC Day, so schools will be closed then. This makes Wednesday 26th April the first day of term 2.

Thanks in advance for your support of these days.

Sport

Winter Hockey starts in Week 2 Term 2 and runs over Term 2 and 3.

Students are required to attend a lunchtime practise and their game each week. Please talk with your child about this commitment before signing up. They will need to commit to their team for the whole season!

Years 3/4 Tuesday afternoons (quarter field, 15 minute halves) May 2nd – August 1st (12 weeks)

Years 5/6 (Half field, 20 minute halves) Friday May 5th – August 4th (12 weeks)

Year 1/2 students who have not participated in Funsticks can sign up for this programme using the link in the newsletter.

Fees are heavily subsidised by the school and are set at $40 per player. This is to be paid to the office before Friday 28th April. Students will not be able to play until either their fee is paid to the office or a payment plan is established.

Please complete this form before next Friday 31st March. We are unable to accept late entries.

Thanks for your support.

Hockey Wairarapa also require players to register individually through PlayHQ. Please use this link to create an account and register your child.

Writing - Megan's homeclass

What's happening at DPS?

Lucky Book Club Orders…here is some information so you can plan out your orders over the year. When each edition arrives - students are offered the magazine but taking one home is not compulsory! We encourage parents to enstall the LOOP app on their devices to make ordering easy. Please have your orders submitted by the closing date to avoid postage costs to yourselves.

Any problems please contact Gemma McPhail at gemmamcphail@douglaspark.school.nz or you can find me in room Kōwhai. Or you can talk to Meryl in the office and she may be able to help you.

Scholastic Website for all of your Q&A

Sport

Wairarapa Swimming Champs

On Wednesday we took a group of 7 swimmers down to the Wairarapa Swimming Champs. All students competed with PRIDE. A big thanks to Helen and Kirsty who supported the swimmers on the day!

Check out our results below:

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

Every Friday we have Subway lunches delivered to school. If you would like to order your child a subway lunch, the easiest way is to order online. Please make sure you put your child's class (teachers name) on the order as it makes it much easier to sort our end. Subway can also be ordered by filling out a form at the school office before school on a Friday.