Newsletter
Week 7 NEWSLETTER
from the principal
Our Vision: Together we Nurture, Explore and Create for a Better Future
On Fridays, children spend 45 minutes in whānau classes. These are mixed year level classes based on the tuakana-teina idea of big buddy/little buddy. Each week these classes spend some time exploring local stories, discussing citizenship, and they watch a ‘Good Sorts’ clip. Part of what we want from our DPS Kids is for them to develop the idea of giving back, of doing something for others...the idea of service. Strong links to the ‘Better Future’ part of the vision, our push towards making great kids who help create great communities in the future.
In just over a week we will have our first Service Day of the year with whānau classes running projects for the morning to ‘give back’ to our community. These acts of service will happen at school, but also out of the school gates. Always a great day, and I look forward to seeing what our DPS Kids do to give back next week.
Apple Distinguished School
Work is progressing nicely on our application to become an Apple Distinguished School, and over the last week one of our awesome parents, Rob, has been in school filming (thanks heaps Rob!). The application has to include three 90 second videos showcasing our school, and in particular how we meet the criteria (Inspire, Imagine, Impact…see the image below). The process, while it has been challenging, has been a real celebration of all the innovative things that we do at school…and celebration of all the powerful ‘little moments’ between staff and students. I’m excited to see the final product, and excited to share it with you. The application is due on the last day of term…so hopefully you’ll get to see it around then.
Massive thanks to the students and parents giving up their time to be filmed, to the teachers for allowing us to disrupt programs while coming in to get that perfect shot…and the biggest thanks to Shaun for driving this project along.
Awesome stuff James!
A shout out here for our very own James Riley, just a few weeks ago he was the closing Keynote Speaker at the Interface eXpo conference in Christchurch. The conference is all about technology in education, and James spoke about the use of Artificial Intelligence in the classroom, in particular ChatGPT. At DPS we are open to the use of new technology, and have been experimenting with ChatGPT across the year. I’ve used it to write parts of my newsletters, to help craft emails and teachers have been using it to both support learning in the class as well as using it to support writing teacher comments and learning stories.
It is awesome that James was chosen to speak on the subject at the conference, and hopefully at some stage we will get the video footage to share with you all.
Teacher Pay Negotiations
Primary School Teachers have accepted the latest pay offer from the government, so all further industrial action is cancelled. While the offer was an improvement on the past ones…the question still lingers…is the job of being a teacher attractive enough to pull in our best and brightest, and then keep them in the job? I really hope so, but I’m unsure.
I’d just like to publicly thank our parent community for your support across the negotiations…we’ve had lots of positive messages wishing us well as the negotiations dragged on, and while we know the inconvenience caused by the strike day and the early closure for meetings…through all of it we felt your support so I thank you all.
I’d also like to thank Gemma, our staff NZEI rep. Gemma has been a champion for the campaign, in an unpaid and at times thankless role. She had to prepare and run the staff hui last week on the negotiation with very little notice, and did a great job..thanks Gem!
Writing - Megan's homeclass - Cross country writing
I saw the waving grass as the wind blows.
I heard people screaming as it echoes back at me.
I felt the swishy swoshy mud under my feet.
My heart was beating so fast like it was a pen clicking as fast as lightning!
I felt proud. I came fourth and at the end I got a drippy droopy iceblock.
By Livy
I saw grass waving in the wind.
I heard birds tweeting when I was running through the field.
I tasted gooey iceblocks.
I felt the sun beating down on me.
I felt happy because I came seventh.
By Jaxom
I saw trees. They were blowing in the wind.
I heard wind from the trees.
I tasted lemonade ice blocks.
I felt mushy mud under my feet.
I felt proud at sprinting and coming fifth.
By Madeleine
I saw lots of trees waving in the wind.
I heard cheering from parents and kids.
I tasted cold ice blocks.
I felt so so so happy. It was exciting!
I'm proud of me running.
By Violet
I saw Mum and Dad waving and taking a video.
I heard birds chirping.
I tasted juicy ice blocks.
I felt wavy air in my face.
I felt puffed out.
By Sylas
What's happening at DPS?
Ukulele group
We are wanting to offer our senior students the opportunity to learn and participate in a musical group by starting a ukulele group on Monday lunchtimes. We would like to make this group open to any student who would like to participate whether they have an instrument or not. So we were wondering if anyone in our community have any spare, unused ukuleles gathering dust at home that they might like to donate to our group.
If you can help with this please bring any instruments in to the office. Anything you can offer will be greatly appreciated.
Thank you
Cross Country
Well done to all of the students who participated in this year's cross country. Here is a list of the top ten from each year group. Congratulations Hillary for taking out the top spot again this year.
Sport
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.
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.
Community notices
