Week 6 NEWSLETTER

from the principal

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

I’m writing my newsletter from home this week after testing positive for COVID on Monday. The Ministry of Health guidelines recommend 5 days isolation…meaning no school for me this week. Big thanks to the awesome team I have…the school is humming along as always!

Part of our vision describes working Together…and often we get asked “what can we be doing at home to help my child's learning”? The simple answer is…be involved, and do lots of talking!

Play games outside…kick a ball, play tag, play hide and seek, go for a walk…chat about how far they think they threw the ball, where they hid, what you can see as you go for a walk.
Play board games, card games…not only do these involve numbers a lot of the time, but they involve problem-solving, logic and communication.
Let them create with LEGO, with pen and paper, with their toys, with sticks and leaves outside. Ask them what they have made…how it works, what does it do?
If you take them shopping, say, to the supermarket, get them involved with the money…find the cheapest milk, what is the best special on bread, what is the best deal on cereal?
Involve them in your world as well…explain what you did at work, show them what you might be reading, talk them through the DIY job you are doing at home.
Ask them about what they did that day at school, and dig deeper when they respond with “nothing”. Ask what they were learning in maths, what they found hard in reading, what was their best sentence in writing, what they created in play learning or who they hung out with at lunch.
Have some experiences together…cheap and cheerful ones like going to the Kids Own Playground, the skatepark, walking through QE2 park, going to the library, walking along the riverside trail…they cost you some time, but provide rich things to chat to them about.

These sound very low level…but they are what makes a real difference! And…you’ll notice, they don’t involve a screen. I’ve got nothing against screens…but I do think they should be time-limited, and certainly these other things should outweigh screentime.

But what about homework? We are not a school that sets homework…the body of research out there that shows it has no effect on learning is huge…but, we are a school that encourages reading at home. 20 minutes a night is what we think is beneficial. Some children bring readers home from school, each week all the classes head to our library to swap books…and once a term our lucky kids get to bring home two Duffy Books! A great addition to your book supply at home, and a chance for us to promote the benefits of reading most days at home. This includes you reading to them.

Research shows that reading aloud to your child is one of the most important things you can do to prepare your child for reading and learning. Reading to your child:

Nurtures a love of reading of good quality literature
Strengthens bonds with your child
Develops oral language through discussion
Builds background knowledge and understanding through factual texts
Expands their vocabulary
Helps them learn more about interests and hobbies

This is a great article from Reading Rockets about Reading to your child and why reading aloud to children from an early age is so important, and how to make it a motivating and meaningful experience.

I don’t know if I fully believe the claims around testing in the image below…but I agree with the idea behind the image: The more you read, the more words you are exposed to, the more opportunities you have to practice and…chances are…this will positively impact on your ability to read. The key message…it may be the most important 20 minutes of the day!

Swimming Season

Well done to the team of swimmers that represented DPS at the interschool swim meet on Wednesday. Always a big step up to go from our pool to the town pool…but as always, our kids Dare to Dream and represent us with PRIDE. Thanks to Helen and Shaun for managing the team, and to our awesome parent volunteers…much appreciated!

The senior teams are having their swimming competition today…nice to have the sunshine back for it! Have a great time kids…and GO RUTHERFORD!

And lastly, as the swim season draws to a close…a huge thanks once again to Mr Blue for his time and dedication to the pool. We celebrated its 100th birthday last year, but it is still going strong. I think of all the 8 local primary schools, only 3 have a school pool…so it really is a privilege that our DPS Kids get the daily opportunity to get into the water and develop their skills. Looking forward to the 2025 season!

Attendance - HERO reporting

REMINDER: If your child is going to be away/late, you can report this via the HERO app. This notifies teachers and the office and saves a call home from us to check where your child is.

Stationery

Thank you to everyone who has paid their $15 for their child's stationery. This pretty much covers all they need for the year and is heavily subsidised by our BOT. All stationery money is due in by the end of term please, you can pay online ASB 12-3290-0064275-00 or pop into the office.

Writing - mrs mcphail's homeclass

Kia ora e te whānau,

Our writing learning goal: To be great writers by using interesting ideas and words

This week for writing we wrote about superheroes. All of the ākonga were super excited to write about superheroes. We brainstormed some superheroes that we know of and their super powers. I asked the kids if they could have 1 super power what would it be and we went from their

We planned our superhero first on the planning sheet this generated lots of talk about different ideas including names, superpowers, how they helped people and of course what they looked like.

All ākonga thought creatively about their superhero giving them all different costumes and abilities. Once they finished their writing they used the ipads to draw their superhero to illustrate their writing.

He whetū koutou! - You are stars

What's happening at DPS?

Subway lunches delivered to school every Friday

Order online using the Subway Express App or you can fill out a form at the office.

Sports

Term 1 Sport 2024

Here is a link to the teams and draw for Teeball, softball and netball.

Brass Lessons

Masterton district brass band are offering years 4,5,6 students a chance to learn how to play a brass instrument - Instruments are Cornet, trombone, tenor horn, baritone. lessons are in school time. There is a small cost of $50 to hire the instrument and $50 a term for the lessons, if interested either email Narissa on mastertonbrass@gmail.com or get a form from the office.

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