Week 7 NEWSLETTER

from the principal

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

Last week I wrote about homework, saying that aside from 20 mins a day reading to and with your child my advice was to be ‘doing things’ with them…playing board games, playing card games, kicking a ball, chatting about their learning, going for a walk…and during these things be talking to them. Oral language is so important for learning.

Another massively important thing to consider as part of homework is: giving kids time to be kids. I read an article this week shared on Twitter about the importance of ‘risky play’ and allowing children to have some unsupervised time.

“We desperately want to keep our children safe and ensure their success. We are also often terrified that they will get hurt and that they will fail—so we do everything we can to prevent that from happening. Yet many of those very efforts to manage our fears have paradoxically reduced our children’s safety and their odds of success.”

We have become very risk averse as a culture…”back in my day” it was totally normal to walk/bike to school from a distance, to go to a mates house after school, climb trees, swim in the river, go bike riding without a parent…nowadays these are not so common, and are even viewed as a tad dangerous. I’m not necessarily advocating a return to that (when our boys go bike riding, Hayley and I are there)...but I do think it is worth a pause to see how our children’s time inside and outside of school is being structured.

The image below illustrates the changes…less time outside these days, less time with friends alongside more screen time/homework (I think the sports thing is alright). This means kids are less active, and aren’t being put in situations where they have to make decisions for themselves. Often when I show prospective parents around the school they ask if the children are allowed to climb trees? My answer is yes, and to me it is about learning risk vs reward. Learning to make these sorts of decisions often at primary school, is better than learning about risk vs reward when they first get a license and a car as a teenager!

We have based lots of our school philosophy on this idea…we allow kids to climb trees, we have hot glue guns from 5 for the children to use, hammer and nails, we have loose parts (like the pallets, the tyres, the bits of wood) available for children during play learning and break times…and our play & maker learning times are built for children to have choice, and be driven by their interests.

The article can be read here in full if you wish. I’d love to hear your thoughts on it. Drop me a line, stating point of view, at principal@douglaspark.school.nz

Sporting Success!

At Masterton swimming we had some great results. We had 20 students compete in relays and individual events. Some of our amazing results included our 9 year old boys relay team convincingly winning their age group, and we had three students come first in their age groups. Levi Holmes was first in the 9 year old boys backstroke, Reuben Harkness was first in the 9 year old boys freestyle and breaststroke and Charlie Gard'ner was first in the 7-8 year old boys freestyle and breaststroke. We had 9 of our students qualifying for regionals, John, Reuben, Charlie, Constantine, Madeleine, Levi, Lucy, Meeia, Te Arawa.

In Ki-o-Rahi, we had two Year 5/6 teams travel to Riversdale. There were about 200 students competing over the day. Joe's team made it into the finals where they played Lakeview school. They came a close second. Trent’s team won their final match, placing third overall.

In the local Wairarapa Bush Rippa Tournament we entered 5 teams against the local schools. While there were no finals played, Joe’s team went through undefeated (scoring 40 tries, and letting in 12).

Out and About

Busy time at DPS…last week we had our swim team out to compete at the Masterton Swim meet, teams out to Riversdale to compete in the Ki o Rahi tournament, a heap of children to the Rippa rugby this week, Kōwhai to Holdsworth yesterday and today, Camp for the Year 5/6 children next week, Year 4’s off to Castlepoint and to Rangitumau, some children competing in the Wairarapa swim meet, girls competing in a Cricket competition and Rimu are off to Pūkaha Mt Bruce! Phew!

This calls for a few thank you’s:

Thanks to my amazing staff for organising all of this…the paperwork and logistics involved in getting these opportunities together are massive, and enough to put some schools off. Thanks for being legends!
Thanks to our awesome parent helpers…without you these trips can’t happen, and we appreciate that it is a day away from work (or 3 days 2 nights for our camp parents!) and that this has an impact on the home. Thanks for giving back to our kids like this.
Thanks to our FoDPS Team. Small crew, but the money they raise goes mainly towards these experiences (you would be horrified to know the bus cost to get kids out to Mt Holdsworth and back), and this financial support makes these trips possible. Thanks for giving up your time to meet, to plan and to do the fundraising mahi
And thanks to our DPS Kids for giving things a go! For most these experiences are a first…first time to Holdsworth, first time competing in a competition, first time on the bus to the coast, and even a first time staying away from home when on camp. These ‘firsts’ are both magical, and a challenge for some to overcome…and I applaud you for giving it a go…Dare to Dream DPS!

Movin’ March

Thanks for supporting this so far this month, so great to see the children walk or wheel in through the gates! It always amazes me the impact on the front of school…during March the before school drop off is so much easier, as we have so many now parking on Kummer Cres, Pownall Street, further down Cole Street, or over on Essex St. Adds no extra time to your drop off when dropping the kids at these places…but it means far less congestion (and traffic madness) at the front of the school at 8.30am!

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.