Week 9 NEWSLETTER

From the Principal

We teach our DPS Kids to be great citizens, based on our consultation with you as parent community...what do you want most for your children? You wanted happy, engaged , good kids who are great citizens. This means in both their offline/analogue lives, as well as their online/digital lives.

The proliferation of devices, the ease of getting online and the very clever engaging apps/sites that young people are using to connect and communicate can be both a blessing and a curse.

Life online should be no different to the analogue day-to-day life of a child...at DPS we teach, model, and expect PRIDE from our people...and this should be the same online. Sadly, this ain't always the case.

The decisions made at home around access, devices etc, are yours to make, but we teach digital citizenship here at DPS and would encourage those kinds of conversations to be had at home. A blanket statement we might use is ‘are you showing PRIDE’ online...this covers a wide range of things; are you being inclusive, not forming groups to exclude others? Are you being respectful, are you saying things digitally that you would in real life (and be happy to be heard saying)? Are you engaging in positive ways with peers, or using tools to be negative towards others?

Tricky waters to navigate, a massive problem that teens face...and something that on occasion has cropped up at DPS. Below are links to two sites worth a visit...one a Vodafone NZ sponsored site and one an international site. Excellent advice, tips and ways to manage your child's online life. Do you know what apps your child has signed up to? (and...are they allowed to be?...most have a 13 years of age restriction…). Do you have ways to monitor their interactions with others online...gaming, chatting, snapping, txting? Are you talking with your child about their online existence?

https://www.vodafone.co.nz/why-vodafone/family/digi-parenting/

https://www.commonsensemedia.org/cyberbullying

Education Outside the Classroom (EOTC)

Thanks for the great return rate for our blanket EOTC consent and thank you also for the feedback that some of you have given us. The blanket consent makes the process easier for us to complete low risk activities with children, to get them out into our community. Tomorrow will see the school complete the second Service Day for the year, this time in whānau classes. I applaud the staff for what they are doing...to show the kids that a community is built by its members, to show our community that we care...and to build the link between learning and social action. We learn to become better citizens and better citizens give back. This is DPS giving back during these EOTC experiences.

It is a fine line to be walked these days by schools in terms of Health & Safety and providing rich opportunities for learning outside the 4 walls of a classroom. At DPS we strive to create the balance between best practice safety and ensuring we are getting out of the school. For many schools ‘trips’ have gone into the too hard basket...too much risk, too much liability and too much parental pressure. We thank you for embracing what we are trying to do, we thank the FODPS for giving us the additional funds to get out and do these experiences and I thank the staff for finding the learning links, the connections to curriculum and community and for taking the time (and it is a lot of time) to ensure that student safety is kept at the heart of trip planning.

Kids Creating

Some photos from across the school, showing off our kids creativity!

Pepeha

As part of the DPS Kid teaching this term, children have been encouraged to learn their pepeha, their introduction to who they are and where they come from. Last week some of these were shared at celebration time from our youngest to our eldest students. During my time in Auckland, an interesting new website popped into my twitter feed http://pepeha.nz/. A site designed to help people create a basic pepeha and be able to share it. The end results look amazing (the site is art of a design company) and could be a cool activity to complete at home as a keepsake for some of the learning your child has completed at school.

pride & Whakatauki

Week 8 DPS Kid Shield Recipients

WHAT'S HAPPENING AT DPS?

Whānau Class Service Day!

All of DPS will be taking part in a Service Day activity with their Whānau class tomorrow. This is our chance to 'give back' to our community in some way. Some of the events in action will be:

Inviting Ngati Hamua Kohanga Reo, Cole St and West Kindy to DPS
Sharing kai and stories at Aversham House and Lyndale manor

Visiting the SPCA
Donating goods to the Masterton Food Bank
Cleaning up Millennium Reserve and Douglas Park

We look forward to doing our part in the community.

FODPS Quiz Night

FRIDAY 26th OCTOBER

Always a great night out! Get a team together and book in the babysitter...tickets will be available from the office as of Monday 24th September.

* Teams of 4-6 ...$10 per ticket

We are looking for prizes for our quiz night - if you own a business, or know someone who does we would be keen to donate something please contact Amy Williams, Sally Hunter or Olivia Walsh.

A big thanks to families and businesses who have already contaced us and donated prizes!

Chinese Language week!

Have a go learning the 5 phrases at home

Enviro @ DPS

Are there any parents out there who would be able to help the Enviro Group out?

We have finished our travel POU and have got two pots of anti-graffiti paint ready, but need someone with the expertise and correct breathing gear, space, and drying facility.

If anyone can help us please contact Claire Blomgren - claireblomgren@douglaspark.school.nz

We would greatly appreciate it.

2nd hand Uniform Shop @ DPS:

We have good stock of polar fleeces at the moment. Other items are available in various sizes. Shop is open on Wednesdays 8 - 9 am and 2.15 - 3 pm

DPS Lunch Orders

Subway lunch available to order on Fridays. Order online or pick up an envelope from the office.

DOUGLAS PARK SPORT

Term 4 Sport

Teeball, Mod-Softball, Intermediate Softball, Twilight Hockey and Touch start next term. Information will come home on the first day of term 4. Permission slips are due back by 3pm Wednesday 24th October - we cannot accept any late permission slips as team entries are due to the organiser that day.

We also have Yr 1-2 Netball and Yr 5/6 Shuttle Time on offer for next term. Notices have gone home with pupils who have shown an interest in playing these.

We are always on the look-out for parents who can coach teams so if this sounds like you please email Amy Williams on amywilliams@douglaspark.school.nz

T4 for the NL

MINIBALL

A big thanks to all our coaches for giving up their time to coach our teams - and to Nicole James for running a great league at the YMCA and coming in to help out the DPS teams over the season.

Best of luck to all teams who are in a final next week!

Yr 1 & 2 Netball Program - Term 4

The Yr 1 & 2 Junior Netball program starts on Wednesday 24th October from 4pm at the Colombo Rd courts. Each team will need a STAR helper and a training session will be run by Irene van Dyk - no coaching experience necessary!

Information will be sent home with pupils that are keen to take part, or you can email Amy Williams on amywilliams@douglaspark.school.nz