Newsletter
Week 9 NEWSLETTER
From the Principal
What is Success?
I was fortunate yesterday to view some of our awesome Year 5/6 children present their pepeha as part of the Ka Rewa programme. The kids did an amazing job! As I said to them...it is no easy feat to stand up in front of your peers, the teachers, the Ka Rewa facilitators and the parents in the room and speak. That takes a lot of courage and grit. The programme is about developing resilience, putting children into situations that are difficult and giving them strategies to deal with that. Waireka spoke about failing vs failure and how we have to pick ourselves up when we don’t succeed and try, try again.
All of this reminded me of the image below. Success is built on hard work, determination, failing and resilience. ‘Success’ can be easy to see, all the work that goes on behind is harder to see. It begs the question...if ‘success’ is what we want for our children, how important is it to develop those under the water skills?
Many of these things don’t just happen by themselves, they need to be developed. Teaching children about failing, taking risks, the rewards of hard work...these are part of our DPS Kid work, part of the teaching that happens at Douglas Park. We want our children to leave as successful as they can be, but more importantly...we want them to have the skills to help them be successful for themselves later in life.
Union Meeting - School closes at 2pm today
Thanks for your support of this. The meeting, as mentioned many times, is an important one for teachers to attend and have their voice represented. The issue of Teacher Supply is complicated and mainly affecting the larger centres, but is starting to be felt here. More teachers are leaving the profession than are joining it...long term this is clearly a massive problem.
Skip a thon
This event is on tomorrow, the kids have been skipping all over the school since the ropes arrived. A complex physical skill, great for our learners’ development. Last year the team managed to raise $5000 for the school, an amazing effort. We appreciate all the support we get from the FODPS...they are the ones who kept the pool functioning the last 2 years, make camp cheaper to attend and coming up will be financially supporting our Tararua Challenge sports exchange with Russell Street School in Palmerston North. All of these are big $$$$, but thankfully the FODPS help remove those financial barriers for us and your children. Without those $$$$ costs would increase and potentially events would suffer. The $$$$ are only there from your support of events like the skip a thon, we appreciate that a lot.
Learning Conferences - Next Week
Look forward to seeing the learning conversations happening with children and whānau Monday/Tuesday next week. We have made our initial adjustments to the Conferences based on your feedback, the most noticeable change will be that only 2 conferences will be on at a time per teacher. Our aim here is to allow teachers to spend more time with you in the conference. Children will still lead this discussion, this is super important, but the teacher will be available to have a chat also. These changes are a step towards larger change in Term 4. As we progress across the year we will keep you informed.
pride & Whakatauki
WHAT'S HAPPENING AT DPS?
SCHOOL FINISHES 2:00 PM TODAY
Teachers will be attending a paid union meeting.
MUFTI DAY & ICE-BLOCKS TOMORROW!
The Councillors are running a Mufti Day tomorrow - a good idea to wear clothes that will be good for the skip-a-thon! It is a gold coin if kids choose to wear mufti.
They will also be selling ice-blocks at lunchtime for $1 each
THANKS for supporting the DPS Councillors!
2018 Skip-a-thon - tomorrow Friday 29th June
Kia Ora All
The 2018 skip-a-thon is on the iCal for tomorrow. It will run from 11.30 - 12.30pm out on the turf, netball court and in front of Tui - Rm 15. If it is postponed it will be on the last Friday of this term.
Every pupil has been given a skipping rope which was kindly donated by FoDPS, and they can keep this after the skip-a-thon is complete.
Last year we raised over $5,000, so we ask that you support your kids in gaining sponsors as it is a fun and active way to raise money for them.
Please hand all sponsorship money in by Wednesday 4th July in a named envelope. There will be a blue box in the office foyer marked 'skip-a-thon'.
Many thanks for your support,
FoDPS Team
DOUGLAS PARK SPORT
Netball Reminder
There will be games on Saturday 7th July. There will be no netball games over the school holidays, until Wk 1 of term 3.
Hockey Reminder
There will be 6 a-side in Wk 10 on Tuesday and Friday, and the 11 a-side will play on Saturday 7th July. There will be no hockey games over the school holidays, until Wk 1 of term 3.
Regional Cross Country 2018
Best of luck to our team who head down to Wellington next Tuesday (or Thursday if postponed) to compete at the Wellington Regional Cross Country event. Dare to Dream and go for gold!
Term 3 MINiball
A notice has come home with pupils who are interested in playing Miniball for DPS next term. This is for Yr 3/4 & Yr 5/6 players. All permission slips and the fee needs to be handed in to the office by Tuesday 3rd July - no late permission slips will be accepted. We would really appreciate any parents who can coach a team - please let Amy Williams know!
HOCKEY FEES
The Hockey fee of $40.00 per player are due for all teams. A notice has been sent home with pupils and we ask that you please ensure this is paid promptly as they are now well over-due.
writing
Writing from Room 4
COMMUNITY NEWS
July School Holidays at Masterton District Library
There are still places available for our Winter Warmers reading programme, also taking place during the July school holidays is the Maths is Funprogramme.
Maths Is Fun is free for all primary aged children. Its aim is to encourage children to have fun with numbers, increase confidence in maths, and understand how it can be is used in everyday life.
Children explore maths concepts through games and activities that can be shared at home.
Maths Is Fun is led by trained teachers and is made up of two, 2 ½ hour sessions on Monday and Tuesday for Years 1-4 and all day sessions for Years 5 – 8 on Wednesday and Thursday during the first week of the school holidays.
Jane Horsham....Children & Youth Services Librarian...Masterton District Library
janeh@library.mstn.govt.nz 06 370 6261
