Week 8 NEWSLETTER

from the principal

DPS Kid: Learning Conversations

Another round of Learning Conversations, our final piece of reporting for the year. Many thanks to you all for coming out to hear your child/ren’s stories of learning, growth, challenge and success. So many positive comments about the format, the Summary Sheet...but mainly about how well the kids conducted themselves and narrated their story. Good on you kids, the research is pretty clear...how children are involved in their assessment and reporting, gain massive benefits from it (compared to the traditional parent/teacher interviews from the past). Thanks to the staff and children for doing such a great job.

Some further 2020 Information

The office and uniform shop will be open Friday 24th January (please remember cash sales only for uniform)
All children will receive their stationery packs on the first day of Term 1 (Wednesday 29th January)
All packs will be $15.00. Payment to be made by Friday 14th February. This year the Board are partially subsidising the cost of these packs by around $4-5 per pack. This is direct use of some of the new funding we have now that we are not asking for parent donations anymore.
Term starts Wednesday 29th January
Waitangi Day falls in Week 2 on the Thursday, and Friday 7th February will be a Teacher Only Day

Recent Government Announcements

Two big announcements over the weekend for education. First, that our wonderful Support Staff have been offered the Living Wage as a minimum rate, and a 3% rise for all others. Support Staff do a massive and at times, challenging job and it is great to see the government recognise this.

Secondly, the government announced a big spend up for school property. Douglas Park will receive over $200,000 extra to spend on property over the next two years. Our Property Manager was at school this week and he says we are in such a privileged position...as a school we have award winning learning spaces, beautiful grounds and no disasters to fix. Many schools have leaking roofs, mould, substandard heating/cooling etc, that they will have to spend their new money on and 200K doesn’t go far when fixing disasters. We will be able to improve some of our infrastructure, have a look at how energy efficient we are, and potentially get a big project underway. Lucky us!

Final Celebration Time/s

Tomorrow will be our last in school celebration time. Gold PRIDE draw for the end of term, and the big end of year draw.
Wednesday next week, our Final Celebration Time at Wairarapa College. Our chance to recognise success and acknowledge the great year we have had. 10am next Wednesday.

Return of Library Books

We have a number of outstanding library books, these all need to be returned as soon as possible please.

WHAKATAUKI

KIDS KORERO

Farewell from the 2019 Councillors

Haere Ra DPS!

DPS has been like our second home and many of us started school right here in the Rimu syndicate. We will miss so much about this awesome school

What will we miss...

Our amazing teachers and all our Yr 5 friends
All the sports
Playing on the go-carts
All the opportunities I have been involved in
Netball and kapa haka
11 a-side hockey and road patrol
Some teachers very bad jokes (Miss West and Miss Fraser)
Mrs Puddy and all the sports and opportunities

Our best memories are…

Winning the Fair Go ad awards
Playing shops in the Rimu team
The road patrol party
Going on PRIDE day out
Going on Camp
Going to Mount Holdsworth
Creating the shocks video
Hadlow exchange
Russell Street exchange
Rippa Nationals
Being in the Radio team
Doing Road patrol on cold days and getting Milo
Going to Cobblestone Museum
Colour run
SLAM

WHAT'S HAPPENING AT DPS?

2020 term dates

Term Dates

Term One

Wednesday 29 January - Thursday 9 April

Term Two

Tuesday 28 April - Friday 3 July

Term Three

Monday 20 July - Friday 25 September

Term Four

Monday 12 October - Friday 11 December

Teacher Only Days

Friday 7th February

2020 Public Holidays

Waitangi Day - Thursday 6th February

Queen's Birthday – Monday 1st June

Labour Day – Monday 26th October

Easter and Anzac Day fall in April holiday break.

Friday Subway lunch orders

At the office (please ensure your child's name is on the envelope!)

Or order online.

community notices

WAIRARAPA KIDS’ CHOIR

Wairarapa Kids’ Choir is a choir for children aged 7-13 and welcomes any child who loves to sing. We learn a wide variety of music from Bach to The Beatles either in unison, two and three part harmony, rounds and canons, and music from films and musicals. All of this is child focused and appropriate to our age range, and carefully selected by the choirs three directors, Jill Bebbington, Ann-Marie Boyd and Angie Cook.

We have given six concerts this year, two of which have been by invitation.

Sanjeet Sachdev from St. Mary’s School, Carterton recently said,

"Joining the WKC has not only given me the confidence in singing but also being able to perform in front of an audience. On top of it, the training and guidance has led to better voice control with the ability to sing in harmony.”

"I enjoy being part of the WKC as I love singing and performing as a group. I like the variety of songs that we learn and it's a great way to make some new friends" Abigail Kill, age 12 (Greytown School)

We meet Wednesdays, 3.50 – 4.50 during term time at the Courthouse in Carterton.

Interest can be shown to jillbebbington@wise.net.nz

Masterton Library Newsletter

Talofa

REAP supports a Masterton based playgroup for all Pasifika whānau. It is called Moana Playgroup and was established in 2016 to enable Pacific Island families, with their pre-schoolers, to come together and celebrate their unique languages and cultures.

It takes place on Mondays and Tuesdays 10.00am-12.00pm at The Spot, 365 Queen Street, Masterton and is supported by Fale Lio.

The playgroup promotes: Early Childhood Education and participation, Pacific Languages and cultures, healthy eating and living for whānau.

Kids, are you looking for fun on a Friday night?

Then come along to Kids' Club, 5.30 till 7.30pm on Fridays at the Baptist Church. We provide a safe, family atmosphere with table tennis, computer games, craft, a kid-friendly light tea, Bible stories and organised games. The cost is just $2.50 per child. Phone Liz on 027 2233100 for more details or just come along and have a look. We're on the corner of Renall and Chapel Streets; entrance off Renall St.

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