Week 10 NEWSLETTER

DPS Kid: Being Community Minded

I mentioned the revisioning process last week, and that we are getting closer to having a new vision, a new guiding light for DPS. Part of the process was to hear the voices of the children...and this surfaced some real gold. I sat down with our Student Councillors and had a session where we translated the parent survey that you completed at Learning Conversation time into words that had meaning to them as children. Even this process was stunning...the children were so insightful, being able to articulate that Reading, Writing and Maths are important skills but that they wanted more. The clear message...the strongest message...was that they wanted to make a difference to other people. They want to develop into great citizens who give back, who do community minded work, who seek to make a difference for others. I thought that this level of awareness from our councillors showed maturity well beyond their years, and shows the power of listening to children...hear their voice.

Staff Changes

We have a bunch of upcoming staff changes at DPS. Appointment processes are underway for 2021, and into next term we will announce these.

Claire Blomgren is retiring at the end of 2020 after 30+ years in the job. Claire has literally touched the lives of generations, worked in a number of schools and was one of the founding staff members of Douglas Park when Masterton West merged with Cornwall St. An extremely capable and experienced practitioner, we will miss her knowledge, her depth of understanding and her dedication to both Te Reo Māori and the environment through her Enviroschool Green-Gold work, as well as her contributions to learning in the classroom. More time with whānau, and Bill on the boat in the Sounds!

Hannah Moore finishes at the end of the term and starts maternity leave. A third Moore child will enter the family...making for a busy household!

Martha Brienza and Amanda Mitchell will both finish at the end of the year...also exciting family additions for both whānau. We wish Hannah, Martha and Amanda well...and once again our DPS whānau gains new members. I think this is a real point of difference, a nice aspect to our school...we are like a family and as staff lots of us do have families, young families & many of our children are here at DPS with your learners.

We have some attached staff who are also finishing up. Chuck Marriott is one of our RT:Lit’s (Resource Teacher of Literacy) and he is retiring after a stellar career here and in Canterbury. Rauweti Strickland is our Social Worker in School (SWiS) and she also finishes up this term, shifting into another role. We wish both Chuck and Rauweti well...and thank them both for their service to DPS, and the wider cluster of schools.

Netball Success!

A great night on Tuesday for school netball, lots of DPS players taking the courts in their final game of the season. Miss Eagle’s Magic team played in the grand final of their Year 5/6 grade...and what a game it was! So good to be back in Level 1, and to be able to watch from the sidelines. The kids played with real heart, and took the win. Seeing their faces...just priceless, so proud of what they had achieved. Well done team!

Out of Zone Enrolments - 2021

The Board has opened up places for 25 five year old students for the first half of 2021, Terms 1 & 2. If you live out of zone (even if you have children currently attending) and have a child you’d like to start with us in the first half of next year, please contact the Office to put your name down. We will send out the link to the application form early next term.

Also...if you know of parents outside of the zone who would like their 5 year old to attend Douglas Park, please get them to contact the office as well. It happens every time...we complete the ballot process, then the following week people ask if they can attend (and they can’t).

Email the Office on office@douglaspark.school.nz for more information.

Subway lunches can be ordered for delivery to school every Friday. Order online or fill out a form at the office.

Term 3 Sport - DRAWS

We will load the draws into this folder for Netball, Hockey and Miniball. Make sure you check it every week!

Winter Hockey Season

REMINDER: draws can be found in this folder.

This week is the final week of Winter Hockey. Thank you for a great season. See information below for our break up.

Winter Hockey break up

What: End of season winter hockey break up.
Parents vs Children game and shared afternoon tea.

Who: All winter hockey teams.

Where: Douglas Park School Turf

Why: To celebrate a successful winter hockey season!

When: Friday 16th October 2020

Times: 3.15-4.30pm

Required: Hockey gear and a plate of food to share please.

Many thanks to you all for getting your child to Clareville for their games. It has been a challenging season and we appreciate your support and flexibility with the regular changes due to Covid-19. We have seen huge developments in the players as the season progressed. We look forward to summer hockey next term (watch out for information on Hero soon) and the next winter season!

A huge thank you to all our coaches who have volunteered their time and helped our tamariki

develop into confident hockey players.

GAME TIMES

Friday 25th September

DPS Renegades V Lakeview Remutaka at 4.00pm on THT1

Opaki Redsticks V DPS Red at 4.00pm on THT2

Saturday 26th September

DPS V MIS Pukeko at 9.30am on JNL2