Week 3 NEWSLETTER

Learning Conversations - Monday + Tuesday next week

Have you booked your Learning Conversation yet? Click here to make a booking, using the code: y4ger or alternatively, make contact with your homeclass teacher to find a suitable time.

As per normal at the Learning Conversation you will be given a paper version of their learning progress summary. This contains information around progress in reading, writing and maths as well as a teacher comment (and attendance information for the first time). This round of Learning Conversations will be the last where the paper copy is available on the night, as the app HERO will contain all of the information about your child going forward. At the next round of learning conversation (which for the majority of children will be in Term 4) the learning summary will be presented digitally on the night and be available within the app for you. We will only print paper copies for those that need one.

The learning conversation focuses around just that...learning. What are the children proud of, how have they been a great DPS Kid, how have they used our Core Beliefs...and how they are progressing academically?

Writing is the first area we are rolling out with the progress wheels (image below). They show a % of skills children have mastered in each curriculum sub-level and will be awesome for showing that fine-grained progress over time.

The progress may not be as evident in the graphs, and particularly in reading and maths, that do not have the progress wheels to go with them. Children may not have moved a sub-level yet, this year...the key word being yet. This isn’t to say that they aren’t progressing in their learning and teachers will be able to chat about what the children have been learning and how they are progressing.

Where to Next?

Work is still underway with the revisioning of the school, the rethinking of what we want this place to be. At the Learning Conversations we will get a bit more input from you, as our school community, through a couple of easy exercises that can be done on the night and later and dropped back to school. We value this input...our direction needs to meet the needs of our community and the hopes and aspirations you have for your children in the future.

Teacher Only Day - Thanks!

Many thanks for your support of this, staff had an excellent day of development at school. We spent time looking at the impact of our Spirals of Inquiry work...a process we use to continually reflect and refine what we do at school. More work was completed in the use of our new school app HERO, including the use of it for Learning Conversations next week.

A reminder that we have two more of these days before the end of 2020...one is a town wide teacher only day on Friday August 28th and the other is in Term 4...Tuesday 27th October.

“Ahhh the dinosaurs are going on a rampage,” screamed a random person across the street. There was nothing we could do, we would just have to suffer, I thought. I clenched my hands together as anger and fear filled my brain. Although, there was a chance that we could survive and take back the earth.

Within minutes the city was a monstrosity. The food store was smashed into bits. The restaurants were splattered with sauce and pancakes.

Luckily air forces dropped some weird type of container that started to make the dinosaurs, dissolve? I thought something better would have happened but no they just dissolved.

A few years after that wild experience the city was back up and running but it was different. There were only police, heroes and criminals. I could sense the start of a madcity.

By Jackson Stoneley

The one and only Geepi is the deadliest animal in the world. Geepi has squinted eyes but has the best vision in the world. It has small ears but can hear things from 5 metres away. It’s claws are as sharp as a pin or needle. It can even cut clean through concrete and that’s how he kills his prey.He is very spotty so he blends in with his environment.

Geepi has a very specific diet. When he finds a living animal, he stabs them with his claws. When he has to, his neck is really long so he can also eat leaves. He has to be very careful when he eats grass because he is very allergic to bugs. Even if he eats a tiny bug, he will have a very painful death.

Geepi’s protection is high and low. Geepi’s protection is low when he’s eating grass because the grass waves in his face and his eyes go fuzzy. When his claws can’t reach the prey, he can use his back legs to knock them out. He is also very good at pouncing at his prey because his spots make him blend in with the environment.

By Aurora Stalker

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!

2020 Yr 5/6 Netball Season

A reminder to check the draw in Team 3 Sport - DRAWS folder or the Netball Wairarapa website. We really appreciate you having players at the courts on time and 'netball ready'. This means long hair tied up, nails cut, correct uniform/sneakers and NO jewellery to be worn.

It is very unlikely games will be cancelled, but if they are it will be posted on the DPS FB page or the Netball Wairarapa FB page.

The season draw and format will be out by the end of the week...best of luck for the season!

Any questions...please contact Amy Williams on amywilliams@douglaspark.school.nz

Winter Hockey Season

Friday 7th August

DPS Red V Kia Kaha Blue at 4.00pm on THT1

DPS Renegades V Hadlow at 4.45pm on THT1

Saturday 8th August

Marty Meteors V DPS 7 aside at 10.30am on JNL2

Yr 3/4 and Yr 5/6 Miniball

We have kicked off our Miniball season this week!

The Miniball draw will be in this folder each week, or on the Masterton YMCA website.

All players need to wear the DPS sports uniform (available from The Uniform Shop by McDonalds or the DPS second-hand uniform shop) and sneakers to their game.

Starts - Wednesday 29th July

Finishes - Wednesday 23rd September

Rail safety week 10-16 August - Cross with Care | Kia tūpato te whakawhiti

Rail Safety Week aims to reduce near miss collisions on level crossings. Every near miss is a traumatic event and has a very real impact on the locomotive engineers, the witnesses involved and on those who nearly lost their lives. Never cross when bells or lights are activated and always look carefully in both directions before crossing. Be especially careful to look for a second train. If one train has stopped at a station another one could be coming. For those families interested, have a look at this Rail Safety Virtual Field trip information that was shared with participating schools in 2019. Visit the Tracksafe website for more information.