Week 8 NEWSLETTER

Scooter + Wheels Safety

Just prior to lockdown Constable Julie was in and ran scooter safety courses for a heap of our DPS Kids. How to be safe when riding, road rules, and also around protective equipment. She questioned us at the end of her time...with so many scooters at school, why so few helmets?

This got us thinking...and this is the first reminder about safety while coming to and from school. We have a large number of students who come to school on wheels (scooters, bikes, skates) and while it is an expectation that helmets are worn for bikes (and they are), they haven’t been for scooters/skates. We believe this needs a rethink...we’ve had some close calls in the last few years, and all have involved scooters and driveways. Kids coming to school on wheels, and cars exiting driveways is a bad mix...and wearing a helmet offers great protection in the case of an accident.

Currently during the day children are allowed to use scooters/skates in our wheels area, and we have no expectation around helmets there at the moment (but children who have helmets are fine to do so, and will be encouraged to)...but coming to + from school, we will be starting to remind children of the safety, and the need to wear a helmet.

Year 5/6 Camp

2020 is a camp year, and normally we would’ve held this in the early part of term 1. Due to the shift into two Year 4-6 teams for this year we put that plan on hold (as the work for it really starts several terms prior). Then dear ol’ COVID came along, and disrupted the planning/communication once again, but we have some great news for you. We are still taking our Year 5/6 children on camp this year, they will still get this wonderful experience. November 9th - 11th are the dates we are working to. Much more information will come out in the weeks ahead, but take this as a chance to mark the calendars...and to begin putting some money aside. Our last camp in 2018 cost $180 per child, and since then costs (as they do) have gone up. The camp charge $210 per child now...but our wonderful Board of Trustees agreed in this year’s budget to heavily subsidise the cost by around 40-50%. The final cost will be out to you soon, but that is our aim...to make it an amazing experience, for a super cheap price tag.

Mark Osborne

Our school mentor Mark is back next week to continue guiding us on our innovative journey. The work he starts with us next week is the big picture thinking around ‘where to next’ in education as part of writing a new vision for the school. Our current school vision (below) came about in 2015, and considering it was developed in the time of National Standards (shudder) it was pretty forward thinking about where we wanted to head. We’ve reached another point in time where this exercise is needed again as we’ve caught up to our current vision (almost reads like a description of the school), and we want to cast the net wide and think about future possibilities. COVID has highlighted the need for change in the sector...we feel we are down that path already, but the time is right to dare to dream for the future of our DPS Kids. Feel free to flick your thoughts through to me at principal@douglaspark.school.nz

At Douglas Park School teaching and learning promotes student independence and agency in classrooms that thrive on communication, collaboration, critical thinking and creativity. Our school is a Maker Space. There are learning opportunities through students creating, making, playing and discovering. Douglas Park School students are fluent in using a variety of technologies to suit their learning needs. Students and Teachers actively seek, and explore practice to enhance teaching and learning. We recognise each student as an individual that brings their own needs, strengths and interests to shape their learning. Our Modern Learning Environment is a global, wall-less experience bringing the world into the classroom and taking the learning into the world.

Making + Creating

As we think to the future one thing we do know is we want children to develop our Core Beliefs (Creativity, Collaboration, Critical Thinking + Learner Agency). We want our children to have the skills to shape and create their own futures, with the school having developed their Head (academic learning), Hearts (being a great person, having good relationships) and Hands (being physically capable through our core beliefs). Our learning framework supports this thinking, and we see a lot of learning like this in our classes currently through the childrens play and making.

I went for a quick walk through Rata and Kahikatea on Wednesday, and was blown away by the range of creative learning underway, and the ability of the children to succeed within this. Some photos below.

By Alatise Jr

These two superheroes had a lifetime of saving lives. Day after day they had battled the streets, fighting crime and protecting innocent people from the clutches of evil.

Now, their lives were slightly less busy, as they left saving the world to younger superheroes. However, they still had the energy for one last mission. The phone began to ring…

“People are killing people! Please come over at the abandoned New York.” They went to stop the killing but when they got there Batman, Shazam and Robin were there. Superman was thinking that Batman, Shazam, and Robin were there for a fight so he hit Batman with his laser eye but it did not do anything. Shazam ran like Flash but faster and hit him. Boom! He went those 16 houses superman bet that one more hit he will die but supergirl had an idea that she should have got the idea years ago so she grabbed superman and flew into space and put him by the sun. 5 sec later they were young again so they were stronger.

“Uhh.. hello hello hello I wanted to record a message for you to get you settled in for your retirement but there is a slight problem the Joker, Harley Quinn, Killer Croc, Catwoman, and Penguin are attacking there just to get in our bank vault to get the money and the gold bars so for your last mission could you please go and sort it out okay thank you uhh… uhh thank you ohh.. ohh thank you for picking up are you there and can you do it?”

“uhh yes yes we can” said superwoman

“Ohh thank you uhh could you go right away please they are tearing up all the curtains, hurting the old folks, and just trying to find the secret vault that we have.”

“okay we will be there in a jiffy,” said superman thank you BEEP

Then superwoman started to talk“alright we’re getting old but we have retirement home to save come on wait owwww my back I think we will be here for a while”

Once they had their back problem sorted out they set off trying to find out the source of the raid/the retirement house raid. But they ended up at Batman’s lair he was in a deep sleep and the Joker thought that it was an amazing place to crash. Harlequin was disturbing all the bats with her bat and the Joker, oh the Joker, was tracking down the gold bars in Batman’s tracker device he had Alfred set up. So they snuck in and found out that Batman wasn't in asleep he was tied up in Wonder Woman’s golden lasso and a few more superheroes were chucked in there like Green Lantern and hulk he was angry but he was knocked out and he wasn’t the big monster like he normally was he was himself, Bruce banner. “Hi, Puddin!” Harley Quinn yelled there was no response from the Joker so she just went to tie them up then she saw Superwoman taking her last bright blue hair curlers “Puddin the super couple are here to try and stop us” she yelled again this woke up Hulk so he thought he would he could be sneaky but he saw Thor and he decided to create a huge mess he started to yell “HULK SMASH!!!!!!!!!!!!!” He throws Harley across the room and then Harley ran straight towards him and hitting him on the head then this is when Thor comes in. He created a big mess on the screen and the Joker finally started to talk “you idiot you’ve ruined everything!!”

“Uhh so it is for fellow heroes,” said Thor

“Don’t you see Batman is going to kill me, he will see the control system and go straight to me!!!”

“well like I care” yelled thor untying the other heroes”

Wonder woman started to rub the sleep from her eyes and yell“oi you've ruined my sleep thor!!!!!”

“well, you have to get up and fight you old woman!!”

“you can’t say much your old to and I wanna sleep”

“NO FOR HEAVEN SAKE WOMAN GET YOUR LASSO AND GET HARLEY QUIN OR SOMEONE JUST GET UP!!”

“NO YOU GET MY LASSO AND HOLD HER UP AND GET THE JOKER AND OMG STOP TALKING AND LET ME SLEEP!!!”

“JUST GET UP WOMAN OR I'LL DROP MY HAMMER ON YOU!!”

This got wonder woman up she did not want to get as flat like a pancake… but not sleeping got into the fight she randomly fell asleep IN THE FIGHT so thor just gave up and then he yelled “WOMAN GET UP OR I WILL GET MY HAMMER AND GET YOU AS FLAT AS A PANCAKE!! She didn't respond so guess what he did he did there was blood everywhere and there was a skeleton in lots of pieces. ‘Well I told you to get up” Thor said “oh and that reminds me where were we”

“WE WERE SMASHING YEAH” Hulk/Bruce yelled

“Oh right” as thor throws his hammer and hits the Joker in his head so hard it kills him

So Harley Quinn was left sound asleep and three minutes later she wakes up seeing blood everywhere she started crying when she saw Joker he was so far gone that she couldn't even tell him to wake up so she just cried and then Hulk said “time to say good night”

she was so scared that superwoman and superman thinks we will save her

So just as hulk was ready to smash her superman picks her up and takes her to the roof but… “oh thank you, Superman, thank you” said Harley hugging him then his eyes went black...

And he throws her off the roof and the penguin was behind all of this he was the one who has taken control of every single superhero in THE WORLD. And then all the cities that HAD superheroes were abandoned and no soul was there but they still go from town to town. city to city

In all of America. So they were left with the rest of the world to gain the slavery on but one day that all began to change the superheroes kids started to gain there powers DUNDUN DUNNN

(instrumental)

To be continued...

2020 Yr 5/6 Netball Season

The Yr 5/6 netball season will take place over term 3 this year. Games will be on Tuesday night at the Wairarapa Trust House Netball Centre (Colombo Rd). The season will start on Tuesday 21st July and finish on Tuesday 22nd September. A detailed notice about the upcoming season will be sent home next week.

To prepare for the upcoming season we will be running the following pre-season program at DPS. All sessions will be during lunchtime and players need to bring sneakers and a drink bottle.

Wk 8 & 9 - Skills, drills and fitness

Wk 10 - Trials

Wk 11 & 12 - Teams will practise

A Health and Safety Plan will be circulated with the latest Covid information no later than one week before the competition starts.

2020 Yr 1-4 Netball Program

Due to Covid-19 the Yr 1-4 netball program only got through 4/8 sessions in term 1. In response to the feedback from delegates, the Yr 1-4 netball program will be completed in term 4, ending with a fun festival day!

- New players are welcome in term 4

- Players who paid the fee in term 1 are covered in term 4

More information will come out about this program in term 3.

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

Winter Hockey Season

This year there are some changes to school hockey. These are explained below. The changes mean we will no longer have a DPS 11 aside team.

We are excited to work with our players in this new format and believe a focus on skill development and increased ball touches will set them up well for their future of hockey.

Students will need normal hockey gear and school sports uniform. All students must wear a mouthguard. DPS hockey socks are available at the uniform shop.

2020 Wairarapa Primary Competition – Grades will be more in line with the Hockey NZ “small sticks” specifications above. Below are how the grades will look in 2020.

Years 1 &2 – Will remain as Fun Sticks (8 week programme)

Years 3 & 4 – Mini Sticks

C & D Grade – 1/6 field Tuesday night (6 a side)

A & B Grade – 1/4 field Tuesday night (6 a side)

Years 5 & 6 –Kiwi Sticks

A, B, C, D Grade – 1/2 field Friday night (6 a side, No Goalies)

(Or Saturday Morning 7 a side, including Goalies)

If you have any questions you can check out the Hockey Wairarapa website.

http://www.hockeywairarapa.org.nz/

We are doing year group practises. Students need to come to school prepared with their hockey stick, shin pads and mouthguard.

Tuesday: Year 1/2

Wednesday: Year 3/4

Thursday: Year 5/6

Sign up information has not been sent home yet. This will come home for those students interested once we know what is happening with the season.

Movin’March

Kia ora tatou,

We know that COVID disrupted Movin’March however…

Parents - Movin’March would love your feedback!

Parents and student surveys: Thanks to all our students, parents, caregivers and whānau who came on board for Movin’March this year. Movin’March organisers would love to hear your views in this 5 min parent feedback survey orstudent survey.

The survey closes on Friday 5th June

Students can be in to win $50 Prezzy card and parents a $100 Prezzy card by taking part.

Student survey link: http://inform.gw.govt.nz/MovinMarch_studentsurvey2020.aspx - $50 Prezzy card draw

The Parent survey link: http://inform.gw.govt.nz/MovinMarch_parents_survey2020.aspx - $100 Prezzy card draw

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