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Newsletter T2W2
5 May 2023
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From the Principal
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Welcome back! I hope everyone had a great break.
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Please note the message below regarding our new initiative for managing traffic around the school. Our staff have worked hard with Auckland Transport to develop some solutions that will make things easier and safer during drop off and pick up times.
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We have had one reported case of Whooping Cough recently and apparently it is more prevalent in the wider Auckland community at the moment. It is important that we take a balanced approach to what can be a dangerous condition. On one hand, if your child does get a persistent cough then it would pay for them to be examined by a doctor. Please don’t be too offended if you get a call from one of our staff with advice to this effect. However, on the other hand, Whooping Cough is part of the standard vaccine schedule and our school is in a highly vaccinated community – thankfully. So even when exposed 99% of our students are at low risk, meaning there is no need for any panic.
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Due to the horrendous weather conditions this week we have not been able to host the much anticipated visit of Jonny4Higher – amazing mural artist and all round nice guy. We hope to be able to host Jonny sometime in the near future once the weather has improved and when his schedule permits.
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If you have a child due to turn 5 this year or next and haven't yet done an enrolment form for them, please can you collect one from the office. This will greatly assist us with our planning for classes.
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School Vision - Confidence
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Over the next few months I’d like to make some remarks about some of the different elements of our school vision, which states:
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Our students will become confident, compassionate, life-long learners, encouraged to achieve their full potential by actively participating in our country and as citizens of the world.
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The aspect of our school vision that I’d like to discuss this week is confidence. You might say that many young people as a whole are experiencing a confidence crisis, as evidenced by the growing number of mental health issues in the adolescent and preadolescent years. Statistically the mental health decline has been quite startling.
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The questions for those who work with children and for us who are raising them as parents are: 1 - What has caused the chronic loss of confidence in some children? And, 2 - What can be done to turn this issue around?
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One educational theorist by the name of Lev Vygotsky had a theory about child development that some of you, as parents, might find interesting. I believe his ideas to be quite relevant for building confidence in our children. Vygotsky believed that learning, including developing key life skills, increasing the capacity to socialise, and acquiring important knowledge, happens in a place where the learner is stretched beyond their comfort zone, without being stretched too far. He gave this place of ‘stretch’ the very technical name – The Zone of Proximal Development (ZPD). The ZPD is the area just beyond what a person can do independently but is able to operate in with some support from a more able other. Developing confidence in new areas is a process of operating beyond one's individual capacity while receiving a small but vital amount of support from significant others. You might say that helping students to operate in their ZPD is the essence of teachers’ work. The support provided slowly reduces until there is confidence in the learner to operate independently. The process of learning to ride a bike is a good example everyone can relate to, where the shadowing of a parent and the use of trainer wheels are supports that are slowly removed until the child can ride independently.
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I share this little piece about the ZPD because working in the ZPD is the work of parents too, as a child’s first and most significant teachers. It is important that as parents we allow our kids to move into new territory, while progressively removing our support. As our kids are required to step out into areas of development we don’t always get the amount of support right.
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This brings me to my point. I know it is hard to believe by looking at me, but I have been working as a teacher for 20 years. During this time I have watched a correlating trend occurring alongside the mental health decline. This is the increasing trend for parents to fix every problem for their children, over-supporting their children you might say. It comes from the good intention of providing loving support, which is absolutely necessary in child development. However, love and care can often migrate to control, stripping young people of the opportunity to grow. In other words a few bumps and bruises are part of learning to ride a bike and saving a child from these is likely to deprive them of the confidence they need to become a proficient rider.
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Please do not interpret what I am saying as an attempt to reduce communication or as a call to back-off from your communication with us. On the contrary, maintaining that strong home-school communication is vital and 99% of communication we have with parents is valuable. I simply offer these comments as food for thought in our collective work of supporting your children to grow in confidence.
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Finally, to those attending the PA Quiz Night – have fun!
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Paul Crowhurst | Principal
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Park and Ride - Walking & Wheels Wednesday
Our Enviro Councillors and Leaders attended a Travelwise Workshop recently and are really inspired to encourage our community to travel sustainably to school. This will be launched through our Walking and Wheels Wednesday and for the next 4 weeks, a Park and Ride initiative will be introduced. With our wonderful park across the road, there is an opportunity for our community to utilise the walking paths to get to school.
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In Week 3, Term 2, the Enviro Councillors and Leaders will be at the three entrances to the park at Whitehaven Rd, Lisburn Ave and Hartland Ave at 8:25 am to meet and greet any students and their families who may be walking to school on Wednesdays in Week 3, 4 and 5. You'll know who they are as they will be wearing a 'high vis' vest. They will be walking to school through the park at 8:40 am. It would be wonderful if our community could support this Park and Ride initiative at least on those Wednesdays with the idea that it could happen every day!!!
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Thanks to those of you who already utilise the park for your children to get to school. If you're in the habit of dropping your children at school on the way to work, maybe you could drop them at one of the park entrances. There are so many benefits of children walking to school: fresh air, comradery, exercise to name three!!! Join the walkers!!!
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See the flyer (map) at the end of the newsletter.
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Board of Trustees Meeting
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The next Board meeting will be Tuesday 16 May at 7pm in the Boardroom. Anyone is welcome to attend and a copy of the agenda is available from the school office after 3pm on the Friday before.
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Junior School Information Evening
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On Tuesday 23 May, from 5.30 - 6.30 pm, we will be holding a Junior School Information Evening in the school‘s mini hall for all parents of children about to start school in 2023, new to our school or in their first years at school (Years 0 -2).
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Our Year 1 teachers will share the school routines, our literacy programme for teaching reading and writing in the early years, and our numeracy programme. This is an opportunity for you to hear what school is like for your 5-6 year old and to ask questions about the learning programmes.
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Following on directly after will be a presentation on our Primary Years Programme (PYP). The PYP coordinators will give an introduction to our school wide learning programme to all interested parents. We expect this presentation will finish around 7.45pm
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Primary Years Programme (PYP) Information Evening
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You may know Glendowie School is part of The International Baccalaureate. You may have heard the school talk about the PYP, but do you know what the educational programme strives to achieve?
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On Tuesday 23rd May from 6.45 - 7.45pm, we will be holding an information evening on The Primary Years Programme (PYP) in the school’s mini hall.
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Our PYP Coordinators, Ms Sinclair and Mr Liu will explain the teaching and learning programmes from both a junior and senior perspective. We will clarify some of the terminology that your students use in the classroom and unpack the attributes of an ‘internationally minded’ student. We will explain how a unit of inquiry is planned with concepts and a central idea to guide us. We will also demonstrate how skills, e.g. research and social skills are incorporated as part of our teaching programme.
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We look forward to welcoming all of the parent community.
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Life Education
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Hopefully your children have all been excited about their visits to the Life Education caravan over the last couple of weeks - or maybe in the week to come. Just a reminder that we request a $7 donation from parents to cover the cost of this programme. This can be paid online on Kindo if you haven't already done so. Thanks so much for your help with this.
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AIMS Games 2023
If any Year 7/8 students are interested in participating in individual sports at AIMs Games this year, their parents should email Mrs Keyser at lizk@glendowie.school.nz to express their interest and ensure that all interested children are registered.
It is important to note that all individual sports require a parent manager as the various disciplines are hosted throughout Tauranga.
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Glendowie PA
Welcome to Term 2 - we have an exciting term planned!
Quiz Night: Our Back to the 80's Quiz Night is this Friday. We're excited to see the teams in their costumes. Doors Open at 7:00pm for a 7:30pm start.
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School Disco: Save the Date: Friday 16th June - "To the Galaxy and Beyond". We are looking for sponsorship for this event. If anyone would like to be involved, please email us at glendowiepirmarypa@gmail.com.
Milo Friday: Enjoy a warm Milo & chocolate fish fortnightly on a Friday afternoon as we come into the winter months of Term 2 and 3. Glendowie School branded keep cups are available to purchase now via Kindo; once purchased, please collect these from the school office. The next Milo Friday for Term 2 is on Friday 11th May.
Second Hand Uniform Shop: We are operating out of the corner room to the right hand side of the main entrance to the office. We will be open on the first Monday morning of each month from 8:30 - 9am; the dates for Term 2 are as follows:- Thursday 1st June- Monday 17th July-Monday 7th August- Monday 4th September
We are looking for second hand uniform donations. Please drop these to the office anytime or directly to the uniform shop during opening times.
Next Meeting: Our next PA meeting is Thursday 25th May, 7:30pm in the school staffroom. All welcome, we'd love to see some new faces!
Facebook Page: We are keeping our Facebook page up to date with events, follow us at
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Glendowie Primary School Parents' Association for updates.
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Upcoming Events
- Wednesday 10 May - Y2 Assembly
- Tuesday 16 May - Board Meeting
- Thursday 18 May - Y5/6 Bay Suburbs Football
- Tuesday 23 May - Junior Information Evening
- Tuesday 23 May - PYP Information Evening
- Wednesday 24 May - Y7/8 Eastern Zone Girls' Football
- Thursday 25 May - Y7 Immunisations
- Thursday 25 May - PA meeting
- Tuesday 30 May - Y7/8 Eastern Zone Boys' Football
- Wednesday 31 May - Y3 Assembly
- Thursday 1 June - Second Hand Uniform shop open
- Monday 5 June - King's Birthday - School closed
- Friday 9 June - Y7/8 Boys' Rugby
- Tuesday 13 June - Y5/6 Boys' Rugby
- Friday 16 June - School Disco
- Monday 19 June - Boys' and Girls' Hockey
- Thursday 22 June - Parent Teacher Interviews
- Wednesday 28 June - Y5/6 Netball
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Community Notices
Taekwon-Do - Confidence, discipline, self-defence, fitness. Mondays and Wednesdays. Register at http://www.glendowie.com/beginners/ Contact Master Mark Banicevich at mbanicevich@itkd.co.nz or phone/test 021 314 503. See the flyer below.
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