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Newsletter T3W10
22 September 2023
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Warm greetings to you all as we come to the end of Chinese language week and a very long and wintery feeling Term 3. We have had a massive amount of sickness in our midst in recent weeks with lots of colds, flus, sinus infections and the like. It has been great to have some warm weather this week! Let’s hope the holidays bring an opportunity to recalibrate, relax and find some more vitamin D which will hopefully be more forthcoming in these spring months.
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We are excited to welcome back Miss Victoria Hammond next term. She will rejoin us after taking time off following the birth of her daughter.
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Congratulations to Mrs Nathalie Smith, who has welcomed a new baby daughter, Aria Lina, to her family.
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Congratulations also to Mrs Annie Aspden, who has also had a baby daughter, Billie Rose.
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We wish both families every happiness as they settle into new routines and the joys of having a newborn baby in their lives.
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A highlight of this time of year is the Montessori Cultural Fair. This is a special event on our calendar. I was sad to be out of the school for several days this week and missed the hard work that went into their fair and the associated assembly. I am reliably informed that both were a real success.
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International Baccalaureate Middle Years Programme
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Last week we held an information night for parents of our intermediate section both present and future. An emphasis of the presentation I gave surrounded the curriculum changes that we will be implementing in 2024. Next year we will introduce the International Baccalaureate Middle Years Programme (MYP) for our Year 7 and 8s.
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We are making the shift to MYP for several reasons. The first is that MYP is the curriculum specifically designed for students in Year 7 and 8. The second is that we want to ensure that we set our students up for success when moving on to Year 9. Glendowie College utilises years three and four of the MYP so it makes sense that we have years one and two at our school. I believe that this will provide considerable advantages for our students moving forward.
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Until now we have adapted, with considerable success, the PYP programme for our intermediate students. The shift away from PYP during the intermediate years is more about having a mentality of continuous improvement rather than any deficiencies in the PYP programme, which will remain an integral part of our programme in years one to six.
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A reminder that wearing the school bucket hat is compulsory in term 4 and term 1 each year. These can be purchased online from our uniform supplier (www.schooluniform.co.nz), or from the school office. Please remember to clearly label them with your child's name so that lost property can be returned.
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Children should also be wearing and bringing to school sunblock if possible. All classrooms have sunscreen available for those who need to reapply it during the day, but we ask that those in year 4 upwards please try to bring their own personal tube.
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Education, Politics and Our Strategic Direction
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It is always interesting to be in the education industry during an election year. Education is one of our country’s favourite political footballs. Last week I attended a luncheon for principals where the education spokespersons for each of the four major political parties were in attendance. While I’d love to comment here on the feasibility of the education plans of each of these parties, I’d be running the risk of getting myself into deep yoghurt if I showed the slightest political allegiance. What I will say is that this time in the election cycle is very predictable. Politicians make wild claims about what they can do. Then they turn these claims into promises which will later be broken, or in their fruition be nothing close to achieving what was initially promised. The failure of these promises will then become the basis for deep disappointment later in the three year election cycle. Call me cynical, but I doubt you can refute what I am saying.
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In spite of the claims and counterclaims and all the hoopla that comes with an election year, I’d like to think that we have a very good philosophy as a school that underpins our approach and that will see us through the tempest that is political interference. Next month members of our school’s leadership team, our Board, and a few other staff members will sit down to discuss what our next four year strategy should look like. We will be drawing on feedback from our 2022 community survey as well as what we know to be best practice in education. I am confident that much of our existing practices will inform the development of this plan. From our commitment to the IB Curriculum to the valuing of sport and the arts, Glendowie School has a long history of setting its own unique direction that serves its students and the wider community. We hope to release a draft of our strategic plan to the community this year so you can provide feedback before it is finalised early next year.
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Voluntary Donations and Trip Payments
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A statement of outstanding requests for the annual voluntary donation and for school trip costs will be sent home during the holidays.
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Our preferred payment method is via Kindo, but you can also pay cash or eftpos at the school office, or direct to our bank account - 12-3027-0305676-00. Thank you in advance for your support.
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Happy holidays,
Paul Crowhurst | Principal
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Board Meeting
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The next Board meeting will be Tuesday 24 October 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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Out of Zone Ballot
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A final reminder that applications for the ballot of out of zone enrolments in 2024 must be received by 11 October. Siblings of current out of zone students must be in the ballot to secure a place for next year. Application forms are on our website or are available from the school office.
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How the World Works for Room 8 and Room 3
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Some writing by the children:
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Sterling – I used a hot glue gun for the head.
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Benjamin – I used a saw and hot glue gun to make a person.
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Beauden – I used a vice to hold my person.
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Jack – I used a hammer, nails, hot glue gun and saw to make my person.
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Lucas – I used a nail to put on the legs.
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Bella – I used a hammer to attach the arms.
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Hudson – I used a glue gun to join the head.
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Zinny – I used a saw to cut my arms.
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Zoe S – I used a hammer to put my legs on.
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Function: how does electricity work
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The year sevens have been exploring electricity for our UOI, How The World Works. We used the key concept, function (how does it work?), to guide our research into how electricity works. We all now know the parts of an atom, and that electrons moving from atom to atom forms an electric current. We have participated in numerous experiments involving electricity, including making a flashlight and making an LED light up using lemons. A couple of weeks ago, we had a visitor from Transpower. He taught us about the different kinds of energy and now we are making our own wind turbines! We are following the Engineering Design Process, ask, imagine, plan, create, test and improve. Our goal was to light up an LED using our wind turbines and a fan. In our groups, we imagined three wind turbine blade designs which we planned, created and tested. We used the fan to test them, hoping they were successful and then we improved our designs to create even more efficient wind turbines.
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Here are excerpts from the Information Reports we wrote to share our learning:
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There are multiple ways of generating electricity such as wind, water and the sun. For the people who don’t know how electricity is generated by wind, it is generated by using a wind turbine. Wind turbines have multiple blades spinning to produce electricity, while the blades are spinning and collecting kinetic energy, something called a “nacelle” is the thing that stores the generator. The generator converts the spinning blades into electricity then there are wires that go down the tower of the wind turbine into the base and then into the ground. By Matteo
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How a wind turbine works is each wind turbine has a wind vane at the top that indicates the wind direction. This allows the wind turbine to rotate the tower to face the wind. The blades also rotate on their axis for maximum resistance. Wind force, that is kinetic energy contained, and moving air currents spins the blades. The blades are designed to fully capture the wind’s energy. The blades could be as long as 60 metres each and are made of very light and resistant materials that ease movement. This is why they can produce energy, even in very light winds starting from about 11kph. With very strong wind they spin above 90 kph. By Tom
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OK, what is hydropower? If you don’t know what hydropower is, it's a water-based way of getting power. The water runs through the turbines and creates mechanical energy, then it goes into a generator which creates electricity that we use in our homes everyday. There are two main types of getting this to work: either a dam or running water. By Charlotte
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The Egyptians had an electric fish, they called it the Thunder of the Nile. They were aware they could get an electric shock but did not understand about electric currents. The Greeks rubbed amber and fur together and saw sparks, that was static energy. Benjamin Franklin also saw static energy in his experiment. Static energy is the imbalance of positive and negative charges from an object, material or surface. An experiment you could try is rubbing a balloon against your hair. You will see your hair stand up and that is static energy. By Mikayla
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Montessori Cultural Fair
Cultural Fair is a special event where Montessori celebrates a different continent every year. This was our last year as Year 8s to do the activities and participate in the assembly. We had heaps of practice to make our assembly entertaining and informative for the audience in some way. We celebrated Asia, learning facts from a wide range of cultures and listening to guest speakers from Russia, China, Taiwan, Japan, India and Sri Lanka to be more knowledgeable about different countries in Asia. The Year 7s organised this day for a long time and came up with 6 different activities that had different places of origin they could share with us for Cultural Fair day.
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The 6 activities that we enjoyed on Cultural Fair day were; Tinikling, Badminton, Catch the Dragon's Tail, Sushi, Rangoli and Ddakji. Each activity had information sheets for the leader of each group to read out to everyone so that they knew more about the country the activity was from. This made sure that everyone knew how to play and some facts about the activity. When we were at the Tinikling station we watched an instructional video on how to do Tinikling that was created by the Year 7 girls. Then we laid out the bamboo sticks and had everyone jump in between and out of them just as you were supposed to when actually dancing. The next activity was badminton. We split our group into 3 groups and each played a different version of badminton throughout history. Then we played the Chinese game of Catch the Dragon's Tail. This was a game where we stood in a line and grabbed onto the shoulders of the person in front. The last person in line had a handkerchief in their pocket poking out. This was done in two teams so the person at the front of one dragon had to try and grab the tail (the handkerchief) off the last person in the dragon. Sushi making was also a fun activity. We split into two groups. One group did some Japanese colouring and the other group started by making sushi. We chose our own fillings for the sushi and ate it straight after. Rangoli is an Indian art in which we pour coloured sand onto a template painted in glue so that the sand would stick. Then we shook off the excess sand to leave a beautiful image on our paper. The last activity was Ddakji which was a Korean game of making two origami paper squares. We put one square onto the floor and stood up while throwing the other square hard onto the square on the floor trying to flip the one on the floor over. Those were the six activities that we did to celebrate Asia for Cultural Fair.
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For the Cultural Fair assembly the Year 7s and some others welcomed the parents and students to the assembly and talked about what the assembly was about: This year it was Asia. In this Cultural Fair assembly many people who spoke an Asian language said their Mihimihi in their native language, as well as one of the Year 7s saying their mihimihi in te reo Maori. The assembly was an enjoyable experience and an important part of the day. We practised heaps and we got lots of good feedback about our performance. One of our favourite parts was the play we did about Chang-O and the Moon. The juniors were also adorable (of course). Overall, the Cultural Fair was a success and we are glad that our last one was so fantastic!
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Term 4 uniform reminders
As the days warm up, a few reminders about wearing our school uniform.
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- Sandals must be all black. No jandals or crocs.
- Intermediate students must wear enclosed shoes during food tech lessons.
- Students must bring in their school hats every day and wear them whenever they are outside, during break times and sports sessions. Students without hats must stay in the boulders area under the shady trees.
- Students are encouraged to bring in their own sun cream to apply before break times.
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From the Office
- Please remember to keep us updated if you move house, change your caregiver contact or emergency numbers or your email address.
- Today is the last day for the lost property table in front of the office - please claim what is yours.
- Please make sure any new uniform you purchase is clearly named.
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Glendowie PA
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Runathon: We are amazed by the current Runathon fundraising total - at the time of writing the total was $30,202. It's clear the children loved competing against the other classes for the prize of a pizza lunch to be taken up on the first day of Term 4. The winning class was announced yesterday - Congratulations to Room 17.
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Mini Photo Shoots: Local family photographer Diana Sanders is kindly offering fundraising minishoots to our school community. Minishoots are 10 mins long and you have the opportunity to buy images for $60 each or 15 images for $300. Diana donates 15% of spend to the Parents' Association. There are only 4 sessions remaining so get in quick if you are interested. Follow this link to book.
Colour Run: Save the date for our much loved annual Colour Run to be held on the school field on Friday 24 November. More details to follow early next term.
Frosty Friday: We look forward to welcoming Frosty Friday back in Term 4! Concession cards are available to purchase through Kindo & can be collected from the office.
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 during Term time from 8:30 - 9am. We are looking for second hand uniform donations, please drop these to the office anytime or directly to the uniform shop during opening times.
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Next Meeting: Thursday 26th October, 7:30pm in the school staffroom - all welcome, we'd love to see you there.
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Class reps: If you are new to our school and haven't heard from your child's class rep, please email us at glendowieprimarypa@gmail.com so we can add you to your class WhatsApp group.
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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
- Monday 9 October - First day of term 4
- Wednesday 11 October - Rm 12 Cycle training
- Thursday 12 October - Rm 13 and Rm 14 Cycle training
- Thursday 12 October - Y3 Zoo trip
- Friday 13 October - Montessori and Rm 13 Cycle training
- Monday 16 October - Friday 20 October - Y8 Week Without Walls
- Monday 23 October - Labour Day - SCHOOL CLOSED
- Tuesday 24 October - Y4 Scooter Training
- Tuesday 24 October - Board Meeting 7pm
- Thursday 26 October - ESOL Assembly, Minihall, 1.30pm
- Thursday 26 October - Parents' Association meeting, 7.30pm
- Monday 30 October - Friday 3 November - Y8 Cycling Skills
- Wednesday 1 November - Y5 Assembly
- Tuesday 7 November - Eastern Zone Touch Rugby
- Monday 13 November - Road Patrol trip to Rainbow's End
- Wednesday 15 November - Y5-8 Athletics day
- Tuesday 28 November - Board Meeting 7pm
- Wednesday 29 November - Y0-4 Athletics day
- Wednesday 6 December - Y8 Graduation Assembly
- Friday 15 December - Last day of Term 4. School finishes at 2pm
- Tuesday 30 January - First day of Term 1, 2024
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Community Notices
Bricks4Kidz: Enrolments can now be made for term 4. October school holiday programme registrations are now open. See the flyer below.
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Have a Go Cricket: Holiday programmes for different age groups. Cricket and Softball, boys and girls. Go to aucc.co.nz to check out what's on offer and to register.
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Jazz School, school holiday Big Band workshop: This will be an exciting three day school holiday workshop where year 6, 7 and 8 students will learn to play in a Jazz Big Band and then perform a concert for family and friends on the final afternoon. The Big Band is for Saxophone, Trumpet, Trombone and Clarinet players plus Electric Guitar, Piano, Bass and Drums. October 4, 5 and 6. Please visit jazzschool.co.nz or email jnrjazzschool@gmail.com for more information.
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Lagoon Badminton Bash Holiday Programme: YMCA Lagoon Stadium. A three day holiday programme for beginner to intermediate levels. See the flyer below.
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Sanitarium Weet-Bix Kids TRYathlon will be on March 24, 2024, 7:00 am, Pt England Reserve. Entries are now open. Put it in your diaries and follow this link to register now. When you enter via the link, you will automatically join your School Group and contribute towards your School Group prize eligibility.
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Try Junior Athletics!: Wednesday afternoons, Lloyd Elsmore Park, Pakuranga, ages 2-17, starting Wednesday 11 October. Registrations at http://www.pakurangaathletics.nz
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St Philip's Church is celebrating 15 years of Mainly Music on Thursday 5 October from 10-12 midday. This is a planned event for families with children aged 10 and under. See the flyer below.
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Glendowie College Parents Association is running a comedy night fundraising on Friday 13 October. To be held in the Glendowie College Hall, 21 Crossfield Road. Stand up comedy, silent auction, food and drinks. Purchase a ticket or a table. Bookings: www.trybooking.co.nz/oui
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