27 June Gladstone Newsletter

THURSDAY 27th June 2013 EDITION 08/2013

Greetings, Kia Ora, Fakaalofa Iahi atu, Malo e lelei, Talofa lava, Taloha, Ki a Orana Ni Hao, Buenos Dias, Chao, Malo ni, Habari Dobar Dan, Namaste, Salam

OUR VALUE FOR THE FORTNIGHT RESILIENCE – “being able to recover quickly from unpleasant or damaging events”.

Dear Parents and Caregivers, Gladstone brings International Student Teachers to work, learn and to observe how our school and students work.

At the moment we have Anders from Denmark who has been invaluable with his work in classes and with sports teams. Caroline and Smyth are from America learning about our schooling system. These young teachers create a positive influence in our school culture. It happens every year and we are lucky to have them as part of our professional learning community.

LUNCH ORDERS Just a reminder that our Happy Rock Cafe is only open on Wednesday, Thursday and Fridays. Please can you make sure that you do not send your child to school on Monday and Tuesdays to order lunches.

Thanks for your co operation.

ASB SCHOOL BANKING We encourage children who have already opened an ASB School account, to use the school banking system more regularly.

It operates every Thursday. There have only been a few regulars using the service recently.

If you are interested in enrolling your child in the ASB School Banking scheme, please obtain forms from the office.

Regular savings are a great way to help teach your children the management of money, and small amounts to bank are acceptable.

SCIENCE WEEK COMPETITION Thank you to all the students who participated in the photo competition during science week. The topic was “Celebrating Science” and we received lots of interesting entries. All photos have now been put up in the hall for you to go and have a look at.

Thanks from the Science Team.

THE SCHOOL DAY The school day starts at 8:45am. Please ensure your child(ren) are here by this time as we seem to have a lot of children coming in late and they are missing important notices about their coming day.

STUDENTS WHO MOVE OUT OF THE GLADSTONE ZONE a message from the Board of Trustees We are again publishing our policy for students who move out of the school zone. The criteria is outlined below. This information is also on the school website so it is clear to prospective parents. 

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Children enrolling at Gladstone School must live permanently within the zone and will be asked to provide proof of this (a power, phone or gas bill; a rates demand; Sale and Purchase or tenancy agreement).

If a child moves out of zone while they are attending Gladstone School please let us know of your change in circumstance immediately. All cases will be presented to the Board of Trustees for discussion and consideration.

In most instances current students will be allowed to complete their education at Gladstone however, unfortunately siblings will not be able to be enrolled.

WATERWISE Parents - Are you interested in becoming a Waterwise instructor? We will put you through a Waterwise course to allow you to help in our year 6 Waterwise sailing programme. If you would like further information please contact Bevan Verryt. bevan@gladstone.school.nz PARKING ISSUES Parents, we are having issues with unsafe incidents around our school crossing patrols. We are currently working with Auckland Transport and the NZ Police to solve these issues. In the meantime, could we please obey all road rules as they will be enforced by wardens and Police. Thank you for your support in this.

CLASS REPORTS ROOM 2, YEAR 1; Writing Yesterday we went to the Science Van. My favourite bit was when the goat tricked the roll with the silky fabric and when the goat tricked the troll with the wig on. The troll was cheeky. I laughed. The troll made a funny sound when he went under the bridge. The last goat to cross the troll bridge was the biggest goat.

Biggest goat was the big brother goat. I helped the goat push the trolley away and Arwen helped the goats push the troll away too.

Everybody helped too.

Ava Aulii

My feather feels like a soft cushion.

My feather is red. My feather is the best.

Arwen Korucu

ROOM 44, YEAR 5; Writing

Hectors Dolphin

A mammal becoming extinct in the ocean is the Hectors dolphin. It has a black dorsal fin and a short body and lives near the coast. They only eat two particular types of food and they are endangered.

A Hector’s dolphin is a small dolphin, in the range of one to one point metres long. It has a round dorsal fin, a round head and rounded flippers. The body is a distinctive grey colour with white and black markings.

Hector’s dolphin’s live near the shore where they can play and have fun.

They are mostly found to live near the South island, and they are endemic (It used to live in many places but now it lives in one place) to New Zealand. They are also the rarest dolphin.

The Hector’s dolphin likes eating squid, small fish, mullet, crab and other small sea creatures. They feed on fish in shallow water. Some other dolphins eat arrow squid, ahuru-red cod, sole, yellow-eyed mullet, stargazer and spart.

The Hector’s dolphin is rare because we are throwing plastic in the ocean and setting nets, which make the Hectors dolphin drown.

Now fisherman can’t fish where the

Hector dolphin’s live.

The Hector’s dolphin is very sensitive so you can’t touch them. You can’t swim with them without an instructor because you don’t know what to do. If you see a Hector dolphin by the beach make sure you pour water on him not in the blow hole and keep it away from the sun because if you pour water in its blow hole it can’t breathe and will die.

The Hector dolphins are becoming to be rare dolphins. They have a body that is one point four metres long, tail to snout. Hector dolphins also eat mostly arrow squid and small fish. The way we can help them is to not to put fishing nets in the water.

Liane

Narwhals

The narwhal is the closest relative to the unicorn, it has got a horn, but it does also live in cool, wide oceans so you could say it is an underwater unicorn. DO NOT BREED NARWHALS UNLESS, UNLESS YOU HAVE AN OCEAN!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

The narwhal’s horn is two teeth that are wound around each other but you can also call the horn a tooth or tusk. Narwhal horns are mostly hollowed out it is very strong because it’s in a circle shape, if you look at it from the tip top of the horn to the narwhals face. The Narwhal’s horn was thought to be used for breaking through ice. Their horn can grow up to 2.4 metres long; the horn has a cork screw pattern on it. Narwhals have small eyes. Its body can grow up to 4 metres (The longest recorded is 4.9 m). An adult narwhal is almost the size of a bus.

Narwhals are fussy about where they live.

They live close to the North Pole. Narwhals live in between Green land and Buffon; their diet is squid and cod so they will live near habitats of squid and cod. Some people killed Narwhals and sold their horn as an unicorns horn to people that thought that unicorns existed.

The Narwhal isn’t actually endangered, because killer whales and humans are their only two threats. The narwhal actually fence (sword fight using their horn) to get the female so the strongest gets to choose first.

So now you will have lots of information about Narwhals. Have your ancestors ever bought or sold narwhals horns? Maybe in the future narwhals will be pets, will you have one as a pet?

Adam Griffin

BIRTHDAYS The following students will have a birthday over the next 2 weeks. We wish you a Happy Birthday and trust you have a wonderful day.

Happy Birthday to: 28th June Amelia Jones Dallas Mellsop Jude Wilson 30th June Jamie Abraham Amelie Lawrence Fraser McDowell Stella Roberts

1st July Om Soni-Bhindi Conrad Wilkinson 2nd July Anas Ahmed Anouk Blackburn Michael Doyle Oliver Tang 3rd July Emma Hames 4th July Carol Alexander Ollie Blyth Ella De Coek Nicholas Gudsell Elliot Kitchener Lewis Pratt 5th July Mary Schuster Ofa Tu’uefiafi 6th July Max Cumberpatch Humeera Imran Emily Westwood 8th July Lucy Henshaw Hilarie Reid Winta Tsegay Zoe Whaley 9th July Jonathon Yu 10th July Luka Kwidor 11th July Luke Sanders

NB: Please let us know if we inadvertently miss a birthday so we can acknowledge it in the next newsletter

COMING EVENTS June 28th – Assembly Rm 37 July 1st – New Entrant Intake No 5; 7pm Incredible Yrs Parenting Programme 2nd – 3.10 Maori Hui in staffroom 3rd – Sausage Sizzle 4th – Interschool Kiwikick saving day 5th – Assembly Rm 2 8th - 7pm Incredible Yrs Parenting Programme 11th – Newsletter No 9 12th – Assembly Rm 20; END OF TERM 2 29th – 7pm Incredible Yrs Parenting Programme; TERM 3 STARTS 8.45am; New Entrant Intake No 6 30th – Interschool Netball 31st – NSW English test August 1st – Interschool Netball saving day 2nd – Assembly Rm 14 5th - 7pm Incredible Yrs Parenting Programme 6th – Pasadena visit for Yr 6 10.30-12.00 7th – Sausage Sizzle; Class/Portrait Photos 8th – Newsletter No 10 9th – Assembly Rm 33 12th - 7pm Incredible Yrs Parenting Programme; Tread Lightly Caravan MonWed Yr 5/6 13th – NSW Maths Test

14th – Kowhai Int Open Day; PTA Mtg 7.30pm; Camp Mtg 5 camp 6.30; Yr 6 camp 7pm 16th – Assembly Rm 1 19th - 7pm Incredible Yrs Parenting Programme 20th – House Activities 21st – Senior School Speech Comp 9.00am 22nd – Newsletter No 11 23rd – Assembly Rm 24 26th – New Entrant Intake No 7; 7pm Incredible Yrs Parenting Programme 27th – Senior School SPCA Cupcake day 28th – Middle School SPCA Cupcake day; BOT Mtg 7pm 29th – Junior School SPCA Cupcake 30th – Assembly Rm 9; PTA Quiz night September 2nd – 7pm Incredible Yrs Parenting 4th – Choir & Music festival; Sausage Sizzle 5th – Newsletter No 12 6th – Assembly Rm 35 9th - 7pm Incredible Yrs Parenting 13th – Swap a Job day; Assembly Rm 45 17th – Interschool Football 18th – PTZ Mth 7.30pm; Netball Prizegiving 6pm 19th – Newsletter No 13; Interschool Football Saving day 20th – Assembly Rm 30 25th – BOT Mtg 7pm 27th – Gladstones Got Talent at Assembly 9.30am; END OF TERM 3 finishes at 3pm Have a great fortnight.

Jodene de Andrad ASSOCIATE PRINCIPAL

COMMUNITY NOTICES RASAM’S FOOTBALL ACADEMY These holidays Rasam is running his world famous football academy! The dates are Wednesday 17th and Thursday 18th July. Year 1-3 children from 9.00am to 12.00pm and Year 4-6 are on from 12.30pm to 3.30pm on each day. If you’re interested in registering your child please visit him in the office.

Laura Whitley is a year 6 student and is part of Dianne Chambers extended writing group. She entered the Barfoot and Thompson writing competition.

There were 900 entries and Laura’s story was one of the 24 selected for the semi-finals. The age group was 5-10 years old. Read her story below.

Me and Nana Sometimes when I am with my Nana some moments are memorable and special. These would be my favourite days.

Te Awamutu is a small town. Still the smallness is pleasant. Nana and I walked down the main street, cars zipped past us and the occasional truck horn startled me.

The sweet buttery smell of popcorn hit us and darkness creeps over. As the movie light blinds us the rustle of lollies is heard. Further down the road men at the pub yell and joke which frightens me. We entered Paper Plus and the smell of new paper was strong.

Books, toys, stationary surrounds us. Little kids run around asking parents, “Please, please, please!” A sharp blast of a truck’s horn welcomes us back to the street.

The rustle of leaves and the hoot of an owl kept me awake late at night. I softly padded down the hall wincing every time a floorboard creaked. I could hear the Trackside commentator’s voice floating out of the television as I entered the room.

“I can’t get to sleep,” I mumbled.

“Hop in the car then,” Nana replied. I stood still looking around in bewilderment.

“Come on dear,” Nana said. Walking out the door a sharp crisp wind hit me causing me to shiver. As the car slowly made its way down the driveway the stones and gravel crunched under the wheels. Along the long, twisty road I could see faint, colourful lights in the distance. We drove nearer and nearer until the faint lights turned bold and bright. Santa coming down chimneys, kiwi pecking on the ground, laser beams dancing on the driveways. Awe enveloped me. Christmas was definitely celebrated here.

The kitchen was about to become a bomb site. Christmas time means baking. As bowls, ingredients and utensils came out the kitchen was becoming more white. I sat cutting out pastry, the jingle of measuring spoons was heard. Nana was busily spooning in sticky, raisin mixture to the pastry. The fruit mince tarts gradually got to the oven, while I was mixing cherries, raisins and dough into a fruit cake. To my amazement Nana then asked me to get a bottle of wine out of the cupboard.

“Wine, why wine?” I said.

“Because it gives the cake a zing.” Nana replied.

As I opened the bottle of wine a waft of air came out and I found that I really liked the smell of it! The kitchen wasn’t just white, it was brown and sticky. What fun we had today!

Groceries aren’t a thing I look forward to. I

was that day though. As we walked in, a cool breeze from the freezers swept over us. Our trolley was getting filled with cream, ice-cream, biscuits, tea bags and a roast chicken. Things for me to share with my cousin and me filled our trolley. Our trolley was brimming to the top when the shelves suddenly came to an end and counters appeared. I sighed. That was quick I thought as I glanced at the clock above the counters.

Christmas lunch was gobbled and as we stood on the back lawn Nana’s house was visible. Christmas was getting celebrated at my cousin’s new house, much to Nana’s disappointment as she cooks a big lunch and gives out her delicious baking. A loud bang from outside made us to hurry to where the bang was heard. Clay bird shooting was starting. I sat pulling the rope letting the clay bird fling out of the capsule while Nana was shouting, wow and beautiful! It then came to my turn. I pulled the trigger setting off a loud bang which echoed in my head. A sharp jolt made me stumble back. Determination was all I thought as the fluro clay bird soared through the air. My second shot was as loud as the first and made me wince, but I was ready for the jolt. I heard a crack and a chip spiralled down. Sound erupted from Nana and, “Yay and go you,” was all I heard as she almost swallowed me in a hug. Nana then took shot and sound erupted from everyone.

Two hours separate us which annoys me. I miss her baking, laughter, shopping sprees.

Most importantly her. I love her smile, her hugs and her.

Laura Whitley

PTA NEWS GLADSTONE QUIZ NIGHT SMALL SCREEN HEROES

The Gladstone Quiz Night is on again on Friday August 30th in the school hall. It’s always a fun night, with spot prizes, auction items, lots of laughs and, of course, the quiz! Last year’s quiz master is back by popular demand and there will a cash bar and snacks.

Start thinking about your costumes - this year the quiz has a dress-up theme: “Come as Your Favourite TV Show”.

With so many iconic shows to choose from, the best-dressed prizes should be hotly contested this year.

So grab some friends or get a class team together. There are 20 tables of 8 available ($150) and they always sell out fast, so drop organiser Chris Judd a line to pre-book a table on: chris@ljlaw.co.nz.

Then fill in a booking form at the office and put that and your cheque into the box at the office or follow internet payment instructions on the form. Tickets will be delivered early next term.

Look forward to seeing you there!