Parent Newsletters

May 2015 - Please note that all parent newsletters are now appearing on the main blog front page.




OUR MISSION:frankley vision 2014 v4 small.jpeg
Maintain a challenging learning to learn community that responds to the interests, needs and talents of our learners.


OUR VISION:
Positive difference, Creative learner , Effective communicator.


Term 1, Week 9.   Room 10/11 Weekly Update
Tena koutou katoa
Hello to everyone


Bike Week
This week we have been completing the BDO Bike Safety lessons. The students have enjoyed this and have learnt a lot. To help reinforce the learning have a chat with your child about what they have learnt especially around the concepts of stopping, turning and giving way. Even better - go for a ride with your child and get them to demonstrate the learning. Research shows us we are more likely to deeply embed learning in the brain we demonstrate or have the opportunity to teach someone else. This is a strategy we use in the classroom and works with bike safety as well.


Basic Facts in Maths
An accurate knowledge and recall of the basic facts is an important part of developing concepts in Maths. Room 10 have been testing their basic facts and beginning to work on them in class using different methods. Each student has chosen a basic facts goal to work. Please have a chat with them about this. In future newsletters we will provide some information to help with this but it would be great if you could discuss this goal with them and start supporting them in the learning of their identified goal. There are plenty of resources on the Room 10 blog as well. Go to http://2015frankleyroom10.blogspot.co.nz/p/learning-my-basic-facts.html


Tuesday - Swimming Celebration
We are all looking forward to the opportunity to celebrate our swimmer’s skills at our celebration at Highlands on Tuesday 24 March (postponement day is Thursday 26th). Rooms 9, 10 and 11 children will be departing school by bus at 10.15 am to travel to Highlands Intermediate. We aim to begin our swimming sports at 11.00am. Buses will collect children from Highlands at 2.25pm to return to school.
The air temperature has dropped and we ask that all children come prepared with adequate clothing to keep them warm in between events e.g. spare towel and spare set of clothes, perhaps even a blanket to wrap around them if they wish.  We will be encouraging children to eat a big morning tea at school before the activities start.  Lunch, snacks and a drink bottle are required at the pool.  Encourage your child to be sunsmart with sun hats and sunblock. We look forward to seeing as many people as possible joining us to enjoy this day. At the conclusion of the events if you wish to take your child home please let the classroom teacher know before leaving. Pop in or email one of us if you are available to help on the day. We really do need parents to help us time the longer races to allow a final decision rather then heats.


Wednesday - Learning with Digital Technology Evening
We hope to see you at our parent engagement evening, this starts at 7pm. Please use the following link to pose your questions and share your thoughts about what we can cover: https://docs.google.com/forms/d/1aMVtaFkRS-gLcAY3AB9g8W-hoD-siMS-K0Vgra-OSqw/viewform?usp=send_form


Friday - Science Roadshow
On Friday we have the opportunity to take 28 students with an interest in Science to the Science Roadshow at Highlands Intermediate. Please see the email sent on Friday evening about this if your child is interested.


Student Led Conferences coming up next term.In week three, Term 2, our students will be holding conferences with you. We hope you will book a time once this invite is sent out. This time allows our students to share their learning journey, to explain what and how they learn and to share some goals with you.


School Holiday Event
The Bugman at Puke Ariki - Puke Ariki is excited to be hosting ‘The Bugman’ Ruud Kleipaste these April
school holidays for two whānau-friendly adventures.
Biodiversity of Gardens - Wednesday 15 April, 1,00pm-3.00pm, Hollard Gardens, Kaponga
Looking After Nature - Thursday 16 April 10.00am-12.00pm, Foyer, Puke Ariki Museum
Full details are on the Puke Ariki website.


Relievers
Mrs Parkes is in this week on Wednesday for her usual day in room 11. On Monday Mrs Watson will be in Room 10 for the day.


Kind regards


Brendon and Merryl

Term 1, Week 5.   Room 10/11 Weekly Update


Dear Parents and Caregivers

W.I.T. (Wildly Interesting Task)
We are now fully into our first W.I.T. for the year. W.I.T.’s are units based around the learning areas of Science, Social Sciences, Health and P.E., The Arts and Technology. They have a literacy and cross competency focus and also help develop the key learning attitudes of C.O.P.E. More about these in future weeks. Our first week is centered around First Aid skills. You can view the booklet the students use using this link:
https://docs.google.com/document/d/1QySMWCgKltLsWs4e28FSMHL6RpjIkVBwtSyxairksRI/edit?usp=sharing

Devices at Home
Last week we mentioned about checking the search history on the devices your children may be using at home. It is good to do this regularly. We make a point of regular checks on the search history of our students on the various devices in the classroom. Click here for an excellent article on kids and social media
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/internet/news/article.cfm?c_id=137&objectid=11403310

Camp Meeting
We would like to thank those of you who came to our camp meeting on Wednesday. the purpose of the meeting was to explain a little of the organisation and allow for any questions. If you were unable to make the meeting and /or have any queries around camp please don't hesitate to contact us. We are still waiting on a few notices to be returned - please return these in the next few days.

Lost property
Some of our students are regularly leaving their belongings at school. If this is your child please encourage your child to lift their self management skills and be more responsible for their gear.

Swimming
With some cooler nights we are noticing more students are not bringing their togs. Please remind your child to bring togs. we will let them get out if they are cold , and like on Friday (rain at first and then hot sun later), the weather can change over a short time.

Biking
Many of our children are busy at lunchtime riding their bikes. If they are biking to school it is important they follow the recommendations from our police. Please also ensure your child has biked with you a few times, knows the safe practice on the road and wears a proper fitting helmet. There are lots of sites online that outline bike skills we need to know when we are on the road.

Have a peek at this.
http://www.nzta.govt.nz/resources/roadcode/cyclist-code/about-equipment/cycle-helmets.html

Dragon maths book … orders
As we have done in previous years we would like to offer Dragon Maths (a book with practice maths problems) for those children who enjoy this sort of work. We can get them slightly cheaper than what you can buy online. Please email your child's teacher and if you can, tell us what book they have had before. We do find some children can use the same book over two years. We will notify you of the cost. have a look here to preview samples of the books. http://sigmapublications.co.nz/primary_maths.php


Camp needs
One of our wet weather activities on camp requires lots of plastic supermarket bags. If you could save these and send to school we would be very appreciative.
We need a supply of supple wood about a metre in length. Children will need to bend this to create an item. If you have something in mind please can you let one of us know.

Home Learning
We are adamant home learning needs to be carefully balanced to meet the needs of individuals. At home all students should be working on basic facts (the guide sent home last week may give you some good ideas for a place to start). By the end of year 6 our students really should know all addition, subtraction, multiplication and division facts. Some students still need to practise their basic addition and subtraction facts to 20. We will be sharing ways with your child to learn facts and they may start using these at home.

Reading, we courage independent reading by your child most nights. Ask them questions about their book. Probe to check their depth of understanding. Reading to your child (even novels) can be very beneficial. If your child is reluctant to read, try reading a latest child’s novel of interest to them. Remember the town library is open on Wednesday nights and the librarians are always available to help with selecting books. In class we talk about choosing reading material that is at an “appropriate level and a good fit”. Have a chat with your child about what this means and whether the material they are reading fits this.

Share an article in the newspaper, discuss, look at new vocabulary, punctuation .

The blog is a great place to share experiences out of school. Plan an idea with your child. Ensure they think about their audience and what will be included and why.

Play board and card games with your child. This helps to develop their thinking and problem solving skills.

Encourage your child to be curious and seek out answers to their questions. Help them develop their research skills.

Encourage your child to become community minded and make a difference. Support local activities...bike rides, walks..encourage your child to take responsibility for their physical health and wellbeing. Encourage goals and work together on these. For those who like a more formal approach rule up a weekly grid with your child and plot the learning tasks and activities.

Don’t forget the Walkathon this Thursday at school. (Please encourage your child to participate in this event and to collect sponsor names on their sheet).

More information here
http://us4.campaign-archive1.com/?u=448290c48d7745ce9b6f9e08d&id=055a4c2e54

Brendon and Merryl


Term 1, Week 3.   Room 10/11 Weekly Update


OUR VISION: Positive difference
                      Creative learner
                      Effective communicator


Tena koutou katoa
Hello to everyone


Our classes have begun to settle in well. We have been very pleased with many of the independent learning skills demonstrated over the last two weeks and these are the skills that will help develop life-long learning skills in your child. WIthin the next week we will beginning our first W.I.T. (Wildly Important Task). These tasks help develop skills and attitudes that our students need to be successful learners. You can view the learning map here: https://www.dropbox.com/s/ink4tw1y7u1etsl/Best%20Revised%20Frankley%20Learning%20Map.docx?dl=0
The W.I.T. we have planned will be exciting, very practical and at this stage, it is planned that students will need to use the skills gained in it, at camp. More about this soon!


Health and Physical Education - Aquatics
Our National Curriculum states that “it is expected that all students will have had opportunities to learn basic aquatics skills by the end of year 6”. With this is mind our class aquatic programme helps students to develop these basic skills. We recently attended some teacher professional development that highlighted the need to teach and refine skills such as floating, sculling and proper leg action. These skills are important for many of the strokes of swimming but are also essential for survival in water. We have many students that appear to swim well but are still lacking in floating skills. With a sustained effort in refining these they could potentially become even better swimmers. We use a variety of approaches to help develop these skills including paired teaching and observation where children are giving detailed feedback to their peers.
You will notice the pyramid shape - the skills towards the bottom are the most important and form the foundations of those higher up.


Camp
We are working on our camp organisation and will get initial notices out to you soon. Please note the dates are March 10 - 12, Tuesday - Thursday. Friday 13 will be a Teacher Only Day for Frankley School. We visited the site on Thursday to begin initial planning of the programme. To help make the camp a success we will be needing parental help and we will begin to make contact with you about this over the next few weeks.


This week:
Our Frankley Picnic is on Tuesday, weather permitting. We would love to see you down at Ngamotu Beach for lunch around 12:30pm. If you intend taking your child at the end of the picnic could you please let Merryl or Brendon know when you go to leave. For more information click here: http://www.frankley.school.nz/uploads/Newsletters/2015/2015picniccampoutnotice.pdf


On Wednesday and Thursday we hold our Student Talents, Interest and Needs interviews. We would love to catch up with your and hear all about your child. By finding out about these areas it helps us better to understand our learners and tailor programmes to that help them learn. Your child is welcome to attend with you. If you haven’t already booked an interview you can click here to do so: http://us4.campaign-archive2.com/?u=448290c48d7745ce9b6f9e08d&id=daba2ba987


Reminders:
  • Those children taking part in our BYOD programme need to return their BYOD agreements asap. If you need another copy please email Brendon or Merryl.
  • Please help your child to remember their swimming gear each day and their book bag on the appropriate day (Room 10-Tuesday and Room 11-Wednesday).
  • Encourage your child to bring any books they are busily reading to and from school for independent reading times in class.


We encourage you to come and visit our classrooms and see your child learning in action. If you would like to do this please make contact with us to arrange a suitable time. Understanding what your child is learning will enable you to better help them at home and understand the learning process.


Hei konā mai

Brendon and Merryl


Term 1, Week 1.   Room 10/11 Weekly Update

OUR VISION:    Positive difference
                       Creative learner
                       Effective communicator

Tena koutou katoa

Hello to everyone


Week 1, 2015 is here.

Each week we will continue to update you via a weekly email newsletter. We do encourage you to read these.

We look forward to welcoming our students to room 10 and room 11. We look forward to beginning an exciting year of learning with our students.

Many events are planned for the term and we encourage you to continue to check our school’s website’s calendar to keep yourself up to date. Please ensure you have subscribed to our school newsletters too.

www.frankley.school.nz

Each class has a class blog that we also strongly encourage you to follow by email by adding your email to the box on each blog. This will allow you to receive notifications of new posts. Each child will also have a blog. You will soon be able to find your child’s blog by finding their link on the class blog and also following this by email if you do not already.

Room 11~ http://frankleyroom112015.blogspot.co.nz/

Room 10 - http://2015frankleyroom10.blogspot.co.nz/

Bring Your Own Device (BYOD)
As you know Room 10/11 students have been invited to take part in our bring your own device programme (meeting our BYOD device suggested criteria). If your child is bringing a device we have attached our School Policy ( for your reading) and the BYOD agreement. You may wish to print this off and sign for your child to bring to school with their device. We will then set the device up to access our school network.

We swim most days and ask your children to come to school each day ready for this. Pack them and the library bag on the first day as we may be able to complete Library and swimming.

This week we are going to explore Art using Lego as motivation. It would be great if students could bring their collections of lego people. Please ask children to bring in a named bag or container.

Our first unit of learning involves learning about First Aid. We hope this will be an enjoyable context as we emerge our students in their first Learning to Learn unit. If you have any skills in this area and are happy to be a resource person for our classes could you please let us know. Thanks

Room 10 and 11 enjoy and welcome visits from our parents. You are always welcome to spend time in the classrooms either helping out or just joining in with our learning activities. Just let us know if you are coming in.

Kind regards
Merryl and Brendon

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