23 March 2016 Newsletter No: 04

Year 8 Leadership Team

Rory Allan, Lucy Corry, Mathieu Ewers, Flynn Goggin, Inacio Hill, Rory Mainwaring, Milo McBride, Rachael McCaw, Will Palmer, Lucy Reilly & Beau Seaton-West

KEY DATES in 2016

MARCH

Friday 25th - Tuesday 29th Easter Holiday – school closed

APRIL

Wednesday 6th Tui Information Evening - Maths

Thursday 7th Fundraiser – Appetites Evening

Friday 15th Last day Term 1

MAY

Monday 2nd First day Term 2

Naumai e te whanau o te kura Brooklyn Tena koutou katoa Dear Parents/Caregivers

We have had an action packed last few weeks of term. The Takahe and Moa camps were very successful and the children had a great time. The ferry trip home was a challenge and I know everyone on board was grateful to reach Wellington Harbour. A big shout out to the students, teachers and parents who helped make these camps a memorable experience for all, we really appreciate your help and support. Here are a few snaps from the Takahe camp.

Last week we held our school athletics event at Newtown Park. This was a fantastic day and it was great to see everyone taking part in the running, jumping and throwing events. Thank you to Glen Burdon, Tom Boekhorst and Clint Brandon for organising a wonderful day for all.

School will be closed for the Easter break from this Friday 25th March and school will resume on Wednesday 30th March. School will be closed on Tuesday 29th March.

We have had a lot of interest from parents regarding our testing at the beginning of the year. Brooklyn School teachers use a variety of tests to determine what level students are at, what progress they are making, and where they may need extra help. Progressive Achievement Tests, commonly known as PATs, are just one of the sets of tests we use.

PATs are multiple-choice tests designed to help teachers determine achievement levels of students in Mathematics, Reading Comprehension and Vocabulary, and Listening Comprehension. The test results help teachers decide what kinds of teaching materials are needed, to develop next learning steps, and which methods or programmes are most suitable for their students. PATs are also important because they identify the progress a student is making from year to year. Here are the descriptions of the PATs we use to help us to inform our teaching: PAT:Reading Comprehension assesses how well Year 4 to 10 students understand the text they are reading. Each test is organised around several extended pieces of writing which include stories, poems, reports and explanations.

PAT:Reading Vocabulary assesses Year 4 to 10 students’ ability to understand the words they read. Each question is based around a key word that is embedded in a short sentence. Students are asked to choose a synonym that best represents the meaning of this word from a list of five possible alternatives. PAT:Listening Comprehension measures Year 3 to 8 students' ability to understand spoken material. Students listen to a passage and then answer questions. It helps teachers detect children with poor listening skills and is also useful in identifying those children whose listening comprehension performance is significantly different from their ability to comprehend written material. PAT:Mathematics covers number knowledge, number strategies, algebra, geometry and measurement, and statistics. PAT:Mathematics is for Years 4 to 8.

A majority of the children take the tests independently but some children may need the teacher to read the questions in order to be able to gain understanding. The tests are only one form of assessment we use and don’t suit all children especially those with learning needs or others who don’t work well under pressure. All this is taken into consideration when results are analysed.

Once the teachers have spent time going over the test results they will then decide how best to use these results in regards to developing individual, group and class learning programmes.

Teachers will have a chance in term 2 during the parent/teacher interview times to discuss the next learning steps of the children and how the test results are used to guide learning. These interviews will be in Week 9: 27-30 June.

Attached on the last page of this newsletter is an interesting article for you to read based around maths, it is called ‘Advice for Parents from Professor Jo Boaler’. She is one of the experts we are learning from about growth mindset and maths. “Do you remember how excited your children were about maths when they were young? How they were excited by patterns in nature? How they rearranged a set of objects and found, with delight, that they had the same number? Before children start school they often talk about maths with curiosity and wonder, but soon after they start school many children decide that maths is confusing and scary and they are not a “math person”.” Jo Boaler.

Appetites Evening Thursday 7 April

There are still tickets left for this event. Get your tickets from the office or order by email/pay by internet banking. All welcome

Lastly, we give a warm Brooklyn welcome to new entrant students Michael Tandecki and Jonty Lyons and their

families.

Wishing you a safe and relaxing break.

Ka kite

Liz Rhodes

PRINCIPAL

Here is a piece of writing from Adelyn Lunman in Room 6

CRAZY CAMP

It was the last day of school camp at Palm Grove. We were all going to our last activity, except me, I was in the kitchen getting an ice pack from the freezer, for my sore knee. I was about to open the door when I heard a rustling behind me. I turned around and saw a garden gnome. It was shuffling around in the food for afternoon tea. It was short and fat with a little white beard, and had extremely blue eyes. It wore green overalls, with orange gumboots. I shouted, “Hey, what are doing eating all our food!” It pretended that it didn’t hear me, and kept stuffing his pockets with with chocolate cake and fairy bread. It finally looked up at me, its pockets bulging. “And what are you doing here?” I asked him. “I could ask the same to you,” he replied. “Im one of Palm Groves camp gnomes. One of the rarest type of gnome. But here in Palm Grove, there are lots of us!” I stood in shock for a moment, looking at him. Then I said, “Does Brandon know about this?” “Oh, yes of course, Helen knows too.This is our home, many other schools come, but you are the first to know about us!” he exclaimed. Then, after a pause, I said, “Let’s start again. My name is Adelyn, and I am nine years old.” “Nice to meet you, Adelyn. My name is Cedric and I’m two thousand, one hundred and eighty five,” he said. “No way!” I exclaimed. “Oh yes. Gnomes live for LOTS of years,” he said with a smile. “Now, if you’ll excuse me, I need to go.” And with that, he ran out of the room with the stolen goodies. “WAIT!” I yelled after him.There were so many questions that needed answering. I resolved to ask Brandon about it later. I finally got my Ice pack, and headed outside. At bedtime, I told the syndicate about my crazy encounter with Cedric the camp gnome.Of course no one believed me, but I guessed it was better that way.

Brooklyn School is putting teams forward into the Wellington Basketball League. Children Years 3-8

are encouraged to register. Games are played midweek at the ASB Centre in Kilbirnie. The season

runs through Terms 2 & 3 with the following age groups playing on the days specified below. - Year 5/6 play on Monday

- Year 7/8 play on Tuesday

- Year 3/4 play on Wednesday

Registration information will be sent home within a week. If you have any questions regarding

registration or for more information please email Brandie Stephens at doughmomma@yahoo.com

Trustee elections are coming up Friday 3 June 2016. If you are thinking about

standing for election please contact the school office for a ‘Parent Guide”.

For information on becoming a Trustee please visit the following website:

http://www.trustee-election.co.nz/becoming-a-trustee

Nominations will be called for and forms sent to all eligible voters on 6 May 2016.

CONGRATULATIONS!

Brooklyn School had an amazing start to the underwater hockey season in the UWH mini league of the year and Brooklyn School comes away with Silver Medal! We won four out of six games and got through to the Finals. A fantastic effort for a team with ¾ new players. Awesome. I am incredibly proud of how all the children played – they all basically played out of their skin. Full credit to Emma Gardiner, Ruby Baker, Megan Muir, Nick Jones and Hamish Simcock “old hands” / experienced players - they anchored the team in the first couple of games. But as the games progressed, all players had a go up front, engaged in tackles and tussles, and some of the newer players even scored. So congratulations for your efforts – Mila Smith, Clare Savage, Mathieu Ewers, Daniel Ewers, Bella Vivian, Jake Baker, Jessica Gardiner, Andre Lee Joe and Dominic McDavitt. Great effort all of you!

Marzipan Drama

"Is your child shy? Do they feel intimidated by the idea of public speaking and performance? Do they

sometimes find it difficult to make eye contact? Do they just need 45 minutes a week to take part in

organised craziness?! Come and join Marrzipan! We are running our program at Brooklyn School in Term

2!! We play fun engaging games and perform at the end of term once to parents and once to the school. All

scripts are original, engaging, educational and HILARIOUS. All children receive an end of term progress

report too, along with a certificate to remind them they are awesome! Give me a call to come along for a

free trial, or just a chat to discuss how our classes can benefit your child's development. Contact Kay on

02102645487 or email kayla@marrzipandrama.co.nz".

ORDER FROM US TODAY

PICTURES FROM SCHOOL ATHLETICS DAY

Joshua, Caleb, Xavier & Maile recently enjoyed an outing to Te Papa