26th October 2017

DIWALI Last week we celebrated Diwali. The children were allowed to wear traditional clothing to school and here are some pictures of the beautiful colours that some of the children wore on the day.

CONGRATULATIONS TO: Abraham Li who achieved first place for the Diving New Zealand National Skills 2017. He scored the highest points among all the divers 11 under and 12 and over nation-wide. For 2017 National Skills Event, Abraham scored the most 10’s among all the divers and received the 2017 Best Dive Award. Congratulations Abraham, your achievement is evidence of your tremendous dedication and commitment!

CHINA TRIP A wonderful time was had by the children who went on the trip to China. Here are a couple of photos from the trip.

BYOD NIGHT

PRINCIPAL’S SOAPBOX Dear Parents, Caregivers and family members, You may be aware that over the last two weeks, I have been away visiting China with a group of eight of our senior students and two teachers. This was the culmination of months of work from families and staff members and saw the children experiencing a large number of new and exciting events. Not least of which was four nights living with a Chinese family and attending our sister school, Yuyao No. 1 Experimental Primary School. On behalf of the children and families, I would like to thank Mrs Adlington and Mrs Casse (and their husbands!) for helping to prepare the children for this trip and for taking time out of their lives to look after them while we were away. A lot has been happening in my absence of course and I have enjoyed hearing about these events. If you have not yet committed to helping at the school carnival, please contact your child’s teacher as we need lots of support on this day.

Have a great week everyone! Neil Robinson Principal ICAS RESULTS Congratulations to the following students who received Distinction or High Distinction in the 2017 ICAS Competition. Distinction means that the children achieved in the top 10% in NZ and High Distinction in the top 1%. Aren’t they clever!

2017 ICAS Students who received a (D) Distinction or (HD) High Distinction

Year Five Digital Technologies Year Four Writing

DEVESHI ARORA D ABIGAIL DENG D

ABRAHAM DENG D

Year Six Digital Technologies Year Five Writing

SIDDHARTH GOLLA HD ZEMFIRA MELNICENKO HD

FELIX LIU D Year Four English

YANA NAIR D KRISHA KARIPPAIL D

SEBASTIAN WEBSTER D Year Five English

Year Four Science ABRAHAM DENG D

HARRISON CAO D Year 6 English

Year Five Science YANA NAIR D

ABRAHAM DENG HD Year Five Maths

Year Four Spelling ABRAHAM DENG HD

ABIGAIL DENG D Year 6 Maths

Year Five Spelling HENRY GENET D

ABRAHAM DENG D FELIX LIU D

ZEMFIRA MELNICENKO D NEW LOOK FOR ONLINE SCHOOL SHOP We are moving to a new look for our online School Shop. This is designed to work much better on phones and various screen sizes and provide a more modern look, as well as some new features. The changeover will happen at the end of this week.

A YouTube tutorial is available here. Please contact the helpdesk using the ? link on the Kindo website or on 0508 454636 (09-869 5200) or hello@mykindo.co.nz if you have any trouble. You can find the links to our School Shop on the school website. NOTE: If you haven't used our School Shop before, please click here first .

PTA Friday lunch orders return this week. Collect an order form from class, school office or the Blockhouse Bay Primary School PTA Facebook page. Orders must be returned to the office before 9am Thursday morning or it will be sent back home if late. Also returning this week is Frozen Fridays! Students can buy a mini licks ice block for $1 from the PAC kitchen on Fridays after eating lunch.

School Carnival- Saturday 2nd December- 10am-2pm Please support your child's class Carnival stall by signing up to help with set up, running or clean up on Carnival day. Any adult in the family can help and full instruction will be given. We cannot run the event without volunteer help so please return your forms to the class teacher ASAP. You can also help at the working bee and white elephant drop off on Sunday 5th November from 10-12 at the PAC.

Equipment needed- if you have an easy push-up style gazebo, we would be very grateful if you would lend it to us for the day of the Carnival. It will be named and returned to you the following week. We also need a small skip bin for the day. If you know anyone who can help us source this as a donation or reduced cost, please get in touch at pta@blockhousebay.school.nz. Jolly Jars for Jolly Mufti Day- Friday 3rd November If your child would like to wear a costume or their own clothes for mufti on this day, please send them with a jolly jar (look it up on Google or see examples at the school office).

Like our Facebook page for more updates- Blockhouse Bay Primary School PTA. BRING YOUR OWN DEVICE (BYOD)

Thank you to those parents who were able to join us for last night’s meeting. We hope that it was beneficial for you. We are sending information home to families of Year 4 children who were not able to attend this event so that everyone is fully informed about BYOD. If your child has not brought this home, please contact their teacher. A reminder to parents that we only have the children bringing Chromebooks (not laptops) as these are cheaper for parents and have all of the technology that we require. Please contact our ICT Lead Teacher Felicity Davis if you have any questions or concerns about BYOD –felicityd@blockhousebay.school.nz

CALENDAR OF EVENTS TERM FOUR

Fri 27th Oct – Pohutukawa – Car and Seat Belts Safety Tues 31st Oct – RM 9 – Trip to Refuse Station Thurs 2nd Nov – 2.30pm Pohutukawa Assembly Fri 3rd Nov - Football Tournament – selected students Mon 6th Nov – 2.15pm Kauri Assembly Wed 8th Nov – 2.30pm – Kowhai Assembly Thurs 9th Nov – 2.00pm – Rimu Assembly Tues 14th Nov – 2.00pm – Whole School Assembly Wed 15th Nov – Yrs 3-6 Interschool Athletics Day Thurs 16th Nov – 2.30pm Pohutukawa Assembly 13- 23rd Nov – Dental Caravan at school Mon 20th Nov – 2.15pm Kauri Assembly Wed 22nd Nov – Yrs 3-6 Athletics Postponement Day Wed 22nd Nov – 2.30pm -Kowhai Assembly Fri 24th Nov – Teacher Only Day (No School this day) Mon 27th Nov – Swimming season commences Tues 28thNov – Pohutukawa and Kowhai Athletics Thurs 30th Nov –2.30pm- Pohutukawa Assembly Sat 2nd Dec – PTA Carnival Day – 10.00am Mon 4th – Fri 9th Dec - Kauri Syndicate Safer Boating Tues 5th Dec – Pohutukawa Waste free Camp Day Wed 6th Dec –2.30pm - Kowhai Assembly Thurs 7th Dec – 2.00pm - Rimu Assembly Wed 13th Dec – Reports go home Wed 13th Dec – Year six graduation ceremony Fri 15th Dec – End of School Year – 1.30pm