Term 2, Week 8, 2019

Newsletter M

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20 June 2019

Dear Parents and Friends of Manukau Christian School, Welcome to winter. It was delayed in arriving, but the cool and the wet seem to have finally made their presence felt! Over the last couple of weeks, the teachers have been engaging in professional development around assessment and feedback. To the untrained eye carrying out assessments and feeding back to students probably seems as straightforward as ticking or crossing answers on a page in red pen, writing a percentage in a mark book and handing the paper back to the student. However, what appears simple to the casual observer in fact requires quite a lot of skill and intentionality, if it is to be effective. A few key thoughts that came out of our professional development include: Some assessments are primarily to help students to learn – the way we

might measure the yield of a plant to determine whether it needs more water, fertilizer etc – these are known as formative assessments and are not so much ‘done to’ students but are ‘done with’ the students.

Other assessments are primarily summative, to assess the net learning gain from the last few weeks or months of teaching – typically a unit test or exam.

Teachers will set different types of assessments for different reasons and will use the results accordingly.

Principal’s Desk 2

Dates to Remember 6

School Happenings 7

Community Notices 15

Matters for Prayer 16

Inside this issue: Term Dates 2019

Term 2: 29 Apr to 5 Jul

Term 3: 22 Jul to 27 Sep

Term 4: 14 Oct to 6 Dec

ASSOCIATION OF CAMBRIDGE

SCHOOLS in NZ INC

CAMBRIDGE ASSOCIATE SCHOOL

Principal’s Message

Continued over the page

Page 2 Term 2, Week 8, 2019

Principal’s Message Continued

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The most effective formative assessment involves real-time verbal feedback by teachers and includes the opportunity to interact with each student, to make sure the feedback is interpreted correctly.

Verbal feedback is not just verbal, because the greater of any verbal message is communicated by body language in a variety of ways – we need to do our very best to ensure that what students ‘pick up’ is the message that we are intending to convey.

Formative assessment is most effective when the comments are not combined with a grade, because the grade tends to override the significance of the comments in the mind of the student – the assessment is perceived as a performance, rather than a learning experience. Note to parents, not all work that is collected and ‘marked’ is graded and this is for good reason.

It is important that teachers give students opportunities to reflect on their learning. Students who reflect on their learning tend to take ownership of their learning and have more motivation to succeed.

Providing quality verbal feedback to students as they complete a task requires time, focused attention and intentionality. Warm fuzzy comments

such as ‘that’s lovely’ or ‘good work’ are positive but essentially meaningless when it comes to helping students to improve their skills. At the same time, feeding back in ways which highlight a great chasm between one’s current ability and the end goal can become demoralising. We need to show students where they need to get to and that we believe they can get there. There is a delicate balance required. As Scripture says, we must speak the

truth in love (Ephesians 4:15). One of the many reasons why teaching is exhausting is that teachers are always poring over the work of their students and then scouring their vocabulary for accurate and gracious ways to guide students towards their next steps.

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From the Principal’s Desk

Farewell to Miss Luck

It is with much sadness that I need to communicate to you that Miss Luck will be leaving us at the end of this term to head overseas. I sadly accepted her resignation knowing that in losing Miss Luck, we lose somebody very special who regards teaching as far more than a ‘job’. Miss Luck has given hugely to Manukau Christian School and to many cohorts of 5-year-old chil-dren. Although I have only known her for 18 months, Miss Luck has served at this school since 2004. She will be missed for her creative teaching, re-lentless pursuit of excellence and a 100% commitment to the wellbeing of each and every child. We teachers, have all been inspired by Miss Luck’s amazing ability to captivate students and bring learning to life. We have been equally impressed by her attention to detail and nobody could have missed the fact that she will leave no stone un-turned in her commitment to ensuring standards are maintained within the school. Miss Luck is truly an amazing teacher who will be sorely missed. Miss Luck’s final day at MCS will be Friday 5th July. On this day we will celebrate her time at our school at a farewell assembly at 8.45am.

Welcome to Miss Van der Mescht

The Lord has been very kind to us in the provision of a capable and experienced teacher in the form of Miss Nikita van der Mescht who will take over the Room 203, Year 1 and 2 class. Miss Van der Mescht has been teaching in a local state school since her arrival in Aotearoa New Zealand last year. Prior to that she taught in various Christian schools in South Africa, one of which was a Cambridge school. She is a dedicated Christian and a passionate teacher.

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Mission Team prepares to make a difference in Fiji

On Saturday 6th July 2019, five of our Year 12 and 13 students, along with three students from Pukekohe Christian School will fly to Fiji to carry out eight days of mission work with the Foursquare New Covenant Church in Toko, Tavua. Our primary role will be to support the outreach programme that the church runs. Another aspect to our mission is to provide funds for the local church to help them build a new home for the pastor which will be elevated to a higher position than the current home, to prevent flood damage. The current home has been damaged by several floods in recent years. If any MCS families would like to contribute to this, please see Mr Slaney.

School Arrival and Collection We again ask parents to please be considerate of other people in the carpark. Time and again parents are parking on the yellow line as they enter the carpark. Please DO NOT PARK on the yellow lines. You prevent other parents from entering the carpark.

It is very important that when you drop your child off or collect them in the afternoon, that you identify yourself to the teacher on duty. Please WALK your child to the steps in the morning and to your car in the afternoon. Unattended and unaccompanied students are at great risk in the carpark.

Thank you

Thank you to Mr Paul Voschezang, our caretaker Mr Ken Barthow and to the parent helpers who assisted with relocating the PE shed. The new resource room for Room 207 is now in its place and will shortly be fully operational.

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Meeting for Parents of Year 7 and 8 students

Parents of Year 7 and 8 students attended an information evening last night. This was an opportunity to gain information to assist in whether MCS high school is suitable for your child. Please make an appointment to speak with Mr Scott Kennedy if you want further information about subjects offered, our points of difference, and what you can expect if you send your child to our high school. If you wish to enrol your Year 8 child in Year 9 for 2020, you will need to submit an enrolment application form.

Mid Year Reports and Parent Interviews Parent Interviews for students in Years 1 and 2 will be held on Tuesday 2nd July and Wednesday 3rd July 2019. School will finish at the normal time of 3.00pm. Reports will be handed out to parents of Year 1 and 2 students at the interview.

Mid-year exams are in full swing. For students in Years 3 and up, mid year reports will be sent home to parents in the first week of next term, on Thursday 25th July 2019. This will be followed up with parent interviews in the second week of Term 3, on Thursday 1st August 2019. This provides a useful re-focussing point for students and allows parents to discuss with teachers how to encourage their child for the second half of the year.

When your child is late…. The school is now utilising an electronic attendance register. If your child happens to be late for school (after 8.40am) please remember to SIGN IN at the office. If your child proceeds directly to the class without signing in, it means that we will ring you as their absence would already have been recorded by the teacher. Please be respectful of the teacher and other students in the class who get to school on time.

School Enrolments MCS continues to attract unprecedented enrolment applications. Please tell your friends to submit their application forms early, in all year levels. Parents of exist-ing students wanting to enrol younger siblings, please ensure that you submit forms early to make certain a space is reserved.

Parent Helpers We would love a parent (or two!) to help with changing readers and photocopying in Rooms 201 and 204. If you can help for half an hour once you have dropped your child off in the morning or can come in half an hour before collecting your child in the afternoon, the teachers would really appreciate it. Please speak to Mrs Oosterbeek.

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School Fees Large cash payments of fees should

be deposited directly into the school

account. Credit card and eftpos

payments can be processed in the

office.

Dates to Remember

Monday Tuesday Wednesday Thursday Friday

17 18 Auckland Art Gallery Rm 207, 203, 202

19 PIPS High School Information Evening

20 Swimming Rm 205 and 206

21 Swimming Rm 204

24

25

26 PIPS

27

28

1 JULY

2 Parent Meetings Rooms 207, 203, 202 only

3 PIPS Parent Meetings Rooms 207, 203, 202 only

4 5 Assembly 8.45am End of Term School finishes 12.30pm

SCHOOL HOLIDAYS

22 JULY

23

24 PIPS

25 Reports handed out Years 3 and up

26 Assembly 2.30pm

29

30

31 PIPS

1 AUGUST Parent Interviews Years 3 to 13 School finishes 12.30pm

2

Health and Safety Please report any hazards that you notice to the office.

Please be vigilant of any rashes on your child as the Ministry of Health has reported increased outbreaks of measles in Auckland and Northland.

Trustboard Members

MCS is governed by the Christian Schools of Auckland Charitable Trust, with Mr Rod Peek as the chairman. We welcome two new members to the board: Mrs Catherine Faletanoai and Mr Mark Savill. We pray that this will be a blessing to you as you serve Christ in this way.

We give thanks to the Trustboard for their commitment: Mr Simon Camp, Mr Rob Darby, Mr Richard Flinn and Mrs Janet Simons.

Polar Fleece Sweatshirts

Sweatshirts are now available at $48.00 if you would like your child to wear one. These are not compulsory. T - s h i r t s a r e compulsory on ALL school trips for safety reasons. Thank you.

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Career Day

This is always a highlight in the term and students prepared well for all fac-ets of the task: from their outfits, to their research, to the delivery of their speeches. Great effort everyone! Feedback was sent home in their portfoli-os. Special certificates were presented to the following pupils.

Best Speech Best Costume Best Effort

Room 207

Serah Gee Isabella Dass

Emily Willis Aaron Nannepaga

Keira Khosla Lance Lauina

Room 203

Jesse Faletanoai Jewel Jinoy Johan Zachariah

Hannah Shallard Amaira Ram

Ajay Dhesi Ritika Kaur Kavneer Singh Kiara Khosla

Room 202

Chalredyne Payne-Smith Prabhmeet Gill Eva Filimoehala-Burling

Abigail Anbunathan Elizabeth Abraham Noela Inongo

Sinam Pattanarattana-molee Jaeha Lee

Chess Tournament Four of our students—Devin Du, Darius

Jin, Rain Guo and Jonathan Filimoehala-

Burling—competed in the South Auckland

Interschools Chess Tournament last week

and achieved an outstanding third place.

Preparation and practice paid off. Well

done boys!

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My Weekend

On the weekend we went to Whakatane. We went on Sunday and we came back on Monday. It was a long ride. When we were back at home I played with my baby sister. We played with her doll. It was fun. When we were at Whakatane we went to the beach and put our feet in the water. It felt very cold. We saw shells and we saw some birds and we saw some fish in the big waves. We heard waves and the birds singing. It was a very nice

day. Ritika, Year 2

Room 203—Sentence Building for Stories

After students have been through the phonics programme and have learnt their sight words, the next step is sentence building. This enables them to write stories. With strong language skills in place and by having the concrete words in front of them, it gives students a very good understanding of the process.

The Title of the Story is The Elves and the Shoemaker

The main characters are the shoemaker and his wife. The shoemaker was so poor. He and his wife had no food. The supporting characters are the Elves and the town people. The setting of the story was the Shoemaker’s shop. The problem was that they had no money and food. The solution was that the elves then helped the shoemaker and his wife become very rich.

Jesse, Year 2

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My Weekend

On the weekend I played hide and seek with my brother. On Sunday I went to Sunday school and my brother slept in the car. On Monday I had a bad cough and when I went to rest I was so frustrated because my brother was so loud. When I finished resting I told my dad “My brother was so loud that

I could not rest at all!” Jewel, Year 2

Room 203—Art After eating some refreshing and delicious watermelon, students in Room 203 used dye and water colours to paint portraits of themselves eating this delicious snack.

Rooms 207, 203, 202 and 201—Simple Machines

Having learnt about simple machines in class and accompanied by a trip to MOTAT, students had the skills and opportunity to build their own simple machine and showcase them to their peers. This practical application could be the start of a career or two in engineering…. Thank you parents for coming to see their creations.

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Taking part in the Gymsport programme is always an exciting time for stu-dents. This four week programme at Bruce Pulman Park concentrated on strengthening core muscles and increasing gross motor co-ordination. Ulti-mately this translates into increased fine-motor co-ordination in the class-room and assists with writing and learning outcomes. Thank you parents for all your help with transport and hands-on supervision.

Room 202—Year 2 Gymsport

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My favourite thing in Gymsport is the bar that you can hang upside down on, and my second favourite thing is the sponge pit. Now my last one is the spin part with Mrs Fickling.

By Chalredyne

I liked going on the trampoline. I liked going in the sponge pit. I also liked running on the mat.

By Sukhman

I like everything about Gymsport and I really like it.

By Austen

I went on the trampoline and did star jumps. I did a jump in the sponge pit.

By Prabhmeet I loved when I ran and fell into the sponge pit and I was jumping on the trampoline.

By Manya I liked the sponge pit and the trampolines. I learned about a jump stop at Gymsport and front support and roly polys.

By Noela

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Room 201—Art

Students used a variety of tools to create their artwork, including cotton buds and straws. This also linked in with procedural writing, a genre that gives instructions and is a useful skill to assist in accomplishing goals. The most recent work was a contemporary take on insect flower art.

We have many ‘budding’ artists in the class.

How to make straw art

Things you need A4 black paper Scissors A3 white paper Scissors Cotton buds Yellow and red paint Colouring pencils Pencil

1. Draw a pot on A4 black paper with a pencil.

2. Cut the pot that you drew on the paper. 3. Design your pot with a colouring pencil. 4. Get an A3 piece of white paper. 5. Glue the pot at the bottom of the white

paper. 6. Put dye on the top of the pot. 7. Get the straw and blow the dye to look like

branches. 8. Put one cotton bud in the yellow paint. 9. Add yellow dots where the dye ends. 10. Add red dots using the cotton bud around the

yellow dots. 11. You have your straw art ready.

By Aiden Matthews

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Science Experiments—Room 205

Students in Room 205 have been learning about soluble and insoluble substances

as well as solutes and solvents. After exploring a range of substances to see

whether they were soluble or insoluble, we then explored how to separate out the

insoluble substances through filtering. We were amazed to see how clean the

cloudy water became after going through the filter paper! While the water looked

clean, it was not clean enough to drink as germs are so small, they can get through

the filtering process. Next, we enquired as to what happens to the soluble

substances? Where do they go? To find out, we stirred sugar into cups of tea

until the sugar would no longer dissolve. We were amazed to find that more than

20 spoonfuls of sugar (our solute) dissolved in 100ml of water (the solvent). We

ended up with a very sticky mess, but it was well worth it to have greater

understanding of these scientific concepts.

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Swimming—Room 206

I really loved taking swimming lessons especially because I learnt some new things. I also absolutely enjoyed doing some safety drills with life-jackets.

Mia Faletanoai Yr 7 Rm 206

Swimming was great fun. It was an exceptional experience for everyone in our class. I loved meeting the experienced and well-trained coaches and they taught us great lessons on survival in the water. The water safety programme was the best. Life jackets were key to floating, and staying in a huddle are some of the important things I learnt. To put it simply, I loved it. Armann Garcha Yr 7 Rm 206

These trips to swimming have taught me a lot. I really had fun and I wish it could happen again. I’d like to thank the teachers, especially Josh, my teacher. I will use these tips from swimming to my advantage. Keira Shallard Yr 6 Rm 206

Students in Rooms 204, 205 and 206 attended eight swimming sessions this term, focusing on water safety. Next term students in Room 201 will also attend these sessions. These lessons are free, made possible by the John Walker Find your Field of Dreams Foundation, the Auckland Council and the Lion Foundation—a huge thank you.

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Rippa Rugby—Room 210

Vuga Tagicakibau from Counties Manukau has recently visited Manukau Christian School delivering a series of rippa rugby sessions to a range of different classes. These sessions have focused on building competence in the areas of passing, running and defending. Students have gained confidence over the three sessions and have enjoyed the opportunity to learn some new skills.

“I enjoyed playing rippa rugby as it’s a team sport and everyone can get involved.” Thomas Fryer Yr 8

“In rippa rugby this term I’ve really enjoyed learning new skills and techniques to play well.” Angelina Sharma Yr 7

“Something I have thoroughly enjoyed about rippa rugby was the whole thing, but in particular I enjoyed how we got to rip each other’s tags and yell, “Rip!”. Lola Tavan Yr 8

“I liked how the coach started us off with basic skills, then, eventually, we combined our skills into fun games.” Matthew Shallard Yr 8

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The next gala for 2020 is in the early planning stages. Please set aside Saturday 28th March 2020. It is bound to be a fine day!!! Tabetha Gorrie and Janet Simons are keen to do it all again, so let’s get behind them and start thinking about how we can make the most of the opportunity.

Gala Corner

Registration forms available at the office

Clothing and Bric-a-Brac

A reminder that we have a

bin on site at the senior

end of the school for used

or unwanted clothing or

bric-a-brac. Please sup-

port our school as we re-

ceive a donation every

time the bin is emptied.

Miscellaneous

Thank you for your support of the

Photolife individual and class

photos. The school received a

donation of $429.

Please check the lost property basket

in the junior foyer—all unclaimed

clothing will be removed at the end

of the term.

Please keep collecting Yummy

stickers for sports equipment for

our students.

Page 16 Term 2, Week 8, 2019

77 Rogers Road • P O Box 75-623 • Manurewa • Ph 269-1050

admin@manukauchristian.school.nz • manukauchristian.school.nz Like us on Facebook

Give thanks because….

Miss Luck’s substantial contribution to MCS over 15 years

The provision of Miss Van der Mescht in our junior department

Our amazing Mrs Oosterbeek who together with Mrs McAullay and

Mrs Bryant make a very efficient and capable administration team

The opportunity to send senior students on a mission trip over the July

holidays

Please pray for….

The Science laboratory to quickly gain Code of Compliance

Final preparations for our school mission team so we can make a

positive impact in Fiji in July

Safe travels and an easy transition for Miss Luck into her new school

Miss van der Mescht to adjust quickly to MCS at the start of Term 3

The staff to become accustomed to using the new electronic attendance register

Prayer Points

Scripture to Ponder on with your family

15It was you who opened up springs and streams;

you dried up the ever-flowing rivers. 16 The day is yours, and yours also the night;

you established the sun and moon. 17 It was you who set all the boundaries of the earth;

you made both summer and winter.

Psalm 74:15-17