The Connection Week 4 Term 2
Huapai District School 27th May 2021
PRINCIPAL'S MESSAGE
This week we were lucky enough to have the police helicopter visit our school. This is not something that our children experience every day. The smiles and whoops of excitement (not just from the students) reinforced our strong belief that learning at Huapai doesn’t just happen inside the four walls of a classroom. While the three Rs of education “Reading, Writing and Arithmetic” are still as important as ever, we seek to integrate our teaching and learning in a more authentic context, where the whole child is acknowledged and their strengths are nurtured. We firmly believe that math skills, for example, can be taught using the event of the helicopter, for example: How far did they travel? How long did it take them?
The rich discussions, questioning skills, writing of thank you's and problem solving that occurred due to this event were genuine and skills certainly needed for life in 2021.
The partnership between home and school is an important one. Parents and school staff are all working together to give your child the very best education here at Huapai. It was great to see so many parents pop up to watch the helicopter land, to share the excitement with their children and to take part in the discussions. When children are interested and engaged, they learn better. This is our wish for all our students.
While we can’t promise a helicopter each week, we do seek to find the magic every day!
Kind regards,
Maree Lloyd
Upcoming Events
- Gumboot Friday - Friday 28th May (tomorrow)
- Teacher Only Day - Friday 4th June
- Board Meeting - Tuesday 8th June
Student Of The Week
Avei says, "I love my school. I love Maths the best and doing my basic facts, because my teacher makes it interesting and fun."
Getting To Know..
Welcome to a new section of the newsletter called “getting to know”, where each week a staff member will share a little about themselves.
First up, Ashley Dalrymple...
Teacher Only Day
The school will offer support through our Huapai Plus (before and after school programme). The school will not be open on this day.
Tough Guy and Gal Mud Challenge
It’s that time of year. If you are interested in your child entering the Tough Guy and Gal challenge this year please use the link below to register. As a school we have entered a team in the Auckland event on Wednesday 4th August. Please use Huapai District School on your child’s entry form so that all our entries can be linked together.
Our Seniors Have Launched A Website!
We are proud to share the Year 7-8 Global Pandemic Deep Learning website, created by our Year 7&8 team.
Following the second lockdown in March of this year, our Seniors paused to think and reflect on life and learning in lockdown during the global pandemic. They recorded videos of their experiences and shared these with each other and whanau. After viewing and discussing these videos, along with videos and articles about the experiences of many children their age around the world, they concluded that the global pandemic was having a huge impact on their lives and on the lives of people all over the world and that, as global citizens, they needed to learn more and do more. So they launched an inquiry into ”Commitment to human equity and well-being through empathy and compassion for diverse values and world views”. They identified the important themes of human equity, well-being and world views. The Year 7-8 Global Pandemic Deep Learning website is a showcase of their learning as they explored these important themes and took action to make a difference.
Check it out below!
Gumboot Friday 28th May (Tomorrow!)
For people struggling with depression, it can feel like walking through mud every day. On Gumboot Friday, a day organised by the ‘I Am Hope’ charity, people all over New Zealand wear their gumboots to show their support for people suffering from depression as they take a walk in their shoes for just one day.
This Friday we are inviting our students to wear their gumboots to school in support of this great charity initiative. A gumboot will also be placed in our school office for anyone who would like to make a donation to the ‘I Am Hope’ charity. The ‘I Am Hope’ charity uses 100% of the money they receive to help people aged 5-24 access counselling services and get the help they need.
So, this Friday, gumboot up Huapai!
Road Patrollers
QUIZ NIGHT - It’s happening!
Grab your friends and get in quick. Tables are available to purchase through Kindo. Lots of raffles and auctions for amazing items throughout the night.
Yummy Apple Stickers
Readathon - Read Around The World
We want to make our library even more amazing!
Every single student at Huapai District School uses our school library. As we continue to improve our school environment, we have recently upgraded rooms 6-10. You may have noticed that we are now upgrading the outside of this block, as well as the outside of the main office block, including the science room and library. With a facelift on the outside, we now want to give our library a massive revamp on the inside and have it glowing!
This year’s ‘athon is a readathon - Read Around The World.
We are encouraging students to broaden their horizons, learn about cultures other than their own, delve into history, discover previously untold tales, explore a spot of poetry, listen to the korero of people they know and travel the globe from the comfort of their own home or school.
Students have been supplied with a map of the world. When the child reads a story, article, myth, poem etc from another country in the world, they colour that country in on their map. The idea is that over the duration of 6 weeks, students will aim to colour in as much of the world as they can. Students may encounter many articles from different countries during their time in class this term, in addition to reading at home..
Prizes will be given for the following categories:
The students who colour the most countries (each year level)
The student who colours the most countries (overall)
The students who raise the most money (each year level)
The student who raises the most money (overall)
We will celebrate the end of our Read Around The World with a week long book week in week 9 of this term. We will have a book character parade where we will encourage children to become a character in a piece of writing they’ve read or heard from around the world. We will also have a book fair in our school and lots of book related activities.
To make donating to our readathon easy for you, we have created a Give A Little Page. Which we have linked below. Please use this page to make any sponsorship payments for your child (remember to note their name as a reference!). Please also feel free to share this page with family, friends and even any local community pages. Every dollar donated is a dollar closer to our end goal!
For more information about this, please see below for a document containing everything you need to know.
One last thing - if you would prefer to keep everything online, please use the link below to make your own copy of the world map.
Whiria Te Tangata - Kahui Ako Opportunity!
If you are interested in showcasing your business to over 1000 people, here is an opportunity for you! We have 12 schools in our COL (community of learning) and on the 1st July we are holding a careers expo at the Kumeu Showgrounds.
If you would like to have a stall showcasing your business (for free!), please get in touch with either Miss Gover (tasha.gover@hds.school.nz), Mr Duplooy (jo.duplooy@hds.school.nz) or Miss T (ana.taitone@hds.school.nz).
Read the flyer below for more information, it would be wonderful to have you on board.
Pink Shirt Day
HERO Notifications
We use HERO to send classroom updates and to share regular learning posts. HERO sends push notifications or emails. You can now choose how you receive HERO notifications as well as manage devices that receive them.
To set your own notification preferences:
Click on your profile image
Select EDIT PROFILE
Scroll down to My Devices and select your preferences.
Or please see the full instructions linked below.
Contact Us
Email: office@hds.school.nz
Website: https://www.huapaidistrict.school.nz/
Location: Huapai District School 40 Station Rd, Kumeū, New Zealand
Phone: +64 09 412 5042
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/huapaidistrictschool