Kia ora e te whānau,

We have had a very positive week with a lot of activities happening outside the classrooms. It is great to see students involved in gardening projects, mural painting, landscaping and other outside projects that foster a sense of belonging to Birkdale Intermediate School. This was our term one goal - to ensure all students knew that this was a place where they belonged and felt a sense of ownership. All classes have planned projects that involve enhancing or adding to our school environment.

Bunnings Warehouse in Glenfield kindly donated a garden shed and tools for our students to use. This week, the tools have had a lot of use as students have weeded, planted, put down weed matting and covered the carpark garden with river pebbles. The space looks great and is so much tidier than it was before.

Our enviro club has many ideas for ways to enhance the school environment and I am looking forward to seeing these ideas become engaging spaces around the school. Next week we will be working on our vegetable garden. Thank you to the Breen family for their donation of capsicum plants. If you are keen to help out, have any gardening expertise or seedlings to donate, we would love to have your involvement.

As I write this, a building crew has started to set up fencing ready for the demolition and rebuild of the Weka classroom block. This is the block of classrooms that face the school field at the back of the school (rooms 17 - 20). The rooms will be modernised and will have improved ventilation, lighting, acoustics and new carpet, lino and wall coverings. The doors and windows will be replaced and we will have aluminium bi-fold doors that open out onto a decking area. These classes will be great spaces for learning.

The building crew will also be demolishing part of our old school hall, PE shed and pipes from the boiler. Several roofs will also be replaced. Most of this work will be done in the school holidays when students are not on-site. We are looking forward to seeing the new cladding, colour steel roofing and aluminium doors. While the building work will be somewhat disruptive, it will be well worth it to have buildings that look and feel great to work in.

Care for the environment is a message that we are constantly reinforcing and it is great to be able to show our students the many different ways that we work hard to provide a quality environment for them to learn in every day.

Have a wonderful weekend,

JoAnne

The BIS Water Fun Run planning is well underway. The students are excited about the day and it is going to be EPIC. There will be 2 races. The first is a competitive race that will start at 10:30am and the Fun Run will begin on completion. Excavation has begun on our Mud Pit of Doom, and there are wild and fun obstacles throughout the course such as the Tunnel of Terror, the Inescapable Sands of Time and The Slippery Slopes of Despair.

After the race we will have stalls with sausage sizzles, american hotdogs, cold drinks, hot chocolates, cotton candy, spiders, ice creams, games, competitions, prizes and much, much more. We will also have a water pass which allows students to have unlimited turns on the water slide (aka the Slippery Slopes of Despair) and the field will be converted to a real life Water Royale game with obstacles and water supplies. If anyone can donate pringle canisters or ice cream containers that would be appreciated.

All students have been given a sponsorship form and will be asking family members and friends for donations. All students that get their money in next week will be entered into a daily prize draw to win vouchers or prizes. All proceeds go towards new P.E equipment and a van, if you would like to offer support please contact Rachel Young ryoung@bis.school.nz

Definitely.

We recently analysed the results of our February Progress and Achievement Tests. These are standardised tests which give us data about what students already know and what we need to teach them. Our students have demonstrated some good skills but we know that the more they read, the more the world will open up to them.

A child who reads becomes a better reader. Good readers learn to become good writers, good spellers and have a good general knowledge.

Emerging adolescents can become reluctant readers if they do not find texts that engage them in reading. Teens are drawn to digital devices and may spend more time watching or listening to something on their device rather than reading. E-books are a great way to combine the love of technology with reading.

We are in the process of setting up school wide access to an online library. We have researched the various e-book providers and have decided that ComicsPlus from Bibiliotheca is a great one for our students. All of our students will be able to access books, comics and reference material from home or school. The service is up to date and provides the latest titles that should appeal to our group of students.

More information and log in details will be given to all students and this will be glued into their home learning books. We hope that our students will be more willing to get into reading if they can do it on a digital device.

Sunday 3rd April - Daylight Saving ends

Thursday 14th April - Last day of Term 1

Monday 25th April - Anzac Day

Tuesday 2nd May - Term 2 begins

Please contact office@bis.school.nz to advertise your community event in this space.