Newsletter 1 Term 2
Howick Primary School 21st May 2021
PRINCIPAL'S MESSAGE
The term is rushing by very fast as we farewell autumn and prepare for winter. The unseasonably warm conditions we have experienced serve to confirm that Global Warming is not a figment of our imaginations. With Covid on the other side of the door, we need to maintain our vigilance in tracking our movements through the contract tracing app so please keep using it when you come into school. The last thing we need is another outbreak to disrupt the flow of learning and teaching for our students and teachers. Please support your child’s independence with reminding them to check they have their:
Drink bottle every day
Hand towel - named and regularly laundered
Some students are constant and recidivist forgetters of these - items which help them to reduce the spread of germs and manage their own safety. We will maintain a strict protocol around sending home any children or teachers with any signs of colds or flu as well as the sanitising and cleansing routines to keep us all as well as we can be.
Staff Only Days
At the end of week 5, we have our two Staff-only days scheduled -
Thursday 3rd of June - First Aid Training
Friday 4th of June - Kahui Ako (Community of schools) Conference at Howick College
SKids will be open on those days or you may be able to leave early if you are planning to be away for Queen’s Birthday weekend and avoid the traffic snarl ups.
Parent Evening - Future Proofing Your Child
We do have a Parent night with one of the presenters at our Conference:
Here are the details about that night. Tickets are available at the school office.
Parent Evening: Karen Tui Boyes Future Proofing Your Child: How to give them a solid foundation and wings to fly in a world constantly changing. Parents and caregivers of students who attend one of the schools or ECEs in the Howick Coast Kāhui ako, are invited to attend an informative evening presented by Karen Tui Boyes. When: Thursday 3 June, 7:00- 8:30pm Where: Bill Dimery Performing Arts Theatre, Howick College Cost: $5.00. Tickets can be purchased through your school or centre offices. Karen Tui Boyes is a champion for lifelong learning across nations, industries and organisations. She is founder, head facilitator and CEO of Spectrum Education Limited. Karen leads a small and dynamic team which is determined to unleash everyone’s peak performance, with a focus on ensuring teachers, students and parents have a passion for learning, understand the learning process and know how to maximise it. Karen is an author and the creator of the Teachers Matter Magazine, Teachers Matter Conference, Kids Matter Conference, Study Smart Workshops and the Habits of Mind Bootcamp. She is also CEO of Spectrum Education, Affiliate Director of the Institute for the Habits of Mind, NZ Educator of the Year 2017 & 2014, NZ Speaker of the Year 2019 & 2013, NZ Business Woman of the Year 2001, wife of one and mother of two. You will also be able to purchase a copy of Karen’s latest book and other resources on the night.
Kidpower Confident Kids Programme
Coming up in June and supporting our PB4L (Positive Behaviour for Learning) programme we have been funded to provide a fabulous programme called “Kidpower” to be delivered to every class.
What is the Kidpower Confident Kids Programme ?
Five skill sets and 25 activities make it easy to build essential safety skills, a common language and a respectful culture with peers and other people. The programme is suitable for families, groups, and schools. It is set up to ensure that everyone is on the same page, developing and using the same safety strategies.
More information about the programme can be found here Kidpower programme
A parent evening on this topic is planned for late June. Confirmation of a date to come.
I am working on a night or series of nights in term 3 in which well known presenter John Cowan can come and speak to parents with suggestions and tips for helping and supporting great parenting.
Survey
As part of our review of the school curriculum document, we are developing a picture of the Learner Profile of our students who graduate from us at the end of Year 6. To help us gather your thoughts for this, I have a very short 3 question survey to tell us your thoughts. The questions are:
What do you like about learning at Howick Primary School?
What values do you think are important?
What aspirations do you have for your child? (social, emotional, academic and physical)
Click here to complete the survey. HPS Learner Profile Survey
Road Safety
This is probably the most irritating and frustrating recurring newsletter item. We continually ask for people to behave fairly but the message just doesn’t seem to go in!
PLEASE Do Not take your children out on the road side of the car - open the kerb-side door for them to get out.
Don’t turn around in the school driveway.
Do use the back entrances in Juliet Ave and Freyberg Place
Cars that park on the yellow lines in the morning, and any seen at SKids pickup time as well, will be logged and photographed and sent to the police to send out infringement notices. No exceptions!
Don’t be in a rush - leave home 10 minutes earlier or get up earlier - whatever it takes so everybody can be calm and patient in the morning.
The neighbours across the road continually phone or email their complaints about inconsiderate Howick Primary Parents. All I can imagine is that you don’t care if somebody else hits and injured or kills your child.
Garden to Table - Enviroschools
We are so fortunate to have an amazing group of volunteers under the very passionate and capable eye of Miss Beccy Long. It is so good to hear the stories about the development of the appreciation of new tastes and flavours due to having a hand in preparing and cooking food. Follow the stories on the Enviro Blog - click here Howick Primary Enviro Blog to see the amazing learning taking place.The menu this week was
Beetroot hummus with flatbread and apple & feijoa crumble YUMMMM.
We hope to grow enough food or make seasonal items such as chutney and preserves that we can sell for either pantry staples or money. If you would like to donate any pantry items, please contact Miss Long at b.long@howickprimary.school.nz so she can advise what is currently needed. Items like eggs, butter, cheese etc are always welcome. We are so fortunate to have some sponsorship from the local Countdown Supermarket too.
Please support them as they support us!
Our most recent Waste Audit makes stunning reading -
Our School is committed to reducing our waste that is sent to landfill.
Over the last 2 years we have put a number of initiatives in place to help reduce our waste.
This has included collecting food scraps and setting up compost areas & worm farms to deal with this waste, promoting wrapper free lunches and, this year, establishing a traffic light bin system; red for landfill waste, yellow for recycling and green for composting. This is also inline with nationwide rubbish systems.
We have audited our rubbish over this time and the decrease in waste going to landfill has been really pleasing.
WASTE TO LANDFILL SUMMARY 2019, 2020 & 2021
Pink Shirt Day
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Contact Us
Email: office@howickprimary.school.nz
Website: https://www.howickprimary.school.nz
Location: Howick Primary School 40 Willoughby Avenue, Howick, Auckland 2014, New Zealand
Phone: 09 534 6082