Newsletter Week 8 Term 4
Sawyers Bay School 8th December 2022
Principal's Message
Kia ora koutou,
We have come to the final newsletter for 2022.
Once again we have had our fair share of ups and downs with different regulations and health mandates this year. While I know that we are not out of the woods yet completely, I am very pleased that we have certainly made some progress.
I would sincerely like to thank all of our community for their support this year. We certainly could not have excelled the way that we have, and still managed to offer a huge range of learning opportunities for our children, without you. In our end of year survey, the theme of the vast majority of feedback all related to a sense of community, that comes directly from our parents, thank you.
To our PTA, Board and all of the helpers along the way, thank you for giving your time and energy to ensure that our kids at SBS have the very best. Much of the work that you do can be in the background but certainly does not go unnoticed.
To our teaching staff Hilary, Delhi, Leslee, Jos, Britt and Sophie, our support staff Kyla, Simon, Mel and Keith, you are truly amazing. The energy, effort and passion that you put into your roles is incredible. I cannot emphasise enough how much these amazing people put into their work with our kids. We are truly lucky to have an incredible team.
Most importantly to our children, you never cease to amaze me. Everyday I go to school knowing that I will see enthusiasm and a genuine love for learning. Everyday I know that I will be amazed, I will laugh along with our kids, and be made to feel truly proud. You all make me smile and I love the chance that you give me to be part of the most incredible wee school in Dunedin. One of our Year 6 leavers asked me only the other day if I will be sad to see them go. My answer was that yes of course I will but I know that they are well ready for their next adventure and that we have given them everything we can to be ready, and they have worked so incredibly hard to become the fine young adults that will continue to make us so proud.
The final newsletter report is always hard to write to capture all of the thank you's and thoughts. Every single day I count myself so lucky that I get to go to school and be part of something incredible. Thank you all for giving me the opportunity to have the best job in the world.
Mā te wā,
Gareth Swete
A note from SBS Staff
Not that Gareth will want this acknowledged but a school is only as good as its leader, and as Gareth said himself, SBS is the most incredible wee school in Dunedin!
Gareth goes above and beyond, every single day (often unnoticed), to ensure the smooth running of the school and the wellbeing of the children, their families and the staff.
Gareth, thank you for the tireless hours you put into creating the fabulous learning environment that is Sawyers Bay School.
The school community is very privileged to have you as its leader and we THANK YOU for your never ending support, care and leadership.
Ka rawe koe!
Please remember: Last Day of Term - Thursday 15th, 1pm close (Children can be picked up from 12.30pm)
Upcoming Events
- Last day for Subway lunch orders - Friday 9th December
- Final Assembly - 1.45pm Friday 9th December
- Last day for Sushi lunch orders - Tuesday 13th December
- Final Day of Term 4 - 1pm Thursday 15th December
Assembly Certificates
Te Ākonga o te Wiki
Papatūānuku
Seasons Greetings from Papatūānuku!
There is an air of excitement in our class this week as we creep closer to Christmas.
Some people are arriving with accessories, stories of Elf on the Shelf mischief and in general, enjoying the countdown to the big day. On the 1st of December, an advent calendar appeared in our class. This isn’t any ordinary advent calendar. It ended up being an ‘Acts of Kindness’ advent calendar. Each day, there is a different challenge for us to show kindness to each other, others in the school or folk in the community. I have been impressed to see how quickly the children remember to put into action these expressions of kindness, and how they have continued them each day.
In our Maths learning, we have been making up number stories, and then writing a takeaway equation to match it. We’ve used classroom animals to help us. This has provided lots of learning opportunities and I am enjoying seeing the children’s confidence grow in this type of activity. I am hearing lots of positive feedback about our “Maths Games Monday” homework activities! Thank you for taking the time to play a Maths game with your child.
We have been excited to watch the development of our classroom caterpillar! Overnight, it turned itself into a chrysalis. This lifecycle journey has provided us with lots of learning opportunities. Writing, drawing, story re-telling, art, craft, science, oral language, drama - one little caterpillar has certainly been an instigator of lots of learning opportunities!
Thank you everyone for your support over 2022. Papatūānuku tamariki and kaiako, wish you all a wonderful, restful festive season, and we look forward to seeing everyone again in 2023.
Meri Kirihimete!
Rīpoata na Mrs Campbell
Hine-Rau-Whārangi
Talofa, Mālō e lelei, Kia ora, Hello
And that's a wrap. It is hard to believe that we are nearly at the end of the School year.
What an amazing year it has been. The kids in Hine Rau never fail to amaze me in all that they achieve and hard work they have put in throughout the year. It has been my pleasure getting to know all these wonderful kids over this year. We have been super busy this week finishing activities and continuing with our regular learning, and are beginning to make some Christmas decorations to hang on our Christmas trees at home. This year we have made a Christmas tessellation tree with the help of Simon who taught the children how to wire up a light and wire their tessellation piece together to make an actual Christmas tree with flashing lights. (see video below) Yesterday was the last day for our Activity Modules and I am sure you have heard some pretty good things around the different activities the children have been engaging in. Personally I have seen some pretty awesome results and some very excited children coming back to class.
From all of us in Hine-Rau-Wharangi we wish you a Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year.
Rīpoata na Mrs Brewer
Tāwhirimātea
This week Tāwhirimātea we have been busy once again with our second round of activity modules. We have had fun with arts and crafts, creating clay creations, Christmas arts, Santa’s with sewing, steampunk creatures and more!
In Math, we continue to work on our dinosaur parks and we have added in some festive work- working on adding two digit numbers to create a mystery Christmas picture.
We are excited to include a picture below of our very special and unique pallet Christmas tree. It is slowly coming to life with hand prints, lights, tinsel and of course all of the AMAZING Christmas decorations that we have been making at home. We are soo impressed with the range of skills that are coming out in the decorations!!
In Writing, we have decided to write our own books which we are going to publish soon. Most have a Christmas theme but there is a range of topics, some modified from known stories and some written totally from scratch. We hope to get these published and ready to take home before the end of term. We continue to read our class chapter book this term in the hope that we can get it finished before Thursday next week! The story is called The Christmas Pig, by J.K. Rowling and it sure has us all on the edge of our seats!
Rīpoata na Tāwhirimātea
Ranginui
Meri Kirihimete
Another wonderful week of modules. The children were all very proud of their creations! A huge thank you from me to Charlotte for helping in photography. The photo displays were amazing- such a special keepsake. For reading this week the students have been reading Christmas texts- The Day my Dad stole my Christmas Present and The Snowman. Each story had follow up comprehension questions, character studies and word meanings. Part of this week's writing was to write to someone to wish them a Merry Christmas. These letters will be distributed to people over the Christmas period. In maths we continue working through open-ended number problems linked to money. We are getting very quick at adding and subtracting notes and coins.
Next week could you please send an extra bag to school with your child as we will be taking home our items from the classroom.
Ka Kite
Rīpoata na Miss Ruzsa
Hinemoana
This week in Hinemoana we have loved doing our activity modules. We did all sorts of things such as cooking, art, slot cars, photography, Christmas crafts, clay creations, steampunk creations and more!
We have also been finishing our letters to Santa. We worked hard to set it out correctly, including lots of information and a list of some things we would like for Christmas. We have been enjoying getting into the Christmas spirit and doing Christmas themed activities such as making decorations.
In math we played a game called the unfair game. We were focusing on our multiplication and division knowledge in the tricky game. We also did some learning about compound shapes. These are shapes that aren't symmetrical, we had to divide them into shapes that are symmetrical.
We are excited for the last week of school!
Rīpoata na Miss Richardson and Hinemoana
Tāne Mahuta
This week in Tane Mahuta we have been wrapping up our area and perimeter learning for math and completing some job presentations which we are excited to share with the rest of the class next week. For these we have specified the qualifications necessary for our jobs of interest as well as the particular equipment needed and the uniforms/clothing required. We have a real range of jobs that we have researched from dentists to vets to fashion designers! We are excited to compare and contrast the different qualifications necessary for different jobs and to see how much experience/training is required to become professionals in our jobs. We have learned that bachelors degrees are the first degree required for many of our careers. We have also learned that thinking carefully about our high school subject choices can really help lead us on to our potential university degrees. We have really enjoyed learning a lot of new information this term about our potential future careers!
Rīpoata na Miss Tenci
Sports News
This Week's results:
Touch Rugby
SBS Force 5-1 W POD Kenzie, Hazel & Cooper
Futsal
SBS Stars 4-3 W POD Emerson, Stan & Benji
SBS Spurs 0-8 L POD Liam H, Alex, Mordy
SBS Sparks 3-3 POD Stevie
SBS Steamers 4-2 POD Quinn
SBS Sweepers 1-2 L POD Olivia D
A massive thank you to all of our coaches, managers, taxi drivers, water management assistants and supporters for all of your work with our sports teams this year!
A few pics from Activity Modules
Community Notices
Contact Us
Email: office@sawyersbay.school.nz
Website: https://sawyersbay.school.nz/
Location: Sawyers Bay School 99 Stevenson Ave, Sawyers Bay, Dunedin 9023, New Zealand
Phone: 03 472 8981