Isla Bank School

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10th February 2009

Newsletter No.1
ROLL: Students 20

We have had a great start to the year. We welcome three new students, Shaun, Glen and Raymond and of course, our new teacher in Room 3, Mairi who brings Science and Social Science strengths to the school. We have been quick to start the year with expectations and self management skills. Children are quickly getting back into the routine and we are learning instead of having to focus on behaviour. This is a great start.

Athletics is coming soon and we are out in the sun three times a week preparing for the event. It would be great if children could increase their fitness over the next few weeks at home to help with their running.

We would like to remind families that by providing suntan lotion for your children, the risk of getting sunburnt is greatly reduced. This is a step towards becoming a sun smart school. We have already taken steps to comply with sun smart recommendations by shifting our sandpit into the shed at the end of the playground. We also ask children to wear their hats when outside for sports and during playtime.

We have already started our vegetable gardens. We planted them last week and already the radishes are through. We are learning about plants this year. It will be an ongoing study with the focus on growing our own food. The children should have their gloves by now. Only a few are yet to get them. They have cheap children’s gardening gloves in the Warehouse. Skills we are learning at school can easily be taken across into your vegetable garden at home. Let the growing of veges become a family activity.

We have started house groups again this year. Our house groups are called, Tui, Kereru and Kakapo. Ask your children which houses are winning and if they got any points during the day. The prize this term is a spider drink and a fun swim on the last day.

Parent interviews are coming up later in the month and camp is also in March. The camp meeting is this Thursday at 7pm in the staffroom at school. Parents who have children in Room 1 are asked to attend. Room 3 children will be off on day trips whilst we are away.

Board of Trustee elections are looming and hopefully someone is interested in such a position. Please ring the school if you want any further information.

Our bus is a great success and is proving to be the asset we envisaged. We hope the timing is working for you. Any comments or queries feel free to ring at any time.

Have a great fortnight.
Regards, Clare

Western Weigh In

We have started a Weight club, offering support to those who wish to lose weight.

We have an official weigh in each week on a Tuesday night, at school, at 7pm. Our meeting is conducted in Room 3 (at the end of the school).
Our guest speaker last week was Jan. Jan is a dietician and she came along with advice for healthy eating, how to read the nutrition labels on packages and to show us the different drinks you can buy in shops and the amount of sugar in them. This was a real eye opener for all of us! Some drinks had 10+ tsp of sugar in them.

Each month we will have a speaker. Jan has volunteered to come back later in the year and take us on a supermarket tour. This will help us to spot nutritional food and understand the different food groups and the labels that accompany them.

Jean is our weigh-in lady and is there to record your weight and offer words of support. The cost is $5 per weigh-in. You choose the way you want to lose the weight and we’ll help each other as a group. We’ll be swapping recipes and, at such a low cost, losing weight is more affordable.

Hopefully we’ll see you there. We already have 10 members, so come and join us.

Sports Dates

2nd March Swimming Snr
6 March Swimming Jnr
9 March Athletics
10 March Cancellation day
17 March Central Athletics
28 March Southland Athletics
2 June Cross Country

Spelling Homework Tips

Ask your child to write down the words and not spell them out loud
Mix up the order of words when you ask the spelling words
Add in a few extra words that rhyme and use the same spelling rule. Example: rat, cat, sat, hat etc.
If your child is having difficulty with a particular word then try to make picture or rhyme that can help the child to remember the correct spelling
Always put the word into a sentence so your child can listen to the word in context and work out which way to spell it. E.g. I threw the ball. I jumped through the tunnel.
The aim is to learn all the basic words and encouragement and perseverance is the key to success.

Maths focus this term

Juniors—Addition, counting forward and backward, identifying numbers and writing numbers for those that have just started school.
Seniors are starting with measurement. Learning about (m, cm, mm, km, mg, g, kg, tonnes). We are learning to work out how different things are best measured. Following on from that we will be back into multiplying and dividing. Hence the times table homework. Children need instant recall of the tables. This is often best learnt rote style. Reciting the table in a rhythmic fashion seems to fix into the memory. (Here’s hoping.) Without knowledge of tables, a lot of the maths at this level starts to get harder and cannot be answered unless the knowledge of the tables is there. If all else fails the calculator is the next best thing, but you don’t always carry one when you are at work and often the brain is your calculator!

Homework

Junior Room:
Homework will be given out on a Friday and is to be returned on the Thursday.

Senior Room:
   Spelling,
   Times tables and
   15 minutes reading each night.

The new senior playground has been installed and we’re all having a great time on it. This playground offers a lot of challenges. The playground was kindly donated by The Southern Trust.

Camp: March 10 -13th at Te Anau

A parents’ meeting is to be held this Thursday at 7pm in the staffroom, here at school. All details will be explained at the meeting and questions answered.
I look forward to meeting you all there.

Community News

Winton Junior Football Club

The Annual General Meeting is to be held at the Central Southland Lodge (Middle Pub) in Winton on Monday, 9th March 2009 at 7.30pm. This includes both the men’s and women’s teams as well as the juniors. All interested parties are invited to come along and have a say in the running of the club.

Senior Football Practices

Men’s and women’s team practices are scheduled to start in February. For more information please make contact with: Wendy Boniface phone 2217417 or 0274270447 or email This e-mail address is being protected from spam bots, you need JavaScript enabled to view it for the women and Jonathan Bringins phone 2360409 or email This e-mail address is being protected from spam bots, you need JavaScript enabled to view it for the men.

Riverton Pony Club

We are resurrecting the Riverton Pony Club. Anyone interested in becoming a member please phone Lisa Shearing on 027 496 3329 or 03 234 8069.

St Thomas’s Spud-tacular Gala Day

To be held at St Thomas’s School Grounds, Great North Road, Winton on Sunday 22nd February 2009, starting at 11am.
Day includes: Continuous BBQ; Music (Malo);
Cake/Produce Stall; Chocolate Wheel; Children’s Games and Entertainment (Titanic, Impossible bikes) and a demonstration from the Winton Fire Brigade.
Loads of fun to have, so come along and enjoy a great day out.

Discover Your Inner Artist

Run by local artist Dawn Barry.
The course is aimed at adults.
Dates: Tuesdays (7) 3 Mar - 14 Apr 2009
Time: 7pm - 9pm
Cost: $100
Venue: Flecks Hall, Riverton
For more information phone Southern REAP 0800 111 117

Out of School Music Classes

Enrolments are being taken for 2009. Classes are held at Central Southland College on Tuesdays at 4pm, starting on 24th February 2009. These classes are an ideal way for children from Year 4 onwards to be introduced to music making. We offer tuition in recorder, violin, flute, clarinet, saxophone and guitar.
If you would like to know more please contact Gill Hendry 03 236 7413.

School Beautification and New Playground

You will notice that over the holidays we had a busy group of parents beautifying the school . The tip-top tower, sandpit and wooden platforms on the old playground have been stained, the changing sheds have been painted and the library has been moved into the old Dental Clinic, which has also been painted. Thanks for all the hard work.

The new playground is in and it looks great! Only the big children (Room 1) are allowed to play on it except for a Thursday morning when Room 3 children are allowed on it under close supervision. The playground poses challenges and it will take a long time for children to master the equipment fully.

Kind regards,
Clare Robinson, Principal

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