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Connect Communication

03 August 2022

Kia ora whānau,

I must say it is lovely to be enjoying some warmth and sunshine after all the rain. I can't believe how quickly it feels like the days are lengthening and spring is on the way.
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It was lovely to see parents coming and going to the learning conversations last week. We have so missed parents being onsite and in classroom spaces. Thanks for your support of Blair and Andrea's inability to host conferences. Blair's are scheduled for this week and Andrea will be in touch with a plan. Please know, that you do not have to wait for an formal opportunity to see a teacher. The door is always open and if more time is required email and request a meeting.

Other opportunities for you to be back in class are helping on trips and visits, volunteering at curiosity clubs or attending our hui. We have moved this to Monday afternoon at 2:40pm. If you would like to join us come down early for Monday pick up and head to the hall first. If you are free for curiosity clubs let Donna know, they run from 11:15 - 12:15 each Friday.

We are always on the look out for people to help on road patrol. We are trying to put together a small team to assist kids with crossing Southfield Drive (just by the Russ Drive corner). This would be from 3pm - 3:10pm. If you are able to help either with either role please let the office know or drop me an email.

It is heartwarming to see 15 parents put up their hands for election for our Board. This models 'Maku e Whakatika - It Starts with Me' and our value of rangatiratanga to our tamariki, thank you. Election information will arrive in your in box shortly.

A huge congratulations to our Year 5 and 6 ePro8 team or Fox, Sienna, Demi and Hunter who won the local competition recently. They will now head to the next level of competition. They have included an article about the event further below.

I look forward to catching up with you sometime soon,

Ngā mihi,
Claire and the Team

From the Office

Scholastic Free Book Offer!

Scholastic are giving away FREE books in issue 5.

Place an order from issue 5 on the Scholastic LOOP app before 23 September and a list of free titles to choose from will display before checking out.

1 FREE book when you spend over $30
2 FREE books when you spend over $50
3 FREE books when you spend over $70

IMPORTANT DATES - 2022

These and other important dates can also be found on our Community Calendar
  • 04 August - Book Week Performances
  • 04 August - THT Meeting in Putahi (school library), 7pm
  • 05 August - Curiosity Clubs
  • 05 August - Rhythm and Springs School Disco for the children, see below
  • 08 August - Hui, 2.40pm
  • 10 August - Board of Trustees Meeting, 6.30pm in the Staffroom
  • 12 August - Curiosity Clubs
  • 15 August - Hui, 2.40pm
  • 19 August - Curiosity Clubs
  • 26 August - Quiz THT Fundraiser, see below
  • 07 September - Board of Trustees Election
  • 13 September - Arbonne skin care, makeup and nutrition information evening

TERM DATES - 2022

Term 3: Mon 25th July - Friday 30th September
Term 4: Mon 17th Oct - Fri 16th Dec (TOD 10th November)

Digital Technology Blog

To read about what has been happening in Digital Technology at Ararira Springs, please click on this link to open the blog.

School Board News

Nominations for our Board of Trustees elections closed at 12 noon today. We have had huge interest so will definitely be going to an election.

Voting papers will be issued electronically on 10th August for those who we have email addresses for. Others will receive their voting papers by mail.

NEXT MEETING - 10 August, 6.30 pm in the Staffroom

Te Hapori Tautoko (THT) News

Te Hapori Tautoko (THT)- providing opportunities to tautoko (support) and connect our school community and fundraising for school initiatives and resources.

Our next meeting will be Thursday August 4th, 7pm in Putahi.

We would love to see you there. We always welcome new people. Help a little or a lot- it’s up to you completely.

Save the date - events coming up:
  • Disco for the children - Fri 5 August details below
  • “Class Of” Quiz Night - Friday 26 August. Adults only event, prize for best dressed team. Individual tickets are available on a shared table - great way to meet others in the school community! Team tickets are sold out. Any questions email fran.fitchett@gmail.com
  • Calendar Art Sales - coming in Term 3
  • Arbonne skin care, makeup and nutrition information evening - Tuesday 13th September

SECOND HAND UNIFORMS

The THT has a small selection of second hand uniform available for purchase. We are looking to increase our selection and would welcome donations of good quality uniform items. All profits are used by THT to improve our school and provide resources for our tamariki. If you have uniform items to donate or would like to see the selection we have, please contact Charlotte at charlotte.mcmenamin@ararira.school.nz
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PRECIOUS LABELS

Support the Ararira Springs THT by labelling your child's clothing, shoes, lunch boxes, drink bottles, stationery, electronic items, uniform, swimwear and sports gear with Precious Labels.

Please use the above school link when making your purchase as all sales give Ararira Springs a commission.
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On the first Wednesday back at school we were ready for the Epro8 competition. The competition was held at Clearview Primary School. Fox's dad Darren took us there. When we got there we all looked surprised because there were a lot of different construction pieces. We looked at all of them and figured out how to use most of the equipment. When the 15 minute timer went off all the groups gathered together. The manager Kelvin from Epro8 told all of us how to use the equipment.

5 4 3 2 1 go! We started to make the vending machine, we gathered the tall rods and connected them. The coolest bit of the vending machine was the spinning motor that makes the coil move. We got stuck on the time delay part for a while, but we finally figured it out. We pushed the red button that played awesome music. Boom 120 points. The vending machine stood out because we put blue joiners in a bag to make it look like chips. We took the lead.

As the time went on Kelvin gave out points for tidy areas. There was 1 hour left on the clock, our hearts were racing after we finished the first project. As we moved onto the next one the girls were deconstructing the build, while Hunter and Fox were building the road line marking machine that made a whiteboard marker make lines on a white board to be like a road. However, we didn’t get to clock the challenge. If only we had 5 more minutes.

After we cleared our station Kelvin announced the winners… we came in first place and we got the trophy! We celebrated all the way back to school. Once we arrived we took a photo to celebrate our outstanding performance.

by Hunter, Fox, Demi and Sienna
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Welcome back to term 3! We hope you have had a good break and are ready for the next term of sporting activities. Below is a list of upcoming dates for the diary!
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Ngā mihi
Meeghan
meeghan.coetzee@ararira.school.nz

Chinese Cultural Day

On Friday our Year 3-8 tamariki were invited to participate in the 'Culture on the Road' day with tutors from the Confucius Institute, University of Canterbury.

This was an opportunity to experience traditional Chinese craft, sport and games, including calligraphy, taiji fans, paper cutting and jianji (foot shuttle). A great day to try new things, appreciate other cultures and learn about the history of the activities.

Thanks to the tutors for coming to share with us. We look forward to having you back for your junior hubs.
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Book Week Dress Up Day

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Kelly Club

Next week at Kelly Club our theme is Staff Choice! Book in quick to join us for this exciting week.
Week 3 Activity Plan - Staff Choice

Active Canterbury Wellbeing Bingo

Wellbeing Bingo is a fun activation developed by the Active Canterbury Network to encourage Cantabrians to re-establish and develop new activity habits.

Starts Monday 1 August 2022 and runs for 5 weeks, until Sunday 4 September 2022.

Cards are available from various locations across Christchurch, Selwyn and Waimakariri with a full list of locations on the Active Canterbury website, cards can also be downloaded from the site.

Selwyn District Council

Road Safety Campaign

Click here to learn how to safely use a Kiss and Go
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Students - we want to hear your thoughts on

school attendance

We know there are many reasons that students don’t make it to class. We have a short online survey about what you think about school and attendance. We really encourage you to fill this out, there are no right or wrong answers. We just want to know what you think.

With your help we can understand why students in New Zealand are going to school less and less.

To participate in the 10-minute survey click here.

Fill in the survey by Friday 12 August to have your say!
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Our shop is now open and ready for your orders!

Please support us so that we can continue to have a beehive in your school and another in your area.
Go to www.beeawesome.co.nz

Honey / Mīere $15.00
Stickers of our Characters $5.00
Wildflower Seeds $6.00
Drink Bottles $27.75
Bee Awesome Honey Jar Photo

Structured Literacy Approach to spelling (years 3-8) Written by Shelley Smith

Structured Literacy Approach to spelling (years 3-8) Written by Shelley Smith
The structured literacy spelling approach involves explicitly teaching tamariki how to encode (spell) the English language. It connects the reciprocal nature of reading and writing together.  English is an Alphabetic Code It uses symbols of the alphabet (letters or graphemes) to represent speech sounds (phonemes).  There are 26 letters and 44 speech sounds in the English language however there are …

Navigating the journey: Relationships and Sexuality Education at Ararira Springs Primary Written by Nicky Harding

Navigating the journey
At Ararira Springs we use the Family Planning programme ‘Navigating the Journey’ to teach Relationship and Sexuality Education. This is taught appropriately to your child’s age and stage by your child’s ako teacher. Relationships and sexuality education sit within the Health and Physical Education strand of The New Zealand Curriculum and is compulsory for students up to year 10. Parents …

Mana Ōrite Written by Carolyn Sutherland

Mana Ōrite              Written by Carolyn Sutherland
Mana Ōrite / equal status is founded on the principles of Te Tiriti o Waitangi. In our school it is the understanding of mātauranga Māori, Māori approaches to teaching and learning and the Te Ao Māori kete of knowledge, as having an equal value within education. It is also taking action to redress the structural foundations that have previously placed …

Anxiety - What is it and how can we help our tamariki? Written by Donna Frame

Anxiety - What is it and how can we help our tamariki?              Written by Donna Frame
It has been a challenging few years for many of us with lots of unforeseen events we would not have thought would ever happen.  So it is understandable that there has been a rise in children and adults feeling anxious. Anxiety is a normal and natural response that occurs when an individual perceives a threat, danger or negative outcome or …

Enviro Education at Ararira Springs Written by Larissa Jay

Enviro Education at Ararira Springs               Written by Larissa Jay
Enviro Education Has your child ever built a fort out of sofa cushions and blankets? Or made a secret den from branches and bushes? A pallet fort? Had leaf races in the stream? Climbed a tree? Maybe you used to do it too. Remember how great it felt to make up your own rules and have your own secret space? …

Digital Technologies Written by Blair Cook

Digital Technologies                  Written by Blair Cook
Digital Technologies Technology in the classroom over the past five years has been one of the biggest changes we have seen in education. Digital technologies used in a positive and creative way can be very beneficial for education . Ararira Springs Primary has clear policies and procedures around digital technologies in the classroom. The school works closely with REV IT …
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