Myross Bush School

Newsletter
Find out more at www.myrossbush.school.nz

the scoop

AUG 24

2011

Celebrating student progress and achievement in our school...

Welcome to Magnus Jamieson, Danyas little brother, Lauryn Fleming, Thomas and Andrews little sister and Abbey Glover, Katies little sister to Room 2 already this term. Welcome also to Ethan Mitchell, Blakes little brother, who starts next week. We will welcome another 5 New Entrants before the end of the year.

Achievement Levels across the school: Reading: 93% achieving 'At' or 'Above' school and national expectations Writing: 92%achieving 'At' or 'Above' school and national expectations Spelling: 93%achieving 'At' or 'Above' school and national expectations Maths: 88%achieving 'At' or 'Above' school and national expectations Some of the supporting analysis from the mid year data report made the following points: * Mid year data is used as formative assessment in syndicates especially with the beginning achievement students to set goals and direction for intervention. * Large percentage of students at / above in Reading, Writing and Spelling is indicative of the development emphasis between 2006 - 2009 of our Literacy programme (with Ministry financial support in the Literacy contract 2006-2009) and the community support for our literacy programme in the home environment.

*Children identified as 'beginning' have received numeracy support during Term 2 (both with Numeracy Cluster support - Year 3&5 groups and in school numeracy programme support Year 4&6). These children have improved achievement with number knowledge and basic facts. *Shifts towards independent / personalised learning in teaching practice is catering for student extension in classroom programmes. I believe it is important to reect and respect these very positive results from our partnership in our children's learning journey. We are currently in an increasingly 'sound bite' education system with recent media and Minister of Education comment. We continue to hear statistics that don't apply to all schools and communities. The uniqueness of each school is why we have a local Board of Trustees, our own charter and achievement targets for our students. What works for Myross Bush School and its community is not the same as what will work for a school in Wellington, or north of Auckland etc.

Last week at the Board meeting we discussed the collated mid year assessment data. This was where every individuals report across the different foundation learning areas Reading, Writing, Spelling and Maths into an overall school picture of achievement. I would like to share some of that evidence and discussion with you to celebrate the progress and achievement of our children and the partnership of our teachers and parents effort to support and enhance that. Below is a quick summary of the overall percentages while over the page are the graphs that further example our high achievement.

Kia tu Pakari

From strong foundations we grow and stand tall together

School Notices:
Thank you to: Cristy Henderson and Paula Stewart for helping to wash the Moffett Cup rugby jerseys. No Assembly this week. due to class refits. Email addresses: If your address changes we ask that you advise the school office. Thank you. Rugby World Cup Flags: Any further orders? $25 per 10m, 40 flag bunting. Please ring the office tomorrow at the latest.

= Beg

RED = At

= Above

Sports Notices:
Summer Football: Slips have gone home today. Please have these returned by Friday 2nd of September. Spare notices are kept on the notice board in the office. Hockey MB Champs V Fern Sticks Lost 6-1 POD Katie Jukes, Hannah Corbett, Tarrah Shirley, Ethan Tuffley MB Legends v St Theresas Lost POD Harriet Stevens, Liam Devery

The sound bite of '1 in 5 failing in reading, writing and maths' is made across all primary and secondary schools when it in fact relates to the number of students leaving school without a NCEA Level 2 qualication. Primary schools are not failing 1 in 5 students. If you broke down our schools data to make a comparison to that sound bite it would look like this: Those working at or above the expected level at Myross Bush: Reading: 14 out of 15 at or above Writing: 12 out of 13at or above Spelling: 14 out of 15at or above Maths: 8 out of 9at or above Our staff use every individual's data to analyse what progress and achievement is happening across the whole school. We then work together on how to target our teaching and school resources to ensure that continued opportunity for progress and achievement is possible for all our learners. We take great pride in every child's progress and achievement. We are a high performing school with high expectations for our students and our staff. DAVID WHITE BUILDING Experienced Qualied Builder of: New Homes Residential Extensions and Renovations Farm Sheds etc... Phone 0274351490 or A/H 2304984

Together, with you, we are giving our children a strong foundation from which every child can grow and stand tall together. Thanks to everyone in our community for their support and assistance in making this continued success possible for all our children. Next week sees the start of our classroom upgrade project. Stage 1 of this project is where each of our classroom learning spaces gets a revamp with an internal fit out. Rooms 2 & 3 will be shifted into the activity centre this Friday afternoon for the next week or two. This will be their classroom and their learning programmes will continue in partnership with each other. Please note there will be no Assembly this week and we will be touch about an alternative arrangement once we see how the work progresses. We are excited about this development and thank you for your support and understanding during this transition time. Regards, Tim Lovelock Principal

No Hockey this week due to a Secondary School Tournament. Netball MB Shooters v Waihopai Lost 4-2 POD Simone Caughey Well done to Gabby Schuck and Sophie Sinclair who were in the Southern Zone Year 5 Netball Team who came 3rd overall in the Southland Zone Tournament . Also to Simone Caughey, Devon Grey and Olivia Fraser whose Year 6 team came 11th in their Tournament.

Thank you to: FOS, Richard Stodart and Nan Sinclair for organising the awesome netball poles and new basketball hoops.

Week 4 Term 3
Room 1 Mrs Lemin and Miss McBeth are having a lovely time working with the children in Room 1 this week. We can't wait to hear all the exciting things Mrs Forde has been learning about when she gets back. Our focus for our writing continues to be narratives (imaginative stories). The children are having fun writing problems in their stories and creating interesting solutions for them. Look out for the stories in their published story books this Friday. Our inquiry has an 'icy' focus this week. The children are exploring ice and how it turns into water. Ask your child what pouring water onto ice does? Certificates: Sarah Hay - fantastic hockey skills & Elizor Ringor - showing kotahitanga Room 2 is excited to be on the move to the Activity Centre on Friday while our room is renovated! We will have some great adventures as we share the space with Room 3 over the next few weeks, and we are looking forward to the fresh new room we will return to. Welcome to Abbey Glover and her family, who joined our team this week. It has been lovely getting to know the fresh faces and keen learners who have joined us over the last few weeks! Our little scientists have been making predictions and honing their observation skills as we conduct some ice experiments this week, and we have been learning to write similes to make our narratives more interesting for our readers. What a busy class! Room 3 are all very excited about the move into the Activity Centre on Friday. We have packed up a lot of boxes and are nearly ready to go. Room 2 will be sharing the Activity Centre with us and we will be working together on some tasks together which will be great fun. When our classroom is refurbished we get to move back into a beautiful new learning space. Certificates: Lucy and Liam Room 4 have had a busy start to this week. We have started looking at length for Maths and done some comparing of the size of our feet. We also made as fabulous adjective tree to help make our narrative writing more interesting. I am enjoying being in Room 4 this week. Rowena Hughes Room 5 are having a busy week from writing narratives to learning about separating colours in science. Look out for our science display on chromatography outside Room 5. What a fantastic bunch of children to teach, they are all so motivated and hardworking- it will be hard to hand them back to Mrs Kahukura at the end of the week! Mrs Wilcox. I have enjoyed doing the science experiments with Mrs Wilcox. I learnt that oil is less dense than water. Katie Heads. In Maths we made symmetry monsters and we had to reflect our shapes. My monster was made up of triangles, squares and had claws. Emily Hay I never knew that colours are made up of different pigments. It was fun learning about chromatography. Brock Rogan Writing narrative stories has been cool. Mine is a story about when some parents don't let a group of children eat junk food, so the children come up with a plan to defeat the adults. Cassie Gray Room 6 We made name bugs and they looked funny. Ben Weve been doing nasty narratives in Room 6. I like nasty narratives. Louis I liked making a tee-shirt for my dad for Fathers Day. George We made colourful pictures which we scratched to put in pictures that are special to us. Holly I really enjoyed making the scratched pictures. Jack Room 7 are half way through their lego animations on "I Can Animate", with many groups finding that to get a realistic looking animation, it takes a lot of patience and very co-operative group skills. Once these are all recorded we will be starting workshops on "I Movie". Don't forget to hand in you SKI PERMISSION SLIP tomorrow if you are going. Certificates: Hannah Fitzgerald & Bradley Corbett Room 8 Kees - We're doing lego animations about the Habits of Mind. Our one is on persistence. I've learnt how to do animations and make it look clear and not blurry. Sean - We've been learning about hockey for P.E. I've learnt that you don't make the stick go over your head but that it's just a flick. It's really fun! Mr Herring - We'll be posting our animations on youtube.com and having an award for the most viewed. Visit our classblog for the links and vote for your favourite ones in 2 weeks!

NO ASSEMBLY this week Dont forget that you can check out our
school newsletter in colour at:

www.myrossbush.school.nz

Community:
BABY SITTER AVAILABLE: Ex Myross Bush student, reliable. Ph Makaela 2157922 GLADSTONE TYRES & MAGS: Get the school rewarded - $5 back to the school on every tyre purchase - drop a copy of your invoice into the school.

from the classroom

August
25th (Thurs) TOMORROW Year 3-6 Ski Trip payments and return slip due back. Please Note: If paying by internet, payment needs to be made today so that it shows on the bank tomorrow and the slip needs to be returned to the office. 26th (Fri) FOS CHALK TOY CATALOGUE orders due at office with payment

September
2nd (Fri) Year 3-6 Ski Trip

October
5th (Wed) Myross Bush WOW night at Civic Theatre

12th-16th Book Fair Week - more info later

7th (Fri) End of Term 3

Updated 24th

16th (Friday night)

24th (Mon) Labour Day

No Assem bly this w eek

School disco - more info later

calendar

22nd (Thurs) Lifestyle Portraits - more info later

25th (Tues) Term 4 begins

November
7th (Mon) Pet Day

December
16th (Fri) End of Term 4 (to be confirmed)

22nd-25th (Tues - Fri) Year 6 Camp

Ski Tri p slips back b y tom orrow

Dont forget. ..