Robert Fruean......Inspiration at Leavers Dinner

At our recent leavers dinner held at the Addington Coffee Co-op Robert Fruean shared his inspirational life story with our year 6 school leavers, their families and school staff. Robert’s story, which has seen him overcome life threatening health issues at the peak of his sporting career, held the children and adults spell bound.

Robert spoke to the group after a wonderful meal at the café. Robert’s final words of advice was to always remember the following three phrases “Please”, “thank you”, and “I’m sorry”.

Picnic Pizza with the Principal

Today 10 children shared a pizza lunch with Ms Heath. Bayden, Caleb, Nevada, Nihmot, Jasmine, Utu, Alex, Yazmin, and Ryan had each earned 10 Green Cards for their consistant great behaviour, and wonderful Addington Attitude. The favourite varieties are Homer Simpson, and the Vegetarian Supreme, which was pronounced 'delicious' and 'very tasty' by Nihmot.

The pizzas are sponsored by Filadelfios Pizza in Beckenham. A big "Thank you" to Tony for supporting this programme in the school.

New Friend in the Vege Garden

Late last month, the Green Team put their creative heads together and came up with what will hopefully be the solution to birds eating their lettuce seedlings!! Named Spud Murphy by the younger members of the team, he now stands guard, (in his pyjamas), over the strawberries and lettuce seedlings. So far he has survived three vigorous southerly changes, a nor'west blast and the theft of his t-shirt! The lettuces are looking better already.

Catching Grandmothers

Congratulations to Mary Jones the grandmother of Kahu Jones whose name was drawn out as our Duffy 'Caught being a good grandparent". Kahu nominated her because "she gets books out of the library to share with me and helps me make stuff.

We Are Sailing

Once again, our Year 6’s did us proud with their Addington Attitude during their Sailing Trip with CanSail in the Lyttelton Harbour yesterday.

It was a brilliant day with plenty of sun and wind.   We enjoyed the company of three Hector Dolphins during our trip. 

It was great to see all of the children challenging themselves in a new environment, working with such team spirit and for the teachers seeing our children achieving was magical.

It was a pleasure to be part of this wonderful day.

A quote from one of the students, “This is just like being on a family holiday.”  - It’s pretty exciting when a school experience can feel like being in a family!

Our thanks go to the CanSail Trust who offered us this wonderful opportunity. Thankyou also, for their financial sponsorship, without it we wouldn’t be able to take part in such a unique and valuable experience. 

Room 3 Reports

Room 3 have been learning to write reports. Check out this great swimming report written by Grace.

Last week we went swimming  First we got changed. Next we waited by the pool for room one to get out  After that we got into our groups. Then we started to swim . I learnt to to swim on my back. It was fun in the pool because it was so warm. 

After our swim we got out of the pool and got changed back into our school uniform. Then we went on the bus back to school. 

By Grace .

Room 2 Swims

For the past 3 weeks we have been going swimming at Pioneer Pool. When we get to the pool we have to get ready to swim and wait on the side of the pool for our turn. It’s so exciting.

When room 3 gets out, it’s our turn, so we line up on the side of the pool and wait for our instructor. There is Scott, Crystal, Charlotte and Liz. They are helping us learn to swim.

We can all put our heads under the water. I like going under the water and picking up the penguin. We have to race to the end to find them. The first one back wins.

I can float like a starfish and use a board to kick to the end of the lane.

The best part is going into the deep part and jumping in doing a bomb. I can go deep into the pool.

We love swimming.                                    

Kiwa, Fuschia, Jacob and Josh 

Radish-O-Rama

Today, at lunch time, the Green Team harvested their first crop of radishes. These were then sliced  up and offered  to the rest of the school to try. The queue of children wanting to try a radish wound its way across the lawn, with children returning to the back of the line again and again. Some children opted for the radish with some dip.

Comments from the children included 'yummy', ' very delicious',"very sweet", "can I take some home for Dad?".  Staff had to move quickly to get a taste!!

This was a great way to introduce children to new vegetables and the Green Team plan to sow more radishes for later on the year. 

Town Versus Country

Early on in Term 3 most of Addington's senior school went to Southbridge school to play some sport. It was a great day out there, and Southbridge wanted to return the favour by coming to our school for another day of sport. So on Tuesday morning, 60 children (4 sports teams) were welcomed at our full school assembly by Nga Matiko, Te Tipuranga, and Ms Heath. After a delicious morning tea (put on by the Addington PTA), we went out to play our sports.

First was soccer, which our team won 9 :1. It was a tough but fun game. Then it was the Netball B teams turn. Again we won 9:5.  After this the A Netball team played and they lost 26:9. This was a very tough game.

Last game was the Rugby which we won 24:14. This felt really good because the teams had tied at Southbridge.

All the teams played really well and worked together to the end. They all showed resilience, persistance, passion and personal best. Fantastic Addington attitude.

After the games we all gathered together in the hall, to eat ice blocks and chat with our new Southbridge friends. Then we said our goodbyes and they hopped on the bus and set off to Southbridge.

It was a fun and spectacular day that we all enjoyed and hope to do again sometime soon.

Green Team Digs In

Early Friday morning our soil arrived in a big truck and after lunch members of the Green Team enthusiastically filled the beds and spread the soil. Now we are set to go.

P.S. Our potatoes are up through the soil in our planter box bed!!!!!

Garden Beds Up and Ready For Planting

Yesterday, members of our Green Team were very excited to see the arrival of the new raised beds for the vegetable garden. Together with Reg Platt of Fresh Harvest Planters, and Graeme Wood, (friend of the school and great supporter of the Green Team), the children assembled the two new beds. There was much hammering of nails and sawing of pegs and the beds are now all ready to go! Thank you again to Reg for making the beds, and to Graeme for his continued help and advise. 

Four cubic metres of soil will be put in them today along with some donated compost from the Strictland St Gardens. The team is all ready to get planting!!!

Loud Shirts Brighten Assembly

At today's assembly, children and staff wore their brightest, loudest shirts in support of children with a hearing impairment. With a gold coin donation per shirt, the school raised over $145 for the cause.

Room 1 have been studying the letter 'U ' and entertained the whole school with their UKELELE performance. Fantastic!! 

Participants in the Literacy Quiz were acknowledged, and Alison Holland and Dorinda Hampton were thanked by students for all their hard work getting the two teams ready for the big night.

Shirley McDonnell and Mitch Luke were presented with flowers and thanked for all their hard work in getting Te Tipuranga ready for the Cultural Festival. (Photos from this will be put on the blog in the near future.)

Jamie McAllister's Dad, Andrew, was our Duffy "Caught Being A Great Dad", and received his certificate and prize book at the assembly. Jamie nominated his Dad because he "bought him cares and shared his money with him!!"

Erin Simpson Show comes to Addington

On Wednesday, Dan Costello and Will Alexander, presenters with the Erin Simpson show, visited School for  our Duffy Role Model Assembly. Dan and Will were welcomed by Te Tipuranga, and handed out Duffy books to selected children. 

They shared their favourite books with the children, the 'Complete Works of William Shakespeare', and Dr Seus 'Oh the Places You'll Go'. Dan read his Dr Seus book to the assembly and encouraged the children to keep following their dreams. 

After lots of questions about the Erin Simpson show, and a "few" autographs, Dan and Will were finally able to leave.  

Surprise For the Seniors

On Tuesday morning an enormous truck drove into the playground and parked up outside Rooms 9, 10, and 11.  The truck contained a long awaited surprise for the senior students....... Fantastic new desks and chairs to go in the recently renovated classrooms!!!! It was all hands on deck to help unload and then unwrap each desk, and stack of chairs. Very exciting!!! This new classroom furniture is all in place and our old worn tables stacked up ready for disposal later next term.(More about that later)

Fantastic Performance at Cultural Festival

Last night 80 children from throughout the school, put on a most amazing performance at the Christchurch Town Hall, as part of the Christchurch Primary Schools Cultural Festival. The children were in two groups, the Junior Nga Matikao, and the Seniors as part of Te Tipuranga.  

Te Tipuranga had brought with them their kete of knowledge handed down to them by their treasured Tipuna. The children had photos of their special family members and ancestors in the kete.

During the performance two children used sign language to communicate  the  words of the waiata. 

 Nga Matikao celebrated the different cultures of our school in a colourful and lively performance. 

" I was really nervous, but when we got on stage everybody knew what to do and it was awesome! It made me real proud to be supporting my own school and I saw lots of my old friends from last year. "       Steve

"I got to wear my great, great, great Aunties piupiu, I felt very proud. And our girl's pukana at the end was 'funtastic' "      Brooke

"It felt good. I knew all the people liked us because they clapped and clapped"    Ben

Parents and Addington staff were very proud of all the children.

Conductive Education - One Small Victory but the Battle Continues

We have just been notified that our Therapy Funding has been reinstated. While this is great news unfortunately it is only for children who are presently on our school roll. We will not receive funding for any new students enrolling at our school. There is a review of Special Education to take place next year.

Check out this article in the Press Newspaper Saturday 15 August 2009. 

New Planter Box Arrives

Last Friday the Green Team was also busy assembling a planter box. This was kindly donated by Reg Platt of Fresh Harvest Planters. Reg delivered and then helped the Team to assemble the box. This planter is high sided so that our Conductive Ed children can access them from their wheelchairs. A big thank you to Harvest Planters for this. The school will be purchasing two more raised beds for our planned vegetable gardens, and the children are busy planning what they would like to grow.

Green Team prepare the Rose Garden

Over the past two Fridays, the Green Team has been busy in our Rose Garden, working compost into the soil, and discovering the joys of worms, centipedes, slugs and other grubs. The team have put compost and soil conditioner into the rose bed, so that planting of the blue and yellow pansies will be happening this week!! Thanks to Oderings Nursery who have given us a great deal on these plants, and another big thank you to Graeme Wood for all his help with the trailer and extra tools.

Junior School hit by “Earthquake Disaster”

The junior school was hit pretty hard by a very localized Earthquake on Tuesday with desks and chairs tipping over and injured staff and students everywhere. Luckily for us the senior children were safe and sent to assist where they could in the junior school. All this activity was filmed by staff and used as an amazing discussion tool about disasters. All we can say is that it was a good thing that our whole school topic for this term is set around answering the big question of how to survive a disaster. The students all agreed that we are not prepared and we need to do a whole lot of work to find out how we can be. This should be a very interesting topic, one that will generate much discussion at home.

Member of Parliament visits Conductive Education

Clayton Cosgrove MP for Waimakariri visited Addington today to look at the Conductive Education Unit and talk with Teachers and parents of students attending. Mr Cosgrove was contacted by a concerned parent who lives in his electorate.

Our principal Trudy Heath, Dave Ching, NZ Conductive Education Foundation member, and Teachers and Conductors from the Unit spoke with Mr Cosgrove about the history of the Unit, its funding, and the impact of funding cuts on our families. 

Brittany and her Mum, Julie Baker, spent some time, outlining to Mr Cosgrove and the Christchurch Press reporters with him, the consequences for their family in particular. 

At the end of his visit Mr Cosgrove thanked Trudy and her team and said he was now very aware of where our students would be without Conductive Education and was committed to assisting the school raise the profile of our funding issue.

Conductive Education Farewells

At our full school assembly today, we said goodbye to two teachers from Conductive Education. Mrs Wycherley and Mrs Pilgram are leaving us after many years. We are very sad to see them go. We asked them what they would miss most and they said they would miss the wonderful children, teachers and staff, and how everyone gets on and treats each other so well. This was the best thing about Addington and they would miss everybody heaps.

Mrs Pilgram was going to spend more time with her family and maybe do a bit of study at university. Mrs Wycherley will be spending more time with her family. Both hope to do some relieving at school so we will see them again. YAH!

Reporters: Jyr and Jack

Earth Science in Room 2

Today Room 8 went to Room 2 our Year 1 ‘Buddy  Class’ to find out what they had learnt about the earth. They had three groups: one learnt about the earth inside and out, another about rocks and the last group learnt about volcanoes.

The Earth Group made a KidPix presentation telling us all about the earth. Mrs Craib said it was because they didn’t want to talk too much. We found out lots of interesting things - like sand is made from broken down bits of rocks. 

The Rock Group told us all about what rocks are made of. If crystals cool fast they look like glass, but if they cool slowly they look like ice crystals. They made some yummy rocks by melting butter and marshmallows to make the magma and adding rice-bubbles for the minerals and chocolate bits for the crystals. At the end we got to taste some and it tasted  delicious. 

The Volcano Group knew heaps about volcanoes. They made a volcano and showed us how it erupted. It was all very interesting and amazing.

Reporters for Room 8- Caroline, Sheena and Skylah