Knit One , Purl One-Knitting Revival at Addington

The new Addington Knitters meet every Friday in Miss Blackburn's classroom where they are learning all sorts of knitting, including finger knitting, French knitting and crocheting. 

Miss Blackburn got her husband to put nails into wooden blocks so that the children could learn French Knitting. She says the children have been working extremely hard and all of them seem to enjoy the knitting.

Many of the children take their knitting home and have inspired other family members to take up knitting. At playtime and lunch times you can see children knitting around the school.

The All Blacks Take on Conductive Education

On Thursday, Wayne Smith (the “backs” coach of the All Blacks), Bryn Evans and Neemia Tialata (current All Blacks) came to visit the Pre -School and Primary School Conductive Education children  at Addington.

We asked Wayne Smith if he knew about Conductive Education and he said he had visited lots of times and he thought it was fantastic because it teaches children every day skills. 

It was Bryn and Neemia’s first visit and they were both very excited.

After introducing themselves, the men met all the children and gave them a poster each. Then we all went outside for a game of “tug -of-war” . Conductive Ed verses the All Blacks!!! Conductive Ed WON!!!!! 

Next Bryn and Neemia practised  rugby line outs and scrums with the children. Brittany from our school caught the ball in the line out. Go Brittany!!

Then we asked Bryn and Neemia about being an All Black and they told us that they both get nervous before a game, but that was a good thing. They had both had serious injuries including Bryn’s ankle and Neemia’s problem with his knee and ear. For them, being part of a team was the best thing about being an All Black, especially hanging out with their mates.  

The afternoon was lots of fun and we all got a chocolate frog at the end.

Cuts to Funding Put Conductive Education Under Threat

Funding cuts recently announced in the Budget could have devastating affects on our Conductive Education Unit. Cuts have been made in the money given to our school as part of our therapy entitlement. It is from this funding that we are able to pay our two wonderful conductors.

Our principal Trudy Heath has recently travelled to Wellington to put our case for continuing the present funding for our Conductive Education Unit. The Ministry is keen for the Addington Conductive Education Unit to continue however, without the therapy entitlement, the whole programme is currently under threat.

New Pages for Addington Citizen Passports

At today's senior assembly, four children were awarded  Addington Article Reporter pages for their Citizen Passports. These children have had articles published on the school blog, and are now official Addington Article Reporters. Melissa, Damon, Bayleigh and Zane received their pages from Ms Heath. 

Addington Passports recognise children's achievements towards their citizenship at our school. This begins as soon as they start  within the Junior school, and continues throughout their time at Addington. Other awards include, learning milestones, achievements within various school activities, both  sporting and cultural, and leadership roles within our school.

 By the time children leave Addington School at the end of year six, they will have amassed a wonderful collection of pages within their passports reflecting their achievements during their time with us.

Also receiving an award today was Khale for his amazing work as our official "Wet Grass Manager".

Walking School Bus

Addington School has a new school bus. A Walking School Bus!

Every Wednesday morning at 8am children from Addington School are meeting at three different places around the Addington area and walking together to school. The PTA have organised this activity. The children wear reflective vests and walk in lines to school. During their walk they sing, chat and get to meet other children from different classes. 

A-Tunes save best till last

On June 16^th 2009 the Addington A-Tunes performed a beautiful song, ‘Welcome Home’ by Dave Dobbin.

The A-Tunes have been practising every week for the past two terms. The children have all made a huge commitment and showed a great passion for singing.

Every member of the Addington A-Tunes, should be very proud of their performance. Their efforts were outstanding and have been acknowledged by other schools as the standout performance of the night. They received the loudest applause and a standing ovation. Ka pai A-Tunes!

Junior Literacy Boost Celebration

On Wednesday the Literacy Boost Programme invited  parents along to a celebration of their children's learning. Twenty three children had been involved in the programme which ran for 10 weeks, and was aimed at boosting letter knowledge and letter sounds. The children met three times a week for 45 minutes each session to learn and practise a variety of skills.

At the celebration the children displayed these skills to the many parents who attended. Each child was rewarded with a certificate of congratulations which was presented by Ms Meachen. The celebrations were finished off with fruit kebabs for the children and tea and coffee for the adults.

Cook up at Conductive Education

It has been a busy week in conductive education as usual.  We had a great time on Monday when we made potato paprika a Hungarian dish.  The children chopped the onions, peeled the potatoes and cut up the sausages.  They really enjoyed stirring up the stew but most of all they enjoyed eating it!!

The Green Team Trip to the Strickland St Gardens for World Environment Day.

On Friday afternoon the “Green Team” walked down to the Community Gardens on Strickland St to find out some tips for our new school vegetable gardens, and to help celebrate Environment day.

The people who work there, told us that seeds need to be sown at twice their size into the soil, and that we could sow broad beans and sweetpeas in our new school plots.

We looked at their composting heaps and the size of their vegetable beds. We have started our own compost heaps at school, and collect foodscraps from the classrooms and lunch area. Mr Sinclair, our caretaker, puts the garden waste on the heaps too. In the spring we want to put our new compost onto the gardens to help our vegetables grow.

At the community gardens we helped plant parsley into pots and then painted the pots to take home.

We made coloured hand prints on a wall to celebrate Environment Day.

We had a busy afternoon, and even tried some rhubarb and apple muffins, and parsley pesto. They were yum!!

We are all looking forward to planting in our own school vegetable plots when they are made over the next few weeks.

Conductive Education Awareness Week

Last week was Conductive Education Awareness and our troops were very busy visiting malls to spread the word about Conductive Education. On Tuesday the whole school was involved in a fun and games session organised for the morning. During this session Wayne Smith assistant All Black coach who is the Patron for Conductive Education visited us.

On Thursday Room 5 held an open day. It was attended by large number of people who dropped in to see the Conductive Education programme in action.