Carving Report -Interview with Johnny Sparks Rm 11

On Monday, Mr Miles Kau Kau, a tutor in Maori Arts came to school to show children from Rooms 9, 10 and 11 how to do soap carving. First we put a piece of paper over the soap and drew over the pattern. Then when we took the paper off, we could see the pattern on the soap. Next we got a special tool and carved over the lines. We had to cut away more of the soap around the pattern we wanted.

At lunch we cut around the outside to make it stand out more. Next we smoothed it over with a chisel. We added three pieces of paua , two for our parents, and one for ourselves. We carved more patterns to show how many brothers and sisters we had. Lastly we decorated the base.

It was awesome and Miles was lots of fun. We sang heaps of Maori songs with him as we did our carving.

Wellington Visit

Well what a great day was had by all!

It started off with a very early rise for everyone involved (the bus left from the school grounds around 5.50am to transport the group to the airport).

They arrived in Wellington in time for breakfast and from there they were taken on a guided tour and lunch at Te Papa. They also had a ride on the “High Ride” and visited several of Te Papa’s Discovery Centres.

The highlight of the afternoon was a great tour of the Rugby Union Headquarters where the group were shown some very fascinating memorabilia and given a very interesting tour and talk. They were fortunate enough to be able to have their group photo taken with the Tri Nations Cup and some of the students even had their photo taken wearing on of the gold medals recently won at the Commonwealth Games.

The group later travelled to Parliament and although there was not time for a tour of the buildings they did have their photo taken on the steps of parliament buildings and were able to view the beehive and have a picnic afternoon tea on the Parliament lawn.

A short walk from parliament took the group to the cable car where they had a trip up the hill to the botanic gardens. This gave the group a chance to have a walk around to enjoy the marvellous Wellington weather and to take in the fantastic views from the top of the hill. After having their evening meal at McDonalds the group were transported back out to the airport to await their flight back to Christchurch.

As many parents will already be aware, a group of very happy but tired students arrived back in Christchurch after having spent a day in Wellington. We know that the memories of this day will be a highlight in their lives for many years to come.

All the students must be commended for their behaviour on this trip. They were all in Wellington as ambassadors for our school and they certainly represented us well at all times.

We would especially like to thank Shirley McDonnell for the tremendous amount of time and effort she put in once again to plan and book this trip for our year 6 children. Shirley’s organization was superb down to the last little detail and this certainly ensured the success of the whole day.

Zone Sports Success!

Yesterday 17 Senior students travelled to Hillmorton High school for the Zone Athletic Sports Day. Our students competed in Sprints, Long Distance, High Jump, Long Jump, Discus and Shot Put. Everyone showed their Addington Attitude and had a wonderful day.

Congratulations to Grace Sorby who came second in the Long Jump and Caleb Gregory who came second in the 50 m Sprint. Both Grace and Caleb have qualified for the Central Zones. Well done!

A huge thank you to those parents who helped with transporting our team down to Hillmorton and were able to cheer our children on. It was much appreciated.

Farewell to Mrs Teear

This afternoon Amanda Teear was farewelled at a full school assembly. Mrs Teear had taught at Addington for almost 7 years and said that they were the best teaching years of her life!

Te Tipuranga, Whanau Kowhai, Room 10, and the Green Team all paid tribute to the wonderful contributions she had made to life at Addington school.

Ms Heath thanked Mrs Teear for being such a great teaching practitioner, collegue and friend.

We will all miss her sense of fun and fantastic contributions to teaching at our school and wish her all the very best for the future.

TV Show Inspires Student Led Clean-up!!

Yazmin Miles-Watson was watching the Erin Simpson Show yesterday after school, and was inspired by the show's star, to go out and clean up her own street. The clean up is part of National Clean Up NZ week which runs from 17 Sept to 24 Sept. In just an hour Yaz, (aged 11 yrs,) filled three supermarket bags from around her street. Today at school, she gave up her morning tea and lunch times to do a thorough clean up of the bushes and trees along the school boundary! She inspired some friends to join her, and they cleaned up other areas of the school.

Most of the boundary rubbish was from people who pass through the school grounds outside of school hours. There were wrappers, cigarette butts and beer bottles which were "disgusting" explained Yaz.

Yaz (pictured with Line Kalolo) hopes to encourage more of her classmates to help clean up other areas of the school community.

Fantastic Addington Attitude Yaz!! We are very proud of the initiative you have taken, and the inspiration you are to our school.

School Up and Running!!

Addington School children were back at school today, catching up with friends, sharing stories and practicing their "Drop, Cover and Hold" moves.
Room 7 produced some great art work for their cloakroom about their experiences during the past week.

We are all pleased to be back and returning to our normal routines.

School Closure

School will not be open until Monday the 13 Sept. See you all then.

School Closure until 13 Sept

Because of the Earthquake to our area on Saturday 4 September Schools and early childhood services within the boundaries of Christchurch City Council, Waimakariri (including Rangiora) District Council and Selwyn District Council will be closed to students and children until Monday 13 September.

Reading Discovery Graduation and Celebration!

Today two students, Mackenzie Wallace and Andrew Sparks celebrated their graduation from Reading Discovery with a special morning tea. At the celebration were Reading Discovery Teacher Pat Watson , class teacher Mrs Douglas, Mrs Barr and invited guests Andrew and McKenzie's Mums, Grandparent reader Mrs Rainey, Ms Heath and Ms Meachen.

Both Andrew and McKenzie entered the programme reading at level 2-3 and have finished off on level 19-20!! Fantastic, and a great example of how successful the partnership between home and school can be.

Learning Conversations

Thank you to all parents/caregivers who made it along to your child’s Learning Conversation this week. We hope you were given lots of clear information about how your child is achieving and some next steps to work on. For those of you who found the two days we set aside to be inconvenient please note that the teachers will be in touch to set up an alternative time as we aim to meet with every parent each term.

Working on the Green Team Mural

Last Friday, members of the Green Team along with Mitch, Anne, Dorinda, Sarah and Jo from the staff, continued on with the painting of the new mural. It was a great success as we were able to complete the background colours and the children began on the garden details, including a cat by Sofi that was both stunning and colourful.

Cross Country Zones at Last!!

After two postponements, our team of seven senior students, finally got to represent our school at the South West Zone Cross Country. The event was held at a very wet and boggy Halswell quarry. Despite the slippery conditions underfoot and cold nip in the air, our team gave their personal best and did Addington proud. It was a great day. Well done Sharlene, Caleb, Jeremy, Josh, Yasmin, J'leel, and Isobel.

Addington Netball Shoot Off

Congratulations to the winners of the ANZ Tactix Shoot out last Tuesday.

The winner of the Tactix Netball and goodies was Zania from Room 9.

The Team at the ANZ Sydenham and Addington Branch were on hand to support

us. Plus a special guest Victoria Smith from the Tactix.

If you wish to discuss any of your Banking needs please contact Jenny or

Sandra @ ANZ Sydenham Branch. In particular join your family to Kiwi Saver

and take advantage of the $1000 Government kick start:

jenny.higginson@anz.com ph 3682158

sandra.tait@anz.com ph 3682155

Duffy Theatre

On Tuesday, three actors came to our school to show us why reading is awesome.
They did a show called the Duffy Show. Duffy was on a show called the big OE (Occupation Exploration). They got one person to spin the wheel. Whatever number it landed on Duffy had to learn about that occupation. First Duffy had to use his skills from reading to help understand what doctors do. Then the doctors got someone from the audience to have a brain surgery. Then someone else spun the wheel and Duffy had to do the same with learning things about Chefs. The last one was Sport Stars. The game was ping pong. Ting fon, the best ping pong player in the world vs Ding dong the second best, had one game of ping pong. Then we sung the Duffy Song.
The show was finished and then we got to say hello to the actors.

Summary: On Tuesday 3 actors came to our school and told us why reading is awesome. They played a game called the O.E. Duffy used his 9 skills to help him through the Occupations.

(Reporter Yazmin Miles-Watson)

Caught Being a Good Mum

Congratulations to ….Kalesita Afemui

who was the lucky winner drawn out of the box for the Duffy “Caught Being a Good Mum” promotion.

The comments on the form that Caroline Afemui (Room 9) dropped in the box were

“mum is there for me and always helps me”.

The prize was presented to Caroline’s mum at the Full School Assembly today .

Inspirational Girls Breakfast

On Wednesday last week, 30 girls and a member from each of their families, enjoyed a special breakfast in the school hall. The breakfast was put on by friends and members of the Addington school community, who provided a delicious menu for the girls.
Ali Palmer (our wonderful music and choir teacher) spoke to the group about everyone having a “gift”, and the need to find out what your gift is. It was important to grow your gift, like a seed and to persist and not give up. She talked about her own experiences in rock bands like Atlas, and how they were given so much but she felt something was missing. Ali explained she would much rather be here at Addington helping us with our music. Sharing her gift.
Ali gave each girl a spring bulb, which was later planted out into part of the Rose garden and will provide an amazing colourful display in the spring.

A huge thank you to our community, and to Ali for the wonderful and inspiring start to the day.

Celebrating Race Relations Day

On Monday this week we celebrated Race Relations day with an afternoon of games and activities. Children were invited to wear clothes from their country of origin, and participated in games from around the world. It was wonderful to see those children in their Samoan and Tongan dress tossing the caber! Spider soccer and marbles (originally from Turkey) were some of the many activities children got to try. It was a fun afternoon and a great way to celebrate us all.