Pembroke School Newsletter

Kia ora e te whanau,

What a great few days we have just had! It has been fanastic to see our community come together to support our Rimu Camp fundraising events as well as have a lot of fun together. The great small country school spirit is alive and well, and this is something to really celebrate and be proud of as a community. Friday nights Bottle Bingo saw a packed house and lots of neat donated mystery bottles won! The Mini Track held at the Singh's was a great success, with lots of fun had. It was a beautiful day for it and was a really neat way to bring our community together.

The Show and Shine coming up on Sept 8th is proving to be popular with lots of interest so be sure to save the date. This is the final fundraiser for the Rimu Wellington Camp in Week 10.

We are looking forward to meeting up with students and their whanau at Learning Conferences this week (Rimu next week), to discuss your child's achievement so far this year and set new goals for the remainder. Please make sure you fill in the reflection sheet and bring it along with you.

The School Board is moving into a new phase of consultation with the community and would really appreciate your input into the future direction of our school. The last consultation directly informed our schools strategic goals and have shaped our focus for the school, impacting our learning programmes and the projects that we have focused on as part of oru school improvement plan. Your input is valuable and will not only help us to understand what you want for the future of Pembroke School but also help us to write a new mission statement that better reflects our specific purpose as a small country school.

Ngā mihi nui,

Wendy Single

It was a huge highlight to be able to make the trip down to the pools again and see all the tamariki diving in to make the most of their swimming lessons. We're looking forward to seeing how much everyone learns over the term. Our junior classes also blew us away with every single student remembering to bring their swimming gear on the first day, well done parents it is very much appreciated!

Our senior class were lucky enough to have a visit from Mr Bennett from Icon Sports in the first week back. Mr Bennett will be spending a few sessions this term teaching archery to our year 7 & 8's and we look forward to seeing them all working on their accuracy and mastering a new skill.

It's been a long time coming but we finally have our library system all organised and our librarians trained so our classes can borrow books from the school library. From now on the classes will be visiting the library on a regular basis. If your child has a book bag at school they will be able to borrow up to two books for up to two weeks at a time. If parents could help their children be aware of what day their class will be visiting the library and help them remember to return their books on time it would be wonderful. Once we get into a routine the children should remember independently but with anything new a little initial teaching is often needed. After a long time of not having a library the children can access and borrow from it feels like a huge milestone for our little school. We look forward to adding more new books, growing our library and watching the children enjoy them all.

Library Days

Monday: Kōwhai class

Tuesday: Rata class

Wednesday: Tawa class

Thursday: Rimu class

I have had the opportunity to revisit the Bucket Filling kaupapa that we have embraced at Pembroke School with Kowhai and Rimu last week. I came across this simple but important concept quite a number of years ago when Harold the Giraffe visited with the Life Education Trust Bus.

We all have a bucket, while it is invisible, it is still there just like the air and it is with us everyday.

When our bucket is fill, we experience joy and contentment, we are able to share this with others to help fill their buckets through our words and our actions. We can also help to fill our own by doing things that bring us joy, spending time with people we care about and by filling other peoples buckets.

However, just as our buckets can be filled they can also be dipped into. Lots of things can dip into our buckets and make us feel less joyful or depending on how low our bucket gets, down right miserable. Unkind words and actions dip into our buckets, dipping into other people's buckets also dips into our own and makes us feel emptier.

We also talked about the all important invisible lid that each one of us has to guard us from letting others dip into our buckets. It is important when other's try to use unkind words to bring us down that we put on our lids and remind ourselves that they are the ones who have the issue to want to dip into others buckets.

We have reminded them that we are here to support them and want them to come to us if they are experiencing bucket dipping so we can help them out, we have also encouraged them to talk to their parents so that we can ensure that a culture of Bucket Filling is our way of doing life at Pembroke School. Sure there will be the odd thing that is said or done, we're all human and 'sorry' goes a long way to fixing this.

Our Bucket Filling culture extends to parents, we are super grateful that by far and away our Pembroke parents are awesome, supportive and kind. Our Community Code of Conduct helps to reinforce what is expected of adults coming onto school grounds and we will take very seriously actions don't align with this. You can find a copy in our school foyer. If as a parent you ever have concerns that this Code is not being respected please contact either myself or Mike Tume (Presiding Member) on our Pembroke School Board mike@pembrokestratford.school.nz.

This Bucket Filling concept is simple yet powerful as it helps us understand how important it is to look after our buckets by doing the things that bring us help us feel content and happy so that we can share this with others. Seeing your child as having a bucket and thinking about the things that you see bring them a sense of happiness; art, music, sport, playing games, time with you, crafts, nature, hugs, building and creating. Directing them towards these things when they need to fill their buckets is a great little tool in your parenting tool belt. A good night's sleep can be great for keeping buckets filled as well. Parents, don't forget you have one too, so make sure you are fitting in time to keep your own filled too!

A big thank you to those who have turned out to the Pet's Day and Gala Meetings. This is a major event on our school calendar and a tradition that we want to continue to improve and grow. If you missed the meeting's don't worry, there will be regular meetings for the Gala throughout the term. Please keep an eye for these. If you can't make the meetings but are keen to help, please let Carol in the office know and she will put your name down. We would love to see a few more parents from Rata and Tawa coming, don't be shy to get involved, it is a great way to meet new families. Whilst at this time of year our PTA and Gala Committee kind of merge for this great cause. Don't forget the PTA is open to anyone, keep an eye out for meetings, come along and join a great team working together to help our school be the best it can be for our kids.

In keeping with the Olympics that are happening at the moment we have been talking about the Olympic Values of Respect, Friendship and Empathy. These align nicely with our ASPIRE Values. Over the first few weeks of this term we are focusing on living out these values and have special awards for our tamariki who have been showing an excellent commitment to them.

CONGRATULATIONS TO OUR STUDENTS WHO HAVE SHOWN THE OLYMPIC VALUE OF RESPECT

Rata: Nylah Chubb

Tawa: Elanor Valcoi

Kowhai: Brody Chesswas

Rimu: Tyson Kahui

CONGRATULATIONS TO OUR STUDENTS WHO HAVE SHOWN THE OLYMPIC VALUE OF FRIENDSHIP

Rata: Jas Singh

Tawa: Lincoln Chapman

Kowhai: Ashleigh Simpson

Rimu: Cooper Branson

Some dates to mark on your calendar for Term Three.

Tuesday 6th and Wednesday 7th August: Learning Conferences, Rimu: Tuesday 13-Wednesday 14th.

Tuesday 13th August: Kahui Ako Super Staff Meeting 3.30pm

Wednesday 14th August: Four students attending Writing Workshop with David Hill.

Friday 16th August: Year 7-8 LEAD Conference Online, Head Students in Person in NP.

Monday 26th August: Pembroke, Avon and Eltham combined schools Cross Country at Pembroke. Postponment Monday 2nd Sept.

Thursday 29th August: Year 7-8 EPro8 Challenge.

Friday 30th August: Year 5-6 EPro8 Challenge.

Wednesday 4 September: Speech and Poetry Finals.