Parnell District School Pānui

Friday

• Assembly hosted by Enviro Group
• Mid-Year Reports go home

Tuesday

• Student Learning Conferences

Wednesday

• Student Learning Conferences

• Matariki Celebration

• SCHOOL IS CLOSED - Matariki

Wednesday

• Burger Day with Burgerfuel (order on your myKindo account ONLY)

Friday

• Assembly - hosted by Te Arawa
• No Friday Fizz

Wheels Wednesday continues every Wednesday, dependent on the weather. Please check the school App each Wednesday morning for cancellations.

Student Led Conferences

At PDS we recognise that the partnership between whānau and the school is vital for the success and well-being of our tamariki. Strong, collaborative relationships between parents, caregivers, and teachers play a crucial role in enhancing children’s learning experiences and outcomes. It is important you book a conference time to meet with your child’s teacher. These conferences are an invaluable opportunity to discuss your child's progress, celebrate their achievements, and set goals for their continued growth. We encourage you to bring your child along to the conference, as we work together to understand how your child is progressing and decide on the next learning steps together. It allows them to share their successes and aspirations directly, ensuring that they feel supported and motivated both at school and at home. We look forward to strengthening our partnership and working together to support your child’s educational journey. You will receive your child's achievement at the end of this week. Please take some time to read through the report in preparation for your conference meeting. We encourage you to think about any questions you may have for your child's teacher during the meeting. Our kaiako (teachers) are looking forward to seeing you and your tamariki.

We value the time to meet together with whānau to discuss our students learning. Although our conferences start at 1pm on Tuesday, school still finishes at 3pm. Students will work with a range of inspiring authors through the afternoon to allow our community to meet with teachers without ending the school day early.

BSLA (Structured Literacy) Mornings Last Week

Our BSLA information mornings were very well attended last week. Thank you to the whānau who came to hear about and see our Structured Literacy Programme. We are proud of the work our PDS teachers are doing to support and accelerate our early literacy learners.

PDS Quiz Night and Auction

Thank you to our wonderful Whānau and Friends for creating a successful event both in terms of raising funds for our school and as a fun, social night for our community. Competition was alive and well on the night between quiz teams and auction bidders. We look forward to the next one!

Dragon Boat Festival

Celebrating the diversity of cultures in our community is important at PDS. Last week's Dragon Boat Festival provided opportunities for our children to learn about and be involved in Chinese culture. Thank you to the staff and students who worked hard to organise a successful week-long event.

Matariki

Bring your whānau and join us next Thursday morning for Matariki 2024. Reflect and celebrate with us as we look for Matariki in the sky. See the information below for where and when.

We welcome parents to a 30 minute Zoom session with Richard George and Anna Sephton to learn all about how to read your child's PaCT report.

Date: Monday 24th June

Time: 12.30pm

Join Zoom Meeting

https://us02web.zoom.us/j/87630678931?pwd=Nh3bgaw0WSbY1siJuua74Fn3a9qytT.1

Meeting ID: 876 3067 8931

Passcode: PaCT

If you cannot make the live Zoom session, please email office@parnell.school.nz and Amy will send you a link to a recording of the meeting.

As Principal for a Day today, Felix has had a busy schedule visiting classes, handing out certificates, making important decisions and patting Chester.

Sushi lunch with friends was a highlight!

When asked about his day, Felix said, "Chester is a very good dog!"

Last week our tamariki learned about the Chinese Dragon Boat Festival. A range of activities were on offer, including making woven paper dragon boats and festival decorations as well as a Waka dragon boat race. We also had a special guest speaker (our very own Annette Tiaiti), who talked about her experiences in Dragon Boat racing.

Some PDS children took part in a poetry competition, creating poetry like Chinese poet Qu Yuan who uses similes and metaphors. The themes for the poems were

• Water
• Rice
• Boats
• Flowers and Nature

Read the poems of our talented winners below:

• Abby, Room 13
• Imtisaal, Room 29
• Zoe Room, 2
• Eva Room, 24
• Aydan Room, 24
• Oscar Room, 29

Special thanks to the staff that organised a successful week and to our Waka and Service Leaders who supported the activities.

Thank you to our Te Arawa Whānau for your wonderful cupcake creations! Our children have delighted in the cupcake creativity and of course the sweet treats and of course PDS welcomes the more than $800 raised!!!

Friday 7 June brought us an exciting finale to the online silent auction and also the evening entertainment of the PDS Quiz Night and Live Auction. Thank you to everyone who donated goods or services, and to all those who participated in the auctions. The auctions alone raised over $15,000. We are still waiting on final figures, but we are hopeful that the event as a whole has exceeded our goal of $20,000.

The Olympics themed Quiz Night was a very successful evening of dress-ups, raffles, games, prizes and trivia questions, and great fun was had by all who attended.

A special thank you goes to Fleur Denning of Bayleys who sponsored the event, and participated in our quiz night with her colleagues. An extra thank you to George Yeoman, who was our auctioneer for the evening.

Congratulations to the Quiz winners: "Quizteam Aguilera", who reined supreme over second place "Parnell Curry Club" and third "Trivia Newton John (Table 4)".

The Best Dressed prize winners were the Golden Girls!

You may also recognise these members of staff, who went the extra mile and competed for the best-dressed prize.

Thank you to everyone who made this a fantastic event! We look forward to hosting another, even more successful, quiz night and auction fundraiser soon.

There were a small number of items that were not sold in the online silent auction, which are now offered for Buy It Now at great prices. Please see Amy in the school office if you would like to purchase any of these items. First come, first sold! So get in quick!

Burger Day with Burgerfuel is coming up on the last Wednesday of the term (3 July). Orders must be made through your myKindo account and by 4pm Monday 1 July. Please note there are no refunds.

If you have siblings of children already attending our school who will be starting with us before the end of 2024, please email enrolment@parnell.school.nz with your child's full name and date of birth.

Our students love earning gold or moon coins for their waka each week. However, we do have an ongoing problem of running out of coins before the week is up. PLEASE may we ask all our families to deposit any coins you may have lying around at home. Can you also encourage your children not to hold onto them or "collect" them. Who knows, getting these coins back in may help your waka win this week! Thank you in advance.

We have noticed that some of our students are wearing incorrect uniform. Please follow the guidelines below to ensure that your child(ren) are dressed for success at PDS.

If you have uniform sitting at home that no longer fits your child/ren, we would love to take them off your hands. Our Second-Hand Uniform Shop is in need of a top up. Thank you in advance for your donation!

Check out our Term Two Holiday Programme below.

Please book through PDS.aimyplus.com.

More information on Term Three's after school opportunities for extra curricular classes will come out closer to the end of the term.

Email clairej@parnell.school.nz for any further queries.