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Valley School Newsletter
“Effort Brings Reward , Ko Te Mahi Tona Ake Utu”
1st March 2010
The New Rooms are Open!
Yahoo! Rooms 9 and 10 are now in their brand new rooms and they look great.
Thank you to Mrs Dodd, Mrs Williams and helpers (husbands, children, sisters etc.) who worked through the weekend to have the rooms set up ready to go this morning. Feel free to wander down next time you are in the school and have a look at the rooms.
Room 13
Mrs Braks will be opening Room 13 next week. This is a little earlier than expected but a continuing flow of enthusiastic new 5 year olds means we had to speed our planning up a bit! Room 13 will start with 12 pupils.
If you have any good quality play equipment suitable for 5 year olds Mrs Braks would love to hear from you.
P.T.A. Meeting
The first meeting of the year is tonight – March 1st. We welcome back all past PTA members and warmly invite all new parents to come along and share their thoughts and ideas.
Everyone welcome – 7:00pm in the school staffroom.
Valley School Website
Our website is packed with useful information and has the latest newsletters posted on it.
If you are not a user then do have a look at www.valley.school.nz If you want to email anything to the school or staff, including absence notices then you can do so on
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New Road Signs and Markings
The new signs and markings make it much clearer that drivers are entering a school zone. It is very important to remember that the road markings are NOT PEDESTRIAN CROSSINGS.
Triathlon
Congratulations to all those pupils who competed at the triathlon recently – well done on a great effort as ambassadors of Valley School.
What Now!
We had a large and enthusiastic group of senior pupils at Bledisloe Park last week for the filming of a What Now segment. We will let you know when it will be screened. Well done to Rebecca Goulstone and Max Anderson who represented Valley School by travelling around Pukekohe randomly ‘gunging’ people. A special extra congratulations to Max for qualifying to represent Pukekohe in the grand final in Christchurch!
MP Visit – National Standards
Our local MP, Dr. Hutchison will be visiting Valley School on 15th March to see what wonderful teaching and assessment programmes we have in place. This is in response to an invitation I issued at a meeting I had with Dr. Hutchison where we discussed the very dangerous and untried road the government is leading us down with National Standards.
Raising achievement needs greater commitment in resourcing from the government than just printing colourful booklets.
The government claims massive community support for these standards, yet independent surveys show 87% of parents do not understand them. A trial with time to explain the concept carefully to parents would seem to be the most intelligent way forward.
Year 6 Camp 2010
Just a reminder that with camp being much earlier this year there is much less time for payment – please contact the school as soon as possible if you anticipate having difficulty with payment.
Board of Trustees Elections
The election date is May 7th.
Please give serious thought to standing in the election – schools cannot operate without Boards of Trustees members!
BOT Elections and the Intermediate
If you are a parent of a year 6 pupil at Valley School you are entitled to be part of the Valley School and Pukekohe Intermediate elections.
All nomination forms will be posted out late March/early April and need to returned later in April. Contact the Intermediate office if you have any questions.
School Pool Reminder
The pool will be closed from 6:00pm on the 2nd March and from 5:00pm on the 3rd and 10th of March. Pukekohe Scouts and Cubs will be having water safety lessons on these afternoons.
School Uniform
The full school uniform is available from JMC on Manukau Road.
Uniform Polo Shirts can be purchased at school on Friday mornings between 8:30 and 9:00am. They will be sold from the resource room for $28.50 each.
House Shirts can also be purchased at this time for $15.00.
School Lunches
School lunches are now only available on Fridays.
P.T.A. Meeting
Monday 1st March, 7:00pm, School Staffroom. Come along to the first PTA meeting of the year and be part of this exciting team. The PTA have raised significant funds for the school and purchased many resources.
Walking School Bus
Our Walking School Bus operates on Tuesday afternoons. Presently we have 3 routes with adult supervisors. Children are encouraged to join these routes and walk home under supervision.
We would appreciate more adult volunteers to walk with the children. Please contact the school office for more information.
Coming Events
March
1 – PTA meeting, 7:00pm
Walk to School Week
3 – Bible in Schools starts
4 – Senior School swimming sports
Safe Walking, Junior classes
18 –Zone Swimming
22 – Orienteering
24 – Orienteering
April
1 – End of Term 1, normal 3:00pm finish
19 – Start of Term 2
26-30 – Year 6 Camp
Sports Clubs
Valley Netball – Junior muster March 4th, Valley School , 3:15 pm. All girls who are 7 before May 1st and all players up to year 6 welcome. Bring shoes and a drink.
Alfriston Hockey Club – all games played at Pukekohe. Primary aged teams, all abilities. Sticks and uniforms supplied. 3 womens’ teams. Muster Pukekohe Turf – Sunday 7th March 4-5 pm, Wednesday 10th March 7-8pm.
Phone Janine on 238 1876.
Pukekohe Junior Boys Rugby –
Registration nights.
March 1st, 3rd, 9th, 11th - 5:30 to 7:00 pm at the junior clubrooms. All ages from 5 to players born in 1997.
For more information contact: Andrew, 0272916440 or David, 0274375315
Guitar Lessons
Guitar lessons are available at school during school hours. If you are interested leave your name and contact details at the office and our guitar teacher will be in touch.
Private Piano/keyboard Lessons
Held at school-individual tuition. Opportunity to take part in exams and competitions.
For enquiries and bookings call Joanne Allan ph 238 4488
NZ Modern School of Music |
