I N S I D E T H I S I S S U E :

From the Principal’s Desk 2

General Notices 4

Pre-School 9

Junior School 10

Girls’ & Boys’ Prep Schools 11

Friends’ Association 13

H P Grammar Notes

Enterprising Spirits Engaged Thinkers Moral Citizens

Issue 7, 2017 — Tuesday 14 March DIARY

Thursday 16 March: Winter Sport Trials NZ Opera Performance (9.30am) Friday 17 March: Touch Rugby Independent Schools’ Swimming Championships - Wharenui Whole School Harvest Festival Service J3 Farm Visit—Darfield Monday 20 March: Parent/Teacher Interviews - this week

Music Performers’ Evening

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From the Principal’s Desk En

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Dear parent

What a wet few days! I guess it is good for the garden, rivers and farms and the outlook looks good for the rest of the week. The annual class photos are underway as I type. There are many requests for sibling photos, which takes quite some organizing amongst a busy timetable. Miss Tattershaw has issued version 3 of the organisation for today to ensure we juggle it all smoothly. Thank you to Ian Kelly for his work today. I’m sure everyone will look cute, beautiful and handsome! Communication within our school organization, with you as parents and also with the wider community, is an area we have identified for development and improvement. You will have noticed that one of the most recent changes has been with introducing the second round of Parent Interviews scheduled for Term III and compulsory goals in English and Maths for all pupils. I had intended that we would also provide you with the standardized test results prior to next week’s meetings so as to give you time to consider these and the potential next steps to discuss with the teachers. However, we have had some issues with this and so it will be in place for future interviews where appropriate. Another initiative is the now ‘infamous’ new website. I hear the sighs from here! Those of you who were at our school last year will know that this new site has been due to be live since prior to my arrival. It has been difficult picking up a complex project part way through and I have had to prioritize my time to key tasks as a new principal. Yes, the website is a priority, but other aspects were more so. How we have got to this point is a complicated story, which I will not take up your time with, but the key point is I was told yesterday that I should be getting a link to the new site tomorrow! I have had no input into the design or content to this point. Once we have access I will be releasing key staff to provide them time to proofread and edit the content. We also need to get new photos as the ones being used are out of date and show some of our Y8 pupils as Junior School pupils. The other issue I have is that the new site does not address the issues of GrammarNet. That, too, needs consideration and either further work or to be deleted. So, we are getting closer and I hope to have it all ready and live by the start of Term II. We are also looking into school communication apps and what can do to improve Grammar Notes and improve its accessibility.

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Mr Scott Thelning Principal

While I am on the theme of communication, I mentioned at the Parent Meet the Teacher evening that good communication is most effective when it is open, respectful and with the person or people it needs to be with. As I have mentioned above, as a school we are working to improve our part in this and appreciate you playing your key role in this, too. As a part of this, it is timely to remind you of the processes around handling any queries or concerns you have regarding the progress of your child or an aspect of a programme as it affects your child. In general terms the first person you should address this with is the teacher concerned. Should it not be resolved at this point, then the next person for you to take your concern or questions to is the Head of De-partment. This is Miss Avery as Acting Head of the Pre-School, Mrs Whalley as the Dean of the Junior School, Mrs Bond as the Dean of the Girls’ School and Mr Foster as the Dean of the Boys’ School. These people will always communicate with one of the Deputy Principals regarding all concerns raised at this level. Should the matter not be resolved to your satisfaction at this level, then you can raise the issue with me where in most cases I will arrange a meeting with you, the teacher concerned and the Head of Department. Please do not be offended if Miss Tattershaw, Ms Church, Mrs Marsh or I direct you back to the teacher concerned or the Head of Department. We are just following our processes. If we are to truly have wonderful communication across our school we all need to play our role in ensuring it is consistently applied. I urge you to please make contact with our teachers as soon as you have any queries or concerns so we can collaboratively set about addressing these and allay any worries as soon as possible. It is important that you keep as your concern your child and what is happening for them, and not get involved in wider discussions about others. Experience has taught me that it is very difficult to stop stories and whispers being generated in groups across schools. However that does not make it right or something we as a community should accept. Ex-perience has also taught me that there are times when these stories and whispers are not accu-rate and/or can get turned into something bigger than it need to be or would have been if the right communication processes were followed. Please play your role by following our processes. We very much value strong and open relationships with you and together we can make commu-nication a strength of our school! I have received a written request from Freddy Parfitt (3E) and a spoken request from Ben McKay (2L) to bring back Wheels Day on a Friday each week. I was impressed with the boys’ approaches and think this idea is a great one. So, every Friday, starting this week will be Wheels Day. What this means is that all pupils can bring their scooters, bikes, unicycles, rollerblades and skate-boards, and will be able to ride these on the closed off Chester St West at lunchtime. Every rider must wear a helmet and this will be supervised by a staff member. Junior School will be using the road from 12:20pm to 12:50pm and the Girls’ and Boys’ Schools from 12:50pm to 1:20pm. Have a great week.

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Creating Moral Citizens - Virtue of the Week is: Purposefulness

What is Purposefulness?

Being purposeful is having a clear focus,

instead of being confused or unsure of what

you are doing or why you are doing it.

You are acting purposefully when you have a

goal you are working toward. You concentrate

your mind and your efforts so that something

good will happen as a result. Some people just

let things happen.

A purposeful person makes things happen.

Congratulations! You are practising Purposefulness when you…

Have a clear vision of what you want to

accomplish

Know why you are doing it

Focus on a goal

Get back on purpose if you get scattered or

distracted

Do things one at a time and finish what you

start

Persevere until you get results

Harvest Festival Collection on Now!

Our City Mission Food Collection is this week! Brown bags should be left in classrooms. Please deliver fresh fruit and vegetables directly to the hall on Friday 17 March.

Our target is to match last year’s impressive collection of 120 brown bags for City Mission.

Harvest Festival Service on Friday

Our whole school Harvest Festival service is on Friday 17 March at 2.00pm, and we warmly welcome parents and friends to join our thanksgiving. The service will be in the hall.

Parent Interviews Next Week

We look forward to seeing parents at Parent Interviews with Home Room, English and Maths subject teachers next week. To book appointments with teaching staff, please use the electronic booking system. All parents were emailed last Friday with details of the system and how to use it. This information is also on GrammarNet’s Home Page. If you are unable to make times during next week, please contact the teacher(s) concerned directly to make an appointment later in the term.

General Notices

General Notices

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General Notices

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Cathedral Grammar School is raising funds. Here's how you can help...

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Co-curricular Notices Swimming Caps for Junior School Swimming

Next week Y1-3 begin their swimming lessons at AquaGym. You will receive details from your child’s class teacher shortly.

Swimming caps are an essential item for young children learning to swim. They help keep children warm during their lesson, and also assist greatly with your child’s attention to their lesson – their breathing, eyesight and hearing. Please ensure your child has a cap to help them gain the most from their lesson time.

School swim caps are available now at the Uniform Shop. These caps have a special white box in which to write your child’s name. To preserve your child’s swim cap, it should be fully dried then dusted with baby powder. This prevents that unpleasant stick-together, maintains its stretch and makes it more comfortable to put on.

WHEN DOES WINTER SPORT START?

At the end of last week Canterbury Hockey announced that all hockey will begin in Term II. This is a first and later than usual, and so we have postponed start of Prep School winter sport on Thursday afternoons. This is a change to the calendar. Thus:

Girls’ School: The girls will have two more weeks of their Xtend programme, Thursdays 16 & 23 March. Their winter hockey and netball programmes will begin on Thursday 30 March.

Trials for Netball A take place on Thursday (16 March), 8.00-9.00am with Marg Foster. Those Y7&8 pupils involved have received a letter from Ms McCormack. If you have any questions about these trials, please speak to Ms McCormack.

Boys’ School: The boys will play Round 1 of House Cricket on Thursday (16 March), state of grounds permitting. If the pitches do not dry out, we will do summer sport. The boys’ winter hockey and ball skill group programmes will begin on Thursday 23 March.

Interschool v Hereworth: Our Tennis VII and 1st XI Cricketers will play Hereworth on Thursday 23 March. Details are being finalized with Hereworth and will be advised to players and billet host families once confirmed.

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Co-curricular Notices Junior School Hockey & Netball Clubs: For those pupils who have enrolled, these clubs begin in Week I of Term II.

When do Saturday Hockey Matches Start?

CHA has announced that:

11-aside matches start on Saturday 29 April for our Girls’ & Boys’ 1st XI teams (Y7&8). Please note that this is the Saturday BEFORE the school term starts.

6-aside matches start on Saturday 6 May for Y3-6 players, and Y7&8 players who are in our Kwik Sticks 6-aside teams.

We are still waiting on the rest of the Junior Hockey calendar which, to date, has not been published. We will advise you of the key dates as soon as we have them.

When do Friday & Saturday Netball Matches Start?

Netball Christchurch has tentatively advised that matches will start next term on Friday 5 May and Saturday 6 May. This is, however, subject to final confirmation.

General Notices

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We need your help please...

It is unfortunate that, as an inner city pre-school and primary school, we are constrained by the limited car parking we have for the drop off and pick up of our children. As you know, parking is at a premium at Cathedral Grammar, so if we follow a few simple guidelines, we can lessen the effect of these parking issues for all.

PRE-SCHOOL PARENTS

Please do not use the staff car park drive through as a drop off / pick up area. When you stop and leave your cars in this area it makes it very difficult for other parents.

Please use either Chester Street West, the P30 area outside the Admin Building, or the P120 car parks on Park Terrace (which are often vacant). The distance between the Kiss ’n Ride is the same as parking on Chester Street West, whilst the farthest car parks on Park Terrace would be only 140 metres from the front door of the Pre-School. These are distances that take less than a minute to walk.

JUNIOR SCHOOL PARENTS

Please do not use the staff car park drive through as a drop off / pick up area if you intend to walk your child into their classroom.

When you stop and leave your cars in this area it makes it very difficult for other parents.

Please use the other parking areas as detailed above.

By the time your child is in Y3, they should be able to confidently walk themselves into class on a regular basis. On the days that they do walk themselves to class, then please use the staff car park drive through as your preferred drop-off area (without leaving your car).

PREP SCHOOL PARENTS

Please use the staff car park drive through as your preferred drop off area. This is especially so for the Girls’ School and the Y7&8 boys, but also applies to every Prep School pupil.

For the Y5 boys, please consider just nosing in to the Inveresk driveways and dropping your son off in the Armagh Street entrances. This will reduce congestion on Chester St West and make your journey quicker.

For the Y4 and Y6 boys, letting them out on the side of Park Terrace, should there be empty parks, is preferable to entering Chester Street West. Boys of this age should be able to walk themselves the remaining 75 metres or so to their classrooms.

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Pre-School

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Welcome to Iver Spence who has started Pre-School this week. Iver has been a regular visitor to Pre-School, previously dropping off and collecting his big brother Olin. Transitioning children from home to pre-school and pre-school to school, can often be daunting for children (more often parents, too!) If you are thinking of enrolling your child at any time during the year, please feel free to come and spend a few mornings with us to see the programme in action. Regular visits will help support smooth and successful transitions.

Our sunflowers are continuing to bloom and after many discussions about how big or small our planter box should be Mr Scarrott, the caretaker, and Mr McGregor, his trusty side kick, have built us a wonderful planter box which is ready for us to head out on our next adventure in the weeks to come. We need to collect soil to help all our winter vegetables grow. The children have been researching what vegetables will grow best during the winter months. Broccoli and cauliflower are at the top of the list. Ms Manson and Mr Beaumont will take some children to purchase the soil this week and next week some more children will go to the garden centre to buy all the plants. The planter box is further supporting our understanding of being sustainable and what it looks like in practice.

Friday 17 March is the whole school Harvest Festival celebration. Pre-School has put together a wonderful presentation for the school. If you would like to attend the service with your child and view our great contribution, please collect them before 2.00pm and if possible let one of the teaching team know.

Our Fun Times’ Programme is now up on Storypark. Please take a look to see what your child will be getting up to over the school holidays. The activities off-site have been booked in advance as all families have informed us of their attendance during this period. Transportation has been arranged to take only those children booked in for the Fun Times’ Programme.

The Pre-School coffee morning is coming up on Wednesday 29 March. We hope some of you will be able to pop in.

Have a wonderful week.

Miss Libby Avery

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Junior School

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The Y3 children went on an excursion last week to the Cathedral. This was part of their current topic, How People Help us in Our Community. The children met different people within our Cathedral and learned about their roles. Dean Lawrence explained his role when leading the church services and Mr Linker, the Director of Music, showed the children how he plays the organ, including the different sounds it can make such as the bagpipes.

Other people that the Y3 children met included Mr Oldham, the Cathedral administrator, Rev Nicky Lee, Rev Ben Randall and Mrs Kimberley.

Well done to the Y1 children who shared their learning and read out the assembly cards on Friday. They were very brave and spoke very clearly. It is amazing to think that most of these children have only been at school for six weeks.

Reminders:

Please ensure the Kiss ’n Ride is for drop-offs only. You should not be parking in this area and leaving your vehicle unattended.

Assembly this week: the Harvest Festival Service will begin at 2.00pm. The Y1&2 children will be sharing something small related to harvest time at this service.

Mrs Simone Whalley

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Girls’ & Boys’ Prep Schools

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Congratulations to all the pupils who took part in the bi-annual summer sports’ exchange with

Waihi last week. The matches were played with good sportsmanship and fair play – a tribute to

the players and to the legacy that is part of the exchange which started last century.

In the tennis, the top four of Henri Murison, Johnny Bullen, William Morris and James Lange

conceded only three games in total. The next four consisting of Jack Slaughter, Isaac Heap,

Isabella Bullen and Zoe Smith then went one better conceding only two games. Waihi had some

close games but were unable to win the final point. The players from both schools then played

doubles, partnering with their opponent to determine the king of the court. True to form it went

to the top doubles pair of Henri and Tom (Waihi).

Hagley Oval Number 2 was the venue for this year’s 1st XI cricket match. Waihi won the toss and chose to have first use of what looked like a very good surface, in excellent all-round playing conditions. At the fifteenth-over drinks’ break, Waihi were 56 for 2. In the second half of the innings, Waihi gained momentum as the CGS boys started to feel the heat in the field, and in the end a competitive total of 154 for 6 was posted in 30 overs. After an early wicket, Grammar set about the run chase positively. Hugh Duston and Jonty Foote demonstrated excellent running between the wickets in their second wicket partnership and after twelve overs we were well placed at 50 for 1. Hugh’s dismissal saw scoreboard pressure applied, however, which resulted in a sequence of wickets through the middle stages of the innings. Eventually, Grammar was bowled out for 110 in the second to last over. In the Colts’ match on the neighbouring Polo Grounds, Grammar batted first against a very strong Waihi XI. Despite some stoic defence from the all the Grammar batsmen, they were unable to lift the scoring rate to achieve a defendable total. Waihi scored the required runs early and continued to bat for another ten overs in order to give their players some time at the wicket. A challenging day on the cricket field for our team but all the boys applied themselves to the task. Well done, boys. The Girls’ School Xtend programme continues to provide valuable learning opportunities as well

as some great fun and new challenges. The programme has been running on a Thursday

afternoon in Term I in place of the normal sports’ programme. The girls have been able to

choose from options including cooking, craft, dance, Xtreme (a trail running, mountain biking

and kayaking option), and 3-D printing. The programme has proven to be very popular with

many of the girls attempting something they have not had the opportunity to really test

themselves in before. The programme winds up next week before winter sport trials in Week IX.

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Girls’ & Boys’ Prep Schools

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ICAS Competitions

The deadline for entries is Friday (17 March).

ICAS registration is now open for 2017. ICAS are competitions in the areas of English, Writing, Spelling, Mathematics, Science and Digital Technologies. These competitions are for Y4-8 pupils and have a cost associated with them that will be charged to your school account if you would like your child to enter.

It is expected that pupils in extension English and Mathematics classes in Y6-8 will enter the English, Writing and Spelling, and Mathematics competitions. If you have any queries please discuss this with your child’s teacher.

Please click the link below or visit this website for more information:

https://www.eaa.unsw.edu.au/icas/about

To enter your child please click the survey link below.

https://www.surveymonkey.com/r/ICAS_entries

If you have any questions, please email Ms Church - churchn@cathedralgrammar.school.nz

Ms Kirsty Bond & Mr Owen Foster

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Friends’ Association

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Notice of Annual General Meeting and Election

The Friends' Association Annual General Meeting (AGM) and election of officers and committee members will be held on Monday 27 March at 7.30pm in the school staffroom.

The following officers and committee members intend to stand for re-election:

There are two committee positions available.

Vice president description

The vice president is required to attend meetings regularly, wherever possible, usually twice a term; to support the president, stepping in when the president is not able to act in official capacity; to support the executive team; and co-ordinate the class friends.

Committee member description

Committee members are required to attend meetings regularly, wherever possible, usually twice a term. Our varied fundraisers mean members may be expected to get involved in a number of ways, from joining sub-committees to plan events, to setting up and clearing up on the day. Other minor tasks come up as part of our regular activities which may require assistance from committee members. Committee membership does not take up much time but some flexibility is required. No specific qualifications or skills are needed for the role. A number of personal qualities, however, are useful including enthusiasm, creative thinking, team spirit and a willingness to get involved wherever necessary.

Nominations are required to be in writing, a form for which can be obtained from the school office and must be returned no later than 5:00pm on 18 March 2017. Please note that the form requires potential members be nominated and seconded. This can be done by any current school parent.

President: Angela Reed

Secretary: Nicky Oram

Treasurer: Diana Wylie

Committee: Libby Avery

Kim Chan

Natalie Sneddon

Sury Kinajil-Reding

Bridget Parfitt

Chantal Taylor

Meagan Duston

Amanda Davis

Victoria Wynn Thomas

Scott Thelning (Principal)

Linda Marsh (Executive Assistant)

Linda Hazel (Uniform Shop)