St John’s Girls’ School

Newsletter 1 December 2017

Principal’s Comments

Tena koutou katoa – Greetings to you all. I hope you are coping with the end of year craziness.

House Captains and Deputies

The 2018 house captains and deputies were announced in assembly this morning. Congratulations to the following girls who have

been chosen to lead their houses for 2018:

House Captain Deputy House Captain

Alabaster House: Angeline Crowe Bailey Bennett

Enderby House: Katie Dennis Cate Reynolds

Lester: Abbie Middlemass Grace Watson

Marchant: Sarah Slee Meg Pope

I’m looking forward to working with them and I am certain they will work together for the benefit of the houses. We are fortunate to

have so many amazing girls to choose from.

Stripes

I had great pleasure in presenting the end of year stripes last week. Congratulations to the following girls:

Work Stripes: Green Work Stripe: (Full potential in mathematics and English and maximum effort.)

Lucy Bird, Indya Hillman, Jorja Mackie, Giovanna O’Donnell, Taleeha Stewart, Ella Watt, Brooke Egerton, Holly Hampton

Red Work Stripe: (Academic ability in mathematics and English and maximum effort):

Anna Coveney, Kate Goodeve, Alex Hopcroft, Paige McKenzie

Sports Stripes

White Sports Stripe: (Maximum effort, fair play and school representation in 4 sports).

Lucy Bird, Olivia Corson, Katie Dennis, Rebecca Laverock, Cate Reynolds, Taleeha Stewart

There were no gold stripes presented.

Reports

I love this time of the year when the teachers come bursting into the staffroom full of a child’s success! We all love to hear about their

progress, in any area of their schooling. I have spent last few days reading reports and thoroughly enjoying it. Reports go out on

Friday 8th December.

Employment It is with pleasure that I announce that Mrs Kelly has been permanently appointed to the junior syndicate leader position, effective

from January 2018.

As most of you are aware, Mrs Packham has resigned from her part time position in the junior school. Congratulations to

Mr and Mrs Packham on the recent birth of their beautiful son, Harry Lewis. Mrs Devlin has returned from maternity leave to help

us out and is enjoying teaching Room 2 on Friday until the end of the year. She had resigned to be a full time mum.

Mrs Trudy Brand, an experienced junior school teacher will be teaching Room 2 on Friday in 2018.

Organisational Matters

Celebration of Dance Each room has been working on a class dance during their weekly dance lesson. These will be shared on Tuesday 5th December at

2pm. Parents and grandparents are welcome to join us. We will be starting with the new entrant/Year 1 class and moving through to

Year 8. Each dance only takes a few minutes so we will be finished just after 2.30pm. You are welcome to take your daughter home

but please let the class teacher know you are doing so.

Christmas Service – 1.30pm on Friday 8th December

We look forward to seeing you at our annual service at St John’s Anglican Church located on Tay Street beside the Invercargill City

Council building. Entry is through the Esk Street doors. We expect that the service will take approximately an hour. There is plenty

of room so grandparents are very welcome. The girls will arrive and depart by bus. You are welcome to collect them early after the

service, from school. A huge thank you to Mrs Taylor who has organised the service and taught the girls the songs.

Prize giving – Wednesday 13th at 1.30pm

This will be held at St John’s Anglican Church. The girls will be travelling both ways by bus. They may be collected straight after

the prize giving from school. We expect the prize giving to take approximately an hour.

Year 8 Leaver’s Ceremony – Wednesday 13th 3pm

This is held in the school hall and follows the prizegiving. It takes approximately an hour. Grandparents are welcome but no siblings

please.

Have a lovely weekend. Enjoy the sunshine.

Nga mihi nui (Kind regards)

Brenda Mackay

TERM DATES:

December

4th Tabloids—1pm

5th Dance Sharing 2pm

7th Christmas Service practice am

8th Christmas Service 1.30pm St John’s Church

12th Prizegiving practice am

13th Prizegiving 1.30pm St John’s Church

Y8 Leavers afternoon tea 3.00—4.15pm in hall

Last Day

January 2018

29th Boarders arrive

30th 1st Day Term 1

Congratulations to the following girls who received

awards recently—

Room 1 Ingrid Fleming, Summer Behl,

Willow Harper, Nakaysha Fraser

Room 2 Hazel Stevenson, Isabella McNamara

Camryn Shepherd, Jessica Hay

Room 3 Sophie Hall, Andreeva Stephen,

Meah Somerville, Nicola Schol

Room 4 Amy Brand, Laura McDowall,

Lucia Hughes, Madeleine Lawlor

Room 5 Isabella Willis, Kate Brand

Room 6 Jorja Mackie, Olivia Corson, Ella Watt

Room 7 Sarah Hay, McKenzie Aitken,

Ella Burdon, Katie Pope

Values Cup:

24 Nov Holly Hampton Rm 5

1 Dec Ivy Turner Rm 7

Accounts

Most people are up to date but if you are behind, please

ensure all accounts are paid as soon as possible as these are

now outstanding if you are paying in a lump sum.

UNIFORM SHOP HOURS

The uniform shop will be open on the following days if you need to purchase a new uniform for 2018.

Please phone Mrs Lang at the school office to make an appointment. Thursday 14th December 9am—11am

Friday 15th December 9am —2pm

Monday 29th January 9am —2 pm

TO GIVE AWAY!!

We have 40 car tyres to give away. If you are thinking of making a swing or need to

encourage children into creative play then these are ideal for you. We would love to have

them gone by the end of term. If you would like 1 or 2, or the whole lot please phone the

school office. These would be great for silage bins.

Last day for school buses this term

is now Tuesday 12th December.

LIBRARY NEWS

The Invercargill Library Summer Reading Programme ‘The Great Escape’ starts today and runs through until Wednesday

31st January.

The aim is to read around New Zealand. This year there is a reading log booklet available for children and families. The

booklets contain everything you need to complete ‘The Great Escape’ and once completed will put you into the prize

draw at the end of the challenge. For more information go to www.ilibrary.co.nz

LOST PROPERTY

We have a large amount of lost property at the school office so get your daughter to come in and check it or you can call

in between 8.15am and 3.15pm. There are also two bikes and two scooters that do not belong to our girls. Please phone

the school office if you know who they belong to.

BOT Survey Results

Once again I’d like to thank everyone who participated in this year’s annual survey.

The survey is one way you, as parents, can tell us how the school and Board is performing. This information helps us

when setting the strategic plan for next year. It also helps us look at where we focus our efforts in undertaking the care

and education of your daughter(s).

We had 50 responses to our survey this year, similar to last year’s numbers. We kept the body of the survey the same so

we could track our performance. It included questions on your daughter’s emotional and educational well-being, our

current strategic aims as set out in the charter, along with a chance to feedback on both what’s going well and areas of

improvement for us to look at working on in the future.

The results were pleasing with 100% feeling their daughter was happy at school. We also saw an improvement in the

questions around girls knowing their next learning steps (92%), being happy with the progress your daughter’s are making

(98%) and the school’s communication (96%). 96% of respondents felt the school incorporated appropriate cultural input

into the girls’ learning.

As a school we continue to work on ensuring that all girls know their next learning steps. Changing the language used with

the girls and clearly identifying the next learning step when learning steps are discussed with them has helped. We will

continue to explore ways to improve the girls understanding of this, especially in the junior school where learning goals

change so rapidly due to the huge gains they make at this level.

As a Board we continually look at ways to support and encourage girls to make progress in all areas and to report this back

to you as parent’s/care givers in a way that you can understand. This includes looking at programs available for both those

needing extra input and extension and funding allocated to this. Examples of this include our teacher aides and the more

recent trial of the Feuerstein program. This is an area that we regularly review in terms of what progress is being made

through out the year, and what other options are available.

Communication has been a major focus for us as a Board, so it was good to see progress being made! Looking to the future

we are looking at an online tool by which you can track your daughter’s progress. This is currently a work in progress with

some up tweaking of the tools available to get this working well. We are also trialling the online site ‘sporty’ for sports

registrations and looking at how we can utilize this for general updates, messages, reminders etc.

Some of the comments on what we can improve have hopefully been covered above. Sport is always a struggle to

accommodate with the number of activities the girls are lucky enough to be able to participate in these days. It’s difficult to

stick to a set number of sports when there may be one that a particular girl loves and is able to

perform in a way that she wouldn’t in mainstream activities. We often see the girls flourish in these situations. However,

getting the balance right between being in the classroom and having girls away on various sporting activities is something

that a number of principals and representatives from sporting codes are working on in Invercargill, Mrs. Mackay included.

We will keep you updated regards this. Coaching, as long as the coach can confirm a time with the girls can be at

lunchtimes, before or after school. The difficulty is often that the girls already have after school activities. We have had a

couple of teams this year practising either before or after school.

Finally, once again, thank you for all your feedback. If you have some feedback for us

during the year, please don’t feel you have to wait for the annual survey to come

around again. We welcome your input.

Keri Bryan

BOT chairperson

Stationery

All girls will receive a 2018 stationery list before the end of the term. If your daughter doesn’t receive one, please ask.

Last Day

School effectively finishes on Wednesday13th. The school is officially closed from 1pm on Thursday. There is no After School

Care on this day. Usually only the Year 8 girls return on the Thursday to help clean up and to spend time together before heading in

their different directions in 2018.

ROOM 1—Year 1—Mrs Jagoutz

Rooms 1, 2 and 3 had a great time exploring Demolition World. We were looking at all of the old equipment and technology that would have been used by our grandparents and great grandparents. We wondered how the washing machines were used and learnt that washing was not done by the push of one button, like we do today! Some girls noticed the old bicycles and how different they looked to their own bikes that they ride today. Cookers did not have electricity but were heated with coal or wood fires – no convenience like a microwave oven.

Dreamweaver, the story teller, visited the school and the girls were captivated by her stories and rhymes. She shared stories from all over the world and held the attention of the girls for just over an hour.

We have been learning the playground games of old. Games that have been around for a long time, such as hopscotch, pick-up-

sticks, dominoes and marbles. Pick-up-sticks has become quite competitive! We have also been learning folk dances, clapping

games, elastics and skipping games.

ROOM 2—Years 1 & 2—Mrs Kelly

With only a couple of weeks left at school we are enjoying all the end of year activities. We have something on most days between now and the end of the term. We have been practising for our Christmas Service and it is sounding beautiful. It is a lovely nativity story told in song and we hope you have the opportunity to share it with us.

We have tabloids this coming Monday and all the houses have written chants for the house competition. The practices were sounding pretty noisy today!

We have our shared lunch and Mufti Day on Monday the 11th to celebrate the end of our inquiry into life in our grandparent’s day. The girls have been learning folk dances and we are looking forward to sharing these with the senior girls. We have also learnt a lot of old fashioned games and it has been great to see these being played at lunch times. Hopscotch, skipping games and elastics have been popular outside games and pickup sticks, dominoes and marbles have been fun for indoors.

The girls have written their letters to Santa and these went home on Thursday for parents to read and then post. We have had a lot of fun writing them and I was very impressed with the lovely way in which the girls asked for their wishes.

We are in the process of gathering in all our reading material and would appreciate if you could return any readers and library books as soon as possible. We are updating our inventory

It has been a great year in Room 2. We have enjoyed getting to know you and your girls and would like to thank you for all your support over the year.

Wishing you all a very Merry Christmas.

Mrs Kelly, Mrs Packham & Mrs Devlin

ROOM 3—Years 3 & 4—Ms Wilcox-Clarke & Mrs Dawkins

AFTERSCHOOL CARE—LAST DAY OF SCHOOL YEAR

Thank you for the support received throughout the year. As usual it is going by very quickly.

The Afterschool Care Programme will run on the last day of school (13th December) after prizegiving

It would be appreciated if all accounts could be paid up before the end of term.

Thank you and have a lovely holiday with your families.

As we reflect upon this year we think about all the learning that has happened, the fun we have had and the

memories we have made together.

We have really enjoyed getting to know each of the girls and assisting in their learning journey. We are grateful to

our St John’s families for their part in making this a happy and productive year.

Our recent unit about life in our grandparent’s and great grandparent’s day has been fascinating. We appreciate the

items sent along and the accompanying stories, all great learning opportunities.

It is Mufti Day on Monday 11th December and we get to dress up as our grandparents may have. We look forward

to seeing your ensembles.

After all the assessment activities we are enjoying our class routines, although not for much longer. That Christmas

feeling is in the air and we are beginning to get a wee bit excited!!

In maths we are revisiting addition/subtraction and multiplication/division strategies. We all realise how important it

is to have quick recall of basic facts to apply a strategy.

On Wednesday 6th December the junior school are having a Christmas craft morning. We have some fun activities

planned. Thank you to those who have sent along shoe boxes and a screw top jar. We would also appreciate small

Christmas decorations to go inside our globes.

Recently we enjoyed an art unit observing the structure of spring flowers. We revisited the use of dark and light

colours and the composition of our drawings. Some wonderful work has been completed.

We will be sending home art work and exercise books. Could you please send some plastic bags for this purpose.

If there are any reading books at home we would appreciate their return.

Finally thanks to all for a wonderful year. Enjoy your family this Christmas and

have a happy and safe holiday.

SPORTS NEWS

EMAIL ADDRESS FOR SPORTS

FOOTBALL

MINIBALL

SCHOOL SWIMMING

I have updated my email address. You can now contact me on:

sports@stjohnsgirls.school.nz

The last game for 2017 is on Monday 11th December.

Summer football is scheduled to restart on Monday 12th February 2018.

Congratulations to the St John’s Giants who were

placed 2nd in the Year 5/6 Girls B Pool 1 grade.

Well done girls!

Can I have all singlets returned asap please.

Thank you to those who have returned their singlet

already.

SCHOOL SWIMMING:

School swimming starts in Week 2 of Term 1.

The dates are:

Monday 5th February

Monday 12th February

Monday 19th February

Monday 26th February

Monday 5th March

Monday 12th March

Monday 19th March

Monday 26th March

Monday 9th April

A parent notice will be sent home at the beginning of the term with further details. If your daughter has

completed her 200m during 2017, please email me or bring in a copy of her certificate. All students who

have completed 200m stay at school and take part in sports with Mrs Hawke.

Email: sports@stjohnsgirls.school.nz

Splash Palace run excellent “Learn to Swim” lessons over the school holidays. Please check their website for further details.

TABLOID SPORT

PHOTOS

This coming Monday 4th December at 1:00pm, the whole school will be taking part in

Tabloid Sports. This is a fun afternoon where the girls will be competing in various

activities for house points. The girls may wear house coloured t-Shirts and hair ribbons

if they desire. School PE shorts are to be worn. There will be a house “chant off” at

2:50pm if time allows. Parents are most welcome to come and support the girls.

REPRESENTATIVE NEWS

COMMUNITY SPORTS NOTICES

If anyone has taken any photos of our after school sports teams

in action please feel free to email them through to me as it would

be nice to put some in the sports section of the newsletter when

space is available. Email sports@stjohnsgirls.school.nz

Y7/8 St John’s Sharks - Water Polo team.

Congratulations to Isabella Rhind who has been selected for the Southland swimming squad and the NZ junior

swimming squad for 2018. Well done!

If your daughter has made a representative team or has excelled in her sport, please remember to inform either

myself or Mrs McEntyre in the school office so we can acknowledge it in the newsletter. If they participated in a

St John’s Girls’ School sports team we will note this for end of year merit certificates and for Y7/8 stripes. Thank

you. My email is sports@stjohnsgirls.school.nz