NEWS Stepping Up & Reaching Out 29 AUG 2014

Important Notes/Dates / A note from the Principal
Term Dates 2014:
Term 1 - 30 JAN – 17 APR
Term 2 - 05 MAY – 04 JUL
Term 3 - 21 JUL - 26 SEP
Term 4 - 13 OCT - 16 DEC
AUGUST:
28 AUG - Canterbury Winter Tournament
28 AUG - PTA Meeting
29 AUG - Hagley Sport ends
29 AUG - Bandquest
29 AUG - LEAP
31 AUG - QPS Working Bee -please see the office if you able to help in any way.
SEPTEMBER:
02 SEP - Wearable Arts - CBS 6.45-9pm
05 SEP - Wearable Arts Matinee 12.30-2.30pm
05 SEP - Wearable Arts 6.45-9pm
05 SEP - Cultural Festival Performance 6.45-9pm
1-2 SEP - Science Alive @ QPS YR 4
3-4 SEP - Science Alive @ QPS YR 1
04 SEP - New Parent Meeting 9am
15 SEP - BOT Meeting 7pm
18 SEP - School Showcase 6pm
24 SEP - Strike, Strum, Blow Festival
24 SEp - NE/YR1 Parent Assembly 2.15pm
25 SEP - PTA Meeting
OCTOBER:
13 OCT - NE /YR1 Swimming begins
14 OCT - YR3 Swimming begins
15 OCT - Year 4 Swimming begins
20-23 OCT - Senior Production
28 OCT - BOT Meeting 7pm
30 OCT - PTA Meeting
30 OCT - Music Festival
NOVEMBER:
17 NOV - BOT Meeting 7pm
27 NOV - PTA Meeting
DECEMBER:
15 DEC - BOT Meeting 7pm
16 DEC - School Year ends 12.30pm / Dear Parents / Caregivers
Earthquake Repairs
We are mindful that there are still a lot of our parent community dealing with EQC repairs. This can be a very stressful time and we realise this can often be difficult on children as well. We ask that you keep us in the loop if you are going through this or about to venture on this journey. We have you all in our thoughts as you go through this experience.
Bugs and Flu
It’s that time of the year again! We have a number of our children who are away at present with sickness. If your child is exhibiting some sickness symptoms our advice is that it is best to err on caution and keep he/she warm and tucked up at home for a few days. You can appreciate that schools are a “hot bed” for illnesses to spread! Please remember to phone in to the office (anytime day or night) and leave a message on our absentee line if your child is away.
New Website
Check out our new website when you get a moment. We have redesigned our website to give it a fresh new look, to make it easier to navigate and for it to be a more effective way of sharing school information with you. We hope that you find it all of the above and that it will help you feel up to date and involved in all aspects of school life. In the coming weeks and months we plan to keep building this school information site. We still expect all families to be registered on our text alert system. Special thanks to Rebecca Taylor who has worked really hard over the last few months to get our website to this stage.
Working Bee
A reminder that this in on this Sunday from 10am - 1pm. Chris Kime (Caretaker) and Simon Battrick ( Board of Trustees ) are coordinating this and they are also doing a BBQ for lunch. The PTA are coordinating Jack n Jill family portraits all day as well. Come along and make it a family day. If you can help please register with the office Ph 383-1578 or email so that we know what numbers we have coming along.
Open Night
Thank you to those parents who braved the cold weather to come to our recent Year 7/8 Open night. We hope that this has helped give you more of an insight into the learning programme in this part of our school. Thank you to the Year 7/8 teachers and students for the hard work they put into this night. If you would like further discussion please don’t hesitate to contact the school office. Year 6 parents are reminded of the invitation to view the Year 7/8 technology programme next Wednesday at 1.30pm at Aranui High School.
LEAP & Rockquest
We are looking forward to watching the students performing in LEAP this Friday. It is always a little daunting performing in front of others but the children always look forward to this event and we look forward to seeing what they have learnt over this Term.
Our Rockband are performing in the Rockshop Bandquest at the Aurora Centre on Friday night also. We wish them the very best and look forward to hearing all about this.
Success for our Jump Jam Teams
Results are out and we are proud to announce all teams have qualified for Regionals! Congratulations to our three Jump Jam teams who have successfully qualified for the South Island Regional Competition on Saturday 8 November at the Lincoln Events Centre. The Yr 1-4 Novice, Yr 4-6 Novice and Yr 7/8 Novice teams. Karen Pearce, Karen Hutchings and the children have been working for weeks now practising their routines in the hope that they would be selected. The competition has been fierce just to make it this far. For those of you haven’t experienced a Jump Jam Festival before come along . It’s a lot of fun (see last year’s photos below). We are looking for parent help to assist us with making costumes :-)
Ross Willocks
Principal.
General News . . .

Call into the school office to book a time for your portrait to be taken. Please phone Liz on the above number if you have any questions regarding the above portrait session. Sessions are filling up fast but there is still time to get in to register your spot!

Also Our PTA Quiz Night is coming up on Saturday 6 September. Register your team at the office. $10 pp, teams of 4-6. American Theme! Don’t miss out on an awesome night of competitive fun!!

BOOK WEEK AT QUEENSPARK SCHOOL…

We were very fortunate to recently have Christchurch author Bill Nagelkerke with us as part of our QPS Book Week. Bill entertained the children at assembly and had the chance to visit classes to read to them. A big Thanks to Maree our awesome librarian who coordinated this week. I am sure the children came home with lots of stories about what went on at our fun School Book Week.

Strike Percussion visits Queenspark School…… Our Teachers joining in!

Do you have any of the following materials…

The Junior School are looking for some items for their discovery carpentry unit. Do you have any old bits of carpet /lino, bottle tops or untreated wood? These items would be most helpful for this topic. Please see Andrea Sullivan or any of the Junior teachers if you are able to help out here.

Missing Scooter

A scooter went missing recently from the scooter central. Green MGP with purple grips. If found, please contact the school office.

QPS Working Bee - SUNDAY 31 AUGUST 2014

Please join us at School this Sunday 31st August between 10am - 1pm to help with jobs around the school. Even if you can only spare 1 hour, we would love your help. Come along and help us make our school a better place for our children. Tea /Coffee /Sausage Sizzle available.

Please register by Friday 3pm at the school office so we can get an idea of numbers for this project.

Thank you very much for your support!

A piece of writing from Jenna Burton Rm 16:

I am interested in gymnastics and I love going on the monkey bars at school.

One of our teachers is called Mrs. Sullivan and her daughter Charlotte did gymnastics at the Commonwealth Games. Charlotte is 16 years old. She’s a year 11 student at Christchurch Girls’ High School. She has a younger brother called Luke who is the same age as me.

Her family went to Glasgow to live in the village and watch Charlotte do her moves. Charlotte competed in the bars, the vault, the beam and the floor events. She was really good at the beam but on her first time she nearly fell off. Her heart would have been pumping and she would have tried to concentrate and look straight ahead. She didn’t get any medals but she tried her best to win. I feel sorry for her team because they didn’t get any medals. I am glad that I got to learn about Charlotte and that she is a marvellous gymnast. I would like to go back to gymnastics and learn to do the splits. If I practice, practice, practice at home I will get better at it.

Jenna Burton

Cupcake Day

On Monday the 18th , Tuesday the 19th and Wednesday the 20th Room 2 held a cupcake day to raise money for the S.P.C.A and Dog watch. We did this for animals that have no voice and are injured or tortured . We will give half of the money to the S.P.C.A and Dog Watch. We made about 1,000 cupcakes and raised 1,534.50 dollars .We also sold out on Tuesday morning tea and Wednesday morning tea. We are feeling good about what we made to give to the S.P.C.A and Dog Watch. Pam Howard from dogwatch is going to be coming into our assembly this Monday to accept the money for dogs in need. Thank you to everyone who supported our cupcake/baking days.

BY Ryan and Victoria, Room 2.

JUMP JAM 2013:

Here is a snapshot of our 2013 School Jump Jam Team who came 2nd overall! If you would like to come and help out with this years event, please contact the office and leave your details. Or if you would like to help fundraise or maybe you have a contact who can possibly sponsor us, we would be very keen to chat with you. It’s such a fun exciting event that the children really love! We have a lot of talented children at Queenspark School!

Science ICAS

Participation Merit Credit Distinction

Year 4

Ella Dixon

Year 5

Zarah Kurzfeld

Ton Visscher

Year 6

Nicholas Pearce Robin McGregor

Year 7

Nicholas Ashton Ruby Lange Samuel Rautao Blake Gilmore

Haley Grimes

Oscar Parker

Year 8

Preston Boumester Samuel Mulholland

Well done to all those who participated and a special congratulations to Blake Gilmore who achieved ‘Distinction’.

HAVE A GREAT WEEKEND EVERYONE!!