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Newsletter ~ 15 May, 2025
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From The Principal
Tena koutou ngā whānau, ngā mihi nui ki a koutou katoa,
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I hope everyone has had a lovely couple of weeks, and that the mothers in the community had a lovely day last Sunday. The term is progressing well, with students highly engaged in the topic of the Solar System during Inquiry times. We are also looking forward to the Matariki Night Mākete towards the end of the term. Being a 9-week term, 1 week shorter than usual, with a couple of public holidays and a Teacher Only Day means the term is flying by fast.
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We recently conducted e-asTTle testing across the middle and senior school in the areas of Reading and Mathematics. These are detailed assessments that show both overall student performance and areas of strengths, and areas where additional support may be required. Teachers closely analyse these tests to decide on next teaching steps for students.
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We are also implementing a number of reading fluency initiatives across the school. There is a large correlation between literacy fluency and comprehension. Students need to be fluent, reading at about 90 - 120 words per minute, to be able to comprehend text effectively. When students are fluent readers, they are no longer using cognitive energy to decode words and they can focus more on comprehension. However, it is important to remember that fluency does not mean students need to read as fast as they can. They need to focus on reading with speed, accuracy and prosody, reading with expression and phrasing.
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Depending on the age of your child you can help them become a more fluent reader by reading to them and modelling fluent reading (remember to use expression when reading), reading with them, and encouraging them to spend time reading independently. In the early years, help them with their reading homework set by the teacher. Reading is a complex task, one which the human brain was not really designed to do, and parents can significantly impact the development of their child’s reading by engaging in reading with them at home. This will help to create readers who are fluent, and have a lifelong love of reading. Your support is invaluable in helping ensure all our young people achieve their potential.
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Remember coming up we have a couple of colourful events. Tomorrow is Pink Shirt Day and then next week we have our Food Fairy Fun Run.
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Thank you everyone for your continued support, and have a wonderful couple of weeks.
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Pioke's Pick a Path Books
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At the end of last term we made our very own Pick-a-Path books. A Pick-a-Path book is a story where the reader gets to choose what happens next. At the end of each page, there are choices like “If you go into the cave, turn to page 5” or “If you run away, turn to page 7.” It’s like writing a story and a game all in one!
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The best part was sharing them with each other. We swapped around the class and it was so exciting to see what paths our friends had come up with.
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I liked that we could be really creative and that everyone’s story was different.
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Here is some examples of the different stories and choices you could make.
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Arthurs Pick a Path Story
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A Page from Lewis's Story
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A Page from Bobby's Story
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Pātiki's Solar System Measurements
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Pātiki were looking at the distance between the planets. They learnt that 1 au (astronomical unit) is 149,597871 km. This is quite hard to actually fully realise as we said 1km is approx the distance between school and the 4 Square.
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However, to see the solar system in proportion we scaled the astronomical units back to cm x all the au by 10.
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World Vision
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On the 8th of May Jessie, Ruby, Beatrix, Kate-lily, Inca and I went into town in the minivan with Lina. When we got there we walked into a room full of kids. It was really crowded until they opened the doors to a massive room full of chairs facing a big stage that said world vision. We found seats that had little booklets on them. Inside of the booklets it said if you want to go fast go alone if you want to go far go together which was the theme of the day. After a few minutes two people walked on stage the girl's name was Jade. She was really cool and ran a game to start the day off. The man's name was Matt. They told us all about what world vision to help the world. Then they introduced a guy from the Solomon islands. He made the coolest entrance. He had a flag around his shoulders and ran around the crowd as music played. He had a question about the Solomon islands and the winner got a necklace. He told us all about his islands and showed pictures. When it was time for morning tea we went upstairs to eat. You got given a human bingo sheet and went around asking questions that are on the sheet. We learnt about lots of different people’s stories and why they need World Vision’s help. Then we had to think about teachers who can help us help World Vision. Then we had to make a pitch to convince them why to help. I found it really interesting!
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Te Kohanga 2-3's Week of Kindness
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Pink Shirt Day - Our Week of Kindness
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In Te Kohanga we have been learning about kindness. We took a paper heart and took turns saying mean things to it while folding or scrunching it. We then tried to say sorry and unscrunch it. The heart was still ripped, needing Sellotape, and had lots of creases. We learnt that while we can say sorry, we can't take the heartache back and the hearts stay a bit crinkled.
We learnt that our words can come out like toothpaste from a tube very fast indeed. When we tried to put our words (toothpaste) back it wasn't as easy. We got left with some toothpaste on our fingers. So we learned it was easier to blurt words out than to take them back.
We have a tree in our class and when we see someone else in the class being kind they can put a leaf on the tree.
We listened to a story called Alice and Max. From the story we discussed: kindness, how to be a good friend, being a good friend takes practice, and that it is okay to be friends with people who are different to us.
We have made bookmarks, designed pink shirt day t-shirts , completed kindness word searches and written about how we show kindness.
Please feel free to come and see some of our work.
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Remember pink shirt day is this Friday so come to school in your pinkest pink outfit, and a bring plate of kai to share at the diversi-tea party
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Garden to Table news
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This term has had an exciting start, after months of patient care and effort we celebrated harvesting our very first lot of kūmara. From tiny sprouts to hearty roots, the kūmara have grown beautifully, thanks to the dedication of Patiki, Ursi and Helen
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The harvest day was full of muddy hands, and proud smiles as we unearthed the rewards of our mahi.
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But that’s not all, We were also fortunate to receive a generous donation of blueberry bushes, which we’ve now planted with great care in the Te Kohanga garden. We hope to see them flourish and produce delicious berries in seasons to come.
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Library News
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Term 2 brings some new arrivals to our pet fish tank. Sadly Dr Bubbles and Mermaid Bean passed away at the end of last term. We now have two new guppies to add to our library family and after many creative name suggestions our fish assistants chose a name for each guppy. Welcome to the library, Poseidon and Kracken!
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We have been very lucky to be given a second-hand outdoor table and 2 chair set which we put outside the library under the verandah each day. This is a wonderful extension to our library space because it provides another wonderful place for students to read books, play board games or just take some time for themselves. It is lovely and sheltered and catches the warmth of the sun. If anyone has another set of outdoor table and chairs similar to this that can be folded up and would like to donate them we would love to hear from you.
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Each week on a Tuesday, we look forward to some of our older kindy friends from Kidsfirst visit the library. Whenever possible a few of our school students from Patiki (Years 4 - 6) come and read to them in small groups. The session is enjoyed by all and the caring voices of our students reading to our very attentive kindy friends is very special. This weekly session offers so much to both parties. Our students develop their confidence in reading to others and our kindy friends start to have more awareness of a school environment and have familiar faces for when they start school.
Happy reading.
Lorna
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Wednesday 21st May, is the Food Fairy Fun Run. Students will each run laps of a track and will be asking for donations of non-perishable groceries to be donated per lap that they run or walk within an hour. This unique event allows our students to demonstrate their school values of Manaakitanga, Whanaungatanga and Hauora to our wider community and can be added to their “Giving to Others” Diamond Challenge.
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Your Child has brought home a sponsorship form for them to ask friends, family and their wider community for donations.
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We are still looking for parent help for the senior run, if you are available and would be happy to marshal please email Phillipa on phillipa.fenemor@diamondharbour.school.nz
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Reminder - if you are taking photos of your child competing on the day could you please blur out other children's faces in the background if sharing on social media.
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If you have any questions, please don’t hesitate to email Phillipa or to talk to your child’s class teacher.
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Position Available
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We currently have some hours available for a learning support worker. No experience needed as training will be provided.
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Please contact office@diamondharbour.school.nz for more details or to register interest in the position.
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What's Coming Up at Diamond Harbour School
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- Monday, 12th - 16th May Road Safety Week
- Friday, 16th May Pink Shirt Day - Diversi-tea Party
- Monday, 19th May Board Meeting
- Wednesday, 21st May Food Fairy Fun Run
- Friday, 23rd May Patiki Assembly
- Wednesday, 28th May Food Fairy Fun Run Postponement Day
- Friday, 30th May Staff Only Day - School closed for instruction
- Monday, 2nd June King's Birthday - Public Holiday
- Wednesday, 4th June Zones Cross Country
- Friday, 6th June Te Kohanga 2-3 Assembly
- Monday, 16th June Board Meeting
- Tuesday, 17th June Enviro Afternoon
- Friday, 20th June Matariki Public Holiday
- Thursday 26th June Matariki Night Makete
- Friday 27th June Last Day of Term Two
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Lunch programme $3:50 per week (a slight increase from the last few years) - Thursdays
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After School Care: Contact Ursi - ursina.riederer@diamondharbour.school.nz
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What's Up In The Local Community
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What's Up Outside Diamond Harbour
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Kia ora,
To celebrate the release of our new book The Wonderful Stranges we are delighted to announce an Invention Challenge and Colouring Competition for students 5-13 years of age.
There's the chance to win one of four $20 book vouchers (courtesy of University Bookshop Canterbury) and some great book prize packs!
Invention Challenge:
In The Wonderful Stranges, Grandpa Strange built a bicycle-powered sewing machine. Design your own wacky, whimsical invention and draw it. You might like to add labels, give it a name, and tell us what it does and who it’s for.Enter here: Invention Challenge - enter here
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Entries must be in by 27 June 2025. Send to: Melanie Koster c/o Bateman Books, PO Box 100-242, North Shore, Auckland 0745 or melaniekosterwriter@gmail.com or upload your entry at the above links. If you are in Christchurch, you can also drop your entries into the University Bookshop Canterbury.
We look forward to seeing your wonderful creativity!
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