Our update contains a number of important notices for the remainder of the year.

General

Welcome back for Term 4. The final term at primary school for our Year 6s! It is a busy term as we plan a number of events to farewell our Year 6s and Carolyn.

• On Monday all Year 6s will have brought home a notice that outlines our End of Year events. You will also find a copy of this attached below. Please have a read of this notice and if you have any questions, please see your child's home group teacher. The permission slip is due back at school by Friday 17th November.
  
• A reminder that it is essential your child has a bucket hat at school during Term 4. Can we please ask that caps are left at home. Children who do not have a bucket hat at school are unable to participate in Physical Education programmes or play in the playground during morning tea and lunch. Children also must have a bucket hat to attend Athletics Day on Monday.
  
• Good luck to our EPro8 Science and Technology team who are competing in the semi-final at Epsom Normal School during Week 5.
  

Conceptual Curriculum | Making Connections

This term our school theme is Making Connections. We are exploring this through a Health lens, focusing on the physiological changes that occur during adolescence. This unit includes our Positive Puberty lessons which we have begun teaching in our studios. We hope your child is sharing their new learning and wonderings with you at home!

Thank you to the parents who attended the puberty consultation evening during the first week of term. If you were unable to make it, a PDF of the presentation is attached to this update. 

PE & Sport

Well, we seem to say this every time...but it is yet another busy sport term! Congratulations to everyone who ran in the Kids Marathon on Sunday. A pleasant day and another good turnout for Team Westmere. 

Touch is in full swing at Cox’s Bay each week and it’s great to see so many of our teams having such an awesome time. Thanks so much to all our parent coaches and managers. 

Another round of boxing sessions is happening in the hall. Thanks to Marcela for co-ordinating this. 

There is also coaching for girls cricket by Grafton Cricket Club.  

Last week we were fortunate to have a team from Black Sands Tri Club run a fun triathlon 'Have-A-Go' day. The focus of the session was to teach the children the skills associated with transitioning between the three disciplines. Children then had the chance to put this into practice during a mini-race. 

The Interschool Triathlon event is fast approaching, and we will also have a team competing at the Interschool Athletics Championships later in the month.

Athletics Day | Monday 6th November

A final reminder that we have our Senior Athletics Day at Walker Park on Monday. The rain day is Thursday 9th. Please ensure you child has the correct gear at school:

• Sun block
  
• Bucket hat
  
• Drink and lots of food to keep them going
  
• Sensible clothing to compete in-shorts & t-shirt
  
• Sport shoes
• Warm clothing too - sweat shirt, rain jacket. Walker Park can be miserable if the weather is cool or windy.
  

We still need parent helpers, so if you are able to assist please return the notice to your child’s home group teacher or email Terry directly trobinson@westmere.school.nz. Thanks for your support.

Comedy Crack Up

We would love to see you at the Comedy Crack Up fundraising evening being held in our school hall on Friday November 10 at 7.30pm. We are making a Studio Table so just pop your Studio/s name on your ticket (pop into the yellow box in the office) and you will be with us! You can also pay via internet banking to the Westmere school and email Anita with your details, studio and number of tickets bought. The more the merrier so feel free to invite a friend or 2. This event is to raise some money which will go towards the shade cover around our school.

Tickets are $40 each - this includes pizza for the table, cheese and crackers and a few other light snacks. There will be 3 well-known kiwi comedians performing (Pax Assadi, Justine Smith and Rhys Mathewson), and the night will be MC'ed by another hilarious chap, Jamie Bowen. Beer, wine and non-alcoholic drinks are available to buy on the night - please note this is not a BYO event. We really hope to see you there - it will be a total crack up!

Student Leadership

A big thanks to our Health and Safety team who have shown the rest of the school how to safely complete our new confidence course. Over the past week these leaders have taught a number of studios on how to be safe on and around the confidence course. Through this activity they have all shown amazing leadership and should be proud of their efforts. Well done!

Te Reo

Te Reo lessons with Whaea Jane are progressing and this week we have been focusing on how to buy and sell. Students have been practising through practical experiences, such as running a shop. Children have been thoroughly enjoying themselves, and we encourage you to test your child's knowledge when out shopping next!

More and more writing success!

The challenge last term was for the students to really use their imaginations. Congratulations to Alexander, Sophie and Mia from LS7, Taylor and Genevieve, Neve and Charli (who did a poem all together) from LS6. You can check out their fantastic poetry here.

Paula loved the 'Found' poems from LS6 and LS7. The challenge was to 'find' poems made out of the signs around the library, or from inside a library book.  From the many many poems Paula received, she chose to post poems from Hannah, Henri, Lola, Brooke and Izzy (a joint poem) and both the poems Neve and Petra sent in from LS6. From LS7 she posted the poems written by Willa, Ruby, Olive, Amelia, Sarah, Pippi and Honor. You can read their poetry for this challenge here. Huge congratulations to all those fabulous poets! It was a tricky challenge and they did so well.

This term children can submit writing or art for Toitoi - A journal for young writers and authors. The deadline for submissions in December 1st. If you would like any more information, please see Jo in the library.

We would like to thank Jo for supporting groups of our learners this year,  helping them to find success as writers and inspiring their love for writing.

Design the Future Competition

Do you want to win the chance to light up Auckland's Harbour Bridge with solar energy and start off a spectacular light show? This is a fantastic opportunity to build on our concept learning from last term.

Enter the competition by designing the future. For more information, visit this site.

As always, if you have questions or concerns, please don't hesitate to contact us.

Ngā mihi,
Jason, Marcela, Mike, Sarah, Sophie and Terry