Earthquake

Dunsandel School is open today. 

Well I hope everyone has settled after the earthquake last night. Talking to some parents and children this morning – some felt it, some were woken by it and some slept through it. Like the previous earthquakes everyone has a different story to tell. Nigel Latta has tweeted the following “Important messages for kids are that it's ok, business as usual, & isn't it cool how people help each other when stuff like this happens”. It is a good message to talk to your children about if they feel uneasy.

End of the School Year is approaching fast….

We are on the final stretch of the school year. There are a number of events in the last month of school that will come around very quickly.

Year 6 Camp to Aoraki Mount Cook – Our Year 6 children are away to Aoraki Mount Cook for their camp on Tuesday 29 November and are back on Friday 2 December. The children will be working on camp books before they go and are looking forward to their camp.

Christmas Cracker Tuesday 6 December – This is for the children of our school only. Staff will organise an evening of games, a water hour and tea for our children. Children need to
be dropped off at school at 5:30pm. Bring a plate of party food, togs and change of warm
clothes to this event. They can wear mufti clothes. We will provide sausages and bread as part of tea.

End of Year Assembly-Tuesday 13 December Our end of year assembly at Ellesmere College will start at 7:00pm. Children need to be at the hall by 6:45pm in correct clean uniform including white or navy socks. At this assembly all children will perform on stage, there will be a variety of presentations made including 5 awards that only Year 6 children can be presented with.
These awards are:-
Barron Family Trophy for Excellence in the Arts
This trophy is awarded to the Year 6 pupil who has shown excellence in the Arts. The Arts comprises of 4 areas - Art, Dance, Drama and Music.
John Griffith’s Shield for the Highest Achieving Sports Person in Year 6
This Shield is awarded to the pupil who achieves the highest placing in any sport while in Year 6 – either individually or as part of the team.
Mervyn Barnett Trophy for All Round Achievement in Year 6
This trophy is awarded to the pupil who demonstrates all round achievement at school while in Year 6
AJ Sheat Memorial Prize for Academic Excellence in Year 6
This Prize is awarded to the pupil who has demonstrated Academic Excellence across all curriculum areas in Year 6
Pride Cup
These Cups are awarded by the Principal to the Year 6 pupil who has consistently shown the PRIDE values during their whole time at our School. This Cup was been introduced in 2015.

Written Reports – Monday 12 December. Written reports will be sent home with your eldest child on this day. Sometimes we have families who are away in the last week – if this is the case for you this year we will email your child’s report on the Monday and post a copy to your home address.

Thursday 15 December – Our last day for 2016 is Thursday 15 December. School will close at 12:00pm and buses will run at this time.

Further details of these events will be in our school newsletter closer to the time.

Choir, ICAS, 2017, Athletics and Disco

School Choir – Congratulations to our senior choir who performed at the Canterbury School’s Music Festival last Thursday night. I enjoyed seeing our choir sing with PRIDE – they represented our school admirably. Our choir was captained by Lucy Paterson who will report back to us at next weeks’ assembly. Thank you to parents and caregivers who supported their children and to Mrs Barns for her organisation of our choir in 2016. We also appreciate having the piano skills of Mavis Barnett helping with our choir. It was also great to see ex-pupil Jessica Dalton play a prominent role in introducing an item and being recognized as a 4-year member of the Special Choir.

ICAS Assessments – Congratulations to the following children who were presented with the following certificates in assembly last Friday

• Mathematics Alex (Credit), Stalena (Credit), Livvie (Credit), McKenzie (Credit) Bella (Merit), Lucy (Merit)
• English - Bella (Credit), Lucy (Credit), McKenzie (Distinction)

School Term Dates for 2017 - Our term dates for 2017 have been confirmed as:- Term One – Tuesday 31 January to Thursday 13 April Term Two – Monday 1 May to Friday 7 July Term Three – Monday 24 July to Friday 29 September Term Four – Monday 16 October to Friday 15 December

School Athletics Thank-you to everyone who came along and supported our children and helped out at our athletics yesterday. It was great to finally get some fine weather for this school event. Congratulations to all children who gave their events everything…I suspect there were some tired children last night. Special Congratulations to Kelsey who was named as our Dunsandel School Athletics captain for the Ellesmere Zone Athletics on Thursday. I know she will lead our team with PRIDE. Well done to Selwyn who were the winners of the PRIDE Shield for our Athletics 2016.

Ellesmere Zone Athletics – This Thursday we will be sending a team to the Ellesmere Zone Athletics at Southbridge School. Due to the postponements of our own school athletics the turnaround for permission forms and information will be short – if your child qualifies for this event we ask that you return the form promptly. I know our team will represent our school and themselves with PRIDE and they will give their events their very best.

School Disco Thanks to our PTA and my staff for the disco on Friday night. I’m sure the children enjoyed dancing the night away! Enjoy the rest of the week.

ERO and Country Kids Competition

Education Review Office – Reviewers from the Education Review Office spent four days here last week and reported back to the Board of Trustees on Thursday afternoon. This meeting is an emerging findings meeting (initial feedback). As with all reviews ERO highlight the positive aspects of our school and provide recommendations for making improvements to our school. The School will receive a draft report towards the end of this term and once this is confirmed will be made public via the Education Review office website. I would like to thank and acknowledge my staff, the Board of Trustees and all our children who spoke to and met with the reviewers.

Ellesmere A and P Country Kids Competition - Well done to our two teams who competed at the Country Kids competition at the Ellesmere A and P Show on Saturday. I thought you played by the rules and showed Dunsandel PRIDE when competing. Thanks to Mrs Barns for organising these teams. I thought our art looked great at the show and showcased what our children can do in this field. Thanks to my staff who put up the art work on Friday and who stayed to collect it after the Show on Saturday afternoon.

 

Term 4 has started

Term three update

• Chocolate - Thank you all for your support with our chocolate fundraiser – at our assembly on the last Friday of term three, we had the draw for the bike. The lucky recipient of this bike was Lucy P. Also Jaden and Alex had their names drawn and received rugby balls.
• Mufti Day – Our mufti day held in the last week of term 3 raised $268.50 that will be given to the fundraising effort for the Dunsandel Community Centre.
• Tree - On behalf of Anna, Charlie and Katie, I would like to thank the school community for the tree that was presented to Anna and I at our assembly on the last day of term three to commemorate the 1-year anniversary of the fire at our place. We appreciate the gesture – the tree has been planted.

A reminder it is the Ellesmere A and P Show on Saturday at the Leeston Showgrounds.  We have two teams competing in the Agri kids competition – starting at 100pm. All the best to JC, Cruz, Rosa, Emily, Emma and Hamish. The children would love your support if you are there as they compete against teams from Leeston, Southbridge and Springston.

Finally, the thoughts of my staff and I are with the family of Margie Lucre, one of our Granny Readers and Mum of Ali Calder who was a teacher here, who passed away in the holidays.

Term 4 – Key dates to mark in your calendars

• Friday 14 October – School Photos
• Friday 21 October – School Athletics
• Thursday 27 October – Choir performance at Horncastle Arena.
• Thursday 3 November – Ellesmere Zone Athletics at Southbridge.
• Tuesday 28 November to Friday 1 December – Year 6 camp to Aoraki Mt Cook.
• Monday 12 December - School Reports home to Parents.
• Tuesday 13 December - Final School Assembly at Ellesmere College 700pm.
• Thursday 15 December - School closes at 12:00pm – Final Day. Buses will run at this time.

Country Day 2016

What a great day our Country Day was on Friday!

Thank you to all parents, caregivers, grandparents and friends of our school who came along and shared the day with our children. Thank-you for transporting pets to and from school. We appreciate the support of our judges – who come along and judge and talk to our children about their pets.

Thank-you to all those who entered the PTA Bake a Cake competition. Congratulations to April Barnett who had her cake judged in first place. Thank-you to all those who bid and ultimately bought cakes – the final figure from the auction being around the $3000 mark. This is an awesome effort. Also thanks to the PTA for organising the morning tea for our judges and for the bbq lunch.

Congratulations to the following children who received a Principals Award for their outstanding Pet projects Room 1 – Archer; Room 2 Emma B; Room 3 Emma H; Room 4 Sam ; Room 5 Ryan; Room 6 Macrae; Room 7 Angus.

Thank-you to Deane Matthews, Justin Wolff, Frank Botherway, Phil Wolff and Mr Happer for setting up the field for the pets. Thank-you to my staff for their organisation of this day.

I hope you got to have a look at the fruit/vege creations and Pet Projects in the classrooms. The handwriting and art was displayed in the Hall – if you didn’t get to see the art work it will be on display at the Ellesmere A&P Show on 15 October. I congratulate and commend all children for sharing their pets, for completing Pet Projects and for some awesome art work and handwriting.

Speech Finals, Fire Brigade and Lions

Speech Finals - The children from Year 4/5/6 had their speech finals last Wednesday. There was a variety of topics spoken about by the finalists – being the boss of the house, pets, being an author, horses, meerkats and time management. Heather Birnie and Leo Donkers were our judges. Year 4 – 1st Elizabeth, 2nd Jaye, 3rd Patrick Year 5 – 1st McKenzie, 2nd Stella, 3rd Olivia Year 6 – 1st Lucy, 2nd, Ocean 3rd George Phipps Congratulations to all our finalists and Special Congratulations to our winners. 

Dunsandel Fire Brigade – We will have members of our local fire brigade at school on Wednesday to talk to classes about fire safety. This has become an annual event and we appreciate the fire brigade coming in and sharing this important message.

Dunsandel Lions Basketball – Our Year 5/6 Lions Basketball teams have their last game for the season today playing one another for 5th and 6th place. A huge thank you to Liz Righton for organising and coaching these teams and to the parents and caregivers who have supported them. It has been great to see the skill level of the players improve as the season has progressed.

Choir and Magic

Choir – At our assembly on Friday our Year 5/6 choir were presented with their choir badges. The children have been busy learning their songs, practicing with Mrs Barns and Mrs Barnett and hopefully singing loudly at home. The choir has their performance night at the Canterbury Primary Schools Music Festival on Thursday 27^th October at Horncastle Arena. It was also a pleasure to announce Lucy P as our 2016 Choir captain. I know Lucy will lead the choir by example and with PRIDE!

On Wednesday we have performers from Rollicking Entertainment at school to present a magic show to our children. This has been made possible by Synlait nominating our school to receive a free show after they had a corporate gig from Rollicking Entertainment. On behalf of the children I thank Synlait for nominating our school.