St John’s Girls’ School

Newsletter

16 June 2017

Principal’s Comments

Tena koutou katoa – Greetings to you all.

Production

Thank you to everyone who helped make the production the huge success it was. It was definitely a community effort!

The staff and girls put in a huge amount of work, especially Mr Hughes and Mrs Taylor. We also had lots of parents and

staff make costumes or parts of, do hair, face paint and source props. Thank you to everyone! We need to say a big thank

you to Verdon College too. The PE department gave up their hall for three days and several other Verdon staff, including

my wonderful husband went above and beyond to help us deliver a great production.

In 2015 the tickets for our production at Centre Stage were $20 for an adult and $12 for a child. I estimated this year’s

tickets at Centre Stage to be around $23 and $15 respectively, which would have made it very expensive for families so

we were incredibly fortunate to have the use of Verdon College. It was an excellent venue. We did have some technical

problems on Wednesday night. We apologise for these. Thursday night went without a hitch.

We always say we are never going to do another production but we always change our minds when we see the incredible

performances and growth in confidence in many girls. It’s exciting!

Interviews

Reports go out on the 23rd June with 15 minute interviews to discuss your daughter’s achievement and progress the

following week. If you haven’t made a time for an interview, please contact your daughter’s teacher.

Coaches

We have many fantastic parents who are willing to coach sport teams. These people need to be looked after and treated

with respect. They are volunteers, giving up their time and doing the best they can for the girls. I know you will support

them and the decisions they make. Thank you coaches. Without you, we would not have sports teams.

Speech Exams

Years 6, 7 and 8 have had their annual speech exam. Of the 47 girls, 12 girls achieved highly commended and 45

received distinction. These are very pleasing results. Commended is a good score but all of our girls achieved higher

than this. Six girls sat an exam a year ahead of their peers and two girls sat an exam, two years ahead of their peers.

Well done girls.

Have a lovely weekend

Nga mihi nui (Kind regards)

Brenda Mackay

SKI DAY—Friday 18th August The Year 5—8 girls go to the Remarkables for a much anticipated skiing experience.

If you wish to accompany the girls you are most welcome. Further information will

go out closer to the time. If a parent is attending, siblings are welcome too.

TERM DATES:

Term 2

June

19th BOT meeting 5.30pm

20th Mufti Day—Ronald McDonald House

21st Life Education

SouthSpell

22nd Life Education

23rd Life Education

Southland Cross Country

Reports out

27th Interviews SCHOOL CLOSES 2pm

28th Interviews SCHOOL CLOSES 2pm

July

7th Last day Term 2

24th First Day Term 3

Congratulations to the following girls who received awards

recently—

Room 1 Ingrid Fleming, Sophie Purdon

Room 2 Amelia Frew, Zoe Laughton, Morgan Lau,

Shanna-Beth Smith, Olivia Gibson,

Amaya Swale-Jones

Room 3 Lucy Watt, Nicola Schol, Alicia Purdon,

Sienna Macpherson

Room 4 Laura McDowall, Sienna Hunter,

Ella Agnew, Isabella Rhind

Room 5 Anna Coveney, Kate Goodeve,

Alex Hopcroft

Phoebe Barlow

Room 6 Katie Unahi, Angeline Crowe,

Rebecca Laverock, Taleeha Stewart

Room 7 Jordan King, Natalia Longman,

Lindsay Black, Mackenzie Aitken

Values Cup:

2nd June Grace Watson Rm 6

9th June Cate Reynolds Rm 6

16th June Angeline Crowe Rm 6

INTERVIEWS—Tuesday 27th and Wednesday 28th June

On both interview days the school is closing at 2pm. The afterschool care programme will begin

at 2.15pm on these days. You don’t have to book and the girls can stay until 5.15pm for a

minimal cost.

BASIC FACTS-A-THON

Thanks to everyone who has returned their cards and money. If you haven’t would you please

do so as soon as possible.

PICKING UP AND DROPPING OFF GIRLS

Please consider residents in the area and do not park over their driveways at any time and

never double park to drop off or pick up your daughter. Your daughter’s safety is

paramount so please be vigilant.

YEAR 7 VISION TESTING

The vision and hearing technicians

will continue to conduct the routine

Year 7 distance vision screen as per

the Ministry of Health guidelines but

will no longer be performing a

colour vision screen test. If you have

any concerns regarding your

daughter’s colour vision you can still request a Vision

and Hearing Technician to perform a screen while they

are at the school conducting the standard vision

screening.

ROOM 2—Years 1 & 2 —Mrs Kelly & Mrs Packham

Well done Room 2! You worked so hard to practise your rat parts and get it just right on the night! We could see you

had fun performing Nagawja for your families and all the hard work was worth it. You looked amazing thanks to the

hard work of Maria Bedggood and also Tollee Elliott who helped her make the costumes. A big thank you to

Kerry Penisula-Spain, Jody Spain, son Caleb and Sue Smith, who did a fabulous job of the face painting on both

nights. Thanks for supplying such high quality face paint Kerry. It was very generous and made such a difference to

the girls’ skin.

We still have a lot to look forward to this term with Life Education next week and finishing our heath unit on

personal hygiene. We have learnt a lot about the Autumn season this term and how this affects plants and animals.

We will finish this unit in the next couple of weeks with some great writing.

In maths we have been exploring ways to divide sets equally and to work out the amount in sets by skip counting in

2’s, 5’s and 10’s. Skip counting is a vital skill at this stage and we need lots of practice particularly with skip counting

forwards and backwards in 2’s

Enjoy the rest of the term!

Wow, weren’t the Room 1

hippopotamuses gorgeous? They might

have been feeling blue, but they lit up

that stage and were absolutely

delightful. Total cuteness overload!

I am so very proud of all the girls in Room 1 for par-

ticipating in Nagwaja and with great

enthusiasm. They showed fantastic characterisation on

stage and they did a lovely job of portraying sleepy

and sad hippopotamuses. Each night they also sat and

sang beautifully as part of the chorus for the entire one

hour performance. The girls all enjoyed their first

school production experience and for some it was also

their first time on stage.

The production has taken priority these past few

weeks. The girls dealt with the changes to the

classroom routines really well and showed a great deal

of patience when we were at Verdon College this

week. The excitement towards the production had

been slowly building, but it definitely heightened once we tried on our costumes for the first time.

We would like to thank Mrs Purdon for organising and designing our hippopotamus costumes. Mrs Purdon along with

Mrs McEntyre, kindly created all 13 of our hippopotamus outfits. They did an amazing job and put a lot of time into

making them for us. Your help has been much appreciated ladies, thank you very much.

I’m sure there will be some very tired girls at the end of this week. Make sure you rest up this weekend and recharge

your batteries as we still have three busy weeks ahead till the end of the term.

ROOM 1—Year 1—Miss Bradley

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

A production thank you to all Room 3 girls and their families. A huge thank you to Alicia, Sophie and Niamh’s

mums for creating the most beautiful tails and the glittery bow ties. We truly felt like little monkeys with these

velvety extensions and wow, didn’t we sparkle?

Ms Wilcox-Clarke and Mrs Dawkins feel very lucky to have such supportive and talented parents in our room. Also

a special thank you to Miss Gina for helping to choreograph our dance sequence.

Parents Interviews: We are looking forward to sharing in your daughters successes at Parent Interviews. As the

school closes on Tuesday and Wednesday at 2pm we now have gaps on the 28th at 2.30pm and 2.45pm if anyone

would like these slots. Girls will be sent to afterschool care if you are not free to collect them at 2pm.

A number of assessments have been completed to help us pinpoint the areas we need to work on. In maths we have

almost completed our multiplication/division unit. Many girls have made real gains in their basic facts. Well done!

Keep working hard on your weekly cards.

In art we are proud of our Autumn trees and the shadows they create.

Very exciting results.!!!

We are currently working on a geometric star with a story! Watch this space.

Nagwaja

SPORTS NEWS

INDOOR BOWLS

ALL SAINTS ZONE CROSS COUNTRY

TABLE TENNIS

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.

Thanks, fsmith@stjohnsgirls.school.nz

Lucy Bird and Grace Watson have entered the Y7 – 13 school competition. Good luck girls!

WESTPAC SOUTHLAND PRIMARY SCHOOLS’ CROSS COUNTRY

Our top three 10-year-old girls and our top three 11-year-old girls competed on Tuesday 6th June at Elizabeth Park

against seven other schools within our zone. It was a cool sunny afternoon for the competitors. Thank you to

Suz Middlemass and Sue White who transported the girls to the event. Thank you to the parents, grandparents and

caregivers who supported the girls on the day. They really appreciated it.

Congratulations to the following girls:

10 Year Olds: Anita White 1st Greer Dawson 2nd Madeleine Lawlor 4th

11 Year Olds: Sarah Hay 1st Abbie Middlemass 3rd Lily Moreton 6th

A notice was sent home this week regarding the Term 3 table tennis competition. Please have permission

slips back to the school office by Wednesday 22nd June.

All the very best to Alex Hopcroft, Kate Burr, Tess Bryan, Sarah Slee, Grace Watson,

Giovanna O’Donnell, Abbie Middlemass, Lily Moreton, Sarah Hay, Anita White, Madeleine Lawlor and

Greer Dawson who have qualified to compete on Friday 23rd June at the Southern Field Days Site,

Waimumu. Thank you to Sue White and Jennifer Hay for offering to supervise the girls on the day.

A notice went home today with travel arrangements, maps and the timetable for the day.

PHOTOS

COMMUNITY SPORTS NOTICE

REPRESENTATIVE NEWS

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 fsmith@stjohnsgirls.school.nz

Rugby Southland’s Girls’ Have-A-Go day is to be held during the Term 2 school holidays from

10.00am – 12.30pm at Rugby Park Stadium, Invercargill. It is on Thursday 13th July and is for

girls from Under-8 to Under-13.

Rugby Southland want to encourage all existing female rugby players as well as any girls who have

never played rugby but are wanting to give it a try for the first time the chance to attend.

The morning will be run by Scott Eade along with Rugby Southland Female Academy members,

including NZ Women’s 7s star, Alena Saili.

Registrations will be taken on the day between 9.30am & 10.00am.

On Tuesday the 20th June, Tessa Nicol (Football South New Women’s Development Officer) along with

Southland’s Sammy Murrell will be in Invercargill and will be running a training session for female players.

This will be open and free to all female footballers aged between 7 and 16 years of age. This is a great oppor-

tunity for Southland’s up and coming females to get up close with two of the federations football ferns to help

promote the game to more females.

Day: Tuesday 20th June

Venue: ILT Football Centre (199 Islington St.)

Cost: Free

Time: 5pm to 6pm – Girls’ training Session

Register at www.southlandfootball.org.nz click on: Girls only training day