Newsletter Term 1 No 6 - 10 March 2011

Term 1 No 6 - 10 March 2011
Dear Parents What a wonderful week we are having at school, beautiful weather, superb activities and lots of fun. Our Healthy Lifestyle activities have given our children many fantastic experiences. Each day has started with music, and blood, pumping hard as Mr Eeles and his Year 6 team have lead a jump jam session. On Monday we had the whole school involved and on subsequent days the session has started at 8.30am and students have just joined in on their arrival to school. There have been a host of sports coaches, from our local community and some national stars, who have turned up to work with our children. I am extremely grateful to everyone who has contributed to the events of this week. It really has been a great community celebration and the positive messages given to our children around healthy lifestyles have been well received. It has been informative, engaging and most of all great fun! The staff have all played their part too, including arriving at school at 7.00am Wednesday morning for a staff Boot Camp run by Coach Nick! He put the staff, who to be frank are in varying states of healthy disrepair, through their paces. When the final whistle blew the creaking limbs and aching muscles were rewarded by a sumptuous but healthy breakfast, including the Chef Lazarus special spinach and feta omelette…YUM! It would be remiss not to thank one person in particular, Clare Whittington. The organisation required to pull this together is huge and the success of the week is testament not only to her commitment to the students but to her powers of persuasion. As more than one person has said to me, “I don’t quite know how I ended up here today but it’s just so hard to say no to Clare!” I am sure that we will have a report and photographs next week but right now there is just too much going on to take time out to write more about it! Earthquake Appeal Today we have sent off a cheque to the APPA for $1471.50, this is our contribution from last week’s collection. Last September we participated alongside 79 other schools to APPA raising over $41000 for the Canterbury Appeal. As of today, APPA have already have $42,060 from only 31 schools towards this latest appeal. As approximately 125 schools have indicated they will be sending their fundraising to Christchurch via the APPA, I am sure we will be celebrating a huge total in the near future. Thank you to everyone who contributed. As an aside I had contact with two parents this week regarding a lovely initiative, which three Year 5 boys from Room 2 put together last weekend. William Armer, Ted Jung and Toby Weston decided that they were going to raise some additional funds themselves by home baking and selling the fruits of their labours! They then took themselves down, with some parental support, to set up a stall on Shore Rd on Sunday morning. As one of the parents remarked; “To my amazement there was a frenzy of activity, $230 collected in the space of less than 2 hrs…helped by some vigorous placard waving on the part of the boys. It was heart-warming to see such a great response”. Well done boys that is a fantastic effort! Research Project We have been contacted by a researcher working at the Clinical Trials Research Unit, University of Auckland with an invitation for families to take part in a project. They state that; “Our mission is to improve health with innovative research. Poor diet, physical inactivity and obesity are leading causes of mortality and morbidity worldwide. As part of the Physical Activity team, our primary goal is to find practical ways to increase physical activity within our community. In March 2011, we started a study called the SWITCH trial. The aim of this study is to see whether a family-centred intervention to decrease leisure screen-time (TV, video games, computer) has an effect on body size, physical activity, sedentary time or nutrition in New Zealand children aged 9-12 years.“ If you are interested in finding out more about the project click here. Food Intolerances With the school all sitting down together tomorrow for a picnic to celebrate the end of Healthy Lifestyles week it is perhaps an appropriate time to once again discuss an important health and safety issue with you all. Most of us will be aware of at least one child who suffers from food intolerances and allergies. For these children the consequences of contact with the wrong food item can be, in the worst case, life-threatening. Each of us has a responsibility to help ensure the safety of all such children. We have a number of children at school who are at risk of severe allergic reactions, anaphylaxis. Each of these will have appropriate medication onsite, usually in the form of an epipen, but it is our goal to never be in a position of having to use one. All of the children know that we have a no food sharing policy at school and that the contents of one’s lunchbox are for personal consumption only. If any food is brought on to the site for sharing (i.e. a birthday cake) it must be handed to the class teacher who will distribute it at their discretion, with the knowledge they have of the children and any allergies. If they have any doubts food will not be shared. Similarly if you are the parent of a child with food allergies your child’s teacher may have encouraged you to perhaps pass on some suitable treats that your child can enjoy on such an occasion without fear of ‘missing out.’ If you are organising parties or class get-togethers please be aware of the potential dangers of food sharing in this environment and make every effort to keep those vulnerable children safe. Class parents please talk to your class teacher and ensure you are aware of any such children. Education is the key to ensuring the safety of our children. Teachers have discussed these issues with their classes and we ask that you talk about this with your child too. There are a large number of foodstuffs that individual children are allergic to including common items such as nuts, dairy products and eggs. With over 500 lunchboxes in school every day it is impossible to ensure that any such items do not find themselves into school but by ensuring the children don’t food share we can dramatically reduce any risk to individuals. Kind regards Allan Short Principal	To use the newsletters to your best advantage: * You can use the search button on the top right hand corner - this will search not only ALL our newsletters but the whole website. * If you are having trouple reading the "fine print" please use the zoom mode of your web browser. Coming Events and Term Dates Refer to the calendar on our Home Page http://victoriaave.com/school-calendar Friday 11 March MUFTI DAY TOMORROW - FRIDAY 11 March - dress in House Colours and bring along your bottle contribution for the Gala day!!! GALA VOLUNTEER ROSTER WE ARE LOOKING FOR PEOPLE TO VOLUNTEER THEIR HELP FOR THE GALA DAY: PLEASE CLICK HERE TO CHOOSE A TIME SLOT OR TWO. THANK YOU FOR YOUR SUPPORT. IMPORTANT DATES AND TIMES School Times School starts: 8.50am Interval: 10.40-11.00am Lunch: 12.30-1.30pm School finishes: 3.00pm Stationery Sales Tuesdays and Thursdays: 8.30-8.45am Uniform Shop Fridays only: 8.30-9.00am Orders and payments for uniform can be made online on our website http://victoriaave.com/school-shop Lunch Orders French Lunches: Tues only Subway: Wed and Fri Sushi: Thurs only Order forms/Instructions School Banking Wednesday before school in Room 4 http://victoriaave.com/our-school/lunch-orders Term Dates 2011 Term 1 Thurs 3rd Feb to Fri 15 Apr 2011 Term 2 Mon 2 May to Fri 15 July 2011 Term 3 Mon 1 Aug to Fri 7 Oct 2011 Term 4 Tues 25 Oct to Fri 16 Dec. UKULELE GROUP Due to popular demand the Ukulele group will be starting up again in Term 2. Click here for more information re costs and registration.
Victoria Ave School 2011 Directory has arrived! Want to contact your child’s teacher, organise a playdate after school, or even just unsure of what is happening this term – well it’s all here! The 2011 school directory is a gold mine of information. Each family was issued with a directory today, but sometimes one is just not enough! Here is your chance to order extra copies for just $10 a copy (or $15 for 2). You can have one at home, one in the car and even one at the office. Simply complete the form attached and return to the school office. Be quick there are limited extra copies available! The Dragon Drive Dragon ~ Needs our help on 20 March!!!!! The local Remuera Lions club have offered to help us breathe new life into the Dragon Drive dragon! They, along with Resene, are sponsoring the repainting of the dragon, which we hope to achieve at the school Gardening Working Bee on Sunday 20th March. CAN YOU HELP?!!! Please click here to download information sheet and offer of help form or email us directly This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it We are hoping that someone in our school community can help with answering a history question surrounding the dragon, “Who originally painted the dragon and when did this occur?” If you can help solve the mystery please let us know! We have had feedback that it was here 32 years ago - please - if anyone has more information we would love to hear.

NETBALL TRIALS Netball trials started this week with our Year 4 players. Further trial dates are as follows: Year 3 : Wednesday 16th March (during middle school sport) Year 4 : Wednesday 16th March 7:45-8:45am Year 5 : Tuesday 15th March 7:45-8:45am Tuesday 22nd March 7:45-8:45am Wednesday 23 March 12:30-2pm (half day for parent teacher interviews) Year 6 : Tuesday 15th March 1-3:30pm (note late finish) Wednesday 23rd March 7:45-8:45am Only those players registered and paid for the season can take part in trials. Players need to be ready to start at the specified time wearing PE gear, suitable shoes and with trimmed nails. A reminder that the VAS Netball Philosophy is available on the sports section of the school web site. This outlines our approach to trials and team selection. If you have any trouble with these dates, please contact Clare Whittington on This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it BASKETBALL RESULTS: This Week's Results VAS Vikings The Year 6 Vikings narrowly loss to St Mary’s this week – 11 points to 10. It was a very close game, we had no subs and were playing with 4 players for some of the game. They showed great tenacity throughout the game and played really well as a team. Luca Mercer had a fantastic game, and Maddie Devereux scored 4 points.


Community Choir opportunities for Children and Adults Please contact Kate Bell or Steven Rapana at This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it or phone 5251686 for more info. Kate Bell and Steven Rapana have started a number of new choirs this year, aimed at fostering fun singing for children and adults. Their Te Korihi choirs cater for three different age groups: Kindergarten and Year 1 (Te Korihi Kindychor) Year 2 to Year 4 (Te Korihi Tahi) Year 5 and up (Te Korihi Rua) These groups are run in association with Reb Fountain, a Kodaly-trained tutor, and are based at Michael Park School in Ellerslie. They include lots of singing games and movement, and are carefully planned to promote music learning through singing. Kate and Steven also run an adults' group on Wednesday night, in Michael Park's auditorium, which is aimed at adults who think they can't sing, or maybe could with a little help, or know they can sing but don't have time to commit to a serious group. Kate is a Suzuki Piano teacher, mother of 3 (almost grown-up) children, singing teacher, and singer. Steven is a professional singer and singing teacher at several Auckland colleges. They are both members of the University Chamber Choir, and have been running the Michael Park School choral programme for the past few years. They believe that singing is a learned skill rather than some mysterious innate gift, and that everyone can learn to sing. They also believe strongly in the enormous benefits that singing in a group and having fun together with singing can bring to children and adults. All of the above groups are casual - it's fine to attend whenever you can, rather than feel you have to turn up every week.