Week 2, Term 2- Whole School Newsletter

Newsletter Contents:

1. Message From the Principal

2. Welcome to new students

3. Link Up Committee (Fun and Fundraising group)

4. Sport at D.S.S. – updates and events

5. From the classrooms (Room 2 & Room 9)

6. Important Dates and Reminders

7. Community Notices

Kia ora e te whānau,

We have had an awesome start to Term 2 with some stunning, but cool weather, settled tamariki, and positive movement on school projects. The cricket net is now completed and ready for use. We had quite a lot of support with this project and it will be a fantastic resource for our community. Thank you to Palmer Cook, Tidy Slabs, DAB Contractors, Jonny Mapuna, Hutt Mana Charitable Trust, and the Link Up hui for their support.

The ventilation project is steaming ahead with almost half of the windows now in place along the main corridor. The new design looks sharp and I must commend the building team for their level of communication, as well as for ensuring disruption to learning times has been kept to a minimum. All windows should be in place by the end of next week and then decorative work will take place. I envisage this project will be completed by the end of this term. 

This week we held a Cross Country Trial for any Year 4-6 students who were keen to test their stamina and endurance. It was pleasing to see the resilience of our tamariki, especially when they were struggling and didn’t have much left in the tank. Congratulations to all those who will be going through to the Interschool Cross Country at TMP on Tuesday 21st May. 

You might have seen the recent announcement from the government in regards to Structured Literacy. For us at Dyer Street, we are very fortunate to have got on this waka nearly two years ago. As a result, we have all our junior teachers trained in the Better Start Literacy Approach Programme along with two teacher aides as well as our Deputy Principal and Reading Recovery Teacher. This puts our kura in a position of strength in providing highly effective literacy practice to our tamariki. We have seen some fantastic results from this approach in our junior data so far and are now looking at ways to adapt structured literacy for our Senior students going forward. 

Finally, to all the wonderful mothers out there, have a fantastic Mother’s Day this Sunday. I hope you get looked after and enjoy your special day

Ngā mihi nui ki a koutou,

Lee Ewington 

He tumuaki ki te kura o Dyer Street

This week’s Principal’s Award Winners

Room 1 – 

Jude and Billie

Room 3 – 

Elkanah

The Link Up Committee (the friendly and relaxed parent-led fun and fundraising group) is next meeting on Monday 10th June at 7:30 p.m.

All supporters of Dyer Street School are most welcome. We meet in the school library. 

To contact the committee or be added to the Facebook group please email linkupdyerstreet@gmail.com

Upcoming Fundraising Events:

Coming Up:

Cross-Country:

Zone Cross-Country is scheduled for the 21st May at Trentham Memorial park.

Interzone takes place on the 11th of June also at TMP

Tough Guy/Gal challenge: 

A group will be attending the event on the 22nd of May in Wainuiomata. School registrations are now closed, individual registrations are still available on the event website: https://2024juniortggc.events.mygameday.app/ please ensure you enter “Teacher” for bib pick-up and use the school’s full name. Please email megw@dyerstreet.school.nz to let us know that you have registered your child. 

Spare clothes

Please make sure all children year 3 and below have a spare pair of long pants and underpants in their bag every day. We do not have spares in the office for accidents or falls into muddy puddles!

Upcoming Events

10th May – Whole School Assembly

11th May – Dyer Street Brick Show 

15th May – Scholastic Book Club Orders Due

21 May – Interschool Cross-Country

22 May – Junior Tough Guy and Gal Challenge

23 May – Cross-Country postponement date

24 May – Whole School Assembly

31 May – Teacher Only Day (no school)

3rd June – King’s Birthday (no school)

10th June – Link Up Committee Meeting 7:30 p.m.

1st – 5th July – Hutt Fest (our performance dates TBC)

Room 2

Room 2 has been learning to follow the technology inquiry cycle. We have learnt to plan our designs, and build and revise them to fit a design brief. Our recent challenge was to build a bridge that could support a drink bottle. We were able to choose from different materials to build. We are very proud of our designs.

Our Week in Writing 

In Room 9 this week we have been looking at making compound sentences using linking words (coordinating conjunctions) which are: For, And, Nor, But, Or, Yet, and So. A fun way of remembering this is the acronym FANBOYS. A compound sentence is two related simple sentences that have a determiner, noun, and verb that are linked together using a word from FANBOYS here are some of the sentences the tamariki came up with this week. 

Leo: 

The meerkats were happy, but the people at the zoo were looking at them strangely.

Joshua:

The eagle was in its nest, but it saw three rats on the road and ate them.

Kaya:

The salamander was happy, for it was playing with another salamander.

Kayleigh:

The rabbit was in its home, but there was an earthquake that destroyed it.

Jedidah

I saw a Phoenix trying to fight a legendary dragon, but unfortunately, the phoenix lost.

Safety at Pedestrian Crossing on High Street (near alleyway to Dyer Street)

We know that many Dyer Street School whānau have safety concerns when crossing at the pedestrian crossing on High Street that leads into the alleyway from High Street to the Dyer Street culdesac. One of our school parents and neighbours has been in contact with local Hutt City Councillor Glenda Barratt to push for safety improvements for this crossing. If you also have safety concerns or have experienced near-misses with traffic on or around this crossing please email Glenda glenda.barratt@huttcity.govt.nz and include the school office (office@dyerstreet.school.nz) in the email so we can keep a list of concerned parents. Thank you.

Click to participate or learn more:
https://aut.au1.qualtrics.com/jfe/form/SV_1Cip0TC9wLfEIXc

Do you know someone 5-15 years old, with asthma, who may be open to participating in a world-leading study? 

The Medical Research Institute of New Zealand (MRINZ) are currently running a groundbreaking asthma trial for tamariki. The START CARE Asthma Study compares two different inhalers to find out which one is better at preventing asthma attacks in children.  This potentially world-changing research, by Aotearoa New Zealand’s leading independent medical research institute, aims to help kids everywhere, particularly tamariki here in Aotearoa, which has some of the worst asthma rates in the world.

Click here to view a short video about the study: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dbYNYUm_SSw