Week  12  -  Term  2  -  2020

 
 
 
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Kia Ora, Talofa Lava, Malo e Lelei, Bula, Namastē, Namaskar, AyubowanKia Orana, Taloha Ni, Kumusta,  Aloha Mai E, Fakaalofa Lahi Atu, ‘Alii, Malo Ni, Halo Aloketa Aloha, Nī Hāo, Sawatdeekhrap  Sabaidi, Terve, Dobradan, Bonjour, Hola, Guten Tag, Ciao, Salaam, Olā, Zdravstvuyte, Konnichiwa, Ahn Young Ha Se Yo, Hoi, Merhaba, Jambo, Yasou, Shalom, Salamat Siang, Ahoj, Xin Chāo, Sawubona, Bok, Yiassoo, Hej, Dia Dhaoibh, Cham Reap Sour, Hoi, Vanakkam.

 
 
 
 
 
 

Welcome:

 
 


Greetings Parents and Caregivers


Friday July 3  is a 

Teacher Only Day 

The last day of term for our children is Thursday July 2.

Finish at 3pm as usual.

 
 
 
kia ora
 
 
 
 

For those planning ahead, our first day of school for children next year will be Wednesday February 3. 

Our last day of school for 2021 will be Thursday 16 December.

 
 
 
 
 
 

Term Two Ends - Hoping for a Better, Brighter Term Three:

 
 
 

It has been a long term really - particularly as the two weeks of official term one holidays were spent preparing for supporting our community through Lockdown. I know a number of colleagues who have really hit the wall in terms of their health and well-being.

It’s also flu season and we have had a lot of children and staff away sick over the past fortnight. These next two weeks will offer some time to rest and recuperate ready for term three.

 
 
  
 
 
 
 
 
 

A really huge thank you to all our WHS staff on your behalf - they have worked tirelessly for the past 22 weeks to provide the best learning opportunities and support for your children that they can. This is a truly awesome school, and that is down to the wonderful team we have here.

My thanks also to our Board of Trustees for their leadership and guidance during the tough times of Covid19.

 
 
 

Next term is a fresh start - and we are looking forward to returning closer than ever to normal. Whanau Time Assemblies will return every second Friday - still Live-Streamed - as an example of this return. They will be a bit shorter though - starting at 9:55am.

Some things will continue the new Level One norms a little longer - such as dropping off children at our main gate if that works for you.

We will continue working on improvements to our end of day children-collection-traffic management. There are a few reminders on some pointers regarding this further below.

Covid19 and the Lockdown that went with it has meant a lot of challenges for our country, our community and our families. For those of you facing tough financial situations, employment challenges and similar, our thoughts are really with you. If you need a listening ear, a bit of advice or support, you can call, text, email or visit me - 021779009, macash@mac.com or the principal’s office door is almost always open.

As a school staff we hope you all are able to have some quality family time together over the holiday period. We hope you get some down time to rest and relax, and hope that a good number of you are able to get out and enjoy the wonders of this pretty amazing country we call home. Stay warm, safe, and hopefully wet some of the time as we need the rain!

See you all next term on Monday 20 July.

 
 
 
 
 

Brooklyns Treasure Map:

 
 
 

We love to see children get hooked on learning that excites them. Brooklyn is only five but he is able to focus single-mindedly on projects that interest him. This is only part of his large treasure map. It has so much detail but he could explain it all. 

He hasn’t got to the actual place where the treasure is hidden yet, but it involves a lot of tricky obstacles, so a lot of preparation will be required if we are to set out and follow it.

 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 

Latest EPro8 Activity Challenge:

 
 
 
 
 
  
 
 
 
 
 
  
 
 

This week's task was to make a vehicle powered by a balloon.  We had some great designs. Mrs Hannard is really impressed with the way team members are working collaboratively and communicating with each other. 

 
 
 
 
 

This Week’s Star:

 
 
 

At Right:  Amanda won first place in a recent dancing competition.

 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 

This Week’s Star Class - Room 16:

 
 
 

From Mrs Nawaaz:

Yesterday was Ella's birthday. As a class, we sang Happy Birthday to her. While Ella was handing out some lovely treats for the class some of the boys decided to sing Happy Birthday to her in Samoan. 

Then another group of friends spontaneously decided to sing to Happy Birthday to her in Mandarin. 

Lastly, Antonella stood up and sang Happy Birthday to her in Spanish all by herself. None of these different versions of Happy Birthday were suggested or teacher-directed, but I could tell the students were all proud of their heritage and language and felt safe and valued to share it with our class whanau. It was beautiful to witness this and really did fill my heart with pride and love!

 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 

This Week’s Writing - The Five Ds of Appreciative Inquiry:

 
 
 
 
 
  
 
 
 
 
 
 

Our senior students are working collaboratively, cooperatively and creatively on the PALS Projects using the Appreciative Inquiry Approach.

PALS - is an acronym for People And Land Savers. It came from our community-wide focus on “what is important?” The answers being “the People and the Land."

 
 
 

The Five Ds Approach to Implementing Appreciative Inquiry:


I shared with you last week the what and why behind Appreciative Inquiry. The what is that we start with a focus on the positive. In any issue we always begin by asking, what are the positives? What is working well? What are the good points? It’s “Yellow Hat” thinking in terms of Edward De Bono’s Six Thinking Hats.


The why is because we all need Hope. Without Hope there is no point or purpose and there will be no action or positive response.


This week I will share a summary for the How - achieved through the Five Ds Process.

 
 
 

1.  Decide:

This is where you consider the world around you. What important things are happening right now? In relation to those important things that are happening, you ask yourself, what am I interested in? What is important to me? What might I be able to do something about?

In De Bono’s Six Thinking Hats, it’s the White Hat - the Information Hat - and the Red Hat - the what are my Feelings Hat.

 
 
   
  
 
 
 

2. Discover:

This is where you discover all the positives about the issue that you have now Decided on.

What good things are happening? How are people showing they care? Who is helping and how? What makes you hopeful things can be improved or made better?

In De Bono’s Six Thinking Hats, it’s the Yellow Hat - the Positives Hat.

 
 
   
  
 
 
 

3.  Dream:

This is where you consider all the possibilities of what could be done? What might be done? It’s where you Dream up all kinds of ideas - some will be really impractical or a bit crazy - but they might lead to some outside the box thinking that could work.

In De Bono’s Six Thinking Hats, it’s the Gree Hat - the Creative Thinking Hat .

 
 
  
 
   
  
   
  
 
 
 

4. Design:

This is where you sift and sort your Dream ideas to find the ones that can work. From these you settle on a Goal and Design an Action Plan to achieve that goal. A good way is to start with what success will look like and plan backwards from that. Considering any problems that may arise happens now - Black Hat Thinking Hat.

In De Bono’s Six Thinking Hats, it’s the Blue Hat - Metacognition (Thinking About My Thinking) Hat.

 
 
  
 
   
  
   
  
 
 
 

5.  Deliver:

This is where the plan becomes action. This is where Dreams become Reality. You have an output and an outcome - something you can show as an achievement and share.

In the old days you made a poster of the stuff you had learned - or copied from somewhere. You coloured it in nicely and it went up on the wall. This is different - you need to produce something that contributes to change. The goal is to make a difference. It might be raising awareness, promoting a call to action, or getting stuck in and doing something.

 
   
  
 
   
  
 
 

The sharing of those outcomes could be via a video, poster, TikTok, Keynote slideshow or similar.

 
 
  
 
 
 

Technically there are two other little additions - a Reflection on our outcomes. How did we do? How were we successful? What could we have do differently?

And finally, it all leads us to start again with a new issue, new ideas, new Dreams and new Deliverables. That is the nature of learning - it never ends...

 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 

This Week’s Property Update:

 
 
 

At Right - our new sign. Hopefully it will help keep you informed. Guidelines require slides stay displayed for 8 seconds - so not changing quickly.

 
 
  
 
 
 
 
 
 

At Left - the worst carpet in our school was hidden under a mat until recently. This holidays we are replacing the carpet and Lino in rooms 3, 4, 5, 6, 7 and 23 and 24. Rooms 1, 2, 8, 9, 10, 20, 21 and 22 will be done in the October holidays.

 
 
 
 
 
 

This Week’s Catch-Ups, Reminders and Notices:

 
 
 
 
   
 
 
 
   
 
 
 
 
 

Lost Property Reminder:

 
 
 

We have a large collection of homeless clothing that would love to be reunited with its owners.

Sadly most is not named - a strong recommendation would be to name your children’s clothing.

It is on display in front of our hall - please try to call in and see if you can find some items to take home with you.

Thanks.

 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
  
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 

Supporting Local Businesses:

 
 
 

iFusion is an IP Communication Solutions company belonging to one of our dads - Elfa Chen.

Elfa did not request this promotional piece, I chose to include it to support and promote local businesses, and because he has provided absolutely outstanding product, services and support to our school (and a number of others I have recommended him to).

iFusion provide security CCTV, Paging and Bell Systems, VOIP Phone Systems and much more.

Elfa has installed phones in every classroom, IP Paging Intercom systems inside and outside our school and restructured our hall sound setup.

We could not be happier with everything done for us. Elfa and iFusion come with my highest recommendation.

 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 

This Week’s Tips:

 
   
  
 
 
 
 
 
  
   
 
 
 
 

This Week’s Thoughts:

 
   
  
 
   
   
  
 
 
 
 
 

This Week’s Humour:

 
 
 
 
   
  
   
   
  
   
   
  
   
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
  
 
 

This Week’s Dad Tweet:

 
 
 
 
 
  
 
  
 
  
 
 
 
 
  
 
  
 
 
 
 
 

Western Heights School

126 Sturges Road

Henderson

Auckland 0612

P -  09 8361213

E -  macash@mac.com

M - 021 779 009

Office eMail

admin@westernheights.school.nz

 
 
 
 
 
 
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Ash Maindonald

Principal

 
 
 

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