Playground Survey for Springston School Parents and Caregivers

Weedons School

Clarkville School

Prebbleton School

As you know, a group of senior students has been conducting an inquiry into our growing needs for a challenging and engaging adventure playground at school, so that all age groups and abilities are catered for.

Thus, all Springston School Parents and Caregivers were emailed (on Thursday) a link to a short survey, asking for your ideas for a new adventure playground at school. Please check your email and help us by completing the survey by Monday 8 July.

A Kiwi Big Night Out - Springston School Production update

Springston Radio - Episode 2 - listen in for another great broadcast!

Parenting Week: 11-18 August

A message from our PTA

Parenting Week is being held from 11-18 August 2013, with top quality speakers and free community events and expos happening throughout Christchurch, Selwyn and Waimakariri. The full programme of events is available at Neighbourhood Trust. There are links on the website to book tickets to all events. They have a fantastic programme.

Tickets are now live and on-sale! They are already selling fast, with some events expected to sell out weeks in advance. Be quick to book your ticket(s) so you don't miss out! Please pass on details to your Christchurch-based friends and families. 

3 ticketing agencies are being used, in order to get the best deal for people purchasing:
 
Ticketek: Lisa O’Neill (Ticketek has a standing arrangement with Aurora Centre) – you can do bulk orders of tickets by phoning Ticketek (0800Ticketek) and if you use Ezy Ticket, there is only one transaction fee of $5.25 + credit card fee.

Dash Tickets: for all ticket sales $5 and over: Celia Lashlie, Diane Levy, Amy Scott, Jax Hamilton, Sophie Gray, Nathan Wallis’ Alcohol & the Teenage Brain at Riccarton High, Karyn Riley, Dean Stewart.
 
Eventbrite: for all gold coin events to reserve a seat: Philippa Murphy, Nathan Wallis' Alcohol & the Teenage Brain at Chisnallwood & Building Brains at St Albans Uniting, Amanda John’s Barnados talk, Laura Hall, ToughLove.

Thanks for your support of Parenting Week 2013 - bringing back FUN for Christchurch families and whanau.

Springston School Newsletter 21 June 2013

Will it snow?

Fran with snow woman (School snow closure, 2011)

Deciding whether to close the school is never an easy decision, and one that we do not take lightly.

Our first consideration is always the health and safety of our students and staff. This often involves the condition of the grounds and buildings. In the case of snow, it may be the remaining ice that causes even more concern, later.

Another aspect to consider is the safety of roads, and whether or not it is reasonable to expect teachers to drive to get here (many of our teachers live quite some way from the school). The bus company also notifies us as to whether or not they are going to put their drivers on the road. A decision has to be put together from many pieces of information, and from several sources.

If a decision was made to close the school in the event of a major snow storm, we would let you know as soon as possible and in a number of ways (some of which would depend on whether or not we had electricity!).

If possible, all of the following methods would be used, as soon as we were able to make that decision:

• Springston School website
• Springston School News Blog (ie this Blog)
• Springston School on Facebook
• More FM Radio (92.1 FM)
• Some of our class blogs (links on the School website, and down the side of the News Blog)

Now, WILL it snow....?

The BIG questions - Philosophy for Children (P4C)

This term a group of 13 students from Years 5-8 having been meeting regularly on Thursdays to discuss matters of philosophy. Guided by Carol and Wendy, they have thought deeply about a number of ideas, and examined their beliefs and understandings about their world.

Whether it is truth or beauty, friendship or fairness, violence or justice, what’s right or what’s real, philosophy deals with so many things that children love to discuss.

Developed more than thirty years ago by Dr. Matthew Lipman, Philosophy for Children is an international educational programme taught widely in many countries. Students learn to listen to, respect and understand a diverse range of views. They 'grow' their thinking, broaden their ideas, and realise there are different perspectives on every issue. They begin to develop the confidence and intellectual courage to put forward their own views in a group.

Here is a list of some of the questions that came up in last week's discussion on 'What is violence?' - these ideas will be explored further:

• Is it ok to help a friend, even if you're going to get into trouble?
• Do two wrongs make a right?
• Do we need to prove ourselves to others?
• When is it right to 'get even'? Do we need to get even?
• Why do parents treat children differently?
• Should we hold grudges?
• Does anger affect our choices?
• Why do people treat others badly?
• Why do people value different things?
• Who decides how money should be spent?

Discussions around the dinner table in the homes of these students will have been particularly stimulating recently! 

To understand what a P4C community of inquiry session looks and sounds like, this Australian video gives you a good 'taster'.



Information about P4C thanks to P4C NZ.

Starting School Party!

Today Helen, with some of the help of Senior students, organized a starting school party for all the children starting school soon at Springston School.

Here are the children and parents playing parachute games.

Reporter: Alice T

Our Amazing Support Staff

Today is Support Staff Day. 

To all our wonderful support staff at Springston School. Thanks for your amazing support and also your friendship. Not only do you keep things ticking over smoothly, you enrich the lives of our students, and you support the teachers in so many ways.

We hoped you enjoyed the lovely morning tea this morning, in your honour. And, we hope you enjoy your gifts (photographed below). 

No, they're not parcels of fish and chips - what do you think they might be...?

Guess what the gifts for our support staff were....?

PTA Book Exchange for School Parents & Caregivers

Please click this image to see it in a larger, more readable format

Springston Minecrafters

We are exploring the use of Minecraft as an educational tool. You can follow our journey through our new Springston Minecrafters Blog. 

You might enjoy watching our Minecrafters video playlist on SpringstonTube! 

Follow our journey!

Wonderful Work!

Remember that time

When we dined out

Every night

 for two weeks

Remember that

delicious food and wine

The French gourmet

And the real champagne

Remember the sight seeing

In Paris

The tall Eiffel Tower

And their museum

Remember France

That was a holiday

This is some of the work being produced in Room 7! 

Anja has been working on a poem which is called remember that time.

This is just a paragraph of some of Anja’s work!

Springston School Newsletter 7 June 2013

Our new Springston School website has been launched!

Have you noticed that the new Springston School website has been quietly launched in the past week?

We'd love you to check it out and tell us what you think. Please leave a comment below, and let us know if the new website meets your needs.

Home Page of the new website

The old website!

We're broadcasting! Welcome to Springston Radio

We're exploring the idea of radio broadcasting! A group of students from Room 5 (Year 5 and 6 students) has been helping Carol work out how to do this with iPads. They're working on their information skills, and their expression.

We're publishing our radio broadcasts on Soundcloud. We hope you enjoy our first effort!

Fun Run time this Friday

On Friday 7 June (postponement date is 21 June) we will be holding our annual School Fun Run at the Springston Domain. Parents are welcome to join us for this event. We have the coffee cart booked from 1:30 – 2:30 pm.

Children in the Senior and Middle Teams will be leaving to walk to the Domain at 12:30 pm.

Junior classes will be leaving at 1:30 pm. If any parents are available to help with walking children to the Domain please contact your child’s teacher.

Senior and Middle Team events will start at 1:00 pm. with the Year 7/8 Girls, followed by Year 7/8 Boys, Year 4/5/6 Girls and the Year 4/5/6 Boys.

Junior Team events will be starting at 2:00 pm with Year 3 Girls, followed by Year 3 Boys, Year 2 Girls, Year 2 Boys, Year 1 Girls and Year 1 Boys.

It would be helpful if students can bring a jacket as well as a change of clothes and shoes to run in. Students can dress in their house colours for this event or perhaps a New Zealand theme!

Decision on postponement will be made on the day and parents will be advised through blogs and Facebook.

Springston Secret Garden Open Day - come and visit!

Come along to the Secret Garden at 2:30pm on Monday 10 June to check out the amazing things that have been happening.

The Allottment Kids and the Choice and Challenge Kids will be there to share their progress but we would love to see any visitors from the Springston School families and wider community.

 We might even have a nibble from the garden to share!