11.08.2023

From the Principal

Alfriston School is a place of learning and as a school we have been enjoyed doing some cultural learning. We have learnt the significance of a powhiri celebration, learnt appropriate waiata to sing and learnt to perform the haka powhiri. This learning was put into action last Friday, and our first powhiri event was a huge success. Our learners showed pride in themselves and our school as they welcomed new learners and their whānau.

I want to congratulate Madison McKillop, Mr Wallis, Leroy Fisher, Marley Rees-Watene, Cormack Douglas and Izaiah Rasmussen for the roles they performed so well.

Thank you to everyone who came along to the event and to the whānau that provided kai to share, an important part of the powhiri event.

If you were not able to attend the event you can view the following link:Powhiri Youtube LINK

Other recent highlights / celebrations….

*Trees for Survival – On Tuesday Mrs Sila, Mrs Meikle and a group of Intermediate learners planted nearly 800 trees at a local farm. Alfriston School has supported this initiative for many years and we are pleased we could continue in 2023.

*Cross Country – Today five Intermediate learners (Akaldeep, Faith, Mikaiah, Chase and Koby) are representing East Counties in the Counties Zone Cross Country event. Two of these learners have qualified to go through to the Auckland Zone event – congratulations Akaldeep Singh who was 2nd overall at Counties level and Faith Sila who was 10th at Counties level.

*Speech and Poetry presentations – All learners have been given the opportunity to speak in front of an audience, within their class. It has been pleasing to see learner’s confidence develop so that they can all confidently present.

Important Pick up and Drop off information

Pick up and drop off times at Alfriston are busy but can be smooth and efficient if everyone uses the pick up and drop of spaces as they are intended. Our parent group is exceptionally efficient at this when everyone uses the spaces in the correct manner.

Please note the following expectations, this will keep the traffic flowing and more importantly keep our learners SAFE!

Kiss’n’Go

Drive to the front of the pick-up lane to allow cars behind you to move out of the Alfriston Road traffic
If your child is not waiting for you and you need to go around again please drive down to the roundabout and come back. Do not do a dangerous right turn out the gate
Remember teachers are there to help your child, please follow their advice
Please walk on the footpath rather than cut through the staff carpark

Back Gate

This is a place to park your car and to collect your child only, not a drive through pick up
Please collect your child from the school or from the gate. Please do not encourage them to run across the carpark to your car – staff may intervene
The gravel car park is open and available to our school to use at this time, feel free to find a park
Mobility parks are there for our parents & caregivers that genueinly require them, please do not park there unless you have a mobility permit
The yellow lines are a no parking zone and if these are kept clear traffic flows really well
The bus stop is to be kept clear at all times as we often have school trips returning to school and we would use this space for emergency vehicles if we required them

If you are late to pick up/drop off

Please let the office know if you are going to be late so we can ensure your child is waiting in a safe place
Remember that your child can worry when you are late and may become upset
Park in the Alfriston Car Park by Kiss’n Go then walk to the office to collect your child
The staff car park is not an available space to collect or drop off your children as it is unsafe due to the number of cars trying to manoeuvre in the car park and re enter and very busy road.

Sporting News

eNEWS: ECCS Cross Country

Tuesday, 1st August 2023 was a day for overcoming challenges and persevering to give off their best! Twenty eight Year 5 to Year 8 learners participated in the ECCS Cross Country event at Te Puru Park in Beachlands. Fun, cheering, excitement, new experiences, supporting each other, muddy shoes and celebrating achievements was all part of the day! Every one of our participants deserve a huge pat on the back for preserving to complete a very challenging 3km course. We are proud of them all! A big thank you to our parents for attending the event and supporting our learners.

Individual learner achievements:

Year 5 girls event: Emily Kelly: 7th place

Year 5 boys event: Taran Chohan: 5th place

Year 6 girls event: Gemma Blackwell: 3rd place; Ariya Singh: 6th place; Chloe Firth: 8th place

Year 6 Boys event: Finnley Hede: 5th place

Year 7 girls event: Faith Sila: 2nd place; Koby Petrie: 9th place

Year 7 boys event: Chase Wilkinson: 9th place

Year 8 girls event: Mikaiah Hall: 10th place

Year 8 boys event: Akaldeep Singh: 1st place

School placings:

Alfriston School achieved 1st place for the Year 6 girls event and 3rd place for the Year 7 boys event.

Tino pai to all those runners that qualified for counties.

The Counties Cross Country Tournament is on Friday 11th August. The save date is Thursday 17th August. The venue is Franklin A and P Showgrounds.

Learners selected for Counties: Congratulations! We wish them all the best!

Year 7 girls: Faith Sila, Koby Petrie

Year 7 boys: Chase Wilkinson

Year 8 girls: Mikaiah Hall

Year 8 boys: Akaldeep Singh

Pies! Pies! Pies!

Alfriston School Frozen Pies & Savouries Fundraiser

Here is a link for your to order your delicious pies.

Learning Celebrations

Room 9 – What have we been up to?

Kelly Sports is a firm favourite at the moment as the children learn how to play the Traditional Māori game of ‘Ki o Rahi’. Not only are they learning the rules of a new game, but also expanding their knowledge of the Māori language. (Link to game rules and demonstration HERE)

Following on from our work with speeches, which were very impressive, we are now looking at some narrative work and have produced fictional maps as writing prompts for our comic strip adventure stories.

For maths, we are looking at fractions and have worked hard building confidence and making sure we understand the steps needed for each calculation.

ROOM 13

Room 13 has stormed into Term 3, working hard and meeting our deadlines. These last four weeks have seen us discover the joys of Matariki, learn First-Aid response, be able to deliver an excellent pōwhiri, play sports, plant trees, learn the game of Ki O Rahi … and still do our curriculum work as well!

We ALL delivered our speeches this week, on the theme of Kaitiakitanga. Topics were diverse, from protecting our environment to the role of kaitiaki in cherishing language and whakapapa. Despite our nerves, we all did really great!

Surrounding our theme of ‘change’ and ‘should we change’, we have started to investigate major Aotearoa protest movements, and each have our ‘favourites’ – from The Waterfront Dispute to the Nuclear-Free Protests and the occupation of Ihumātao. We will soon get to select a major activist from our collective history to research and present on.

Do come and visit our room and view our amazing art works and personal responses to Matariki. You are always welcome.

ROOM 15 LEARNING

REFLECTION/GEOMETRY IN ART

For our strand math we have been learning about reflection and how you can reflect a pattern in lots of ways. We have also been learning about different geometrical shapes and learning how many sides and corners different shapes have. We looked at some photos of buildings that looked over water and talked about how the water is reflective like a mirror. Then we created our own buildings out of coloured shapes and painted the reflection in the water. It was tricky but we got there in the end.

WRITING IN ROOM 15

In Room 15 we love to write. Every day we practice certain sounds on our whiteboards and we try really hard to make sure we are forming our letters correctly. We write in our writing books every day too. We make sure we remember our finger spaces between our words and our capital letters to start a sentence. Here are some pieces of writing that Mrs Sila published on her computer so that we could illustrate them and have them on display so that our visitors to our room can see the amazing writing we are doing.

REPORTING TO PARENTS/CAREGIVERS

In the past we have provided learners with a report at the very end of the year. This year however learners will receive their 2nd Progress and Achievement Report at the beginning of Term 4. The reason for this is so that we have the time to discuss your child’s next steps with you and then to spend time working on these before your child moves on to a new teacher and new year level.

The written reports will be sent home on Tuesday 24th of October and Three Way Conferences will be the following two days, Wednesday 25th and Thursday 26th October. We ask that all whānau attend these meetings and that the learner is present. A link to book a conference time will be sent out in the near future.

Alfriston School continues to evaluate and review systems and processes and makes changes in the best interests of our learners.

Congratulations to..

Manrajbir Ghumman, Leroy Sila, Sophie Robinson, Jayden Song, Hardit Mann, Jonathan Moon, Finnley Hede, Fatima Zeeshan, Riley Stent, Kasey Holdem, Tanvi Naidu.

Gurnazar Kaur

School Yearbook

THANK YOU FOR YOUR SUPPORT

The following businesses have supported us recently and we want to say a BIG thank you. If at anytime you are able to support these businesses please do.