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Term 3 Letter
Dear Parents/ Caregivers

Your child has begun Term 3 enthusiastically and I am optimistic that they will now start to fully engage in their learning. This is a very busy term (which is 11 weeks long) starting with student led parent-teacher conferences in week 3 and ending with the school cultural festival being held in the last week of the school term. The school has a fundraising initiative starting in week 2. Each family will receive a least one sponsorship form to collect sponsors. All sponsorship forms and money will need to be returned to school with in 3 weeks. Can you please get behind this initiative so that quality programs can continue to be offered at Bailey Road School.

The Olympic Games is the main topic focus this term. Your child has already done a lot of research to provide them with an understanding of what the Olympics are. Further research this term will develop their knowledge of the New Zealand team and an individual competitor along with the social organisation and interactions that occur at such events. This will provide them with many opportunities to develop their reading, research skills, and writing, as the whole school is focusing on writing to bring students up to an acceptable level within National Standards. Please make sure that your child is keeping their reading up at home by reading at least 15 minutes a night.

The Maths strand this term is measurement and you can assist at home by getting your child to measure amounts when cooking, adding up the grocery bill, working out how many litres of petrol you use a week, how may steps they walk to school, or the kilometers travelled in the car per day. Times Tables need to be learnt fully to help with converting measures, fractions, decimals and percentages.

We have a very busy sports schedule this term with Eastern Zone interschool fixtures in Rugby league, Netball, Basketball, Cross Country, and Volleyball. You are most welcome to attend these games.

School camp is at the end of Term 4 this year. You should have all received a form to fill out stating whether you want your child to attend camp. If you have not done so, can you please fill it out and send it back to school. This will allow us to plan for camp. The cost is $200 and payment can be made over time (example, $10 per week) if you do not want to pay a lump sum. Thank you to those parents who have said that they are able to attend as camp parents.

If you have any issues, please don’t hesitate to get in touch with me. I hope to see some, if not all of you, at the conferences in week 3.

Yesmeen Rassool

Room 12 Teacher

Term 2 Letter
24 April 2012

Dear Parents/Caregivers,

Welcome back. I hope you all had a good holiday and enjoyed the lovely weather we have had so far. We have another very busy term ahead of us.

**Camp 2012:** We have an exciting 3 nights school camp booked for all our Intermediate students in Term 4 of this year. The camp will be at Camp Adair in Hunua, Auckland. The booking has been confirmed. The camp will be from the 11th to the 14th of December. The total cost of the 2012 camp will be sent home by the end of next week so that the parents and students can start budgeting for it as soon as possible. If you would be interested in coming along with us as a parent supervisor, please let us know early!! If you are interested in initiating any fundraising activities please contact one of the Rimu Team teachers.

Our classroom programme for this term will be as follows: **Science/ Inquiry learning** - Our Science strand covered this term will be Planet Earth and Beyond. Children will gain understanding of concepts related to Energy-with an emphasis on Solar Energy. Conceptual understanding will be through inquiry learning and the students will also carry out science investigations related to the topic. For a small fee the children will also have the opportunity to participate in the 2012 Fonterra Science Roadshow with exciting hands on science activities.

**Literacy** **–** Narrative writing will be the genre covered this term. The purpose of narrative writing is to describe an experience, event, or sequence of events in the form of a story **.** They will learn to create a story plan with essential elements such as: character, setting, and plot **.** We will revisit recount writing later in the term. In Reading, the students will continue to develop their comprehension strategies through guided and shared reading. Please encourage your child to read regularly at home. They may borrow books from our school library, which has a fantastic selection of books at many different reading and interest levels.

**Maths** **–** In numeracy we will continue to scaffold knowledge and strategies for solving problems using addition, subtraction, multiplication and division. They will also be learning and consolidating new concepts in Algebra. Please encourage your child to learn all their basic facts and times tables.

**Health & PE** - The focus this term is large ball skills, games and sports. Students will develop a variety of skills that can be used in a range of sports. Later in the term Netball coaches under the Kiwi Sport program will come in to coach students during class PE sessions and at lunchtime. For Eastern Zone sports we have Soccer in Week 3 for girls and boys, and rugby mid term. We are hoping to get a local rugby competition underway this term as well. If any parents are able to coach a rugby, soccer, or netball team at lunchtime or after school can you please get in contact with Dave Muir (Room 16 teacher).

Enviro Studies: Tread Lightly Caravan (Enviro Bus) Visit The Caravan will be visiting our school in Week 3 and the cost is $5 per student. We encourage all students to take part in this fun and enjoyable experience. Students will pedal an eco-bike to create their own power for starting up different appliances and will have fun with their life-size “geckos and vines” board game. They will have the opportunity to use a wonderful video microscope to look at creepy crawlies and other items up close and personal. Students will also play two very cool interactive computer games, which will calculate the children’s environmental foortprint and their weekly carbon dioxide emissions. You could visit their website [|www.thread-lightly.org] if you would like further information. A homework task will need to be completed by each student before the day. Teachers will hand it out to students closer to the time. Parent help will be great. Let your child’s classroom teacher know if you are available. They will pass on some information to you prior to the visit. Different classes will be visiting at different times during week 3: Room 11 – Tuesday 9:00 to 10:30 Room 12 - Thursday 11:00 to 12:30 Room 13 – Wednesday 13:30 to 14:45 Room 16 – Tuesday 13:30 to 14:45

**Technology** **–** For Technology this term we will be creating Mosaic signs to be placed around our school environment. If you have any tiles that you do not need please send them to school. Students will need to wear closed in shoes to Technology. Please ensure the technology fee of $40 for the year or $10 a term is paid to the classroom teacher.


 * Wikipages-**Some classes have set up their wikipages. Please visit your child’s wiki page and look at some of the work they are doing at school. We hope to expand our content this term**.**

**Homework & inquiry tasks** **-**Please support us in ensuring your child **__completes his/her homework and inquiry tasks on time__**. The Year 8 children are preparing for transition to High School. Encourage them to manage themselves and their time appropriately. Homework will be sent home on Monday and marked on Friday.

Children should attend school regularly and any **__absence should be explained with a note or a phone contact.__** All children are required to come to school in the **__correct Bailey Road School uniform__**.

If you have any queries or concerns regarding your child please contact me during school time.

Yesmeen Rassool

Term 1 Letter
Dear Parents/Caregivers,

Kiaora! Welcome to 2012. I do hope that you all had an exciting holiday and are all geared up to partake in fun learning this term. A little bit about myself, my name is Mrs Yesmeen Rassool and I am your child’s teacher for this year. I am from South Africa. I have been at Bailey Road School for the past eight and a half years. I really enjoy the challenge of teaching the seniors. **Camp 2012:** We have an exciting 3 nights school camp booked for all our Intermediate students in Term 4 of this year. The camp will be in Hunua, Auckland. This is a tentative booking at this stage as there are a number of things to be sorted before we can confirm our trip. The camp will be in December. I will send more detailed information later in the year. It might be a good idea to start budgeting for the camp as soon as possible. If you would be interested in coming along with us as a parent supervisor, please let us know early!! Our classroom programme for this term will be as follows: **Unit Study/ Inquiry learning** - Our Social Science unit is about Place and Environment. Children will gain understanding of concepts related to the topic and it will be an Inquiry based learning unit. **Literacy** **-** The writing genre we will cover this term is Recount. The purpose is to retell events and the focus will be on their ability to sequence specific events logically. This will also involve looking closely at newspaper accounts and how events are reported. In reading, the emphasis will be on guided reading to further develop their comprehension strategies. You can help at home by encouraging your child to read regularly. They may borrow books from our school library, which has a fantastic selection of books at many different reading and interest levels. They will also be receiving Duffy books. It will be a good idea for them to become a member of the community library. **__Room 12 has their library sessions on Monday__.** **Maths** **–** In numeracy we will continue scaffolding knowledge and strategies for solving problems using addition, subtraction, multiplication and division. They will also be learning and consolidating new concepts in Statistics. Does your child know all the basic facts? **Health & PE** - The children will be required to **__participate fully__** in swimming activities this term in order to improve their swimming skills. **__Swimming lessons will be on Wednesday mornings__** and the children must bring along their togs and towel on the day. Please encourage and support your child so he/she can learn to value this skill. Do you want your child to learn to swim? Why? Explain this to your child. **Technology –** The Intermediate classes will have technology lesson one day per week. Room 12 children will have technology on Tuesday’s. The class will be split into two groups and each group will have half day of technology per week. Ms Narsai will send home more details. **Homework & research tasks** **-**Please support me in ensuring your child **__completes his/her homework and research tasks on time__**. Encourage them to manage themselves and their time appropriately. **__Homework will be sent home on Friday and marked on Friday.__** Children should attend school regularly and any **__absence should be explained with a note from home.__** All children are required to come to school in the **__correct Bailey Road School uniform__**. A reminder that hats is compulsory this term. If you have any queries or concerns regarding your child please contact me during school time.

Kind regards

Yesmeen Rassool