Address: 282 Victoria Avenue, Remuera, Auckland | Telephone: (09) 520 0602
E-mail: [email protected] | web: www.victoriaave.com
Dear Parents
You may have read the article in the NZ Herald recently, written by Alex Hazelhurst, entitled ‘I’m talented. I’m hardworking. I’m blonde. So why can’t I get a job in London? This article was quickly followed up with a response, also published by NZ Herald entitled ‘I’m nearly 40! I can write! I’m bald!’
The authors of both these articles chronicled their experience of trying to find work in London during their OE. Just like Alex’s article, the second article, written by Mark Hucke, was thoughtfully written and was about his experience on his OE in the 1990s.
Many of us have done OEs, usually undertaken during our mid twenties. Each of us has a unique take on living in London. The point that Mark Hucke made was that it doesn’t matter what decade the OEs were / are taken in, the experiences of trying to find a job in a very large city overseas are remarkably similar.
Unfortunately, in this day of people being able to post anything anonymously on social media, Alex was ridiculed. Her life story was dismissed and she was ridiculed by many who were very quick to label her in any number of denigrating ways.
Why is it, that some people cannot respect others’ stories? Why is that they feel the need to publicly ridicule a real life experience that someone else has? As Alex wrote: I am someone who wrote about my experience. An experience that was, and is, like many other experiences of those who move to London. But it is also an experience that may not be like others. And to them, well, we are all different, and I guess you were one of the lucky ones. However, that doesn’t mean my story has any less weight.
We are all entitled to have an opinion about anything we read. We are allowed to accept or dismiss the content as being either relevant to us or not relevant. But I believe the line gets crossed when we publicly set out to humiliate and dismiss the person and their story.
Let’s raise a generation of children who learn that it is not OK to ridicule and humiliate, even (or particularly) hiding behind the anonymity of a Twitter user name. We need to encourage our children to critically examine the message and have an opinion about that, not critically examine the person and make judgements about them.
Janice Adamson
Tournaments of Minds
As part of our GATE (Gifted and Talented Education) programme, Alison Laxon facilitated a group of Years 5 and 6 children who participated in the Tournaments of Minds. TOM is a problem solving programme for teams of students across secondary and primary schools. Teams solve challenges from a choice of disciplines: applied technology, language literature, maths engineering, social sciences. They have to do everything themselves, adults are not allowed to make any contribution, either with suggestions, feedback, assistance with props. It has to be entirely developed by the students. They have 10 minutes to present their final product to the judges. This was held on 29 August and this is what Molly had to report:
Being in the Tournament of Minds VAS team was Amazing! It was a fantastic experience and was a lot of fun. It was cool getting to work with different Year 6s AND Year 5s. Sometimes we struggled a bit, planning, budgets, costumes but we broke through and carried on. Practising the play was hilarious!! With our costumes ready we were able to experiment a bit, try funny voices, MORE ACTIONS, always facing the audience with your face not with your back! I think that we did really well co-operating, I had expected at least some arguing with parts for the play and things but we did really well with that and it made everything a lot easier. It was definitely disappointing not getting through to the Nationals but I really hope that VAS enter again next year and make it through. Thank you, Ms. Laxon, Miss Bridgman and Mrs Adamson! I loved being in the team and I wish that I could do it again!
Molly O’Leary Year 6
Click Here to view the Tournaments of minds on our BLOG PAGE
Getting Messages to Children
If you need to get a message to your child about a change in pick up arrangements, please do it through the office. Please do not email your instructions to teachers after 1.30 as they do not access any emails during teaching and learning time. By the time they get to their emails, the children have left for the day.
Kind regards
Janice Adamson
Click Here to view our new BLOG PAGE on our website.
DRAMA/SPEECH LESSONS: Click here for information
MUSIC LESSONS: Click here for information on Musiqhub music lessons
AFTER SCHOOL ACTIVITIES:
FOR TERM 3 2015
Click here for details on these activities.
Also:
Click here for After School and Holiday Community Based Programmes and Activities for 2015
What’s Ahead?
PLEASE CLICK HERE TO VIEW OUR ONLINE CALENDAR
IMPORTANT DATES AND TIMES
School Times
School starts: 8.50am
Interval: 10.30-10.50am
Lunch: 12.30-1.25pm
School finishes: 3.00pm
Term Dates for 2015
Term 3: Mon 20 Jul to Fri 25 Sept ’15
Term 4: Mon 12 Oct to 16 Dec ’15
~ Labour Day Mon 26 October ’15
Term Dates for 2016
Term 1: Wednesday 3 Feb to Friday 15 April ’16
~ Waitangi Day Mon 8 Feb and Easter Holiday Friday 25 March – Tuesday 29 March’16 (During school term)
Term 2: Monday 2 May to Friday 8 July ’16
~ Anzac Day Mon 25 April and Queen’s Birthday Monday 6 June ’16
Term 3: Monday 25 July to Friday 23 Sept ’16
Term 4: Monday 10 October to Friday 16 December ’16
~ Labour Day Mon 24 October ’16
Stationery Sales
Tuesdays and Thursdays: 8.30-8.45am
Uniform Shop
– half way up dragon drive in the old dental clinic
OPEN FRIDAYS only: 8.15-8.45am
Orders and payments for uniform can be made online on our website ~ Click here
Lunch Orders for 2015
1. ezLUNCH: Mondays, Tuesdays and Thursdays
Join ezlunch today to take advantage of this promotion. and Place an order
2. Subway: Wed and Fri
Register to order online at www.subwayrialto.co.nz
3. Sushi on Thursdays
Click Here for order forms/instructions
School Dental Service
8b Ngaio St Orakei Ph5200603.
The dental team will be posting letters to all new entrants to our school as required.
Remember to ‘like’ Victoria Avenue School on Facebook.
NIT NIGHT TONIGHT!!
PLEASE, PLEASE CHECK FOR NITS – a number of classes have reported nits and if your infected child is not treated then many others will be!
Here is a link from NZ Health for info and treatment.
http://www.health.govt.nz/your-health/conditions-and-treatments/diseases-and-illnesses/head-lice
Reminder school Banking is on every Wednesday
To join go to the ASB display/banking box in the foyer.
TWO MORNING TEAS: BOTH FOR NEW PARENTS!
- 7 SEPTEMBER FOR NEW OLDER STUDENTS CURRENTLY ATTENDING OUR SCHOOL – SEE BELOW.
- 16 SEPTEMBER FOR NEW ENTRANT STUDENTS COMING TO OUR SCHOOL IN LATE 2015 AND 2016 – SEE TO THE RIGHT.
Invitation to Parents of New Older Students to Our School ~ Morning Tea on Monday 7 September
You are new families to Victoria Avenue School this year and we would like to welcome you!
We would love to invite you to our very first ‘Welcome to VAS Morning Tea’ on Monday 7th September, 9-10am in the school staffroom.
Below is an overview of the information we’d like to share with you. But mostly we’d like to meet you, answer as many of your questions as possible and share a coffee & some cake with you.
1. School welcome & brief overview based on the new entrants day (Staff)
2. PTS welcome including overview of annual events & brief run through of school website showing where to get most useful information (PTS)
3. Questions about school, local area, kid’s activities etc (PTS)
4. Coffee & cake
Please RSVP to celinedelmas1
If you’re not sure where the staffroom is, come to the office & you will be shown up the stairs.
We look forward to meeting you, sharing some information & hearing your feedback.
For PTS
Anna Scott & Céline Delmas
Please note corrected times. Register today by visiting us at www.kiwitennis.co.nz
PUPIL OF THE WEEK
Mila Walsh
- Room 1: Jin Burrowes
Room 1: Maria Gong
Room 2: Charlotte Colyer
Room 3: Harry Cullen-Hieatt
Room 7: George Clausen
Room 8: Cheyenne Calder
Room 9: Connor Clark
Room 10: Louie Hogan
Room 11: Edward Winstone
Room 12: Atalia Ese
Room 13: Lottie Larkin
- Room 14: Terrence Lam
Room 15: Nisha Padey
Room 16: Henry Holbrook
Room 17: Harper Martin
Room 17: Samara Riley
Room 18: Christina Loftus
Room 18: Ginny Fraser
Room 19: Jack Brew
Room 20: Hudson Smith
Room 20: Summer Prince
Room 21: Reeve Innes
Room 22: Amelia MacKenzie