Term 2 No 5 - 2 June 2011
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Dear Parents
“My father gave me the greatest gift anyone could give another person, he believed in me.”
Jim Valvano, Basketball Coach
Last year a group of staff, parents and top Auckland sports coaches spent time discussing the challenges, opportunities and rewards that come with coaching a sports team. The evening started with a talk from Duane Mann, Manager of the GACU (Greater Auckland Coaching Unit). Duane played League at the highest level, captaining both New Zealand and Tonga. Whilst he agreed that a good coach is a mixture of many qualities, when put on the spot he identified “honouring the confidence of each player” as perhaps the number one quality. He described the many ways in which it is possible, particularly at a young age, to dent or even destroy a young players confidence to the extent that they may be put off a game for life.
Like Jim Valvano said in his quote above perhaps the single greatest motivator for any child is knowing that a trusted adult believes in them. As parents, teachers or coaches we all have an incredible power to influence the experiences of our children. All of the coaches present, including parents and staff, were united in wanting to be the best they could possibly be to help all of our children both enjoy their sport and reach their potential.
This week winter is officially upon us, however ‘winter sport’ fixtures are already well underway. Each week a large number of students are ‘pulling on the VAS jersey’ and representing our school. We have over twenty teams competing in local competitions each week in Netball, Basketball and Flippaball. Our Senior Students also participate in Winter Sports exchanges with other local schools. We have six such sets of fixtures this term alone, with us competing in Football, Hockey, Netball and Rugby.
You can appreciate that coordinating such a vast array of sport is a time-consuming job and I am as ever indebited to Clare Whittington and her team of helpers who do a fantastic job ensuring these opportunities are available for all.
School is buzzing before and after-school each day with teams practicing and even the weekend isn’t a time for rest. Team sport is a fantastic part of our school culture and the opportunity for so many to represent VAS and compete regularly is something we take pride in. However this also comes with a set of responsibilities.
As a school we have developed, in consultation with parents, codes of conduct; what should we realistically expect of our coaches, players, managers and parents? These codes of conducts are all available on our website:
Players Code of Conduct
Coaches Code of Conduct
Managers Code of Conduct
Supporters Code of Conduct
Whilst we are able to discuss directly with players, managers and coaches the codes it is not so easy to do with supporters (parents). I would appreciate you reading, and discussing with your child, the players code, reinforcing the messages they receive from school staff and coaches.
I am extremely proud of the way in which our students represent our school however of late I have received less pleasant reports regarding the behaviour of a small minority of supporters, particularly towards team coaches. This is as unacceptable from parents as it is from students. Sport does engender strong emotions in us all but please consider carefully the consequences of your actions/words. If there is a real problem Clare Whittington and I are always available to discuss matters should you need us.
Our coaches are most often volunteers (and I count myself as one of them). Without the support, commitment and dedication of these individuals our children would not have the opportunities afforded them to represent the school. Please read the supporters code; allow your child’s coach, to coach; respect and support their decisions (even if you disagree with them) and be an active positive supporter of your child and their school teams.
Ultranet
Many of you will already have heard your children talking about the new Learning Management System Ultranet that we are developing this year at VAS. The staff are starting to develop their class spaces to build virtual classrooms online – a place were children can extend their learning both inside and outside of school.
For some time now we have been running Kidzone on our school website. Here staff have gathered together website resources, including links to well established programmes such as Mathletics. Ultranet is going to take our learning environment forward another technological step.
Whilst it is important to recognize that Ultranet is a project in the early days of development, staff have already started to populate the spaces with many useful learning resources. We encourage you to visit the Ultranet site with your child and explore what is already there.
We have created an initial home page, which is a public site. From here you can access all newsletters and at the bottom of the pages examples of pages which have already been created – Junior, Middle and Senior, please feel free to look at all areas. At a later point we will give you details of how you can logon to the private areas of the site, both as a parent and for your children.
For those of you coming to our Parent ICT Workshop in Week 7 (details below) you may wish to have a peek around Ultranet prior to the evening. As noted above at present access is limited to those areas accessible from the homepage as many pages are currently in development. Over the next few weeks we will be adjusting permissions to allow you to access other areas of the site, Enjoy!
Parents ICT Workshop
On Wednesday 15th June at 7.00pm we are holding a Parents’ ICT Workshop at school. We hope that as many of you as possible will want to attend and find out more about one of the most exciting areas of our school curriculum.
The format of the evening will be somewhat fluid, and may well be influenced in part by the numbers of parents attending, however we hope to cover the following areas:
• Our school’s vision and strategic goals in this area “To provide a school ICT environment that enhances opportunities for inquiry and learning, facilitates collaboration, and improves management and communication systems.” – VAS School Charter
• An introduction to our new Learning Management System, Ultranet, which is being developed in the school this year.
• The opportunity to try first-hand, various elements of Ultranet. Explore the technology of our Class Spaces, Uspace and our Parental Portal.
• Hear from Martin Cocker (Martin is a VAS parent and Executive Director of Netsafe) – He will will talk about our collaboration with Netsafe, and the Digital Citizenship in New Zealand Schools programme Learn, Guide, Protect.
If you intend being present at this workshop it please can you let the office know
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as soon as possible this will enable us to make appropriate arrangements for the evening.
Dogs at School
We have been asked to clarify the position with regard to having dogs at school. We understand that there are a few families who chose to bring their dogs to school, particularly on the walking school buses. We understand that this can be a really enjoyable experience for many children but do ask families to be aware of certain issues that have arisen.
We have a small number of children with allergies to animals and in particular dogs, likewise we have a number of children with a phobia, particularly of larger dogs. Please be aware of this and respect others.
On more than one occasion we have had dogs attack each other on school grounds. This can be distressing for those children witnessing this. Although it would be easiest to keep dogs off the school grounds during school time at present we are stopping short of this. Please can you ensure that:
• No dogs enter the school buildings
• If you do bring your dog on the school grounds must be on a lead and in your control, not a child’s
• If you are walking with your dog on a school bus make yourself aware of which children have dog allergies and/or phobias and respond accordingly.
Kind regards
Allan Short
Principal |
OUTLINE OF GRANDAPARENT'S DAY ~ TO BE HELD ON 7 JUNE 2011
Grandparents of Senior Syndicate pupils and those in Rooms 19-21 will be invited to our morning session and those with grandchildren in the Junior School and Rooms 16-18 will be invited to our afternoon session, of course some may qualify for, and wish to attend, both sessions! (Please note to even up numbers the Middle Syndicate has been split with three classes in the morning and three in the afternoon)
The day will begin with an assembly, lead by the Principal, followed by a small concert where the children will perform a number of items for grandparents. After this grandparents will accompany their grandchildren back to their classrooms to meet their teachers and look at their work. Children will then give their grandparents a tour of the school, finally arriving back at the hall where we will have morning/afternoon tea together.
Programme times are as follows:
- 9.15am Welcome and Assembly (Rooms 1-6 and 19-21)
- 9.55am Grandparents to visit classrooms and tour the school with their grandchildren
- 10.30am Morning tea for grandparents in the hall
- Early Lunch 12.00-1.00pm
- 1.15pm Welcome and Assembly (Rooms 8-18)
- 2.00pm Grandparents to visit classrooms and tour the school with their grandchildren
- 2.30pm Afternoon tea for grandparents in the hall.
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SPORTS NEWSLETTER:
Netball Results:
We only have results for Year 6 as the Year 3,4,5 games were abandoned due to the rain.
VAS Y6 Red 14 St Thomas Bratz 3 POD Stella Rollo.
VAS Y6 Blue 2 St Cuthberts 6
VAS Y6 White 3 Mt Eden 10
Winter Sports Exchange:
OUR NEXT WINTER EXCHANGE IS ON THE 14TH JUNE - IT IS AN "AT HOME" GAME - VENUES ARE LISTED BELOW
THE WINTER EXCHANGE TIMETABLE
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