Liberton Link July 2000
BOARD OF TRUSTEES
The Board has been encouraged by several new families attending the school for the first time in the year 2000. We extend a very warm welcome to them, their names are as follows: Brian & Heather O’Neill (Esther & Ben); Brett & Helen Ferguson (Alicia, Rochelle, also nephews Edgar & David Pollard from the Solomon Islands); Russell & Catherine Harrex (Jamin, Zachary & Lydia); and Lahlali & Anne Haderbache (Mehdi, Vivian & Rebecca). In addition we welcome Thomas van Dyk, and farewell Susanna Garratt whose family is moving to Hamilton.
As anyone who has visited the school in recent times will be aware, a new playground has been built. Tony Sizemore played a pivotal role in organising its construction and pulling together a team of people to help build the playground under supervision from the manufacturer. It is notable that the play-ground has been funded by DCSA, Home & School Committee as well as funding from money administered by the Board of Trustees. The children really enjoy the new facility and have gained first hand experience of static electricity on fine dry days.
The recent parent forum was held at Discovery World at Otago Museum. The purpose of the forum was to gain input from parents on the science curriculum. Being held at Discovery World allowed the 13 people attending to experience the most recent displays and gain some ideas from museum staff about teaching science in school.
At the Board Meeting held at the end of May it was decided that a small planning group should look at future directions for the school. In particular an idea which needs to be looked into is the possibility of establishing a pre-school facility on the Hillary Street site. This would complement the existing school and hopefully help to stabilize and expand the school roll. The idea has been around for some time and we wish to pursue the idea in conjunction with the Dunedin Christian Schools Association.
The school has been without a secretary for some time. Heather Pearce has recently been appointed for ten hours per week and we look forward to working with Heather and making use of her considerable secretarial and administrative skills.
Early in the year the Board successfully applied for a special grant of $3,400 to assist in implementing information and communications technology. Two computers for placement in each of the classrooms were approved for purchase at our last meeting. It is planned to link the new computers with the one in the office to create a small network.
As part of the astronomy studies undertaken by children this term, a planetarium was brought to the school a few weeks ago and set up in the hall. Provided by the Museum, the blow-up planetarium gave the children an insight into basic concepts of earth and planetary movements on the celestial sphere.
The Board is very appreciative of the efforts of the Home & School Committee at the recent games evening. A very good turnout of families and supporters made for an extremely enjoyable evening. Games evenings have been a traditional part of Liberton Christian School life and they continue to provide an essential social focus for the school. With winter now well established, Friday lunchtime hot meals have been provided through the efforts of the Home & School Committee. Pies, chips and hot drinks are always popular with the children.
Bill Lee is currently overseas for three months and will return in early August. We look forward to him resuming his role as Chairman of the Board of Trustees along with the new ideas which he has no doubt picked up overseas.
Phil Marshall, Acting Chairman
DCSA COUNCIL
The acceptance of Liberton Christian School as an integrated primary school towards the end of last year saw the introduction of a new school management structure. The constructive response of staff and parents to these changes greatly assisted this major transition for the School. It is appropriate to acknowledge also the outstanding work of our former chairman, John Hannah, in the significant part he played in integration negotiations. The Hannah family are spending the year in Monterey, California where John is taking sabbatical leave. They send their greetings and we look forward to their return. Robert Storm has been elected DCSA Council Chairman in John’s place.
With the day-to-day running of the School in the hands of the new Board of Trustees, the Council (formerly the Board of Governors) has had to reassess its continuing role. Different aspects of the Council’s task which have so far emerged are: high-level oversight of the School’s operation to ensure that its special character is preserved, upgrading the property and buildings as set out in the Integration Agreement, and promotion of Christian education in general.
With four representatives of the Council on the Board of Trustees, the Council remains fully informed of the ongoing running of the School. Partly in recognition of the increased workload that dual membership places on some members, and because of a reduction in the Council’s task, the Council has moved to two-monthly meetings.
Steady progress has been made on the upgrading requirements around the school, the completed new playground being the most visible evidence. We are grateful for Tony Sizemore’s work in masterminding the maintenance plan. We have also been pleased to secure Ministry of Education funding to integrated school proprietors for property maintenance. The possibility of this pupil-based funding, first intimated at the AGM, has now been confirmed, and will benefit the Association by more than $9,000 per year.
In November last, we were thrilled that Richard Edlin was able to visit and to address a public meeting on the cause of Christian education. The meeting was very well attended, and a number of valuable contacts made.
Last month about 60 people gathered at a public meeting in Mosgiel to discuss the possibility of establishing a Christian school on the Taieri. The prospect of such a school has been mooted by Roslyn King, a former teacher at Liberton, and her husband Ron. Robert Storm spoke on behalf of the Association and told the meeting that it may be possible for a new school to become another classroom of Liberton using our integration agreement, our special character statement and our Board of Trustees, or a separate school could be set up under our integration agreement. Both alternatives would need the approval of the Minister of Education.
The meeting was attended by representatives of three Christian schools who spoke about how they had established their schools. Mr King told the meeting he believed a school could be set up from the start of next year. An informal group, not directly connected with the DCSA, has already been set up to look at starting a school.
Elsewhere in this newsletter is a list of prayer points. Do make use of these in your devotional time as we depend so much on the Lord’s blessing to carry out this great work.
John van Dyk, Treasurer
SENIOR CLASS
It was a pleasing to return to a school where a lot of work had been put in over the summer holidays in cleaning carpets, revarnishing desks, and generally sprucing up grounds and classrooms.
In science we have had a school-wide study of insects and other “creepy crawlies”. We visited the museum and took advantage of their entomology programme. The children were fascinated and continue to “discover” new facts about insects.
In April I was able to join other principals in Otago/Southland at a one day Information and Communications Technology conference in Balclutha.
This year Kyra Jones provides principal release time by teaching on two afternoons per week. As part of a Social Studies unit with her, pupils have made “passports” with pictures they’ve drawn of themselves and sent these to addresses overseas. We hope the recipients will send the passports on to other places and countries. By the end of the year the pictures should be returned and the accompanying passports should give a record of where in the world children’s pictures have been. Congratulations are due to Kyra and husband Martin on the birth of Amy Aleishi. While Kyra was away on maternity leave we welcomed Naomi Patrick as our reliever.
A long and fruitful association with Constable Barry Brown has come to an end with his decision to leave the police force to further his studies at University. We have enjoyed working with Barry over the years on the D.A.R.E. (Drugs and Alcohol Resistance Education) programme and camps, and will miss him.
The arrival of a digger in May, excavating truckloads of dirt caused quite a stir. Even more exciting was to see the playground take shape as pieces of apparatus were assembled and erected the next day. With the laying of safety matting, the playground was ready for its official opening a week later. Quite a few parents and Association members looked on as our oldest pupil cut the ribbon and children happily tried out the new equipment.
In March a number of children participated in the World Vision famine and went without food for 20 hours. Some children elected to have an electronic famine - i.e. no TV, video games, telephone, etc. Together they raised $480, a tremendous effort. Proceeds were to assist families of children in Rwanda.
Netball and miniball teams have been entered in after-school tournaments. We are privileged to have the coaching services of Rachel Bradfield (netball) and John Steenhof & Matthew Landreth (miniball). There was great excitement when Otago Nuggets players Lynwood Wade and Sharon Deal came to school to coach as well. It is good to see the children improve in skills and teamwork.
During Lent, both classes joined for a Bible study on Easter, so visiting the Sights and Sounds of Easter at Knox Church was a kind of review. Obviously a lot of work had gone into this outreach. It was well done a true to the Biblical record. The live donkey was quite an attraction, and it featured with several of our children in the Otago Daily Times.
Rosalin and I have become Associate Teachers for Otago University’s School of Education. We welcome second year student Simon Purvis who has chosen to come to Liberton because of his interest in Christian education. He spent several afternoons observing and then joined staff for the last two weeks of term.
Rosalin and I are also undergoing professional development in the Assessment for Better Learning (ABEL) course. We find the discussion with colleagues very worthwhile and stimulating.
I have just spent a Saturday at a Ski Orientation Day in Queenstown hosted by Southern Lakes Christian School. I am investigating the feasibility of our Year 7 & 8 pupils joining the pupils from Queenstown on the ski field for a day or two in August.
Please continue to pray for us. Thank you for your continuing support.
Nel van’t Wout, Principal
JUNIOR CLASS
Our first major topic for the year was Insects. There are still some large six-legged critters looking down on us from the wall of the classroom. During term one some tadpoles lived in our classroom. They rapidly turned into frogs.
Constable Sue Young visited our class at the start of term two. The main purposes of her visit were to show the children some of the tasks that the police do, show that they are people just like us, and that the police are there to help them if they need help.
Recently, the children wrote some poems about “Bubbles”. Here are some of them:-
Big bubbles, beautiful bubbles, Bubbles blue, bubbles red,
Rainbow bubbles, near bubbles, Beware bubbles!
I like bubbles. Now all the bubbles go POP!
Rosalind P.
Bubbles, bubbles, all day long,
They are circling, all day long.
I do like them, all day long.
Natasha C.
I like bubbles.
Bubbles that float up high –
POP!
Loud, I like it.
Pop, pop, pop go the bubbles.
Lots of bubbles together.
I get a sling-shot
I fire.
Pop, pop, pop.
With a final pop, POP,
Heaps of low bubbles.
Conor P.
Our Science topic this term has been “Planet Earth and beyond.” The Junior class has focused on the Solar System. The children in one reading group each chose a planet to study, prepared a poster or booklet about their chosen planet and presented their research to a school assembly. As a class group, we discovered how Earth is in just the right place in the Solar system for us to live. God made it exactly the right distance from the Sun, for us, and the plants and animals on which we rely, to survive.
We found out lots of information about the sun and also discussed how it is important to us:-
The sun is important to me because
it gives me heat. Josua, Conor, Jonathan
it makes me happy. Timothy
it gives us light. Lydia
it gives us light and heat. Cameron, Josiah
it gives me light so that I can play on the playground. Jevon
The sun is an important sun and a hot sun. Esther
We need food and the earth would be too cold and that is why the sun is important. Rosalind
You can die if it blows up. Natasha F.
it is the closest star to Earth.
it gives us light and food. Natasha. C.
Question:- “What stars get put in jail?”
Answer:- “Shooting stars.” Josiah
Rosalin Stewart
HOME & SCHOOL SNIPPETS
The Committee members for this year are as follows: Nel as principal/teacher, Catherine as Board liaison, Yuet Khwan as treasurer, Diane, Liz, and Antje as convenor. Since integration there has not been a great difference in the role we play within the school life—we still support, lend a hand, raise funds, organise social activities for teachers or DCSA. Examples of this have been suppers at the Parent Forums, and the family barbecue at Woodhaugh at the beginning of the school year.
During the second term we provided afternoon tea for children, invited guests and DCSA members at the official opening of the new playground. Those attending also had a chance to look around the classrooms.
We had another well attended and successful Games Evening on 17th June. Seven different games were played in groups, and there was also a “guess who the baby is” quiz. We provided desserts and drinks. During the colder weeks Diane is looking after the hot lunches on Friday/Pieday with the help of senior pupils and parents.
We have some ongoing fundraisers available. If you would like any of the following, please give me a call on 474-1450. Honey, 1 kg pottles, liquid - $4.50, creamed - $5, manuka - $8. Blank greeting cards in a range of designs with envelopes - $3 per packet. Body lotion, body wash, shampoo or conditioner, in lovely fragrances, small gift-boxed, single - $4.50, twin pack - $8. Pens at $2 each.
Although Telecom and Clear have reduced the level of donations made to the School through Friends of the School schemes, they continue to be a painless way of raising extra funds. Our policy is to spend money from these schemes on projects that will benefit the children, e.g. we will be making a $1,500 donation towards the cost of the matting under the playground from our Telecom money. You can become a supporter too, as can any family member, friend or neighbour anywhere in New Zealand. All it takes is one phone call to nominate our school.
Thank you for your support. Two long-serving members, Anita van Rij and Yolanda Storm retired from the Committee at the end of last year, their contributions were many and they were certainly appreciated. Till next time, in His service.
Antje Storm, Convenor
FROM THE TREASURER
The growth in the school roll has been a blessing both in terms of government grants and attendance dues (school fees). Finalised government funding for 2000 is on the basis of 39 pupils, well above our budget projection of 27. The Association has also received fine support by way of donations. Donations will continue to be an important part of the Association’s income over the next five years as we take on upgrading projects totalling $160,000.
The School’s accounts for the three months since integration to the end of 1999 have been prepared and successfully audited by a local accountancy firm. The accounts together with a number of written reports have been compiled as an Annual Report, a public document, and filed with the Ministry of Education. We do have copies available, please ask me if you would like one.
John van Dyk
MAINTENANCE REPORT
There have been some significant changes to the school property this year, mostly as a result of integration. The most noticeable of these is the recent installation of the new playground equipment and associated safety matting at a cost of approximately $20,000. The installation was carried out by way of a working-bee supervised by the suppliers. Thanks to all those who were able to help, the final result is very pleasing. The rubber safety matting also provides an all weather surface which allows the playground to be used when the grassed areas are too wet. The consistent high level of use by the children bears testimony to its popularity. The Board also decided to install safety matting under the bars at the same time, which means they now comply with the latest playground safety standards, and we no longer have bark spread over the court every time it rains.
Another big change this year is in the way the grounds are maintained. For the benefit of those who have recently joined the school, all the lawn mowing etc. used to be done by parents on a roster basis (for anyone who feels they are now missing out please let me know and I’m sure I can find an equally satisfying task for you to do!). At the beginning of the year the Board decided to employ Jim’s Mowing (Gerry Macklin) to take care of all the grounds maintenance. With no disrespect to all those dedicated parents who previously did this job, it is noticeable, however, that the grounds are now consistently looking good. It does make a difference having a professional on the job.
Other work planned this year includes: louvre-window replacement, fencing the Hillary and Tensing St boundaries, upgrading the hall heating and gas installation, fire protection improvements, and installation of a drinking fountain.
We will probably be holding a working-bee in the spring which will hopefully be able to concentrate on a small improvement project rather than general maintenance. If you have any suggestions of a small project that you would like to see undertaken please contact me.
Tony Sizemore
PARENT FORUMS
Two parent forums have been held so far this year. At the first in February we had a run down of current and upcoming school activities, a time of general discussion on the life of the school, before considering the Board’s draft Consultation and Communication Policy. Policy is discussed in small groups with comments and suggestions reported back for Board evaluation at a later date. The English Language/Arts Curriculum Statement was assessed in the same way.
In June we met at the Museum’s Discovery World where we first had the opportunity to play with the displays, then a Museum staff member introduced us to various aspects of science in education. After supper we discussed the proposed Science Curriculum Statement, paying special attention to the teaching of science from a Christian perspective.
Don’t think you need to have an education degree to participate in these parent forums. This is your opportunity to have some input into the school’s future and everybody’s ideas are equally valued and important. The evenings are informal and are also a way of getting to know other parents. I would encourage all parents to attend.
Ingrid Macklin
PRAYER POINTS
- Give thanks for the new families who have joined the school.
- For the new playground and the solid financial position.
- Pray for the teachers, Nel and Rosalin, in their task, also with the extra work load of an increasing roll and bearing the load of routine duties between just the two of them.
- For guidance as preliminary investigations are made into the feasibility of a Christian pre-school.
- For continuing new enrolments, especially at new entrant and junior level.
- For protection when travelling, and moving about outside during the winter months.
- For a blessing on continuing upgrading work to the grounds and buildings.