Latest News from Selwyn School

HPS Newsletter 2

Our New Shade Trees

This year the Selwyn School Student Health Squad fundraised for shade trees for our new adventure playground. They are finally here and we are really pleased with our accomplishments!!

Here are our trees arriving on the truck from The Big Tree Company in Auckland.

The trees are put where they are going to be planted.

Beautiful flowers that smell great!
Here we are, all ready to plant the trees.


The digger makes us some nice big holes.


There it goes! Into the hole!

Tayla gives the first shade tree the thumbs up.

A view of the tree from the playground. When the trees get bigger they will give us lots of shade.

Britney helped plant and water the Japanese maples.

Here are all 4 of the new trees. We have 2 great smelling magnolias with pretty flowers and 2 Japanese Maples that have beautiful glossy green leaves. The Maples will grow faster than the Magnolias. The Magnolias will get really big over a longer length of time. We need to water our new trees every 2-3 days untill they are well established. As you can see, the trees are giving us some small patches of shade already.

Last week Selwyn School helped promote road safety and "Make It Click" by getting buckled into a super long seatbelt.

Pirate Day!!

A couple of weeks ago we celebrated Pirate Day. Originally Pirate Day was going to be used to raise funds for the Student Health Squad Shade Fund, but we decided to do it just for fun! We had hundreds of pirates all over the school and even flew a pirate flag for the day! We did heaps of pirate activities throughout the day. At lunchtime there were a lot of pirate "battles" happening all over the playground. The staff and students all had a great time! We are definitely having Pirate Day again next year.

Vote here!!

So, to prevent any ideas of self promotion (as opposed to health promotion - sorry) from Selwyn School, I just thought it was worthwhile mentioning that they have only gone and become a finalist in the Keep New Zealand Beautiful schools section! No doubt this is in part driven from the HPS team and their endeavours to build a strong, vibrant, resilient and healthy school community!

The voting open on the 4th November here - it would be great if the other schools in the cluster could get online and support one of our colleagues!!

Donna unavailable for two weeks

Hi all, it is with regret that I have to report that Donna will be unavailable for a couple of weeks, as she is recovering from injuring her back. I am sure you will all want to wish her a speedy recovery. This means that the planned professional development meeting for November has been postponed; in the interim all school matters will be looked after by Ian - he can be contacted by email or on 07 349 7267.

HPS recommended for all Victorian Schools!

Quick update on something some of our schools were involved in. Just under a year ago we were visited by member of parliament from Victoria, Australia who were looking at how to best improve health and well being within their schools. Needless to say HPS has been identified as the way forward for all their schools; the full report on what they found is available here - a couple of our schools get a very brief mention, but their observations are interesting!!

The Accreditation Website is now active

The all new Toi Te Ora Public Health HPS Accreditation website is now live; the site, which is available for all schools in our region, features a variety of tools and resources that you may wish to use to support HPS in your school. In addition there is information on how your school can become accredited.

Road safety

It seems everyone is adopting the Health Promoting Schools Philosophy within their work! The New Zealand Transport Agency has just launched their new online Road Safety resources, and guess what, it too features a whole school approach.

The new website can be accessed here.

McCain Veggie Patches

The McCAIN Vege Truck visited our school to give us some advice on how to get the best out of our vegetable gardens. Tony, the vege man, spoke to the envirogroup about what to plant, when to plant, and how to care for the veges as they grow.

The McCAIN Truck

Our Back Gardens. Tony gives Whaea Karen a few tips.At the Community Garden

Now this is a simple message about getting outdoors!

Last Friday was Alphabet Day at Selwyn School! Each class had a letter of the alphabet that they drew out of a hat. Children participating came to school dressed up as something beginning with that letter. Most of the staff participated too. Everyone who joined in on the day also brought a gold coin donation for the Student Health Squad 'Shade' Fund. We made $200.00! Woohoo!

Whaea Carey also sold some greeting cards that were donated to us, at the Saturday Garage Sale and raised another $60.00.

We have now passed the $1,000 mark!

Our Visit To Oderings Garden Centre

Today the Student Health Squad visited Odering Garden Centre to find out about evergreen shade trees for our adventure playground.

We found out about Rhododendron trees and Magnolia trees. They have beautiful flowers and keep their leaves all year round, so if we plant them close to the playground they won't make a huge mess all over our equipment in autumn.

When they are established they should grow big enough in 3-4 years to give us shade that will help protect us from harmful UV rays.

If we sink some sort of barrier into the ground we will be able to direct the trees roots away from the playground so they won't damage the matting.

When the trees are still small we will need to protect them with stakes and wind break cloth so they won't get damaged. We think we will paint the wind break cloth with pictures so it looks good.

If we plant our trees this spring, they will have the Christmas school holidays to settle in before the students come back and start playing around them.

NEXT STEP:

Now we need to draw a plan of where the trees will go and what we want the area to look like when it is established. We'll keep you posted.

Introducing Manaaki!

Hi Everyone
My name is Manaaki and I have joined the Selwyn School Student Health Squad.
I am going to visit classes and find out what healthy things the students and teachers of my school get up to. I have a diary that children can write and put photos in, of all my adventures. I will blog my adventures too, so you can see what I find out about health at Selwyn.

Selwyn School Student Health Squad Newsletter, Volume 1.

Hi All
Here is our first official Student Health Squad Newsletter. It is going out to all families this week. Very exciting!


SHS Newsletter 1 -

Apple Slinkys!

Just a tip for schools who have access to apples and pears. Apple and pear slinkys are selling really well at our school for 50 cents each and are a great fundraiser. Slinky machines can be purchased on the internet at http://www.ezipeelers.co.nz/index.html for $25.00 each and pay themselves off in no time!

HPS Banner finds a permanent home...

We have finally hung our HPS Banner. It has found a permanent home in the Community Learning Centre where EVERYONE can see it. Looks good too! Thanks Mr Dan for hanging it up for us :)

PJ's Day at Selwyn...

Well PJ's Day was a huge success at Selwyn. The Student Health Squad thought up the awesome idea of having a PJ's Day to help raise money for a new shadesail for our adventure playground. The middle school designed awesome posters on the computer to advertise the event around the school.

We sent home several notices over a couple of weeks as well to let parents know PJ's Day was coming up.

These pictures are of Room 12 getting into the spirit of PJ's Day. A lot of the staff wore their pyjamas too which was cool. Everyone who participated brought a gold coin donation. We raised $364.30.

AN AWESOME EVENT!

Wacky Hair Day at Selwyn School

Here are some of the posters we made to advertise Wacky Hair Day.

Here is some of the awesome "Wacky Hair" we had at Selwyn School on Wednesday. The Student Health Squad raised $270 for a new shade sail for our adventure playground. Great start to your fundraising SHS! We can't wait for your next adventure.

Useful Information for School Newsletters

Hi everyone, Toi Te Ora Public Health has just published a couple of information sheets that may be useful for your parents, especially as we head into winter. As you will be aware our home environment can often be a factor in our health and wellbeing. These newsletter provide an overview on home ventilation and on mould.

Mould in homes

Ventilation - improving air quality in your home

These can be saved as PDF files and can be copied into newsletters; also you could simply include the hyperlink.

Our Hui

Thank you everyone who attended the PD Hui at Malfroy School!

Apart from the rain, I have to say everything was thoroughly enjoyable, with Malfroy School providing a great venue for our hui.

The success of the day can be measured by the comments made by the group; whilst the list below isn't a full record of the sentiments of the group (there isn't enough space), the general positive themes were

• It was great to meet new people
• I enjoyed meeting other HPS schools
• Learning how to help OUR school
• I learned things to take back to my school
• Bonding with students from other schools
• Mixing with students from other schools
• Lunch - yum!! (featured on nearly every evaluation!!)
• Lots of examples of how HPS works
• I learnt more about HPS
• The guest speakers showed us how they improved their schools
• The speakers were cool
• HPS is more than just being healthy
• We felt valued for the work that is being done

The birthday activity was also very popular (not with the teachers though, who didn't want to reveal their ages!)

Of course things can always be that little bit better - some of the dislikes were as follows (and we do listen to this feedback and will try to incorporate the student comments for the December hui)

• Sitting on the floor was uncomfortable


• Would have been nice to do more physical activities (common theme - it is noted that the facilitators promised a jump jam and didn't do this!!)


• Could more schools come?


• Shorter speeches


• Too much to take in/too much listening (which would equate with the need for more 'doing'?)


• Go outside for fresh air more often


• More small group activities needed


• Less adult talk


• Microphone or speaker system so we can hear speakers better


• Outside activities please.

For Donna and I the most impressive thing were the contributions made by the students via their group activities. In the morning the students were a little hesitant as they found their feet, but by the afternoon the barriers were down and the collaboration was high, and it was really evident that friendships had been developed.

Kerrilee from Mangakino shares her experiences

So, to conclude, thank you to everyone who made the day a success, Mrs. Timpany and the staff and students of Malfroy School, the teachers who brought the students and our two wonderful presenters Kiara and Cody.

What a wonderful day!

Thank you everyone who attended the PD Hui at Malfroy School!

Apart from the rain, I have to say everything was thoroughly enjoyable, with Malfroy School providing a great venue for our hui.

The success of the day can be measured by the comments made by the group; whilst the list below isn't a full record of the sentiments of the group (there isn't enough space), the general positive themes were

• It was great to meet new people


• I enjoyed meeting other HPS schools


• Learning how to help OUR school


• I learned things to take back to my school


• Bonding with students from other schools


• Mixing with students from other schools


• Lunch - yum!! (featured on nearly every evaluation!!)


• Lots of examples of how HPS works


• I learnt more about HPS


• The guest speakers showed us how they improved their schools


• The speakers were cool


• HPS is more than just being healthy


• We felt valued for the work that is being done

Of course things can always be that little bit better - some of the dislikes were as follows (and we do listen to this feedback and will try to incorporate the student comments for the December hui)

• Sitting on the floor was uncomfortable


• Would have been nice to do more physical activities (common theme - it is noted that the facilitators promised a jump jam and didn't do this!!)


• Could more schools come?


• Shorter speeches


• Too much to take in/too much listening (which would equate with the need for more 'doing'?)


• Go outside for fresh air more often


• More small group activities needed


• Less adult talk


• Microphone or speaker system so we can hear speakers better


• Outside activities please.

For Donna and I the most impressive thing were the contributions made by the students via their group activities. In the morning the students were a little hesitant as they found their feet, but by the afternoon the barriers were down and the collaboration was high, and it was really evident that friendships had been developed.

Fundraising for a shade sail begins...

Today in our SHT meeting we decided to start our fundraising for the shade sail we need for our playground. The playground is awesome, but is right out in the open, and it gets really hot playing there in summer. We are a SunSmart school so we need some shade over it.

In Week 5 we are going to have a "Wacky Hair Wednesday" and in Week 7 we want to have a "PJ's Day" where we all wear our pyjamas to school. Anyone can participate for a gold coin donation.

In June, the Kreative Kidz are having a day to promote the Community Garden, so we are going to have a toy sale stall on that day. If you have any old unbroken toys you don't need or want anymore, please donate them to us to sell at our toy sale. Thanks.

Our finished Health Promoting Schools banner.

Here is our finished banner! It explains what HPS means to our community. We have combined ideas from parents, staff and students.

It says...

What? A HPS encourages Hauora – mental, physical, social and spiritual wellbeing.

How? Everyone working together to achieve community based health goals.

Who? Parents / Whanau / Students / Staff / Friends / Family / Health Professionals.

Why? A H P S = strong, brave, caring, unique, happy, successful lifelong learners.

We have also included our school's core values of Care, Effort, Fairness, Integrity and Respect.

A Student Health Team's work is never done...

Today we put the finishing touches on our HPS banner. One of our teachers, Mrs Ball, has just learned to quilt so she is going to flash it up for us!

Putting ourselves out there!

Today the Selwyn School SHT started work on a new banner that tells the community what Health Promoting Schools means to us. This is what we have done so far....

....and we'll post the finished banner when it is done.

We were all at the meeting today so we had a fun photo taken that we will use to get our faces out there, so the other students know who we are and who to ask if they have questions or ideas about health.

Watch this space!