Hillary Syndicate Term 1 2012
Dear Parents and Caregivers, 
Welcome back! A warm welcome to all new students entering the Hillary Syndicate. I trust your children had a lovely safe holiday. We have a busy term ahead of us and the children will be involved in many wonderful learning opportunities.
Points of Interest:
Children will need to be sun smart this term by wearing a school sunhat and applying sunscreen. Each class will have additional sunscreen and children will be reminded to reapply lotion, particularly before swimming lessons.
Swimming will commence in the next few weeks and will be consolidated into a two week block. Children will have three swimming lessons per week and you can make payment at the office, in class or via internet banking. The intention of consolidating all swimming lessons is be less disruptive on classroom learning programmes. Non-swimmers will need to bring a note.
A large number of schools across the country are using 'ability grouping' when teaching Maths. This method is now common practice in our senior and middle syndicates and allows the teacher to group children according to their abilities. Maths cross grouping allows the teacher (1) to increase the pace and raise the level of instruction for high achievers, and (2) to provide more individual attention, repetition, and review for low achievers. The high achievers benefit from having to compete with one another, and the low achievers benefit from not having to compete with their more able peers. The Hillary syndicate will commence cross grouping in Week 2.
Spelling and phonics cross grouping will also commence in Week 2
Each teacher is entitled to classroom release to carry out curriculum work. These days will be spread throughout the term. The Hillary Syndicate will generally have the same relieving teachers for these days to allow for continuity of classroom programmes.
TOYS are not permitted at school. They tend to get broken or lost and are not necessary.
Every child has a book bag for their homework. It is essential that these book bags come to school every day. Children will generally have home reading, spelling and writing related tasks to complete. In the Hillary Syndicate, each teacher may run a slightly different homework programme so please see your child's teacher for further clarification. However, there are three particular values that we do share:
Reading 15 minutes a night is imperative.
Homework should never be stressful or create tension in the home. If so, stop doing it and see you child's teacher.
Homework should be child centred and should not necessarily require parental support. It is absolutely essential that children learn to manage their own learning.
Within the next week, check out the school website as there will be updated information about what's happening in the Hillary Syndicate.
The Hillary Syndicate Parent Evening is coming up soon so we'll keep you posted.
School bell times: The first bell is at 8:45am and all children will need to be in class by 8:50am.
We would really appreciate it if you could purchase a box of tissues for the class to combat the spread of bugs over the winter months.
Old shopping bags are also beneficial as we use them as bin liners.
Children in the Hillary Syndicate are expected to self manage and take responsibility for their learning. It is not the parents responsibility to pick up clothing left behind at the end of the day. It is not the parents responsibility to take down chairs before school, etc. Students are expected to manage everything including replacement of stationary throughout the year, particularly pens and pencils.
Please feel free to get in touch with us if you have any queries regarding your child.