Events and visitors to Bluestone

The remainder of this term is shaping up to be very busy. Just look on our website calendar to see the range of activity.

The Minister of Education will tour our school on Tuesday 31 August. We look forward to showing her around and giving her the opportunity to see children in a range of exciting learning activities.

Danyon Loader our Olympic and Commonwealth Games medallist, who was born here in Timaru, will be visiting us on Friday 2 September. He will be promoting the exciting new Caroline Bay Aquatic Centre. We are having a mufti Day on Thursday 1 September so we can make a donation to the new Centre.

We are having visitors from Hartwell School in Melbourne who are keen to see the great things happening here at Bluestone. We look forward to sharing ideas about student learning.

Several staff and Board members are attending a seminar by Joseph Driessen a world authority on Boys Education. This will help us to reflect on what we are doing and on what we could do better.

Our Year 5-8 students are having a school Disco on Thursday 9 September from 6 - 8.30pm.

Our Year 3/4 students are visiting the Rocky Shore and doing a beach clean up on Tuesday 7 September.

Four of our staff are visiting several schools in the South Island over 4 days to look at how Interactive Whiteboards are being used to promote quality teaching and learning. As we have these boards in everyone of our classrooms we want to continually reflect on how we are using them and how we might use them even better.

On Wednesday 15 September TV6 will be at Bluestone to do some filming with Jim Mora. They are looking specifically at the Year 4 students who were presented with super new dictionaries by Rotary. They want to show how these have helped students in writing. Rotary has won a major regional award for their project.

A travelling show called Oceans Alive will be presenting 4 shows to our students on Tuesday 14 September. It is an important link to our studies on sustainability and links to our caring and respect for the environment.

On Friday 17 and Sat 18 September we will have our school community Art and Craft Exhibition which will show children a range of arts and crafts that will interest them.

School photos will be taken on Monday 20 September.

There certainly is a lot happening at Bluestone for your child!

New school vision phrase

Instilling the desire to excel in a challenging ever changing world.

This sums up the intent of our school vision and strategic plan. The word instilling is deliberate as it implies that the values and efforts to excel are embedded and not just something that is aimed for at school alone. If values and attitudes and a desire to learn are to have real value then they need to be part of the students life and extend into all they do both at school and beyond for life.

Parents, students and staff have shaped Bluestone values, attitudes and intentions. It is clear from parents that they want students to excel and to aim high.

Our world is challenging and we want students to be excited and positive about challenges and about taking risks so that they might find solutions to the challenges and changes met in life. We accept that technology has made the world the children interact with global. Social networking sites can be wonderful ways of communicating with a global audience. messages can be spread very quickly. Our students need to appreciate the inherent dangers in such networking as well as the potential.

Our students live in exciting times with huge challenges and constant change. We (parents, teachers, school community, wider community) have a big responsibility to prepare and equip our students for their part. We must encourage great citizenship so that students offer back as well as expect to take and receive. So let's all get behind Bluestone School and give our students the best support and opportunities we can. Let's do our bit to give them the skills and attitudes and values that will help them to excel in a challenging and ever changing world!