newsletter term1 2014

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tines.

Facebook is only for special

activities and occasion photos

such as graduations etc.

Graduations: With many

new families it is timely to

remind of our policy not to

celebrate birthdays as part of

our Islamic philosophy and

respect for families following

this. We do however hold a

graduation ceremony for chil-

dren leaving to primary school

and offer a transitioning/smaller

graduation for children moving

from our under two to over two

classroom. Graduations are

very special and the children

eagerly wait for these special

days. We have two special

gowns for the occasions. Fami-

lies are welcomed to share foods

with the children around their

child’s birthdays each year, but

we focus on the kind gesture of

sharing with friends. We do not

sing Happy Birthday or give

birthday gifts etc.

Swimming Sessions: Just a reminder that we book

the indoor pool for swimming

every Wednesday and Saturday

for women and children, all are

welcomed and are encouraged.

For further information contact

Maysoon on 349 3223 or

Welcome to the newsletter of

Term 1

Staff professional development: Our

centre is involved in a cluster group

within Hornby alongside other early

childhood services, primary and

high schools working with Ministry

to improve outcomes for all chil-

dren. Both Maysoon and Natasha

have been attending these meetings,

and all staff will be involved in PD

provided through this. As part of

our on-going strategic self-review

focus on Literacy (2014-2016) staff

participated in training through

CORE including specialised guest

speakers and a cultural focus on

literacy, which Maysoon gave a

special presentation as well as the

teaching team preparing another

presentation. Natasha will begin

studies towards her Postgraduate

diploma in Teaching (teaching and

learning languages) this coming

semester as her own outside PD.

Curriculum: In term one

we continued our focus on Litera-

cy from last year. This term was

very busy and included our

“wear read for healthy hearts”

day during which children fo-

cused on how to look after their

bodies through exercise and diet

as well as dissecting a heart.

Term Two our focus will be on

the human body following the

group interest displayed from the

children during our red heart focus,

and feedback from families. For

individual planning please view

your child’s blog and give feedback

either by clicking comment, e-mail

Maysoon or directly to staff in per-

son. We appreciate you sharing

your goals and aspirations for you

children with us.

Novita has kindly created weekly

curriculum displays in both class-

rooms to help share with families

what is happening week to week at

any given time. Please speak with

the teachers for more information,

as we follow an emergent curricu-

lum some days plans may change

which will be recorded within the

daily stories.

Islamic Education: Huda observed the

children’s interests and to support the

term focus has planned the Islamic

focus to be around food and manners,

please refer to the Islamic curriculum

wall.

In regards to sessions/formal teaching:

Anar has taken on the Islamic sessions

and Quran planning, displays the

terms Quran verses, and daily

Islamic sessions focus (prophets

stories, pillars of Islam, Doa’s/

supplications), Arabic school

readiness style sessions are taken

by Huda Monday and Friday

this term with her focus dis-

played on the planning wall

weekly.

Fees and Blog

Thank you to our families for under-

standing the necessary changes in fee

structures. As already shared with you

through e-mail, all children will now

have an individual blog. This blog will

be completely private each with their

unique login and password. This blog

will share your entire child’s learning

stories/assessment and individual

education plan (IEP), allowing for

easy access, feedback and sharing. We

encourage you to use the option to

write comments to give feedback, this

may be shared with ERO (Education

Review Office) every three-five years

as required and is helpful. This blog is

completely free and you are able to

print from it if desired.

The optional fee for the blog is for

photos of your child. Usually photos of

milestones or relevant to learning

story/assessment are shared free but to

cover the cost and

time of sorting and

organising photo’s we

offer the additional

service not available

elsewhere. The photos

are added monthly

and show your child

at play, involved in

different sessions

throughout the centre

within the daily rou-

As-Salamo Alaikom! Greetings! Tena Koutou! السالم عليكم

Newsletter Vol. 70, May 2014 General News: Welcome back to

An-Nur, we hope all of our families en-

joyed the summer break and have had a

smooth transition back during term one.

Our staff and families would like to give a

warm welcome to our new classmates and

their family/whānau including: Skye

Lyon, Audrey Logan, Malak Almtutairi,

Khalid Hill and Marium Ruksari in our

under two classroom as well as Kamila

Hill, Asmaa Abdi, Abdiqaliqi Ibrahim,

Marium Ahmed, Zaina Al-Marashdeh,

Muza Jones, Aliya Nursultanova who just

transitioned from under two’s.

Welcome back to Natheer chenafa, Abdul-

lah Russal, Abdullah Jawadeh, Saleh and

Maya Alenzi, and Layan Algarni after

extended leave/holidays, your friends and

teachers have missed you all. We have also

celebrated the graduations for Nadira

Izani, Amal Tani, and Ahmad Quran and

are happy to hear they are enjoying their

primary schools. It is with sadness that we

have also farewelled friends Paskelle Owen

who has left New Zealand and Ali Mann

and hope to see them in the future. It is

wonderful to see our roles growing, and

with this need to remind families if anyone

is interested in enrolling please do not wait

as positions available may not last.

We are also proud to report the opening of

our sister centre in Dunedin has gone very

well, and thank all for the warm wishes

and appreciate the people who were able

to be with us for the opening. The Dune-

din centre has started very well, with

families eager to be part of an Islamic

education for their young children. Rouzi

name is the head teacher and is running

the centre with support from head of

board of trustees and An-Nur manage-

ment.

Thank you: Thank you to all our families

who shared in fundraising and who donat-

ed items, it is always appreciated. Special

thank you to Nusrat for donating bubble

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