Welcome Back


A very happy New Year to you all! I hope you had a wonderful summer break and an exciting holiday with your child/ren. I am delighted to be your child’s classroom teacher in 2018.


A little bit about me:
I am a South African Indian. I was born in Durban. Islam is my religion, which makes me a Muslim. All of my schooling was done in SA. I came to New Zealand in 2003.  My family consists of my loving husband Khalid who is an accountant at Mt. Richmond Special School. I have a four year old daughter named Maira who keeps me on my toes.


When I was little, my dream was to become a teacher.  I trained in SA and taught at a High School for 2 years, I then came to NZ. This is the third school that I will be teaching at in NZ. I first taught at One Tree Hill College. My second job was at Bailey Road School where I taught Y7 and 8 students. I was there for most of my teaching career. This is my third job and it is also the second time that I will be teaching Y5 students. Although I have been teaching for numerous years, I’m still a student, learning so much from people, and from my students.

Our classroom programme for this term will be as follows:

Unit Study/ Inquiry learning –We begin 2018 with an inquiry unit based on Identity. Mini topics that will be covered will be Healthy Eating, Waitangi, Census 2018 and Commonwealth Games 2018. on how do we express ourselves? What does a successful learner look like?  

Literacy – This term will cover recount, narrative and information report writing. Your child will have regular spelling that will need to be completed at home. Grammar and language features will also be part of their learning to support growth in the English language. In reading, the emphasis will be on guided reading to further develop their comprehension strategies. You can help at home by encouraging your child to read regularly. They may borrow books from our school library, public library and they will also receive free Duffy books. We will also be visiting the public library on Thursdays (odd weeks) starting in week 2.

Maths – In numeracy we will continue scaffolding knowledge and strategies for solving problems using addition, subtraction, multiplication and division. Students will also be learning and consolidating new concepts in Statistics. The testing of their current knowledge in these fields will start in a few weeks. Does your child know all the basic facts and times tables? Please help by testing them regularly on these.

Health & PE - This term Team Whakapono will be participating in the Community Swim Programme at he Manurewa Leisure pools. This is a free swimming programme where qualified swimming instructors will teach important water skills for our children. We will be transported to and from school by the free Community Swim Bus. This 8 week programme will be on a Friday. It starts on Friday the 9th February and ends on Friday 6th April. All students will be required to participate fully in swimming activities this term in order to improve their swimming skills. Large ball skills will be covered this term.


Homework and research tasks - Please support me in ensuring your child completes his/her homework and research tasks on time. Homework will be sent home on a regular basis Work that is not completed during class time may sometimes be set as a homework task.


Children should always be attending school and any absence needs be explained with a note from home if you are either unable to contact the school office or by emailing me with a reason for your child’s absence.

All children are required to come to school in the correct Rowandale School uniform. Hats are compulsory in Terms One and Four.


Please read the weekly school newsletter (can be read on the school website or a copy should come home with your child), as it will keep you informed of upcoming school events.


If you have any queries or concerns regarding your child please contact me during school
time or email me. Our meet the teacher evening is on Tuesday the 20th of February from 3:30-6pm. Nau mai Haere Mai

Yesmeen Rassool
Email: yesmeenr@rowandale.school.nz
Room 23 Year 5 Teacher

Team Whakapono

Comments

  1. Thank you Mrs Rassool for sharing your learning plan for #RPSroom23 2018 ... look forward to more blogs celebrating @RowandaleSchool and your students

    ReplyDelete
  2. Nice Mrs Rassool, I look forward to working beside you this year with our children.

    ReplyDelete

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