Knit One , Purl One-Knitting Revival at Addington

The new Addington Knitters meet every Friday in Miss Blackburn's classroom where they are learning all sorts of knitting, including finger knitting, French knitting and crocheting. 

Miss Blackburn got her husband to put nails into wooden blocks so that the children could learn French Knitting. She says the children have been working extremely hard and all of them seem to enjoy the knitting.

Many of the children take their knitting home and have inspired other family members to take up knitting. At playtime and lunch times you can see children knitting around the school.

The All Blacks Take on Conductive Education

On Thursday, Wayne Smith (the “backs” coach of the All Blacks), Bryn Evans and Neemia Tialata (current All Blacks) came to visit the Pre -School and Primary School Conductive Education children  at Addington.

We asked Wayne Smith if he knew about Conductive Education and he said he had visited lots of times and he thought it was fantastic because it teaches children every day skills. 

It was Bryn and Neemia’s first visit and they were both very excited.

After introducing themselves, the men met all the children and gave them a poster each. Then we all went outside for a game of “tug -of-war” . Conductive Ed verses the All Blacks!!! Conductive Ed WON!!!!! 

Next Bryn and Neemia practised  rugby line outs and scrums with the children. Brittany from our school caught the ball in the line out. Go Brittany!!

Then we asked Bryn and Neemia about being an All Black and they told us that they both get nervous before a game, but that was a good thing. They had both had serious injuries including Bryn’s ankle and Neemia’s problem with his knee and ear. For them, being part of a team was the best thing about being an All Black, especially hanging out with their mates.  

The afternoon was lots of fun and we all got a chocolate frog at the end.

Cuts to Funding Put Conductive Education Under Threat

Funding cuts recently announced in the Budget could have devastating affects on our Conductive Education Unit. Cuts have been made in the money given to our school as part of our therapy entitlement. It is from this funding that we are able to pay our two wonderful conductors.

Our principal Trudy Heath has recently travelled to Wellington to put our case for continuing the present funding for our Conductive Education Unit. The Ministry is keen for the Addington Conductive Education Unit to continue however, without the therapy entitlement, the whole programme is currently under threat.

Search by Author on Google News

Posted by Nemanja Petrovic, Research Engineer

The Google News home page is a good place to go to find headlines from publications around the world. But what if you're interested in the work of a specific journalist in addition to perspectives from different publications? Last Thursday, we launched a feature that highlights the contributions of journalists everywhere by allowing you to find more articles by individual reporters.

If you spot an article by a specific journalist, you can click their name to bring up other articles they've written:



You can also search for articles by a specific journalist under Advanced Search or by searching their name after "author:" in the Google News search box. For example, this feature allows you to follow the most recent stories by your favorite columnists or local journalists. Here I searched for content by Seattle Post-Intelligencer columnist Joel Connelly:



As with any search on Google News, you can sign up to get the latest results through an RSS feed or email alerts.

We're constantly working to increase the ways in which you can interact with the news, and we hope you'll like the new ability to search by author. With over 25,000 news sources crawled on Google News, we value the diversity of perspectives on the news, but there's also something to be said for being able to find and follow the voices of the journalists you like best!

New Pages for Addington Citizen Passports

At today's senior assembly, four children were awarded  Addington Article Reporter pages for their Citizen Passports. These children have had articles published on the school blog, and are now official Addington Article Reporters. Melissa, Damon, Bayleigh and Zane received their pages from Ms Heath. 

Addington Passports recognise children's achievements towards their citizenship at our school. This begins as soon as they start  within the Junior school, and continues throughout their time at Addington. Other awards include, learning milestones, achievements within various school activities, both  sporting and cultural, and leadership roles within our school.

 By the time children leave Addington School at the end of year six, they will have amassed a wonderful collection of pages within their passports reflecting their achievements during their time with us.

Also receiving an award today was Khale for his amazing work as our official "Wet Grass Manager".

Walking School Bus

Addington School has a new school bus. A Walking School Bus!

Every Wednesday morning at 8am children from Addington School are meeting at three different places around the Addington area and walking together to school. The PTA have organised this activity. The children wear reflective vests and walk in lines to school. During their walk they sing, chat and get to meet other children from different classes. 

A-Tunes save best till last

On June 16^th 2009 the Addington A-Tunes performed a beautiful song, ‘Welcome Home’ by Dave Dobbin.

The A-Tunes have been practising every week for the past two terms. The children have all made a huge commitment and showed a great passion for singing.

Every member of the Addington A-Tunes, should be very proud of their performance. Their efforts were outstanding and have been acknowledged by other schools as the standout performance of the night. They received the loudest applause and a standing ovation. Ka pai A-Tunes!