Newsletter - Term 4, Week 4

Friday 11 November: Northern Athletics

Saturday 12 November: Southland Athletics

Friday 25 November: Staff Only Day

Monday 28 November: Year 13 Leavers' Dinner

Kia ora koutou

NCEA exams started this week, so our Year 11, 12 and 13 students are now offsite on study leave. It's been fantastic to see several students working together to revise and prepare for these important assessment opportunities. NZQA has some tips for study from students and teachers while the Study It website has advice on how to study, what to do in exams and even some wellbeing advice.

The staff have been working in professional learning groups recently as we look at some areas of the school that we might like to revamp. For example, this year we have introduced the school app and a new newsletter, but we've yet to use these tools to their full capabilities. Other groups are looking at how we can provide opportunities for students to learn across year levels. This doesn't mean changing our learning programmes that are organised around year levels. Instead we're looking at opportunities for students to engage with areas they are passionate about or would like to learn more about. These potential project based opportunities could be in areas that we don't currently explore in-depth like agriculture, sustainability, getting outdoors, computing, performance, tourism and hospitality and so on. This is an awesome chance for students to work together to understand, explore and do learning outside of the traditional classroom setting. I'll keep you posted on where we get with this, but rest assured that any changes we make to the curriculum won't detract from the high quality learning opportunities that we currently provide our students.

Ngā mihi nui

Steven Mustor

Please note that Friday 25 November is a Staff Only Day, for professional development on the new NCEA requirements.

Staff will be travelling to Invercargill to meet in subject groups - so the College will be closed for instruction.

A big thank you goes out to Max Harrington who was adamant that we should get in contact with Rocket Lab and encourage them to come and visit us. His enthusiasm played a big part in us signing up to the Rocket Labs Space Ambassador Programme.

Last Wednesday, we welcomed Rocket Lab’s education lead, Felicity Powell to our school. Her presentation was very well received by a group of students with a keen interest in all things space. They left the session with a clear idea of the amazing career opportunities space research has to offer to motivated individuals.

In his role as space spokesperson, local MP Joseph Mooney, accompanied by his wife Silvia, also attended the session. He encouraged our students to take advantage of the fact that they are growing up in a country that plays such an active role in space travel.

As part of the 13 PHED course, Meg Wilson, Emma Wilson and Noah Temple planned, organised and ran an overnight tramp into Hidden Falls for our class.

On Friday 23 September, we drove to the Hollyford Road and tramped into Hidden Falls Hut. We were lucky enough to have amazing weather for the two days. A small rogaine was set up to complete around the Hidden Falls hut area. This was followed by a short, cool swim in the nearby river. Our camp leaders taught us all a lot about the area of the Hollyford, and its history. In the evening we were quizzed on this information, as well as several rounds of general knowledge questions. Unfortunately a random couple of trampers who had turned up at the hut actually took the honours in just winning from Mrs Wilson and Mrs Crouchley. Saturday morning was bright and sunny again, and we had a cruisy time walking back out.

A huge thank you and congrats to our leaders - Meg, Emma and Noah who did an outstanding job of planning, organising and running the whole trip. Ka mau te wehi!

The Year 7s are embarking on a new project in Technology (Hard Materials) to make a lolly dispenser. We can't wait to see the designs they come up with. Below are photos of the students learning how different tools can help them with their project.