Northern Southland College

25 February 2022

Kia ora koutou

COVID continues to dominate our day-to-day operations at NSC. Students and staff are getting used to wearing masks and following safe hygiene practices. We are ready for when (not if) we have a positive COVID case at NSC. Guidelines around who is a close contact of a positive case have changed. You may be aware that yesterday the government announced that as of today we have moved to ‘phase three’ of the COVID Omicron response. The Ministry of Education will send updated information as to what this means for schools. I will inform families via our school app and facebook page of any significant changes.

Please do not send your child to school if they are the slightest bit unwell (sore throat, runny nose, cough, headache). Contact your medical practitioner or Healthline (0800 611 116) for further advice if required.

If your child tests positive for COVID please contact the school immediately. If you have any questions or queries please about COVID and how we will respond to a case at NSC please call me to discuss.

We all had a great day on Wednesday at our School Athletics Day. It was unfortunate that families could not come and watch under the current COVID settings. Hopefully this will be the last Athletics Day with these restrictions. Thank you to our community members who volunteered to help. We appreciate your support.

Congratulations to Adam Bayer and Tiarahi Kamo-Boyce for breaking an Age group record, and to all students who gave it their all on the day.

Finally, we have noticed that some students have been bringing ‘fizzy’ drinks and energy drinks to school. NSC is a ‘water only’ school. Students who have a ‘fizzy’ or energy drink at school will be asked to hand it over to be returned at the end of the day.

Ngā mihi

Pete Wilkinson

• Year 9 Camp - Monday 28 Feb - Friday 4 Mar
• Loves Me Not - Tuesday 1 March - Year 12 Students
• Year 12 English/Biology trip to Riverton - Tuesday 22 March
• Attitude Programme - Monday 4 April 10am -1.30pm
• End of Term 1 - Friday 15 April

To ensure you don't miss out on important information from the College, please check your junk/spam folder. Our address now ends with "nsc.school.kiwi", so if you do find them there you will need to mark as "not junk mail" so that future correspondence goes to your inbox.

This needs to be checked regularly as each new teacher will mean a new email address that could be going to Spam.

Information from teachers has been sent out regarding course plans for the year and Fortnightly reports have also been sent twice this year.

Statements will soon be emailed out to parents also.

On Saturday 12 February, 10 NSC students headed to Waimumu to compete in the Otago/Southland Young Farmers Regional Final. Kate Bennett and Grace Duthie finished 3rd in the Junior Farmer of the Year competition. Chase Vande Sandt, Gordon Bradley and Jimmy Roy made it into the top 7 for the Agrikids so competed in the final race off. Well done to all the other contestants too!

Last weekend Gemma Bulleid represented NSC at the Otago Southland Secondary Schools Water Ski Champs and placed 2nd in the Under 16 girls event. Congratulations Gemma!

On Wednesday 23 February we held a very successful athletics day with the students and staff getting outside in the sun and having a great day.

Congratulations to Adam Bayer and Tiarahi Kamo-Boyce for setting new age group records in the High Jump and Long Jump. Adam beat the old High Jump record of 1.75m by 1 cm, held by P Lyons and set in 1994. Tiarahi won the Long Jump by jumping 4.46m, breaking Graeme Dempster's record of 4.44 set in 1983.

We are proud to be able to announce that Kadia Muir is the successful recipient of the Browns Athletics Society Scholarship. The scholarship awards money to go towards training, development and travel costs as she pursues her dream to compete nationally for Hammer Throw . We look forward to seeing Kadia follow her dream.

We have had a great response with some new players signing up to play cricket for NSC. It's not too late to sign up if you are still keen. Please let Michelle Elder know if your child is wanting to play, or alternatively, follow this link to register your child. https://registrations.crichq.com/register/309060

Practices are Thursdays 3.30pm at NSC grounds at the cricket nets. Subs are $30 cash to be paid to Annabel or Simon Saunders.

We are excited about our first game tonight at Hamilton Park in Gore.

Adults - Thursday 10 March, 7pm

Adults/Year 10-13 - Tuesday 15 March, 7pm

Year 1-6 Thursday 17 March, 4-5pm

Year 7-13 Thursday 17 March, 5-6pm.

All trials will be held at the Mossburn Community Centre. Any inquiries, please get in touch with Sarah Stark, 021 186 2578.

With the Year 7s away on camp the College took the opportunity to run a program for the Year 8 students.

This year the students completed two days doing a program called TOPUCU and a tramp to the Aparima hut on Friday. TOPUCU takes the students through the process of looking at the barriers to setting goals and the tools to help them achieve them. The tramp on Friday was a great challenge for students, to walk the 12 km through various terrain & undergrowth and enjoy the views of our local area.

Jess Mann: "Adventurous, prickly and exciting were the 3 words that I would use to describe the Year 8 walk to Aparima hut."

Well done to the students who took part, and thank you to the teachers and parents that helped out over the three days.

Borland Lodge was the best camp ever. I loved the walks, the laughs, the food and the parents. The cabins were pretty bad because it was pretty cold for me for the first night. My best thing was the massive walks because you get to see the massive cliffs. I would like to come back here again.

Lake Monowai Walk

On the massive walk to Lake Monowai the mud was fun to run in and was really bad in places. My legs were aching so bad it was like there was about to be an earthquake. The lake was pretty cool. The view was amazing. There were geese and we saw a fish. Then we had to walk all the way back again (another 5km). It was much quicker on the way back - we smashed it.

Porridge!

The first day we were there we had porridge. Now it didn't taste like any ordinary porridge but I thought it was going to be like the porridge that Mum makes at home, but nope, this porridge was gooey, slimy porridge and it was warm. We got called up in groups or the people that were the quietest would get to go first. When we went up we would go in line and get a bowl and a spoon and say the amount of porridge we wanted, and silly me, I thought that the porridge would taste like a Turkish Delight but it didn't - it tasted like sticky glue. It was the worst porridge ever!

South Borland Walk

On the second last day of the Borland Lodge Camp some people got to go for a big walk and the others went on a smaller walk that was closer to the lodge. Angus, Amelia and I went on the walk with some other kids. Before we started they had told us the the track was pretty much all downhill but as soon as we got out of the van the walk went straight up. Angus looked at me and said this is going to be a long one, but we got up and set off to do this big walk. When we were about 10 minutes in there was like an overhang made out of lime. Angus said that he might be able to take some of this and sprinkle some lime on his paddocks. We were laughing for a little bit.

About an hour had passed by and we were on a cliff that was about 200 metres above a river. We were throwing in some stones and sticks that we had found on the track and we couldn't even see the splashes that the stones would usually make, but we had to carry on if we wanted to get back for tea. So we walked for another hour and a half and finally got back to camp. The scenery was fabulous. I was really proud of myself for taking on the challenge of the South Borland Track walk.

In the ropes course there were five levels. The first one was easy because you only had to balance along a piece of wood and then jump off. Then there were four other challenges with the most difficult being crossing from one rope to another (in an x shape) without touching the ground. It required a lot of arm strength. Some of us took a long time to master each challenge but we got there in the end.

Overall, it was a fabulous camp and we thank Mrs Leach, Mrs Cullen, Kylie Roy, Carla Swale, Trish Gill, Ang Sheat, Annabelle Saunders and Amanda Russell for making the camp possible.

By Lara Muir, Riley McBride, Cole White & Lachlan Gill

A further reminder that the Ministry of Education will help families that have little or no internet connectivity at home. Please contact the school office so that we can help before any distance teaching and learning occurs.

The Government has extended the increased income limits for hardship assistance until Thursday 30 June.

This means more casual or part-time workers, or people who aren’t already getting financial support, will continue to be eligible for help with their immediate or emergency costs. This is especially important for those who need direct help as part of the COVID-19 welfare response.

People new to MSD can check these links to see the new income limits:

· Special Needs Grant

· Recoverable Assistance Payment

· Advance Payment of Benefit

· then click on our check what you might get guide.

You will be be asked some easy questions about your costs, then MSD will let them you about any Work and Income payments you may be able to get.

Alternatively, if You would like to talk with MSD, you can call:

· 0800 559 009 for working age

· 0800 552 002 for over-65s

· 0800 88 99 00 for students

Interpreters are available.

Please note, income limits for Emergency Housing Special Needs Grants, Transition to Work Grants and the Course Participation Allowance aren’t changing.

The Mossburn District Charitable Trust was formed to provide financial support , with emphasis on improving education, development and the general well-being of local citizens.

Applicants must have resided in the Mossburn District for a period of at least five years, and/or attended the Mossburn School.

There will be two funding rounds closing on 31 August and 28 February of each year. To apply for a grant you must use the official application form. Applications are now open and must be received in writing by 5pm 11 March 2022.`

Please contact the Trust Secretary, Sonya Taylor on 03 248 6360 or bruceandsonya@xtra.co.nz to obtain a grant application form.

If you need to contact the College about a student absence or for a query please either;

Ring 03 248 7121 and follow the prompts, text 027 248 7121, or use the absence feature on the school app.

Parents/Caregivers are also required to give the College notice if students are leaving early. Please do this by either phoning, using the app or texting the above number.

Email: office@nsc.school.nz
Website: https://nsc.school.nz
Location: 51 Maria Street, Lumsden 9730, New Zealand
Phone: 03 248 7121
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/Northern-Southland-College-265321576975475/