In this post:

• Smart watches
• Arrival time at school
• Tech at South - first day
• PB4L
• 40 Hour Famine
• Sport

Term 1 2022, has certainly been different to what usually happens in our Year 7 & 8 hub. We have been so impressed with how your children have responded to these differences and cancellations, that have been caused by the pandemic. It has also been a tiring term with the wearing of masks and lots of illness. The holiday has been well earned by everyone. We wish your whānau a safe and happy two weeks and look forward to seeing everyone back on Tuesday, May 3rd. Please note that Monday is a staff only day.

Smartwatches

As smartwatches are communication devices, they are not something that our tamariki can have on them during the school day. If a smartwatch comes to school, it will be treated as a phone and need to be handed into the phone box for safekeeping at the start of each day. This is in line with our school ICT agreement.

Arrival time at school

We have noticed a number of children arriving at school very early. This can cause some issues before school. Children should not be at school before 8:30. There are two exceptions for this: on Tuesdays, children can arrive at 8:25 for technology, and on Thursdays, Maths Club children arrive at 8:20.

Technology at South

We are looking forward to travelling to South Intermediate for technology classes from the first day of term two. Unless we contact you to say otherwise, children need to be at school by 8:30 on the first day of term two, Tuesday, May 3rd. 

Positive Behaviour For Learning

We use our PB4L lessons to address any current happenings, concerns or work-ons within our hub. In the past few weeks we have been noticing a trend of students leaving the hub to eat during learning time so we have highlighted the importance of eating a well-balanced, nutritious diet, largely focusing on the food pyramid and what impact each type of macronutrient has on our brain. In addition to this, we have been learning about Ramadan and what this looks like for learners within our kura over the next month. It has been a fantastic way to celebrate our cultural diversity and to reinforce global citizenship. 

Sport

Our sports leaders, Billy and Zoe, have put hours of time into planning a sports event for our hub this term. Despite the weather causing a change of timeframe, our tamariki thoroughly enjoyed playing korfball, spikeball, Kiorahi, Ultimate and T-ball. The encouragement of others and positive sportsmanship have been fabulous to see.

Please click this link to find out about sport in term 2 and indicate if you can help out.

Cross Country: Week 2 Term 2

We are really excited to get back into sports again in term 2.

In term 2 we have cross country on the Tuesday of week 2 for year 5 - 8 children. Inclusion is always a priority as we plan this event and COVID 19 provides another consideration. 

We know that many children will be thrilled about sporting activities resuming. We are also conscious that for people who have had Covid-19, the return to physical activities needs to be done carefully. Taking time to fully recover from Covid-19 and the effect of Long Covidare at the forefront of our minds as we plan our school cross country.  

Participating in our cross country sees many children embracing challenge and pushing the boundaries of their physical endurance. For a healthy, prepared body, this is a great thing. For a body that is recovering from illness, this can impact recovery. 

If your child has returned to school after being absent with Covid 19, we advise that they do not participate in a competitive manner. Instead, our recommendation is that your child walks the course or participates as an event helper. We know that this will be disappointing for some. The final decision on your child’s readiness for cross country at this time is ultimately one for you to make together as a whānau. If you decide your child should not participate in running the cross country for a medical reason (including recovering from having Covid-19), please email their homeroom teacher. If we do not hear from you, we will assume that your child is running/walking cross country on the Tuesday of week 2. 

If your child is well and healthy and intends to participate competitively in cross country, some running practice over the holidays would be a great idea. 

In the post

• If away
• Kauri Learning
• Supporting your child's maths learning
• Basketball
• Outdoor education
• Technology photos

If away

Many thanks to those families who are letting the school know when you are isolating. We would also like to know if a child tests positive. Can you please keep us up to date with your situation by emailing or calling Jacky or Reihana in the office? 

Kauri Learning

Learning in the Kauri hub is ticking along nicely, despite substantial numbers of children being away. A reminder that if your child is at home unwell, or isolating then learning can be accessed via Google Classroom (literacy and Kauri classrooms), Maths-Whizz and activities outlined on our learning at home page. It has been great to see children and parents emailing home-group or maths teachers when they have questions. It is also good to see children using their at-home learning time as an opportunity to get some blogging done for their kete badges.

Supporting your child's maths learning

• We operate a basic facts programme at school which sees the children learning about and practising sets of basic facts each week. This looks different for each child, based on where they are at. In the early stages are addition and subtraction facts, through to multiplication and division facts, and on to finding factors of a number, converting between fractions, decimals and percentages and many other facts in between. We teach understanding of these facts in class and make connections between the facts and key maths concepts. For example, knowing the lowest common multiple is needed to add fractions with different demoninators. 
  
  The children have a basic facts tracker that indicates what they have achieved and four areas that they are working on. In the next week we will photocopy each child's tracker and send this home, so that you can see what they are working on. Practising these facts at home each week will greatly help their progress with acquiring mastery of basic facts. Below is a video of a strategy that is a great quick daily practice for learning times tables. A few children are using this at home each day and they are making great progress. 
  
  
• Children should also be spending 30 minutes at home working on Maths Whizz each week.

Basketball

In the anticipation of the basketball competition at Pioneer going ahead next term, we need to start putting teams together. If your child is interested in playing basketball, they need to fill in the form on Kauri Google Classroom.  The competition runs after school on a Monday or Friday afternoon with 30 min games falling between 3:30 and 6pm. 

Outdoor Education

With camp not happening this year, we are looking at having outdoor education opportunities each term. We are starting to look at options for a term 2 experience and will provide more details once we have something booked. 

Looking ahead to term 3, we have booked in our ski day at Mt Hutt on Thursday September 1st. Now we just need to keep fingers and toes crossed that the Covid situation settles down enough so that the trip can go ahead. Early next term we will put out a form asking for parent help with this trip.

Technology Photos

 In this post:

• Tuesday mornings
• Learning at home
• Guest speakers

Tuesday Mornings

Year 8s created a foot-operated controller.

Learning at Home

Guest Speakers

 In this post:

• Technology on hold
• A great week of challenge and leadership development

Technology at Christchurch South Intermediate

Leadership Week

Builders and architects - Seek first to understand and then be understood.

Inspiring activist, Lucy Gray, got our Year 8s thinking about how they could make a difference.

Ending our Year 8 day with pizza and ice-cream.

Think win win - building elevated rafts to rescue apples from a sinking ship!

Group Initiative Challenges

Time to 'sharpen the saw'!

It was a challenging climb for many and we enjoyed chilling out at Vic Park.

 In this post

• Leadership week happenings this week
• Great start at technology
• Mark Inglis talk
• Great initiative to make a difference

Leadership Week is this week

Technology

Mark Inglis

• It’s all about how I react to what happens.
• I think of new ways of doing things when people say I can’t.
• It’s really important that I take care of myself.
• Sometimes in life, you just have to get on with it.
• It’s how we look at things. ‘The death zone’  should be renamed ‘the must do zone’
• If you're bored - then you're not thinking hard enough.
• Disability does not define my life.
• Fear is about knowledge; knowledge eliminates fear.
• It’s about how we look at things. (I will never get frostbite in my feet again. A broken leg is no big deal)
• When stuck, don’t feel sorry for yourself - work out what you can do?
• Give all people the opportunity to be their best.

We make a difference