What a fabulous week of learning opportunities we are in the midst of! On Monday we were inspired by Ben Atkinson of 'Fill Your Lunch Box', a fabulous leader in our city. Today we spent the afternoon with Zara from Attitude.inc learning about having integrity when using technology devices. Zara will be back next week running workshops to delve deeper into how we can be responsible leaders in the cyber world. The children are responding with enthusiasm and impressive questioning to our guest speakers. Next week, as well as Zara, we have another inspiring leader visiting on Tuesday afternoon.

Important messages for next week:

Monday: Year 7s are to wear mufti as this is our Year 7 leadership day. Year 8 wear uniform as usual.

Tuesday: A normal day, with our guest speaker in the afternoon.

Wednesday: Class photos at Beckenham. No children to be dropped off at Champion street this morning. Be at school by 8:30 and meet in the hall. We will be busing to Champion Street soon after 9am.
Year 8s please bring food donations for leadership camp. Mountains: breakfast cereal. Coast: baking. Forest: a bag of fruit.

Thursday: Year 7 have a normal day at school, with Tracy teaching. Year 8s arrive at school in mufti with gear for next two days. A gear list will be emailed later today and be sent home on paper tomorrow. Year 8 will be sleeping over at school, you will see them again at 3pm on Friday.

Friday: Year 7 meet Michelle in the hall at 8:50am. They will be spending the day at Beckenham, as leaders in junior classes.

Action from the past week:

The Year 5 - 8 Duathlon last Friday was a great opportunity for the children to embrace challenge. Well done to everyone to took part and a big thanks to the parents who helped out. We were also very impressed with the support and enthusiasm offered by those students who were marshals on the course. They did a fabulous job.





After Ben Atkinson visited we spent time reflecting on what he taught us about leadership. Here is Olivia's reflection:



Zara's presentation about being responsible cyber citizens had us thinking, sharing and laughing.

Dear Parents/Caregivers, 

Camp is now a warm and happy memory as we settle back into classroom learning. We were so pleased with the way your children rose to the challenges presented on camp. The Wainui staff also commented on their politeness, at the end of the week. A huge thanks to all the parents who helped to make the week possible, from all the pasta bake chefs, to those who spent the week with us. The children are writing poetry, descriptions or instructional writing, based on their camp experiences. The aim is to compile a book of photos and writing extracts that you can purchase as a memory of the week. More details about this later in the term.

Home learning:

Maths home learning is due in this Friday.

Leadership week:

In week 8, March 20 - 24, we will be running our leadership week. Today all Year 8s left Champion Street with a notice about their two day leadership camp on March 23- 24. Please fill in and return the reply slip, by this Friday. I will copy the text from this notice at the end of this post, just in case you didn't get the paper copy. The Year 7s have a leadership day on Monday March 20th. They may wear mufti on this day. Year 8 wear mufti for the two days of their leadership camp. The whole week will be spent delving into the 'Seven Habits of Highly Effective People', through inquiry learning and practical activities.

Guest speakers:

Next week we have two guest speakers in our hub. On Monday afternoon, Ben Diggy from 'Fill Their Lunch Box', will be interviewed by the children about how he uses the 7 habits in his self sustaining social enterprise. Then on Wednesday we have a speaker from Attitude.inc coming to present to the children. While his talk will discuss self leadership, there will be a focus of cyber citizenship.

Mufti-day:

The Student Council fluro mufti day to support the emergency services who fought the recent Port Hills fires, will be next Thursday, March 16th.

Zone swimming sports:

Good luck to our swim team who will be competing at the South Zone swimming sports next Tuesday morning at Jellie Park.

Toastmasters opportunity:

St Peters School are repeating a very successful toastmasters programme they have participated in in the past, next term. They have room for up to six of our students to join their group. Sessions are from 6-7pm on a Tuesday, for all of term 2. If you would like your child to take part, please let Nicky know by Monday March 13th.

A few final photos from last week...

The Coasteering Crew

Fun at the camp fire.

Year 8 leadership camp letter that was sent home in paper form:

It's hard to believe that camp is nearly over. We'd love to stay for longer, but a few of us are longing for our beds and our own showers. It's a beautiful evening here in Wainui and we are just about to feast on a scrumptious dinner of garlic bread, spaghetti bolognese and s'mores. Then it will be off up the hill to campfire, led by the Wainui staff, who we have very much enjoyed working with this week. Today we kayaked, coasteered, swung high on the giant swing, fired arrows, made rafts, climbed very high on ropes and wires, solved group challenges, made bush bivvis and had lots of fun playing around the camp. Camp has been such a blast. It has been a pleasure to spend the week with your children.

Our day at camp started an early wakeup, so we could be ready for the Egg-cellent Challenge at 9am. We worked in large teams to find hidden instructors and complete their challenges. Based on the points we earned at the challenges, we got bags with equipment to construct an egg protection device, to prevent the egg from breaking when dropped for the top of the high ropes course. If the egg survived, the successful team could crack it over the head of an instructor. Thank goodness one egg made it! After delicious wraps for lunch, we headed off on our third activity in anticipation of more fun and challenge...