We had a fabulous day in town on Monday. It was so good to be able to contribute to a practical action, which will benefit our community. We continue to be all action in the Intermediate Hub. Read on for important messages.

Summer Tournament Tomorrow

There are 37 children competing in a day-long tournament at Hagley Park and Wilding Park tomorrow. It is essential that every child going to the tournament has a sun hat and water bottle with them tomorrow, as well as their lunch, snacks and sports uniform. Tomorrow is forecast to be very hot and so any child without their sun hat or water bottle will need to stay at school. We are meeting in the hub at 8.15 for a gear check and then boarding the buses at 8.30. Tennis players may arrive at school at 8.30 as we are traveling by car to Wilding Park and have a later meet time. 

Top Team

Next Tuesday afternoon we have our Top Team event. Children need to bring a change of clothes: shorts and a t-shirt. They will get wet. If it is a cooler day, a polypro is a great idea.  Wearing togs, with a rash top, works really well. Children should also pack a towel. At the moment we have 8 confirmed helpers and we need 9. Confirmed are: Mary, Leigh, Kate, Nicola, Anne, Tim, Jack and Ellie. We need one more. Rory, Philippa and Peter were down as maybes. Can you please confirm if you can come.

Canterbury Triathlon

If you have a child who can swim, bike and run, has great endurance and loves a challenge, they may like to enter the Canterbury Triathlon.  Click here for more information and to sign up.

Long Jump

If the weather is cooperative, a group of our students will be walking to Hillview to compete in long jump on Friday afternoon. We need two parents to walk with this group. Please email Jenny if you are able to help.

Zone Athletics

Next Monday is Zone athletics at Hansen Park. The 30 children heading to zones will meet at school at 8.30 for a gear check and then catch the bus to Hansen Park. Sun hats and water bottles are again essential items. The day can be long and so a book, sketch pad, travel game or similar is recommended to help pass the time between events. Balls of any kind are not permitted. If you are able to help supervise children during the day, (even if it is just for part of the day), please email Jenny.

We made a difference!

Many thanks to Simon, Peter and Anne for accompanying us on our trip to Ōtākaro Orchard, Tūranga and Margaret Mahy playground on Monday. The day was a huge success. 'I never knew a library could be so much fun!' was the quote of the morning. The competition for the longest root system was a great way to keep the troops motivated while weeding at the orchard. Peter was very thankful for our 90 children who spent a total of 2 hours weeding. They made quite an impact. We were the first school group to work at the orchard in this way.

Longest weed winners in the afternoon.

An orchard for our city in the heart of Christchurch.

Impressive root systems were uncovered.

Over the past week, we have been interviewing Year 7 students who have applied for House Captain and Student Council Exec positions for 2019. We had 30 people applying and the group interviews saw fabulous attitudes and ideas. Actually, the whole year has been a bit of an 'extended interview', as we have watched how the children responded in a wide range of situations.

Our current Year 7 cohort has an interesting gender distribution, with 18 boys and 41 girls. 3/4 of the people applying for positions were girls. This year we have decided to move away from our traditional approach of having one boy and one girl as captains/deputies of each house. Our appointments reflect the gender distribution of this year group.

Being selected as a House Captain means that you may need to change house for your Year 8 year. As yet we have not looked at houses and will sort this later.

House Captains for 2019:

Freddie
Ben
Emily E
Vienna
Maddi M
Gemma
Sophia B
Meg

Deputy House Captains for 2019:

Jack
Arran
Dom
Ella C
Roxy
Morvern
Samantha
Matilda

Student Council Exec:

Chairperson: Lucy
Secretary: Paolo
Treasurer: Helena

Te Reo Champion (new role): 

Maia Davis
One area our school will be giving more attention to in 2019 is the use of Te Reo Māori in a simple and integrated way, so that whānau, staff and students can learn and use it together.  Our Te reo Champion will play a pivotal role in supporting us all to make this happen.


Part of the interview asked the children to reflect on our Year 8s: who they had been impressed by and for what reasons. It was heartening to hear such positive reflections about a wide range of our Year 8 students. We realise that being a house captain or on the council exec has been a long time ambition for many students. Those who have not been appointed will feel disappointed. Disappointments can be an opportunity to develop resilience and set new goals. There will be many more leadership opportunities available at the start of next year. Listening to the children at their interviews, we could see lots of potential School Ambassadors.

The house captains, council exec and Te Reo champion will attend 'Be Inspired', a leadership afternoon at Christ College on Wednesday, Nov 14. This is the proposed strike day. We will need parent support with transport and accompanying the children during the afternoon.

Key reminders for our trip to Ōtākaro Orchard and Tūranga (library) on Monday Nov 5th:

• Leaving school at 11am and returning by 3pm
• Bring lunch and water bottle
• All children must have a sunhat and sunscreen
• School uniform is to be worn, including a jacket
• Children are encouraged to bring a trowel and gardening gloves if they have these
• Children may bring their library card if they would like to issue a book from Tūranga