The children are doing a great job with their speech writing. Most are either finished, or nearly finished. Please ask your child to show you their speech so far. On Monday, we will be getting speech cards printed and will spend time practising presenting. The bottom line is that speeches need to be finished this weekend.

Tomorrow, Saturday, we will be reading through what the children have written and will give final feedback. Please encourage your child to complete their speech writing and to spend some time practising their presentation at home.

Well it is all go in the Intermediate Hub at the moment! A big thanks to those students who took part in our open evening for Year 6 families last Monday evening. We were very proud of how well the children spoke and the confidence they displayed. Our ski trip on Thursday was a real highlight for many. Watching the children's persistence and enthusiasm on the slopes was heart warming.

Cantamath

Yesterday, Cantamath projects arrived at school. The standard of the work was most impressive. I will include some pictures at the end of this post. Many thanks for the encouragement that you provided at home with this work.

Next Wednesday, the whole hub will head off to Horncastle Arena at 9am, returning at 10:30am, to view the Cantamath exhibits. This will help with ideas for the future and we can celebrate the successes that we think many of our students will achieve. A request for a donation of $2.50 towards this trip will be added to your school account.

Speeches

As you are no doubt aware, speech writing is a key focus in our hub at the moment. The children are writing stories that are either original, retold or retold with a twist. These speeches need to be finished by this Friday. Tomorrow would be the perfect opportunity for these to be worked on at home. Please, encourage your child to share their speech with you. The competition guidelines state the speech should be 3 minutes (no more than 4) long. On Thursday we will look at presentation tips. Next week on Monday and Tuesday there will be opportunity for practising the presentation of speeches. Interacting with the audience, making use of pauses, including gesture and speaking clearly at a steady pace, are all important things to practise. Previous feedback encouraged the children not to place emphasis on memorising their speech and to instead put more focus on delivering their speech in an engaging manner.  The more opportunities to practise at home the better. Speeches will be presented to home-groups on Wednesday and Thursday. Any child who feels they cannot present their speech to their home-group has the option of recording their speech as a video, which the home-group will view. Finalists will be selected from the home-groups to compete in our Year 7 & 8 Speech Final on Monday afternoon, August 27th. We have two teachers from the English Dept at Cashmere High School coming to judge this competition.

Hockey

Every Tuesday afternoon Will works with the children to develop their hockey skills. Here are some photos from today's session.

Just a reminder that Cantamath projects are due on Monday. This may mean a bit of work over the weekend! When projects arrive at school on Monday, they need to be put in section groups in the maker-space. All projects need name and home-group written on the back. We will mark the projects and select which ones will go through to the Cantamath competition at Horncastle Arena, on August 22nd.

Many thanks for your encouragement and guidance with these projects. We are excited to see what the children have created.

What a day! The sun shone, the wind didn't blow and the children made the most of this wonderful opportunity to enjoy a day in the mountains. We saw so many examples of children embracing challenge and absolutely glowing in their achievements. I don't think there will be much trouble falling asleep tonight. A big thanks to all of the parent helpers who helped make this such a special day.

Ski Day Tomorrow!!

I have spoken with the schools' coordinator at Mt Hutt today and she is fairly positive about the mountain being open tomorrow. We won't have absolute confirmation until the report comes out at 6am. By then most of you will be on your way to school. Here are some final important reminders:

• Check the previous post for gear list and plan for the day. 
• Wear sports shoes.
• Bring a hearty lunch and drink bottle.
• Children may bring a small device, with your permission, for photos and entertainment on the bus. We are not responsible for looking after these devices.
• Some money for the cafe is permitted, but children are responsible for this.
• Be at school by 6:10am. Children check in with home-group teacher and then board the bus (or car).
• We meet at the staff carpark on Sandwich Rd.
• We should return by 5:45 - 6:00. I will send an email with more accurate ETA, when we are on our way home.
• If you need to contact us urgently, contact Nicky on 0276229403

Kitchen closed until next Thursday:

Due to some silly inside behaviour at lunchtime, we will be closing our hub kitchen for one week. Please make sure your child's lunch does not require heating, toasting or boiling water, until next Thursday.