Another awesome week in the Intermediate Hub

The children have enjoyed the variety of activities and learning they have been involved in this week. They hung on every word of 'The Good Lie' movie. This gave them a good base understanding of the challenges faced by refugees. Hopefully your child has come home and discussed the movie.

A big thanks to Tracy for her superb organisation of the school swimming sports. Thanks also to the students who helped with media coverage and organisation. Congratulations to all of those who took part. Tracy will be announcing the team for zones once she has processed the results. The south zone swimming sports are on the morning of March 14 at Jellie Park.

Next week is our art week. We are spending every afternoon learning about and creating visual art. The children have chosen from street art, optical art and art using block letter words.

One of the big weekly highlights at the moment are our basketball sessions with the Rams. The children are giving 100% for the full hour and basic skills are progressing really well. Below is a video of the boys' training this week.

Next week we are closing the kitchen, as we have had some issues with children being in the hub at lunchtimes when they shouldn't. Please make sure your child doesn't bring lunch that requires toasting, heating or hot water. All going well, we will be back to normal kitchen operation in week 6.

Dunedin camp is getting closer! We currently have four parents who have offered to join us and we would like two more. If you can be available from April 4 - 8 and would like to spend a week in fabulous company, please let one of us know. The full cost of camp is $315, however the actual cost will be lower than this. We are in the process of finalising fundraising totals and Audrey has applied for a grant to go towards transport costs. As soon as we know the actual cost, I will pass this information on.

A couple of reminders: please check and return contact details sheets if you haven't done so already and  get Year 8 girls' HPV vaccination forms back to the office.

Below is a picture of our Room 16 whiteboard for week 5. This outlines our timetable and may be helpful to have at home for some children, to assist with their organisation. We will include a timetable photo in the blog each week.

Intermediate Hub Update: Feb 19

Leadership
What a fabulous leadership week we have had, with so many highlights. We hope your child has come home with many experiences to share. We are hearing great things about the Year 7s being leaders in Year 1- 4 classes today. The Year 8s have applied the habits and leadership traits we have been talking about, in a range of ways over the past two days. Many of them have taken great leaps in confidence as they worked together in groups to achieve goals.

On Wednesday the Year 8s watched and discussed a TED talk about redefining leadership. We learnt all about 'lollipop moments'. You may want to view this talk so that you can reinforce the message at home.

As part of our exploration of synergy, we looked at the flight formation of migrating geese, with both Year 7 and Year 8. Here is a link to a slideshow that we unpacked with the children. Again, this would be something good to discuss and reinforce at home.

Social Studies
On Monday and Wednesday next week we will be launching into our study of refugees by watching and discussing the movie 'The Good Lie'. This is a PG movie. Check this review from Common Sense Media.

Remembering February 22nd
You are most welcome to join us on the park on Monday, from 12:30, as we stop to remember Feb 22nd 2011.

A big thanks to Simon, Rod, Elise, Mike and Gloria, parents and grandparents who contributed their time and skills to our leadership week.

Looking back on the week...

James teaches us about leadership in a very amusing way.

Year 7s synergise to draw a smiley face.

Using individual strengths to create a water container.

Supporting each other to scale the climbing frame.

Success!

The flying fox challenge.

Discussing strategies.

'Seek first to understand and then be understood.'

Year 8s 'unlock the grid' using non-verbal communication and teamwork.

More strategising

Aaron shares great ideas about goal setting.

'Sharpening the Saw'

Intermediate Hub Update: Feb 12

After two weeks in the intermediate hub, things are humming along nicely. Leadership groups are establishing, reading and maths groups are underway and the children are doing a great job of following hub routines.

Home Learning: Your child should have been working on the maths home learning that they were given on Tuesday. We have been so impressed with the number of children who have handed in this home learning already. Remember to encourage your child to check in with their maths teacher if there is any aspect of home learning that they are stuck on. This work is due in next Friday, Feb 19th. As this is a busy time for leadership week, we suggest they get it in by Thursday morning. Nicky’s maths class have Mathletics to complete at home as well.

Leadership Week: We are all excited about leadership week, Feb 15 - 19. Today Year 8 children brought home their second leadership camp notice, which includes a gear list. If you have not yet returned the permission form, please get this in on Monday. Year 8 food donations for camp need to be brought to school by Wednesday: baking for Coast, cereal for Mountains and a bag of fruit for Forest. Year 7s wear mufti for their leadership day on Wednesday and Year 8s wear mufti on Thursday and Friday.

Leadership Positions: On Tuesday we announced leadership positions. Our aim was to give children 30 points worth of positions. Some got more than this, and those who did not apply for many positions may have got less. Many positions are very popular, with nowhere near the number of positions as there are applicants. As you can imagine it is a tricky task, one we spent considerable time sorting.

It is the aspiration of a large number of children to be a House Captain in Year 8. As this is a high profile position, we need to ensure our House Captains have the necessary leadership skills and are very positive role models. As the children are placed in houses when they first arrive at school, the distribution of strong leaders by the time they get to Year 8, is often not spread evenly across the houses. When appointing House Captains, we look at the leadership qualities of the children who have applied. Sometimes we ask children who are strong leaders if they would like to change houses in their final year to have the opportunity to be a House Captain. This year our leaders were clustered together in a couple of houses and a number choose to move house, to take up this leadership opportunity. Throughout Year 7, potential leaders show us their worth through their personal actions and interactions with others.

Swimming Sports: This event is less than two weeks away, on Feb 25th. If your child has entered, they have been given a notice, which you should have seen by now. Please check their bag if you haven’t seen it.

Dunedin Camp; Please let your child’s home-group teacher know if you are keen to be a parent help on our Dunedin camp.

Some of our week in pictures...

Learning about the second 'habit': begin with the end in mind.

First basketball coaching session with the Rams.

Passion foodies chomp into their yummy stuffed potatoes.

Passion photographers explore take pictures using a variety of camera angles.

Can't wait for next week and all the fun and learning it will bring!