Term 2: Week 5

Field Trip to Wellington City

A couple of weeks ago the syndicate jumped on the bus and headed to Wellington City. We had two locations on our itinerary; firstly Carter Observatory to get the 'juices flowing' for our inquiry on Space Exploration then to Te Papa to visit the new WW1 exhibit 'The Scale of Our War'. Both events were extremely entertaining and thought provoking. We were all particularly blown away by the giant models in the WW1 exhibit created by Weta Workshop. They looked so real, almost like they were about to come to life!

Using WW1 to inspire our writing

After visiting Te Papa some of the students used the stories from the real life characters in the exhibit as motivation for their own diary writing. Check out Saxon, Rosa and Joshua who presented theirs in assembly.

  Shrinking the Solar System

To start our Space Exploration inquiry for Science we wanted to get a sense of just how huge not only our solar system is but the entire galaxy. Often one of the best ways to get a good understanding of massive distances is to actually shrink things down in scale then relate it to what we already know. In this activity we shrunk the Sun to have a diameter of only 1km. We then scaled down all the distances each planet is from the sun to match. We used Google Maps to show the orbit of each planet. Below are some examples from Samantha in Room 24.

SPARKS - PPP

Last Friday was our final session on our Personal Passion Projects. We all had so much fun with these projects. It has been amazing to see such a huge variety of topics studied and seeing everyone so engaged in their learning. This week is a time to reflect on the learning journey before we share our work with the everyone. On Friday 6th June we are inviting parents and students to come and see our wonderful projects but if you can't wait, here's a taste on what will be on offer - an interesting proposal by Kieran and a brand new Jump Jam dance by Rosie and Helena. Top job guys!

Term 2: Week 3

We have made a great start to Term 2 in the Senior School. The students are full steam into their learning and the teachers have been super impressed with the commitment they are  giving to their work. Below are just a few of the highlights from the past fortnight in the Year 7/8 team.

OnTV - Across the Trenches.

Last Wednesday Ruth Hooke took her Technicraft group across the harbour on the ferry to visit the OnTV studio at Capital E. In this cycle the group had to learn a detailed script focusing on the events of WW1. They not only had to present in front of the camera, they needed to co-ordinate EVERYTHING behind the scenes - not an easy task, especially in such a short time period!

 

... and check out the final product - well done team!

 

 Wacky Hair Day

Last Tuesday our charity team organised a wacky hair day for the school to raise money for the hundreds of thousands of people displaced from the devastating earthquake in Nepal. Working with the East Harbour Kindergarten we raised $1007.40 for the Red Cross Nepal Appeal funds. Excellent effort on the crazy hair styles too everyone!

Writing

At the beginning of the term the students have been focusing on developing their creative writing skills through a series of 'quick writes'. They have been using a variety of tools for motivation such as interesting YouTube clips and images that get the imagination charged. Here's a couple of samples from Room 24. Great job Eva and Josh!

Monkey Symphony by Josh

I ripped the dusty sheet off of the worn piano. My colleague, a burly gorilla by the name of Sherman, looked at me encouragingly before stepping back, listening for the marvellous music soon to come out of the piano. I sat down on the wooden stool, and it creaked like an old cabin in the woods. My fingers brushed some dust off of the old ivory keys of the piano, and I settled into a position I so remembered. Hearing my friends melodious song, I waited for the right note, and my fingers touched the cold ivory keys.

I began with a more upbeat tune of the original song, which alerted my friends mother and teacher. As she neared the curtain, I stopped, and sucked in a breath as big as a whales, waiting... no... hoping for a reply as I hid behind the curtain, obscuring me from the stage he was on. And then I heard it, like water to a man in a desert, I was instantly listening, sucked in by the tune. I could hear the footsteps of his mother getting closer to him, and as he stopped, my fingers came down for another reply. Sherman pulled up the curtains as we began to play on different pianos but as one, a melody of music, a storm of sounds. Ever more reassured by the sight of each others face, we began to play faster, stronger, like a forest of trees, roots interlocking and sharing nutrients, becoming stronger with each other. Sherman blocked my friends teacher, as she targeted me as the one who destroyed her forced march of a song.

My fingers danced across the pianos surface, and made the song like an ever-evolving creature, never stopping for fear of getting left behind. A harmony of sound burst from the two instruments as I channeled my emotions into the song, my sadness, my fears, and my happiness for us finding each other once again. Even Sherman, a normally very closed off gorilla, was dancing to the beat of the song, like a bull on a bad day. My friends teacher marched off, disgusted with both of us.

Finally, he stopped, and I heard his footsteps coming closer, gliding across the ground like a bird in the treetops. He sat down next to me. No words were needed, as we played together, just like old times. We forgot the troubles of the world, forgot the teacher, forgot everything, all that mattered, was the piano in front of us, and the beautiful music spouting from it like a waterfall.

Forest Writing by Eva

He hadn’t spoken a word, and yet I knew exactly why he’d led me here.

I reached for the tree trunk ridden with layer upon layer of frosted fungi, the ice seeped through my loosely knitted glove and left my fingers cold and uncomfortable, much like the rest of me. This place brought back unwanted memories, nightmares that gave the same panic and distress every evening, “There was nothing we could’ve done...I'm s-sorry”, I whispered, leaving a faint cloud of breath that loomed over my head, hung in guilt and despair. I lifted my chin a little to watch it slip away, and an unwanted tear fell from my eye as I realised the significance. It was almost as if everything I’d ever had, ever loved, had simply “slipped” away, was I going to lose him as well?

I began to drag my scuffed boots along the sea of autumnal leaves, following the trace he had left with his. I glanced up and saw his silhouette surrounded with hazy blue fog.

I carried on.

I took another peek from underneath my obstructing fringe and between the strands of auburn hair I could make out a rigid figure… this time it seemed he had only moved an inch. I took one last step.

One last look, and… he was gone.

As quickly as the night turns to day, he had left, disappeared like a cruel magic trick. I fell to my knees, this time the tears were intentional, they streamed down my pale cheeks, a crashing waterfall, a salty stream. I threw my head back towards the cage of branches that lined the roof of this unforgiving forest, I cursed and screamed at them, but the only response I was given was a slap of vicious wind, bursting through the vein-like trees.

It had finally happened, I was alone, all alone.

PPP - Personal Passion Projects

For the first half of this term our Year 7 and 8 pupils are spending Friday mornings focusing on their passions. Each student developed a proposal to present to their teacher on a project they would like to carry out for 5 weeks. They were required to plan and manage their time effectively, think about what resources they required, problem solve to overcome challenges and reflect on the progress they are making. There is a huge variety of projects that the students are working on from fishing, cooking and movie making through to science and history inquiries, teaching PE skills and visual art projects. The teachers have been blown away with the motivation of all the students and how well they are managing themselves in a less structured classroom environment. Below are some snaps of some of the students in action. We will keep you posted with progress throughout the rest of the term!