Sunday, March 30, 2014

Term 1 - Week 8

We are reaching the end of the term in the Senior School but things definitely aren't slowing down. Below are a couple of highlights from the past fortnight. 

War Inquiry.

All our students are well underway with their personal inquiries into their area of interest. There is a huge variety of topic that the students have chosen, from animals during war time to weaponry, famous war leaders to what kind of food was consumed by the soldiers. We have been thoroughly impressed with the dedication the students have put into their work and how they are managing their time wisely so they are prepared for lessons and meeting deadlines.
A copy of the project is available to view on the previous post. As a parent, it would be helpful to have a read through so you are aware of what is expected of your child over the final weeks of the terms. Although all tasks and skills will be introduced and taught in class, it is expected that all students will need to work at home to complete these tasks. 

RSA Essay Competition. 

 Every year our students have an opportunity to enter an essay competition run by the local RSA to coincide with ANZAC day. For the past two years a student from Muritai Senior School has won the overall prize so we are hoping for a similar result in 2014. This year we have had nearly 20 students submit an entry to this competition which is quite remarkable. The topic for this year was: 

  ‘How did WW1 impact on NZ and how did it define NZ as a nation in its own right?’

As you can imagine, not an easy question to answer in a 1000 word essay! Once again, we were blown away with the enthusiasm of individuals to get this task completed in the tight time frame. Will look forward to hearing the results on ANZAC day.

Technicraft 

We have now completed our first 6 week cycle of technicraft. There have been some fantastic bags created in Fabric, awesome clipboards made in Hard Materials, computer programmes developed in Coding and sushi made (and consumed) in Japanese! Mrs Hooke's music group celebrated their learning with a visit to the local Barnados where they preformed to the kids. 




Literacy Quiz

Last Friday Sue Fieldes took 4 of our students; Hannah Moffat, Lauren Redpath, Mia Treadwell-Burke and Freya Neal to the annual Wellington Literacy Quiz in Papakowhai. The girls had a great day out and overall came 9th out of 47 teams. Their best section was 'Non Fiction' where they achieved 10/10. Lauren also received a book voucher for being the only student to answer a question correctly. Go Lauren!

Thursday, March 20, 2014

Student 'War' Booklet

Here's a copy of the booklet every student will receive on Friday. This will help guide them through their personal inquiry process. A key focus for them is to manage their time and take responsibility for their learning.

Student 'War' Booklet

Saturday, March 15, 2014

Term 1: Week 6

Its been a busy couple of weeks in the Senior School with heaps of learning and lots of people out and about representing Muritai! Here's an update on what we have been up to.

Multi Curc!

We completed our first cycle of our Art/Science/Drama/Sport rotation in week 5.

Science 

Ms Coton's group have been getting stuck into lots of hands on science experiments including investigating the difference between acids and bases. Ms Coton has created a new science blog which will be added to as the year progresses. Its well worth a visit: Senior School Science

Visual Art

Mrs Allen's group studied the famous Van Gogh painting Joseph-Etienne Roulin and created their own master pieces. Don't they look great!










Art Extension

Continuing the art theme,  Mrs Allen has also completed a 6 week run of art extension throughout the 3 classes. The students selected have created some outstanding pieces based on work from local artist Suzanne Kerr. Every student needed to portray a message or meaning through their art. The results are fantastic!



Government House

Last week Mr Devenport took 12 of our student leaders to Government House. It was great learning about the job of the Governor General and important role he has in New Zealand. More importantly, it was interesting to learn how well-respected our current and previous Governor Generals are in our society.  It was great fun having a tour around the house the hearing about all the famous people that had visited.















HRSA Athletics 

This week was a big week for sport. On Tuesday Mr. Ranchod took a squad of 34 students to the HRSA athletics meet at Hutt Rec.

We had some great results as follows:-

Year 7 Girls
100m
Macey Caughley 1st
Helena Cvitanovich 4th

200m
Macey Caughley 1st
Sofya Dickson 3rd

400m
Ella Giles 1st

800m
Macey Caughley 1st

Long Jump
Helena Cvitanovich 4th

High Jump
Angelina Hardy 2nd

Vortex
Paige Schroder 3rd

Relay
First

Year 7 Boys
100m
Alexander Cox-Turk 5th

Relay
Fourth

Year 8 Girls
200m
Mia Treadwell-Burke 5th

400m
Mia Treadwell-Burke 5th

800m
Milly Griffiths 5th

High Jump
Emeline Gray 3rd

Shot Put
Brianna Kirkham 4th

Relay
Third

Well done to all our athletes.



School Swimming Sports

On Thursday we had our annual school swimming sports at Huia Pool.There was an excellent atmosphere thanks to our House Captains for keeping the spirits high. Congratulations to our swimming champs on the day:

Year 7 Boy: Callan Hughes
Year 7 Girl: Helena Cvitanovich
Year 8 Boy: Liam Mahoney
Year 8 Girl: Milly Griffiths

... and a BIG congratulations to Room 24 for winning the highly coveted Senior School class relay!



Finally, the teachers were all very impressed with some of the homework completed last week. One task was to create a uniform fit for war. We were most impressed with Noah who came dressed in his war uniform on Friday! Good on you Noah!