End of term three

As term three comes to a close we have a lot to reflect on and be thankful for.  We've had another busy term with a range of interesting activities from welcoming home our Olympic Heroes to getting in and getting our hands dirty in the garden. We've had big announcements from the Government concerning education in the Greater Christchurch area which, thankfully, has not impacted on Governors Bay School in any major way. Through all of this we have continued our fine tradition of excellent teaching and learning across the subject range and this was confirmed by our Education Review Office visit that spoke very highly of our teaching and learning in the classroom.

Our end of term assembly was well attended this afternoon; thanks to all of the parents who came.

End of term assembly

Tomorrow we are having our end of term assembly at 2:30pm, it would be good to have as many of you there as can make it.

Everyone should have received their BYOT agreement form which I encourage you to read and discuss with your child. Some will take this opportunity and others will choose not to for a number of reasons. There's no problem either way as the purpose of the agreement is just to give those who want to bring their technology to school, the opportunity to do so. This will then reduce the number of people needing to use the school devices, thus resulting in greater access for all. They may not be used every day and they won't be available for playing on at interval or lunch; only as a tool when they are suitable.

Shake out

At 9:26 this morning the school took part in the Nation-wide Shakeout.  It was an earthquake drill organised by the Government to have as many people as possible in New Zealand participate in a drill to be prepared should the real thing occur.
I am pleased to report that despite not having had the real thing here for some time, everyone in the school knew what to do and did so in a timely manner. The drill and subsequent evacuation went well and everyone did what they were supposed to.

Paper Making

There was no blog yesterday due to my afternoon meeting with the Ministry. It was a meeting for all of the schools in the 'restore' category and there were a lot of questions being asked with not too many satisfactory answers being given. Fortunately we do not have a lot of quake damage awaiting repair but we do want to continue our classroom upgrades and for those we need to put together a proposal. Our funds for these upgrades have been frozen for a long time so I'm not sure how quickly anything will happen.

Plenty happening at school today from script writing and rehearsals to paper making!

Loud Shirt

Loud Shirt Day went off well with a variety of loud attire on display. We started the day with a range of games and activities such as Chinese whispers and decibel matching. Cory judged the first event, but I must say his criteria were questionable! It was great having the whole school involved and working with their class, house and buddy across the morning.

Kiwi Flyer tonight, see you there.

Kiwi Flyer

The newsletter went online today and copies are available from the office as well.  It talks about the Kiwi Flyer movie on tomorrow night, a great opportunity to see a wonderful movie. Tickets available from the school office. We were fortunate enough to have the writer and director of the movie, local father, Tony Simpson, at school today to talk to us about the movie and movie making in general. It was great to get a behind the scenes look before the grand showing tomorrow night. Helen and the girls looked wonderful on 3 News at the premiere and it was great for the school to have two students and a teacher on the TV looking fabulous. A big thanks to Tony for his visit today and for the generosity of his fundraiser for the school tomorrow night.

Smile

Today there was no technology for the Yr 7 & 8s so the class worked on developing their photography skills as part of this round of 'Rock Our World'.  It was wonderful to see the variety of photos that were taken and the thinking that went in to taking and describing these photos.  They were also able to critique their own work and decide what they would do differently next time.
Piwakawaka have once again been busy in the garden and like all industrious people they know when to ask for help. Hence we had someone in with a stump remover this morning to aid in them. As well as their hands-on work in the garden, a group also visited classes today to outline their composting scheme.  It is great to see the progress being made and the class are to be commended for the work they have done under the guidance of Karen.