Farewell

We've had a busy week with Karen's farewell, Yr 6s in the garden and Tui class heading off to the rocky shore.

Karen's farewell was a lovely occasion and really captured the essence of who she was. As she handed out certificates at assembly it was as if she had never left. She is really enjoying her new job, which is not without its challenges, and was really pleased to be back visiting. It made her realise how much she misses the school and everyone associated with it. Her new job has made her realise just what a wonderful staff we have and how lucky we are with the children and parents we've got here. Thank you to those parents who were able to make it, to the board for their gift and to the PTA for putting on afternoon tea.

Tui class headed down to the rocky shore today but as I was teaching all day I was unable to join them. By all accounts it was a very successful trip with many an interesting and exciting discovery made. I look forward to seeing photos of the excursion.

Swimming

It was a wonderful day for swimming sports this morning. Thanks to everyone who was able to transport the classes up to Living Springs we were there on time and everything ran smoothly. It was an exciting morning with a number of close finishes. The event was well planned by Val and Rachel and the children were well behaved and organised, as usual. Thanks to the parents who were able to transport and be our audience.

Exciting News

When Shane arrived to run the sausage sizzle at lunchtime on Friday he brought with him a package that had just arrived. It was for Chloe and Ruby and contained a letter telling them they had made the last 28 in a video competition on the Erin Simpson show. They also won headphones for making it this far. Their movie, which is a music video of them singing a Nicki Minaj song, will play on the show on Saturday 13th of April and then voting will open. The videos with the top 3 votes go through to the final. I'll let you know voting details when they become available.

Great work, Chloe and Ruby, it is a wonderful video.

Planting time

Jacqueline was back again this morning and the Yr 6s were involved in tidying up a couple of the garden beds and doing the first lot of planting for the year. They then watered the beds and covered them to create the ideal environment for the next few days. It is great to have Jacqueline to share her extensive knowledge and guide us in our endeavours, we are all learning so much as a result.

Variety of work

It's exciting as I go around the school, to see not only the work the students are doing currently but also examples of work they are choosing to do in their own time. Today Riley showed me the wonderful work he has been doing in Moira's class with a report on Sea Anemones, it was beautifully written and showed his deep understanding and interest in the topic. Val's class were engaged in learning a ukelele tune and I look forward to hearing the finished product. In Rachel's class I had a number of students showing me the homework projects they had been working on of their own choice. There are a range of interesting topics and they were all well presented.
Scarlett returned to us today after being elsewhere due to EQC work and she had written an excellent account of her time at Elmwood school, particularly the bit at the end about being so pleased to be back.

 

Garden time

This morning Jacqueline, the Harbour basin food garden facilitator, worked with the year 6s on the gardens. They tested the ph of the soil, investigated the drainage and quality of the soil and made plans to develop the garden over the year. They've got some homework and Jacqueline will be back next week for some weeding and planting. She has some wonderful ideas and we are very lucky to have her working with us.

Swimming

The swimmers did well at the Zone Swimming competitions today. We had Fin, Jono and Luka with a third place and Ben with a 2nd place! Congratulations to our place getters and to everyone who represented the school.

We had a quiet afternoon this afternoon with a number of students at home. My thanks to everyone for making the NZEI union meeting as easy as possible on the school. We'll be back to normal service tomorrow.

I was talking to some senior students in class this morning about a video they had made. We chatted for a couple of minutes and then they said, "Right, we actually better get back to our work now 'cos it's really fun!" You know school's going well when you get that sort of comment, particularly when the work is maths.

Sausages and Buddies

A Friday with Buddy Time and a sausage sizzle, does it get any better than this?

As always, it was great to get around this morning and see everyone working and sharing together during buddy time. It's times like this and our school assemblies where you are reminded of the real family feel that is so prevalent in the school that it can be taken for granted.

Once again the year 8s were busy organising and running the sausage sizzle under the guidance of Shane, the master sizzler. It was a popular option for lunch with an increase on the number sold last time. Thank you to those who were able to get their orders in by Thursday. We are, of course, always happy to take orders on the Friday.

Jono bought a Nerf Vortex to school today. It's one of those things that when you throw it it spins and whistles. Anyway we had some great fun with it and during the lunchtime game I nearly ripped my arm off at least twice trying to throw it as hard as I could.  The accolades however must go to Miss Whiteside who demonstrated why her primary school shot-put record has never been beaten. She definitely is the school vortex throwing expert, although, to be fair, it was more diffficult for me with the shoes I had on. :-)

Have a great weekend!

Late Post

I was busy right up until I left today so planned to post a blog when I got home. Unfortunately when I got here I found someone had broken in today and stolen all of my wife's jewellery.  The frustrating thing is that a lot of it had little value, just sentimental, but irreplaceable.

On a happier note, school is going well and nothing is ever stolen from there, because everyone respects everyone else and their property, it's a lovely environment to be a part of. Once again it was  interesting being in Moira's room today as she had the class role playing different scenarios, making decisions based on what was happening and then finding out if those decisions were good or bad. It was a very interactive and engaging lesson, just one of the many examples of the wonderful teaching we have at this school on a daily basis.

I am at an NZEI meeting first thing tomorrow morning and will be in after that.

I hope everyone filled out their census papers today.
 

Harold

Wife the Life Education classroom here this week, Harold has proven to be as popular as ever with all ages. Not only is Harold a lot of fun but the programmes that are run by Life Education are very worthwhile and it is great to hear children making the connections between what they learn during their sessions with Harold and what they are doing in their own class.