Intermediate Term Two Update

Tēnā koutou, nau mai hoki mai | Greetings to you all, welcome back! 

Welcome Rachel Kay

We would like to welcome Rachel Kay to our Intermediate teaching team. She will be joining Kelly Sauerman and Ollie Baker in Hub 17. She brings with her a passion for Literacy, a strong maths knowledge and a wealth of experience in the Intermediate area of the school.

Upcoming connects - Short Progress Updates

Our teaching team will be reaching out to our parents in the middle part of this term, to provide you with a short progress update. 

The connects will be in the form of short phone calls, virtual or in person connects, as appropriate.

Where possible, these progress updates will take place between Monday 20 May - Friday 31 May. 

Please note, if your child has an IEP or other form of connect, the progress update will be part of these already scheduled meetings. 

Puberty Sessions

• Thursday 9 May: Parent Information Evening, 6.30pm - 7.30pm online (Link provided closer to the time)

• Tuesday 14 & Wednesday 15 May: Year 7 sessions - Positive Puberty Plus, and Year 8 Sessions - Confident Kiwis, Sensitive Subjects.

Please fill in this Google Form to help us know how many parents we are expecting for the information evening. 

If you do not wish for your child to attend these sessions, please contact your Associate Principal. 

Please do not hesitate to contact the team if you have any questions.

Action Day (Mountains to Sea) - Wednesday 22 May

Learners will be applying their understanding of their Term 1 learning about water quality, and taking positive action in their community. Our learners have opted into one of four groups; drain art, planting and weeding, rubbish audits, and water monitoring. On Wednesday 22 May, learners will 'take action' and carry out their positive action. 

Action Project Exhibition Showcase (Mountains to Sea) - Wednesday 5 June 

All parents and whānau are invited to attend our exhibition on Wednesday 5 June. Venue and timing to be confirmed. 

Virtual Reality Experience

On Tuesday 28 or Wednesday 29 May our Intermediate learners have an exciting opportunity to participate in a VR experience to support their Mountains to Sea learning and give them a different perspective of the fascinating underwater world that surrounds New Zealand. The cost is $10 per learner and will take place onsite at Stonefields School. 

Here is a short blurb about the provider, Blake NZ-VR:

Launched in 2019, Blake NZ-VR takes travelling educators to schools across Aotearoa with a class-set of virtual reality headsets, delivering an engaging, inspiring, and educational one-hour session to classes. Students experience a number of underwater virtual reality experiences that compare and contrast pristine marine environments with degraded ones. They learn about what causes this damage, as well as what actions can be taken to show kaitiakitanga (guardianship) and protect the marine environment. For more information please visit https://www.blakenz.org/programmes/blake-nz-vr/ 

Payment request will be uploaded to your Kindo account. Please contact the hub teachers if you have any questions.

For the first half of the term, learners will be working on applying their understanding from their term one learning about water quality to their 'action planning' projects. Learners have opted into one of four actions, drain art, planting and weeding, rubbish audits, and water monitoring. A week 6 showcase will be an opportunity for learners to share their information report and persuasive poster about their action. Learners will also create and present a physical or digital artefact that represents or illustrates an environmental problem related to their action. 

After week 6, learners will be building their knowledge about key events in New Zealand's history and exploring the idea that we should 'walk backwards into the future'. 

This term we wil be hosting three assemblies. This is a great opportunity for parents to see everything we've been exploring and learning about in the Hubs. We hope you can join us 2pm in the Hall on: 

• Monday 20 May

• Monday 17 June

• Monday 1 July

Intermediate Parent Writing Workshop

Date and time TBC

We will be running our writing workshop again in term 2. Keep an eye out for communication about the time and place. This workshop will help you understand the writing expectations at a year 7/8 level, and give you some ideas to try at home. 

SchoolTalk Drop-In Sessions

Friday 17 May and Friday 14 June, 3:15pm-4:00pm

Bring your SchoolTalk related questions to the Community Hub during Friday Cafe. 

Parent Workshop - Digital Safety 

Wednesday 22 May, 7-8pm

Join us for an overview of the many tools available to parents and how to provide the guardrails for your child's online activities. We will also discuss the common workarounds that clever kids can come up with. Please come with your specific questions.

• Book Week | Monday 6 - Friday 10 May

• Book Character Dress-Up Day | Friday 10 May

• Friday Cafe | starts Friday 10 May | 3pm

• Visitor Tour | Tuesday 14 May | 9.30am register here

• Pink Shirt Day | Friday 17 May

• SchoolTalk Drop-In Session | Friday 17 May | 3.15pm

• Senior School Assembly | Monday 20 May | 2pm, Hall

• Digital Safety Workshop | Wednesday 22 May | 7pm, Te Pātaka Ako|Community Hub

• Teacher Only Day | Friday 31 May | school closed

• King's Birthday | Monday 3 June | school closed

• SchoolTalk Drop-In Session | Friday 14 June | 3.15pm

• Senior School Assembly | Monday 17 June | 2pm, Hall

• Matariki | Friday 28 June | school closed

• Senior School Assembly | Monday 1 July | 2pm, Hall

• Last day of Term 2 | Friday 5 July

View our School Calendar to keep up to date with all events