Tuesday, June 13, 2017

Soccer Winter Sports

Every Tuesday afternoon the senior school heads out to take part in the sport of their choice- rugby, soccer, hockey and netball. Here is a great selection of action shots from the mixed soccer team playing at College Rifles yesterday. Go Preston and ZuZu!

Tuesday, May 16, 2017

Term Two Concept: Creativity

Inquiry for Term 2

Our Inquiry for Term 2 is based around our Central Idea-

Creativity is the way in which we discover and express ideas, feelings, nature, culture, beliefs and values.

Our concept
This term the whole school concept is Creativity.  The key understanding that we would expect the students to gain is that, ‘Original ideas have value’.  We will be exploring this concept through music dance and drama with our context being “Forces that shape our earth”. This includes exploring plate tectonics and the creation of physical features in Aotearoa and the impact of recent earth movements in the South Island, in particular the 7.8 earthquake in Kaikoura. We will be linking this to the humanitarian responses from different communities and the creative problem solving that took place during and after this disaster.

Science Experiment

The Year 6 team have been looking at forces that shape our Earth over the last few weeks. We have been learning about physical differences and impacts plate margins make. On Monday we experimented with Oreo cookies, yogurt and crackers to show the 3 different plate boundaries-
Divergent, convergent and transform. We had a lot of fun with this experiment and yes, we ate the Oreo at the end!



Dance Workshop

On Thursday 11th and Friday 12th May the Year 6 Team were lucky enough to have a dance instructor from the Royal New Zealand Ballet come and run 1.5 hour workshops with each class. Students were given the opportunity to experience moving their bodies creatively in ways they never imagined! With production in our sights these engaging workshops provided the classes with fantastic ideas to share and implement in the future.
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Thursday, March 16, 2017

Inquiry week 7

Our concept this term is 
"Whanaungatanga - we are all connected"
From this concept we have been working on understanding our central idea that 

Learning is an active connected experience. People connect to learning in different ways and we learn from different sources. When people share their learning, people learn more.

In Room 25 and 26 we have started our inquiries based around creating an instructional tool that will cater for all types of learners; audio, visual and tactile. They began by deciding what sort of subject they wanted to investigate and created questions that would help drive their inquiries. They are currently in research mode, busy collecting information.



 "We have been inquiring about how to teach new entrants and Year 1 students how to tie their show laces. We have found out from them that they prefer a slow step by step video with a song to help them remember the steps. We have also learned the importance of feedback from our audience as they described our first song as "weird". We are now researching the types of songs that they will connect with."

 "We are learning how to make an electrical circuit for our learning tool. We want to create a learning tool to for younger students to learn their number bonds to ten as we have found out that this knowledge can help them use different strategies in Maths later on. We have enjoyed it so far because we get to work with our friends, experiment with ideas, try new things, make prototypes and constantly ask questions"

"What about this?""But, what about this?"

Stay with us to hear from other groups who are taking risks with their learning and  adventuring into the unknown!

To be continued ....

Josh and Blake's Group




Our main idea is how to make campfire cones and provide a learning resource for the  Year 5's next year on camp. We need waffle cones, so we are going to make the waffle cones ourselves and we have found out how to do this on a camp fire.
Now we need to find out the following:
How to make a camp fire to cook on.
how to set up the fire
how to light the fire
 how to keep it going
how to be safe around a fire
Finally what equipment do we need to make the waffle cone.

 "Hey guys, did you know that we could make our own waffle cones!"


Alex; "I am finding the safety tips we need to think about when cooking on an open fire. I am really looking forward to doing it on camp and presenting our ideas. Mrs Strickett and Mrs Hannan are looking forward to eating them."

Wednesday, March 15, 2017

Camp 2017

Camp 2017
Lakewood Lodge 
28th - 31st March

ONLY 11 sleeps to go!

It's time to start getting all your belongings organised. Here is the kit list. Spend some time this weekend organising yourself. 
  • Sun screen
  • Insect repellant
  • Torch
  • Water bottle
  • Hat
  • Sleeping bag
  • Pyjamas
  • Shorts and t-shirts for 4 days
  • Underwear and socks for 4 days
  • 2 pairs of shoes (in case one pair gets wet) and  water shoes (optional but advised for kayaking)
  • Gum boots for riding (or you can use the boots at the lodge)
  • A warm top (s) for the evening
  • Long pants for survival camp and evening activities.
  • Waterproof jacket
  • Washbag - toothbrush, toothpaste, shower gel, deodorant
  • 2 towels - one for showering, one for water based activities.
  • Jandals for the showers
  • Togs
  • Plastic bags for wet of dirty clothes
  • Soft toy/blanket



For survival camp
  • Plastic plate
  • Knife, fork and spoon
  • Mug
  • Day pack to carry your overnight kit to camp
Make sure everything is clearly named.