This week marks the start of a new phase in the school calendar as our senior students embark on their study leave and we wish them all the best. In particular I'd like to mention our Year 13 cohort and thank them for their commitment throughout the year, it's an inspiration to look back and see how far each and every student has come.

A tip for the students to help with the best outcome from their study efforts; We have seen a number of students in all ages through the year that seek teacher feedback, gain those extra credits, so we would encourage every student to attend those tutorials and please reach out to your teachers if you need some extra help. We look forward to seeing you all back at Prize Giving on the 6^th December 2018.

Congratulations to our 2019 Student Leader nominees, we look forward to working with you next year. Also congratulations to our Year 10 Student Leaders who will be fulfilling the role of Student Leaders while our seniors are on study leave, all the best!

The Timaru site have been privileged to host some guests this week from the Taranaki and Wellington campuses on Monday and also the Global Leadership Team today. We thank them for their interest.

Kind Regards,
Glenn Walton, on behalf of the CA Team

Alberta has put a lot of work into the new school inside and outside of school hours. She has kept a positive attitude, and has been a great influence for the younger kids. Alberta has been really successful with her marks this year, and is well on track to her goals, due to her studious studying and hard work. While communicating with teachers and classmates, she has managed to keep up to date with all her internals and receive many pleasing results. Well done Alberta. 

As we near the end of another school year and the 2019 timetable is being finalised, it is important that we keep our community informed of some staffing changes. Next years timetable is not ‘published yet’, but there are a few changes that I would like you to be aware of now.

Mr Dennis is going to be moving over into our Year 7&8 room in Invercargill for 2019. This has come about primarily because of a need to make some changes in our Dunedin site, with Miss O’Brien taking on a national leadership role in Numeracy. However, it will also really benefit our Invercargill 7&8s, who have been without an ‘on site homeroom teacher’ for the last few years. We are therefore currently advertising for a new Invercargill Year 3-6 teacher. Mr Dennis will still do some teaching in the junior room, but he will not be the full-time junior teacher. Miss Ralston, our current Teacher Aide in the 7&8 class will be moving to the junior room in 2019.

I would also like to congratulate Mrs McKergow on her appointment to a full-time teaching position in our Dunedin junior school and Mrs De Beer to an English/Social Studies position in our Timaru site.

At our assembly this week, it was my pleasure to announce our new student leadership teams. We are excited to launch a new initiative by having a Year 10 leadership team in place for when our current seniors leave. Congratulations to the students below. The standard of applicants was extremely high and there were some very tough decisions to make.

Year 10 Leadership 2018

• Krystal Currie
• Weston Bishop
• Tiara Brewerton
• Tizana Rawnsley
• Tara Senior
• Huey Rountree
• Lachie Mascull
• Imogen Boakes
• Aria Holt

Senior Student Leaders 2019

• Brogan Currie
• Lily Simmons
• Aliza Harrison
• Brett Stanners
• Arabella Williamson
• Monty Lewis
• Summer Judd
• Oakley Brewerton
• Zara Rountree
• Todd Witty

Debating meets Maths, meets Inquiry, in Dunedin 7/8's

This term in 7/8's our inquiry focus is all about culture.  At first, we thought of this word as being all about other countries and perhaps some common stereotypes come to mind.  This past week we have been exploring our own class culture, what makes us unique as individuals and what ultimately joins us together to make our unique class the way it is.  Would it surprise you to know, that once we'd defined the essence of our class, we found right at the core, the 5 school values of Respect, Responsbility, Care & Compasssion, Committment and Integrity?!

To illustrate our class culture at it's best, we took on debating in maths this week.  Working in mixed ability groups, collaborating, agreeing, disagreeing, listening, challenging, thinking, questioning and ultimately having a whole lot of fun in the process. We attempted tasks such as making all the numbers from 1-20 using Four 4's and any mathematical operation, as well as finding the "average" of some sports statistics and arguing for "fair inclusion" of an athlete to a team using maths to justify our opinions.  

Today our Year 9 and 10 Technology class put on a tapas lunch for the students of the school. Among the delicacies were fish bites, bruschetta, baked alaska, cupcakes, chicken kebabs, fruit kebabs and churros. That ends our cooking for Technology and we will be finishing the year with a practical project.

Please see the 2018 NCEA external exam timetable below.

Year 11-13 students will have their last day on Friday 2nd November and won’t be expected back at school until Thursday 6th December for Westmount Prizegiving. 

Please note there may be an exception to this date for some students who will be required to come back to school to attend to some additional “Internal Assessments”. These students will be advised next term.

The will to win, the desire to succeed, the urge to reach your full potential... these are the keys that will unlock the door to personal excellence.

Confucius