Newsletter No.7 – 21st August, 2006

PRINCIPAL'S NOTES

MEDIA DEPARTMENT NEWS:

Students Represent NZ in LA
Year 13 students Charlotte Drayton and Finn McGowan were selected to travel with me to Los Angeles to represent New Zealand at the Irmas International Youth Media Summit. The summit brought together students from 26 countries around the world to work together for ten days. The aim was to produce public service announcements promoting seven issues – women’s rights, poverty, racism, violence, the environment, health and youth empowerment. The students investigated issues in each country, shared information, formed relationships and understanding and worked towards solutions.

Charlotte and Finn shone as they represented the school and the country. Charlotte presented her report on Women’s Issues in NZ to the summit and Finn’s prepared PSA on Poverty was presented at a theatre night screening. Both worked with their groups during the week to produce another PSA. It was an extremely rewarding experience that made me proud to be associated with such creative and mature young people.

Check out Listen Up! site for pictures: www.flickr.com/photos/71975588@N00/

Jane Hall

From left to right – Finn McGowan, Jane Hall, Charlotte Drayton

AWESOME GEOGRAPHY FIELDTRIP TO FIJI:

55 WSC students have experienced the traditional Fiji and the tourist Fiji, have completed an internal achievement standard at Levels 1, 2 and 3 and have had a trip to remember! Thanks to the wonderful staff and students who made it such a success. John Ward and I look forward to planning next year’s trip!
Jenny Jones

MUSIC DEPARTMENT:

Rockquest
It was with much pride that I attended the Auckland regional finals of the smokefreerockquest competitions recently. There were 14 bands from the region and two were from WSC – a great effort. Kinky Wizards played with great energy not to mention dress and hair style and The Incident took the audience by surprise with an intelligent medley of several pieces that included an ever changing style. Unfortunately neither band was placed but they both did the school proud.

Ponsonby Intermediate
Also making us proud was the group of musicians who responded to a request to do a performance at Ponsonby Intermediate as part of culture week. A huge thank you to Kate, Wasan, Eamon, Alex, Harry, Jesse, Xian, Tawa, Vincent, Tom, Cameron and Kathryn.

Band and Orchestra
Over the next few weeks the orchestra and the jazz band have their chance to shine at the annual band and orchestra festival in which they get to play at the Concert Chamber and the Town Hall – listen out for more details of this.

Next week we have Rodger Fox coming to take our jazz band rehearsal – we are expecting to be challenged!

Music lessons
Itinerant music lessons continue to be well attended this term. I would like to remind students and families that they must communicate with their tutors if they are unable to attend a lesson due to a clash, for example with a classroom assessment. There are still students on waiting lists for lessons who will snatch up any places available.

Performance evenings
Thank you to families for your support of your students at these evenings – it makes the assessments much more meaningful. The next evenings are in week two of term four and I welcome your attendance.

Margaret Robertson

LIFE AS A PHEDDER:

As always the Physical Education students of Western Springs College are as busy as an army of beavers building a dam.

The Year 9 Phedders’ have finished the testing phase of their fitness unit and now move on into group fitness. Some fantastic results came out of the tests further emphasising the up and coming athletes we have within this group. The purpose of the fitness testing was to firstly look at the different components that contribute to someone being labelled as ‘fit’, and secondly to allow students to see where their own fitness levels are during the winter sports season. Congratulations to all of the students who put so much effort into their tests. There will be an opportunity for students to improve their result at the end of the term.

The Year 9 students have since been planning a 10 minute warm up lesson for their classmates which aims to get everybody’s heart rates up and most importantly promotes fun!

The year 10 students are currently involved in one of two units of work. Some Year 10 students are learning the basics of volleyball, while the other students are starting a level one achievement standard which focuses on team dynamics. The students have an opportunity to earn some valuable credits in this unit to carry through into next year so you can expect to see some homework! The students will swap units once finished.

Year 12 Physical Education students have just finished working towards their Kiwisport Leadership Award. They were involved in teaching Year 7 and 8 students from Westmere Primary. The Year 12 students worked in pairs and had a group of twelve-fourteen students to teach over four periods. It was interesting watching how the Year 12 students dealt with the younger students’ enthusiasm and energy. They soon found out that their attention span only lasted for about three minutes before they got bored and wanted to try something else! I would like to say a big thank you to all my Year 12 students. You did an awesome job in the way that you acted in terms of being a positive role model and the way that you were focussed on ensuring that they improve their skill levels as well as having fun. Let’s hope this experience has given some of you the motivation and desire to become Physical Education teachers!

Due to the cancellation of the snow camp, Year 12 students will not be involved in two Outdoor Education days on Wednesday 30 August and Friday 1 September. They will be going to Waipu to do caving and abseiling and head to Woodhill Forest to mountain bike and tree swing! A reminder to get your money and medical forms in as soon as possible.

The year 13 students are spending the term studying the influence biomechanics (the study of forces and their effect on the body during movement) has on sporting performance, in our case volleyball. The students were filmed performing a chosen shot in which they had to appraise using their biomechanics knowledge. A video interview was set up in which the students answered questions and commented on their technique. The class will now plan and participate in a series of training sessions which aim to work on their technical weaknesses.

So as you can see we are all very busy in this neck of the woods. We would ask you all to bear with us as the courts go through their renovations. On rainy days the gym can become a busy place so we appreciate your patience during this time. The department has lunch time detentions that run all week for those who forget their equipment. Should a student fail to turn up to their detention they will receive a letter notifying you at home that they will be spending Wednesday afternoon with us. So this is just a friendly reminder to make sure your son/daughter is planning ahead.

As the winter sports season winds down, we look forward to more inviting weather to give us all an excuse to release those endorphins which are longing to put a smile on our face and a spring in our step.

Stay healthy.
Megan Murdoch/Matt Corbett

FROM THE SPORTS DEPARTMENT:

NEWS FROM THE MATHEMATICS DEPARTMENT:

Maths Week Up-date
Western Springs College yet again celebrated Maths week with a range of fun activities and puzzles for all to enjoy. The daily challenges again proved extremely popular with students racing their answers to the appropriate teacher in order to receive the top prize of the day.

Wednesday and Thursday saw all junior students competing in three legged maths races, while 4 junior teams competed in the annual Mathex quiz night on Wednesday. Our main focus for the week, was however raising money for the Child Cancer Foundation.

The Child Cancer Foundation is a voluntary organisation relying entirely on donations from private individuals, corporate sponsors and community organisations, bequests and other fundraising initiatives. They are a separate organisation from the Cancer Society, unlike stated in our initial letter to parents and caregivers.

Students have been encouraged to raise funds for this very important organisation through a sponsorship process. We are expecting students to start paying funds raised into the main office on Monday, and will inform you of the final results of our efforts in the next Newsletter.

I would like to thank the mathematics Department staff for the great amount of time end energy invested in making Maths Week and enjoyable event for all.

Senior exams a few weeks away.
With senior exam just around the corner, staff in the department will be asking students to complete relevant and necessary revision material over the next few weeks. Parent and caregiver support will be much appreciated in this regard.

Thea Kilian

LANGUAGE NEWS:

EOTC (Education Outside The Classroom)
Our Year 12 French, NCEA Level One Spanish and both Year 11 and Year 12 Japanese have done their urban trips to town or to a café for their EOTC programme which involves topics like Getting Around Town, Eating and Drinking. The students were able to use the languages they have learnt in real situations. It was a very good experience for the students. The Year 11 French class will have their café visit in Week 6 and Week 7.

International Language Week
The International Languages Week this year is in Week 6, 21 August to 25 August. To celebrate the languages and the culture this year, we have canteen specials daily, with a formclass daily quiz. We also have cultural dress-up day on Tuesday and run a competition for the staff and the students to show certain culture through costume. Last year this event went successfully. We are sure this year will be even more colourful. The winner/winners will be announced at the next assembly.

Renae Liao-Marsden

Hola instituto!
Nuestra clase de español fue a un restaurante que se llama Los Incas le jueves de la semana cinco.

El restaurante está en Devonport y fuimos en furgonita hasta la calle Rattray. Estaba a treinta minutos del instituto. Los Incas es muy precioso y muy interesante y hacía muchos artifactos. Fue estupendo! El cocinero es mexicano y muy simpático.

El problema? Tuvimos que pedir todo en español! Hay un menú especialmente para los estudiantes. Hacía muhos platos en el menú y la comida fue fantástica. Hacía las tortillas, los nachos, los burritos. Era muy dificíl hablar español!

Era un día muy buena y la comida fue estupenda!

- La clase de español.

Hi school!
Our Spanish class went to a restaurant called ‘Los Incas’, the Thursday of week 5.

The restaurant is in Devonport and we went by van to Rattray St. It was 30min away from school. Los Incas is very beautiful and very interesting and there were lots of artefacts. It was great! The cook is Mexican and very nice.

The problem? We had to ask for everything in Spanish! There is a menu especially for students. There were lots of dishes on the menu and the food was fantastic. There were tortillas, nachos and burritos. It was very hard to speak in Spanish!

It was a very good day and the food was wonderful.

- The Spanish class

Melanie Wilson

FROM THE ART DEPT:

Winter Arts Series Artists Show ‘n’ Tell

AUCKLAND HISTORY QUIZ:

Congratulations to Tania Secker and members of the Year 11 History team who won the annual Year 11 History quiz. Tom O’Donnell, Verne Wilson and Sylvie Thrush –Marsh were the members of the winning team who took on the forty three other teams that met at Diocesan School in this hotly contested event.

The team members are to be congratulated on a fine win. Teams had travelled from the upper North Island to contest the quiz crown and Western Springs College were regarded as the outsiders in a team event that is traditionally dominated by the private Auckland schools. This evening was to see tradition overturned as in a closely fought final WSC emerged as well-deserved winners.

Graeme Moran

COMMUNITY NOTICES: