Kia ora Parents and Whanau
Welcome back to term 2. We are trialling a new Newsletter format we certainly hope you enjoy the new design.
Congratulation to all students who competed in sports tournaments at the end of last term. We certainly had some excellent results in Orienteering, football, futsal and Tag, for full details you can visit our website.
During last term Our Youth Leader team also attended a Youth Leaders Conference in Taupo, from this conference and from interviews with members on our return we have been able to appoint our Head /Deputy Student Leaders.
Huge congratulations to Zoe Oram and Jayden Whitehead, Head Girl and Boy; also Katie Rutlage and Harry Short; Deputy Girl and Boy. We would also very much like to acknowledge all the 22 student leaders who attended the conference in Taupo. They certainly demonstrated why they had been chosen as this year’s leaders through; their ability to communicate in an articulate way and also problem solve when challenged with different scenarios. We certainly look forward to working with them throughout the year. Their first responsibility is the organisation of a Northcross ANZAC ceremony this Wednesday. Thank you and congratulations to our Executive Youth Leaders, Alisa Sukhorukova, Florence Camus Rogers, Billie McNaughton-Smale, Owen Lamb, Ben Sullivan, Tessa Loft, Bella Howarth, Janice Tsai, Machrie McLeod, Ben Lyon, Samuel Weng, Naava Derksen, Maddie White, Yui Lang, Felicia Chen, Skyla Irving, Samantha Syme, Maia Wynyard.
Congratulations to students, Daniel Tennant and Ethan Butler who were chosen to read their ANZAC Poems at the recent ANZAC
Commemoration service at the Auckland museum. The boys were certainly great ambassadors for our school with their poems were well received by all attendees. Great work Daniel and Ethan, thank you also to Mrs. Bennett for her support of this important event.
Congratulations also to Billie Naughton-Smale, who won the Kahui Ako (Community of Learning) Poetry Competition with her poem, Seat for Three Meals for Two. Billie’s poem gave a poignant message regarding the losses during the ANZAC conflict. This poem demonstrates the strength of student writing in our school.
This term sees students start another major teaching Concept, ‘Space Voyages’, which seems to be very topical at the moment with the world’s top billionaires starting a new space race by providing pleasure flights into the stratosphere (at least no Covid, I suppose) and possible colonisation on planets!
The purpose of this unit for our learners:
- To explore scientific facts and theories about our planet, solar system and universe; developing a deeper understanding of astronomical phenomena.
- Students investigate and evaluate the possibilities of human life existing in alternative scenarios, through their understanding of systems and interdependent spheres.
- Students complete a guided inquiry, designing and developing a prototype for a Mars colony.
- Students work on an independent inquiry, to design and develop a colony in the setting of their choice.
- Designing and developing digital outcomes to demonstrate
- Students make decisions about creating, manipulating, storing, retrieving, sharing and testing digital content for a specific purpose
- Using step-by-step instructions to create an algorithm for a computer program
- Using logical thinking to predict the behaviour of these programs. We certainly look forward to seeing our students being engaged in their learning regarding this concept.
Please talk to your children about their learning, especially regarding this Concept, it certainly helps solidify their understanding of what is being taught and their perspective on the understandings.
Looking forward to seeing you at the Progress Interviews this week.
Nga mihi nui
Jonathon Tredray
Principal Northcross Intermediate
