Term 3, Week 7 2015

Principal’s Awards
Congratulations Georgia Nicholas, Room 15 for applying the skills, attitudes and attributes of an IB learner to conduct meaningful research into Modern Learning environments.

Congratulations George Pearson, Room 4 for being an exceptional school leader. He is a confident and knowledgeable communicator who was able to clearly articulate the schools goals and vision to a group of teachers and leaders from Bucklands Beach Intermediate.

Principal’s News
We have had a couple of very busy weeks with plenty of activities happening around the school to keep our students occupied. A few of these included:

• Mathex Competition
• Sporting events (cross country, water polo, cycling, rugby league)
• Ski Team competing at Whakapapa Ski Field
• AIMS teams final preparation for the games in Tauranga
• Year 7 electives
• Chess competition
• Final games of netball and the interzone competition

Never a dull moment at ANI and plenty of opportunities for your son or daughter to be part of a team event or individual activity.

Challenges Ahead
With term four just around the corner and the end of year festivities looming it’s probably the right time to share a few reminders about dealing with emerging adolescents and their changing behavioural patterns.

• Talk to them as young adults, they appreciate being treated as equals
• Fairness and friendliness goes a long way to getting them onside
• Be positive about expectations (use words like ‘try this’ instead of ‘you must’)
• Engage yourself in their world. They crave approval and enjoy being noticed (even if it is for their bizarre dress or haircut).
• Assimilate into their world so that you can engage with them and help them learn. Remember they don’t know a world in which they find information only in books, have to go to the library to do research or can’t touch a screen to get instant information.
• If you don’t know something about their world don’t try and wing it. They can spot a phony a mile away! Admitting you are not sure of something is an excellent strategy.

Developing and building positive relationships with your emerging adolescents will reap numerous rewards and make home a happy place.

Have a great week.

Jill Farquharson
Principal

Important Dates

IB Parent Information Evening

On Wednesday 26 August, the IB Team held an information evening to give parents/caregivers a greater insight into the IB Primary Years Programme. We were excited to see parents of both current and future students at ANI. Students also shared their perspectives on the IB Programme, and we were impressed to hear them speaking with such confidence.

Click HERE to view the PowerPoint presentation.

Tracey Hughes and Alex Tiley

Teachers presenting: Alex Tiley, Tracey Hughes, Daniel Robertson and Nicole Lewis
Students: George Pearson and Jenna Parkin

Maori and Pasifika Hui/Fono

On Wednesday 26 August, we held a hui/fono for our Maori and Pasifika community. We were impressed by the organisation of the student cultural leadership group who put together this evening. This led to it being our most successful consultation meeting ever with over 30 families attending. We got a lot of valuable information from our community and we are now collating this in order to create an action plan to be used to ensure our Pasifika and Maori students succeed at ANI.

A big thank you to all who attended, we really appreciate your support.

Megan Hughes and Betty Tafa
Coordinating Teachers

Mathex

The yellow lights shined overhead in the hot packed hall. The crowd and Mathex competitors were ready. Year 7 teams were called down to the arena where questions were waiting to be answered.

I strolled through into the lower hall with my calculator and pen at the ready. I was tense with anticipation and excitement – nervousness was gnawing away in my stomach. I didn’t bother to read the instructions leaving our runner Evan to do that. We filled in our team details and when called by the MC, Evan took them up to our marker – we were table number 6. Evan brought our first question concealed in an envelope. The words DO NOT OPEN were highlighted in green on the envelope. Yet I ignored them and almost opened the envelope before Evan stopped me. The MC counted down 3,2,1…

Bessie ripped open the envelope while the rest of the team hovered over the question like vultures circling their prey. Jenna quickly read out the question and circled an answer before the rest of us could even read a word. Evan sprinted off down the marked out lanes towards our marker. Unfortunately, it took my team 3 attempts before we got the question right. Evan came back with a second question and a third question until we reached….. Question Number 17.

We spent a long time on Question 17 and for once Evan could actually catch his breath and help us on this deadly question. In the end we all agreed to pass and moved onto ‘Question 18 for the remaining 2 minutes.

The crowd started counting down 10,9.8.7, The arena erupted into chaos and people started sprinting for the markers – and so did Even 6,5,4.. Evan was near the marker 3,2,1 and then….he arrived at the marker but sadly the question was wrong.

At the prize giving both ANI teams did not win but we got awesome participation awards which were cool Mathex pens. We all really enjoyed Mathex and hope to make into the team next year.

By Evan Metcalfe and Allen Fan

IB Year 8 Exhibition

Students are now well under way with their exhibition for How We Organise Ourselves, having completed connecting their research with prior knowledge. They are now focusing on showing new understanding of their Central Idea. Over the last week I have been down to the Specialisation area to see how the students are utilising their time and I was very excited with what I found! Students have been spreading their groups across the different areas, and are enjoying using the area that relates best to their exhibition.

A large part of the PYP Exhibition is the action component, which means that the students are able to take new knowledge and use this to help make a change. Lisa from Eat My Lunch came and spoke to a group of about 25 students who are looking into how changes in the economy can effect people’s lifestyles. Eat My Lunch aims to alleviate child poverty in New Zealand by offering a ‘buy one, give one’ approach. For every lunch they sell, they provide one for a Kiwi kid in a low-decile school without lunch that day. Lisa shared how the organisation works, from the business to how the lunches are prepared, and how the charity runs solely on the profit earned from the lunches. As a result of this presentation some ANI students have volunteered their time to go into the business and help with the lunches and are looking into how they can raise awareness around this issue.

Alex Tiley
IB Transdisciplinary Coach

Sports News

CZ Rugby League
Auckland Normal Intermediate competed in the CZ Rugby League tournament on Tuesday 11 August at Cornwall Park. The boys performed very well and can be proud of their performances. They were placed third overall in the under 55kg category. Special mention to all the boys that represented the school and to John Waller who coordinated and coached the team. Thanks also to any parents that attended and supported the team. The overall results are below.

Open Weight
1. Royal Oak Intermediate
2. Wesley Intermediate
3. Mt Roskill Intermediate

U55KG  
1. Wesley Intermediate
2. Royal Oak Intermediate
3. Auckland Normal Intermediate

Interzone Netball Year 8 Girls
Auckland Normal Intermediate Year 8 Girls qualified for the Interzone Netball tournament which was held at the AMI netball centre on Tuesday 18 August. The girls did the school proud and were placed second at Interzone. A fabulous achievement. Thanks to Kat Mason and Susie Barrington for their wonderful coaching and the girls for their tremendous sense of fairplay. Thanks also to Jessie Peat for supporting and administrating the team and Sarah Nicholson for her coordination of the netball programme at ANI. It was a great day and wonderful to see such fine netball from players of this age group.

1.       Holy Cross
2.       Auckland Normal Intermediate
3.       Glen Eden

Greg Berry
PE Teacher/Sport Coordinator

Girls Chess Championship

On Thursday 20 August three teams of four girls went to the New Zealand Girls Chess Championship at the Mt Albert War Memorial Hall in Mt Albert. The ANI A team (Bessie Li, Nicole Qin, Angie Zhu and Mackenzie Adams) came third equal out of the all the intermediate teams. Everyone had a good time and Bessie Li and Cindy Wang won five out of five games. We can’t wait to go to the tournament again next year!

By Mackenzie Adams Room 7 

Students Leaving School Grounds

In the interest of student safety and to avoid disruption to learning programmes please take note of the following:

If you wish to take your child out of school during the day please contact your child’s teacher by sending a note or emailing in advance. You must arrange for your child to meet you in reception at the time you have organised and he/she will sign out. Students will not be permitted to leave the school unaccompanied.

At times students tell their parents that the office staff will call the classroom when mum or dad arrives. We are not able to do this, as on a number of occasions classes will be at specialisation or PE and we cannot locate them. Please make arrangements to collect your child at reception and ensure the teacher knows they will be leaving. The office staff thank you for your co-operation in this matter.

Please note when your child returns to school he/she must return to the office to sign in again.

End of Term Awards Assemblies

Friday 25 September
Parents/Caregivers will be notified by email on 18 September if their child is receiving a certificate at our end of term assemblies.

We hold separate awards assemblies at the end of each term for our Year 7 and Year 8 students:

Year 7 Assembly, 11:00am (parents/caregivers please arrive at 10:55am)
Year 8 Assembly, 1:30pm (parents/caregivers please arrive at 1:25pm)

Please make your way to the Information Centre (opposite the school reception) where one of the Senior Leadership Team will greet you and escort you into the Hall at the appropriate time.

If your child is away on this date their award will be handed out at the first assembly of next term, which is Friday 16 October. This will be a normal combined Year 7 and Year 8 school assembly at the time of 1:30pm. Parents/Caregivers please go straight to the hall.

ANI Facebook Page

There is now a new way to follow what is going on at Auckland Normal intermediate. We have started a facebook page. The purpose of the page is to help shine a light on the many amazing things that the students and staff of ANI get up to on a daily basis. Including sports, cultural events, school wide activities and, of course, teaching and learning. You can like the page by following this link: www.facebook.com/ANormalSchool

Matt Aukett
Teacher in Charge

Kids Can Mufti Day

On 26 June the student council held a mufti day for Kids Can, the school raised $932.50. Thanks for your support.

Clara Rose Kim
Teacher in Charge

Epsom Girls Grammar Enrolment

The enrolment process for 2016 is well underway at EGGS.  Thank you to the families who have lodged applications. This is a friendly reminder that the deadline to submit out-of-zone applications for the ballot is Wednesday 2 September at 4:00pm. Home zone applications should be submitted by then also. They are expecting to receive 130 home zone applications from Auckland Normal Intermediate, to date they have received 80. During this month we would like to receive the remaining applications so that all eligible students from Auckland Normal Intermediate can participate in the pre-enrolment process. Application forms must be requested through their website, please click on the following link http://www.eggs.school.nz/enrolments/request-student-application-form.aspx

Tuesday 20 October – testing at ANI for Year 8 students who have confirmed places or who have lodged Home Zone applications

If you have any questions about enrolment please contact the Enrolment Manager, Mrs Wendy Smith phone 970 6710 or by email wsmith@eggs.school.nz

Community News

Click here to see what is happening in the community.