Week 4 Assembly Award - Cody

Great stuff Cody! - your certificate awarded for some fantastic efforts with your creative writing along with displaying a top attitude towards everything here at Balmacewen.

Kiwi Golf Lesson Photos

Olivia - NZ Junior National Swimming Champs

Last Friday I traveled to Wellington. I was swimming in the Junior Nationals. At this meet I swam in 100m Freestyle, 50m Freestyle, 50m Butterfly, 50m Backstroke and represented Otago in a relay team. My best individual placing was my 50m Freestyle race. I came 12th in New Zealand! and did a new PB of 30:65 for this event. My relay team came 5th in New Zealand which was great. I enjoyed this meet very much and went there for an experience and came back with exactly that.
Written by Olivia

Balmacewen Powhiri Photos

Balmacewen Powhiri 2011 By Cody and Ngaru

On the 13th Of February Balmacewen Intermediate gathered in the school hall for the Powhiri.
Powhiri means welcoming the year 7 students and any new staff into the school of Balmacewen, this is done by the year 8s. There was a haka to welcome the year 7s into the hall.
After the haka Mr Hunter the Principal did a speech to the school and then a year 8 and a year 7 spoke to everyone. After the speech the year 8s sang a waiata to the year 7s then the year 7s sang back to the year 8’s.Then we ended with a hongi and some Kai sharing which was some biscuits. We had then successfully welcomed the year 7 students into our school and we are now one big school community.

Written by Ngaru and Cody.

House Captains and Group Leaders for 2011

Well today after the school powhiri all 4 House Groups met and chose their Captains as wel as sub-group leaders for 2011. All candidates had to prepare a small speech to present on why they should be chosen to lead their house. After Student voting and teacher deliberation the leaders were announced. It was great to see so many Room 13 students stepping up and going for the leadership roles. After all the decisions were made, Room 13 ended up with 7 students in leadership roles!!
Lynn House Captain - Aaron Roydhouse
Lynn Group Leaders - Sam Kilsby, Anna Lindsay & Emma Ward

Chapman House Captain - Maddison Crawford
Chapman Group Leader - Olivia Gold

Highgate House Captain - Abby Hubbard

Surf Life Saving Competiton - By Maddison Crawford

Last weekend at Warrington beach I competed in the "Southern Regions Ocean Athletes". This is a surf life saving competition for all the surf clubs in the South Island. This event is held over two days. On the first day all the individual events are held and on day two are all the team events. Saturday was a good day as I got placings in all my events.Sunday was also good but the weather did not hold out and the sea turned rough. That still did not stop me!!! My next event was run swim run, as I came out of the water I could here the girl's breath behind me and could see every one screaming at me to run.With every thing I had left I sprinted down the finish line and came first. Next up was the board relay I was the last Board paddler and as I ran out of the water my team was first.Just to top that at the end of the day the St Clair Club (my club)won the event. Next Wednesday I go to the National Surf Lifesaving Champs in Mt Manganui. It will be tough competition but will do my best and hopefully come home with some medals!!!

Mufti Day - Wednesday 16th Feb!

Remember Mufti Day tomorrow, we are raising funds for the Cancer Society as part of this weekends Relay for life. $2 if you want to come in mufti tomorrow!

Mathletics

At last week’s Meet the Teacher night we outlined the web based mathletics programme that we would like to sign our students onto for this year. Some classes trialled this programme last year including Lisa Shea and myself and the benefit of this to our students was huge with great improvements shown by the students throughout the year. I strongly recommend signing your child onto this programme. As parents we are always looking for ways we can support our child’s learning.

What is it?

A web based online programme that your child and you can access at any time. The students have their own unique log in and password and parents can also register to monitor their child’s progress.

They would be using this to reinforce concepts covered in class as the teacher can set activities to complement the classroom programme. They would be using it as part of their maths rotation over a typical week in class. It provides instant feedback, enjoyment of maths, plus online tutorials and ability to select activities to challenge or reinforce their learning. There is also a live online game where they can challenge other students from all over the world in the speed, accuracy and recall of their basic facts. This can also be set by teachers to match the level of the individual student.

To sign up as an individual it would cost you up to $100 for the year. We can sign our classes onto mathletics for $30.00 per student for the whole year.

You could visit the website to have a look www.mathletics.co.nz. Please return the slip that has come home wiht the notice (Monday 14th Feb)below to me at school. If you have any questions, do not hesitate to contact me.

Assembly Award Week 2 - Will

Well done to Will for his efforts with the "Kid For Sale" advert!! A super effort here. Check out the advert posted here too.

Class Council

Our Class council representatives were selected today after telling students why they should be chosen. Well done to Aaron Roydhouse(captain) and Maddison Crawford(deputy) we look forward to your work in representing the student voice in the school this year.

Week 1 Assembly Award - James

Well done to James on a positive start to life here at Balmacewen Intermediate, you are blending into Balmac life nicely.... your award for...A positive approach to joining year 8 here at Balmac, a great attitude!!
great stuff.

Day 1 Term 1

Well day one has flown by and it has been great to meet everyone who is part of the room 13 team for the year. Your homework task for tomight is to respond to the letter I have written you. Tell me a bit about yourself, things you enjoy, things you find difficult and things you wan to achieve this year. Do you have any other talents we didn't find out about today? I look forward reading you letters and learning more about you and helping you achieve your goals throughout the year. Your letters are due to me on Thursday morning, thanks.