Balmacewen Intermediate School - Dunedin, New Zealand

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The Long Awaited Year 8 Yearbook

Please click on the link to open the 2010 Year 8 yearbook.

YEARBOOK

Robocup National Champs!

The idea of James Bond dancing it out with the bad guy to win the girl may seem absurd. But Balmacewen Intermediate pupils Annabelle Ritchie, Lucy Cathro and Holly Armstrong made it happen in Wellington last weekend when they programmed robots dressed as Bond, Mr Baddie and Barbie to dance in the New Zealand Robocup Competition. And the three also did a dance of their own when their programming won the dance category of the national competition for primary, intermediate and secondary school pupils.

Annabelle said they spent about six months building and programming the robots to dance to the James Bond theme tune. The dance starts off with Mr Baddie (complete with mean eyes, a red mohawk and cigarette hanging from his lip) setting off a soda bomb, then picking a fight with James Bond (who has a magazine cutout of Daniel Craig for a face). Bond wins the fight and gets to dance with the girl.

Courtesy - . john.lewis@odt.co.nz .

Golfers are Number 1

Well done to our number one golf team consisting of Jamie McDonald, Henry Hodgson, Sam Cuthbertson and Connor Sutherland who won an invitational tournament.

golf

Kapa Haka meet PM . . . and perform brilliantly

The Kapa Haka were invited to the opening of the new Natural History New Zealand buildings. They impressed all who watched including the New Zealand Prime Minister John Key. The students were very impressed their goody bags of a hat and many were autographed by Prime Minster Key.

Bandana Day

Dear  Parents

As you may well be aware, this month has been the national appeal for Canteen.  The culmination of this month is Bandana Day tomorrow.

A small group from Room 13 has been selling Banadana’s to raise money for Canteen as part of their inquiry.  The goal was to sell over $1000 worth of Bandana’s.  The added incentive to buy one was to see some of our brave (some may say stupid!) teachers have their hair shaved off.

To support Canteen we will be holding a mufti day tomorrow where all children who wear their Bandana to school may come for free.  Those who haven’t bought one who would like to wear mufti can bring a gold coin donation.

Well done to the students of Room 13 who have organised this inquiry and raised so much money for such a worthy cause.

Great work Caroline Moratti

Well done to Caroline from Room 7 whoes work has been accepted in the Fabo story competition.

FaBostory is an interactive novel writing project dreamed up by a crazy team of your favourite kiwi authors.

Each week children pit their writing wits against one of the FaBolous team. If you can out-imagine, out-write and out-FaBo the FaBo Team, the children's version is published of the next exciting chapter

Read Carolines' story here.

Important Dates

The primary teacher union, NZEI, is holding a stop work meeting on Friday the 15th October.  The school will be closed from 12.45. 

On Friday the 22nd of October the school will be closed for a teacher only day for staff to undertake Zealand Curriculum Training.

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GOLD RUSH!!!

Well done to the cast and crew of this years production "Goldrush'! Hours of work went into this production and a special thanks and congratulations must go to Kelly McGregor who pulled together the talents of the students and staff so well!

The Success Continues!

Well done to all of the students who achieved awards or Highly recommendeds at the recent Otago and Southland Science and Technology Fair. A special well done to Georgia Walsh and Connor Sutherland for winning the Premier Awards.

Science and Technology Fair Prizewinners

Well done to the Netball Gold Team who won the Year 8 section of Dunedin Netball Competition and who also competed with distinction at the Intermediates Tournament in Christchurch.

netball

Finally, well done to the Year 8 boys basketball team who won their section and good luck to the year 8 girls and the year 7 boys who play in the final this Monday.

Cross Country - Friday 20 August

On Friday 20th August the Balmacewen Cross Country was held.  There had been a lot of rain in the week leading up to the race, so the course had to be altered slightly and there were a lot of muddy and wet runners crossing the finish line!
Everyone did a super job and can be proud of their efforts!
The Otago Cross Country is being held at Balmacewen Intermediate on Friday 10th September, hopefully Balmac can defend the trophy again this year!
Top 3 places in the school cross country were as follows:

Year 7 Girls:  Georgia Walsh, Anna Lindsay and Natasha Whyte
Year 7 Boys:  Jackson Miller, Felix McDonald and Henri Gaudin
Year 8 Girls:  Aleisha Ruske, Anja Gray and Bailee Porter
Year 8 Boys:  Bailey Brandham, Christian Blackie and Mack Faulks

 

A Big Week at Balmac!

We have had a very successful week at Balmacewen with the Year 7 and Year 8 Mathletics teams pulling off the rare double and winning the Otago Mathletics, our Robocup team consisting Caroline Moratti, Annabelle Ritchie and Hanna Ott won the Otago and Southland Robocup competition and will now compete in the national competition in Christchurch. Finally our chess team consisting of Kan Kim, Taine Vox and Carlssen Van Roen, Nasser Tamimi won the Otago/Southland Junior Chess Championship.

The year 8 winning math team.

 

Enrolling

The following are some dates that we aim to keep to but due to unforseen circumstances these may change.

3 Sept         - Enrolments Close
10 Sept      - In zone confirmation letter posted

10 Sept - Out of zone request for more information letter posted

18 Sept     - Out of zone number announced in ODT
1 Oct        - Ballot
4 Oct         - Announcement of ballot via letter 4 Oct        

ONLINE ENROLMENT FORM NOW FULLY OPERATIONAL

Our apologies if you have tried to enroll your child previously, we have overcome the technical difficulties that we were having and the page is now working. We look forward to receiving your childs enrolment. For details on the Balmacewen Zone please scroll down the page.

 

Mid Year Interviews

.Mid Year Interview Notice 2010

 

Year 7 News

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Mega Math Month

 

For the month of May, we have been having a major school wide push on times tables. As you can see from our results their hs been a great improvement from a 72% average across the school to a 86% average. Thank you to all parents who supported their child in learning their times tables and it is important to keep checking on your child so that they retain this knowledge.

The students will be awarded with a free swim to acknowledge this achievement, details can be found below.Math Letter Swimming

 

Year 7 News

All Year 7 classes recently visited the Orokonui Ecosanctuary or the Otago Museum Butterfly Sanctuary. The focus for all trips was to take photographs for the Otago Museum Wildlife Photography Competition, while learning about the environments that students were taking pictures in. We were very lucky to have Kerry Kelk from Kelk Photography come and share some knowledge on taking good photos with all the year 7 students before going on the trips. Balmacewen has entered a large selection of our best shots into the competition, below is a selection of some of the best shots. All the photos will be on display for public viewing at the Otago Museum from the 3rd of June.

 

Science Fair

Next term is the annual Science and Technology Fair. Here is some important information to get you started. Many of the class blogs have some excellent links to web sites that will help you with your science fair.

Mega Math Month

 

For the month of May, we have been having a major school wide push on times tables. As you can see from our results the school average is steadily climbing. With only two weeks to go we would love to see this average climb even higher. We have broken the 80% barrier and we need to push onto the 90's!

Times tables are vital parts of mathematical knowledge. We use our times tables every day in all facets of life. When a child confidently knows their tables, other mathematical learning becomes easier and more rewarding. The instant recall of times tables, particularly at the maths levels expected at this age group is a necessity. Without sound times tables knowledge, maths may be something a child decides is “too hard” and therefore develop a negative attitude.

There are literally 100s of web sites you can find if you search for “multiplication times tables,” “Multiplication Flashcards ”or “times tables games.”  Here are some of the best to get your started.

http://www.kidsnumbers.com/ - A great new website we have just found with a step by step method of practising your timestables.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/skillswise/numbers/wholenumbers/multiplication/timestables/ The BBC’s website has a huge amount of educational material including a great section on times tables

www.mathisfun.com – Some great tips on how to learn your times tables in the number and then multiplication section

www.multiplication.com – Lots of good times tables ideas and games

http://www.prongo.com/math/multiplication.html - A class favourite here at Balmacewen.

http://www.helpingwithmath.com/resources/online_flashcards/flashcard_multiplication03.htm - Simple online flash cards

 

Board Elections

Unfortunately due to a clerical error by the returning officer, the current election process has been invalidated.

This means that the entire process will be repeated with a new election date of 18 June. All documentation will be resent to you.

We apologise for any inconvenience and look forward to your participation in the new election.

Yours sincerely

Andrew Hunter

NZEI Meeting

This notice is to inform you that NZEI, the Primary Teachers Union, have called a paid union meeting to discuss their upcoming Collective Contract negotiations.

Because this affects all classroom teachers, we will be releasing students at 2.25pm.
Any bus students will be supervised at school until the normal 3.00pm finish.

I apologise for any inconvenience this may cause and thank you in advance for your understanding.

Yours sincerely

Andrew Hunter

Swimming Sports Results

The Balmacewen swimming sports were held on Friday the 19th March and once again were a great success!  The stands looked great with everyone dressed up in house colours and cheering on their house – the lifeguards even needed to put their earplugs in!

In the non-competitive section students competed in kickboard, hoop, egg and spoon and other races, with those placed first and second clocking up valuable points for their house.

The competitive section students raced either 25m or 50m in freestyle, backstroke and breaststroke events. 
Well done to these people who were placed overall in their age group events:
Girls 12+  Aleisha Ruske 1st, Grace Perry 2nd, and Emily Alloo 3rd.
Girls U12  Olivia Gold 1st, Abby Hubbard 2nd and Brianna Thompson 3rd.
Boys 12+  Bailey Brandham 1st, Jamie Harrison 2nd and Clayton Woods 3rd.
Boys U12  Ben McMahon 1st, Lachlan Brandham 2nd and Samuel Wardhaugh 3rd.

The house relay was won by Highgate, followed by Chapman, Shetland and Lynn.  The final house points were extremely close with Chapman taking it out – just! - on 621 points, Shetland were very close behind with 618 points, and they were closely followed by Highgate and Lynn.

Well done to everyone who gave it a go on the day!  And good luck to those of you representing Balmacewen at the Otago Primary Swimming Champs this weekend.

 

Year 8s Visit the Aquarium

As part of the survivor topic the Year 8 students have been studying all classes went to the aquarium to look at the different animals adaptive features. Click here to learn more about adaptation! Special thanks to all parents who came along and to the staff of the Aquarium

Swimming Sports this Friday

The annual school swimming sports is this Friday, for more information please read the letter below.

swimmingsportsNotice 2010

Parent Teacher Interviews

Parent/Teacher interviews are being conducted today and tomorrow. If for what ever reason you have missed out please contact your childs class teacher to organise a time

Otago Anniversary Day

Balmacewen will be observing Otago Anniversary Day this Monday the 22nd of March. School is closed for the day

Year 8s Visit the Aquarium

As part of the survivor topic the Year 8 students have been studying all classes went to the aquarium to look at the different animals adaptive features. Click here to learn more about adaptation! Special thanks to all parents who came along and to the staff of the Aquarium

Year 7 Camps

The last year 7 camps are happening this week. We would like to thank all of the parents for coming along. Without your support we would not be able to offer such an interesting programme and learning experience for the children. We would also like to thank the teachers for all their hard work and of course to the students who tried so hard.

Trips to the Settlers Museum

As part of the Year 7's intergrated unit looking at their identity and that of people in New Zealand, Room 26 recently visited the Settlers Museum and Chinese gardens. Many thanks to all the parents who have came and supported their childrens learning.

Year 7 Camps!

Information about the upcoming year 7 camps can be found below including all of the risk management that we have undertaken. The dates for camps can be found in the calendar section.

Information for Parents and Caregivers  

Things to Take on Camp  

Safety Action Plan.doctramp  

Safety Action Plan General Camp  

Safety Action Plan Transport  

Day One Done!

We hope that everyone has had a good day and not had to much "information overload"! You should have received a newsletter and perhaps a swimming notice. Stationery will start to be issued from Wednesday and PE tops from next week.

Swimming Notice 2010  

 

2nd Hand Uniform Sale

The annual second hand uniform sale 20,21,22 Jan 9am until noon. Uniforms to sell must be clean and well presented. We DO NOT accept PE t-shirts, PE shorts, Boys socks or girls white shirts.

 

Welcome Back!

The school year for 2010 starts on Tuesday 2nd of February at 8.50. We welcome our new year seven intake and new staff members; Mrs Burden, Mrs Tasi Cordtz and Mr Friend. We also welcome back all year 8 students and staff. We hope you have an enjoyable and relaxing summer holiday and that you are excited about starting the year at Balmacewen!