Phone: 063880130 email: [email protected]or [email protected]Website: tas.school.nz Lead Me to Lead My Learning Taihape Area School Term 3 – Newsletter Number 7 Monday 31st August 2015 Tena koutou katoa This week is Winter Tournament week for New Zealand Secondary Schools. Secondary Students are participating in a variety of sporting codes, and competing in some very prestigious tournaments, right across the Country. We have two teams taking part this year, the Senior A Netball Team, and the Mixed Hockey Team. The Netball team is playing in the Lower North Island Secondary Schools Netball Tournament in Palmerston North, and the Hockey Team in the North Island Mixed Hockey Tournament in Stratford, Taranaki. Both teams left yesterday for their respective events. The students involved are all looking forward to this unique, and hopefully enjoyable experience, and the opportunity to test their skills against peers from other Colleges. As well the opportunity to focus on their chosen sport for a whole week will give them the chance to really push the boundaries, and test themselves at a higher level. NCEA Mid-Year Exams finished last week. This was a very useful exercise, and a real eye opener for some students, who now realise that they have considerable hard work to do to prepare for externals, as well as to accumulate credits in the lead up to the end year. While it is important that students take personal responsibility for monitoring their progress and “leading their own learning”, support and encouragement from the significant adults in their lives is also very important. Our Deans do a superb job working with the students in their cohorts, and are readily available to meet with you if you have any concerns, or just require confirmation about how they are tracking. Please remember that you have access to KAMAR (the School Student Management System) to enable you to track the progress of your child/ren. For those still based at School this week, life carries on as usual. With the Winter Sports Season virtually over, things are quieter after school, as practices for most codes are now finished. Over recent times there has been considerable anguish in the media about literacy levels in New Zealand. A major issue most schools face, a real challenge in fact, is that many new entrants arrive at Primary School, without pre- school experience, and without some of the basic skills they require for a successful education. Many lack skills such as alphabet knowledge, book knowledge, are unable to recognize numbers, and even colours. This core knowledge is essential for their growth and development in the crucially important areas of reading, writing, and numeracy. Schools allocate huge amounts of resource to bring these children up to speed. In an ideal world all children would arrive at
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Nominations for the Board of Trustees Student Elections are now being sought. Voting in these elections will take place on Friday 18 September 2015. Student Trustees are elected by their fellow students. If you are interested in becoming a Student Trustee, please collect a Nomination Form NOW from The Library. Nominations close at noon on Friday 4th September. Candidates should prepare a statement setting out their goals and state why fellow students should vote for them.
Zarn White - Student Trustee, 2014-15 could this be YOU? - Student Trustee 2016 What is the Role of a Student Trustee? A Student Trustee represents the views of students. They must attend all Board of Trustee meetings. These meetings offer an important forum where the Student Trustee should raise issues suggested by fellow students in relation to making Taihape Area School a better place. Prior to these meetings, the Student Trustee should make themselves available to receive suggestions and feedback from students through a variety of forums, such as Student leadership meetings. The timeline is:
• Now – calling for nominations; Friday 21 August 2015
Student representative election for the Board of Trustees
Nominations are invited for the election of one student representative to the board of trustees.
A nomination form and a copy of this notice is being distributed to all eligible voters on the student roll.
Further nomination forms can be obtained from the school library
Nominations close at noon on Friday 4th September and may be accompanied by a signed candidate’s statement.
The voting roll is open for inspection at the school and can be viewed during the hours the office is open.
There will also be a list of candidates’ names for inspection, as they come to hand, in the Daily Notices and on the election noticeboard in the Library.
The poll closes at noon on Friday 18th September 2015
OPPORTUNITY FOR STUDENTS TO EXPERIENCE ANOTHER CULTURE, MAKE NEW FRIENDS
AND IMPROVE THEIR LANGUAGE STUDIES AT HOME
In January 2016 we will be receiving exchange students from Bolivia, Austria, Germany, Italy and the USA. Our new arrivals will live with a host family and attend a local school for 3, 5 or 10 months. As we plan for their arrival, we are keen to hear from suitable families who might be interested to host a student.
Host families come in all shapes and sizes, backgrounds and ages. To this end, we would be grateful if you would place a notice in your newsletter or mention it on your website. You can download two variations of the newsletter notice here in Word format or as a pdf .
Hosting an exchange student can be a truly rewarding experience. It allows a family to experience a foreign culture first hand, be exposed to a new language and pass on a bit of our own culture. They might even make a friend for life!
All students have at least basic levels of English, would attend a school in your local area and live the life of a local. Below is a sample of students who will be arriving.
Austrian student, Iris, who is 16 is looking forward to living in New Zealand and developing an understanding of the country, it's culture and the people. Iris loves horse riding, play the piano and reading. She hopes to meet new people and improve her English whilst here. Iris is looking forward to making new friends and would like to try surfing, continue her horseriding and see what it is like to kayak if possible.
Maria, aged 16, from Bolivia enjoys studying, going to the gym, drawing and taking singing classes. She is the youngest of 3 children, can speak Spanish and has been studying English for 11 years. Maria's dream has always been to visit New Zealand to meet new friends, adjust to her new family life, achieve good grades and become a better person. She would like to try skiing whilst on exchange and is looking forward to exploring
New Zealand with her host family. Maria describes herself as a responsible, generous and sociable person.
For 17 year old Italian student Alfonso, studying, playing tennis, soccor and the piano are activities that take up most of his time. He is looking forward to gaining a cultural experience whilst in New Zealand and improving his English. He is concerned about the environment and is interested in conservation. His family describe him as friendly and sociable as well as sensitive and kind.
Paige is a 16 year old student from the USA. She is intrigued by the Maori culture and how well New Zealand has preserved its integrity. As a sports lover, Paige enjoys lacrosse, softball, soccor and ultimate frisbee. Books and music are very important to her as well. Describing herself as energetic, and curious, Paige is not afraid to try new things.
You can view more profiles of students arriving soon from our website. Please note that this is just a handful of the
students who will be arriving. If families would like a selection of student profiles sent to them to review and decide
which student may fit into their family best, please contact us or reply to this email.
The Stuart family were thrilled to have Danish student Simon stay with them for 8 months. As commented by host mum
Victoria, "it has been a fantastic experience. Simon has been an awesome role model to our two young children, he
has been like an older brother to them." Victoria continues, "the experience has benefited us too, as it has allowed us
to have greater free time and flexibility as a family. I was very impressed with Simon, as within the first couple of days
he was here, he asked what should his chores be?"
"Just give it a go, the benefits will surprise you. I highly recommend it", mentions Australian Host Dad Andrew, from
the Stuart family. "Not only do your children benefit, but the benefits exist for the parents too." Host Dad, Andrew
continues, "We are so lucky to have Simon come stay with us. He is a fantastic student, easy going and not very
demanding. He has fitted into the Australian way of life so easy. He even obtained his Bronze Medallion. We are so
proud of Simon."
The Stuart family talk about their hosting experience further and discuss the ups and downs of hosting, why they
hosted and the benefits of being a volunteer host parent. Please check out their video here. You can also watch a
selection of videos of the Cain family from our host family testimonials page on our website.
Student Exchange Australia New Zealand is a not-for-profit organisation that is registered with all state and territory
Departments of Education around Australia and with the Ministry of Education in NZ. We are the first and only
secondary exchange organisation in Australia and New Zealand to be certified to ISO 9001 (Quality Management
System) and we ensure the highest standards of care and support to our participants. You can find out more about our
organisation by visiting www.studentexchange.org.au.
If your students, families or language teachers have any questions about hosting an exchange student or would like to view profiles of students arriving from other countries, they can respond to this email, call our office on 1300 135 331 or visit our website. Our staff members will be happy to discuss which student might be best suited to their family. No obligation.
Please note that the purpose of this email is to find families to host international exchange students. Thank you in advance for your assistance.