Below are some of the ebooks Year 7 students have created in Science this year.
Year 11 Prize Winners
Year 11 Prize Winners
Year 11 Prize Winners
Year 11 Prize Winners
Year 11 Prize Winners
Year 9 Class Photos
Year 9 Class Photos
English Language Learners
Years 7 and 8 Tāhuhu
Community Garden
Since the start of the year a small group of Year 7 and 8 students have been working in the Richmond Community Gardens every Friday afternoon.
Fridays, period 5, Tāhuhu students opt in for an activity as a part of "Cool Connections". The options include arts and crafts, digital exploration, sport, a chillout space with board games and drawing, and gardening.
The students love going to the community gardens and race to check on the chickens that live there. We have learned the names of a few nasty weeds including convolvulus, which wraps around other plants and tries to strangle them. We weed, water, plant and dig over parts of the gardens. All our weeds are given to the chickens to eat.
Tūhono Taonga, Tūhono Tāngata
Some of our Tāhuhu students were lucky enough to have the opportunity to create their own taonga working with our fabulous instructors John, Ihakara and Trevor from Tūhono Taonga, Tūhono Tāngata.
Museum Trip
On Thursday the 1st of April our Year 7 Tāhuhu team headed to the Museum to build on the learning we have been doing about the history of Aotearoa.
We learnt about early Māori technology and how their clever use of natural resources is something we can continue to learn from today. As well as exploring the museum itself, we also had the opportunity to go into one of the learning spaces and experiment with some of the technologies.
This included carving using pounamu chisels, using shells to get the muka (fibre) from harekeke (flax), using a pirori (cord drill) to drill holes and drawing some of the images that early Māori drew inside caves and other natural shelters.
Animal Survival
In week 4 of term 2 our Year 7 and 8 students were lucky enough to visit Orana Park.
This visit was part of their Science programme where they study animal survival. Students were able to see which adaptations animals have to survive and to study the impacts that humans are having on their survival. This information was then used to complete a poster back at school.
First, we walked to the learning area and ate morning tea. Then we saw 5 lions - lion around! get it? Ok, I'll stop. We learnt that the lions have big claws, this helps them hook into their prey and kill them. Apparently, It’s not their muscles that help them run, it’s their heart, even though it’s small for its size. Did you know that if a lion pounces on you, it kills you before it sinks its teeth into you because of the force and weight?
After that, we went into a learning space and looked at some skulls. The skulls we saw were a cheetah, an African wild dog and a lion. They were the carnivore skulls, the other two were antelope skulls. Nyssa was able to identify the African wild dog skull. Even the year 8 and 9’s couldn’t do it so go the year 7’s.
We passed the gorillas and they were just lying there, it was really sad because their brother died :( We walked towards this wooden structure. It was the cheetah exhibit. They were also lying around and only when we got in the wooden structure did the cheetah start moving. There were 2 on display and 6 unseen. The two on display were adorable.
To finish off, we visited the giraffes and tried to feed them, unfortunately, they were not interested in us one bit!
All in all, it was an interesting and exciting day. Thank you to Orana Park for having us and imparting your wisdom on us.
By Nyssa and JoJo - Year 7 students
Tāhuhu in Term 2
Our students have had many opportunities to be leaders within our school by showing our Tamai schools around as well as being leaders within their learning spaces. I know I am not just speaking for myself but all of our Tāhuhu staff are very impressed with the depth of learning going on in our learning spaces and the way students can be self-managed learners.
Below are some of our ākonga in action.
Celebration of Learning
In September Tāhuhu students got a chance to display some of their mahi they had been doing in their classes with a Celebration of Learning.
Whānau and staff were very impressed by the quality of work displayed and Ms Taiaroa enjoyed seeing the students proud of what they had achieved.
The Year 7 students were learning about culture and identity. Their task was to come up with a way to demonstrate their understanding of the culture they chose and why it was important to them. They created digital slideshows, posters, models and we even got to try food from different cultures they made themselves (the fried bread was amazing).
The Year 8 students were looking at cultures of interest through an artistic lens. Learning about the people, country, resources, colours and symbolism. They made connections with their own cultures and shared their new knowledge with others through an artistic masterpiece. I was very impressed by the talent demonstrated.
End Of Year Camp
From 1-3 December, the Year 8’s went on camp to the Waipara Adventure Centre where we learnt to face our fears and build friendships with people that we don’t usually talk to. I think that camp is an amazing experience and that everyone should experience it at least once in their life because it's great for your social skills/social life.
The activities there are amazing, and sometimes you just had to push through your comfort zone and try all of the activities that they have to offer, even if it does look scary, try it anyway because if you don’t you will truly regret it.
The food was just amazing. Everything we had made a flavour volcano erupt on our taste buds, that’s how good the food there was. They have food for everybody whether you are lactose intolerant or allergic to something, they will have something for you to enjoy at breakfast, lunch and dinner.
By Brodie Grainger