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6 Tuesday <strong>November</strong> <strong>13</strong> <strong>2018</strong><br />
Latest Christchurch news at www.star.kiwi<br />
WESTERN NEWS<br />
Kirkwood Opportunities<br />
‘Schooling for the Whole Child’<br />
At Kirkwood we are very proud of our children and their achievements. Our pupils have many opportunities to participate<br />
in a wide range of education activities including Technology; ICT; Music; Drama; Education Outside The Classroom;<br />
Leadership roles; Camps; Academic challenges; and Sports. Our pupils develop a wide range of skills which helps them<br />
develop educationally, socially, emotionally and physically during their time with us. Just a few of the opportunities our<br />
pupils have experienced this year are as follows:<br />
Education Outside the<br />
Classroom<br />
We visit many different places within our community<br />
such as Canterbury Museum, Riccarton House<br />
and the Art Gallery. We also offer class camps for<br />
our Year 7 and Year 8 pupils. This year our Year<br />
7’s camped at Purau Bay where they experienced<br />
canoeing, abseiling and camping skills, along<br />
with getting to know their class and developing<br />
friendships.<br />
Our Year 8 pupils are currently enjoying their<br />
Wellington camp. These camps provide<br />
great opportunities for learning and personal<br />
development.<br />
China Trip<br />
Part way through the July school holidays, Ethan, Brooke, Aaliya, Casper,<br />
Mackenzie, Lauren, Ryan, Alexander, Katie and Grace and two teachers<br />
had the opportunity to explore China. This was the first Panda camp we<br />
have attended.<br />
The following article was written by Katie and Alex:<br />
‘The Temple of Heaven, the Pearl Markets, the Summer Palace and<br />
seeing the general lifestyle of the Chinese people. They were able to see<br />
some beautiful buildings with long, rich histories of emperors and different<br />
dynasties. Haggling is common at the Pearl Markets and was a very<br />
different experience for us, which encouraged us to quickly learn about<br />
converting yuan into New Zealand dollars to get a good price. We also<br />
really enjoyed the boat ride across the Emperor’s lake; there have been<br />
many great memories made as a group.<br />
Our days at the Chinese school were busy - making new friends, teaching<br />
rakau and the cup song, learning Chinese calligraphy and songs as well as<br />
experiencing a huge school cafeteria, which was a very different experience!<br />
It was a great opportunity to see how school works in a different country<br />
and try new things. We all enjoyed teaching physical education games such<br />
as elastics and a football/badminton game that we pretty much invented.<br />
Duck, duck, goose was also a favourite amongst the pupils in China!<br />
We were fortunate to continue to travel and see incredible sights such as<br />
The Great Wall of China, where we were all able to walk a section. Another<br />
highlight was the Beijing Zoo, it was a great chance to see some rare<br />
animals but the living conditions were very sad. In addition to these places<br />
we also visited the 2008 Olympic venues, the Water Cube and the Bird’s<br />
Nest, as well as the Olympic torch and Olympic Village areas which we<br />
found to be interesting. Tiananmen Square and the Forbidden City also<br />
hold important places in Chinese history and often we were in awe of how<br />
immense these places are in addition to hearing about the incredible history<br />
behind the building of these structures. The National Museum of China was<br />
also very impressive in both the artwork and size of the building!<br />
We will all recall some amazing chances to explore a different culture, some<br />
interesting memories for us as Kirkwood United and the opportunity to<br />
represent Kirkwood with pride as global youth ambassadors. We would like<br />
to say a huge thank you to Miss Toaolamai and Mr Gaut for their support<br />
on the trip. Thank you to our parents for encouraging us to take up such an<br />
awesome opportunity. We all had an amazing time and hope to see more<br />
Kirkwood students exploring the world in years to come!<br />
Sports<br />
We participate in a large variety of sports including: Netball, Football, Cross<br />
Country, Skiing, Swimming, Rugby, Basketball, Waterpolo, Touch Rugby, Korf<br />
Ball, Table Tennis, Badminton, Athletics and Gymnastics. We also compete in<br />
the Canterbury Association of Intermediate and Middle Schooling competitions.<br />
Our school is well known for the courtesy, co-operation and sportsmanship<br />
of our teams and we value this highly. Some of the highlights this year are as<br />
follows:<br />
Example from last year:<br />
Korfball Tournament - We sent two teams to the Canterbury Korfball<br />
Tournament. Bowls Tournament - we had 12 successfully compete at the<br />
Canterbury Bowls Tournament. Table Tennis - 4 of our Table Tennis teams<br />
were placed in the top 3 of their weekly competition. Girls’ Basketball team<br />
were placed third in their Friday evening competition.<br />
Many of our pupils have been selected to represent Canterbury and/or have<br />
been selected for the Nationals in various sports which makes our school proud.<br />
Technology<br />
Our on-site technology centre provides our pupils<br />
with a range of creative learning experiences in<br />
different areas: Foods, Electronics, Robotics and<br />
Materials (metal, wood, fabric and plastic). Our<br />
pupils have created a large variety of work this<br />
year. We also participate in Robofest, Future in<br />
Tech programmes, EPro8 and 3D printing.<br />
Programmes focus on Planning for Practice, Brief<br />
Development and Outcome Evaluation.<br />
ICT: We have pods of touch screen laptops,<br />
ordinary laptops and Chromebooks<br />
for classroom use to enable pupils<br />
to develop their skills. Pupils are<br />
also welcome to bring their own<br />
technology. More pupils are doing<br />
this each year. We recommend that<br />
parents check which devices are<br />
used at the High School they think<br />
their children will be attending.<br />
Blues Awards<br />
Outstanding achievements, whether they<br />
are personal or at school, are celebrated<br />
via our Blues Awards system. Our<br />
students can achieve a Blues Award in<br />
various areas such as Cultural, Sports<br />
and Academic.<br />
An Outstanding Elite Blues Award may<br />
be achieved if a student has achieved an<br />
Academic, Cultural and a Sporting Blue.<br />
There are quite strict criteria for receiving<br />
a Blue and these are outlined on our<br />
website www.kirkwood.school.nz<br />
School Production<br />
Every second year we produce a school<br />
performance for all interested pupils. Our<br />
next School Production will be in 2019.<br />
Don’t forget, there are still some places available for Year 7 and Year 8 for 2019.<br />
Please visit our website www.kirkwood.school.nz for information and to<br />
download an enrolment form or ring the office on 348 7718.<br />
Phil Tappenden,<br />
Principal<br />
260 Riccarton Road, Christchurch<br />
Email: school.information@kirkwood.school.nz<br />
Phone 03 348 7718 Fax 03 348 1085<br />
www.kirkwood.school.nz
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