Western News: September 02, 2021

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4 Thursday September 2 2021 Latest Canterbury news at starnews.co.nz August 2021 WESTERN NEWS Commitment, Achievement, Resilience, Respect Cluster to accelerate learning Kia ora koutou. Talofa. Kia Orana. Malo e lelei. Bula Vinaka. Fakaalofa atu. Namaste. Kumusta. Haere mai haere mai ki Te Kura Huruhuru Ao o Horomaka. Warm greetings to the Hornby High School community. Have you heard of Uru Mānuka? That is the name for our Kāhui Ako, our cluster of eight schools that work together to create coherent learning pathways for tamariki from ECE through to the end of secondary school. We are: • Gilberthorpes School • Hornby High School • Hornby Primary School • South Hornby School • St Bernadette’s School • Templeton Primary school • Wigram Primary school • Yaldhurst Model School Our collective objectives cover: • Student wellbeing • Transitions through the learning journey • Cultural responsiveness • Digital Fluency It brings to mind that beautiful whakataukī: Ehara taku toa, he takitahi, he toa takitini – My success should not be bestowed onto me alone, as it was not individual success but success of a collective. Of our eight schools, seven of us participate in the Manaiakalani Programme, a pedagogy-based programme that uses digital devices to amplify the impact of our shared pedagogy to accelerate the learning of your children. Our underlying pedagogy is ‘Learn Create Share’, and the impact of the pedagogy, and the digital devices – Chromebooks – is to accelerate progress in writing by twice national averages. We accelerate progress in reading and mathematics by one and a half times national averages. But this is not enough, and we are working collectively to improve this even further. Our focus at the moment is on reading. To this end 192 staff members from across our cluster came together to develop joint strategies to improve reading for your children. The power of consistent and coherent learning pathways and strategies across all year groups cannot be underestimated. It is a rarity in education in Aotearoa. The ‘Learn Create Share’ pedagogy supports our own school aspiration to be a centre of creative excellence. Aspirations are always lofty ambitious things. However, they provide a “pole star”, something by which we steer our ship as we head into our future. We may never be that centre, but we will aspire to get ever closer to it. The Manaiakalani Programme is central to our journey of creativity, exploration, and learning. Robin Sutton Tumuaki The Community Adventure for the Graeme Dingle Foundation Stars-opoly is all about exploring the opportunities in the school and community and learning what organisations there are in the community to explore. The Community Adventure aims to connect young people with their community by giving them the opportunity to explore resources and supports through interviews and challenges. Groups have two hours to complete a series of challenges across a Monopoly-style board, designed to simulate their school journey and connections with their community. Stars is a 12-month interactive programme that supports, motivates and positively reinforces Year 9 students. Research shows that Stars helps strengthen the sense of Camp challenges students “What are my next steps?” is a question often asked by many students here at Hornby High School, especially those in the senior school (Years 11-13). For many the next steps here at school will be the basis for their steps beyond school. For more than a decade, Hornby High School has run a camp aimed at helping our seniors be more secure in their next steps – wherever those steps take them. It is offered to all Year 12 students. The camp has several main aims: • To enable us to choose the best possible leaders for the many leadership positions here at school. • To help students be better role models to junior students. • To help students be better support those in leadership roles. • To prepare our students for whatever next steps they take in life – be those steps here at school or beyond school. The three-day camp starts Thursday and finishes early Saturday afternoon. The camp begins with a challenge, “The Great Hornby Race”, in which small groups of students are given bus fares, and then have to use the city bus system to get themselves to the camp site. On the way they have questions to answer at various points around the city – harder questions take more time, but are worth more points. Groups choose which questions to answer. They all need to be at camp by a specified time, with receipts and change equalling the money each group received. The group with the most points, on time, with the correct money “wins”. It is an exercise in time management, money management, and team coordination. At camp reshuffled groups continue with the challenges, all designed to help students discover more about themselves and how to work best with others, with some finding the impromptu speech the largest hurdle. We also have time for unwinding and getting to know each other with our bonfire night a highlight. Past/ community in schools by bringing younger and older students together. The Graeme Dingle Foundation aims to inspire all school-age children to reach their full potential through programmes current school student leaders and senior staff attend and share their experiences. Senior hospitality students gain valuable experience by running the kitchen and feeding the participants. The camp has become part of Hornby’s school culture. It is completely run by Hornby High School staff. A big thanks must go to Blue Skies Camp in Kaiapoi who provide a great venue for us. Pupils build community links with Stars-opoly event Smoothie anyone? Sports Canterbury’s bike in action during Stars-opoly at Hornby High School. Music making with City Libraries. Some of the activities undertaken at the Next Steps Camp. First aid training with St John. that build self-esteem and promote good values, and which teach valuable life, education and health skills. Current programmes include Kiwi Can, Project K, and Stars. This year’s event at Hornby High School was a huge success with 25 organisations participating. The main aims for the students for the day were to: 1. Define community and explore their relationship to community 2. Explore services, opportunities and supports available within their community 3. Apply a range of skills which connect them to community – communication, problem solving and team work. Highlights on the day were the smoothie bike from the Green Prescription from Sports Canterbury; the search and rescue lads and dog from LandSAR; the music making from the CCC libraries; and rugby drills from NZ Rugby, to name a few. We were very lucky to have ex- Hornby High students and ex-Star Mentors attend and share what they love. Shardey who is now working at “What Now” had some “goo” for the students to experience, and Hannah-Mae was back with Paris sharing their love for St John and how to save lives using CPR.
WESTERN NEWS Latest Canterbury news at starnews.co.nz Thursday September 2 2021 5 Old oak trees granted a reprieve by school • From page 1 Board chairman Rob Dixon said the importance of the decision meant the board chose to consult the school community. “This included providing them with all available reports to allow for the most informed decision possible,” Dixon said. The play area was planned to be 32m long by 20m wide and be bordered by native plants to replace the oak trees. Creating it was one way the school proposed to spend a $400,000 Government school investment package. This needed to be allocated by the end of the year in order for the school to retain funding. “The money tagged for this will go towards other projects around the school,” Dixon said. Principal Stuart Cameron said the school had an expanding roll of more than 700 pupils, and the astroturf court aimed to provide more space for them to play in winter. Stuart Cameron “The area proposed is underutilised for playing compared to the rest of the school.” He denied that online criticisim of the plan was behind the move to put the decision in the hands of the school community. “First and foremost in all decisions made is the best interest of the students.” Parents who recently talked to Western News about the plan to remove the trees were divided. “I’m fine with that. They’re planning to put a court there. It’s for the children,” Jex said. “It looks good, what they’re planning on doing,” Nicole said. Junghyun said he would be sad to see historic trees go. Emily said that as the trees were expected to live another 15-25 years according to the arborist report, they were likely to outlive the proposed synthetic court. “It’s just a really bad message to send to kids, with the climate crisis, that it’s okay to chop down 10 large trees.” Outward Bound ‘transformational’ CHALLENGING: Hornby High School’s Mijieli Okusi (left) and Mairehau High School’s Samantha Fawcett-Kay were among those who took part in youth Outward Bound course Takere. “EDDY”, a much adored 10 month old Tabby was rushed to McMaster & Heap vets on a Sunday, after alerting his owners that something was up when he hopped on their bed early one morning and started moaning loudly. One of the owners had worked as a nurse for us, so she didn’t waste time in getting Eddy seen. Steve Heap was called in when it was clear there was a severe injury to Eddy’s right eye. McMaster & Heap Veterinary practice Sad case of animal abuse The lens material was removed by a machine that performs cataract surgery - A Phacoemulsification Machine. The eye was irrigated and the corneal wound sutured carefully. Then the eye was reinflated. X-rays performed identified the slug pellet and Steve realised he’d been shot through the eye. The bullet was lodged in a downward angle, and it blew out the animal’s lens, meaning Eddy would have been looking directly at the offender at close range. Suffice to say Eddy is recuperating excellently being cared for round the clock by his dedicated owners. Steve thinks the surgical eye is comfortable and Eddy is back to his crazed, manic antics. He won’t see in the eye but we are hoping he gets to keep his eye. Once his eye is stable and he’s recovered , a second surgery would be advised to remove the slug pellet that sits very close to his cervical spine. Dr Michele McMaster TAKING PART in Outward Bound’s Takere youth course was a complete change of mindset, according to Mairehau High School student Samantha Fawcett. “I now am ready and keen to do anything . . . and to always think about the positive not the negative,” Samantha said. She and Hornby High School student Mijieli Okusi spoke about their experience of the Anakiwa course during an event celebrating those who participated. In July 14 secondary students from Canterbury took part. The course was one of 13 involving 111 schools nationally. Mijieli said meeting new people was the best aspect of completing the course. The activities were fun but difficult, especially the kayaking and tramping, she said. “It was a wonderful opportunity. I’m honoured to have been selected to go to it.” Other pupils came from Avonside Girls’ High School, Catholic Cathedral College, Haeata Community Campus, Hillmorton High School, Linwood College, and Kaiapoi High School. Samantha did not know much about Outward Bound before she went but felt it was such a good opportunity she “had to take it up”. “It was amazing,” she said. “It was physically challenging for me . . . but I overcame those challenges and found strategies to stay positive.” While at Outward Bound Samantha said she learned a lot about setting goals. “I thought a lot about my values and how I need to set goals and to stay motivated.” Outward Bound has been running courses to develop youth leadership and personal skills for 59 years. Since the school’s inception in 1962, more than 65,000 New Zealanders have attended. Outward Bound chief executive Malindi MacLean said most students find the course transformational. “For the majority of our schools programme students, Outward Bound is three weeks of ‘firsts’. “They tell us that the course provides a safe, encouraging and stimulating environment in which they can . . . push the boundaries of what they believe they can achieve.” When Steve saw Eddy, he identified a ruptured right eye with a large piece of lens protruding through the cornea. This would have been excruciatingly painful. A penetrating eye injury was suspected but the cause was not initially apparent. He was immediately anaesthetised, placed on intravenous fluids and given pain medications. Steve became suspicious of a slug pellet injury due to the unusual corneal injury and the fact the lens had totally exploded! Steve hadn’t seen anything like this in 30 years of Ophthalmology practice. Open 7 days Cnr Hoon Hay & Coppell place phone 338 2534, Fax 339 8624 e. mcmasterandheap@yahoo.co.nz www.mcmasterheap.co.nz McMaster & Heap
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Western News: September 02, 2021

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