Balmoral School Newsletter - 12 May 2023

Principal's Welcome

Kia ora e te whānau

Recently I have been talking to various people ranging from management consultants and venture architects to computer programmers who have been using Chat GPT in their everyday working lives. Teachers at our school have also been using it, for example, to re-write a Herald story for three different audiences in their class. Last week there was a story in the NZ Herald about a ChatGPT recipe that stunned a Michelin-star chef.

ChatGPT is a new kind of technology that can understand and use human language very smartly. It has already begun to change how we communicate, get, and use information. This means that children in primary school must be prepared for this new world where technology like GPT is more common.

At Balmoral School, we believe in teaching children critical thinking and creativity to prepare them for this future.

Critical thinking means being able to think carefully and evaluate information to decide whether it is true or not. With technology like ChatGPT, it will be even more critical for children to be able to distinguish between accurate, manipulated, and fake information. We teach children to look carefully at a book or visual (eg. movie) to understand who is telling the story, who might be left out, and how the story might be different if someone else suggests it. To look for clues that help them gain the skills to interpret. We teach them to probe, listen, challenge ideas, and come up with their own thoughts that can be justified.

We also encourage creativity in our students because while ChatGPT is very good at generating language, it is not good at being creative as humans. By encouraging children to be creative and think outside the box, we are helping them prepare for a future where creativity and innovation will be essential skills. 

Critical thinking through P4C and an integrated curriculum are purposefully taught at our school. We believe that by teaching critical thinking, critical literacies and creativity, we are giving our students the tools they need to survive and succeed in a rapidly changing world.

Nāku noa
Written by ChatGP and further developed by Malcolm

Measles

(Provided by Te Whatu Ora - Auckland Regional Public Health Service)

Measles is highly infectious and babies, young children and non-immune pregnant women are vulnerable to serious illness.

Many older secondary students and young teachers may have missed out on MMR vaccination.

Please prepare for measles as there will be more cases.

• The best protection against measles is to be vaccinated . If you haven't had two doses of the MMR vaccine contact your doctor to check if you need it
• Tamariki should have two MMR vaccinations to avoid disruption to their education.
• Vaccination records are in the Wellchild/Plunket book or ask your doctor.
  
• If we have a case of measles at our school, Public Health will work with us to decide who will need to stay home because they are not immune.

Link to information and resources:   Measles | ARPHS

Mitey Update

In Hub 9, we have been linking our Mitey Mental Health lessons with our Inquiry into identity and “Our Stories”. After the holidays is always a good time to remind ourselves how we contribute to our classroom and school. We decided to look at the theme of classroom relationships. Sometimes, it is difficult to identify what makes someone a friend and sometimes it is hard to be a great classmate to everyone in the hub. To kick off our thinking, we discussed the strengths we have that make Hub 9 amazing. We chose the most important attributes to write on a feather for our Class Korowai. It looks fantastic and represents the identity of the students in the class as well as the community of Hub 9. Then, we read Have You Filled a Bucket Today? to help us brainstorm what great friends and classmates look, sound, and feel like. We used Think, Pair, Share to communicate our thoughts and feelings to each other and to our teachers. Zoe R thinks that to make friends it is important to be kind to others, invite them to play and be honest. Ellie J knows that playing with her friends makes her a good friend. Tom G said that a bucket filling classroom is one where people show respect by not interrupting each other. “The feathers were a lot of work,” said Beau. He likes the nice messages they show.

Primary School News - whānau Whetu

Kia ora e te whānau,

Wet and Wild at Camp Adair! Hiringa had a wonderful and crazy time at camp for four days and three nights in Hunua. All students showed great courage and resilience in battling the weather as well as some intense and advanced activities. Year 5 and 6 students stayed in cabins of 9 to 12 students and completed about ten different activities in their activity groups. Some Highlights shared by students were the climbing wall, confidence course, archery, high beam and of course the food. 

A massive thank you to all the parents that helped out at camp, they were all so helpful and joyful even while standing in the rain for 6 hours of the day. Also thank you to the teachers who put in a lot of hard work into organising the camp.

 Ngā mihi nui

Whānau Hiringa

Intermediate School News

Congratulations to our Central Zones Futsal teams who competed over the last two weeks.

On Thursday the Fourth of May we went to Central Zone Futsal competing against twelve different teams in our division. Once we got there we were met by the host of the competition, he told everyone the rules while we sat in our competing teams. There were ten girls in our team, which meant we had five subs. Elizabeth and Isla were the only ones that were in Year Seven all the others were in Year Eight. We didn't get to play too many games because we had five teams that pulled out so we only played four games. We won our first two games against Dio and Pasadena, but for our next game we tied with Remuera Intermediate, so we had to do a penalty shoot out. The game was so close, but they had an awesome goalie.  In the next game we were competing against Mount Roskill Intermediate, competing for fifth and sixth place. They were a hard team to play against and we barely won! Overall we came fifth, we had an amazing time and it was super fun! We are super thankful for our amazing coach Carol-Anne for managing all of this. And another thanks to all the parents who took us.  

Report written by Elizabeth F and Isla W 

The Year 8 boys made a great comeback in their quarter final game, showing resilience to overcome their opponents. They ended the day 4^th, against some very tough opposition. Our Y7s proved they have incredible potential for next year, winning one game 12-0 and beating the eventual winners of the tournament 4-0 in the group stages. They finished 5th, cruising through their placement matches with ease after a close quarter final. Ka pai boys!

On Monday the 8th of May the Balmoral Barracudas water polo team went to Dio school to compete in a CZ water polo tournament. We won our first game with 3-2  to us against RI. After what felt like a long 15 minute wait we played Dio and they won 9-2. After another long wait was a game against Ponsonby for the first quarter final and we lost 4-3. After that we were done and packed up our stuff but they called us for another quarter final against St Marys. It was a hard game but in the end it was a draw 5-5. We all packed up and drove back to Balmoral. We had a very fun half day. And our team showed great sportsmanship and support for each other.

By Esme R and Orla W

Community News

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Jazz School - Weekly Bands

Jazz School is excited to announce the formation of two new Jazz Big Bands that will meet after school on Mondays or Thursdays throughout the year providing experience, performance opportunities and the chance to play amazing music with like minded musicians. The bands will cater for students in years 6-11 playing at grade 2 level up to very advanced students. The instruments included are Saxophone, Trumpet, Trombone, Electric Guitar, Piano, Bass, Drums, Flute and Clarinet. Registrations are also open for our next school holiday workshop on July 3, 4 and 5.

For more information please visit jazzschool.co.nz or contact Drew Hutchinson at jnrjazzschool@gmail.com 021 134 1693