Balmoral School Newsletter - 23 June 2023

Principal's Welcome

Kia ora e te whānau

This week the teaching staff have been completing the mid-year school reports. These will be available on Edge from mid-afternoon on Monday. 

The next stage of our formal reporting on progress to parents will be the Ākonga, Whānau, and Kiako Learning Conferences on Wednesday, 16th and Thursday, 17th of August. Information about booking these will come out at the start of Term 3. We will be closing the school at 12:30 pm on Thursday 17 August to enable conferences to start at 1 pm.

If you wish to meet with your child's teacher before this, please email them to arrange a suitable time.

Finally, I do hope you get to spend some time with your children over the upcoming holidays. 

Nāku noa
Malcolm

Out of Zone Enrolments

The Balmoral School School Board may approve a limited number of out-of-zone enrolments for 2024.

Balmoral Intermediate School

• Applications for out-of-zone enrolments for 2024 must be received by 3.00 pm, Wednesday, 30 August, 2023. Should a ballot be required for out-of-zone enrolments, this will occur on Wednesday, 6 September 2023.

Balmoral Primary School

• Applications for out-of-zone enrolments for 2024 must be received by 3.00 pm, Wednesday, 11 October, 2023. Should a ballot be required for out-of-zone enrolments, this will occur on Wednesday, 18 October 2023.

Out-of-zone applications use the same online application procedure as in-zone students.
However, out-of-zone applications do not require the completion of the in-zone Statutory Declaration Form or provision of proof of residence.
More information about enrolment can be found here on our website under enrolment.

Intermediate

Primary

NZMSM Achievements

We have received the results for the Theory Exam held on the 13th of May, 2023, for the New Zealand Modern School of Music. We are very proud of the results of the Grade 1 Exam. A big Congratulations to the ākonga.
Distinction 100/100:   Emma Steel
Honours 91.5/100:   Ellie Spalding

Congratulations to the following Primary students Thea Bruns, William Cameron, Ahaana Duffadar, Hudson Falconer, Theo Fisher, Lucy Meade, Zoey Pearson, Susie Pham, Becca Spalding, Ellie Spalding, Catherine Tiourin, Jan Vogels, Lillian Zheng and the Intermediate students Leo Cairncross, Fern Orr, Blake Spalding and Emma Steel for participating and achieving excellent results. 
Lillian Zheng- A Trophy (for 7 years and under), 2 Gold Medals, 2 Very Highly Commended Certificates. 
Thea Bruns - 1 Gold Medal, 2 Silver Medals and 3 Very Highly Commended Certificates. 
Ellie Spalding - 1 Gold Medal, 2 Highly Commended Certificates. 
Jan Vogels - 1 Gold Medal.
Emma Steel - 2 Silver Medals and 3 Very Highly Commended Certificates.
Zoey Pearson - 2 Silver Medals and 1 Highly Commended Certificate. 
William Cameron - 1 Silver Medal and 2 Bronze  Medals.
Blake Spalding - 1 Silver Medal, 1 Bronze Medal and 3 Highly Commended Certificates. 
Susie Pham - 1 Silver Medal and 2 Very Highly Commended Certificates. 
Theo Fisher - 1 Bronze Medal, 2 Very Highly Commended Certificates and 1 Highly Commended Certificate.
Ahaana Duffadar - 1 Bronze Medal and 1 Very Highly Commended Certificate.
Lucy Meade - 1 Bronze Medal and 1 Highly Commended Certificate.
Catherine Tiourin - 6 Very Highly Commended Certificates.
Fern Orr - 1 Very Highly Commended Certificate.
Becca Spalding - 3 Highly Commended Certificates.
Hudson Falconer - 1 Highly Commended Certificate.
Leo Cairncross - 1 Highly Commended Certificate.

Vacancy

Sports League Coordinator

Are you passionate about sports? Do you enjoy coordinating and organizing events? Are you a great communicator? If so, we have an exciting opportunity for you as our Sports League Coordinator!

As a Sports League Coordinator, you will play a vital role in ensuring the smooth running of our sports leagues. You will act as a liaison between league organisers, venues, coaches, parents, and Sports Unit Holders, facilitating effective communication and collaboration.

This is a part-time position, requiring approximately 4 hours per week on-site. If you are looking for a fulfilling role where you can combine your love for sports, effective communication, and organizational skills, we would love to hear from you!

Join our school team as the Sports League Coordinator and make a positive impact on the sporting experiences of our ākonga and community.

For further information and a job description, contact the school office.

Send a short CV and cover letter to Malcolm by Friday, 21 July.  office@balmoral.school.nz

Mitey Bite: Mental Health Education in the Classroom

In 4A2, the students have been discussing what would make their future happy and healthy. Together, they brainstormed and compiled a list of values, attitudes, and actions that all humans should have which would make an environment happy and healthy. They were given the task of describing their own “Perfect World”. The word “Utopia” came up, which caused some discussion. A few students commented that a Utopia couldn’t happen because everyone wants different things. However, the messages from the Year 7 students were about kindness, positivity, and fairness. 

Next, the students began writing and designing picture books. The themes of the picture books link to the values, attitudes, and actions they used to explain their “Perfect” Worlds. When the books are finished, they will be read to younger children in our school. Therefore, the messages will be shared throughout our school.

Many of the students commented on how much they have learnt about making picture books. They recognise that using appropriate language and a simple story are very important so the theme is accessible for the audience. However, the deeper learning has been around the messages that books teach. Gunreet noticed that some of the values we hope for in a perfect world are less common in the real world.

Primary School News -

Whānau  Koru

Through storytelling Koru has been learning about significant people, atua and events in Te Ao Māori. In the Beginning, by Peter Gossage is an all time favourite, widely known from the children’s preschool years. These stories help connect the past to the present and inspire wonder and curiosity about our own story of Te Roto a Rangi.

With all of the recent wind and rain, the children wondered about what might be happening… Could Ranginui be crying for his love, Papatūānuku? 

Or was Tāwhirimātea, blowing strongly, still angered and heartbroken by the separation of his parents? 

We were inspired to recreate this story for our assembly. The children across Koru have been busily creating the different guardians, thinking about what colours and patterns would work best to portray them. Everyone was given an important job to do to dramatise the story for a spectacular performance! Throughout this learning there was a lot of talking, writing, drawing, painting, wondering, theory making and discovering. 

Part of our journey in inquiry took us down to the lake on the field. On our first visit we discussed what we could see, taste, smell, feel and hear. This allowed tamariki to use their imagination to take us back to Te Roto a Rangi. Our second visit was sparked by some of the children's wonderings about what animals might have lived in the lake. We admired the art wall and took a closer look at what animals we could see. We found dragonflies, eels, pūkeko and colourful fish. Another visit to the field followed, sketch books in hand, to look even more closely, and draw the creatures of our lake.

Eden Albert Cross Country 

On June 13th, a group of our fabulous Year 5 and 6 cross country runners took a trip to the Auckland Domain to take part in the Mount Eden/Albert Cross Country Race 2023. It was a beautiful day with the sun shining and the children took that positivity with them into the race!  The children did a superb job of representing our school and ran really well. 

Although we felt a little disappointed to not get placed as a whole school, all the children put in their best efforts, were really well behaved and were encouraging to all the runners taking part in the races. By the end of the event, we had had some great results with 10 of the children getting placed in the Top 20! Notably, Year 5 Ellie Mark and Year 6 Cici Zhang who came in first place, Year 6 Max Gaskell who came third, and Harry Culpan Hammon and Lucia Alchin who came 5th overall.  

 It was a great day to be part of and the children should be proud of their fantastic achievements! 😀

Intermediate School News

Rich Challenges for Term Two

This week has seen the start of ākonga sharing the work they have done this term for Rich Challenge. So far we have seen some amazing things including terrariums being built, dances being choreographed, polished and performed, children taking pottery wheel classes and street art being produced. One of the fastest rich challenges we've seen was this go-kart made by Riley and Ryan! Well done to everyone who tried something new, managed their time, overcame challenges, worked hard or successfully worked to a deadline. We look forward to seeing more next week.

Central Zone Girls' Hockey

On the 13 of June the girls' hockey team attended CZ Hockey at the North Harbour hockey stadium. We were all very excited and hoping to win. We practiced for the whole time until it was time for our first game against Marist. We had a tie with them for our first game. We decided to practice for our second game and someone hit the ball in the air and it hit one of our team's heads and gave them a minor concussion. When we played our second game the Hockey ball went flying on to one of our team's fingers and it got swollen. Both of our teammates had to go home so we were less on players. So now we only had one sub. We had a great time playing against all those teams. We ended up coming eighth out of 13 teams. We had one win and some losses and went back to school with a very good attitude. We all had lots of fun there. We all hope to go there again one day.

By Felicity, Chloe and Ella

Central Zone Boys' Football

On 15th of June, Balmoral sent a football team to Bill Mckinley Park to compete in the CZ event. The first game was against Waiheke and the score was 2-0 to Balmoral. Our next game was against Royal Oak and the score was 2-0 Balmoral again! After that we played Kowhai, one of the toughest teams we had in our pool. The final score was 2-1 to Kowhai. We ended up finishing third in our pool, so that meant we would play second in pool B, which was Remuera Intermediate and our competition came to an end when losing 1-0 to RI.

By Isaac and Art

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