Howick Intermediate School

Siobhan , Paige , Marcus , Evyn , Adelaide , Holly and Calais from Room 17 started out by wanting to create a healthy and an energy-packed menu to help a friend to get fit for sports camp. Our social action is to do some of these recipes, pack them and freeze them ready for our friend to take to sports camp to share with kids from other schools. Some of the recipes included are baked stuffed potatoes, high-fibre pizza, fruit-kebabs, fruit smoothies , and fruit muffins. Written by: Paige Lagahetau and Siobhan McGrath Room 17

On the 24th of May, 30 students from our school have the opportunity to go to a special event called national young leaders day. This event, sponsored by Halogen, will be held at the ASB show grounds in Greenlane. There will be competitions for prizes, games and activities and inspirational speakers such as Nick Tuitasi, a motivational speaker, Dave Atkinson, an ATTITUDE speaker and more. The objectives for this event is to develop student leadership, empowerment, positivity, motivation, and educating young people on how to become great leaders in our country for the future. Kyle Chand R14

In your child’s Student Diary, is a purple page to update contact details. If you have changed your address or home/work/mobile numbers since you enrolled your child last year, can you please complete this page as soon as possible and ask your child to give it to the office? The school MUST have up-to-date emergency contact details!

Beside the swimming pool, we have a new garden enclosure currently under construction. Our school vegetable garden will provide an environment rich with new learning experiences in which students can learn to work with teachers, parents and the community. We recognise that while students will be growing plants in a school vegetable garden, they will be learning the relationship between people, plants and wildlife. It is one of our new learning experiences. It is also a permanent addition and will be utilized all year-round. Mitre Ten Mega in Botany has kindly donated approximately $150 worth of gardening supplies. By way of expressing our appreciation of their support, you may like to consider signing up for a Mitre Ten Mega customer loyalty card in store. This will enable you to receive a 5% discount on most items in store all year around. You will also get the opportunity to shop on special Loyalty Card-holder days at a greater discount amount. Last time, this was 15% for that particular day for card-holders only. Email is the only way this is communicated. To find out more about what specials you can receive in store, please visit their website http://www.mitre10mega.co.nz/

The parking bay at the front of the school is used by our school buses in the morning. If parents/caregivers insist on using the drop off bay at the front of the school, could they PLEASE obey the following rules?
  -  Drive to the very end of the bay before allowing your child to get out of the car
  -  Avoid doing a right turn back into Botany Road
  -  DO NOT stop or park in the drop-off bay
The safety of our students is very important to us. Ideally, students should be dropped on the surrounding quieter streets or at the Recreation Centre and encouraged to take a little exercise!

Next term we have the opportunity to offer students a Chess Coaching Programme run by Chess Power. The programme provides an accredited coach for one hour each week during the school day, for the school term. The coach provides a structured learning environment, teaching the students a new topic every week and preparing the students for competitive chess tournaments. A minimum of 20 students is required to make this viable, with a maximum of 23 students in the programme. The cost is $57 per student. For further information see Mrs Noble in the library asap.

The library is open to students and staff from 8 am until 3.45 pm every day. Students are welcome to come in before and after school and at lunchtime to spend a few quiet moments, complete homework, read, play cards or chess, or hang out with friends. Students must have their ID card and gold card to issue books, and can take out two fiction and two non fiction books for two weeks. Students are able to reserve books and also renew books required for a little longer.

ICAS is a highly regarded assessment with a recognition component for students written in over 20 countries in Asia, Africa, Europe, the Pacific and in the USA. Students gain a measure of their own achievement in an external testing situation. Your child has the opportunity to participate in these exams at our school . More information will be sent home in the weeks following.

The dates for the following subjects are:
Computer Skills – 22 May
Science – 6 June
Writing – 18 June
Spelling – 19 June
English – 31 July
Mathematics – 14 August

Uniform shop hours:
1st February Wednesday 11am – 6pm
2nd February, Thursday 11am – 6pm

Students start back 3rd February

CAMPS
Whanau Cooper 21 – 24th February
Whanau Ngata 28th Feb – 2nd March
Whanau Batten 6th – 9th March
Whanau Mansfield 12th – 15th March

We We had a blast at the first ever school singing bee that was held on the last day of the term. I asked Mrs Chang what the purpose was of singing bee and she said it is mostly for fun and for people who haven’t participated in anything. Mrs Chang encouraged children that is in the kids sing choir and APPA choir. Bronston’s band will be playing some songs and Cole’s band will be singing the rest. Mrs Chang handed out lyrics to the participants in singing bee so that they could learn them in time for the competition. This was a great way of ending the term, with all the classes supporting their representatives with specially made banners. The excitement in the hall was electrifying and everyone cheered while they enjoyed the music..

As the bus pulled into the H.I.S driveway on Friday of week 6, students, teachers and some parents watched as the squad of 38 exhausted but excited students got off the bus… Well, where were they? They were at sports camp of course! On Monday of week 5, selected students from Howick Intermediate piled on a bus and headed down to Totara Springs in Matamata, prepared for a week of fun, and sport in a very competitive environment. The squad spent months training and preparing for this action packed event. The sports in which they were preparing for were: Basketball, Hockey, Mixed soccer, Softball, Touch, Swimming, Scramball, Rugby, Cheer, Volleyball, Bowls, Caged soccer, Indoor Hockey, Croquet, Darts, Indoor soccer, Petanque, Team triathlon, Tennis, Wall Ball, Table tennis, Netball, Archery, Chess, Draughts, Kayaking, Shooting and athletics, in all these sports we competed against 7 other schools, and overall we came second. Everyone in the H.I.S sports academy squad worked extremely hard to achieve it was a fantastic week for us all. We had a set goal of bringing back 5 trophies but ended up coming back with 7! And 11 runner ups. We got trophies in: Tennis, Mixed soccer, Indoor soccer boys, Indoor soccer girls, Wall Ball, An award which Caitlin Barrett got and Scramball. Altogether we got a total of 18 awards, an outstanding effort! Thank you so much to Mrs Taylor, for all her hard work. Mr P, Miss Dawson and Mr Angell for coming and supporting us while we were at camp. And a massive congratulations to the H.I.S squad, especially Caitlin Barrett who got the best girl athlete. GO HOWICK!

The competition was tough but the words were even harder. Sitting up on the stage were all the contestants for Howick Intermediate’s Term 3 Spelling Bee. One by one, the contestants stood up to spell their given words and slowly they all got eliminated, leaving just three people: Tessa, Jesscynta and Marlon. Sadly Tessa was the next one eliminated, leaving just two people—Jesscynta and Marlon. After a long, hard fight the winner was decided. There could only be one winner and that person was…. Marlon from Room 6! Congratulations to Cooper for winning the Term 3 Spelling Bee, and well done to Ngata for putting up a good fight.

In the last week of each year, as an end of year activity, we provide a range of special activities for our students to enjoy. The activities are selected in the hope that they will provide a new experience for most of our students. This year the ‘Have a Go’ day will be held on 9th December. Later this week students will be given the opportunity to select the activity that they wish to be involved in. Some are school based and incur no cost. Some involve travel and a range of costs. This is an initial selection to help us gauge interest and the viability of each activity. Once students have made an initial selection of an activity, details about the activity will be sent home and you will be asked to confirm that your son or daughter is able to participate. This will be confirmed as planning proceeds. For each activity to proceed, a specific level of interest is required. In order for this programme to proceed parent helpers are required for many of the activities. If you are able to get involved please let us know. There is no cost for the parents who participate.

Did you know that Howick Intermediate has its very own facebook page? Well you can access it from the Howick Intermediate School website at www.howickint.school.nz and click the facebook logo. You can also access the facebook page from links on some of the articles on the Howick Intermediate website. On the page you can find the dates on sporting events and results from Howick Intermediate School sports teams competing at Interschool competitions. You’ll also find information on the inquiry learning and inquiry groups who have won competitions such as the BP zoo technology challenge. There are also photos on previous events such as the Uxbridge exhibition and there will be photos on upcoming events. You’ll even find videos of musical and drama groups. As well as information and photos about the end of year prize giving. But there’s more, you can also find contact details for Howick Intermediate. It has the original Howick Intermediate logo and it is a page not a person. By Reeshan Kishore Rm 20.

As part of our inquiry this term our group is learning about organic gardening. We have joined schools around the country and registered for the McCain school veggie patches program. We hope that you will support us by bringing in the barcodes from McCain vegetable packs to school so we can redeem them for points. This is an awesome time for our group in room five to learn about healthy eating in an outdoor environment. To help with our class veggie patch we need you to just collect and bring in barcodes to school. When we come around to collect them we need you to place them in the collecting box. Each barcode gets our class more points that can be used to buy gardening tools and seeds. You can find out more about the school veggie patches at: www.mccainveggiepatches.com By Room 5

Talented and willing singers, performers, dancers and students in the Arts geared up for a spectacular opening evening on Friday, 2nd September. The event was opened by Member of Parliament, Mr Jamie Lee Ross. The purpose of the exhibition was to showcase what Howick Intermediate has to offer and what we, the students, do. All around the gallery H.I.S artwork and achievements were dotted everywhere—just waiting for the parents to gaze at them in awe. With lights dancing in their eyes, the choir waited for Mrs Chang to conduct them into song. They were eagerly followed by the energetic band. Then the audience were mesmerised with the well-choreographed, spunky dance group. The parents, caregivers and guests were very impressed with our school and we received many great comments that made us glad to be a part of Howick Intermediate School. Please check out our Facebook page for more information and photos of the exhibition. By Renee Page, Tamara Potts and Shaman Theron, Rm 18.

On the 25th and 26th of August we attended the Howick Schools Chess Championship tournament held at Point View School. Two teams of four, plus a reserve, had the wonderful opportunity to play against other intermediate schools such as BBI, Elim, and Somerville. There were also primary schools competing in a separate tournament. The matches we had were challenging and difficult, but we stayed calm and managed to win some matches. We had seven rounds altogether. Each round is about one hour long; we also played with chess clocks. Even though we were not placed in the top three, we still had a lot of fun playing. We also met a lot of friends along the way including a year two student, James Yang who beat most of our team members. At the end of the second day, we had a formal prize giving. We were presented certificates. After the prize giving was the best part of the day. We were given free food. We ate the most food out of all the schools. This is a day we would never forget.

It’s exhilarating, it’s nerve wracking, it’s speech time! The six anxious contestants sat lined up on the bench. All were thinking ‘there are only two winners in the competition and one of them could be me'. All was decided after Leejanka shouted ‘Momma knows best’. Harry told us about a small rabbit called Fluffy, and Georgia had us all agreeing that home learning is a waste of time. There were many more speeches that were sent into battle. But it was Vanessa Ung with an all interesting speech on smoking stole the show for the Year 8’s, though Tamara made the audience giggle and the teachers shriek with laughter (probably guilty of some of the things that Tamara brought up about the wooden spoon)! Both winners left the other finalists swimming in their own self-pride. After a successful day all the contestants went back to class pretty chuffed with themselves. Who will be the next Speech Finalist? By Tamara Potts, Rm 18

We will shortly be having a new issue of our school’s newsletter printed. The newsletters are used throughout the year to keep our families and school community informed regarding school activities. They are financed through the support of advertisers whose advertisements appear for an entire year. This enables the school to receive the newsletters free of charge. This is a great way to keep your business in front of the local community and also help our school. Should you, or anyone you know, like to place an advertisement on the back of our school’s newsletter please contact Dennis or Jeanette Neeve of Newsletters Unlimited, ph (09) 817 3867, or email newsletters@xtra.co.nz.

It is really pleasing to see our students taking part in the whole school fitness on Wednesday and Thursday mornings. The students appear to be having a lot of fun and their level of fitness is definitely increasing. However, it is disturbing to see a number of students missing out simply because they “forgot” or “lost” their PE uniform/sports shoes. Please help your child to make sure their PE uniform is clean and ready as they will need it EVERY Wednesday and Thursday (plus for usual class/Whanau PE sessions).Also, as we are encouraging a whole school approach to fitness EVERY STUDENT should be taking part. Having a cough, sore throat or cold does not prevent them from walking (rather than running) the course. In fact, fresh air and exercise is helpful in clearing the mucous from the body! Basically, if your child is well enough to attend school, then they are well enough to participate in this fitness programme. Liz Taylor Registered Nurse

On Tuesday 7th June, seven girls hopped into the school van and travelled to St Cuthbert’s College with Mrs Nana and Mrs Noble. There were two teams, Howick Intermediate team A, had 4 girls and Howick Intermediate team B had 3 girls. When we arrived at St Cuthbert’s we sat down and ate our lunch before finding our seats in the hall. The topics were: Amphibians, Disabilities, Powers, Classics, Detectives, Snakes, Food, XL, and Fire. After every category the presenter asked everyone a world final question and whoever got it right got $5. The winning school has to be in Wellington by next Wednesday and will be in parliament by lunch time because they will be answering questions by the politicians in front of TV crew and cameras. The winning school was Ponsonby Intermediate School with 83 points. Our Team A had a total of 39 points and Team B had a total of 50! Well Done to all of those girls who did a great job. By: Jacinta Hanscamp Room 18

On the 21st June a charity concert was held in Auckland City to raise awareness and donations for their upcoming Orange Day. Orange Day is held annually around the Auckland region to bring in donations for those in need around the winter months. Our flute tutor played in this concert for the orange appeal run by Auckland City Mission. This was a free concert. All the audience needed to contribute was a donation of money, a blanket or some food. Howick Intermediate's student council and principal’s councillors decided to contribute two blankets even though many wouldn't be able to attend. A big thank you to Miss Armstrong and Mrs Chang for organising the donation.

Over the course of Term 2, students have been working very hard on their Science Fair Investigations. Howick Intermediate takes part in Science Investigations every year and every child takes part and presents a Science Fair project. This is a competition that is held throughout all the schools in the country. It’s a great opportunity to learn more about science, gain more confidence in science and be able to conduct your own Science Investigation.

Howick Intermediate joins 'Facebook' – Check us out here and “Like” our page to keep in touch with what is going on around the school and our local community. If you would like resources on how you can keep your family safe online – Netsafe has have fantastic website to help keep everyone in touch with the changing nature of the cyber world.

On Wednesday, 29 June, Howick Intermediate School will be hosting our annual Open Night. This is an open invitation for parents, friends and members of the community to come in and see how our classes usually run. Invite your friends and family to come in and experience first-hand how we learn at Howick Intermediate School. The programme will run from 6.30—8.00pm.

Howick College is holding three information evenings for enrolling new students.

Information Night – Thursday 23rd June, 7-9pm.
Enrolment Days Out of Zone - Thursday 30th June, 4-6pm
In Zone – Tuesday 5th July, 4-6pm & Thursday 7th July 5-7pm.

For more information please contact the school at www.howickcollege.school.nz or Ph 534-4492

Calling all educators - International literature and research has much to say about what our schools should look like, what should happen in them, and whether they should exist at all. How do we do it? Our students need and deserve a different learning environment. We will give you some tools to change your world. Join us on the 31st of August for a day of thinking with the staff at Howick Intermediate, please email admin@howickint.school.nz for more information.

Students are offered a fantastic opportunity to learn musical instruments in addition to the normal school music programme. Music tutors come into the school each week to teach various instruments. This allows students who would like to learn an instrument the opportunity to do so while at school, so transport arrangements will not be necessary. We hope that this will mean a greater number of students learning instruments. These are the options available: Drums, guitar, keyboard/piano, clarinet, flute or violin. The students will be learning in groups of two or three. Each lesson is either 30mins or 45 mins long. (2 students per group = 30 minutes or 3 students per group = 45 minutes) There are 7 lessons per term. The enrolment fee is $122.50 for each term. Payment for the programme will be required in full before the first week’s lesson. The lessons this term will either start on week two or week three. The enrolment forms are available from the music department.

I am starting to see an increase in students with “Influenza like illness.” A true Influenza is a “sudden onset of a fever above 38 degrees, severe headache, body aches/ chills and quite often a sore throat.” This illness will be severely debilitating and will require up to a week off school. A cold on the other hand is a runny/blocked nose, sneezing and watery eyes. These students are usually well enough to attend school. However, with all viral type illnesses it is very important to follow the correct cough/sneeze etiquette and perform “hand hygiene” to prevent the spread of infection to others. People should be encouraged to cough or sneeze into their elbow or upper arm – the fabric will absorb the droplets and help prevent them from flying into the air! If tissues are used they should be disposed of in a lined rubbish bin or flushed down the toilet. Hands should be washed after using tissues, plus regularly throughout the day. If soap and water is not available, hand sanitisers should be used. If your child is not well enough to attend school don’t forget to call and leave a message on the school absence line BEFORE 0830. Call 534-3922 and choose option 3. It is helpful to me if you can give details of their sickness should I need to follow upon their return to school. Liz Taylor  

It has now become customary for Howick intermediate to finish the term with a Spelling Bee competition. Students throughout the school compete against one another to find the school-wide spelling champion. Teachers were invited to challenge the students and the competition really heated up! The event ended with great excitement as the spelling words became more and more challenging. Contestants were eliminated gradually and finally one student came up tops. A huge congratulations goes to Kurt Kong, Term 1 Spelling Bee winner.

“SUPER!” The first disco of the year! People were hyped up when they arrived at the school, the vibe was electric and people were keen to get into the hall, with music blasting and people dancing like crazy. Some teachers got involved with dancing. Adding to the fun was that most children came dressed as the theme —Super Heroes of the Night, while others dressed to their own style. Kids socialised, danced and look like they had a great time. The D.J was awesome playing all the latest music! People described the disco as fun, especially because it’s in a safe environment. A big thank you to all the student councillors for putting a lot of effort into the disco, also thank you to all the Teachers and parents who supervised during the night. By Jewel Meredith, RM 17  

This term there is a school wide race to collect tabs off the top of cans for kisdcan. Kidscan is an organisation for children with kidney problems and by collecting these tabs you could help these children find a cure. So start collecting tabs now and help your class to win by participating in this great cause. Also remember to have your tabs ready because the Leo Club will be coming around to collect them. 

The Cultural Festival was a night of magic and wonder! Many cultural dances entertained parents and guests. The dances were spectacular with Scottish, Middle Eastern, South African, Samoan and many more being showcased. There was heaps of enthusiasm and energy in the performances this was so contagious that the audience cheered loudly and proudly for the performers on stage. The costumes were magnificent and the kids looked great in them. Everyone had a great time! The audience got a taste of other cultures festive side and the sort of dancing that they do. Next time you see a different culture from yours don’t judge them by the way they look or sound you might be surprised in how interesting the are. In the end the night was amazing and anyone who didn’t go missed out on a whole lot of fun with the show finishing off with a vibrant and exciting Samoan haka performed by the passionate and enthusiastic Samoan group. Natalia Flexman Room 19  

If your child is unable to attend school or is going to be late for any reason it is your responsibility to inform us. Please call the school BEFORE 0830 on 534-3922 and choose option 3 (this absence line is open 24 hours). Leave your child’s full name, room number/teachers name, a reason for not coming to school and if possible a contact phone number. &n