PRINCIPAL'S MESSAGE
A Most Skibidi Message
I recently came across this letter from a teacher to the parents of her students in middle school…the same age as our intermediate. Despite being from an American teacher, many of the similarities were very funny and also very true. Enjoy!
Dear Parents of Middle Schoolers (Intermediate Kids),
No, this isn't one of *those kind* of letters from a teacher. I'm not here to, for instance, let you know that your child hasn't brought a pen to class one single time since maybe the second day of school. I know you bought them pens. What happened to those pens? Who knows.
I just want to tell you a few things you may or may not know about your child. I know things can be a little up and down at home now that your child is a sweaty mess of hormones and nonsense TikTok slang. Let me clear a few things up for you.
They love you so much. No kidding. They write about you in their journals. If I ask them who they admire, what they're thankful for, even if they could have dinner with anyone, living or dead, fictional or nonfictional. They pick you.
They worry a lot about letting you down. Some of them really feel like they can never, ever be good enough for you. You want to look out for that. It's really hard on them.
They can't pause their video games when they're playing online. This is a top thing they wish adults understood. Apparently you tell them to pause their game and empty the dishwasher or whatever and they need you to understand that online games don't pause. So there you go. I passed it along.
‘Skibidi’ comes from a YouTube show. They use it to mean bad. Except the ones who use it to mean good. It’s kind of all purpose. The important thing to note is that if you’re tired of hearing skibidi all of the time, start saying it yourself. It immediately becomes uncool. When I started saying skibidi in class, the middle schoolers were all “IT BURNS US!” and have pretty much stopped using the word in my presence.
That one thing you cook that they really like? It’s their favourite food. Not that food in general, just the way you make it.
They are funny. And insightful, bright, quirky, sweet, silly, and mostly wonderful.
They are often very mean to each other. You remember this, right? Bullying is real and it’s awful, but it’s also not the name for most of these interactions. Mostly this is people whose lives suddenly revolve around friends except they don’t know the rules of friendship or navigating a social scene. They have poor impulse control and are extremely self-conscious and often think they can make themselves look better by making someone else look worse. They're not sociopaths. They’ll learn more social skills and their brains will finish developing and they will adjust to their new hormonal reality. It’s still hard in the meantime though.
They do need to experience the consequences of their actions. If you swoop in to blame others and remove any sort of accountability from your child, you are not doing him or her a service.
The stuff they're interested in may not make one bit of sense to you, but try to at least fake a desire to learn about it. Talking about it lights them up.
They don't always tell the truth. It's fine, you didn’t either at their age. Just keep this in mind.
They don’t approve of the side part in your hair. I personally do not accept style judgment from people wearing socks and Crocs, but do what you want.
They're children. Big stinky children who, given the choice, would spend all day on their phones. But children nonetheless.
Tell them how proud you are, not just of their accomplishments, but of who they are as people. It will mean the world to them.
In exchange, I will tell them (as I do every year) that what you really want for Mother's Day and Father’s Day is a letter from them telling you why they think you're great.
They will not believe this, but I will try.
They'll be yours full-time again when summer rolls around. I hope you'll spend some time soaking in the very cool person your child is at this moment in time. Make them that thing they like, go for a walk and let them tell you about their friends and their weird little obsessions. Tell them stories from when you were their age. Remind them that they are fascinating and capable people who can achieve great things and who also need to apply deodorant daily. Every day. Forever. Please stress this.
We love them too. Thank you for sharing them with us.
Ms. Singaraju
PS: Please send pens.
Kyle Brewerton
Principal/APPA President
IMPORTANT DATES
| AUGUST 2024 | |
| August 20 | Year 7 Water Safety - Room 1 PTA Meeting |
| August 22 | CZ Rugby League Year 7 Water Safety - Room 15 |
| August 27 | Year 7 Water Safety - Room 11 |
| August 29 | CZ Cross Country Year 7 Water Safety - Room 26 |
| SEPTEMBER 2024 | |
| September 1 | Fathers Day |
| September 2 | Japan Exchange |
| September 3 | Year 7 Water Safety - Room 12 |
| September 4 | 2025 Out of Zone Applications CLOSED |
| September 5 | Year 7 Water Safety - Room 27 |
| September 10 | Year 7 Water Safety - Room 13 PTA Meeting |
| September 11 | 2025 Out of Zone Ballot |
| September 12 | Year 7 Water Safety - Room 28 |
| September 13 | International Day |
| September 17 | Year 7 Water Safety - Room 14 BOT Meeting |
| September 19 | RI Talent Show |
| September 20 | William Pike - Waipu Caves |
| September 26 | Term 3 Pop/Rock Bands Performance |
| September 27 | Awards Assemblies Term 3 Ends |
MAGICAL MULTI-MATERIALS
RI Multi Materials students continue to create unique projects in this specialist area of the school. Items manufactured this term include marble mazes, wood turned chess pieces and Automata, a type of mechanical toy.
During this term students learn problem-solving skills, teamwork skills and gain an appreciation for the construction of complex objects. A special thanks to the students from China and Korea who joined us this term.
Safe travels to you all and thank you for getting involved and completing many projects in the Multi Material room.
TREES FOR SURVIVAL
This year, in the Trees for Survival programme we went from taking care of small saplings to planting them. Initially, we weeded and pruned the saplings to ensure their survival. Thanks to the frame provided by our sponsors, the saplings grew strong and by August we were ready to plant.
On Friday the 2nd August a group of 24 students bused to our designated planting spot at a rural farm in Brookby, where we worked for hours securing the trees into the ground. We had perfect weather but the ground was swampy and our backs were aching, regardless we pushed through. Overall, we planted around 700 trees! After planting, we got to enjoy a sausage sizzle lunch.
It was a fun time for all involved and we couldn’t have done it without our sponsors, Rotary and New World Remuera, so we are very grateful for their support.
CZ GIRLS NETBALL
We had a fantastic day out at the ANC with our Year 7 and Year 8 netball teams, which achieved impressive results. Their stellar performances have earned them spots in the inter zones.
The Year 8 team secured a smooth 1st place finish, while the Year 7s took 2nd place. Beyond their excellent play, both teams demonstrated outstanding sportsmanship, which is equally important. Many other schools commented on the behavior and sportsmanship of our girls, which was truly commendable.
Overall, this marks one of the best results RI has achieved at this tournament in years.
Year 7 Girls: Jade Stokes, Jessica Thompson, Olivia Jackson, Sibley Schaumkell, Olivia Moelasi, Keasi Taufa, Samara Rajan, Ivanna Hau, Anjana Harshaan, Ava Cooke
Year 8 Girls: Abby Scott, Amelia Burr, Anneliese Winborn, Olivia Clark, Olivia Gargiulo, Tabitha Schaumkell, Patisepa Taimani, Rose Stickland, Scarlett Johnson
TOUGH GUY AND GIRL CHALLENGE
On Wednesday 7 August, Mrs Stead & Mrs Tetley took a group of 76 students to Kumeu Showgrounds in West Auckland. Each of these students completed a 3km muddy obstacle course. They went under and over tunnels, hurdles, climbing frames and water crossings.
It was a fun-filled day with lots of smiles and a warm shower at the end to clean up with. We even won Best Dressed School!
Well done to the students who participated.
WATERPOLO
We had two teams enter the Tim Sonderer water polo tournament on August 2nd - 4th.
Both our RI teams played some outstanding water polo throughout the tournament and ended up finishing 3rd in the A grade and 4th in the C grade, which is a fantastic result. RI Red played against ANI for the bronze medal and won 9-4!
Following this game RI Red were presented with their Tim Sonderer Memorial bronze medals by Kerry Sonderer, (Tim Sonderer’s mother) who commented that she was so pleased that RI won bronze as her son was an ex-RI student and a RI water polo player.
The RI Black team played 7 games and won more than they lost. Apologies for not including a photo of the Black team, we will make up for this in the next newsletter.
Thank you to the coaches, managers and students for your commitment to RI sport.
Teams are as follows:
RI Red - Abby Scott, Amelia Burr, Emilia Hoglinger, Emily Tait, Hunter Kong, Lexie Oliver Purcell, Scarlett Johnson, Sophie Bull, Theo Pinter
Coach: Cam Hemus
Manager: Tony Scott
RI Black - Ashley Ling, Cole Millar, Jayden Kao, Zoe Hickton, Jade Stokes, Sawyer McLachlan, Violet McAuley, William Sinclair, Zoe Wall
Coach: Zach Scott and/or Mac Carver
Manager: Claire Ellis
2025 ENROLMENTS
If you have a Year 6 student who will be coming to RI in 2025, we encourage you to start the enrolment process early to ensure we are well prepared for the coming year.
You can now apply online by clicking this link. If you have a query regarding the enrolment process, please contact Ms. Amy McGowan at enrolments@remint.school.nz
Important dates for 2024 Enrolment:
In Zone Application Due Back: Wednesday 4 September 2024
Out of Zone Application close: Wednesday 4 September 2024 at 3:30 pm – no exceptions
Out of Zone Ballot Ballot to take place: Wednesday 11 September 2024
ABSENCES
All absences need to be reported by 8:45 a.m. at the latest. To report an absence please:
Use the 'Report an Absence' link in the top right corner of the school website homepage http://www.remint.school.nz
Use the school app or phone the office on 09 522 9890 Option 1
Please do not email absence notifications to classroom teacher
ABSENCE TEXT NOTIFICATION
Our children’s safety is of paramount importance to us. In order to ensure the safety of all our students, at 9:45 am if your child has not been marked as Present we will send out a text notification to alert you of his/her absence.
We are aware many parents are simply very busy people and forget to notify the school so please respond with a Y and a reason for the absence/lateness.
Respond with an N if you have dropped your child at school or know that he/she was coming to school and we can investigate this promptly.
Should your mobile number change, please notify the school immediately so that we can update our records accordingly.
REMUERA INTERMEDIATE SCHOOL APPS
You can download the free SchoolAppsNZ from the App Store or Google Play. It works on both Android and Apple phones. It sends important school messages and forms a big part of our school communications.
Features of the App:
- You can subscribe to alert groups of interest to you and your child
- You can complete the absentee form directly from the App
- You can access the school calendar, news and events directly through the App
- We can send out targeted alerts to everyone with the App or to specific groups