PRINCIPALS MESSAGE
You may have seen some commentary last week around the dire levels of literacy amongst New Zealand’s young people. Sadly the media did not paint a full picture leaving many parents worried about their young ones when actually they are achieving very well. Our results are a case in point. Having recently completed our mid-year assessments to evaluate our programmes and to identify who may need further support, our students continue to perform well above national expectations. As you would expect, not everyone is the next J K Rowling in waiting just as not everyone is the next commonwealth or Olympic athlete. What we do know is that there are some students who do find literacy challenging for numerous reasons and these students receive additional support in class and where possible, through one of our support programmes.
This being said, one of the challenges we face when addressing the wide variety of needs present in any classroom today is simply a numbers game. When you look at the graph below it is little wonder that those students who perhaps need a little extra attention and guidance may not receive this. Common sense would suggest that if you want young people to arrive at secondary school ready to succeed in high-stakes assessments, time and energy spent before they arrive would be well spent. This is an issue that was raised in the Tomorrow's Schools review report published in 2018 and yet to date nothing has been done to address this significant inequity between primary & intermediate schooling and secondary. I encourage you to consider what your ideal would look like given the keys to the kingdom.
What is Wrong with This Picture?
Kyle Brewerton
Principal
CENTRAL ZONES GIRLS NETBALL
On a bright and sunny 12th August our girls netball teams headed off to the Auckland Netball Centre for the Central Zones tournament. The girls played extremely well with great skills demonstrated on the day.
Results -
Year 7 - 2nd place
Year 8 - 4th place
The year 8s lost in the semis by 1 goal and that team went on to win the whole competition so they did extremely well.
AUCKLAND SCHOOLS MTB XC RACE #3
Another good turnout from RI for this series of MTB races. The race was held at Totara Park on Sunday, 7th August. Well done to all riders that competed.
The conditions were extremely challenging and all riders should be proud of their efforts. The difficulty of the course could be seen by the large number of riders walking their bikes across the finish line.
Well done to Cole Feringa for achieving 2nd place in the U14 boys group, even with a puncture! Other top 10 finishers were Nova Taylor, Seb and Max Allan. All riders racing contribute to our overall team’s points. Keep up the good work!
DJ CLUB - KEEPING THE BEAT
Following on from the highly successful Trash to Fashion show at the Arts Evening late in term two, the DJ club is still in full swing this term. The focus has now shifted from electronic music production using Garage band, to the performance side of DJing including beat matching and mixing.
We were lucky enough to have a very special guest last week, the internationally experienced DJ and RI parent, Ryan Christie. Ryan played a demo session for the group, who then got to ask all sorts of questions about life as a DJ. Top of their list was “how much money do my parents need to spend to get me a sweet DJ setup like yours!?" The group were interested to hear about how technology has changed life for the DJ - from vinyl records to CDs and most recently to USB drives or even music streaming services straight to the DJ controller software.
It is great to have such an enthusiastic bunch of budding young DJs in the club this year, and parents, if one of these is yours, you know what to get them for Christmas!
Mr Nicholls
Aka The Professor
EPRO8 CHALLENGE
The EPro8 challenge has kicked off at RI. This is a Science and Engineering competition where students are posed with problems that they have to overcome. A lot of our up and coming engineers, scientists and creative thinkers at RI are involved in this. Teams will be competing against each other at our schools internal event on the 23rd and 24th of August. The top finishers from this qualify for the EPro8 Inter School event.
EPRO8 INTERNAL RESULTS
This week we had our inaugural EPro8 competition in the hall.
Round 1
4 teams (Fantastic 5, EPro8 Masters, Big Brainz and The Brainy Bunny Buddies) took part in this challenge and it turned out to be a close finish with the leaderboard changing several times.
Congratulations to The Brainy Bunny Buddies for winning this internal event. They have now qualified for an Inter School competition.
Team list -
Guangnian Li - Rm 18
Sebastian McIvor - Rm 10
James Lethborg - Rm 10
Shivesh Shetty - Rm 10
All teams worked extremely well together with great strategy throughout the challenge.
Round 2
Congratulations to Shooting Stars for winning the 2nd internal.
Team list -
Summer Li - Rm 25
Abigail Chang - Rm 2
Imaan Rajan - Rm 29
Calla Yan - Rm 25
Well done to all our upcoming engineers and scientists and good luck to them for the Inter Schools.
CENTRAL AUCKLAND INTER SCHOOL CHESS COMPETITION
While classrooms remain central to school life, we continue to provide various co-curricular opportunities to our young people. One of many such opportunities was the recent inter-school chess tournament which our students took part in. Four teams, each consisting of four players, represented the school at the tournament which was held at the Pioneer Women’s and Ellen Melville Memorial Hall. All 16 players got to play against teams that represented other schools in Auckland - Ponsonby Intermediate, St. Peters College, Mt. Roskill Intermediate and St. Cuthberts. Each team got to play five or six rounds.
Together the students recorded the following results:
Team B: Saiteja Bandaru, Justin Wong, Shobhit Shetty and Aidan Hong - 5th rank
Team D: Aanya Dewan, Daniel Fong, Aikantika Banerjee, Trevanesh Anandan - 8th rank
Team C: Tejas Panda, Sameer Khemlani. Veer Raj Pateriya, Eric Liang - 13th rank
Team A: Josh Bullivant, Daniel Bullivant, Adwaidh Raja, Harrison Wright - 14th rank
I wish to acknowledge the participation of all the students in this tournament!!!
IN THE GARDEN
This term a group of keen students from the Corner Crew (Room 6, 7, 29 & 30) have been meeting each Friday afternoon to work in the school vegetable gardens. They are working hard to prepare new garden plots, grow plants from seeds, plant seedlings and harvest the crops for students to use in the Foods room, as well as doing general weeding and watering. During the year the gardens have been extended to include the raised beds besides the main classroom block. Today we are growing cauliflowers, broccoli, silverbeet, beans, peas, chilli peppers, spring onions, lettuces, blueberries, zucchini, carrots, tomatoes, cucumbers and a wide range of herbs.
MULTI MATERIALS NEWS
Year 8 Multi-Material students have nearly completed their Carry Tray projects for this cycle. A high level of creativity was on display as students learned how to make wooden joints to produce functional and aesthetically pleasing objects.
Year 7 students constructed a five level freestanding tower using only A4 folded paper.This was a difficult challenge as each layer needed to be based on a variety of structural forms such as cylinders and triangular prisms.
Students in the Two E's class constructed a series of bridges including truss and suspension bridge designs.
ESOL NEWS
YEAR 7 CAMP DATES
We have announced to our students that we have been able to secure a date at Camp Adair for our Year 7 students for 2022. As you may remember, we cancelled our Year 7 camp earlier this year due to the uncertainty we were experiencing as a country. You could tell when teachers were telling their classes as the roar of excitement could be heard around the school.
We will be heading out to camp in the first week of term 4 and have organised the following class dates -
Rooms 11, 12, 13, 14, 26, 27, 28 Mon-Wed (Oct 17th - Oct 19th)
Rooms 1, 8, 9, 10, 15, 16, 17, 18 Wed-Fri (Oct 19th - Oct 21st)
Over the next few days you will be receiving further information regarding camp, including a Google Form and we ask that you fill this out as soon as you are able to. We appreciate that some of our families may have questions or would like to learn more about how our Year 7 Camp operates before completing this form, so we invite you all to attend a parent camp meeting being held in our school hall on Wednesday 31st August 6.00pm - 7.00pm.
2023 ENROLMENTS
If you have a Year 6 student who will be coming to RI in 2023, 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 2023 ENROLMENTS
In Zone/Out of Zone Applications Opened
Monday 9 May 2022
In Zone Applications Due Back
Wednesday 7 September 2022
Out of Zone Applications Close
Wednesday 7 September 2022 at 3:30pm – no exceptions
Out of Zone Ballot
Wednesday 14 September 2022
SCHOOL TOURS
Parents considering enrolling their child at Remuera Intermediate for 2023 are invited to join us on one of our school tours during the year. Both prospective students and their families may come and see the whole school “in action” on a normal school day. These tours are great opportunities to experience what Remuera Intermediate can offer your child.
Term 3
Friday 2 September 2022 8:45 - 9:45am
Friday 23 September 2022 8:45 - 9:45am
Term 4
Friday 28 October 2022 8:45 - 9:45 am
Friday 25 November 2022 8:45 - 9:45 am
Bookings are essential and each tour will be limited to 15 families. A confirmation email with further information will be sent to you closer to the date of your chosen school tour. Please click here to book a tour.
IMPORTANT DATES
AUGUST
26th Teacher Only Day
31st Cross Country Central Zones
Year 7 Camp Meeting
SEPTEMBER
07th Out of Zone Applications close - 3:30pm
09th International Day
13th PTA Meeting
14th Out of Zone Ballot
20th BOT Meeting
30th Awards Assemblies
End of Term 3
REMUERA INTERMEDIATE SCHOOL APP
You can download the free app 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
ABSENCES
All absences need to be reported by 8:45am at the latest. To report an absence please:
Use the 'Report an Absence' link in the top right corner on 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 teachers
ABSENCE TEXT NOTIFICATION
Your children’s safety is of paramount importance to us. In order to ensure the safety of all our students, at 9:30am 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.
PARENT PORTAL
Parents are able to use our portal to pay for their child’s donations and fees. We encourage anyone who has not already signed up to do so. The address is https://parent.edgelearning.co.nz/