Year 12 Biology Camp in Dunedin Newsletter
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Year 12 Biology Camp in Dunedin Newsletter 7 Newsletter 17 May 2013 Principal: Grant Dick [email protected] www.csc.school.nz Phone 03 236 7646 - Fax 03 236 7645 - Grange Street, P O Box 94, Winton Editorial A very warm welcome back to our school community to Term 2 2013, and a big thank you to everybody for such an overwhelming welcome for me as I settle into this new position as Principal at Central Southland College. Appreciation must be given to Mrs Summers, and in fact all the staff, for leading this school over the past little while, and enabling me to walk into an environment that is providing a solid, stimulating and exciting learning experience for our students to thrive in. At my first assembly I spoke about my first impression of this school, and that was watching a large group of our students who had bussed into town to support and cheer on our rugby team. The students were well presented, encouraging of each other and represented our school values extremely well. This is so important wherever we are; home, school or in the community, when a large group of our students can display this when they don’t realise they are ‘being watched’ tells me these values are well ingrained. I am really looking forward to getting to know our school community, please don’t hesitate to make yourself known to me whether at a meeting, on the sporting side line, or at an event. I would like to wish our stage challenge crew all the best as they head on stage tonight. Grant Dick Principal Art News On Friday the 10th of May the Level Two Photography class went on a field trip to capture some subject matter for their folio boards. We are trying to use photos to explain issues that affect Southlanders. We are looking at the economic threat from the closure of Tiwai, the state of government owned housing and the neglect of our train station. It was a great day out with lots of awesome images taken. In the classroom, our Year 10 class have just submitted their assessments on Shane Hansen inspired skateboards. These are amazing and the students have done extremely well! The Year 11 class is currently in the printmaking zone, they are working on dry point etching and woodblocks. Finally the Year 13 class are working steadily towards their own individual folio boards. The New and Improved Crab Camp The Year 12 Biology class went on the now annual Crab Camp to the Marine Studies Centre in Portabello, Dunedin this week. We left on Sunday afternoon and stayed in the (haunted?) house on Quarantine Island. This is a short boat trip over from the Marine Studies Centre so we were back there by 9am on Monday morning, ready for learning! The focus of the trip is to investigate the adaptations of marine animals for living in the ever changing inter-tidal zone. The students did some classroom exercises before heading out to the beach to collect data by counting the different species along a transect line up the beach. We finished the day by dissecting a Cancer Crab, a Southern Arrow Squid and a Spiny Dog Fish. The trip is incredibly worthwhile for learning about the environment and for the exposure Tommi Perkov, Devon Burgess, Courtney O’Callaghan to people from the University of Otago who are so enthusiastic about their subject. Thanks to Mr Dunn who helped with the trip. Annie Keown Biology Teacher Sinead Dunn, Brooke Dyer Alex Kinley and Kurtis Smith Taylor Hall, Cheyna Stirling, Steve Cutler (Instructor), Amber Batt Ashleigh Hoten-Walker, Brooke Dyer, Sinead Dunn eLearning and ICT at Central Southland College Many of you will have wondered about the new online learning system that has been introduced called Ultranet. The school has invested in this tool to support the diverse learning that occurs during class time. At the moment staff are learning how to use the new system and it’s many features for themselves. The English Department staff have begun by putting weekly homework tasks online for all the Year 9 and 10 students to complete. Staff from other subjects and classes are beginning to put on content such as: images, links to websites and videos, class notes, slideshows and a wide variety of other support material, for their own students to view. As we approach our fibre broadband connection hookup confirmation and the ability to bring a digital device to school to work on with a reliable wireless network for all students, it is hoped that the new Ultranet LMS will become another focal point to support teaching and learning in our school, accessible from anywhere and on any device. Next term we are aiming to add the ability for parents and caregivers to log into the system and see a range of information about the classes that your children are in. This will include attendance, achievement and subject information among other data for your child only. If you have any questions or concerns you are welcome to contact Mr Gray at school or via [email protected]. The ultranet web address is: csc.ultranet.school.nz Physical Education at CSC Currently our junior PE classes are doing a fitness unit. Students were running a lot at the end of Term 1 in preparation for the school cross country. For the first three weeks of this term they have been doing circuit training and team training activities. Year 11 Economics The Year 11 Economics class are currently completing an assessment on the decisions producers make. We are using our local business Craigpine as our case study. 20 students visited the Craigpine mill recently to study the production processes and took a guided tour around the site. All students were very impressed with the way the mill operated and are now writing up a report on the producer decisions made by Craigpine. Have you had a go at being the Math Geek of the Week? Mrs Black’s classes have been fiercely vying for the The International Friendship Club recently met for opportunity to be the top ranked geek each week, by a shared lunch to farewell our five short term Thai submitting an answer to the maths problem on the students; Aum, Jaa, Stang, Gam and Luknam. They whiteboard at the back of C1, into the post box (also had spent 8 weeks with us and we enjoyed having in C1). Some questions are easy, some are not …. but them as a part of our school for that time. We each week one correct entry wins a prize. Keen to welcomed two new Thai students; Junior to Y11 and have a go? Call in, check out the question and enter Lalita to Y12. Host parents were thanked for their your answer. involvement as without them we would not be able Next weeks question: When 64 small cubes are glued to have international students at CSC. together to make one large cube, how many of the small cubes cannot be seen at all? IFC Group enjoying a shared lunch Math Geek Winners from Term 1 Careers Corner by Maree Buchanan and Raewyn Lowe Otago Open Day SIT visiting CSC 35 very excited Year 13 students had the opportunity The liaison from SIT will be at CSC on Friday to attend the Otago Tertiary Open Day on Monday 14 June. She will have information for students 13 May. While in Dunedin, the students visited regarding courses offered and application deadlines. different tertiary providers, attended presentations and visited some of the Halls of Residence. The day was a Trade Up Day - SIT great opportunity for our senior students to do some SIT are running a Trade Up day on Wednesday 10 July. planning and investigating for 2014. SIT take the students to visit 2-3 industry sites, then after lunch they have a faculty tour at SIT. There is Year 12 Interviews no cost to the student apart from lunch. Students are After Year 12 Career Interviews last term regarding picked up from CSC and returned to CSC in time to their future plans, we are emphasising the need for catch their bus home. Anyone interested should see them to gain their Literacy (Level 2) and Numeracy Careers staff by the end of June. (Level 1), as well as the importance of focussing in the classroom across all subjects, in order to achieve Career Resources their Level 2 to the best of their ability this year. We There is a huge range of Career information and will be encouraging the students to set realistic goals resources available for students to access and take for themselves so that they have real choices when home from the Student Services. Encourage your they leave school. Year 12 grades are vitally important son/daughter to come in for a look. when applying for courses, halls of residence and scholarships at Year 13. The Careers page on CSC intranet is also a great start for further investigation and can be accessed from Careers Event for Year 12 home. Log on to csc.school.nz. Lincoln University are arranging a Careers Event for our Year 12 students on 6 June during period 5. No Major Drama Lincoln bring in six dynamic people who are working No Major Drama helps students learn about majors in different parts of the land based sector. These for Bachelor degrees from across all eight NZ six people speak to the group, then the students get universities. No Major drama is quick and easy to use to visit the people they found most interesting, to (5-10 minutes).