Stratford High School 10 May 2017 PHOTOS AROUND THE SCHOOL TeenAg team with Te Radar GIRLS RUGBY Camaraderie with Opunake High after an exciting game on Tuesday at SHS. HOUSE LEADERS 2017 Some of the 2017 house leaders with Mr Keenan. STRATFORD HIGH SCHOOL: http://www.stratfordhigh.school.nz/Home VOL17 ISSUE 5 ROUND THE CHOOL FROM THE PRINCIPAL’S DESK A S : Dear students, parents and caregivers, Ngā mihi o te wa ki a koe me te whanau. A warm welcome back to term two. We hope that all enjoyed quality time with family and friends and students are refreshed and ready for the challenges of the term. This term is ten weeks compared to the eleven we had in term one. We have a busy term ahead with a variety of activities occurring including an assessment week in early June for the seniors. All students will receive a report before the end of the term, with a senior students’ interview evening planned also. During the last week of term one our drama students were involved in the annual Sheliah Winn Shakespeare competition and our groups performed very well and were a credit to themselves and the school. A special mention must go to Te Rangimarie students who performed once again and also our group who performed the five minute play. They will be heading off to the national competition in Wellington at the end of the month. ANZAC Day services in Stratford, Eltham and Kaponga were attended by a number of our students, while our head students Jake and Olivia spoke at the Stratford service. Thank you to all those students and staff involved in making the wreaths displayed on SIR GRAHAM HENRY EVENING ANZAC Day and in the Hall of Remembrance in Stratford. The break also involved the annual Jack Porter rugby tournament which this year was played at Central Hawkes Bay College and involved Central Hawkes Bay, Rangitikei College, Havelock North High School, and Stratford High School. All the games were competitive and played in the spirit of sportsmanship. Congratulations to the boys who made the tournament team. Our assemblies have been celebrating the success of our students and our final assembly in term one was our summer sporting awards. A full list is in this newsletter. Congratulations to all those students who have had their achievements acknowledged in our school assemblies. All of our winter sports are now well under way with selections made, coaches appointed, and playing gear issued. I wish all teams good luck for their seasons. I ask everybody to be competitive, respect the opposition and officials, and be proud to represent our school. The sheer numbers of students representing Stratford High School during the winter season is very encouraging. We have 11 netball teams, three hockey teams, two football teams, five rugby teams and seven basketball teams. This shows a great level of participation, and as you can imagine, a huge logistical challenge! My thanks to our sport and physical education team of Denise Kay, Philippa Merson, Colin Franklyn, Peta Apperley and Alex Hill. You have done a wonderful job in ensuring our teams OUR SCHOOL are ready and raring to go. I would also like to thank the large number of parent and community volunteers who are coaching or managing teams. It is really appreciated. If, as a parent, you would be willing to assist in managing or coaching one of our teams, I am sure Mrs Merson would love to hear from you. For senior students there will be a number of opportunities this term for them to gain credits in their internal achievement and unit standards for NCEA. Alongside this, many will be continuing their learning in their achievement standards which will be assessed in the external NCEA examinations in November. The juniors should also be concentrating on their academic work as they work towards graduation two reports. They should look at the first graduation report to see what aspects of the report they can improve upon. For a student to succeed in the graduation they should look closely at managing self, participating and contributing and relating to others. As a school we feel that if they are to succeed at NCEA then the ability to manage themselves, take responsibility for learning and developing sound work habits will go a long way to helping them succeed. Academic success also requires students to attend school and it is worrying when students are not attending on a regular basis and parents are not letting us know. Remember the clear message: To be successful you need to be at school, ON TIME and ALL THE TIME! On Wednesday 17 May we hold our Student Council Junior Work Day. This event is co-ordinated by our Student Council and involves junior students spending the day working throughout the community and donating their earnings to the school. The money from the work day will go into doing a deck area outside the canteen area where a lot of students spend time. I always welcome any comments you have or issues you would like to raise, as do the rest of our senior leadership team, and you can contact us by ringing the school. He waka eke noa. A canoe which we are all in with no exception. Philip Keenan, Principal STRATFORD HIGH SCHOOL: http://www.stratfordhigh.school.nz/Home Page 2 Stratford High School: http://www.stratfordhigh.school.nz/Home Page 3 AROUND THE SCHOOL NCEA APP The free NCEA student app has been developed to help students track their NCEA achievement. This app parents missed the interview night and would like to catch provides an officially maintained database of standards and a goal-setting function. We encourage students to TEEN AG COMPETITION up with a teacher, they are welcome to ring the school. look at the number of apps available and choose the one suitable for them. In the middle of the last school holidays on 22 April, two Senior students will be issued with written reports towards teams of keen Young Farmers Club members met very the end of Term two. THE APP GIVES YOU THE ABILITY TO: early on a Saturday morning to compete in the Regional Year 10 will get a written report and graduation report at • Select and set your NCEA credit goals and targets Teen Ag High School competitions in Hawera. The the end of term 2 when their first half option finishes. • See how you are tracking towards NCEA Levels one, two and three, including Literacy, Numeracy and students worked in teams of two and had to complete Year 9 will get their second graduation report in early June University Entrance (UE) activities like using a tractor to load a bale of hay, calculate when their next rotation finishes. • Set due date reminders for when assignments are due amount of fertiliser to use, utilise safety gear correctly, • Capture results as your teacher hands back work and cross check with the school or NZQA answer general knowledge questions and tie knots in • Personalise with information such as your NSN number or details about a course or standard (such as the SCHOOL PAYMENTS teacher’s name or timetabled classroom) fence wire! It was a glorious day in Hawera and the teams Payments can be made at the accounts or school office placed 6th and 10th out of about 30 teams. This is the first • Multiple levels of NCEA study are now supported, meaning you can track your progress towards various between 8:30am and 3.15pm. When paying by direct NCEA levels over multiple calendar years. Behind the scenes, NCEA Student will retain all achievement time SHS has entered a team so it was a very good effort. banking please include your child’s first and last name. information, allowing you to track your progress over multiple years. Hopefully we will get more teams to enter next year. Account details are: TSB Bank, Stratford 15-3947- • New users of the App can simply add credits for previous years NCEA study without having to also add 0328379-00 standards information first. The following fees and costs are compulsory. • Customise with different colour coding options and the ability to add photos Subject material fees – these cover materials supplied • Use in English and Te Reo Māori. for personal use and are compulsory. OTHER FEATURES Hireage of musical instruments * It is simple, clear, easy to use and responsive Sports fees - fees vary between the different codes * It provides a high level description of each standard Field trips - only occur in some subjects * It has its own database, which includes an up-to-date list of all standards, updated by NZQA Costs of participation in extra-curricular sports and * It has a powerful search engine that makes it easy for you to find subjects and standards by ‘name’ or ‘number’ activities that remain unpaid may limit the student’s * It is an NZQA quality assured product involvement in these activities in the future. * It makes NCEA easier to understand. ANYTHING ELSE YOU NEED TO KNOW? SCHOOL DONATIONS 2017 You are responsible for the security of your own data – NZQA recommends a PIN number on the phone as a minimum, and a While this is not a fee and therefore not compulsory, all Photos: (left) Ben Vanner password (a “settings” option) on the App. Responsibility for the accuracy of the information in the App rests with the you and families are encouraged to make a donation to the school NZQA recommends backing up your device. It is your information and your data, entered by you.