Issue 1107 18th June 2015 Issue 1177 6th April 2017

Orders Close Tomorrow! Home & School

Hot Cross Bun Fundraiser! ☆ $5 / Half Dozen - Order at Office

Special thanks to Twizel Bakery for their HUGE support of

Twizel Area School!

Dear Readers of TAN ~

School Donation 2017

Last Two Weeks of Early Bird Discount! Number of students In Family

Per Term Per Year Early Discount of 15% if paid by end of Term One

1 $20 $80 $68

2 $35 $140 $119

3+ $50 $200 $170

Student Mathletics Accounts All students (Years 2 - 13) are required to pay a

separate annual fee of $15 for Mathletics. This is an online programme we have opted into, and as we are charged per student, we must pass this cost on. Mathletics is a valuable interactive website where students can practice their mathematical skills. On-line activities sup-port class-room programmes. Students can access Mathlet-ics at anytime, at school and at home.

Check out the website at www.mathletics.co.nz

I hope everybody has had a good week, as our term comes to a close. This term has been a very busy one; we have had Athletics, Y7-10 camps and Y11-13 Leadership camps. We have had a few new students start this year, I hope they have felt welcome in our school and community, and are enjoying being part of our amazing school. I would like to congratulate Nikau Whetu for competing at South Island Athletics and placing the 13th fastest sprinter in U16 for the South Island. Second week next term we have Southern Area Schools tournament, we have started practicing and are forming a strong team. I hope everybody has a safe, relaxing weekend and see you all for the last week! Taane Whetu, Head Boy

Twizel Youth Basketball Camp Coaching Session

for Y9-13 students

Sunday 9th April 10.00am - 12.00pm

Don’t be Late! $12.00 PER PERSON

Coaches: Kenny Perkins (NBA - Celtics/Thunder/Cavs/Pelicans and (former TAS

pupil) Bede (Rusbatch) Marsters(Canterbury Rams)

School Uniform Exchange ~ Open 2.30pm -

3.30pm every Tuesday until the end of Term.

An excellent range of second-hand uniform items

for both Junior & Senior students.

M3 have been working hard on creating visual representa-tions of World War One poetry during Integrated Studies. M3 Parents/Caregivers can also view class work in real time via the Seesaw App - please contact me if you have not yet received the notice from your child :-) ~ Mrs Smit

Ahem! Please note more changes!!

M3 FOOD FUNDRAISER! Date: Thursday 13th April

Time: 12.35pm…. Lunchtime!

Where: TAS Basketball Courts

All Students, Whanau & Community Members

Welcome!

Food Items For Sale: A variety of delicious

snacks available… sweet & savoury muffins,

brownies, sushi, cake pops, fudge, apple pies,

milk tarts, cinnamon scrolls, mini pies & quiches

Prices: From $1.50 to $3.00

All profits are being gifted to the “Make A Wish”

Foundation ~ “Granting the wishes of children

with life-threatening medical conditions to enrich

the human experience with hope, strength and

joy”.

Donations can be paid to the Office, or online to: TAS 06 0966 0083000 00

FOUND: Between School & Kindy, one pair of ladies new woollen gloves. Please claim from School Office.

Kia Ora and Welcome to TAN Hot Cross buns! The pre-sales of what are guaranteed to be delicious Hot Cross Buns close 3.00pm tomorrow (Friday). This Home and School and Twizel Bakery initiative is only made possible by the generosity of Andy Reid and company over at the Twizel Bakery, who have donated all the ingredients and their time to make these buns, so that all sold are pure profit for the school. Never has it been truer that you can have your cake, eat it and feel good about donating to a worthy cause too! Thanks, Andy!

Congratulations to Nikau Whetu on performing at the South Island Secondary Schools Athletic Championships in Dune-din over the weekend. There are a lot of talented school athletes in the South Island – in Nikau’s case they’re running 100m in under 12secs, and while he started well, he got hauled in by bigger legs in the end.

Yesterday we had twenty of our more gifted students from Years 4 to 10 take part in the Brebas challenge. This is a 45 minute online test, challenging students to think about infor-mation, data and algorithmic concepts which are aspects of computational thinking. They know their scores and enjoyed it, although they did find it challenging.

The NCEA Drama students are working on their short ex-cerpts from Shakespeare’s Twelfth Night for the Sheilah Winn festival in Timaru next Tuesday. In a departure from normal practice, they are having the regional competition starting at 10:00am, which does make it difficult for out of towners to attend, but we will take a van load or two down to support. If you cannot make it, do not worry – you will be treated to a performance at End of Term Assembly. Best wishes, Team.

Last week we appointed Miss Rochelle Francis to be our Community of Learning (COL) Within school teacher. This means she will get a bit of extra time to work on progressing our COL goals within school. Miss Francis and Mrs Nelson (our COL Across schools teacher) were due to be visiting Roxburgh and meeting with the other COL teachers today and tomorrow.

Coming Events: Wednesday next week we have the Wonky Donkey Man (Craig Smith) here to entertain us (details will come home tomorrow); and the Careers NZ Workshops. Thursday next week is End of Term Assembly (1.30pm); also the chance to sample the food prepared by M3 in support of the Make a Wish Foundation.

OFFICIAL SECTION

The End of the World, by Angus Holden, Room 9 Part 1 - The End of the World I went to Will’s house. We saw some cylinders and we saw

big metal boulders with green eyes and metal legs.

It looked like a metal spider but it was a martian from more

of the worlds. Will was almost killed, me too.

It was horrifying. The sun was blocked.

Part 2 - More of the Worlds I was going into the woods, I saw a cylinder in the woods.

The lid started to unscrew. Oh no! It was more martians,

one appeared over Big Ben and over my house, it killed my

family. Remember when it almost killed Will and me, well it

has a heat ray that can melt metal. We got into a boat

named Thunder Child, it blew up one of the martians but one

of the martians melted the back of Thunder Child.

Farewell, Thunder Child.

Twelfth Night – TAS Sheilah Winn Aoraki Shakespeare Festival Entries 2017

This year our students are performing both a 15 minute,

and a 5 minute, excerpt from Twelfth Night on Tuesday at

10.00 am in the Timaru Boys’ High School hall. Abigail

Purton, Amy Bloomfield, Kaya Skinner, Jonathan Thomp-

son, Crystal Lavery, Liam Tonner, Santana Rapana-King

and Melissa Hyde will be the actors performing in these

excerpts. The students have been practicing hard, both in

and out of school time. The Sheilah Winn competition

gives drama students experience in performing on anoth-

er stage, and in front of a more diverse audience. The

students are also able to view other schools’ interpreta-

tions of excerpts from a variety of Shakespeare’s plays.

Ka kite ano,

Bill Feasey, Principal

STAR STUDENTS Week 9 Term 1

Room 7 Danielle For fabulous art work Room 8 Paige Always respectful & always doing her best Room 9 Jessica Great attitude towards her work Room 13 Quinn Always respectful, always thoughtful, always helpful Room 4 Jayden Striving in all areas of learning, and pushing himself out of his comfort zone to try challenging tasks. Keep it up! Room 5 Kiara For a quiet, diligent attitude in class, leading to tasks being completed

Twizel Area School Board of Trustees News – April 2017

Welcome back for another year, time is flying with the end of Term One fast approaching, and the Easter School holidays

nearly upon us.

Your Board of Trustees have already spent a few hours around the Board Table this term, the 2017 Charter is complete and

lodged with the Ministry of Education, the budget is balanced and the 2016 Student Achievement results have been

analysed. We are pleased to report that our students have achieved very good results in 2016, and we are looking forward

to seeing more areas of achievement for 2017.

Academic focuses this year include Writing and moving more NCEA student results to ‘Merit’ or ‘Excellence’.

Congratulations to all our students and staff for these great results.

Our Strategic Goals for Twizel Area School for 2017 are an extension of the goals we have had in place for the past couple of

years which focus on the six main areas of: Whole School Junior School

Senior School Management

Middle School & Governance

Governing and Managing an Area School has many more challenges than that of just a Primary or Secondary

school, as we need to get our heads around both National Standards and NCEA, as well as Middle School achievement.

Hence our goals focusing on the six areas above, with one of these goals discussed in detail at each Board meeting to

ensure that no area of this school is neglected.

Which leads me onto the process of ‘COMMUNITY CONSULTATION’

This is where we invite you to participate in giving us your feedback on what you want from your school in the

future. We will be holding a community consultation again this year which is likely to occur in Term Two.

There will be plenty of notice and while this may not be high on your list of events to attend, it is really

important to the future of Twizel Area School.

The Board and Management Team very much look forward to hearing your ideas and input; keep an eye out for

details on when and where.

On a matter of the day to day comfort of our students…. The planning stages for the upgrade of the Junior and

Senior toilets are well underway, with work due to start later in the year.

Term Two sees a visit from a Project Delivery Manager from the Ministry of Education, who will develop an

agreed understanding of what effective teaching and learning looks like at Twizel Area School. This is the first step in the

possibility of a new school rebuild, so while the process may be a bit drawn out, it is encouraging to start down this route.

One important policy where we will be conducting an in-depth review is our ‘Digital Technology Policy.’

With the increase in computer and online use, we need to ensure that our students have the education and information

available to them to stay safe online. We will be asking questions such as “do our students need a yearly course on cyber

safety?” “Should Parents / Caregivers be included in this sort of education?” “What age should we start cyber safety

education?” Expect a short survey on cyber safety to come home soon – your feedback on this matter is vital.

We wish you all a happy Easter holiday and we look forward to a busy Term Two.

Nyree Schaar

Chairperson

Twizel Area School Board of Trustees

PTO for Safe Internet Use and Practices Information ˃

Internet Use and Safe Practice for Children and Parents.

I recently had a conversation with a parent about the need to monitor children’s internet use. The digital world is a fast moving and borderless place where the users can spend considerable time engaged in on-line activities.

While at school, students are informed by the staff about acceptable internet use. The school uses N4L to administer and provide a safer network for students to access the digital world. Students are made aware of the risks linked to providing information about themselves via a digital format.

The digital world can also be a part of the home life of a student. Some access games and websites to use specific applications and take part in virtual games that can include their friends.

The use of the digital media can also allow other people to access individuals on particular websites. This has been the case for some students, and the contact experiences when the parents talked to their children were suspicious. This has prompted the parents to become more cautious about the digital access their children have.

It is not the intention to scare people into keeping away from the digital world, but there are some safety measures parents can take about making sure their children are not only safer than before, but also aware that there is some information they should not share with their digital contacts.

Make sure that you, as parents, are aware of the risks associated with digital media; it is a vibrant environment that is frequently morphing itself into new entities. Talk to your children about appropriate use of the technology, and encourage them to talk to you about anything they find odd or suspicious.

Netsafe (www.netsafe.org.nz) is an organisation supported by the Ministry of Education, Ministry of Justice and Internet NZ. The website has a number of suggestions for parents and children to include in their digital world to keep people safe.

A bit about Netsafe: After noticing the growing influence of technology in their respective areas, the New Zealand Police, Ministry of Education and several not for profit organisations teamed up with telcos and IT industry partners to create an independent body focussed on online safety. Together they created the Internet Safety Group (rebranded Netsafe in 2008). Netsafe was given the remit to build an internet safety organisation that didn’t scare people away from technology. Instead we encouraged people to adopt it by promoting the tools and techniques they could use to minimise their online risks. HOW TO PREVENT EXPOSURE TO UPSETTING ONLINE CONTENT

One of the best strategies is to talk with your family regularly about online risks and how to avoid them, as well as encouraging young people to discuss things that disturb them. It’s important to keep an open line of communication about what they do. Talking with your child about their experiences from the first time they go online can be helpful in keeping the lines of communication open for when something disturbs them. When you talk with them about school, friends or sport, remember to ask about their online lives and friends too. While there is a place in young peoples’ lives for filtering tools, as they develop they will want their free-dom and privacy. It is quite easy to get around filtering or to use a computer, phone or games console to get online either at home, or away from home (at school, at a friend’s house or at the library), which is why education remains the most important thing you can do. Neil Potter, Deputy Principal