PO Box 14001, Longburn 4866, New Zealand

Ph: +64 6 354 1059 • Fax: +64 6 355 1350

Email: info@lac.school.nz

www.lac.school.nz

COMMUNITY NEWSLETTER 14 JUNE 2013

From Bruce Sharp, Principal

Daniel 12:4 is a text extremely well known in Adventist circles, and the piece on the rapid increase in knowledge hit home to me today as I sat in a teacher professional development session. Some teachers shared their innovative student assessments. I was hugely impressed with what some of our students are able to do in this age of the global internet and clever technology. Fuller created the ‘Knowledge Doubling Curve’ and pointed out that prior to 1900 human knowledge doubled around every 100 years. By the end of World War 2 knowledge was

doubling every 25 years and now, on average, knowledge doubles every 13 months. IBM now predict that very soon, with the proliferation of the internet and ever more powerful computers,

human knowledge will soon be doubling every 12 hours! This presents us with many questions about how we will handle this tremendous upsurge in knowledge and make good use of all this additional knowledge. What we see happening right before us certainly proves the words of Daniel and warns us that we live in end times. "But you, Daniel, keep these words secret, and seal the book until the end times. Many will travel everywhere, and knowledge will grow.” Daniel 12:4

IMPORTANT DATESThursday 27 June Whanau/Hui Family Meeting (see item in this newsletter) Thursday 11 July Last day of Term 2 (Friday 12 July is a Teacher Only day) Monday 29 July First day of Term 3 Thursday 1 August Board of Trustees’ meeting 5:30pm, LAC Library Tuesday 6 August Parent/Teacher interviews 3:30 to 7:00pm 9-13 September Trial NCEA exams Y11-13 Thursday 12 September Board of Trustees’ meeting 5:30pm, LAC Library Sunday 22 September Leavers’ Banquet Y12-13 Thursday 26 September Last day of Term 3 (Friday 27 September is a Teacher Only day) Monday 14 October First day of Term 4 Wednesday 30 October Last day at school for Y13 Thursday 31 October Board of Trustees’ meeting 5:30pm, LAC Library 1-2 November Y13 Graduation Weekend Tuesday 5 November Y11-12 Prizegiving and last day at school Monday 11 November NCEA exams commence Wednesday 18 December Y7-10 Prizegiving and last day of school year

REMINDER – JACKETS AND UNIFORM

With the weather getting colder and wetter, many students are needing to wear jackets. Please remember that only regulation school jackets are allowed to be worn at school. Any other jacket may be confiscated by staff. However, on the way TO and FROM school students may wear any jacket, but PLEASE NOTE these are not permitted to be worn AT ALL whilst at school. This expectation is not new and has not changed. Regulation school jackets may be worn at school, but NOT inside the school buildings.

PO Box 14001, Longburn 4866, New Zealand

Ph: +64 6 354 1059 • Fax: +64 6 355 1350

Email: info@lac.school.nz

www.lac.school.nz

NZQA LEAVER STATISTICS 2013

NZQA now informs schools of data about their leavers, in terms of students’ academic achievement. This is shown in the table below. LAC’s results are excellent! When we compare ourselves to the average Decile 6 school we are doing significantly better, and doing comfortably better than the average Decile 10 school. When LAC senior management analysed the results, what was most significant was that the kinds of students that come to LAC are very similar to those attending other Decile 6 schools. This would support our view that when we get the values right, the results will follow.

LAC - National Averages LAC NZ D6 D10 (D = Decile, and LAC is Decile 6)

Students leaving with University Entrance 67.4 39.1 34.7 58.3 Students leaving with NCEA Level 3 or better 78.3 45.8 41.7 72.9 Students leaving with NCEA Level 2 13.0 28.2 31.3 17.7 Students leaving with NCEA Level 1 2.2 12.6 13.3 5.3 Students leaving with no qualifications 6.5 13.4 13.7 4.1

NCEA FEES

NCEA fees ($76.70 for NZ/domestic students) are charged to the Y11-13 students’ fees accounts. To get financial assistance to help pay the NCEA fees, a form must be completed and returned to the LAC office (form is available from the NZQA website at www.nzqa.govt.nz/financialassistance).

GAINING NCEA LEVEL 1, 2 OR 3

NCEA Level 1

You need 80 credits at Level 1 or above

You also need 10 credits in each of literacy and numeracy

NCEA Level 2

You need 80 credits of which 60 credits need to be at L2 or above

NCEA Level 3

You need 80 credits of which 60 credits need to be at Level 3 or above. The other 20 credits can come from L2.

University Entrance:

14 Level 3 credits must come from each of 2 approved subjects and another 14 L3 credits can come from 1 or 2 domains from any L3 subjects (a total of at least 42 L3 credits). The student must also have at least 14C at L1 or above in Maths, and 8 L2 or above credits in English or Te Reo Maori (4C in Reading, and 4C in Writing).

YEAR 12 IS A CRITICAL YEAR!

NZ universities are already contacting the college to advise us of scholarships available to students intending to go to university. NZ universities use a student’s Level 2 (Year 12) NCEA results when they decide who will receive their scholarships. Students who receive a Level 2 NCEA endorsed with ‘Excellence’ are very likely to be awarded a scholarship, and these can be worth $3000+ and make a big difference to the cost of university study. Year 12 very definitely does count!

PO Box 14001, Longburn 4866, New Zealand

Ph: +64 6 354 1059 • Fax: +64 6 355 1350

Email: info@lac.school.nz

www.lac.school.nz

SUCCESS FOR NCEA STUDENTS – studyit.org.nz

All NCEA students need to put a circle around this site.

It contains a mass of information about NCEA Achievement Standards

go to www.studyit.org.nz

Detailed criteria on how to achieve 'excellence' in both internal and external Achievement Standards - Links to old papers from previous years, and examiner reports – Exemplars - Access to expert help - Information on Maths, English, Biology, Chemistry, Physics & Science - Study and exam advice.

DRAFT BOARD OF TRUSTEES’ POLICIES FOR CONSULTATION

In a new approach to handling policies and procedures at LAC, the Board of Trustees is putting out for consultation its new policies. Instead of a wide range of individual policies, the number of policies is being reduced to eight broad ones. These are: Policy 1 Curriculum Policy 2 Planning, Assessment & Self-Review Policy 2A Reporting of National Standards Policy 3 Personnel Policy 4 Financial and Property Management

Policy 5 Health and Safety Policy 6 Legislative Compliance Policy 7 Board of Trustees Policy 8 Special Character

Throughout the policies are links to the documentation that explains our procedures, rules and expectations. It is proposed that the documentation will be presented to the Board at the start of each year for it to ratify any proposed changes and confirm the procedures, rules and expectations on an annual basis. This method will enable us to keep our policies and procedures up to date. Among the documents reviewed each year are:

LAC Student Handbook LAC Staff Handbook LAC Charter LAC Self-Review Handbook

Health and Safety documentation EOTC Handbook Student Subject Options NQF Student Handbook

You are invited to go over our Draft Policies and all the associated links. If you have any questions or suggestions for the Board please email these to principal@lac.school.nz. The Board will consider all submissions at its meeting on 1 August.

The following link will take you to our new policies: http://longburn.wordpress.com/lac-draft-policies/

BOARD OF TRUSTEES – 2013 ELECTION RESULTS

We are delighted to announce the results of the recent election. The five Parent Representative places were awarded to: Steve Agar, Grace Paulson, Simone Delailomaloma, Peter Stimpson (re-elected), Kirstie Brooking (re-elected). Also re-elected was our staff representative, Julene Kapao. Our student representative is elected each year (in September) and currently in that position is Tilya Taikakara. There are also four Proprietor-appointed representatives on our Board

PO Box 14001, Longburn 4866, New Zealand

Ph: +64 6 354 1059 • Fax: +64 6 355 1350

Email: info@lac.school.nz

www.lac.school.nz

of Trustees, and they are: Graeme Drinkall, Stuart Taylor, Glenys Ellis and Nolan King. The Principal, Bruce Sharp, also forms part of the Board. Board meetings are advertised in our newsletter, and observers are always welcome to sit in on the parts of the agenda which are not of a sensitive or confidential nature.

JAPANESE STUDENT HOMESTAYS

Our Japanese students will be arriving at the end of July for Terms 3 and 4, and we are looking for weekend homestays for them. Anyone interested in hosting a few of these students for a weekend, please contact Mrs Cross at suec@lac.school.nz or Mr Aiono at francisa@lac.school.nz, for more information.

YEAR 9 CAMP 2013

The 2013 Year 9 camp will be done differently. In previous years the camp would take place at the end of term 4; this year it is going to take place on 14 and 15 August. The destination will be Mt Ruapehu to go skiing and snowboarding! The camp will run over two long days and one night. The reasons for making this camp available are:

It is an opportunity to ‘bond’, as many of the students are new to LAC The large discounts we have been able to get Many students would not get this opportunity at such an affordable price The opportunity to make memories

The cost of the trip will be no more than $230. Some Year 9 parents have already paid $200 towards the camp. A formal letter and permission slip will be sent to parents when all the details are sorted. It is important that students realise if their behaviour is unacceptable they will not be able to attend this camp. As you would expect, the vast majority of Year 9 are making pleasing progress, and we are looking forward to a great time.

INTER-SCHOOL CROSS COUNTRY EVENT

On Wednesday 29th May we made our yearly pilgrimage to Foxton, where the Manawatu high schools all gather for the annual championships. Even our record breakers found the course challenging and the pace hot! Joshua van Echten was the third senior boy home from amongst the co-ed schools. He gained a very creditable 11th placing overall. Tristan Ireland (pictured right) should be pleased with his 16th placing in the junior boys. Talia Baken did very well to gain the same placing in the intermediate girls. An intermediate student, Natalia Hutchinson, was not only brave to compete against the junior (secondary!!) girls, she also ran with typical resolve to finish in 17th place. Our other six runners will be wiser for the experience, and hopefully come back for more next year!

PO Box 14001, Longburn 4866, New Zealand

Ph: +64 6 354 1059 • Fax: +64 6 355 1350

Email: info@lac.school.nz

www.lac.school.nz

NGA MANU KORERO SPEECH COMPETITION

A group of LAC students went to local school Tu Toa recently to attend the regional secondary schools’ Ngā Manu Kōrero speech competition. The sole purpose of the trip was to support the speaker representing our school. Year 10 student Keegan Mitchell entered in the Junior English section, referred to as the Sir Turi Caroll section, with the speech topic entitled ‘Excellence is not an act but a habit’. It was the first time in recent years that LAC has been represented at such a competition. The students who attended supported Keegan with a waiata, ‘Wairua Tapu’, after his speech and most students came back from the day out with a renewed desire to give speeches ‘a go’ next year. Some students enjoyed seeing the other schools’ Kapa Haka groups and have fresh motivation to get a school Kapa Haka group going. LAC hopes to have its own speech contest in Term One 2014 so that other students can have an opportunity to represent LAC in the regional competition next year

HE PANUI – WHANAU HUI/FAMILY MEETING

He mihi mahana ki a koutou mā runga i te ahuatanga o Mātariki, he tau hou ki a tātou katoa. Greetings to friends and whanau during the month of Matariki; a time of fresh revelation, new visions and goals for the future and a time to celebrate success and start new things. This brings me to an invitation to parents, caregivers and whanau to attend the first of our whanau hui/meetings. Parents of Maori students and parents of students who are part of the Maori Language Programme are welcome to attend. The date for this hui/meeting is Thursday 27 June from 6.30 to 8.30pm. Location to be confirmed. If you would like more information please contact (Whaea) Catherine

Straman on either (06) 354-1059 ext. 729 or 022 696 1082. Details will be sent home with students, and further information can be sent out on request by emailing catherines@lac.school.nz. RSVP will be required by Monday 24th June. Kia ora mai rā koutou.

PO Box 14001, Longburn 4866, New Zealand

Ph: +64 6 354 1059 • Fax: +64 6 355 1350

Email: info@lac.school.nz

www.lac.school.nz

YEAR 13 HOSPITALITY ‘WEDDING BANQUET’ DINNER

The Year 13 class for Hospitality put on a wedding banquet dinner in term 1 as part of their assessment. The whole evening was a great success; beautifully created entrée, mains and desserts were served up at restaurant standard. The staff all judged the food and the winning group was awarded with a professional chef’s knife from Southern Hospitality during last week’s assembly. Well done, Danielle Stewart and Melissa Burrows!

NEW COMFORT FOR ARTS STUDENTS!

The visual arts department is continually evolving. The latest development is the addition of these new state of the art ergonomic stools. They were received with great joy (mainly from the teacher....) and at once replaced the vintage wooden stools that have seated many, many students. This progression is just another step along the way as the Arts Department looks into the future.