Year 8 Update Term 3

Congratulations to all who took part and especially those who challenged themselves and ran in the competitive race. Congratulations to Maggie Reid and Jackson Fearnley who won the girls and boys competitive races respectively.

In Week 3 (Tuesday 1/8) we will have quick PST’s (Parent Student Teacher) conferences to give parents an opportunity to see how their children are progressing so far this year. The Year 8 conferences will be based around the students sharing and talking about their Learning Journals. If you haven’t booked an interview time yet, please do so as soon as possible by either going on-line or contacting the office or your child’s Hapori teacher.

In class we are going to be focusing on writing and presenting speeches for the first 5-6 weeks - all students will be expected to speak in front of their Hapori class and give a 3-5min persuasive speech based upon supporting or opposing a rule or a law. The top 2-3 from each Hapori class will 'speak off' against other Hapori classes and we will find an eventual winner to represent the college in an inter school competition run by the Lions. (The winner for Year 8 also will win a trophy at the end of the year).

In Math we are finishing off Fractions over Week 1 and our next topic will be Statistics and Probability. We will follow the Women's Football World cup as our focus for study. The students will be looking at some of the FIFA sites and comparing some of the statistics for their team and then look at the probability of what teams will be reaching the quarters, semis, and finals.

Our Integrated Studies focus will be focusing on an aspect of Social Action, where the students will investigate ways in which they can take part in a positive action/service that will benefit their community – either school or wider. More details will be forthcoming as we explore this with the students and get their voice and ideas on how this could work.

We will be studying cultural games once again in PE and will be looking to work on some base skills and teamwork to participate in a mini tournament later in the term. The main game we will be focusing on is called Tapu Ae. Tapu ae (also known as Tapuwai and Tapuwae) is a traditional Māori ball game. It is an adaptation of ki-o-rahi to a court game and was formalised about 1900. Today it is played on a hard surface such as a netball or basketball court. The court consists of two sides where players pass the ball to each other, aiming to knock the wooden block in the middle of the circle on each of the two sides over. Students will be looking at the history and skills of the game and developing team strategies to work together to win the tournament.

We will also be getting some students ready for the Koru Games (taking place in W10) and would encourage some people to think about participating in some of the lesser-known sports in order to experience this amazing event, which for many students may be the closest they ever get to participating in such a wide ranging and huge sporting event