Our first update for the term includes a report from Saskia and Stella about our phenomenal interschool swim team!

Inner City Interschool Swimming

On Thursday 9th May, the Inner City Inter School event was held at the Owen Glenn National Aquatic Centre in Rosedale. 21 Westmere students completed in the Inner City Swimming Sports, participating in a number of events including: 25m freestyle, 25m backstroke, 25m breaststroke, 50m freestyle and Medley.

Everyone did very well in their heats, with some making it into the finals! Our finalists in their age groups were:

• Chloe Rawlence: 3rd in 25m freestyle, 2nd in 25m backstroke, 2nd in 25m breaststroke, 2nd in 50m freestyle.

• Ashton Kirke: 1st in 25m Freestyle, 3rd in 25m breaststroke, 1st in 50m freestyle.

• Finlay Crawford: 3rd in 25m backstroke

• Stella Elsmore: 3rd in 25m Freestyle, 3rd in 25m backstroke, 3rd in the girls open medley.

• Tom Curteis: 3rd in 25m freestyle

• Saskia Mclaren: 1st in 25m breaststroke, 3rd in 50m freestyle. Congratulations to Saskia who broke the 10 year old girls 25m breaststroke record!

A big thanks to all our parent helpers who drove children and helped us with timekeeping, and thank you to the teachers who helped to organise the day.

Overall, our Westmere team came 3rd on the day. In exciting news, we tied 1st in the school relay with Ponsonby (we’re sure we touched the end first!). The relay included Stella Elsmore, Katie Baber, Taaniko Lyon-Elzen and Tom Curteis. Pressure is on Year 5s - We need to beat Ponsonby next year!

By Stella and Saskia 

Book Week | Week 7

Monday 10th - Friday 14th June is our school book week. The annual book fair will be held in the library and will be available for viewing and purchasing before and after school each day. We have been fortunate to book in three authors to speak to the children during this week: Anne Kayes, Tessa Duder and our very own librarian, Jo Van Dam, who is a published author.

Friday 14th June will be a character dress-up day where we encourage the children to come to school dressed up as their favourite book character. We encourage the children to be as creative as possible using what they already have at home. On this day, we will also be holding a Grandparents Morning (9am-11am) where we invite Grandparents to share the morning at school, enjoying the book character parade, reading with their grandchildren in their Studios, and enjoying a morning tea. Please look out for an invite closer to the time with more information, but please let these special people know about this date.

Positive Puberty Plus Programme

Over Tuesday and Wednesday, our Senior School children were involved in the Positive Puberty Plus Programme, facilitated by Nest Consulting. The children acted with maturity and respect. We're sure your children came home with lots of interesting questions following their lesson!

Cross Country

Due to the weather, Cross Country is postponed until Monday next week. Thank you to all of the parents who have offered to help out on the day, whether that is walking with the children to and from the park or marshalling out on the course during the day. Fingers crossed for more settled weather at the start of next week.

What is happening in Studio 6?

During our science experiments, we all learned a lot about chemical reactions between acids and carbonates. Making things fizz up is always fun and even though there were disappointments when things didn’t quite go as well as we hoped in our hypotheses, we still gained an understanding about how fair testing works.

The last few weeks we have been studying statistics during Maths. We have been measuring a number of things such as hands, feet, height and running speed. Students have been using this data to find an answer for tricky questions like: ‘Do boys have bigger feet than girls?’ and ‘Do tall people make for faster runners?’ Working with real-life data like this will prepare our children for future statistical explorations.

Our reading and writing programmes are ticking along well. Our writers, in particular, have been creating some amazingly descriptive texts. Feel free to check out what your children have written when you are next in the studio.

What is happening in Studio 7?

We are back with a bang! Term Two in Studio 7 has kicked off and all the students have been engaged and involved in a range of learning activities. We spent the first couple of weeks studying World War One and, more specifically, the Landings at Gallipoli. The whole studio has really enjoyed the change in topic and has learnt so much about trench warfare and the ANZAC attack in Turkey.

We have looked at a statistical investigation in Maths and students have become diligent data collectors. Everyone has been able to create questions and then investigate and organise data they have collected. It has been great to see the wide variety of possibilities and outcomes even when working with the same numbers.

All our students have worked incredibly hard to improve their personal fitness and it has been great to see the kids challenging themselves and putting in the effort to run faster and further than the day before. All our athletes are looking forward to participating in Cross Country which will now take place next week!

What is happening in Studio 8?

This term we have been learning about chemical and physical changes. It has been a lot of fun.

We experimented with adding acids to alkaline substances and were amazed at the reactions we created.

Later in the week we found out that you can make butter from adding air to cream! Some of us were even brave enough to taste it. We also discovered that you can make casein plastic from adding vinegar to heated milk.

We have been writing up our experiments and drawing accompanying diagrams to explain what we saw happening. The learning has continued in Maths as we have been learning how to collect data and present it accurately.

Kī-o-Rahi has been great on Tuesday mornings. The children have really enjoyed learning the story and having a go. 

We can't wait to see you all at our Studio's Wheels Afternoon on Tuesday next week, 3:15pm-4:15pm, under the Supertop. What to bring: Scooters, rollerblades, rollerskates or skateboards, and a plate for afternoon tea. Please no bikes.

Upcoming Dates

• Monday 20th May - School Cross Country at Cox's Bay
• Wednesday 22th May - APPA Rehearsal at Chelsea School
• Monday 27th May - Ponsonby Intermediate speaking to Year 6s
• Wednesday 29th May - Teacher Strike | School Closed
• Thursday 30th May - ICS Cross Country at Grey Lynn Park
• Monday 3rd June - Queen's Birthday
• Thursday 6th June - ICS Cross Country Rain Date