Foreign Languages Critical To Future of New Zealanders

Students in the 21st century are faced with the challenge of learning about an interconnected world where knowledge is constantly developing. The IB Programme prepares students to be active participants in a lifelong journey of learning. Part of this learning is the acquisition of a second language.

At Takapuna Normal Intermediate we have invested in providing our students with quality online second language learning resources to support the classroom programme. Where students spend a little time each day at home studying their second language we see huge gains in student confidence and cultural understanding.

We use two programmes on our KnowledgeNet to support foreign language learning. Rosetta Stone www.rosettastone.com is a voice recognition programme and scaffolds the student in all aspects of second language learning. Linguascope www.linguascope.com/information/ is a game and puzzle environment that develops vocabulary.

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Our Biggest Challenge - Student Engagement

One of the biggest challenges facing schools and parents is around the engagement of our children in their learning so that they can lead successful lives and contribute to society in positive ways in the future. As a school we continually look at our outcomes and processes to ensure all students are meaningfully engaged in their learning. As little as a decade ago, engagement was defined in terms of three discrete areas; behavioural, cognitive and emotional. But with more robust research we now have a more coherent understanding of this topic.

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Term Dates for 2010

2010
Term 1 2 February to 1 April
Term 2 19 April to 2 July
Term 3 19 July to 24 September
Term 4 11 October to around 15 December

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Battle of the Bands

Congratulations to all students who participated in the 2010 Takapuna Normal Intermediate School Battle of the Bands. It was a tough competition with an excellent turn out of participants, all with an outstanding level of musical ability and enthusiasm.

Thanks to all the families and teachers who supported this event. A special thanks to Mr Alexander, Ms Williams and Mr Watson for being judges, Roger Smith from Music Planet in Link Drive for sponsoring the day by providing prizes for the winners and to Mrs Watson for the fantastic organisation of the whole event.

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Top All-Round Athletes Compete at Sports' Camp

Last week 37 of our top all-round athletes competed at the Waikato/BOP Intermediate Sports' Camp in Matamata.

Over 80 athletes were invited to trial in a number of sporting codes during Term One before the squad was finally selected. A dedicated group of teachers has helped with training sessions in Soccer, Softball, Hockey, Touch Rugby, Volleyball, Netball and Basketball. Some of the other codes included in Sports' Camp are Kayaking, Table Tennis, Petanque, Swimming, Cross Country, Wallball, Rugby, Caged Soccer and Athletics.

The results were as follows: 1st - Tennis, Boys' Basketball, Girls' Basketball, Darts and Cheer.
2nd - Boys' Table Tennis , Girls' Table Tennis , Sportsmanship.
3rd - Petanque, Softball, Touch, Girls' Volleyball, Girls' and Boys' Indoor Hockey, Chess, and Draughts.
Overall we were placed 4th which was a fantastic result!

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Book Donations

In our school we have over 30 different nationalities. We would like to encourage and support the diversity in the school by extending our library resources to include children's books in other languages. We are aware that within the school community there could be families who may have children's books in languages such as Mandarin, Cantonese, Afrikaans, Thai, Farsi or Hindi e.t.c.. Books in other languages are difficult for us to source so we are hoping the community would be willing to donate books to the school. We would really appreciate any contribution of children's books from our school community.

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School Show Up-Date

The School Show is progressing well. Mrs Boyle and the student writers have nearly finished writing all the scenes. Next Thursday there will be a special rehearsal day and Mrs Boyle's goal is to rehearse the first few scenes on stage, from the beginning of the show to the end of the Jungle scene. It will be exciting to see the drama, music and dance come together.

There is currently a school competition to give our show a name. Students can submit their ideas on the KNet Drama Page.

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2010 Literature Quiz Competition

On 8 June two teams represented Takapuna Normal Intermediate in the 2010 Kids' Literature Quiz at St. Cuthberts School.

In the Quiz there were 100 questions within ten different categories. The categories included: Mice, Males (a visual category), Poetry Lines, The Firsts, Insects, Gems, Colours, Famous Animals, Cannibalism, Authors, Brothers and Sisters, Family, Cars, Ducks, Giants, Mythical Beings, Females (a visual category), Time, Kidnapping, and Secrets.

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