Welcome back to Term 2!

Welcome back to Term 2!  We have a lot of activities happening this term - the students have to keep on the ball to make sure they don't miss out!  Students have been selected for different learning contexts based on their strengths and on their availability as I work to ensure all students learn specific material and explore targeted skills.  Each Sunday, students will be emailed with the Whakaaro programme for the week to help them with their planning.  It is especially important as our MPS room will be out of action from next week being renovated, so our workspaces are likely to change from week to week.

Future Problem Solving

This continues for our three teams across years 6-8.  We are awaiting our evaluations of Booklet 1, submitted at the end of last term but the national administrator contacted me to say how pleased she was with the volume of work produced by our teams in a tight timeframe - especially in our first year.  We are focussing on Wearable Technology this term and have begun our research into this fascinating and fast-growing sphere.

Otago Maths Problem Solving Challenge

This maths extension will continue, with the May and June sessions happening at the end of each month.  We had exciting initial results from session 1 with one student earning 5/5 and two earning 4/5.

Inventionator 2021 

This will be happening for a small group of Year 6 students.  This is a new collaborative innovation initiative we are trialling this year - more will follow as we learn about it!  It filled up very quickly last year and was very successful.  Our students will be joining remotely, working through a series of digital wero (tasks) before joining with students all over the country for a Virtual Intensive over four days in week 7.

Neurotechnology 

A group of Year 7 and 8 students began exploring neurotechnology and consumer neurotechnology today.  Over the coming weeks the students will investigate current innovations in robotics and cybertechnology and will be working towards their own theoretical product launch to meet the demands of a specialist consumer market.  It's all brain implants and cyber-skin!

Values in Action

And to offer a break from the future (!),  students from Kahurangi, Haepapa and Tautoko will be exploring Values in Action, a soft skills, strengths-based intiative where we will be looking at self management under pressure, at our instincts and learned behaviours and how to "dial up" the strengths needed to manage anxiety in everyday situations.  One of the key areas of focus across the gifted community internationally in the last few years has been around well-being and anxiety management for gifted students.  We will be using drama and self-reflection to explore a wide range of skills we can all access to help us slow down or calm down, or alternatively, step up and engage in a dynamic way.  It is my hope that all Whakaaro students will be able to take part in this learning throughout the remaining terms.

MindPlus

Finally, we have a number of students joining MindPlus, launching this week in the Manawatu and we wish them well as they join with this alternative gifted education opportunity.   Attendance at MindPlus is marked with a special code for the Ministry of Education attendance registers.  If your child is unwell and does NOT attend MindPlus, it is important you let us know at school as we will be marking them as present at MindPlus otherwise.  Thank you for your help with this.

In conclusion...

So you can see, a lot is going on!  Should you have any questions, please feel free to email me - do keep checking this blog as our activities will be updated regularly - there will  continue to be a link posted in the school newsletter each week as well, alongside the library and sports blogs.

Let the fun begin!

Pou Toria