Week 9 Happenings!

It is already the second to last week of the term!  Where has this term gone to?!  Lots of the snow had disappeared from Mount Hutt over the week but they got some more over the weekend which is great - here's hoping they continue to get a lot more ready for our ski trip on the 17th of August!  Things to remember for this week:

* Return you ski trip permission form and arrange payment.  Thanks to those of you who already have!
* Talent Quest grand final is this Thursday.  If you are competing keep practicing as much as you can and all the best for your performance.  Parents & family members are welcome to join us from 1.30pm - 3pm in the school hall for this exciting event!
* Cantamath is launched this week - you'll need to think about which entries you will make following Mrs B's cantamath workshop on Monday morning during our morning hui.
* All Kapa Haka members need to return their marae visit form to Mrs Lewis or the office staff ASAP.  Spare notices can be picked up from Mrs Lewis.  Your visit is Tuesday on the final week of the term.
*  Wednesday is the "How Stuff Works" inquiry group trip to the Wastewater Treatment Plant from 11.30-3pm.  Students in this group should have returned both their permission form AND their $9 to attend.  Spare forms can be found in the notices drawer by the photocopier.

Have a super week everyone!

Year 7/8 speech final

Congratulations to Molly and Lucy - year 7 and 8 speech champions respectively. 

And a huge well done to all our finalists!  You all stepped it up tonight and were wonderful. We are so so very proud of you!!

Week 8 news and notices

Congratulations to our chess team - Ben, Nachito, Hayden and Elnathan who competed at the Canterbury Inter School chess tournament last week at Halswell School.  The boys finished 3rd out of 20 teams (behind Cobham Intermediate and Kirkwood Intermediate) and have been invited to compete in the South Island chess tournament to be held in Ashburton in August!

Welcome to the HQ Mr Church.  Mr Church will be with HQ4 for the next 2 weeks and he will return in Term 4 for another 4 weeks!

Reminders for this week:
1)  Tech is on Thursday this week.  Please remember to be at school by 8:30am.
2)  The last of the speeches will be heard today during writing time, with our Senior HQ final being held tomorrow.  You will be told in class today if you are in the HQ grand final!
3)  Chess as usual today.  As Mrs B is on her CRT day, could you please ensure that the sets are packed up, and please remind the younger students that this is the expectation of Chess Club.
4)  Mrs B's inquiry group - please ensure you have completed your CareerQuest and that your interview is done by Thursday.  See your emails for further details if needed.
5)  The Pink Ribbon Breakfast is on this Friday.  A notice will come home Tuesday for all of the helpers.  Be prepared for an early start!!


Thanks to the Student Council and Mrs G for organising the disco on Friday night.
Thanks to the House Captains, Mrs Moore and Tim for organising the Talent Quest - can't wait to see the final next week!


Here's the Amy Cuddy Ted Talk again for you to watch at home if you wish Amy Cuddy Ted Talk

Have a great week everyone!

Week 7 news and reminders

Brrrrr, what a cold weekend it was!  We hope you managed to get to your sporting events and other activities over the weekend.  Mrs B had the pleasure of going to Hairspray on Saturday - it was amazing!  If you have the chance to go, then definitely take it.

In other news, last Wednesday, as you know, we had 9 students take part in the Canterbury Spelling Quiz.  78 teams competed in this event, and after 10 rounds of spelling, abbreviations, proofreading, word origins, and dictionary skills, our teams came 7th= (on 94/100), 23rd= (on 91/100) and 35th= (on 88/100).  The winning teams finished on 96/100, so we were very close!!  Congratulations to

Avonhead 1 - Ben Guo, Kayley Johnson and Evan Ting

Avonhead 2 - Caitlyn Elder, Aden Li and Elnathan Chung

Avonhead 3 - Will Mason, Fonie Ka and Jiaming Yang

Reminders for this week:
1)  Tech is on Tuesday again this week.  Please remember to be at school by 8:30am.  Well done last week!!
2)  Speeches need to be completed and ready to present in your writing groups this Wednesday.  Make sure you are familiar with you speech - practise it over and over and over again at home.
3)  Chess as usual today and Tuesday.  There will be 4 of you travelling to Halswell School on Thursday to compete in the Canterbury Inter-School chess tournament - team announced after chess club today.
4)  Keep preparing for the school Talent Quest
5)  Mrs Moore's inquiry group - please remember your trip notices.
6)  Mrs B's inquiry group - please remember to complete the CareerQuest - see your email for the link.
7)  ICAS Writing is on today, 11:15am in the staffroom - Ben, Anika, Charlie, Sammy and Neve!
8)  ICAS Spelling is on Wednesday at 11:15am.
9)  Please bring in your Pink Ribbon Breakfast return slips
10)  School disco is on this Friday - 7:30 - 9:30pm.  Thanks to the Student Council and Mrs G for organising this.  We look forward to seeing you all there to show off your dance moves!
11)  Talent Quest entries - those of you who entered will be performing this Thursday afternoon to your houses.  Good luck and make sure you are well rehearsed!

Here's a great Ted Talk for you to watch at home which may help some of you with your speech presentation.  Amy Cuddy Ted Talk

Have a great week everyone!

Week 6 Notices!

We hope you enjoyed the LONG weekend!  This week is obviously a short week in the HQ so check out the reminders and notices below to make sure you are organised for the 4 days ahead:

1) Tech day is swapped to Thursday this week so that is the day to be at school early.  Road patrol students you will need to sort some Year 6's for that day please!

2) The North-West Music Festival people are rehearsing on Wednesday morning this week.  You need to be in the school hall BY 8.45am on Wednesday and buses leave at 8.55am, returning at lunch time.  Have a great time!

3) Speeches need to be completed (written) this week by the end of the week ready for presenting to your writing workshop class next week, Week 7.  If you are writing your speech on a google doc remember to share it with your writing teacher please!

4) Chess as usual on Tuesday at lunch time.

5) Good luck to our Spelling Team competitors who take part in their competition this Wednesday evening.  We wish you all the best!

6)  Our school Talent Quest entries close on Thursday this week - please support this House Captain event and get your entries in to the box in the office entrance please!

7)  Students in the "How Stuff Works" inquiry group need to return their trip form ASAP (this will be given out on Tuesday) so we can sort transport and make the trip happen please.

Enjoy your week everyone!  Here's hoping for a nice sunny week ahead....

Week 5 Notices and Events

What a cold and bleak weekend it has been! I hope you managed to drag yourself outdoors for at least a short time, in between the rain and freezing conditions!!
It's a short week for you all this week - the teachers have a Teacher Only Day with other schools in our cluster on Friday.  We hope you enjoy the long weekend, with Monday being Queen's Birthday, you will have four days off!  Who knows when the Queen's actual birthday is?

Notices and Reminders for the week...

1)  Chess is on Monday and Tuesday.

2)  There will be no winter sport on Friday; please check with your coach about whether practice will go ahead this week or not.

3)  Spelling - keep up to date with your activity sheets.  If these don't get completed during class time, it is your responsibility to finish them for homework.

4)  Enjoy reading each night.  Try and share a good book with a classmate.

5)  Keep working on your speeches.

6)  ICAS Science will be held at 11:15am today in the Quiet Space.  Please take your pencil case.

7)  National Young Leaders Day is tomorrow. We hope you have a great time and can't wait to hear how it went and what you got out of it!  Please be at the Horncastle Arena to meet Mrs G and Mrs Lewis 9:10am.  Remember your lunch, drink, pen and notebook.

8)  NEXT WEEK (week 6) technology will be on THURSDAY instead of Tuesday.

Well done to all our sports teams, cross country runners and basketball team who competed last week.

Week 4 Notices/Events/Reminders!

Hi everyone - I hope you had a great weekend and didn't get too wet!  I bet some of you had your weekend sport cancelled!  Here is a run through of this week:

1)  Chess tournament teams are being organised so if you want to be considered as a competitor you need to be at lunchtime practice and be moving up the chess ladder.

2)  Remember your sports gear for winter sport training and Friday sport.  We had some great wins on Friday - well done to everyone for the launch of our winter sports.  Remember you look and feel part of the team when you are wearing your uniform!

3)  Mr Rodger is away Monday and Friday this week - Mrs Ellison is in Monday and on Friday Mrs Moore will be in.

4)  Homework this week - keep up to date with your spelling activity sheets, 20 mins minimum of reading each night (even online news reading is a good idea), learning of your new spelling words and any other work set by your teachers for other subjects.

5)  Tim is in as usual for the sports and house captain programmes on Thursday.

6) Good luck to all our cross country competitors who are off to the zone cross country competition on Wednesday this week at Jellie Park.  Good luck too for our Year 7/8 Basketball team who are competing on Wednesday  We know you'll do the HQ proud!

Enjoy your week everyone and  following on from our discussion on Friday last week, remember we are working on being respectful to all who we deal with during the school day here in the Senior HQ at the moment!