This week our Year 10 students have been away at their school camp at Kokako Lodge in Hunua. They’ve been busy taking part in a heap of fun and exciting activities such as high ropes, raft-building, low ropes, archery, abseiling and a 3-4 hour tramp!
Duke of Edinburgh Hillary Award – Bronze Tramp
Eleven students from Years 10 and 11 completed their final qualifying tramp for the Adventurous Journey section of our Bronze Award this term. It was a challenging weekend with a wet Saturday and very muddy tracks but that didn’t deter our spirits and we all rose to the challenge. The Adventurous Journey is opportunity to work as a team and develop leadership skills. The goal is to develop navigational and campcraft skills as well as pushing us physically as we have to carry our packs up some challenging tracks. The sense of satisfaction as we reached our final destination was huge and there was a great feeling of relief.
Australian Mathematics Competition Success
ACG Strathallan entered 14 students into the Australian Mathematics Competition this year. Hundreds of thousands of students in primary and secondary schools from around 30 countries sat the AMC on 28 July.
Once again ACG Strathallan students impressed as all 14 students achieved Credit certificates or higher.
High Distinction (Top 3% NZ): Adam El-Khatib (Yr8), Zack Perkin (Yr8), George Liu (Yr9), Jack Foster (Yr10)
Distinction (top 20% NZ): Ju Sung Kim (Yr8), Ethan Kyle (Yr8), Serena Jou (Yr10), Rawiri Mahue (Yr10), Astrid Lewis (Yr10), Cindy Lee (Yr11), Joshua Sinclair (Yr11), Chris Ahn (Yr12)
Credit (Top 55% NZ) : Jane Huang (Yr9), Liam Nelson (Yr10)
Because of their outstanding scores Adam El-Khatib and Zac Perkin in year 8 (pictured), were invited to attend an extension workshop run by the Australian Mathematics Trust in October. They also got to receive their certificates at an awards ceremony celebrating the achievements of the top scorers in New Zealand.
The AMC provide the students with an extra opportunity for external recognition. Certificates are often kept by students for their folios. They are well understood by employers and so can be used as evidence of problem-solving ability.
Congratulations to all students who entered and performed so well.
House Picnic
Angus, Batten, McLaren and Wilkins joined together for the annual House picnic this afternoon before competing against each other in a range of activities, from catapulting to orienteering. Competition was fierce but friendly and the sunny weather made for a fun day for all.
Tramping Club Walk
Our ACG Strathallan tramping club have been very busy this year walking the tracks in areas in and around Auckland.
Last weekend’s walk proved to be a favourite, despite the weather, as students explored the spectacular walks of the Karangahake Gorge.
Sights included the remains of 19th century mine buildings and exploring the mine tunnel, complete with torches and glow worms.
Spirit of Adventure
Year 10 student, Mikaela Peszynski, recently took part in a 10 day voyage on the Spirit of Adventure. She had an amazing time and received the award for the trainee displaying outstanding endeavour and personal growth.
Chinese Cultural Day
Today has been a wonderful day. The Year five and six students were joined by Te Hihi School and Ardmore School students to learn about and experience a few of the many things that are part of the Chinese Culture.
We started out with an opening ceremony with lots of demonstrations and performances by ACG Strathallan College students and Chinese specialist teachers. We particularly enjoyed the students showing their diabolo skills and the Tai Chi demonstrations.
After that we were sorted into our groups and we went in our groups to different activities. Some of our favourite activities were:
“My favourite part was making a Chinese mask and learning twenty Chinese characters in ten minutes”. – Liam.
“When I was doing the diabolo I learnt how to loop it in the air and then throw it in the air and catch it”. – Melvin.
“When we were doing the diabolo I found it really hard at first and then one of the teachers helped me and then I started helping others and I liked that”. – Madeline.
Some of the activities we did included:
Diabolo
Chinese Calligraphy
Chinese Games
Chinese folding and cutting
Tai Chi
Making Chinese masks
After we had finished our workshops we had the closing ceremony in the School Hall. We watched three instructors do the diabolo. They were highly skilled, tremendously awesome, and entertaining to watch! Then we had an ending speech by Mrs Shapcott and feedback from a student representative of each school. We found today fascinating, exhilarating, and fantastic. We felt it was a great way to be able to learn about the Chinese Culture and to take part.
PrEP
PrEP stands for Primary Enterprise Programme. This programme prepares primary children for the business world. At ACG Strathallan School, the seniors (years 4-6) make products while the juniors (years 0-3) buy the products on the day that they get sold.
There is a bank and a warehouse. The warehouse sells materials while the bank keeps track of every business’ money. The bank also checks the roll and checks if the business’ money is up to date. The warehouse needs money from the bank so their customer’s money is exchangeable.
At ACG Strathallan, before the product making starts, they have a currency competition which the seniors do. The currency that wins the currency competition is used as notes for PrEP.
Each business has a banker, whose job is to withdraw money from its business’ account if necessary. The banker also has to record how much its group has withdrawn from the bank on a sheet of paper called the cashbook.
There is a buyer who goes to the warehouse and buys materials for its business, only the buyer is allowed to buy stuff from the warehouse, but if the buyer is not there a person from that business takes the buyers responsibilities and this the same for the CEO.
The CEO is the person who is the boss or leader of the business, the CEO supervises the people who make the products.
The designer is the person who designed the product or came up with the idea of the product.
The workers are the people who make the products and there are about 2, 3 or 4 of them in each business or group.
By James Carver, Yr 4 Che
Year 13 Farewell
Year 13 students celebrated their final day at Strathallan on Friday before heading off on study leave for their final CIE examinations next term … and to mark the occasion they organised an obstacle course bouncy castle for the day for the whole school to enjoy! A very positive end to a very positive year.
World Challenge Team trip to Ecuador – Blog Two
Buenos Tardes! After a fascinating time at Quito we travelled by bus to Machachi then onto El Chaupi, where our acclimitisation trek lay ahead. Our current home away from home is chuquiragua lodge, where we have camped for the last 2 nights but finally get the luxury of the soft beds and warm showers tonight staying in the cabins within the lodge.
Yesterday we endured the first of our 2 treks, a 5 hour walk (which somehow turned to 7) up to 3700 metres with breathtaking views across El Chaupi and the mountains nearby, including the magnificent Cotopaxi. This morning´s trek was a much shorter 3 hours up to the summit of the hills, and we are currently browsing the markets of Machachi and preparing for our main trek beginning tomorrow.
There will be little contact as we then follow on to the community but be sure we are all having an unforgettable time.
Adios!