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TERM 2 WEEK 1 16 April 2020
MR COOPER TEACHES ON TV FROM THE PRINCIPAL Avcol's very own Mr Cooper will be teaching more than just our students today as he appears on TVNZ's new Home Learning TV channel to teach a series of science and integrated science and maths lessons! Aimed at 11-15 year olds, the lesson segments have been carefully put together following isolation prototcols, with the editor, sound engineer and director all working from different rooms. Interestingly, both the Director and one of the main TV personalities for the channel (Jordan Vandermade) are both former Avcol students! Mr Cooper is also developing a series of short clips using his mobile phone at home that TVNZ will use as fillers on days where other content may run a bit short. Mr Cooper says that the most challenging aspect of filming was to stick to the script he had written on the teleprompter! "On one side, it was good to keep me from waffling," he said. "But it's not easy to stay natural while being self-conscious about what the camera is catching! There will be a whole segment with me drawing the life-cycle of a moth on the whiteboard where each time I check in with "the class" it will look like I'm staring off screen because of where the monitor is positioned!" An upcoming lesson will touch on environmental stewardship, and Avcol students should keep an ear out to hear mention of some of the great work our Environment Council has been doing around waste audits and recycling initiatives. Watch Mr Cooper on TVNZ's Home Learning TV/Papa Kainga TV, Freeview Channel 7, Sky Channel 502 (where you usually find TVNZ 2+1) and as a live-streamed channel on TVNZ OnDemand.
Dear Parents and Caregivers Starting the term this week feels very strange, particularly as we are not able to physically welcome students back into Avondale College. Over the next few days teachers and students will settle into a new routine of Distance Learning, and we appreciate the support of parents and caregivers over this time. Recent government announcements have made it clear that whilst COVID-19 Alert Level 4 may end soon, that does not mean that schools will reopen as normal. We are well prepared to maintain Distance Learning for as long as required, and will continue to adapt our learning and assessment programmes as required. We are aware that students will need to prioritise their learning at home. Students will need to consider how they make time for learning alongside their family and other commitments. Students should do the best that they can, in the knowledge that their learning will be different to usual, and that there will inevitably be frustrations and challenges. If students or parents have questions about learning, or need support from teachers, Deans or Guidance Counsellors, please use the links on the Contact Us page of our website to contact the relevant person. Thank you for your ongoing support of Avondale College. Mrs L Watkinson Principal, Avondale College
USEFUL LINKS Further learning materials have been made available by the Ministry of Education: Learning resources: https://learningfromhome.govt.nz/age/years-9-13 Home Learning TV: https://learningfromhome.govt.nz/supportinglearning/home-learning-tv Information from Avondale College: Learning at Home – Advice for Parents & Caregivers Information for Parents on Digital Learning
FOR MORE INFORMATION ON SCHOOL ACTIVITIES PLEASE VISIT OUR WEBSITE WWW.AVCOL.SCHOOL.NZ THIS WEEKLY NEWSLETTER IS AVAILABLE ON OUR SCHOOL INTRANET WELCOME.AVCOL.SCHOOL.NZ
FROM THE PREFECTS prefects create a video giving support and advice to the community and hopefully you’ll be hearing more from us in the coming weeks. Our school’s Guidance Counsellors and PSSP group are also still up and running and available during school hours. As we approach the finish line, I encourage parents and students to be mindful of one another and support each other during these stressful times. I hope to see you all very soon, but until then stay safe and be kind. Dylan Chand Head Boy
Kia ora, everyone! As Term 2 commences with distance learning, I hope that everyone has had a relaxing and enjoyable break with family. I spent most of my time in lockdown sleeping in, watching Netflix shows, and bugging my friends and family regularly through video calls. But now as Term 2 begins, it’s time to kick back into routine. 2020 should not be remembered as the year Covid-19 shut down New Zealand, but as the year New Zealanders stood together to ensure the safety of the entire population. I commend parents and families for their resilience and efforts in abiding by the lockdown rules, which has resulted in a huge decline in cases. Your effort in this means we’re one step closer to leaving isolation and also returning to school. To our amazing essential workers, thank you for all your hard work which allows us to purchase groceries, access healthcare and so much more. We could not have achieved any of this without your help. Kia kaha. In the meantime, students will be receiving work from their teachers in the coming days and it’s an important reminder to make sure that assessments and internals are completed on time. We are fortunate to have access to Microsoft Teams where we can easily communicate with our teachers and keep up with work through remote learning. It might be hard to stay motivated during this time but it’s great that we have the flexibility to study and take regular breaks throughout the day. Although these are uncertain times, the Avondale community is still here to support you. It was great to see the school’s
Kia ora, guys - welcome back to Term 2! I hope you are all staying safe and healthy in your bubbles. Though this term is a little different than usual I know that we can all still strive to achieve our goals, no matter what they may be. Times may be tough, but we got this. It may seem like our world is crashing down around us but this experience is a great reminder to celebrate the little things. You got out of bed this morning? Great! You took some time to go on a walk? Yay! You finished all your school work for the day? Wow! Though these things may seem like nothing, it is an achievement and you should be proud of yourself. It truly is the little things that add up, and a lot of the time in our fast paced world, it’s easy to forget that. Luckily for us, the world is going a little bit slower these days and we can use this time to our advantage. I have seen a lot on social media encouraging everyone to learn new skills, try new things and do something to overall benefit themselves during this time. Though it is AWESOME if you upskill yourself, this is not a necessity and just keeping positive during this time is an achievement in itself. We are all so proud of you for doing your best and your best is all anyone can ask of you. Our Avondale College family is still here for you. In person or not, your support system is endless and we are just a message away. I hope that we can all look on the bright side and enjoy the rest of our time in Level 4 lockdown. Stay safe and happy within your bubble and try your best to keep positive because we got this. He waka eke noa, we are all in this together. Olivia Mallon Head Girl
Watch the video from our prefects here
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POLYFEST VIDEOS Polyfest may have been cancelled this year, but the hard work and dedication of all the students in our 15 different cultural groups has been captured on film, thanks to a series of performance videos filmed in the school's PAC just a few days before the lockdown commenced. Once edited, the performances, which are between five to 20 minutes long, are uploaded each day or so to our College Facebook and Vimeo sites. Check them out here: https://www.facebook.com/avcol/ https://vimeo.com/avcol In addition, our Maori, Tongan, Samoan and Niuean groups were also filmed by Coconet TV, and these performances can be viewed on https://www. thecoconet.tv/ - just search Avondale College.
TAUREWA CAMP
taurewa@avcol.school.nz TRIP CANCELLATION: Trips 3, 3a, 4 & 5 Trip 3, Year 13 Trip 3a, Year 13 Trip 4, 10MKE/10EKR Trip 5, 10 LGR/10SKN Regrettably, following government directives regarding COVID-19, the above trips have been cancelled. While any cancellation of Taurewa Camp is done with great reluctance, we are confident this was the appropriate action to take. It is possible that there may be further cancellations in the weeks to come. Any payments already made for camp costs will be refunded. We regret this cancellation and hope it does not cause too much inconvenience.
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MESSAGE FROM GUIDANCE DEPARTMENT Dear Parents, Caregivers and Students Welcome back to Term 2 and what a different term it has been already! I hope that you are all safe and well in your respective bubbles and managing this very challenging time that we are all facing together. We hope that we can continue to support you and your families at this time and in this edition we have included a link to the Parenting Place, which provides great support and advice for all families - they have set up a lockdown hub and are doing Facebook lives to try and help during this time - you can check it out here. Attitude NZ has put together a fun video on how to manage stress and anxiety in response to Covid-19.
We hope that you all will find the information provided useful and informative. Please also remember that our Guidance team are available to support you and your children and please do not hesitate to contact us if you need any help and support. Our numbers and emails are listed below: Jin Tai (tai@avcol.school.nz) 021 022 58391 Dave McMillan (mcm@avcol.school.nz) 021 024 84707 Sia Sinisa (sna@avcol.school.nz) 021 024 23634 Louise Jennings (jns@avcol.school.nz) 021 024 23631 Keep well and keep safe! Mr Jin Tai Director of Guidance 3
FROM OUR DEPARTMENT DIRECTORS ENGLISH In English, junior and senior students are either working on completing last term’s assignments or beginning new units of work. Most classes are working via email or Microsoft Teams and teachers will be contacting students every few days at least. Reading and writing every day at all levels will be very useful, though each year level has assigned tasks (outlined below). Students may submit work through Teams or via email. If you have any concerns, in the first instance, contact your child’s teacher via email. Years 9 and 10 are working on a Static Image unit – developing their understanding of visual media and communicating ideas through a combination of written and visual language. They should be reading every day and getting into the habit of proofreading and editing all written work they do. Year 11s are working either learning about and producing Creative Writing, or working on a short story unit. Year 12s are completing their Personal Responses (so most should be reading a second novel) or doing some writing for their Writing Portfolio. Year 13s are writing a column and, if they wish, turning this into a speech. Some are completing workbook assessments from last term. Mrs S Cope Director of English
HEALTH AND PHYSICAL EDUCATION During this time of distance learning it is important that students are making time in their day to incorporate some physical activity and maintain healthy hauora/well-being (in physical, mental, emotional, social and spiritual aspects). In junior Health and Physical Education, teachers will be setting work that will be encouraging physical activity and making students aware of their diet and nutritional needs. The senior aspect of this subject area will be continuing to develop concepts that have or will be taught in class so students can apply them effectively in practical contexts when they return to the College.
MATHEMATICS The Mathematics Department staff are regularly communicating with students through emails, Microsoft Teams and Zoom. Junior students can also make use of MyiMaths, as this has lessons along with worked examples and practice tasks as well. Should students (or parents!) require any help or information, they can contact their Maths teacher by email. Mr Z Mazid Director of Mathematics & Statistics
SCIENCE All teachers in the Science Department will be contacting their students at the beginning of each week and setting out clearly what work is to be completed, along with any relevant deadlines. They will also be keeping parents informed by sending them a set of duplicate instructions through email. Although we will be available to respond to queries throughout the week, there will be a dedicated time slot for each group to contact their teacher for rapid feedback each day. Classes may be offered at a time in the week to video call their teacher for more complex questions or feedback.
There are a multitude of resources on-line students can access for additional physical activities they can complete. This could be a workout routine on YouTube or learning a new skill such as juggling. The mind will follow the body. Should students or parents have any questions, please be in contact with the teacher of the class. Alternatively, contact myself at wnt@avcol.school.nz. Nga mihi nui, Mr J Went Director of Health and Physical Education
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For our junior classes, we are making use of www.scipadonline. co.nz and teachers will be informing their students how to access this and use it as required. Each class will have a Microsoft Teams site available to them as a contact point for information, assignments, instructions and submitting work. Good websites to use for NCEA practice are www. nobraintoosmall.co.nz and www.learncoach.com which is free until the end of this month. For Juniors, the BBC Bitesize site is excellent, despite being a UK based operation, www.bbc.co.uk/ bitesize. For CAIE students, www.revisionscience.com and www. stem.org.uk/alevelscience are excellent resources. There are many specific to different courses and teachers will advise their students which they might use. For specific information on work for each class, please contact the subject teacher. If there are any more general enquiries or concerns, please contact me at irn@avcol.school.nz. Mr P Irwin Director of Science
SOCIAL SCIENCES Kia ora koutou from the Social Sciences Department! Our teachers have been upskilling their online talents over the holidays and have become proficient in such things as voicing over powerpoints, screen recordings and hosting online meetings. Our Junior Social Science programme has begun with students completing short summative assessments on the topics they studied in Term 1. These have been shared through Assignments in Microsoft Teams. Next week both Year 9 and 10 will be starting their new topics (Responses to the Treaty for Year 9 and Our Government for Year 10 – very topical!) Supporting our curriculum is material currently being screened on Home Learning/Papa Kainga TV (Freeview Channel 7, TVNZ on Demand and Sky Channel 502). Aotearoa History screens around 12.15 and Senior Project picks up social science themes around 2.10pm. Microsoft Teams have been set up for all our senior NCEA courses (History, Geography, Psychology, Classics, Art History, Law, and Tourism). Some classes are completing internal assessments that were started last term. Other classes have started the pre-teaching for new topics, with teachers sharing resources and video links through Teams and school emails. Students in a few classes (eg Classics and some History courses) will have textbooks with them at home, but the majority of students can expect their learning to come from online material posted by their teachers. If you have any questions regarding your student’s learning, please contact their subject teacher in the first instance. Subject HODs can also be contacted: Ms Lee (LEE) for Junior Social Science, Ms Fraser (FRA) for History, Mr Smith (STH) for Geography, Mr Peters (PTS) for Psychology, Ms Visser (VSR) for Tourism, Ms Watts (WTS) for Classics, Mr MacKenzie (MKE) for
Art History, and Ms Jeewa (JWA) for Law. Alternatively, you can contact the Department Director, Ms Hanna (HNA). Ms G Hanna Director of Social Science
TECHNOLOGY The Technology Department will be using Teacher Dashboard, a web-based tool that has been designed to complement Office 365 and allow teachers and students to get the most out of their school's Microsoft Office 365 and SharePoint environments. Staff will provide feedback to students when assignments are handed in and a clear timeline will be created including student’s feedback and progress towards completed projects. Technology also has a SharePoint site for students. Students are familiar with SharePoint, as we have been using this for a number of years on a daily basis. This includes all the resources for students to complete their assignments. Staff will send learning objectives and tasks to students and create projects/ assignments using Teacher Dashboard or Microsoft Teams. Technology students can use the GMETRIX Skills Management System to complete training towards industry certifications and qualifications as part of Technology courses. Autodesk products can be downloaded by students at home from the Autodesk website using their school account: https://www.autodesk.com/ education/free-software Adobe CC products can also be downloaded by students using their school account: https://creativecloud.adobe.com/ Mr N Bartlett HOD Technology
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