B I N D E R Newsletter Issue One

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Strengthening the Bonds throughout the McGlashan Community

Dear McGlashan community, I want to reassure you that the heart of the College community is strong as we draw together in these extraordinary circumstances. We are here to support you and your boys, both educationally and pastorally. From a teaching perspective, we are taking a “business as usual” approach and expect that boys will commit to regular connections with their teachers and form teachers. The Ministry of Education has been helpful and are actively supporting quality distance learning programmes. We are extremely well placed to deliver online courses as the majority of our existing teaching programmes already have some component of delivery through Google classroom. Despite this, we recognise that many families will be under extreme pressure and may find the expectations of online education challenging. Encourage your son to do what he can, sensibly, within your family circumstances.

Please communicate with us if your son is struggling to meet his distance learning obligations. We are here to help.

I must acknowledge our Boards of Trustees and Proprietors for providing exceptional governance during this challenging time.

The College’s primary objective is to provide centralised communication and updates which include board, senior management, teaching programmes, boarding house, international students and wellbeing. This newsletter will go out every Friday. We recognise that long-winded communications are unnecessary so articles will be as concise as possible.

Our Pastoral Care and Learning Support structures are unchanged; • Contact a teacher if you have any classroom-related issues or concerns. Firstly, encourage your son to 'have a go' at working through his problems independently.

• Contact the form teacher if there are any broader issues or concerns.

• As always, please contact me if you wish.

The challenges of the coming weeks are hard to define. In 1970, when Apollo 13 sustained damage en route to the moon, Commander James Lovell stated: “Houston we have had a problem.” Lovell later said that the spacecraft flew, “like it had a dead elephant on its back.” Under incredibly difficult circumstances, the three-man Apollo crew returned to earth. There was no drama but with assistance from the ground crew at Houston, the crew pulled together resources, identified problems and solved each issue collaboratively. On splashdown in the Pacific Ocean, Commander Lovell stated: “Gentlemen, it has been a pleasure flying with you.”

So, let's work together, make the best of what we've got, look after each other and look forward to our return to school.

Kindest regards, Neil Garry Principal

FROM THE BOARDS

Tim Hannagan - Board of Trustees Chair

In these most challenging of times, I would like to assure all McGlashan boys and their families, that the College is in extremely capable hands under the leadership and guidance of Neil Garry, senior management, staff and pastoral support teams.

Tony Sycamore - Board of Proprietors Chair

of embracing distance learning needs to fall directly into the boys’ hands and we know these boys are up for it. It should never be viewed as a parental responsibility.

The Board of Trustees responsibilities to govern under conditions such as these don’t change; it’s business as usual, and whilst zoom is the new way for us, we will continue to remain in contact as required. Our message is clear: we leave management of the school, in whatever form it now takes, to Neil and his team.

With distance learning as the way forward for the foreseeable future, McGlashan has developed a curriculum based delivery that we are confident will serve the boys well. It’s not to say there won’t be changes and tweaks required in the early stages as this predominantly e-based system beds in. Thus, we ask that everyone embraces If you have any questions, however, I would the delivery with positivity and buys into the spirit encourage you to contact me tim.hannagan@ of the challenge ahead. mcglashan.school.nz or any other Trustee via the College website.

Boys should not expect to be at a different level of achievement at the end of this process, despite Stay safe, the teaching and learning moving from the classroom to the dining table. The responsibility Tim Hannagan

On behalf of the Board of Proprietors of John McGlashan College, I want to extend our best wishes to all college families. As a nation, we are in unprecedented times and the state of emergency that currently exists is putting a number of communities under pressure.

From our point of view, we want you to know that the College is working through all of the issues we face currently and doing our best to put together strategies to look after our community and provide the best support we can for our boys. Things remain quite uncertain as to the next few weeks but we are looking to ensure that we are ready to have the College reopen and return to a normal teaching and learning delivery as soon as possible.

In respect of the boarding house, we are working through various scenarios, all of which are dependent on further clarity from the government as to when we will be able to reopen and welcome back the boys. It is early days and really important to not make decisions too soon without the necessary government guidance but we are ensuring that we are ready to make decisions as soon as we are able to.

our goal to keep the College ready and able to welcome back the boys as soon as that is achievable.

From a financial point of view, we recognise that a number of our families may well experience uncertainty and pressure as a result of the lockdown period. We want to assure you that we will get through this together and the College will do everything it prudently can to support families and assist those who are under financial pressure.

There is not a lot more to report at the moment as no final decisions around timing or what the period post-lockdown will look like can be made but as soon as we have any more certainty, we will let you know. In the meantime, we hope that all families are well and safe during the lockdown. Look after each other. Know that the strength of the College community will be a huge asset to all of us through the challenges and uncertainty that will continue over upcoming months.

Best wishes, Tony Sycamore

We will be keeping in touch with everyone as to any changes that we need to make but it is

A REMINDER FROM REV’S DESK

Pastoral care is also continuing. I’ve been delighted by the variety of contact from boys, staff and families. Again, this will be ongoing so please touch base on barry@mcglashan.school.nz or text/call 027 3755315. If I am unable to help, I can certainly point you in the right direction. We have huge variety and depth in our pastoral team at John McGlashan College.

Even in the midst of all that is going on, Easter will soon be upon us. May you still be blessed with a sense of real and lasting peace.

A MESSAGE FROM BOARDING...

It’s been great to hear from a number of boarding families telling us what the boys are up to. Please keep sending in the photos and videos, and we will put them up on the Boarding House facebook page.

We are all missing the company, especially my kids.

The fields are still getting used by the local families and it's great to see some of the staff working on a bit of fitness out on the corner patch.

The hunting competition judges are still looking through the photos so please send any more photos to drew.campbell@mcglashan.school.nz so I can put them in for judging.

Otherwise, stay safe, enjoy the time with your families and please get in touch if we can help with anything.

ONLINE TEACHING AND LEARNING

I have just finished filming and editing shutdown ‘Chapel 4.’ This is an Easter message entitled “He didn’t wait to be asked’. Short chapel services are being uploaded to Face Book each Wednesday morning to coincide with our normal Wednesday pattern of massed singing then Chapel. This will continue until we are back face to face again.

Over the past few weeks, teachers and curriculum leaders have been putting together our online learning plan and organising materials to support our students during lockdown.

The overarching principles of the plan are for boys to have a regular connection with their teachers, suitable work to keep the key learning areas moving forward and sufficient space for them to work independently with online resources. Combining this with strong encouragement for boys to allocate time for creative, physical and social pursuits, should ensure the experience is manageable, relevant and sustainable.

We understand that all bubbles are different – the number of children at home, the variable access to the internet or devices, the degree to which parents are free to support learning, and so on. Our plan, therefore, endeavours to provide a good balance of online teacher-directed learning via Zoom meetings, offline tasks for students to work on independently, and sufficient downtime for boys to burn off energy, socialise, and hopefully help around the house.

Details of the plan, including the daily structure and online meeting times, will be sent out to all students and caregivers early next week. We thank you in advance for your efforts in supporting boys to quickly adapt to their new routines as the term begins.

ONLINE LIBRARY RESOURCES Please have a look at the Web App to see what’s available in the way of online resources for reading and learning. Instructions are provided here - JMC Library Online Resources.

The ePlatform has hundreds of ebooks and audiobooks so you need never be without a good book. We have added new links to curriculum resources for the Year 8 Local History topic, the Year 9 Integrated Studies task and the Year 11 NZ History project. The site will be updated as more information becomes available.

If you have any questions, please get in touch: library@mcglashan.school.nz

WHAT DOES THIS MEAN FOR NCEA LEVEL 1-3?

With NCEA being such a flexible and adaptable qualification system, we are well placed to ensure minimal impact on our students’ ability to gain their qualifications this year. NZQA have had good experience of handling unexpected adverse situations (eg ChCh earthquakes) and much thought and work is going into preparing guidance and material for schools to support assessment programmes across the remainder of the year.

A wide range of strategies is available to us. As many students are entered for almost double the number of credits that they require to meet their qualification, a number of standards will not be assessed, taking a significant amount of pressure off students and providing greater time to focus on other standards. Where formal assessments are unable to be effectively conducted online, NZQA are developing processes for teachers to be able to award grades based on a mix of evidence such as observations, written, digital, audio-visual, evidence from other standards, and professional judgement. This approach is able to be used to provide valid evidence for internal, and potentially externally assessed standards, if required.

A key concern in an online learning environment, of course, will be authenticity. Teachers will be employing a range of measures to ensure all submitted work is entirely the student’s - regular observation of the development of work, accurate and full referencing of all sources used, and online plagiarism detection systems (such as Turnitin). Our school’s assessment policy will continue to apply to all work submitted and senior students would be well-advised to refresh their understanding of the expectations and possible consequences of breaches.

Parents too, have a key role to play in this. While it is natural to want to support your son in his learning, this support should never extend to helping him in the production of work that will be assessed against Achievement Standards. Please support the staff in providing a ‘level playing field’ for assessment for all our students.

Subject teachers will be providing boys with more details about changes to assessment programmes as the term progresses. If boys or parents have questions or concerns about any qualification or assessment matters, please feel free to contact Mr Chris Knopp (Principal’s Nominee – NZQA).

We are in a good place in terms of our plans at school for the IBDP students in Year One and Two. A calendar of due dates and assessments over the two-year programme is being followed by students and staff. The Year Two IBDP students are working on internal assessments and studying towards their examinations in November 2020.

All IBDP students at the College are registered for either the November 2020 or the November 2021 examination session. The IBO have been very clear that the November 2020 examination session is going ahead as planned at this stage. I encourage all IBDP students to use this time wisely and to their benefit; be it through distance learning with their teachers or offline doing independent study or working on their Internal Assessments. We look forward to another successful examination session in November 2020.

Brendan Porter IBDP Coordinator

WHAT HAVE YOU BEEN DOING WITH YOUR TIME? Facebook has shown us many students out and about, and some great golfing skills showing through –and after some of those shots, some new recruits for search and rescue. The manufacturers of golf balls will be rubbing their hands together in delight. Keep on sending those videos and photos through to tony.gomez@mcglashan.school.nz or the JMC facebook page.

What have the staff been up to during lockdown?

Our fabulous Queen of Drama, Kimberley Fridd has been giving our resident HOD Food tech a run for his money….. and her 11 year old daughter is following in her culinary footsteps. I do wish that I was in their bubble for breakfast, lunch and dinner.

to the other staff. I have been busy painting my house, taking part in family Masterchef, and trying to beat my family at backyard golf.

And I wish I could move the date of my birthday forward in time, looking at the cake Rachael Gardiner's son got for his 11th birthday – I want one too!! So that’s another new bubble I am going to have to sneak into.

Helen Clulee

No doubt after the food, it will be time to relax with a good book – unfortunately we can not just pop down and pick one up from the library.

Not to worry, Melissa Bell is an avid reader who will put you onto the right book. She is also going a bit crazy inside the house, so has had those running shoes on, and is in training for yet another marathon with her partner in crime, Donna Smith. The Big Apple awaits this inspirational Year 9 duo. (Attached photo of Ms Bell and Mrs Smith is just past the halfway mark on the Motutapu Marathon - a first for them both). Here’s a challenge to ALL students from Mrs Smith - A physical challenge - she is doing 10 press-ups every 45 minutes for 12 hours. She will have done 160 by 9pm! Next day it is crunchies (and not the chocolate ones!).

Not to be outdone, our newest English recruit, Ella Murdoch and her family have run a relay of 50km around their house whilst in lockdown.

With the absence of attendance messages, phone calls, emails and enquiries to the school office, I have been relaxing in my family bubble with my children home from university. The past two weeks have also involved activities similar

Fortunately for us, we all have food, fiction, fitness, fresh air and fun to get us through this unprecedented time.

INTERNATIONAL Wednesday 26th March saw the unprecedented closure of John McGlashan College as the whole of New Zealand went into lockdown… our ordinary lives became extraordinary as the school emptied and the gates of McGlashan closed until further notice.

eye. The offers of accommodation from our John McGlashan families were overwhelming and very humbling, considering the circumstances.

Alban is at the Engelbrechts’ in Palmerston...

For our International Students, a long way from home, this meant there was a brief ‘possibility’ of securing travel back to their home countries.

However, most of our International Students stayed in New Zealand for various reasons. It is very reassuring to know the boys that were currently living in homestays have a safe place to see out the duration of ‘isolation’ and all of Shin is at the Brennsells in Tapanui... them seem to accept the lockdown period with a positive attitude.

Here are just a few things that our International Students are up to these days...

Hiromitsu and Guy are at the Koen’s lifestyle block on Saddle Hill...

Following is a brief update from our International Prefect, Joe Mu, who has been in touch with a few of the seniors as they have embraced the challenge Ms Noble set for them during this period to create their own ‘world’.

Chai is staying with his brother at the Arlidge’s...

However, Joe goes on to say, ‘Some of our International Students are already quite busy even though there’s no school.’ Roy Feng is spending lots of time with his IB homework in

front of his well organised desk.

A few teachers and students also had the chance of connecting with Cyrus through online catch up Calvin is harvesting some autumn veges with his lessons. Cyrus was one of only two students who host brother Hugo in Anderson’s Bay... managed to get back to Hong Kong, It’s also good to hear that some of our internationals are going for runs while following lockdown rules or exercising at home to keep themselves fit.

Finally, it also appears we have a few ‘Masterchefs’ It was perhaps slightly more unsettling for amongst our International Students who have the boarders, who found themselves quickly embraced cooking for their homestay families: ensconced into a kiwi family home in a blink of an

Krishan’s Cook-off

PREFECT CHALLENGES

Life is pretty quick and it only gets quicker. However, this COVID-19 situation has given us a chance to really slow down and reconnect with who we are at the core. The only thing is, it has slowed down a little too much for some of us.

It’s true, not having to get up early and go to school is nice, but staying inside all day with the occasional jog to get some fresh air gets pretty tiresome after a while. So, in a rare moment of boredominduced inspiration, I decided to challenge the entire school to a cook-off. Using a few words at the end of my Last Word in Rev Kelk’s online Chapel last Wednesday, I announced this challenge by presenting the school with a French omelette I had whipped up.

Although in my last word it was stated that this challenge was only open to students, it would be cool to see what some of the teachers and staff can make as well. However, the reward of a sausage-roll to the food that looks the best will not be available to the adults as, let’s be honest, that would be unfair to us.

Krishan's omlette

Caine's burger

Caleb's butter chicken

Dr. P's seafood platter

Billy's stuffed venison

Ned's energy cookies

Send me photos of your creations at krishan.luxmanan@ mcglashan.school.nz or through any other social media.

With that said, the game is on.

Trick Shot Go to https://www.facebook. com/johnmcglashancollege/ to check out what the prefects have been up to. Week one’s trick shot challenge is on from Caleb and Caine. CAN YOU DO BETTER?!

Winning clips will be posted on the facebook page each Wednesday.