Tuesday, July 23, 2019

GATE Update

Over the next few weeks we have teams of children participating in the following events:

Monday 5th August- NZ Book awards and Writers Workshop with
James Guthrie author of Bullseye Bella.
We have a selection of children from Year 4-6 who are attending the
NZ Book Awards at St Margarets College. They will get to hear various
authors present their work. Following the awards they will have a Writers
Workshop with author James Guthrie to develop their craft of writing.
We are very excited to be working with James.
Tuesday 13th August- Epro 8 Challenge.  We have two teams entered in
the Epro8 Challenge which is a competition, an engineering and problem
solving race. Read more here about this event.
Saturday 24th August Robocup: We have two teams entered in this competition
in two events: Robo-Soccer and Robotic Rescue. These teams have been busy
building their competition robots under the expert tuition of Sam Pelham. A big thank
you to Sam for all her work with the team.
Saturday 31st August- Tournament of Minds(TOM): Tournament of Minds is an opportunity for students with a passion for learning and problem solving to demonstrate their skills and talents in an exciting, vibrant and public way.

Teams are required to work together on a Long Term Challenge for six weeks without assistance from teachers, parents or peers. They are encouraged to explore possibilities and experiment with ideas as they endeavour to produce their best possible solution. They develop a creative and original way to communicate this solution to others, working within predefined parameters such as limited materials, complex challenge criteria and the deadline of Tournament Day.The Tournament process provides a platform for excellence and equips participants with twenty-first century skills and strategies.
Objectives
  • Provide the stimulation of real, open-ended challenges
  • Develop creative problem solving approaches and techniques
  • Foster cooperative learning and team work
  • Promote knowledge and appreciation of self and others
  • Encourage experimentation and risk taking
  • Expand and reward creative and divergent thinking
  • Stimulate a spirit of inquiry and a love of learning
  • Develop enterprise
  • Celebrate excellence
Our teams have been working hard over the past term developing
their creativity, collaboration, communication and problem solving skills.

2019 INTERNATIONAL COMPETITIONS AND ASSESSMENTS FOR SCHOOLS(ICAS)

ICAS will be online this year, with only ICAS Writing for Year 4 & 5 on paper.  
Registrations are now closed for the 2019 ICAS exams and Australian
Maths Competition. 
The dates for the 2019 examinations are below.

Australian Maths Competition- Thursday 1st August 2019Digital Technologies – Tuesday 3 September 2019
Science – Thursday 5 September 2019
Writing – Tuesday 10 September 2019
Spelling – Thursday 12 September 2019
English – Tuesday 17 September 2019
Mathematics – Thursday 19 September 2019

Good luck to all our teams competing over the next few weeks and to those that have opted into sitting the ICAS exams and AMC competition.