Term 1 Year 7 news 

Congratulations to our Year Sevens, you have settled in so very well to Balmacewen Intermediate!  It is hard to believe that you have only been a Balmac student for less than 20 days! 

The way you handled yourselves and contributed to the Powhiri on Friday was outstanding.  The waiata being sung was superb and not to mention the excellent  whaikorero, and the coming together of buddy classes to hongi was simply brilliant. 

It is so pleasing to see so many of our newest members of the school sign up for tuition in a musical instrument, trial for a sports team or nominate themselves for class council and librarians. This is exactly what we want to see happening within our fabulous school!

Our Education Outside of the Classroom programme has begun strongly with classes walking the Pineapple Track in preparation for our big hike at camp. The views are exceptional and gave all pupils a greater understanding of the Dunedin landscape - this links directly to our Term 1 Integrated topic of belonging to a community .

We are also visiting Toitu Otago Settlers Museum to gain a deeper understanding of Dunedin communities and making connections to our own family history and looking at NZ identity and NZ communities. 

Our annual camps to Waihola begin next week – this is one of the highlights of our school calendar. This is where classes really come together as a class community and we see in action all the learning in class around the school values of kindness, excellence, perseverance and respect - all values are certainly evident in a school camp setting. 

Thank you to all our parents for their support in establishing positive home school relationships, for helping out with our EOTC activities and for your support in general – it is greatly appreciated.

We are looking forward to seeing you next week at our 10 minutes parent interviews.

Thank you again for your ongoing support. 

Beth Downie and the Year 7 Team