Year 7 News

By Lisa Dixon | Posted: Tuesday February 20, 2024

It has been an excellent start to the year as our new Year 7 students settle into their new school and classrooms. We have been very impressed with the way they have become used to the step up and increased self responsibility and organisation.

Last week we had our school Mihi Whakatau which brought together our school as one. The Year 8 students displayed outstanding leadership in this area and our Year 7 students certainly felt the energy and passion they displayed during this very special part of our school culture. We have been very busy in our classrooms setting up our class programmes and this has started with a focus on getting to know our new students and classmates, setting up routines and introducing the "Balmac Way" - this is how we do it here. This includes our key concepts of being AWARE, HONEST and RESPONSIBLE for our learning, actions and behaviour. This sets up the cornerstone of underpinning all we do and ties into looking at our school PERK values of perseverance, excellence, respect and kindness.

Over the next few weeks our Year 7 classes will be heading out to our camps at Waihola. As well as taking part in a range of outdoor challenges, this is a fantastic opportunity at the start of the year for our students to get to know each other and build relationships. A huge thank you in advance to all of the caregivers who have volunteered to help at our camps - we cannot run these programmes without you.

This week we have also introduced to our classes our first topic and PBL focus for the year - titled Ukaipo. This unit will combine Aotearoa history as part of our literacy programme with our PBL focus on creating an art work to reflect the students origins and roots. Later this term we will have a parents sharing night of the Year 7 "Art Gallery".

Lisa Dixon

On behalf of Year 7