Skiing with Room 1

Last week Room 1 hit the slopes - quite literally! The weather forecast was not great, so the Room 1 camp was postponed for a day, but once we got up to Whakapapa, we had an absolute ball. Most of the children were novices on Day 1, but both boarders and skiers alike made rapid progress, thanks to lessons on both days and lots of determination from the children themselves. The camp went something like this:
Day 1: No skiing due to bad weather and a rather slippery acccess road, so it was Rock climbing followed by a swim at Turangi.
Day 2: Battle through the ski shop, then lessons, followed by supervised skiing in glorious sunshine in Happy Valley. Rapid progress for all, plus one or two more adept skiiers keeping Paul Bryant busy on the upper mountain.
Day 3: Slightly cloudier, but the snow mainly held off, meaning we were able to progress to the lower mountain for supervised skiing/lessons.
Combine this with lashings of delicious food, courtesy of Tricia Dickon, Keina Rose and Paul Bryant, lots of laughs at people falling over (adults included) and the camp was a great success.
A quick poll of the students as to what they would like to do for next year's camp, and there was really only one response - skiing!

Room 1 in Happy Valley before their first lesson. More photos in this week's newsletter.

Back in Room 1.........

Younger pupils not going on camp were not left twiddling their thumbs this week. Besides having the pool almost to themselves for swimming, Room 1's Mad Scientists spent part of their reading time researching Forces experiments, which they then carried out last Friday. Hovercrafts, catapults, Bottle Tractors and a Cartesian Diver were all proudly shown to Room 3 at the end of the morning. 

Eli and Byron investigate Force, Mass and Distance

George, Clive and Joe with their home-made hovercraft

Room 1 Maths show off their symmetrical something

In Maths on Fridays, whilst Year 7 are sailing, the younger Room 1 students have been investigating 2D shapes and their properties, together with a practical introduction to line symmetry. 

Leadership Camp

Last week saw the Year Seven pupils pack their bags and head for 3 days of fun and  leadership training at Ashley Park. The weather was kind (for the first two days at least) and pupils were worn out but excited on their return to school. Activities included The Amazing Race, Mapping the Camp, Spotlight and  Capture the Flag to name but a few.Watch this space for pupils' reports and photos.