Northern Southland College

PRINCIPAL'S MESSAGE

12 November 2021

Kia ora koutou

Our Grass Kart teams have done it again! The ‘Ford F150’ entry won the Otago Southland Grass Kart Challenge last Saturday at NSC. Both of our Grass Karts were well presented and our students represented NSC extremely well. There is a wonderful article in The Ensign that you can see here:

https://digital.theensign.co.nz/html5/default.aspx

Senior students have three days of classes remaining before they are released for NCEA External Exams. There is still plenty of mahi to do. When on exam leave students are welcome to attend school to study for externals and/or complete any internal course work. Senior students attending school during exam leave may wear mufti but MUST wear school uniform when sitting exams.

In the last week our Year 9 and 10 students sat their English, Mathematics, Science and Humanities exams. If your child missed an exam a catch up time will be organised.

A heads up that Friday 19 September is a Teacher Only Day. This is to continue to investigate the upcoming NCEA changes. On Wednesday 10 November, the Minister of Education announced that the New Zealand Curriculum Refresh and NCEA Change Programme timelines have been reset to give more time for implementation. This was in response to the ongoing impact of COVID-19 and will minimise further disruption to students and staff.

Finally, you may be aware that all schools have received a government mandate that all NSC staff must be vaccinated (received first vaccination by 15 November 2021 and second by 1 January 2022). The mandate extends to all people who are on site at NSC and/or interact with our students. Parents/whanau that volunteer to help at NSC are required to be vaccinated (first vaccine by 15 November 2021).

Every parent attending or providing transport for Year 8 and Year 10 camps later this term will be asked to provide proof of vaccination. If you are unable or unwilling to be vaccinated or do not wish to disclose your vaccination status, I encourage you to contact me to discuss your situation in confidence. Please note that parents who are coming onsite to conduct business to do with their child (eg. come to the office to drop off a form or visit on athletics day) are not required to be vaccinated.

Ngā mihi
Pete Wilkinson

Upcoming Events

Cultural Competition - Friday 12 November
Year 11-13 Last Day - Wednesday 17 November
Teacher Only Day - Friday 19 November
NCEA Exams - Monday 22 November - Monday 13 December
Year 10 Camp - Monday 22 November - Friday 26 November
Year 8 Camp - Monday 29 November - Friday 3 December

Grass Kart

The Grass Kart team has had another dominant year. They started in March and finished in early November having completed approximately 60 hours per student of construction time.

Racing this year took four parts. There was a Go to Wo, where we had to race around a cone and come back and stop in a box. A slalom race where you weaved around 8 cones there and back and a new event this year, the drag race where they put two karts against each other.

After lunch we competed in the relay races. These races were tough for us, as this year both karts were having brake issues. This meant stopping in the box and doing quick changes was a bit challenging. Both teams still placed in the top 7 karts.

The prize giving was next and that showed that all our hard work paid off. Team One (the Escort team) was placed third in the construction category and second in the record keeping, whilst Team Two (the Ford 150 team) placed third in appearance, third in performance, first in record keeping and first in construction. This meant Team Two was placed first overall.

Between the two teams they collected over $1000 in prize money and the results were a credit to both teams' hard work.

Many thanks for the excellent year guys and I look forward to seeing next year's effort.

Ruby Menlove - Special Olympics Basketball

Congratulations to Ruby Menlove, who competed at the Special Olympics Basketball event held on 9th November in Invercargill at the Stadium. Ruby was in a combined team of students from Northern Southland, Central Southland, Balclutha Primary and Gore High. Her team placed 3rd in the competition.

Honor Collins - Tennis

Honor received a Wild Card entry into the Southern Primary School Champs Year 7&8's held in Dunedin on Friday 12th November. Playing the best from around North Otago, Otago and Southland.

Honor is also representing Southland Tennis 12 & under in the Quad on the 13 -14th November in Dunedin. She will play players from Lakes, Otago and South Canterbury districts.

Volleyball

Although it's been a very short season. The two NSC Teams entered in the Southland Secondary School Comp have had a great season. While not many games were won, they have learnt a lot, grown in confidence and had lots of fun out there doing it.

A huge thank you must go out to Ms Blakemore for the time and energy given to the students in the role of coaching both teams. Also thank you to Miss Stark who has travelled with the teams for the season and managed them in these tricky times - dealing with Covid regulations etc.

We look forward to another great season next year.

Contacting the College

If you need to contact the College about a student absence or for a query please either;

Ring 03 248 7121 and follow the prompts, text 027 248 7121, or use the absence feature on the school app.

Parents/Caregivers are also required to give the College notice if students are leaving early. Please do this by either phoning, using the app or texting the above number.