Te Karere
Edgecumbe College Newsletter, 17 June
Edgecumbe College Badminton
5 junior teams and, a record, 8 senior teams recently competed in the EBOP Secondary Schools qualifying tournament in Whakatane with some great results.
The junior girls number 1 team (Mieka Miller, Gianni Gavin, Romy Fahey, Elias Ratapu) won their division convincingly and therefore qualify for the BOPSS Championship tournament next term. Following the completion of all regional tournaments we were informed that our junior boys number 3 team (Mansimar Singh, Joshua Waalwijk, Jamie Renata, Wiremu Dunster-Todero) have also qualified.
The number 1 boys (Nikora Bright, Andrei Flores, Lucas McBeth, Luscian Sneddon) and number 1 girls (Mieka Miller, Ryleigh Savage, Tamar Anderson, Trista Tahu-Sturme) senior teams have qualified and we are hopeful another senior team may go through after the other regional tournaments are complete.
The senior girls final match against a Trident team, that included three Bay of Plenty players, was particularly exciting and great to watch. It ended with 3 games each and therefore a countback required. Edgecumbe won by 6 points!
Horticulture and Agriculture
Despite the weather lately it has been an exciting time for the Horticulture and Agriculture Department, with student visits and experiences on a range of properties, including a local Kumara farm, Miro Berry Blue berry farm, a visit planned to a local Southern Cross Kiwi fruit farm to name a few.
We are still looking to get more links to other farms in the area for visits and work experience, so if you would like to host our awesome young people please let the office know and we will get in touch with you.
Student are involved in tractor courses, small motors, chainsaw and forklifts - valuable employment skills and opportunities for credits.
The chicks are also present in the classes again and we will be looking for homes for them in the next few weeks, so please let us know if you would like some.
To top it all off we are finalising the new Kiwi Fruit block with Southern Cross Horticulture and hope to start construction before the end of term. We will planting Green, Gold and Red kiwi fruit in what will be an amazing learning environment for our students. Unfortunately we can’t sell the fruit, but the students will be eating them.
We were also very lucky to be able to take a small number of our Ag / Hort students to support the Kohanga Reo in the opening of their new native garden. It features a number of named native plants and this will be an awesome learning garden for both our students.
Māori Performing Arts
With the changes to the curriculum currently under way we are now able to offer our students credits in:
Mau rakau
Tau Haka
Again widening the opportunities for our students and achievement success.
Careers Expo
Our students attended a major Careers Expo last week, and they found it invaluable and it is so important for our students that they are carefully considering their future pathways, particularly to keep up their motivation and expectations of achieving highly.
Attendance
Attendance is a huge focus for us at the moment, coincidentally at the same time the Government and Ministry of Education are also showing concern over poor attendance rates in schools across the country.
It has been an exceeding difficult year we do realise for Whanau, family and our students.
At the peak of Covid last term our attendance was down at 33% on any one day. Now thankfully it is rising and is around 75 – 80% but not all the time. Even at 80% it means that students are missing one day a week, and even at this rate it has a massively negative impact on their achievement.
We do understand that there is still Covid going through families, but I would ask you to ensure that whenever possible students are at school and ready to learn.
It is very difficult as I am sure you understand to re-motivate your young person after such disruption, but they do need to be back at school, ready to learn and looking towards their future, if they are going to succeed this year. Please support us in getting our students back to school. We will ensure we contact you as early as possible, and please bear in mind that we are trying to do our best for our students.
NOTICE ABOUT PHONES
Cell Phones at Edgecumbe College.
This is just a friendly reminder that Cell phones are not permitted at Edgecumbe College and haven’t been for the past year and a half.
Unfortunately they are becoming a problem in the school again and are causing us real concern. Please help support us and ensure your child leaves their phone at home.
I can’t stress enough that young people for their mental well being need time away from the pressures of social media and the hugely negative influence it has on them. They also need to concentrate on their classes at school.
Some of the problems that we are experiencing are;
· Students answering calls in class, disrupting the teacher, other students and their own learning.
· Bullying and being bullied constantly through social media
· Students on phones and completely ignoring teachers
· Students organising fights and
· Listening to music in class instead of the teacher
We will give students a few days grace but once again we will be forced to confiscate phones if they are brought to school. We do not want to do this, in fact this is the last thing we want to do, but students need to be focussed on their studies and free from negative influences through their phones.
If students need to take a call at school then they can bring a phone and leave it at the office, where they can come to take a planned call if it is necessary. It is absolutely not acceptable for students to be taking calls in class. If there is an emergency please call the office and they will get the student.
There is a strong link between our students unsettled behaviour at school and what they are experiencing over social media. We noticed how much more settled and engaged students are when their phones are left at home.
The school is much more settled without phones in the school.
If you student is experiencing online bullying contact Netsafe [www.netsafe.org.nz] immediately, while they are very busy they are also very effective in dealing with young people’s issues. You can also contact the local police. As a school we have very little control over what happens via social media but will do our best to support you as much as you can.
We are asking for your help, not just for the school but more importantly for your child’s welfare. As an aside many of our students openly say that they are on their phones at all hours of the night. This is a major issue I believe for all of N.Z. society and of course not just our school. But we need to do all we can for our young people.
I will be talking to all of our students about this on Monday at a full school assembly.
Mike Jackson
Principal
Refurbishment steams ahead
Our site manager Jamie has taken these photos for us, and his team continue to steam ahead into the third block of classes along with some exterior work in the pipeline for the school holidays.
Over in the capital works space (the very anticipated rebuild), some of our students have been engaging with the engineers and architects as they move through the processes. Tentative plans are now shaping together and we are looking forward to sharing these soon. We are still looking at starting in November with an estimate rebuild time of 18 months.
School Calendar: Click on link below:
Instrument Music Tutors
We are very short of people to give our students practical music lessons, so this is a plea, please for volunteer insturment teachers – guitar, piano, drums especially vocal coach, anyone interested in starting a school choir and or band we would dearly love to hear from you. Please just get in touch with the office and we will get back to you.
Cell phones
Please support us in not having cell phones in the school, they are such a distraction to the learning environment of the school and students are continually bombarded by the negative influences of social media. They are creeping back into the school and we would like this stamp this early.
REUNION CONFIRMED TO GO AHEAD!! DETAILS TO FOLLOW!
One of these families has a give-a-little page: https://givealittle.co.nz/cause/long-recovery-road-ahead
https://www.nzherald.co.nz/rotorua-daily-post/news/mother-describes-horror-bay-of-plenty-crash-that-seriously-injured-daughter
Our school app
Its very easy to use and free. You can fill in an absentee form, see previous notices and newsletters, go straight to Kamar to access your student's records, see our school calendar, and receive emergency notifications if necessary.
Edgecumbe College 60th Centenary Celebrations
You can find our school policies here:
Edgecumbe College Careers
Did you know we have a specialised FB page dedicated to Career Pathways? Go find and like our page! It’s called Edgecumbe College Careers. This page is regularly updated with a host of information about where to seek job vacancies, apprenticeships, preparing for jobs, careers events, Open Days, scholarship and grant applications, and heaps of photos celebrating our wonderful students. Nau mai, Haere mai.
Contact Us
Email: info@edgecumbecollege.school.nz
Website: http://www.edgecumbecollege.school.nz/
Location: Edgecumbe College 100 College Road, Edgecumbe 3120, New Zealand
Phone: 07-304 8211
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/edgecumbecollege