Retiring Mrs Vickers!!

We have some breaking news!! Mrs Vickers is Retiring!! Well, next year. On Thursday, we had a powhiri to welcome our new principal, Mrs Hamilton.

Katrina did the welcoming, while the senior block did a haka in the background. I did most of the talking. After I introduced myself to Mrs Hamilton, Leanah started singing a waiata and everyone joined in.

Then Mrs Hamilton stood up and talked about how wonderfully organised we were at our powhiri. After the powhiri, Mrs Riley thanked us for how well we behaved and guess what!! She nearly cried!! Luckily Mr Reid was there to hug her. Awwww!! I guess he does care!!

Poetry Recital!!

On Friday, three students and I were chosen by our teachers, Mrs and Mr Reid, to present our known poems.

Leanah presenting "The Red Horse," Jessica and Tupouseini presenting "Punk Junk Mailer," and Tyron presenting "My Teacher Said To Read The Newspaper, So I Did."

My poem was called "Afakasi Chameleon" by Selina Tusitala Marsh.

After that, Mrs Golder handed us a certificate. I was so proud of myself!

Fitness Disaster!!

On Tuesday, we started our new fitness. Our fitness now includes relays which means we are organized in our dance groups and are split up into four corners.
There were four cones on the field. Each teammate had to run to each cone and pass the baton to our teammate there, but it ended up in a disaster! People didn't know what team they were in, they didn't know how to pass it to their teammate, and even one team gave their baton to another team member! It was outrageous! It was messy.

Mr. Reid said that if we didn't do it properly tomorrow, we had to do Ms. Riley's fitness which was circuits!

Combining Colours!

How do you change colours by using two separate colours?

Firstly, draw two or three circles on a cardboard or on the cover of a pad paper and use a ruler to find the centre of the circle and put a line through it. Colour one half of the circle green and the other red. Colour the other two circles half red, blue or green. Two colours can combine into one colour when the circles are spun.

Find the centre and mark the middle. Measure two centimetres across the middle and mark it with a pencil. Punch the marked dots on the circle with a nail. Cut out the circles and put a one metre string through the holes. Put another circle behind the one that has been put in. Glue the two circles together and tie a knot on one side of the string. Turn the circle and let a friend hold your circle. At this point when it is spun fast, it can change colour. For example green and blue makes turquoise and red and green makes yellow or orange.


The faster the spin, the more likely a colour change will be observed.

Netball

On Tuesday, Mr Reid had chosen 10 really good netball players to represent the school in the year 7 and 8 netball tournament. Four boys and six girls had been chosen. One of them was me. Mr Reid also chose 10 students from the years 5 and 6 level to be in the same netball tournament.

We practiced with Mrs Shortland and the years 5 and 6. It was really fun. The first three points had been earned by the year 5 and 6 netballers. They were on a roll until we started to close the gap.

I played goal attack and goal keeper. The final score was 16 to 10. It was a great practice.

🥇Duffy Award!!🥇

 On Monday, we had a whole school assembly as usual. One of the items that occur is when Mrs Vickers gives out the Duffy books and certificate to the pupils who have been doing well in their reading, writing or other subjects.

She called out the room numbers one by one: 9, 10,11 and 12. It was their turn to receive the Duffy books. The teachers had a good think about who they were going to chose. Finally,  Mr Reid picked Mary and Mrs Golder picked Saluselo which is me because I did well in my reading. I moved up a reading group as well as my reading level.

When I went up to get my award, I felt nervous. This is my 5th Duffy book award. Afterwards, Mrs Vickers congratulated me by shaking my hand and gave me a Spirit Animals book which is my favourite book.

When I looked at my book, I thought to myself, 'now I have two books like these.' I was proud of myself for doing well!

Inter-school Soccer Competition

On Wednesday, the Year 7/8 soccer team represented Ruapotaka in the inter-school soccer tournament held at Point England Reserve.
Me, Mika, Timote, Lupe, Katrina, Meana, Isabell, Izabella, Dakbai, Solomone and Min Zin were ready for anything.
The first school we played against was Glen Taylor. It was a difficult match and the year 7&8's fought hard just to get that one goal.
After that game, we did some changes. Dakbai went into the game to replace Min Zin as attacker and in the last three minutes we finally scored a goal. We all celebrated and high-fived each other.

The other schools were Tamaki Primary which we lost 1-0. Mr Reid was disappointed in us, so we sat there and made a game plan. The next match was with Sylvia Park and our game plan worked. Mr Reid was happy that we changed how we played and that we won the game. The next school to face us was St Patrick's. We worked together and we won 7-0.

In the semi-finals, Ruapotaka was up against Panmure Bride and we won 4-0. So that meant Ruapotaka  moved on to the finals against Stonefields. This was going to be hard. We played hard until time was up. We drew 0-0. It was the first time that Ruapotaka school had come first. This years soccer was awesome. Mr Reid was still fizzing from the win!