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Friday 31 July 2015

Open Day 2015 is fast approaching!

Good afternoon everyone,

I'm looking forward to meeting many new people on Open Day - Thursday, next week. Please invite people who you think might be interested. Flyers will be coming home with students this afternoon. I would love to see more families partner with us to see young people flourish and shine during school and in life post year 10.


You could send people a link to this blog if it would help.

Thank you for your support.

Sincerely

Scott Winkler
Principal

Wednesday 29 July 2015

Mark's Back!

We welcome back Mr Mark Nyhouse to Emmanuel in a part-time capacity. As well as working with Mrs Crane and Grade 5/6, he is taking Primary PE. There will be plenty of tried kids by the end of the day.
Prep/1 during thier PE lesson



Wednesday 15 July 2015

Vanuatu Trip 2015

Ten students from Grade 10 and 5 staff members have successfully completed their mission trip to Vanuatu for another year.  A big thank you to Mrs Anitra Collins for her organisation, and such a momentous effort in pulling it together.

The community of Farealapa was very appreciative of the efforts made by all, especially as it was the very first time anyone had ever stayed and worked alongside the locals.

The main focus for this years trip was the construction of a water tank for the village of Farealapa on the island of Nguna.  We lived and worked alongside the villagers for 7 days, sleeping in tents, eating the local food and living without power and running water. 

This trip was a life changing experience for the people from the village as well as all the students and teachers involved. We look forward to telling our story at an assembly next term. 

"This is how everyone will recognise that you are my disciples - when they see the love you have for each other" John 13 :34-35 (The Message)

The 'team'

The foundation is complete

Half way there ...

The last brick is positioned

Inside rendered

The roof is poured

Local lads inspecting the names
History is created

The 'team' and most of the Farealapa villagers

Sunday 12 July 2015

Slab Preparations Underway

I trust you are all enjoying your holidays. Building preparation is continuing well. The things that have to be put into the slab have been a priority this last week.


I will be at an education conference from Monday to Wedndesday so I probably won't update during that time.

Tuesday 7 July 2015

Prep/One's visit to the Sustainability Learning Centre

On Friday 26th June the class was privileged to take part in an amazing guided walk through some of the beautiful native bush on Mount Nelson.  The highly informative and interactive walk was skillfully presented by Jenny Dudgeon and all the children were enthusiastic and excited about their discoveries. Using their explorative tools (magnifying glasses, specimen containers and plant identification charts) the children were encouraged to use their senses of hearing, touch and sight to explore the surroundings and form opinions about what they found. Discussion opportunities encouraged the children to think carefully and listen to the ideas of their friends when deciding what factors contributed to the state of items they found.  For example, the children talked about what may have caused the death of the blue-tongued lizard. How did the bricks and concrete slab get into the bush and how long may they have been there? What was in the muddy water? Why did the tree fall over and why was there charcoal on the trunk? 

Below are some photos taken during our outing. 

    After looking at all the clues we decided that the lizard was probably killed by a vehicle in the bush.

                               
    
     We looked at the bark on the trees for clues to possum and other animal activity.

                                 

    The snake skin was quite different to the lizard skin.


     We  were able to find possible animal homes underneath a fallen-down tree.  Scats were good clues to the types of animals that lived here.

   We all lay on our tummies (thankfully the ground wasn't too muddy!) and closed our eyes to listen carefully to the sounds we heard around us in the bush. Crows were definitely the most common bird call, and nearby road works provided some machine sounds. 

                                   The plant identification charts were very interesting and useful.  We  could identify blackwood trees, banksias, sheoaks, acacias and different types of eucalypts.


     Taking water samples was interesting and one of us even caught a mosquito.


      We discovered a range of different types of fungi.


    We compared the size and number of buds that we found.

  

     Looking carefully at the bark of trees showed us some interesing insect activity.

                               

    Splashing in the mud was certainly a highlight of our visit!
                                

    With gumboots on we were all keen to splash and squish our way through the mud.

                                   

    Walking through the sheoak forest was very peaceful. We  enjoyed looking at the unusual leaves,               that we could pull apart and push back together!
                                    


    Happy and tired, we all travelled back to school, looking forward to our next opportunity to explore     our beautiful native bush together. 


Spider explorations by Prep/One


                    

Our paper-mâché spiders were almost all finished to take home last week. We did notice that our designs were not as scientifically accurate as they could have been, with the legs coming off the wrong part of the spiders' bodies! Nevermind. Some of us chose two eyes instead of eight, but they still looked pretty impressive.

                    

Back in the classroom we had enjoyed researching information about spiders, and their differences with other insects. We also learned some interesting new words to use.

Holiday PAC Progress

While some of us enjoy a break from school routines and tasks, the building team are continuing to work hard on our new facility.


The music room is clearly delineated now.

Thursday 2 July 2015

The base continues...

I was informed this morning that 2250 tonnes of base material has been brought in and compacted to form a flat surface to build everything else on. The workmen started digging the foundations this afternoon and you can start to make out the shape of the buildng itself in this photo. 


Vanuatua Day One

This was the veiw our intrepid travellers woke up to this morning. They were going to go shopping and then head to Nguna.

Vanuatu Trip has started!

The Vanuatu Team left yesterday afternoon after a long wait at the airport. They got into Vanuatu late last night. They will be a tired team today.