2017 - All Done!

All the very best to our Year 8 leavers.... Year 7s - see you next year!

Prizegiving

Last night we celebrated the end of the 2017 school year with our prizegiving.  As well as recognising the achievements of lots of students, we performed two items.  Great work Room 6!

Y8 Leaver's Lunch

The Year 8 students had a blast at their Leaver's Lunch today.  They had delicious meals, refreshing drinks and super yum ice cream sundaes.  Yum!  Thank you to the PTA for paying for their meals - the kids definitely appreciated this.

Buddy Class

We have really enjoyed spending time with Room 2 - our buddy class - this year.  Today we had a game of long ball, and we were very impressed with the skills of the Room 2 kids!  Thanks for being a cool BC Room 2!

The Great Potato Project

We had great fun digging up our potatoes with our little buddies today!  Congratulations to Chloe and Rebecca who won the 'heaviest potatoes' competition.  We hope they taste as good as they look - we'll find out tomorrow!

Slip n Slide 2017

Disco!

Thanks to the Student Council for organising another awesome disco!

Rafting Trip

After waiting nearly a year, we FINALLY got to enjoy our rafting trip today!  Earlier in the year, we won a fantastic prize which meant we were able to go rafting for free.  Today was worth the wait - we had the most awesomely cool day with the Mangaweka Adventure Company.  The rafting was peaceful, scenic and fun... with a MASSIVE, bumpy rapid in the middle.  The water was beautiful and warm, so everyone enjoyed a swim too.  Thank you to MAC and Horizons Regional Council for allowing us to enjoy such a great day.  Thank you to the parents who came along today too - you were awesome!

Sports Fun Day

What a cool day we've had at Halcombe School!  We began the day with a seriously fun rotation around lots of different weird and wonderful games.  Then we watched (or competed in) the 400m - well done to Logan and Lucy who won their races.  After that we officially opened our new cricket pitch.  Next up there was a Students vs Adults cricket match - the students won easy peasy!  After lunch it was time for a mega slip n slide!  Phew... a very hot but very fun day!

Check out the vids!  (thanks William for your awesome droning skills!)

Interhouse Cricket

A massive congratulations to Kauri - Interhouse Cricket Champs for 2017.  Well done to Totara too, who put up a great fight in the final today.

CSI Day

We had a special visit from Mr Atkins today. Mr Atkins is a National Fingerprint Training Officer working for the New Zealand Police. He taught us all about the 'science' of crime scene investigations, how to swab for DNA and how to take fingerprints. There were lots of opportunities for us to practice their new skills in mock crime scenes that were set up around the school. Very interesting stuff! Thanks Mr Atkins!

DISCO DISCO DISCO

Radio Check

Every week, Hamish and Fergus have been part of a district-wide 'radio check'.  In an emergency, Halcombe School would become a Civil Defence Centre, and we would need a way to communicate with other people in the district if the power was out.  This special radio would allow us to do this.  Today Hamish trained up Cameron and Kane in how to use the radio, and they will be in charge of doing the weekly checks next year.

Student Leadership Day - More Pictures!

Thanks to Mr Blanchard for these extra photos of the Student Leadership Day that our Year 7 students attended yesterday.

Student Leadership Day

Our Year 7 students were superbly entertained by the New Zealand Army at Linton Army Camp today. The purpose of the day was to develop leadership skills, and they had lots of opportunities to do exactly that. They also had the chance to have a good look at some of the cool equipment the army uses - everything from ration packs to weapons to vehicles to bandages to special radios. The Physical Training Officers also put the students through their paces in a series of challenging physical activities. A great day!

Turangi Camp

We had an awesome week away in Turangi last week.  We did caving and mountain biking and white water rafting and tramping and swimming and visited Tangiwai and the hot pools and had the best skit night ever!  We all had so much fun, and we'll remember all our adventures for years to come.  Thank you to everyone who contributed to making this camp 100% awesome!

Touch Photos

Thanks to Mr Blanchard for these cool photos of the Pink and Purple team in action at touch last week!

Interschool Cross Country

A number of students from our class competed in the Interschool Cross Country, held in Hunterville yesterday.  The conditions were pretty tough - it was wet and muddy and raining, and the course is already very challenging.  But we still did VERY well!  Congratulations to Jack for winning the Year 6-7 race.  This is the first time since 2001 that Halcombe School has had a winner!  Logan and Georgia also did extremely well, finishing second in their races.  Holly, Willow, Gussie, Marie, Jessie and Samuel also achieved placings in the Top 20.  Great work team!

Here are some of the Room 6 kids in action:

Touch Rugby

Here are some of the Room 6 students in action during touch rugby.  Thanks for the photos Mr Blanchard!

Interschool Speech Competition

A huge congratulations to Tommy and Emma for representing Halcombe School so well in the Interschool Speech Competition this year. They have been practicing hard, and both performed very well. A special congratulations to Emma, who won the Year 8 competition.

Young Achievers

Congratulations to Olivia, William and Shelby!  They are our 2017 Young Achievers, and they received recognition at the Manawatu Young Achievers Award ceremony last night.  Here is why they received their awards:

Olivia is passionate about all aspects of farming.  She has raised a calf every year, and has an extensive knowledge of farm life.  Olivia regularly helps out on the family farm, and always has a story to tell about her latest farming adventures!

William was born to be a farmer.  He is very aware of environmental issues facing farmers today, and has helped his family to plant thousands of trees on their property, and fence off waterways.  He is also passionate about utilising new technology to help with jobs on the farm.

As a member of Marton St John, Shelby makes a positive contribution to our community.  Involvement in this activity requires commitment, hard work and many hours of training.  Shelby carries out her responsibilities with enthusiasm and dedication.

Small Ball Skills

We're all done with cross country running - now we're into Small Ball Skills.  We're going to get much better at throwing, catching, hitting targets and bowling!  Hopefully.

Cross Country

What an epic day we've had at the Halcombe School Cross Country!  We made the most of the training sessions we had, and this definitely helped to get us in shape for the big event.  The course was just as challenging as ever with plenty of prickles and mud and water and steep down hills and even steeper up hills!

Well done Room 6 - you can all be proud of the effort you put in.  Well done to those who pushed themselves, and gave 100%.  It looked like you all did!  A special congratulations to those who achieved their goals.  

Top 3:
Year 6 & 7 Girls - 1) Lucy  2) Jessie  3) Ashley R
Year 6 & 7 Boys - 1) Jack  2) Logan  3) Mitchell
Year 8 Girls - 1) Georgia  2) Willow  3) Gussie
Year 8 Boys - 1) Samuel  2) Fergus  3) Ben

Thanks for the photos Miss Fleet!

Pet Day

What an awesome day we've had!  Congratulations to all those who brought pets today - we know that raising a pet is really hard work, and you all did very well.  There were some really cute dogs, calves and lambs (and pandas)!  Well done to those who received prizes.

The Country Kids Challenge was loads of fun too, and as usual, the competition was red hot.  Competing in a range of 'rural' challenges, the teams blitzed through the course in an epic race.  We found out that:

• throwing a frisbee accurately is a wee bit hard in the wind.
• bobbing for apples isn't as easy as it looks.
• hay bales are heavy.
• some people know how to use drench guns, and others don't.
• some people weigh a lot and pushing them in a wheel barrow was hard.
• getting your team to move 5 metres while standing in a wool fadge is pretty much impossible.

And check out this cool video taken from William's drone:

Pet Day Indoor Exhibits

We have put a lot of time and effort into our indoor exhibits for Pet Day.  We have spent hours making our paper mache masks, and are really happy with how they have turned out.  We also took the time to frame our rural photos carefully.  Great work team!

Cross Country Training

We were so happy to see our old friend THE BOG during our cross country training run today!  

Photographer:  Miss Fleet

Masks

Today we got stuck into painting our paper mache masks.  We had to think carefully about what colours we wanted to use, and what designs/patterns we wanted to have.  We think they are going to look pretty cool when they're done!

Tech - The Last Day!

Our Tech Programme has now finished - what a shame!  We have had a very intense two-mornings-a-week-for-ten-weeks programme, and have loved every minute of it.  We have learnt so many new skills and have made some awesome things.  Thank you to our wonderful teachers, Mr Stoneley, Mrs Nevile, Mrs Penfold and Mrs Henderson.

To celebrate our last day, the Food Tech group made a delicious lunch for everyone, and we FINALLY had the chance to race our CO2 cars.  Good times!

Survival Videos

Our final activity in our inquiry into Survival was to make movies!  We were divided up into groups, and had to film a 'real-life' scenario where we had to survive against the odds.  We had a lot of fun making these movies, and we hope you enjoy them.

Movie Making Fun

Revenge!

Recently, Mrs Turner hacked our class ipads and placed 'beautiful', close-up photos of herself on our home screen.  Today we got our revenge!  We had a LOT of fun trying to decide what 'new' number plate Mrs Turner should have.  We're wondering how long it will be before she notices her new plate....

Interhouse Quiz

Today it was time for annual Interhouse Quiz!  We were divided up into teams and had to answers loads of questions - some were easy, others were really hard!  Congratulations to Kauri, the winning house!  Congratulations to Hamish, Brenna, Shania and Ruby - the winning team (also from Kauri).  Well done everyone!

Final Results:
4th - Totara
3rd - Rimu
2nd - Matai
1st - Kauri

Speech Finals

All our senior students have recently presented speeches.  Being able to speak with confidence to a group of people is a great skill to have, and everyone performed well.  Today it was time for the finals - the top four Year 7 speakers, and the top four Year 8 speakers.  Congratulations to Tommy and Emma, who won the competition.  These two will now go on to represent our school at the interschool competition next term.

Well done to all the finalists!

Skype Time

We recently received a message from Mahana School (near Nelson).  Their teacher had seen some of our animation work on our blog and wanted to teach her class how to do it.  Today Hannah and Willow skyped them and taught them how to use Brushes and Explain Everything.  How cool is that?

If you'd like to take a look at their class blog, click HERE

Paper Mache

Today we put the finishing touches on our paper mache masks.  These will be one of our indoor exhibits for Pet Day.  We've been working on these over the last few weeks... adding more and more and more layers!  We are very happy the paper mache part is now finished.  Next we have to paint them!

Dubsmashing Fun

CO2 Cars

As part of our Technology programme, all our Year 7 & 8 students have made CO2 Cars.  Today the last cars from the last group were finished.  They look awesome!  We put them on display for the rest of the school to see, and they think they're pretty cool too!

Tech Update

Student Council Fun Day

What an awesome day we've had.  The wheeling was fun, as we all hooned around the school at 100 miles an hour.  Some people performed some pretty cool tricks.  Some people crashed.  Lots of people used the jumps.  We all had a great time!

The Student Council also did a fantastic job of cooking and preparing burgers for lunch.  They were delicious!