May 2023 Edition
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Northern Southland College

Newsletter - Term 2 Week 4

PRINCIPAL'S MESSAGE

19 May 2023
Kia ora koutou
It was wonderful to see so many school, family, whanau and community members come and watch our senior students arrive at the NSC school ball. Held at the Lumsden Community Hall last Friday, the night was outstanding with delicious food and fabulous dancing on display. Mr Lee has already published many photos from the night and we look forward to seeing the official photographers offerings when they become available. Once again I would like to thank Miss Eason and the students in the organising committee for all the mahi before, during and after the ball. Thank you for your service to NSC.
As the days continue to get shorter and colder, it is timely that we remind students to have correct uniform items to wear to school. It is also the time of the year when snow and ice make an appearance. The decision to close NSC due to poor weather is only made if buses are not able to run due to unsafe driving conditions. We send out App notifications and put it on the school Facebook page as soon as the decision has been made.
Schools throughout Southland are starting to experience increased illness of students and staff. If you child is unwell, please keep them at home so that we can limit the spread of germs.
Finally, I wanted to remind you all that you are welcome to contact NSC staff at any stage for an update about how things are going. If you have any concerns, questions or queries please email or call the subject teacher, tutor group teacher, Dean or a Senior Leadership Team member. You can get a snapshot of your child’s in class effort and behaviour via our fortnightly reports.
Ngā mihi
Pete Wilkinson
Principal
Northern Southland College

Upcoming Events

  • Attitude Programme P1-3 -Thursday 25 May
  • King's Birthday - Monday 5 June
  • Year 7 Vision Testing - Tuesday 6 June
  • End of Term 2 - Friday 30 June

Notice of PPTA Strike Action - Rostered Days Home

The nature of this action will be:
  • On the days notified below - students in the named year level, will not be taught or supervised by PPTA members. This includes teaching or supervision of the students that would otherwise be undertaken on or away from the school site.
  • For clarity - on days notified below, teaching and supervision of other year levels not subject to the strike action will continue as normal.
The strike action will begin at 7:00am on 4 May 2023 and will end at 11:59pm on 8 June 2023. The action will take place on the following days over that period.

Thursday 25 May - Year 11

Tuesday 30 May - Year 13 Thursday 2 June - Year 12

Tuesday 6 June - Year 10 Thursday 8 June - Year 9

Pink Shirt Mufti Day

Today's mufti day has raised $256.20 for the Leukemia & Blood Cancer foundation. Thank you to the students for their support.

Agrikids

Last week training began for our Agrikids competitors (as well as future competitors) as we had a visit from Brent, from Brent Scammell Honda. He bought out an ATV and motorcycle and went through the safety checks that should be done before riding a bike.

Each week we will hopefully have a different guest in during clubs, to help up skill Georgia Taylor, Fletcher Drysdale and Angus McFadzien. They will be competing in the Agrikids Grand Final in Timaru, in the next school holidays. Other keen students are also learning the skills, so they can hopefully compete in the future.

YEAR SEVEN VISION SCREENING

The Vision Hearing Technicians from Population Health team, Southern District Health will be
visiting your school to screen all year seven students for distance vision on Tuesday 6 June.
 Distance Vision (Amblyopia & Hyperopia)
This determines how well your child is able to see at a distance. It involves reading an eye
chart. (This free vision check is not required if student wears glasses and/or is currently under
care of an optometrist or eye specialist).
If you do not wish your child to be screened please fill out an opt-out slip, which are available at the school office before our visit.

Year 11 Career Ready

The Year 11 Career Ready class is working on creating more information to put on their CVs. They are aware that community service is an important thing for employers to look for so on Wednesday, they headed to Lumsden Primary school to listen to the children reading.
The boys enjoyed listening to the reading and were really impressed with how well the children read. While some were a bit shy at first, the children from Lumsden Primary school really enjoyed seeing the big kids and said they would like them to come back again some time.
It is a really good way to strengthen the connection between the College and its closest contributing primary school.

Year 11 Camp

On 2nd May 27 Year 11 students, 4 staff and 1 parent headed off to take on the Kepler Track in the Fiordland National Park. Mr Wilkinson dropped us off and we headed off after ferrying a van to the other possible finishing point. After making it 6.5 kms to Brod Bay we had lunch before starting the ascent up to Luxmore Hut. The weather became ever more damp putting our jackets and pack liners to the test. After a challenging climb which took longer than it should have in the rain we were all pleased to see the fire on at Luxmore. The hut was full including a welcome face, in a member of the public Mr Reid, formerly HOD of PE at NSC.
Unfortunately the weather was against us and we did not manage to get across the tops so returned to the control gates the next day and ferried everyone to the swing bridge. From there we trekked to Motorau Hut which was a very long walk for the day.
The next day we had a pleasant stroll up the valley before having a bonfire on the beach. Everyone enjoyed having a hot lunch on the Friday, before returning to school so we could witness the golf ball drop. A big thanks to all the staff and Annie Armitage for assisting our students during the week and it was heartening to hear that some want to return and complete the whole track.

Driving and the Teenage Brain

Some NSC families took the opportunity to be part of the “Teenage Brain and Driving”
session that was held in Invercargill. This very worthwhile seminar was hosted by the
famous Greg Murphy and Nathan Wallis.
The engaging session included:
How the brain works when driving.
Speed, alcohol and drugs, mobile phones.
Dealing with peer pressure and key safety tips. It was great to hear from students how valuable this was.
We have Benjamin Rodgers-Foran pictured here with a very accomplished driver - Greg Murphy.

Year 12 Hospitality

Recently four Year 12 Hospitality /Home Economics students spent two days training in the art of coffee making. The course was held at Stadium Southland with other students from Central Southland College.
They learnt about operating an espresso machine, making different types of coffee and also about aspects of customer service including dealing with some pretty gnarly customer complaints!
It is hoped that the students will be able to put into practice their barista skills at future school fundraising events.

Payments for Student Accounts

Please remember to include enough detail when making payments to the college to ensure we can allocate your payment correctly and to the right account. We need the following information:
Reference: Student’s Name
Description: Activity or contribution
Reminder that the college bank account details are: ASB – 12-3154-0158402-00

Tertiary Open Day – Monday 8 May

Rhea, Mitch, Adam, Giavana, Makenzie, Grace, and Charlotte took the opportunity to attend
the Otago Uni and Te Pukenga Open Day in Dunedin.
Fog all the way there and rain all the way home, but Dunedin turned on the most fabulous
weather for these prospective tertiary students.
Who would have thought it would take 35 minutes to navigate our way into the city from
the end of the motorway! It was a “Little Miss Sunshine” exit from the vehicle with Mrs
Duncan shouting ”out you get people you’ll be late to your first lecture!” The consensus at
the end of the day was that Science, Forensics and English were the most exciting
lectures they went to.
Experiencing the day on campus, visiting Halls of Residence is valuable for these students to
start making some ‘Life Choices”.
P.S Mrs Duncan may have come home with a new pair of shoes!

Sport Talk

Upcoming Sporting Events
  • Northern Primary Schools Cross Country (Top 6 in each age group are eligible to compete: Thursday 1 June 2023
  • Southland Primary Schools Cross Country: Friday 16 June 2023
  • Southland Secondary Schools Cross Country ( change of date) : Wednesday 21 June
  • Southland Indoor Climbing Championship: Tuesday 27 June

Peak to Peak

Peak to Peak adventure race entries are open. If you want to enter a team please see Mrs Elder. Age groups are Primary Year 7 - 8 and Secondary Year 9 -13.
Teams consist of :
  • 1 snow skier or snow boarder
  • 1 downhill mountain biker
  • 1 paddler (and an adult to paddle with you)
  • 1 runner
  • 1 uphill biker (road or mountain bike).
Event starts at the top of the Remarkables and finishes at Coronet Peak car park. All details can be found at the peak to peak website:
https://peaktopeak.nz/

School App

A reminder to select the Sport in the Alert Subscriptions your child is signed up to on the School App. This is another great tool we use as a school to keep parents/caregivers and students up to date with any relevant information.
  • Select the relevant alert groups by clicking on the tick in the top right hand corner of the screen. Select the sport and then the team that your child participates in.
  • Please also delete any groups your child is no longer involved in.

Opportunities
MURIHIKU TERTIARY ACADEMY
Last year the following video clip was created to share amongst our local schools, students and families for future promotion of the Murihiku Tertiary Academy.
See if you can spot all the famous people from NSC! https://youtu.be/FHHe5fOzEyE
Trudy from the Murihiku Tertiary Academy will be visiting in Term 3 to go through the courses that are available in 2024 for Year 12 and 13 students.