WHATS HAPPENING AT GHS
WRITTEN BY OUR STUDENT NEWS CREW
Student News Term 2 2021
🏴🏳InternationalDay🏴🏳
The children of Gulf Harbour School spent many hours working on their beautiful costumes to represent their countries on the 6th of May, when we celebrated International Day. At 11:45 we came together for an assembly and there was a sea of colorful costumes from the different cultures of all of the families at Gulf Harbour School. Some of the most outstanding costumes were on the stage. It was amazing to see all the extraordinary costumes represent all the different varieties of their corresponding countries,
The year 6 Esol children presented a greeting from their unique countries. Emmy spoke in Arabic, Gabriel spoke in Portuguese, Leah spoke in Afrikaans, which is actually the language of the authors of this article. We loved to experience this amazing, most spectacular day.
By Michaela, Sebastian and Kayla
It’s Disco Season Once Again
Funky music made me want to dance. Amazing rainbow lighting effects turned the room into a disco wonderland. The delicious smell of cheesy pizza and sweets filled the room. Once again it is disco time at Gulf Harbour School where everybody gets their boogie on.
Even though you might not enjoy dancing, the disco is still a perfect place to hang out with your friends and enjoy watching the teachers boogie to the beat. While playing with your glowing bracelets and necklaces and munching on the different flavoured sweets they have, you can chat with your friends about your holiday plans.
If you are a born dancer then you are going to love our Gulf Harbour School Disco. The music is so loud I guarantee it will take control of your body and mind. It will also fill your soul with happiness. Most importantly it will fill your heart to the brim with delight and joy which will make your day even more amazing then it already was that morning.
The year 1 and 2s disco will be in the flexible learning space [fls] in school grounds on Wednesday 14 April. The year 1 disco is from 4:45pm till5:45pm. The year 2 disco is from 6:00pm till 7:00.
The Year 3-6 disco night is on the 15th April, on Thursday and also held in the flexible learning space [fls]. The year 3 and 4 disco starts at 5pm and finishes at 6pm. The year 5 and 6 Disco will start at 6:15 and end at 7:15. Please, don’t forget to buy your tickets online from Enrolmy. The tickets are $5.00 each and the Pizza is also only $2.00 per slice.
Hope to see you there. I'm counting on you!
By Demi, Maya, Kayla and Charlee
Student News Term 1 2021
Garden to Table
Garden to Table is a learning experience for young children. It is held by the lovely Mrs Brown on a Friday afternoon in room 22, Mrs Henton’s classroom. This program runs at primary schools. We learn how to sow, harvest,prepare,cook food and even set the table for our loved ones.
In this article we will be telling you the following: what we do in the class room and kitchen ; what we do in the garden and how we prepare. Sadly we don't get much time to do “the garden to table programme”, so we can’t bake anything, as it would take too long.
Gardening is my favourite part. Sacha and I love to find worms. We have a whole family of worms that live in five star compost.⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐
Weeding in the garden is what we do to kill extra time. We get our tool which is either a spade or a fork to dig up the weeds.
The gardening component of the programme is very educational.
We always start off with watching a video from the website “Garden to Table”. In the kitchen we prepare yummy meals. Personally, I expected big creamy cakes with oozing chocolate, but I guess school is more on the healthy side. For example we made some delicious herb tea.
I really enjoy tea, so I was excited to invent my own tea blend. First, we gathered up some ingredients such as basil, bok-choy, sage and thyme from the school garden. Then we placed them into a kettle filled with boiling hot water. I said it once and I'll say it again I LOVE tea and so this experience was miraculous. Once the tea was done we taste tested it, it was really yummy but it was super hot and I burned my tongue “ouch!”
Another time our taste buds were trained with a cake tasting experience thanks to a cake that a parent helper kindly baked for us. We had to guess what was in it. To our surprise we discovered that the secret ingredient was beetroot. It was quite hard to guess what the cake contained, because this pumpkin seed covered icing overpowered the savory taste with a sweet taste. Some people thought that it consists of apricot or something fruity. That day we learnt how to recognize different flavours so now we are more conscious about what goes into our mouth, is it beetroot,apricot or maybe pumpkin.
On the last day of Garden to Table we learnt how to set the table for a yummy dinner with our loved ones.
We got into groups of 8 and were given a table cloth. My group got a shiny cloth with Indian details sewed onto it. Then we covered the WoNkY table with our beautiful table cloth. Afterwards we put down the plate and utensils by following a diagram that Mrs Brown put up for us -> FOrK the F stands for fork the O is supposed to represent a plate *ignore the R* and k is for knife. I am referring to a butter knife, of course. We don't want any injuries. Finally, we put the napkins on top of the plate. I folded up my teams’ napkins to look like elegant swans.
Garden to Table this term was so much fun! Everybody likes to try new things and what we make is appetizing. I definitely recommend it for next term.
By SachaFu-Oughton and Michaela Pistorius
Student news Term 4 2020
Tuakana production.
Have you ever wondered what it is like to be in Wonderland? Well, this year GHS Tuakana will be performing the famous, whimsical story by Lewis Carrol, also one of the best Disney movies, Alice in Wonderland.
Now if you have a kid at GHS in Tuakana you are probably wondering where this performance will be, and even if you don’t have a kid at GHS you can still come. Just come down to Centre Stage and we will have two shows, one at 5pm and one at 7pm from the 3rd to the 5th of December.
Now if you want to buy a ticket all you have to do is go to the GHS website and buy one for $20 each.
We will be featuring the White Rabbit, Mad Hatter, March Hare, Cheshire Cat, guardsmen and the one and only Alice.
We will have food and drinks to snack on during the show served in the foyer.
See you there!
Market Day at Gulf Harbour School!
Market Day is coming up soon. On the fifth of November there will be creations for sale, fun and games and food to eat. All this will be available from 5pm to 7pm.
All the classes have been working on a creation that will be sold on Market Day. We chose a subject that we wanted to work on, for example my class chose aviation. Then we thought up ideas that we could design and build after researching and learning about it.
Room 15’s wooden boats and characters to play with :)
Room 7 chose to make planes. We experimented with different designs. Next we tested all of our planes and chose the plane that flew the furthest. After that we made a copy of the plane in corflute and got another design off the internet and compared them. The one our class made flew the furthest and it became one of our prototypes. Most students decided to continue searching for plane designs soon we found two planes that look cool and fly well. Then we made another prototype out of wood using a laser cutter now we had to mass produce the planes! Then we painted all of the planes.
Room 7 Buy a jet plane - you need one!!
Yummy! Try room 25’s chocolate covered popcorn!
Room 18 sells cool racing cars, awesome!
There is so much to see and to celebrate. Come and enjoy a great community event!
By Daniel Ashworth
Our Lockdown Experience.
By Carlisle and Daniel.
The lockdown was formed to protect people from the deadly disease known as covid-19. Why? To make sure that people can stay
safe, stay alive and eradicate the virus from New Zealand.
For 7 whole weeks we had to stay inside and do digital learning. Every Friday a couple of other kids and I had a video call, so we could all see each other and say what we had been doing during the lockdown. Although most people hated lockdown and thought that it was the worst thing in their life, it actually suited me a lot. I did a lot of fun things that I enjoyed doing. But there were disadvantages. We
didn’t have any teachers to help us with difficult tasks that we didn’t understand. After I did all my work though I got free time on my chrome book, that was a win.
5 weeks later the level changed to level 2 and we were allowed to leave the house, go to some shops and go to the beach. Luckily, in level 2 EVERYONE is allowed to go back to school. Also you can go on holidays, but not overseas trips, that is for sure. During level 2, many covid-19 cases came back, but luckily it did not spread, which meant we could still go to level 1.
During lockdown, members of staff at GHS assigned many
tasks that could make us win house points, although we
got lots less exercise. During lockdown we did many
challenges including lego, arts and crafts and many other
things. During level 1, we were allowed to go on holidays to other places inside of NZ, because we do not want to catch and spread covid-19.
Thank you for reading Carlisle and Daniel’s article about the GHS’s lockdown in 2020.
By the way, don't download 2020, it has a virus.
Staying Safe
Covid-19 is a contagious disease. Many people have died, and a lot of schools are closed around the world. These are the things we need to do to keep healthy and safe.
We have to line up and wash our hands continuously. Soap and hand sanitizer can kill germs so that is why they were running out of cleaning supplies at super markets in lockdown. I know it’s quite annoying, but we do this to keep us safe. Please, do remember to wash your hands before entering or eating lunch and morning tea. If you are sick please do stay at home. It’s sensible to stay at home when you’re sick.
At school it is hard to do social distancing, because when we are working with people, we need to be next to each other. Now that we are in level one, it’s a LOT easier, but we need to sit at assigned chairs.
BY Maya and Michaela
Preparing for the Tongariro Crossing!
The Tongariro Crossing is only 1 week away! The year 6s are training for this intimidating event. We are sweating under pressure to get our fitness level off the charts! In this article we are going to walk you through the extravagant schedule our teachers have got planned for us.
Training for Tongariro
To prepare ourselves, every Wednesday morning we get changed into our PE kits to get ready for the hike in the second block. We walk to our specific destination. We have previously practiced stairs to prepare going up Mount Tongariro. We do different obstacle courses each hike to make sure we are capable to do the Crossing. Recently we walked to Manly Village and back, completing a total of 13.2 Km! If you thought that was hard, just two weeks before the proper hike we went on an exhausting walk from Red Beach back to school. These physical challenges will hopefully ensure that our bodies are in the right shape to complete the Tongariro Crossing.
Packing for Tongariro
Training is an important aspect of preparation, but thorough packing is also necessary for camp. The year 6s have been busily packing away for this thrilling experience coming up.
It’ll get quite chilly out there, bring thermals, coats and other warm clothes for the unpredictable weather. Also, at least 3L of water would be a good choice as 19Km is a long way to go, and you don’t want to be running out of water anytime soon! I hope you have your packing lists because there's a great deal of items you’ll need to bring for this trip. Make sure you triple check you’ve got all the things you need because this is a hike that will test your memory!
This camp is the most ambitious camp our school has ever seen! Our year sixes have a huge weight on their shoulders to leave a legacy behind, and it will always be in the back of their minds that by completing this daunting crossing it will be and incredible milestone that they will always cherish and remember.
Doris and Elsa
My Trip to China
Sightseeing Activities
The Great Wall of China is a truly impressive building that wraps around mountains. The watch towers look differently. They are not all the same. We had to walk from watch tower 7 to watch tower 10. It was hard to climb the steps, because they were not evenly spaced. We pitied the poor gift shop owner who worked on watch tower 9.
The Beijing Zoo
To my surprise the visit to the Beijing Zoo was very memorable. It wasn’t at all like I had expected it to be. There were many animals that don’t live in New Zealand and that we can see in our zoo. The giant pandas attracted a lot of attention, even from Chinese people. I enjoyed watching them moving around slowly, devouring whole big pieces of fruit.
Museums
The museums were very crowded, but really interesting. We learned that China has a very different culture to us and a very long history. It was a bit overwhelming, because there was so much to see and there were so many people. It made us curious to learn more about the Chinese culture.
School
Global Youth Ambassador Project runs the summer school, where Chinese and English speaking students meet.
School starts at 8am and goes to 9pm. On the first day we made dumplings and we played games with Chinese students. These Chinese students were our partners for the whole stay. They were different ages from 8 to 15 years of age.
We had to teach English and they taught us Chinese. The Chinese students knew a lot of English already. So we just had a lot of conversations and taught them different handshakes.
We played acting games. We were working in groups and they gave us a piece of paper with an animal. We had to act out the animal to find our group. We played a memory game to learn everyone's names.
We learned a dance with a Chinese student.
Food
I got the chance to try so many different types of food and drink in China like duck, jellyfish and bubble tea. When we were eating dinner at the hotel, the waitress challenged us to guess what was in the salad. She gave us the clue that it was a type of seafood. All of us tried it and guessed, until one of us got it right. We were not very enthusiastic, when we realised that we had just eaten jellyfish.
I had a great time in China and learned a lot. If you have the chance to go, definitely take it!
By Amy
The WGP college
experience begins …
This is the year 6’s final year at GHS. We recently had a grand tour of Whangaparaoa College. We were introduced to the new environment that will be our new home for the next seven years. In this article we are going to walk you through how we feel about this change.
First impressions
When we first arrived at the college, we noticed how big the school was and we wondered whether we’ll get lost or not. We were kind of intimidated by the seniors as they were travelling in gigantic herds of kids and are ten times the size of us year sixes.
Our Feelings
We feel both nervous and excited all mixed in a swirling hurricane of emotion. We are anxious about the amount of homework we’ll receive in our new school upgrade. We are also concerned that the learning there will be too complicated for us. We felt terrified about moving to a new place we hadn’t explored yet. On the other hand, we felt really hyped about being a part of the school tasters like food tech, drama, dance and more...
What we will miss about Gulf Harbour School
In college, we will make new friends naturally. But, we will definitely miss our old friends. But it’s not just our friends we’ll miss, but our hardworking teachers too. We are truly devastated to leave our amazing teachers and classmates. They all did so much for us.
THIS IS US
School Production.
Greetings ladies and gentlemen,
we would like to invite you to the greatest show!
We will present to you our GHS production!
If you’ve read our first article, The Arts Programme, you already know that we have been practising for the production. The dance and drama Tuakana Whanau is ready to surprise you with an amazing production: THIS IS US.
THIS IS US is about diversity. The musical teaches us that it doesn’t matter which race or culture you belong to, because you are unique in your own way .
Tickets are sold through the school shop and at the front office for $5. The show will be performed at Orewa Centrestage Theatre on the 3rd of July at two different times: 5pm and 7pm.
There will be some food and drinks being sold at the entrance before the show is commencing for everyone to snack on during the show.
There was a colouring competition sent home with your child on the 26th of June and the colouring sheet needs to be in by the 28th of June for you to win. The prize is two free tickets for the school production THIS IS US.
RUBBISH
As journalists we always try to find a new story. Lately we have noticed that there has been a lot of rubbish around our school. We find plastic wrappers and sushi containers all over on the playgrounds, on the grass and even in our classrooms.
So we interviewed our caretaker Ritchie and Mrs Southgate and asked them some questions. We wanted to ask them, because Ritchie has to pick up our rubbish and it is not fair on him. We interviewed Mrs Southgate, because she picks up rubbish too and she ran a PB4L assembly talking about rubbish.
These are some of the questions we asked Ritchie, “How much time do you spend picking up rubbish?” He replied, “I pick up rubbish at least ten times a day.” We also asked a few more questions, “How do you feel about it?” and he said, “I get really annoyed, when we have Sushi day and people/children don’t put their rubbish in the bin or take it home and I find the rubbish. It even has the student's name on it.” We asked him one more question and that was “Have you seen kids littering?” and he replied, “Yes I have.”
So we asked Mrs Southgate a few questions too, “Why did you run the PB4L assembly?” and she replied, “I wanted the kids to see how much rubbish the teachers pick up in a day.” Next question, “Why is it important to you that there is no rubbish on the ground?” She then replies, “Because it is very bad for the environment and our school and ocean.”
As a pupil attending this school, the purpose for this article is to bring awareness of the damage we are doing to it. Also, is it fair that others have to pick up after us? - Of course not, so why don’t we apply our school values like “Respect’ and ‘Responsibility” to this problem that is plaguing our school grounds.
Respect our school and the environment. Be Responsible for your our own rubbish and take it home with you. Besides it is not in Ritchie’s job description to pick up our rubbish, because he already does a lot for us, around our school.
Also be kind to our school and our teachers. Mrs Southgate and all our teachers should not be spending their time picking up our rubbish. They are here to teach us not to clean up after us.
By Caroline
The Matariki Festival!
Matariki is the celebration of the Maori new year.
At GHS, on the 18th of June, we are holding a festival at our school to celebrate Matariki and the work people have done in class. Every year group has a theme for the celebration. We have been interviewing the staff at Gulf Harbour and getting some information on what they're doing for the festival. Even though it is hard to get out on a cold winter's night, it will be worth it once you see what we have in store for you.
Years 1 and 2 are doing maori songs, singing their little hearts out. They will also be showing dances from other cultures.
Years 3 and 4 are doing a variety of different things. For example room 19, they are making kites based on the book ‘The seven kites of Matariki’. They will also be making Porotiti which is a Maori musical instrument. Room 23 are making some galaxy slime to sell on the day of the festival and is making lots of decisions how to decorate their classroom. If that’s not enough they will also be doing a night market. There will be art to look at too!
Years 5 and 6 are creating Maori art related to Matariki and room 16 are doing myths about stars. Some kids in that class are brewing some boil up and the entire class will be selling it on the day of the festival.
Some information about the festival is that it starts at 5pm and ends at 7pm at our school. You will enter the school to a kapa haka welcome on the netball courts.
There will be a song performance by years one and two on the netball courts. At 5:20 it is legal to visit the classrooms. Also Matariki based art stories, games and activities are located in their rooms.
You are able to order a hangi before hand and you can collect it from 5:15 to 6:15 at the food tech room.
If you have any free time to help out at the matariki festival it would be very much appreciated by the staff of GHS.
By Doris, Amy and Elsa.
The Arts Programme
Have you got a child in year five or six? Have they come home buzzing on a Wednesday? They must have been doing the arts programme!
The arts programme is an entertaining way for the year 5 and 6 kids to learn about performing arts, stay active, and enjoy themselves at the same time. In these sessions you learn about drama, dance, marketing, fine arts, wearable arts and creative writing.
Our news crew journalists take part in the dance and drama sessions and we would like to share our experience with you.
Drama -
If you ask your child how school was and they reply with *ugh*, maybe it’s because they’re too exhausted from all the dancing and acting, moving their bodies around like little butterflies. We have been preparing for the upcoming production, The Lion King.
Sophia Pederson is our incredibly talented drama teacher so is Mrs Thrush, who also helps with the teaching of drama. We are lucky that Sophia could squeeze us into her schedule.
Sophia and Mrs Thrush teach us to project our voices so that we can be heard by the audience. It wasn’t so difficult to learn. We stood up straight and we made sure we had eye contact with the person that we were talking to. We learnt how to speak loudly without shouting.
We move our bodies in each direction to express our emotion. We are given a script and we use our body and facial expressions to become the character in the play.
Sadly, not all our amazing kids can have the privilege to be part of this extraordinary drama journey. Even if we were extremely talented kids, confident that we can accomplish it, we had no control of what group of the art programme we were going to be part of.
Dance -
Did you enjoy reading about drama? Now you have to read about dance. In this specific section, you will experience the power of dance through our writing!
Sophia Pederson is our dance teacher along with Mrs Kiata. In dance, we throw out our arms and boogie to the beat! We learn about how dance isn’t all about pointed toes and flat backs, but it’s about enjoying yourself and using the capacity of our bodies to express emotions or tell stories through dance. We have been practicing The Circle of Life dance for the lion king production The kids who are selected to be in the dance programme are privileged, because not everyone gets to be part of this amazing class!
By Doris, Amy and Elsa, the News Crew 2019