Sunday, December 23, 2012

Netball raffle

The netball raffle has been drawn and the following winners contacted.
Instant Kiwi Raffle - winner J Hunger
Grocery raffle winner - K Shearer
Christmas Cake raffle winner - R Caskey.
The netball touring team would like to thank all who purchased raffle tickets and supported them at the fruit stall leading up to Christmas.
Miss Kay, Netball Coordinator

Monday, December 17, 2012

Parent - Teacher Partnership rules #6

Rule 6: Support your child’s teacher and school
Promoting the school at every opportunity can be done at the basic level by parents encouraging healthy attitudes towards school in their own children, as well as friends and the community.
• Know the policies and values of your child’s school.
• Talk about the importance of policies and values in the home with your child.
• Mirror the rules and consequences of the school in the home.
• Promote the school to your child to encourage a healthy attitude.
Many elements combine to enable children to gain a quality education that provides them with a platform for their future lives, not the least of which is the opportunity to experience their schooling with the full support of their teachers and parents.

I hope that you have enjoyed these rules and will apply them to your relationship with your student, their teachers and the school.

Communication

Communication
During term one we trialled a number of ways to improve communication between home and school. The major initiative was to use a programme from the Ministry of Education called Early Notification System (ENS). This is a process where, if a student is away for Period 1 without explanation, families receive a text massage. This way you can know quickly when your child is not at school. However, to make this work well, we need to have up to date cell phone numbers for parents. Can you please contact the student office to ensure we have your current number? You can also email absence@stratfordhigh.school.nz if this is more convenient.

We are in the early stages of using this system (ENS) and apologise if a message is sent in error. However, we feel that our families deserve to know when their child is not in school, so we hope this will keep our children here rather than wagging. After all we are here to learn.

We believe that good communications between the school and its community are very important. If you have any questions please do not hesitate in contacting us either by phone, email or visiting the school. If your concerns relate to your son/daughter’s attendance, behaviour or academic progress, the form teacher or the relevant year level dean is the best person to contact in the first instance. For our part we will keep in contact through the newsletters, written reports on your son/daughter, parent & teacher evenings, the school website and blog and Stratford Press High School Corner.

Newsletters will arrive via email from the start of next term. If you have given the school an email address you will no longer receive a hard copy unless it is posted with reports. If you have changed your email address recently please advise us of your new one. If you do not think the school has your email address please advise the office.

If you would prefer to receive a hard copy of newsletters please let us know so you can be added to the listing for form teachers. The first newsletter of the year is usually posted to all parents.

Rule 3: Partner with your child’s teacher.
Children who do best at school are the ones who have parents (at home) and teachers (at school) working closest together.
• Teachers describe parent-teacher relationships as essential, vital and critical.
• Positive links between parents and teachers create positive attitudes to school.
• Your involvement will help your child’s progress at school, build trust and resolve differences.
• Parent-teacher partnerships, like any teamwork, benefit from communication.

Friday, December 14, 2012

Activity Week

The annual Activity Week has finished and students and staff have had a myriad of experiences both in and out of school. Following is a report from The Masterchef Challenge who finished on Thursday with an amazing display of dishes.


MasterChef Challenge

This week long of cooking fun has seen many of us improving, tasting, and cook new and exciting food. On the first day we had fun on the computers and designed and made a personalised apron, it was cool to see our designs being put on our aprons. Later in the day Miss MacDonald and Miss Ashton had plenty of laughs as they watched us blindfolded student’s reactions to some of the mystery taste testing, especially when the beef tongue was being eaten!
On the second day, we had a full on day of cooking, for a breakfast challenge we had to make a 3-egg omelette. For a few people this was a new experience, we then presented them to the judges who judged them on presentation and taste. We then made cute little gift boxes, which we baked very yummy banana cakes to put into them with delicious chocolate icing, yum. For lunch we made a well-known favourite…butter chicken curry.
On the third day, we had another mystery cooking challenge. We all got given an envelope with two recipes inside, pancakes or hot cakes. Once again, this was a popular favourite and we also presented them for judging. Due to the weather, we were not able to go for a walk to the park and have a picnic lunch of fish and chips, however Miss MacDonald was kind enough to drive up and still get our fish and chips.
On the fourth and final day we all pulled out our recipes and put our MasterChef skills to the test as we had to make our signature dish for guest judges. We had 2 and a half hours to bring ingredients of our choice to life and make a delicious dish to present. We had a wide variety of foods from fettuccini to green pavlovas. The smells coming from this room was sensational!
All in all it was very fun, yummy, challenging week. A well recommended activity for future chefs, whether you want to improve your cooking skills or just eat yummy food, there’s something everyone will enjoy.
Emily, Tamia, Taylah, Alex, Terry, Krissie, Tayla, Jade, Lesley, Caleb wearing their masterchef aprons.
A big thank-you to Miss MacDonald and Miss Ashton for putting up with a bunch of creative experimenting chefs for four days. Thank you.
Emily Bates

Wednesday, December 5, 2012

Newsletter

The latest newsletter is posted on the SHS Ultranet Website. http://stratfordhigh.ultranet.school.nz/WebSpace/358/ Open the resources tab on the right side of the page and open the latest file.


Congratulations

National Referees Badge Awarded
Christian Devine attended the NZ Maori Nationals Touch Tournament last weekend in Ngaruawhahia. 81 games on Saturday and 78 games on Sunday were played in grades Under 16 boys, girls and mixed, Under 21 boys, girls and mixed, 30s boys girls and mixed. He was recognized as the top referee of the year. Christian received his Level 2 badge for touch refereeing and a trophy for NZ Maori Nationals Referee for 2012.

The stationery collected for Vanuatu.

Stationery for Vanuatu


3 senior students from SHS will be travelling to Vanuatu over the Christmas break with the Stratford Baptist Church as part of a mission adventure. They will be working with youth and building a water tank while there. Our junior students have collected stationery items to them to take as part of their community service in the school.

Cans 4 Christmas
The junior students paid for mufti on Wednesday 5 December with a can 4 Christmas. Mrs Thomas of the Stratford Foodbank was delighted to come and collect the items from the school.
Tyrer house collected the highest per student number of items and Mrs Visser’s form class are the lucky winners of the morning tea from Mrs Walker. Congratulations to all students who donated items for this worthy cause.


P H Keenan
Principal