Reading Degree Graduation 2024

The Reading Degree at Kedgley Intermediate School

At Kedgley Intermediate School, Mr. Wilson leads an exciting programme called the Reading Degree. This initiative encourages all students to read as many books as possible across a wide range of genres. It’s a fantastic opportunity to challenge yourself and compete with other classes to see who can read the most!

The Reading Degree is about more than just competition – it’s about developing a love for reading and shifting our attitudes towards it. Through this programme, students are not only improving their reading skills, but also learning to appreciate the joys of exploring different stories and ideas.

Our whānau plays an important role in this journey, supporting the growth of our tamariki’s reading habits and fostering a love for books that will last a lifetime.

We encourage all students to continue embracing the Reading Degree and take full advantage of this exciting opportunity. Whether you’re an avid reader or just starting your journey, there’s a world of books waiting to be explored. The more you read, the more you grow – not only as a reader, but also as a thinker and a storyteller. So, let’s keep reading, challenging ourselves, and making the most of every book. Together, we can continue to build a school community that loves to read and values the power of stories.

Comment below sharing what your favourite books and authors are!

 

Tongan Language Week @KIS 2024

What an amazing week we had celebrating Tongan Language Week (TLW) here at KIS.  The whole school came together to celebrate Tongan culture, language, and traditions, making it a week to remember.

Throughout TLW, we enjoyed a variety of activities that brought the vibrant spirit of Tonga to life. From classroom lessons about Tongan history and customs to cultural performances, art projects, and traditional food, it was a week filled with learning and fun.

A huge Malo Aupito (thank you) to all the staff, students, and parents who helped make this week so special. Your involvement, energy, and enthusiasm helped transform KIS into a little piece of Nuku’alofa right here in our school. Whether it was through sharing Tongan stories, helping with sites, break time events, everyone played a part in creating a welcoming and inclusive atmosphere.

Tongan Language Week is a fantastic opportunity for us all to learn more about the rich heritage of our Tongan community. It reminds us of the importance of celebrating diversity, embracing different cultures, and working together to build a stronger, more connected school.

From cultural displays to learning the Tongan language and enjoying traditional songs and dances, TLW brought joy and excitement to KIS. It was also a great reminder of the importance of faka’apa’apa (respect) and ofa (love), values that are at the heart of Tongan culture and our school community.

Thank you once again to everyone who contributed to making TLW such a success. It’s weeks like these that help us grow closer as a school and celebrate the diverse backgrounds that make KIS such a unique and special place to learn.

Mr Tonga being from Tonga means a special connection, an even deeper and wider growth of our understanding of lea fakatonga in K30!

Asia Pacific Tchouckball Championship Highlights 2024

This year 15 of our Kedgley eagles had the opportunity to represent New Zealand at the Asia Pacific Youth Tchoukball Championships in Malaysia. Having learnt the game 10 weeks prior to the tournament they played hard and represented New Zealand and KIS with pride. Kicking off the trip with a 3 day training camp in Singapore then traveling to Malaysia for the 3 day tournament.    There were so many opportunities on this trip to grow as people and a group from Aotearoa!

A great big malo aupito to our families, our teacher and school for enabling this event.  One that will be treasured a life time!

Student Leadership, Term 1 2024

At the start of Term 1, Kedgley Intermediate School (KIS) held a special assembly to celebrate the successful applicants of our Student Leadership Group. We are proud to recognize the students who have stepped up to take on leadership roles this year, from class leaders to sports captains and committee members.

The leadership group is key to creating a positive school environment, and these students will play an important role in supporting their peers and organizing events throughout the year. Leadership at KIS is about responsibility, teamwork, and setting a positive example for others.

A big congratulations to all the new leaders! Your dedication and commitment are inspiring, and we look forward to seeing the amazing things you’ll accomplish. To those who applied but weren’t selected, keep striving to be a leader every day – there are always opportunities to step up and make a difference.

Let’s continue to work together and make this year a great one!

Keep Up With KIS – Manaiakalani Film Festival

Follow our student stars as they navigate the ups and downs of school life with a  dose of humor. You won’t want to miss the glamour, the gossip, and the giggles as we give you an inside look at Kedgley Intermediate, reimagined in a way that will have you laughing and reflecting!  Please leave us a comment to let us know which parts you enjoyed.

We look forward to your comments as this is our very first year in the Manaiakalani Film Festival.

Malo aupito@

Samoan Language Week – Learning the language

Samoan Langauge Week – Learning the langauge

Language weeks are an awesome opportunity to celebrate the many languages and cultures that make up our diverse learning spaces. The challenge I find as a teacher is how to create a space where all students are open-minded and willing to come to the table to learn about another culture and language.  Without Lalaga as mentioned in my previous post, I don’t think it would be possible for students to openly share and try to learn another language.

It was awesome to see K30’s Samoan students show leadership and become the faiaoga (teacher) for other students. Giving our Samoan students space to lead, teach and serve other students by sharing their knowledge and language allows children to bring their whole selves into their learning space.

Here are a few examples of our K30 tamaititi (children) introducing themselves in a Samoan conversation.

Lalaga in K30

Lalaga in a nutshell is about connecting with students and building relationships that are meaningful and go beyond their name. In K30 our lalaga sessions range from having talanoa, games, and team building activities. K30 students learned a new game variation of playing X’s and 0’s or more commonly known as naughts and crosses. Rather than the game being played on a whiteboard or piece of paper, students become the naughts and crosses.

Although it can be seen as a game played just for fun. The game is played by teams lining up in their respective teams

There are some important lessons and discussions that can take place both at the start of at the end of the game.

  1. Communication –  This game rewards students for communicating. Teams who communicate effectively often find success early in the game.
  2. Teamwork – Students will often find themselves working in different groups, this can either be directed by the teacher or with
  3. Winning and losing – We may often overlook the fact, that some students may not know how to win or lose. This gives an oppurntity to have these discussions to build students

Lalaga

Personal profile in images

Today Mr Tonga and Mrs Tele’a lead us through some new tools to create a personal profile poster. The whole time we practiced the kawa of care
*mindful of naming our files correctly
*storing them in the right folder
*how we respond online adds to our footprint – we want to keep it a ‘Smart Footprint’
*images we capture and publish need to be the best for our school blogs
*using ‘remove background’

These skills are needed to produce a poster profile of ourselves that adds to our smart footprint. We reminded ourselves again of what is public and private to us.
Mrs Tele’a used an example of herself being so excited to share about herself, she needed support to comb through the images she collected for her profile. We decided that some images could be replaced with something else that would show what Mrs Tele’a loved but with less detail. For example instead of stating the number of years she taught at a school she would simply use the school logo. The logo showing something that she loves and appreciates.

We look forward to sharing these with you soon on our own individual school blogs.

We’d love to hear from you and any tips you may have for us in this space of profiles.  Please leave a positive and helpful comment for K15 here.   Kia manuia!

Public or Private? Smart Footprint

Here are some of our goals from Manaiakalani guides for Smart learners who have Smart footprints online:

  • Think about how you advertise yourself online
  • Remember it will be there forever
  • Share content that you and your whānau will be proud of
  • Understand the difference between private and public information
  • Mrs Tele’a arrived today to brand new set up in K30 and all the learners busy at work on their blog profile. 

This week K30 are busy discussing and deciding what personal information is safe to share publicly.  This is in preparation of accessing our very own school blogs. 

Our blog can be seen as our stage for our education here at Kedgley. Our identity as a learner of this school community is something to be proud of and 

share in this space.   There is for everyone – information that we share with a limited audience. This was highlighted in the activities we were led through.

Deciding if it’s our full names we share, our pets names etc were great discussions. One very important learning for us is, if there is personal information that we are unsure about sharing – then STOP don’t share it.  You can always decide later!

Please leave us a comment below if you have any ideas we could explore about this topic or simply want to leave us a comment!   

Welcome to K30 for 2023!

Malo e lelei, talitali fiefia – welcome to  K30’s class blog. This first post is a quick share about our start in the Manaiakalani Programme. In preparation for the year ahead we looked at ‘The Kawa of Care’. This is all about the care of our chromebooks we are using daily for our learning, creating and sharing. Mr Tonga along with Mrs Tele’a from the Manaiakalani team supported us to have some interesting discussions about how we take care of the things we own and share. We looked at slides that had us items such as ice cream, expensive basketball boots, cash through to some items Mrs Tele’a brought from home.

We had conversations about how some of these items in K30 would not last long (ice cream) as we didn’t have a freezer in class – so the best way to use it would be to eat it! Other items as seen in the image here, while were possibly not expensive – dollar wise, were still very valuable as they were items that were used for special occasions, some were gifts, handed down or connected to someone who was no longer present in our lives.  We talked about best places to store and keep items to ensure a longer rather than shorter life span. Batteries, torch, face mask and hand sanitisers were in the mix. We shared that these items if not needed at certain times seemed to lose their value. For example, during the height of covid, face masks and hand sanitisers were essential items we carried daily.   Another example: when the  flooding hit Auckland – households valued these items such as batteries and radios more and made sure they would be accessible.   

We hope you might be able to pick up what learning we got from the Samoan flag?  Before the League World Cup, during and then after?  Comment below if you can! Well done K30 on a great start to the year. Looking forward to sharing more here about our journey. Kia manuia