Dear Parents

Welcome back to all of our Springbank families, with a very warm welcome to our new students and their parents who have joined our school community.  The Friends of Springbank parents support group are hosting a Parents’ Breakfast today to welcome you all to the beginning of the 2010 year.

Calendar of Events

• The Junior School staff hosted a Parent Evening last Thursday – thank you to those who attended. 
• The Middle School Family BBQ will be held next week, on Friday 12 February 6-8pm at the Community Pools.
• The Senior School Yr 10-13 parent BBQ and Information Evening for CIE, NCEA and Year 13 Trip, will be held on Thursday 11 February 6.30pm at Springbank.   

Come along and meet the teachers and find out about the year ahead.

The school outdoor education camps are all ready to go:

Staffing for 2010

Included is a list of our staff’s roles and responsibilities.  Welcome back to Barry Taylor and a special welcome to our new Physical Education teacher, Deon Wagner, who has already established an after-school Athletic Academy for students from Yr 5-13 and a senior girls’ cricket team.  Deon is an Athletics World Masters medallist, and is a professional senior rugby coach.  We look forward to a great year, with all staff keen and enthusiastic.  They report a very positive tone in their classes for Week 1.

2010 School Focus

Our focus this year is Excellence - striving to achieve one’s personal best through an excellent attitude and excellent achievement.  We are building on the foundation of strong self-belief and self-responsibility and our focus on excellence has three facets:

1. Academic Excellence
Personal best effort and achievement.

2. Attitude
Optimistic, constructive self-talk, living with integrity and positive values to develop character.

3. Action
Excellent health and well-being.  Being fit and active.
This focus on excellence is all-encompassing and is creating an environment for exceptional personal success.

Examination Results

We celebrate exceptional success with the release of our first IGCSE (International General Certificate for Secondary Education) examination results.  We are delighted to report that our student Alexandra Bird has been awarded the top mark in New Zealand for ICT (Computer Studies).  We congratulate Alex and her teacher Caroline de Kock for this outstanding achievement.  Alex will be honoured at a special International Cambridge Top Achievers’ Ceremony in Auckland, later this month.

The Year 11 class of students of varying ability all sat these IGCSE exams, and out of 103 papers examined they achieved passes in 100 papers – a pass rate of 97%.
16% of papers were A* (90%-100%)
39% of papers were A-A* (80%-100%)
85% of papers were C-A (60%-100%)

I would like to personally pay tribute to our amazing teachers who worked hard to master a new curriculum and set high expectations.  Congratulations to all of our students – you can be justifiably proud of your fantastic achievements.

NCEA

Our Year 12 and 13 students also worked very hard last year and the level of excellent internals in several subjects was significantly higher than in past years.
Year 13 students all passed, bar one student; and we would like to congratulate Nadine Amsler and Alex Lott who received Merit endorsements.  Well done!
In Year 12 all students passed, bar one (who missed by one credit!).  100% achieved literacy and numeracy.  Five students received Merit endorsements – a fantastic achievement for Nicola Felton, Bridget Garton, Jilly Alexander, Jade Larkan and Kirstie Smith.  Congratulations to these very capable students.

Checkpoint

Our Year 9 students sat International Cambridge Checkpoint examinations in English, Mathematics and Science.  This was the first time for us, having taught two years out of the three year course.  We are very pleased with this baseline data:

CIPP (Cambridge International Primary Programme)

This is the second year of our Year 6 class sitting international examinations in English, Mathematics and Science.
Our percentage of Excellence grades has risen, and the following students are to be commended for achieving the top grade possible:

Student Sporting Success

Robbie Angus was placed 4th in New Zealand for the U16 Junior Boys Secondary Schools Javelin Competition (last year he was placed 9th, so this is a significant improvement in his ranking).

Academies

This term we offer the following:

• Music Academy – keyboard, piano, introductory guitar with Ruth Simpson.
• Athletic Academy – Mondays and Thursdays after school with Deon Wagner and past Olympic and Commonwealth Games sprint and middle distance coach, John Hunt.  Open to Yr 5-13 students
• Tennis Academy with professional coach Karl Terrizzi.

Talk to Sally in Reception if you are interested in your child participating.

Multi Sport Club

Mike and Bob Warren will be starting the Springbank Multi Sport Club next Wednesday at 5.30pm.  In Term One, the group will run or walk different tracks and finish with a BBQ.  All Springbank families are welcome to join in – it’s a great way to keep fit.  The first run/walk will start at the Stone Store Basin carpark end of the Rainbow Falls Track.

School Newsletter

The Friends of Springbank have two spaces left if anyone would like to advertise their business on the 2010 newsletter cover.  Each advertising space costs $250.00 including GST.  Please phone Louise Huett on 09 4017229 if you, or someone you know, would like to have a space.  School newsletters are issued every two weeks and are also posted on the school website www.springbank.school.nz

Parking

Please be considerate and park your car in the marked parking spaces (not in the driveway, or outside Rooms 1 and 2).  Do not stop in the driveway to pick up or drop off children, or you will cause a traffic jam and have irate parents behind you.  Please look out for children and drive slowly.

Thanks everyone for a positive start.  It’s great to see that all of our students and parents have had such a brilliant summer and are looking so fit and well.  All the best for an excellent year.

Thought for the week

Week 1:  Excellence equals outstanding effort.  Go for it!  Have an excellent year. 

Week 2:  You have powers you never dreamed of.  You can do things you never thought you could do.  There are no limitations to what you can do, except the limitations of your own mind.
- Darwin P. Kingsley

Kind regards

Sophia Warren
Principal