Springston School's YouTube Channel

Like many schools, we have our own YouTube Channel - we've called it SpringstonTube. We started the Channel because so many of our students are now creating videos. Many of these are posted on the class blogs, but we thought that it would be great to have a more central/general place where school-wide videos are able to be hosted - on YouTube, and then they can be viewed directly there, or by being embedded on this News Blog, or our Library Blog.

We suggest that you subscribe to SpringstonTube (it's free, and you will get an email when new videos are uploaded); and show your support by selecting 'Like' and/or commenting on the students' videos. However, the best place to show your support is by commenting on the Blog posts themselves. Classes subscribe to these posts and can immediately see when a new comment has been posted.

If you have concerns about other material that may appear on any YouTube page, you may like to use QuietTube. This allows all other material, other than the video you are watching, to be removed from the web page, giving a plain background. You can create a bookmark or a link to send to friends or family, allowing them to view the video in this 'quieter' way. Go to the QuietTube page, view the tutorial, and you'll see how it works and how easy it is to use.

Photography Competition Winners Announced!

We are very grateful to David Sutton who has generously shared his expertise and time to judge the Section and Overall winners for us. Congratulations to the Section Winners and our Overall Winner. 

David has also very kindly offered to meet with our Section Winners to discuss their photos and give them some tips.

Our Teachers' ICT Celebration!

Today's staff meeting was a special get-together to celebrate the amazing efforts of our teachers to explore the use of ICT tools to engage their students creatively and to enhance student learning, particularly in the area of Literacy. Students have had some wonderful opportunities to be creative and to express themselves in new ways.

Teachers have been learning, too, and they have been incredibly creative in what they have achieved and how they have overcome any technical blocks that have occurred along the way. They have used iPads, Macbooks, microphones, and cameras along with all the more traditional tools for learning. They have taught their students how to use many of these ICT tools with the hope that all students get these opportunities. They have worked out how to move files between devices, and how to get them onto blogs in a form that they can share with you all.

In the past term you will have seen lots of regular posts on class blogs, with examples of student photography presented in many different ways. You will have heard students recording stories, poems, explanations, news reports... practising their expression and sharing their learning orally using iPad apps such as Fotobabble, Puppet Pals HD, iMovie, I Can Animate, and Explain Everything; as well as computer and web 2.0 apps. Students' stories and poems, drawings, and photos have been combined into eBooks and published on blogs, or downloaded onto iPads or computers for shared reading.

Please show our students and their teachers that you are following their learning journey and celebrating their success, by posting regular comments on our blogs. We all love to hear from you! We are excited by what your children are achieving, and hope you are too.

The teachers had a wonderful surprise when a fabulous iPad cake (gluten-free, too!) was made and brought along by Letesha, for us to enjoy. Thank you Letesha - the cake was delicious - a real treat! And thank you to Liz, our Principal, for thinking of us with such a great idea; there is plenty left for morning tea!

Whooping Cough

Dear Parents and Caregivers

We advise that we have had a confirmed case of Whooping Cough at school.

Please follow the link to find information about Whooping Cough (Pertussis), immunisation and treatment, on the Ministry of Health website.

Children or adults with a persistent cough should seek medical advice from their GP.

Kind Regards,
Liz Weir
Principal

School Newsletter 22 June 2012

 

 Click on the image above, to read the newsletter. Double-click to zoom in, click the corner of the page to turn to the next page. Or download as a pdf.

Springston School Photography Competition Finalists

During the month of May we held a Photography Competition for students and staff. One of our goals for the term has been that every student will have taken and used photographs.

Everyone was able to enter one photo, taken at school or a school event. Teachers (in consultation with students) then chose the finalists across their Year levels.

The finalists have now been announced for each section and you can view them on our Photography Competition website.

We are very grateful to David Sutton who will be judging the winners from our finalists. Please check back for the results in the next 2-3 weeks.

There will be a places for each section, plus an overall winner.

School Newsletter 8 June 2012

Click on the image above, to read the newsletter. Double-click to zoom in, click the corner of the page to turn to the next page. Or download as a pdf.

Normal school hours Friday 8 June

School will resume normal hours today, Friday 8 June.

School open - no buses

School will be open at 10.30am today (Thursday 7th June)

Buses will NOT be running this morning - please deliver your children to school.  
We expect them to be running  at 3pm.

School open 10:30am tomorrow (Thursday 7 June)

School will be open at 10:30am tomorrow (Thursday 7 June).

The buses will run an hour and a half later then usual. Please check back for updates on Facebook, our school web site, or class blogs in the morning.

Watch Venus pass across the face of the sun

Image from TV3

Venus begins passing across the face of the sun from about 10:15 am today and will be finished around 4:43 pm. The next transit will not be until 2117.

You can watch this event live with TV3 here.

Snow - school closed

School is now closed due to snow. Please keep an eye on our Facebook page, school website, or this page for updates. Keep warm and safe!

Parent puberty meeting for Senior Students is not on this evening.

iPads4Parents!

We have an amazing group of parents who are keen to learn more about how we use our iPads, how to buy their own, and how to get started using this amazing tool. Their children are coming home so excited about their learning, and parents want to be involved and keep up with the technology being used. So, to help them make a start, this morning we held a seminar and morning tea for parents in our School Library (9:00 am - 10:40 am). We had a great turnout of 13 enthusiastic parents.

If you'd like to see some of what was covered, you can view the iPads4Parents slideshow that was used.  This provides only a general framework for some of what we shared and discussed. We looked more closely at how to navigate on an iPad, some of the key settings including enabling restrictions, how to type, how to sync an iPad and organise apps via iTunes, and a general look at the organisation of the apps we are using, along with some examples of student work using these and published on our class blogs.

Interest was so high, that we are being asked to run more sessions, building understanding further from this morning's basics. Watch this space for information about any future sessions!