Senior Art Trip 2021

 Dunedin turned it on for the SKC Senior Art Trip to Dunedin last month! Weatherwise it was a T-shirt and jandals day. Artwise it was a colourful, visual, creative and informative experience for the senior photographers, painters and sculptures.   

The Dunedin experience opened up the world of art to our students and how you apply art to career paths.

Our Itinerary included:

- Tour of small Art Galleries in Dunedin Central 

- Gallery De Novo - Works by Phillip James 

- Olga - Guest artist Phillip Madill 

- Blue Oyster Galleries  - Guest artists - Miranda Bellamy and Amanda Fauteux

- Moray Gallery - Works by Liz Abbot

- At Olga and Blue Oyster Galleries -Students were able to listen to the guest artists and ask questions about their artworks.

- Dunedin City Art Gallery in the Octagon - Learning session with John Neumegen (Art Gallery Educator) in the Gallery, tour of the Exhibits including Guy Ngan, Scott Eady and Octavia Cook.

- And finished off the Art Trip with a guided tour of the Dunedin Art School.

Social Studies- Refugee Simulation

Last Term our 9S Social Studies class experienced a refugee simulation. They formed into ‘family’ groups, and each family had just eight minutes to choose what items to pack into two bags each before fleeing their village. They worked their way through a series of unfortunately realistic scenarios in an effort to make it to a refugee camp. Not everybody made it safely.

Afterwards there were some strong reflections, realising that it had been important to think quickly to “bring the right gear to survive”. For others the key idea of the lesson had been to “introduce the uncertain life of a refugee…and understand the struggle of people in our world today”. Others pointed out that this idea is important because “this happens in real life”, and several students also reflected that the desperate situations of many refugees is very sad.

Others suggested to “to think ahead for problems that might occur in your lifetime” because “we might need survival skills in the future because you can never completely know”, and “to help each other out in tough times”, because “we are all humans and we should stick together”.

Everyone agreed the simulation was engaging and gave them a good introduction to the plight of refugees and how we can help to welcome former refugees to new homes in Aotearoa NZ.

Go With Tourism Visit

The Social Sciences faculty recently enjoyed hosting Kirsten Perrott, from Go With Tourism. Go With Tourism is an initiative funded by NZ's International Visitor Conservation and Tourism Levy. Its education programme provides lessons on contemporary tourism issues, as well as resources and advice to students about training and career opportunities in the tourism industry.

On her first visit to SKC earlier this year, Kirsten talked to Senior Geography students about the impacts of tourism on the host population of resorts, and last week she delivered an interesting presentation on sustainable and regenerative tourism. On this occasion she also brought the Tourism Studies class VR headsets to try, so students could experience virtual bungy jumps, skydives, ziplines and a deeply immersive haka.

 
The 360º field of view was fascinating and SKC looks forward to Kirsten's return later in the year, when she hopes to be able to deliver a similar VR offering for our Hospitality students.

High Performance Skills Sessions Underway

Skills sessions have started up for our High Performances classes and our Junior and Senior classes are well under way.

 
We are very lucky to have North Otago Rugby Development Officer and Heartland coach Jason Forrest and North Otago rugby player Josh Phipps helping the rugby players. Former Otago Spark and Beko netballer Ella Brown taking the cricketers and netballers, and former Otago Nugget Mitch McCrae looking after the Basketballers.

 
Thank you for guiding our young athletes and taking the time to teach them the technical and tactical aspects of their codes.

Year 11 PE Camp

On Monday Year 11 PE classes went on their outdoor education camp to Chinaman's Hut in Dansey's Pass. Over the three days students learnt how to develop interpersonal skills linked towards NCEA credits, as well as organising their own groups with equipment, food and cooking for themselves.

On Tuesday they climbed Mt Cone where they saw some spectacular 360 views of the Maniototo Basin and Waitaki Valley. 

A big thank you to Mr Smith for his organisation, and Mr Olsen, Mr Harris and Mr Tatupu for their guidance and supervision on the camp.

Year 10 Maori

Earlier this month Year 10 Maori had a hands on class with tools, musical instruments a drill, backpack, sandals and also building an eel drying rack!

Great work team!

Thanks to Mrs Jean Hesselin for organising and for the photos.

Confuscius Classroom Awards

Last week we celebrated our Confuscius Classroom awards. 

Confucius Classrooms are school-based hubs for Chinese teaching and learning and is a joint project with the Confucius Institute from Canterbury University. 

Well done to all for being awarded Confuscius Classroom of the year! Students were also awarded ''Spark Cards'' for doing something that represents our FIRE values.

Thank you to Miss Betty Zeng and Miss Joy Guo our Mandarin teachers for all their hard work for our students.

Year 11 Geography

The Year 11 Geographers spent some time last Thursday afternoon undertaking urban research at Oamaru's North End shopping centre and Victorian Precinct, followed by some geographic sketching and a pleasant, sunny lunch break up at Lookout Point. 

As they were running a few minutes early heading back to SKC, bus driver and tour guide Mike swung by the Phoenix Mill Waterwheel and shared some stories of its restoration, which everyone found very interesting. 

The class would like to thank Mike, as well as teachers Mrs Buckham and Mr Hitchcock, TA Karen, and senior student geographer Abigail Jenkinson for helping out with the successful and enjoyable field trip.

High Performance Class- NLP Training

Recently our High Performance classes were lucky to have Kate Finn come in and share her expertise. 

Kate is a NLP Practitioner, Timeline Therapy Practitioner, Master Hypnotherapist and has also been a Registered Nurse since 1996.

Neuro-linguistic programming is a method for modelling excellence. Kate covered off many topics with our athletes including cause and effect/self responsibility; language patterns for success; mantras for individual body language; warm up focus; visualisation; grit versus talent; and limiting beliefs in performance. 

Kate’s mission is to help people through NLP learn more about the beauty of the human mind and the power of change that is within all of us. She certainly equipped our students with many strategies for achieving their own best outcomes. 

How great is it to have this level of expertise right here in our own community! Thank you Kate!

High Performance Programme

Did you know we have a High Performance Sports Programme at St Kevin's College?

It aims to develop our top sports people and equip them with the physical, mental and emotional skills to improve their performance. Accountability, commitment, excellence and integrity are the key focus areas to develop this group of young people as not only athletes, but as people and students.

There is a Junior and Senior Programme and students are able to develop their physical fitness and sport specific skills during class time. As well as this, they cover important topics such as nutrition, injuries, recovery, tactical awareness, sports psychology, goal setting, interpersonal skills and leadership. Sport specific coaches are used to develop each students’ skills, and guest speakers also get to address the students when the opportunity arises.

Recently we were lucky to have Kane Jury from the Talent Development Manager from the Pulse Energy Highlanders to take a skills session with the rugby group. Thank you Kane for sharing your expertise!

If you would like to learn more about the programme please contact our Head of Sport, Mr Craig Smith at csmith@stkevins.school.nz

ITO Trades Academy

Our SKC Primary ITO Trades Academy Students have been learning new skills this term, including fencing, animal handling, drainage and water troughs. 

Thank you to Agrilearn Ltd for providing training, Road Metals for supplying materials, and Dave Heffernan for the loan of his sheep

Level 2 Biology Freshwater Investigation

Level 2 Biology classes visited the Kakanui stream recently to do their Freshwater investigation. Students are looking at a range of factors to determine the health or otherwise. The main measure is the macroinvertebrates such as Mayfly larvae and Caddisfly as well as snails, worms and others.
Students carry out kick sampling then sort and identify what is found. 

Other factors such as pH, dissolved Oxygen, Algae, Temperature and substrate are observed, measured and recorded. The result is a pattern between the factors and the quality of the Macroinvertebrates found. In this case there were a lot of Mayflies (which are the most sensitive to any substances in the water) found and different types of Caddis with a few Worms and Snails (the least sensitive).

This suggests a healthy stream but doing the sampling when the water is cold means we can only have a snapshot. This is the third year of SKC doing this and we are building an interesting picture which also gives students a better understanding of what is going on in streams.

Vocational Pathways- Gateway

Year 12 and Year 13 students have the opportunity to explore future Vocational Pathways on Fridays during school time by doing GATEWAY.

Here are some photos of students out on Work Experience last week. We are very grateful to all the organisations who mentor our students.

In these photos:

Rebecca Dodd - Montessori Oamaru Ltd
Isaac Adamson - Anvil Engineering
Cameron Mather - APEX Engineering
Aria Packer - Havenwyck Pets
Sarah Jones - Glen Warren Te Ana A Raki Kindergarten

Year 12 PE Leadership

This year our Friday timetable has changed to meet the modern learning needs of all of our students. We have created the opportunity for students to have a whole day of alternative classes on Friday's as well as having a normal timetable from Monday - Thursday.

Some of our Year 12 PE Leadership class went to Waitaki Valley School last Friday to take some PE lessons as part of this programme. This class allows students to develop their leadership skills in a PE context, as well as gaining NCEA credits.

A big thank you to Waitaki Valley School for hosting us. It was great to see the tuakana-teina relationship in action!

Level 3 Biology Field Trip- Orokonui Ecosanctuary

L3 Biology students recently had two days of work to complete their study of factors affecting plant leaves, and how their structure can change according to the environment.

The programme is run by the Botany Department of Otago University in association with Orokonui Ecosanctuary which enables students to access great gear, expertise and the native plants in the Ecosanctuary.

Some students meet birds e.g. Kaka and Takahe that are new to them and they may even get to see a longfin eel in her habitat (among others). They have to work hard for the two days and make observations and record and process data then come up with an explanation.

This doesn't happen without support from other teachers especially Ms O'Neill who helped with data processing and getting students to Orokonui. The Orokonui and Otago University staff were impressed with the way the students worked and conducted themselves -so well done Kevinians!