Lake Rerewhakaaitu School

1. What school do you go to?

Our little piece of paradise is situated in farming country 30 minutes from Rotorua with Lake Rerewhakaaitu and Mount Tarawera on our back doorstep. We have confident, enthusiastic kids who demonstrate a sense of belonging and manaakitanga and make the most of the opportunities provided.

We have a dedicated team of teachers and support staff who work to personalise learning keeping pace with education innovations both digitally and in the ways learning can be enhanced through team teaching.

The rich learning experiences we offer are enhanced by a very involved community who share their talents and time to help students develop the knowledge, understanding and skills they need to make the most of every opportunity.

2. What is something special about your school?

Room Four (Year 2-3)

Lily Chevi and Waimarie: we have a music room, we get to learn things that we don't know, we get to play on devices, we have really cool teachers, we care a lot about others and we do heaps of art.

Talent- loves classdojo and the school has heaps of devices.

Quinn group- we have great warm heaters , have a really big field to play sport on. Nice teachers a lot of iPads, computers laptops with a cool board of trustees group. People come to dance at school discos and sells lollies and food with dinner.

XRria, Jennica and Jay: we play with our friends and we do lots of work. we also do a lot of art, we learn new things and meet new friends. we have a lot of fun at disco’s lots of people can win a prize at the disco along with the teachers.

Janu- loves playing on the playground with his friends.

Max, Elizabeth and Bree: We take care of litter. We have nice teacher and everyone . We get to do productions and Kapa haka and our teacher is an author.

Lucas, Payton and Ryan- People help each other. We have got cool devices. We have also got an art room and a library.

3. What is something you have enjoyed learning about this year?

Room One (Year 0-1)

Tui: I like writing because you get to write about chicklets and other stuff. The chicklets were baby chickens and one was black and one was white.

Simon: I like writing because we do letter sounds and high frequency words. You get to do a picture and then get to do writing. I am good at writing.

Deana: I like carpentry in Action Stations because you make things.

Dylan: I like Action Stations because we can learn from other people and we can make things like they make. I’m going to make what Tamsin made with a red bit in the middle.

Tamsin: I like how we miss some numbers when we skip count.

Noah: I like Action Stations and doing cutting drawing and being crafty.
Morghan: I love to do art because I get to make stuff.
Emily: I love reading princess books.
Josh: I like writing because I can write some words.
Noah: I like writing because I get stickers from Mrs McGee when we share good writing with her.

Archie: I like reading because we read fun books. I like Action Stations going on cardboard boxes because you can make whatever you want. I made stuff for my lego people.

Room Three (Year 4-5)

Tristan: I like maths because it is challenging. I also like going onto Mathletics and Eako

Liam: I like doing science because it is exciting. It was fun doing the dancing raisin experiment

Scott: I like science because we made ice cream and I also like making observations. I loved making candles and making our smoothies too.

Charli and Tai tonio- I enjoy Kapahaka and Science

Te Atarau: I like learning about the Maori legends at the museum, and reading and sharing the stories in class.

Rivah- I like geometry because we have translation reflection and rotation

Paradise- I enjoyed doing fair testing with sodas and candles. I also enjoyed studying maori myths and legends.

Tazman- making drag racing cars in technology and working on mathletics.

Neo, Eragon and Wisdom- We enjoyed: Candle experimenting and drag car creations in technology. In science we learnt about making fair test. We tested different sodas and how raisins moved. We learnt about making observations, we also learn about how candles work.

In technology we learnt about planning and testing- we made drag cars!

Rivah Jayne- I enjoyed doing geometry because we learnt about rotating, translating and reflecting.

Tai- I liked learning how to make a robot with Mrs McGee.

Shelby-I enjoyed ending the short stories example in writing. The story went that when the boy had a wheelchair and it could transform.

Tazman: Doing science experiments in my class and Mathletics.

Rocky: I liked making milk into butter and ice cream.

Mackenzie: I really liked our term 2 science. We made bread, butter and ice cream. We also had a smoothie making competition.

Paradise: I really liked term 3 science. We tested different sodas and watched some dancing raisin. We designed fair testing. I also like observing the candles and flames. I also love learning about the myths and legends of Rotorua and Kapahaka.

4. What do you most like about living in Rotorua/Rerewhakaaitu/Kaingaroa/Waimangu?

Learning Centre (Year 6-7-8)

Shyne: I love having space in the paddocks and outdoors. I like hunting and being able to have pets too.

Maddox: I like being able to go hunting, ride a motorbike anywhere and play spotlight.

Prentice: I like living on a dairy farm and being around the cows. It’s fun swimming in the lake which is only 5 minutes away. There’s lots of bush and country where I live.

Mrs Taylor: I live on top of a hill 25 mins north of Taupo. I love living away from town with space, fresh air, and gardens!

Te Kohu: I like Kaingaroa because your friends live just down the road. I can ride my motorbike, build a hut and ride horses. We have big games of rugby and touch. There is a shop and doctor’s clinic.

Jordan: I like riding my motorbike down our sheep and beef farm.

Mereani: I Like living close to the school so I can go down on weekends to catch up with friends. The lake is close too so I walk down on hot days to swim.

Nisha: I like owning a shop and playing in the bush where we live.

Rebecca: I like being free to walk down to my friends, and having whanau around, having nature around.

Johnny-Boy: I like that there are 3 parks and a shop. It’s really native where I live.

Riley: I like living in Rerewhakaaitu because we go fishing, going to the lake, biscuiting, kayaking, feeding calves, walking down the road to my friend’s house, and living across from the bush to go hunting, riding horses, and finding baby rabbits!

Karly: I like living where I live because I can play spotlight at midnight without having to worry about getting hurt or run over! I like it because it’s safe and everyone knows everyone.

5. What do you most like doing on your computers/iPads/devices at school to help your learning?

Jordan: I get to take my ipad home. We use google docs a lot for our learning. I enjoy using my ipad to plan my learning, music and games too.

Karly: I like working on computers for our MiActionLearning is computer generated to help us with our MiLearning.

Mereani: I like being an ipad student because I have easy access to all my google docs and can share any group documents easily. We are allowed to listen to music which is calming and helps me with my concentration.

Riley: I like using my device with our learning because we do all our work on computers or ipads. We have one-to-one devices. We do our MiLearning on a computer. We have a MiActionLearning document which we use to keep track of what we are working on and what we have done.

Mrs Taylor: I love using technology for learning. I can share documents with students and parents and other schools! I am part of an E-Learning Group with Nga Pumanawa e waru, which is pretty exciting. I use technology to text my parents with news and information.

6. Is there anything else you'd like to share about yourself, your learning, your class or your school?