During the school holidays I (Matthew Stackhouse) went to Indiana, U.S.A for Wrestling as part of a New Zealand Cultural Development team with other wrestlers my age.
We stayed with three different host families. The first was in Carmel, the second in Jeffersonville and the third was in South Bend. ​These schools ranged in size from 2500 students to 5000. The competition was tough; we trained and wrestled with the school teams.
We went down town Indianapolis to the malls. On another day we had a tour around the Notre Dame University. We went to several museums, and also a Indiana Pacers vs Boston Celtics basketball game. We got a bus tour around the Indy race track. During our stay we went to Chicago to see the Navy Pier and go on a ferris wheel. The Indiana coach shouted us pizza that was deep dish.
I would like to thank Hurunui College for the grant that helped to make this trip possible and to my coaches Steve Hill and Dean Smith at Rangiora Wrestling club.

Whero Class is full of Number Agents. We solve maths problems through role play and maths in a authentic context. This term we have met the villains Sum Snake and Knight Adder. We get problems from Clients who need our help to solve them. They can come through the portal or by video and email. ​

Over Term 1, the Year 8 class worked on a self-inquiry unit called "Passion Projects". This involved the students choosing one of their life passions and sharing it with the class through a Power Point presentation. The passions included a wide range of academic, sport, and musical activities with some students even including interactive activities or quizzes. All projects were done to an excellent standard that all students can be proud of. ​

On Thursday 4 April Kowhai Class sent away an exciting package to our buddy class, Room 9 Paerata school near Pukekohe. The package consisted of poetry postcards that when put together make a up a mystery jigsaw, a class poster, a class colour poem, information about our school and our district, and some Easter treats! The poems were about some items in a special tin, e.g an ancient key, a compass, a tiny ship in a bottle. We had to find out about the item, choose some wonderful describing words, and then use the dictionary, thesaurus, google translate, and an anagram maker to discover more fabulous words. In return, we were very excited to receive a similar package from Paerata school. We loved finding out about each other's lives and schools. Now we are writing stories about some of the items in the tin and we will send them to our buddy class and stay in touch with them this year. ​

After a false start due to some intense rain on Tuesday. We headed over to the Scargill Domain on Wednesday morning. We arrived early with lots of energy and nervous. We were able to have morning tea and a play on the playground to help us prepare for the big day ahead. The day was a big learning experience for our students. For some it is their first out of school sports outing. But after the first few games our students really got into the swing of it. They were loading up bases, hitting home runs and getting the other team out as they came to 3rd base. They also learned that throwing the ball is faster than running it to a base when fielding. We were really lucky to have the support of lots of amazing parents. The children had lots of fun, worked on their tee ball skills, all showed exceptional RISE values throughout the whole day and loved the sausages sizzle for lunch. Thank you to all the parent support. It would not have been possible without their help. ​