Year: 2023

Ballet in a Box

Pirouettes and Pointed toes! Ballet in a Box…the Royal New Zealand Ballet (RNZB), performed for schools in Auckland last week giving a glimpse into Classical and Contemporary Ballet. Costuming, lighting and of course the dancing was impeccable. The shear strength and stamina of the dancers left even our rugby boys flabbergasted! It did help that students were fortunate enough to have workshops prior to the actual ballet where they were put through the steps and jumps of one of the dances in the program. A real life experience of how hard and challenging only one piece of the dance was.

We were not allowed to take photos or film the performance, however, St Patricks performance was videoed. What started as a group of 3 senior boys entertaining their younger children became a whole school event entertaining the whole lobby and other schools.

A Letter to Em

Through Mitey we have been working on ‘Em’s Backpack.’ As part of this we looked at the people in Em’s life, their connections and relationship with her. If we met them what questions would we ask about them? How do they know Em and what is going on in their lives that may flow on to Em? Using the perspective of one of these connections a letter was written to guide and help Em. Check out our Blogs to read more letters to Em. Do you think they might be helpful?

Reading: Johnny Pohe and life in Stalag Luft III by Julio

 

This recreation is of the layout of the German POW camp Stalag Luft III. During the second world war, many allied forces were captured and put into these prison camps. This particular prison camp is relevant to the current reading work I’m doing. The story is called “Johnny Pohe and the Great Escape”. In the story, Johnny is one of the first Maori pilots. During the war, he is shot down and captured by German forces. Normally, Johnny would have been put in your average German POW camp, where he would have been subjugated to horrible things. Fortunately, Johnny was an officer and was put into Stalag Luft III, an internment camp for officer airmen. The treatment was better than what a regular soldier would experience –  of course the treatment was still terrible but it was a considerable step up. Nonetheless, Johnny and many others wanted to escape. By digging three tunnel systems, some of the men were able to escape. Tunnels Dick and Tom were found by guards, but Harry remained undetected. On the night of the escape, many things went wrong.  People were found by guards, the tunnel entrance was frozen shut and part of the tunnel even collapsed. The few men who made it out, Johnny included, met a terrible fate. They were captured and shot by German soldiers. These men risked their lives in war, they are brave and serve as an inspiration for others.

EPro 8

Another year and another opportunity to hone in on our engineering skills. It’s a wonderful experience problem solving through science and engineering. Students had to build a dump truck to scale… 1:5 following explicit instructions. The final task was to build a lever that would lift the bed so it fulfilled the ‘DUMP’ criteria!!