NCG Prep School
N E W S L E T T E R
TERM 4 WEEK 1
2015
Kia ora tatou katoa
Dear Parents/Caregivers/Whanau
Welcome back to term 4. I hope everyone enjoyed some family time and an opportunity to relax in the
spring weather.
We have a full and varied term with many different events occurring towards the end of the year
including the Final Prep Assembly Evening on Tuesday 8 December and Junior Prize-giving on Friday 11
December.
This term our learning focus is on ‘Challenge and Change’, including how we personally respond to
these and the strategies we learn to build personal resiliency. The girls will also cover argument writing,
debating and complete our ‘Changes’ Unit. A letter will come home to you outlining the details of
these ‘Changes’ units prior to them beginning, so you are aware of the content of the lessons. As always
please feel free to speak directly to your daughter’s teacher for any clarification.
We will also be continuing our focus on our school-wide specific target of lifting the girls achievement
in their use of surface features across all their writing. Also continuing will be the focus on selected
students’ basic mathematics number knowledge.
We have an Arts Festival theatre visit on Tuesday next week to a show called ‘Beards!, Beards!,Beards!’
and this week we have all attended the Science and Technology Roadshow.
Summer Sports this term include Volleyball, Softball, Cricket, Hockey and Touch, with a Tennis
tournament on Thursday 5 November. Interschool Athletics takes place on Friday 20 November. Good
luck to all girls participating.
Last term we unfortunately received Renee Jepson’s resignation, effective from the end of this year.
After 3 years with us, Renee has decided to focus on being a full-time mother to her two boys and we
wish her all the best. We will farewell Renee at our end of year assembly. We have appointed Steve
Dunn, currently Deputy Principal at Ngatimoti School to this position and will welcome him at the
beginning of 2016.
Also in 2016 you will see a new face in our office for one year only.
After 8 years here, Gwen has been given a years leave to travel to France
with her husband. Danella Sutton-Field will cover this position in her
absence. Danella has been Cathy Ewing’s Personal Assistant for the
past two years, so it will be great to welcome her on board
at Prep.
Please remember that this newsletter and the school calendar are
available to download on the school website and from Moodle.
We wish everyone a happy and successful Term 4.
Kind regards
LUCY FELTHAM
Head Teacher
Tel: +64 3 548 2194
email: [email protected]
www.ncg.school.nz
P O Box 842, Nelson, 7040, New Zealand
SCIENCE FAIR
The Science Fair took place on 21 September last term. For my science project I chose an experiment called
‘Glorious Gum’. The aim of this experiment was to investigate whether bubble gum increased short term
memory and which flavour of gum best achieved this.
Students has to memorise 16 words, whilst chewing their designated flavour of gum. There were three
flavours of gum and one control group not chewing anything. They would then be tested exactly 24 hours
later, to see how many words they could recall whilst chewing the same flavour of gum.
I found that control group (who didn’t chew any gum at all) achieved the best results with average score
of 12 out of 16 words recalled. The group chewing strawberry flavoured gum performed the worst with an
average of 7 words out of 16. I think the reason for this was that gum is such a novelty to chew in class that
participants were focusing more on the flavour of the gum than on the recall of their words.
If I were to do this experiment again, I would choose an older age group of participants as they would not
be so affected by the novelty factor of the gum.
Other variables I considered were:
• Natural aptitude for recall
• Some people may not have been feeling well at the time and so less able to concentrate
• Personal comfort ie, body temperature
• Whether they liked the flavour of the gum
If you would like to know any more about my experiment, please feel free to come and have a chat.
What I liked about the whole experience was that I liked seeing other students’ science boards as it gave me
inspiration and ideas for next year. I enjoyed talking to other students about their experiments.
Ella Taylor
2
SUMMER SPORTS
LEAVER’S DANCE
Summer Sports commence
with Touch today. The time
will be confirmed very
soon, but is expected to
be around 6 pm. The girls
have all been asked to
ensure that they all read
the Sports Noticeboard to
see who is standing down
on which occasion. It is the
girls’ responsibility to find someone to take their
place if they are away so we have advised them
to think ahead and have a plan in case of illness or
unexpected absence.
The Leaver’s Dance this is year is hosted by
Girls’Prep. It will take place at The Granary at
Founders Park on Thursday 3 December. We
will give you more details about this event next
week.
SENIOR PRIZEGIVING
The Prep School will be open on the
day of Senior Prizegiving which is
Wednesday 4 November.
Nelson College for Girls
PREPA R A T O R Y
S C H O O L
High Quality Education
for Year 7 and Year 8 Girls
•
•
•
•
Som
e
still a places
vaila
Yea ble
r7
2016
small class sizes
individual attention
excellent academic programmes
nurturing, supportive environment
OPEN NIGHT
TUESDAY 20 OCT – 7 PM
NCG LIBRARY
ALL WELCOME
ph: 03 548 2194
3
www.ncg.school.nz
Head Teacher: Lucy Feltham
NCG Preparatory School
CALENDAR
WEEK
TERM 4
MONDAY
OCT
2015
TUESDAY
12
WEDNESDAY
13
14
1
THURSDAY
Science Trip –
JP –12.30 pm
15
Term 4 begins
o change.
FRIDAY
SAT/SUN
16
B
Science Trip –
Y8 –12.30 pm
7FT – 1.15 pm
College Meeting Prep open all day
Touch starts
19
2
20
21
22
Arts Festival Show – Spikers Volleyball
all school 10.30 am starts
Mufti Day
Junior Volleyball
starts
Open Night 2016
NCG Library 7 pm
NCG Performing
Arts Awards
26
27
NCG Sports Awards
28
29
17-18
Softball starts
A
23
24–25
B
30 NOV 31–1
3
Cricket starts
Labour Day
2
3
4
4
Senior Prizegiving
Prep open all day
9
10
11
5
A
6
7-8
B
13
14-15
Tennis Tournament
12
5
Year 8 Orientation
at NCG
16
17
18
19
A
20
21-22
6
Interschool Athletics
23
24
25
26
7
Y8 Dance Lessons
Period 4
28-29
1
Y8 Dance Lessons
Period 4
2
Y8 Dance Lessons
Period 5
3
Y8 Dance Lessons
Period 4
A
4
5-6
11
12-13
Y8 Debate
Leaver’s Dance at
Founders 7 pm
7
9
27
Interschool Athletics
Postponement date
30 DEC
8
B
8
9
Final Merit
Assembly 6 pm NCG
Last Spikers game
Main Hall
10
Last Junior
Volleyball game
B
Junior Prizegiving
Y7–Y10 – 9.15 am in
NCG Hall
Last day of school
Reports available
online
Last game of Touch
This calendar is subject to being reviewed and updated throughout the term. It is available on Moodle and the school
website. Please keep it in a safe place to refer to during Term 4.