Week Five, Term 1

Last week was an interesting week in Room Nine, as all New Plymouth residents know, as last week we experienced Cyclone Gita. Unfortunately it affected our senior school activities and the school was closed on Thursday. The school staff were concerned about the water supply in Oakura, but this was just a false alarm and everybody got a day off school (except for the teachers). Now, everything is back to normal and school is running smoothly.

In the senior school our inquiry we are learning about is Turangawaewae, which is the Maori meaning
for the land that we are standing on. Our big question is: How am I empowered by and connected to the
land? To kick this learning off we explored the idea of identity through philosophical discussion.

A few days ago, we welcomed Xiao Di, a Mandarin teacher from China, into our school for the year. On
Wednesday, she came into Room Nine and taught us some Mandarin language and Chinese culture.

Wednesday was a big day for the senior school. As well as having Xiao Di around to teach us Mandarin,
we also had swimming lessons at the Aquatic Centre. We all worked our hardest to get on the relay team
for swimming sports this year. Congratulations to those people who won their races.      

Bring on next week!

By Violette & Janaye