Auroa School: Australian Robocup Champions!

Breaking News! The Robos Auroa Primary School Robotics team 'the Robos' have had an amazing achievement claiming first place in the Australian Robocup Competition!

The Boys are already regional and national champions and today in Australia, the team have been declared champions competing not only against teams from Australia but China as well. We are going to be publishing footage and details of the event when it comes to hand.
The Robos 25/9/14 from Myles Webb on Vimeo.
In the meantime for those of you who want to see what all the fuss was about this video is from Thursday 25th September, the day before Tom, Lucas, James and Michael travelled to Australia for competition. They showed their full performance, which was considerably different from previous versions to the school. Recorded by Harley from Room One.

This version of the performance is significantly different from the boys national winning performance, for Australia the Boys had to work with a three metre square mat (instead of 1.8m).  Also in the New Zealand version our Boys were limited to four robots, for Australia the team had to adapt to having unlimited robots as well.

On behalf of the school we would like to congratulate all the team, their families and friends for the fantastic support that they have received for this amazing achievement.   It goes without saying that there is significantly more material to come.

Good Luck to the Robo's!

Today, while it is the start of the school holidays for term three in New Zealand not all our students are taking a break. Our national winning Auroa Primary School Robotics team 'The Robos' is taking part in the Australia Junior Robocup Competition in Brisbane, Australia. We of course will have footage of this extremely special event shortly. Good luck!

RobosFinalRehearsal - Video Maker

Auroa Primary@Taranaki Trophy Finals

On Thursday 25th September Auroa Primary School had a very special event, our boys rugby team made it through to the final of the Taranaki Trophy. It was the first time for Auroa Primary School that we had made the final. Standing in our way of glory was a daunting prospect, St Josephs Hawera, who had won the corresponding game at Auroa School earlier in the season by twelve points. Auroa were hoping for a similar half time score from this game, which had them leading at half time.

TaranakiTrophy2014 - Video Maker

However the final ended up being straight forward. St Jospehs played an awesome game and took a convincing 0-22 lead going into the second half. The final score ended up being 19-67 to St Josephs, however Auroa Primary School were proud of our Boys team for making it through to the final, and a number of the team will be looking to back up next year. Harley from Room One was on site during the final, he took these images and also recorded the game. We'll be shortly posting his amazing footage from the event, filmed on Thursday 25th September at Yarrows Stadium, New Plymouth.

Tom and James: 2014 - Highlights

We've had some students involved in some amazing projects at the moment, and during the course of the year. Tom and James, who are both competing with the Auroa Primary School Robotics Team in the Australian Junior Robocup at the end of this week, in Brisbane, have had some amazing adventures this year. What's more they've been able to document and record some of their amazing experiences. This video is highlights of some of the things that they've been up to - a highlights of their adventures. A hundred percent student created and designed.

Lynski Dravitski: September 19th Highlights - Rugby

These highlights, filmed by Riley M. from Room One are of the Lynski-Dravitski Shield Challenge game between Auroa Primary School and St Josephs Opunake, which took place on Friday 19th September, at St Josephs.  The shield is contested each year between Auroa and St Josephs.   Auroa were able to win the shield for the first time in 2013 and were looking to defend it for the first time.  Following clear wins in Soccer (12-0) and a convincing win in Netball, the Rugby team was looking for a clean sweep.  Having only lost this season to St Josephs (Hawera), who we play in the finals of the Taranaki Trophy at Yarrows Stadium this Thursday, Auroa was looking for a solid display.   The game in the early stages was dominated by St Josephs who at one time took a twenty point lead.

ST Joes Opunake VS Auroa from Myles Webb on Vimeo.

This video shows the last parts of the second half as Auroa begun to swing control of the game back to themselves. Its our first game of 2014 filmed with different equipment. We are thinking critically about such an exciting game (which ended in a 36-36 draw) and what we could do differently with the filming. Would a tripod have helped? Is it better than when we used an ipad but we couldn't zoom in on the action? What rules would we have for the camera person in future that would help the recording? Riley wasn't expecting to be given the job, circumstances meant it was thrust into his hands, and he filmed the action at St Josephs School, Opunake, on Friday 19th September 2014.

Visit Mr Boylens Class Page

Visiting Mr Boylens Class page.  You need to click on the link to this class page.  Look/view some of the posts.   Can you locate where in the world the class is located? How can you tell this? What information leads you to make this conclusion?

Find a book review from a student in Mr Boylens class.  If you have read the book that they are talking about leave a comment to the student who has written the post (remembering the criteria that we have discussed for posting comments on other students work).  If you have not read the books that are listed in the post then find another post from a student that you find interesting and leave that student a comment.

Taranaki Daily News Online: Robotics.

Those of you who missed the feature on 'The Robos' Auroa Schools National winning Robotics Theatre Champions can access the article online from here.    The big news at school from last week is the fact that the team of Tom, Michael, James and Lucas (all from Room One) are now preparing for the Australian Robocup which is taking place this weekend in Brisbane, Australia.  

The team is preparing all this week, before departing on Friday on this hugely exciting adventure.  A great opportunity for students to fly the flag of Auroa Primary School overseas.

Odd Shoe Day@Auroa Primary School 2014

On Friday 19th September Auroa Primary School held a mufti-day and odd shoe day, as a fundraiser for Camp Quality, which is a Camp that specialises in providing Camps for students with Cancer.  Al the students from Auroa Primary School were able to wear mufti clothes and were encouraged to wear different shoes as part of the day.  Kaiah and Meg from Room One went around Auroa Primary School taking images of all of the students who supported such a worthy cause.

OddShoeDay2014@APS - Video Maker

Auroa Primary School - Lynski/Dravitski Results

This afternoon Auroa Primary School retained the Lynski/Dravitski Shield defeating our rivals St Josephs Opunake.   Auroa Primary School won Soccer 12-0.   In Netball Auroa defeated St Josephs 32-21.  Finally in Rugby the score was 36-36 in a extremely close and tense game.   More footage to follow.

Coming up this week on Thursday 25th September the Aura Primary School Rugby team have the final of the Taranaki Trophy Competition at Yarrows Stadium against St Josephs Hawera.  The teams has already met in competition this term, with Auroa taking a strong half time lead at half time which St Josephs Hawera were able to overturn to win by 12.

MT SPA - Cross Country Results 2014

On Thursday 18th of September the top students from Auroa Primary School who had placed well in our school Cross Country travelled to Manaia Golf Course to take place in the 2014 MT SPA Cluster Cross Country.  MT SPA is the collective grouping of the Primary Schools in the area.

The students who were competing were looking for a top ten finish with the hope of moving forward to the next stage of the competition, namely the Taranaki Primary Schools competition in Hawera next Wednesday.

Room One students who achieved significant results were Emily who finished in top position and won the Senior Girls race.   Izzy came 5th and Alice placed 6th.  Jack was the top finishing R1 boy, in 3rd place just ahead of Michael in 4th, with Keifer rounding out the R1 results in 10th.

There is reports and media from this event to follow from the students shortly.  In the meantime once again Mr Bloor has done a fantastic job producing some amazing work and media from a school event.  This is our school cross country highlights for 2014.

Megs APS Market Day Recount

Sold Out - Meg's Market Day 2014 Recount

My stomach churned as I stepped foot in the classroom. I eyed up the work that need to be done and felt lightheaded. I knew standing there wouldn’t help, so I pulled up my sleeves and got head in work.

Dragging those desks on to the deck and seeing everyone else setup made it feel so much more real. As we lay out our product on the desk war broke out over what goes where and what lay out looked best.

“SALE STARTS NOW” announced Mr Chittenden through his bullhorn. Suddenly a swarm of children came barreling towards us. Coin after coin, Note after note, we were quickly making quite a large profit. After twenty minutes we were sold out and exhausted!

In the end we were all so proud of the product we had put forward to the community and each other. We made around two hundred dollars. Drinking jars are a hit!!!      

Recently we held our School Market Day to celebrate the end of our AKO (inquiry) for Term Two and Three, as regular followers of this blog will know. Each of the students wrote a recount about the significant event. This was authored by Meg from Room One.

NZCT NZAIMS Golf 2014

Last week Auroa Primary School competed in the NZAIMS (New Zealand Association Intermediate and Middle Schools) Tournament. We were won of 238 schools competing in sixteen sports. We had teams in Girls Basketball and Golf. The golf team had a special time taking 3rd in the teams competition and Brylee Winter achieved 3rd in the Girls stroke competition. These images were taken from Monday September 8th to Thursday September 11th in Tauranga, Omokora, Omanu, Tauranga and Mount Manganui. They were taken by team manager Mrs Elliot. Slideshow created by Thomas and Riley P. NZCT AIMS Games Golf on PhotoPeach

Guest Post from Sua@Taupaki School

This term students from Auroa Primary School in Taranaki have been learning Korean under the instruction of Mr Spice from Room Three. As part of our learning we were looking at other students to help us. We used our contacts and were lucky enough to make a connection with Sua, a student from Taupaki School, in Auckland. Sua has been sensational help to our students, Tutoring us in Korean and sharing her knowledge with our learning. She's recently written a post about the experience of working with our students. You can click on her post here.

This extract is taken from her post:

As an immigrant in New Zealand, it’s quite a pleasure for teaching my language to the Kiwis, and of course learning English too.

I am teaching Korean to Auroa school students at the moment, and I am waiting to do that for every single week, because even though they have a bit of an accent, slightly incorrect pronunciations and stuff, it is quite a joy to hear Korean in the middle of the teacher’s office, especially in a absolute Kiwi school. Plus,they have started the Korean lesson at the beginning of the year (but they started Skyping with me in the middle of term three) and in fact, I have as a bit surprised by so less accent at the first time of Skyping!

You can click on the link to read her entire post here.

Auroa School Robotics: The Regionals

Such excitement at the moment at Auroa Primary School. Earlier this year we had a number of teams (nine) competing in the Robocup Regionals at Whanganui. This was the first step for our teams for an attempt at the national New Zealand title. The Robos, Tom, Lucas, Michael and James were able to win the regional competition and as some of you will know from visiting our class page or school page they have also recently triumphed and won the New Zealand Title for Robotic Theatre. We couldn't be more proud of the boys and their fantastic effort. We've been holding onto some amazing footage at the different stages of competition and now its been completed we are able to officially share some of the previously footage was a closely guarded secret. This is the footage of the original Whaganui Robocup Prize Winning Performance, the team (les James who was unavailable as he was overseas) taking the title in convincing fashion.

The Robos: Whanganui Robocup Performance from Myles Webb on Vimeo.

The biggest news related to this are not only The Robos regional, and national champions, later this term they are taking on the Australians as the team are preparing to go to Australia for the Australian Robocup at the end of the month. We will be of course updating the blog with posts about this and shortly sharing footage with you of the Boys National winning performance in Dunedin.

Auroa Primary School: Mr Toft's Cup Challenge!

As we mentioned earlier in the week we saw a challenge from Mr Toft in Canada involving rubber bands, string and cups.  You can click on the link to the original post here.  We didn't see the video original video in Canada, it came through Mrs Monaghans A Room With a View site and she posted about it when a class in India competed the challenge.   A great idea that started in one country and now four different countries have completed it at the very least.   Thanks to Mr Toft, Mrs Mongahan for the great idea! Filmed at Auroa Primary School on Wednesday 17th September 2014.

The Cup Challenge 17/9 from Myles Webb on Vimeo.

Auroa Primary School - Our Special Visitor Returns...

On Monday we had an unexpected visitor at Auroa Primary School - Scott Donaldson, who had attempted early in the year to kayak between Australia and New Zealand.   Unfortunately he was unable to complete this amazing feat, having to abandon the attempt just short.  The story didn't end there of course, because his abandoned kayak eventually washed up on the farm of one of our students, before it was recovered.  It featured on the national news! On Monday Scott came back and brought his Kayak with him and answered some questions from students at Auroa Primary School.  It was another opportunity to see the kayak up close and this time to also here Scott talk about his amazing adventures.   These pictures were taken by Harley from Room One on Monday 15th September, 2014.

ScottDonaldson2 - Video Maker

Some of the other classrooms of Auroa Primary School have written already about Scotts visit. If you click on the link here you can hear about his visit to Room 8.

Mr Tofts' Cup Challenge by way of the UK

We're always looking for examples and opportunities to collaborate with classrooms around the world.  Recently we were looking at Mrs Monaghan A Room with a View: Class Three.   They featured a fantastic video that mention Mr Toft and his class from Canada - where the original post was from.  We tracked it down, listening carefully to the instructions and have had a rehearsal today to ensure that we can complete the video/task in full tomorrow.   These images were put together by Kaiah, Meg and Brylee.

Featured in the Student Blogging Challenge

Today Room One discovered some fantastic news - we've had our work featured in Miss W's Student Blogging Challenge.  The challenge which is run every year, features the best online work and is a great introduction to online blogging with classroom and student challenges.   Miss W has highlighted the work of Alyssa in writing an introduction about Auroa Primary School and our area from the start of the year.   You can click on the link to see the feature here, and you can sign up for the blogging challenge here.  If you want to click on Alyssa's blog you can do so here.

Its a great introduction for blogging for teachers looking for resources and ideas and wonderful to see some of our other online friends mentioned - Mrs Yollis from the USA and our friends from If Only the Best Birds Sang in Ireland.  You can click on the links to the wonderful work of these fantastic teachers and classrooms here.

Auroa Primary School Basketball@NZAIMS 2014

Last week we had three school teams from Auroa Primary School competing in national events. Our Girls Basketball team was in Tauranga, competing in the NZAIMS games. They played five pool games against teams from all over New Zealand.

In our opening game we were able to beat Dio School (from Auckland) 45-22. In our second game we played one of the four tournament host schools, Otumoetai Intermediate. It was an extremely close game with Auroa leading at half time 12-6 before Otumoetai were able to come from behind and win the game 17-24. Auroa were able to pick themselves up on day two, defeating Dunedin North Intermediate 30-23. Our next game saw us take on eventual tournament finalists (and defending New Zealand Champions) Te Kura O Te Koutu. Te Koutu were too slick and strong for Auroa winning 16-54. That left Auroa with a final pool game against Highlands Intermediate, who were too good winning 25-37.

On Thursday Auroa Primary School had cross over and placing games. We had to take on one of the largest Intermediates in New Zealand, Northcross Intermediate School. They proved too good for Auroa, just, winning 33-42. Our second placement game was against another of the local host Intermediates, Mount Manganui Intermediate. Auroa were able to defeat Mount Manganui 39-20. This lead to the final game of the tournament for Auroa, against Rotoruas Mokoia Intermediate. Mokoia were up by five points at half time before Auroa were able to chase the game down taking the victory 41-36.

NZAIMS2014Basketball - Video Maker

Breaking News: Auroa Primary School Win 2014 Robocup

Today we have extremely exciting news. We've had three teams this week involved in national competitions. Our NZAIMS teams in Basketball and Golf have been well documented here. The third team was the team of Tom, Michael, James and Lucas who went to Dunedin to compete in the 2014 Robotics competition in musical theatre. This afternoon the Auroa Primary School team was declared winners of the competition! We will be updating this important development early next week when the victorious team returns to school as national champions. If you didn't see the feature on the TVNZ news including a brief interview with Tom speaking, you can do so by clicking on the link here.

Auroa Primary School NZAIMS Results 2014

Auroa Primary Schools NZAIMS Teams returned to Auroa on Friday.    In the Basketball Auroa's Girls finished 13th claiming wins against Diocesan School from Auckland, Dunedin North Intermediate, Mount Manganui Intermediate and Mokoia Intermediate.

The team also had close games against Otumoetai Intermediate, Northcross Intermediate and Highlands Intermediate.  We also had the privilege of playing against the tournament runners up - Kura O Te Koutu.  

We were really pleased how the entire team went during the week, our first time competing in Basketball and it was fantastic to be part of a competition with twenty four teams from all around New Zealand.

The Auroa Primary School Golf team also returned from competition, playing on four courses over four days of competition - Auroa were able to claim Bronze in the team competition and Brylee - who also featured in our Basketball team, was able to claim Bronze in the stableford competition.

Market Day at Auroa Primary School 2014

We've got many talented staff members who work at Auroa Primary School. One of whom is Mr Bloor who produces material as part of Sonic Studios. This is the video that he created of the Auroa Primary School Market Day for 2014.

NZAIMS Games: Its Here!

Tomorrow is the start of the NZAIMS Games. This is the biggest sporting tournament in New Zealand this year - featuring 238 Schools competing across 16 sports.

There are 7500 students competing from across New Zealand. And Auroa Primary School is one of them. For the first time ever we are fielding teams in the competition: in Golf and Girls Basketball. Not only will Isabelle, Gemma, Emily, Alice, Meg, Dayna, Kaiah, Brylee and Leila be present at the games representing our school so will Mr Webb. 

This site will be posted to remotely from Tauranga during the tournament. We will be endeavouring as much as possible from the games, you can follow Auroa Primary Schools Progress on the official website here.

Auroa School Cross Country 2014

Today at Auroa Primary School we held our annual Cross Country race. All our students from Y1 to Y8 competed over the course which stretched up to 3km for the senior students. Coming up we have the next stage of competition the Mount Spa Cluster and their race which is taking place at Manaia Golf Course. The Y8 Boys race was run by Lucas with runners up coming in the shape of Michael and Will. In the senior Girls Emily was able to won against Isabella and Alice. Keifer was able to win the Y7 competition with competition coming from Decland and Jackson. Caitlin, Tamara and Jessica were the top three for the Y7 Girls. A reminder that this coming week we will be posting remotely from the 2014 NZAIMS Games. Auroa Primary School is entering the Golf competition and the Girls Basketball Competition (where Mr Webb will be on site for the entire week).

Auroa Primary School: Market Day 2014

Today Auroa Primary School held our Repurposing Market Day. The junior school classes, Rooms 8, 7 and 6 all had items for sale in their classroom. The senior school (Rooms 4,3,2 and 1) all had their classes working as businesses selling products that were repurposed. This slideshow shot by Harley during the day is of some of the items and students that were for sale on the day.

Repurposing2014 - Video Maker

Auroa Primary School Repurposing Market Day

Today Auroa Primary School held their Re-Purposing Market Day. One of our students, Emily, whose had nearly 8,000 pageviews on her student blog, wrote this recount and created this slideshow about the event. You can source the original post on her blog here. 

Today was a very important day for our school, our unit topic for this term is "Re-purposing - the art of turning something old and making it new again" Every student enjoyed it but without a doubt the best part for me was the market day. At the start of term we all chose a re-purposed product that would be thoroughly tested and tried over the next few weeks. Our group chose an original idea called "Drinking Jars"

The Concept-

It was made of a Re-purposed jar, taped with a stripy design and then spray painted, once you peel the tape off it reveals a nice design we then drilled holes into the lids and added a straw. Afterward we filled it with juice for our customers. But the great part is, it can be used again, and again, and again!
We thought our idea was pretty cool.  Everyone must have thought so too because the customers kept pilling in so much that we actually sold out in a matter of minutes!  However there are also many other businesses and classes that need to be credited for their hard work and dedication.  Here is a slideshow with a few photo's capturing the day in all it's glory.

Market Day 2014 on PhotoPeach

Auroa Primary School Repurposing Market Day

Tomorrow at Auroa Primary School is Market Day 2014. The students have been busy working on Re-Purposing with our students during the term and tomorrow from 12:00pm to 1:30pm the students will have their items on sale and the public will be able to come in and see our learning in action. These photographs were taken by Matt from Room Two and feature some of the items, stalls and material that is available during the market day.

MarketDay2014Part1 - Video Maker

Auroa Primary School Vs. St Josephs Stratford

Yesterday Auroa Primary School hosted St Josephs Stratford in the second to last round of the Y7/8 Taranaki Trophy sports competition. Auroa were looking to confirm their place in the Netball and Rugby finals of the competition by claiming a final win. Having only lost to St Josephs Hawera in competition, the Girls could not afford another loss. However, having already played and lost twice to St Josephs Stratford in Saturday morning competition it would be fair to describe Auroa as the underdogs. Kaiah from Room One, filmed the action and then took care of the editing:

Netball Auroa vs Stratford 1/9/14 from Myles Webb on Vimeo.

roa keen to claim victory in their last home game of the season and last round robin competition. These highlights were filmed by Joe and edited and put together by Lucas from Room One, filmed at Auroa Primary School on Monday 1st of September 2014.
Auroa vs st Joes Stratford from Myles Webb on Vimeo.

Taranaki Trophy Vs. Oakura School

The Auroa soccer team has been undefeated so far. And with there last game nearing they'll be looking to keep the winning streak. These highlights are from the Taranaki Trophy game played against Oakura School on Friday 22nd of August 2014.   These highlights were filmed by Fred from Room One and edited by James.   Auroa are in the dark blue and orange and Oakura are in the red and black.  The halftime score was 1-1 and Auroa ended up winning 3-1,

Taranaki Trophy Vs. Oakura 22/8/14 from Myles Webb on Vimeo.

Claudias Choose Your Own Adventure.

There's some awesome work that been appearing on students and class blogs around the world and we are always very happy and keen to share it.   At the end of last week Claudia from 6RC in Sydney. Left an awesome comment on Wills blog here in Taranaki.   That led us to discover their fantastic writing and have a look at this great post from Claudia.