On Thursday 24 March the International ESOL students from Bucklands Beach Intermediate boarded the Half Moon Bay ferry to travel into the city.

After a brisk walk up Queen Street we had morning tea outside the Aotea Centre, before going into the Auckland Town Hall for the welcome ceremony. It opened in spectacular fashion with a haka by students from Mt Albert Grammar School.

It was exciting to see more than 2000 international students at the event. Len Brown, the Mayor of Auckland, gave a friendly and informal welcome to everyone. He obviously enjoyed the occasion and even sang a Maori waiata – ‘Pokarekare Ana’.

Two of the International students from other schools shared their experiences in New Zealand. Then there was the first selection of the Spot Prizes. This was very exciting and interesting for us all to see the many different activities which can be done in Auckland and the nearby areas.

Then a contemporary dance group, New Native Dance Company, wowed us all with their amazing mix of Maori, Pacific and hip-hop dancing. They invited the audience to join them in learning some dance moves. Two of our students won prizes in the second selection. Following this was a fantastic display of Samoan singing and Sasa clapping rhythms.

It was a great event.

ESOL Teachers

Speeches
There was a pleasing standard of English language speeches presented in the ESOL department. Students followed the school guidelines and produced interesting, well-researched speeches.

Bucklands Beach Intermediate hosted a First Language Speech Competition. Students were given the opportunity to present a speech in their first language. The 2010 results were as follows:

Mandarin
1st – Mary Jiang
2nd – Irene Chen
3rd – George Yu

Cantonese
1st – Esther Chow
2nd – Queenie

Korean
1st – Jessica Kim
2nd – Jenny Lim

Mandarin and Cantonese Speeches
Mary Jiang and Esther Chow have been selected to represent the school in the Auckland Mandarin and Cantonese Speech competition. These are being held on Wednesday 1 September at Baverstock Oaks Primary School..

Korean Speeches
Jessica Kim represented BBI At the Auckland Korean speech competition on Friday 20 August. The competition was held at BBI. Jessica performed very well and was awarded 2nd place. Congratulations Jessica!

Term 3 Topics
This term the Level One topic is Descriptions. Levels Two and Three are working on Expositions. These types of writing are taught in their home classrooms as well.

Student Promotion and Graduation
Our ESOL students have been tested recently in oral language, written language and reading. The results showed the significant progress made by many of our students.

These students have moved from Level One to Level Two: Pat Chalayon, Robin Han (Year 8), Ted Cho, Tiger Nie (Year 7)

Students moved from Level 2 to Level 3: Steven Song, Carlos Diaz, Lucy Lim, Jessica Kim (Year 8), Eric Pan, Conroy Smuts, Tony Luo, Amy Choi (Year 7).

Year 8 students who have now graduated from the ESOL programme are Jae Phil Lee, Yilin Zhong, Herwin Rogado, Kevin Park.
Year 7 students are Tommy Kim, Michael Tang, Lucy Kim, Jialin Luo, Antony Qiu

Congratulations to all our hardworking students.

See attached Word document for the assessment criteria for ESOL Science Fair projects. Download…

On Tuesday the 2nd of March the International ESOL students from Bucklands Beach Intermediate boarded the Half Moon Bay ferry to travel into the city.

After a brisk walk up Queen Street we had morning tea outside the Aotea Centre, before going into the Auckland Town Hall for the welcome ceremony.  It opened in spectacular fashion with a haka by students from Mt Albert Grammar School.  Over 1700 international students attended the event. We had some excitement when Adam Chansomboon and Jenny Lim won a spot prizes to go to the Maori cultural show at the Museum and the Auckland Zoo.

The Maori cultural group performed a few more songs and dances.  Then a contemporary dance group, Toru Toru, wowed us all with their amazing mix of Maori, Pacific and hip-hop dancing.  For the second year running, Steven Song joined the dancers on stage for a quick performance and really showed off his moves.

After lunch at McDonalds, and an icecream, it was back to the ferry for the return to school.

ESOL Teachers

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Our ESOL students have been tested recently in oral language, written language and reading. The results showed the significant progress made by many of our students.

These students have moved from Level One to Level Two: Chloe Baek, Cherry Chen, Justin Kang and Amy Noh (Year 8), Satyam Dewan, Carlos Dias, Marnus du Plessis, Steven Song (Year 7).

Students moved from Level 2 to Level 3: Stephanie Sin, David Qu, Jennifer Han, Serafina Zhou (Year 8), Saksham Anand, Catherine Chen, Eric Kim, Yilin Zhong, Kevin Park, Vicky Lee, Daniel Yang, Jinny Hong (Year 7).

Year 8 students who have now graduated from the ESOL programme are Chantelle Melentrez, Simone Nel, Philip Badenhurst, Kylie Pan, and Ian Lee.  Year 7 students are Regina Sanga, Tian Ru Cai, Kunal Bhatia, Irene Chen, Kyla Solomon, and Sally Lee.

The focus of this term has been narrative writing based on fairy tales. All students have read a variety of stories and have chosen one to change and adapt. These stories have been made into picture books. The guided reading programme has continued to week 7, we are pleased to report all students have made significant progress.

For the first time the ESOL Department has decided to award certificates to outstanding students. The results are as follows:

Annie Lee for `Overall improvement in all areas of literacy.’

Annie Jiang for `Consistency in home-reading.’

Hye Min Yun for `Diligence and excellence in all written work.’

Daniel Yang for `Excellence in home-reading.’

Catherine Chen for `Outstanding diligence.’

Mike Hwang for `Marked improvement in all areas of literacy.’

Joanne Lee for `All round excellence.’

Vicky Lee for `Outstanding progress in all areas of English.’

Serafina Zhou for ‘Excellent attitude and progress.’

Congratulations to these students. We look forward to another exciting year in 2010. From all of the ESOL teachers thank you for your support and we wish you a very merry Christmas and a safe and happy New Year!

Congratulations to all our hardworking students.

Congratulations to our wonderful teacher aides who have just graduated as qualified English Language Assistants.

Mrs Yang and Mrs Kim have studied hard this year to complete a six month course run by the Ministry of Education. This involved monthly assignments, and professional development days followed by an in-school visit from their facilitators.

Topics covered were: Developing and enriching concepts and language, scaffolding language, effective reading to and with students and effective writing development with students.

Well done ladies, we are proud of you. See the photos below of the Korean Fan Dance group, performing at Baverstock Oaks school, as part of the graduation ceremony for the ELA course.

Speeches
There was a pleasing standard of English language speeches presented in the ESOL department. Students followed the school guidelines and produced interesting, well-researched speeches.

Mandarin Speeches
Irene Chen has been selected to represent the school in the Auckland Mandarin Speech competition. The reserve is Seraphina Zhou. This is being held on Monday 24 August at 7 p.m. at Wakaaranga School, Butley Drive, Farm Cove.

Korean Speeches
Selection for the school representative will be next Tuesday.

Term 3 Topics
This term the Level One topic is Procedural Text. Levels Two and Three are working on Expositions. These types of writing are taught in their home classrooms as well.

Today a group of parents met to listen to Pavarati from the Ministry of Education. She spoke about the New Zealand Education system from pre-school through to college. In addition to this, she handed out booklets of useful information for migrant parents. It listed useful websites that parents and students can access for help with educational activities.

Also included in the booklet was a step-by-step explanation of Science Investigation terms – both in English, as well as Korean and Mandarin. Science Fair categories were listed and assessment criteria were discussed.

Science Fair boards were displayed to give parents an idea of the high standard of work that is expected – both research and presentation.

Mrs Murray explained that Level One ESOL students will not be doing an individual experiment for Science Fair. Instead they are presenting a detailed animal investigation based on their own choice of animal group. It will be presented in the same format as the rest of the school, and will be on display in the hall with the other boards.

Mrs Barnett explained that the Level Two and Three students will be completing a science investigation just like the other students at Bucklands Beach Intermediate. Time will be allocated in the ESOL class each day to support and assist them with this work.

All science investigations are due on the Monday of week 10, June 29th. All students are expected to deliver a speech explaining their work in front of the ESOL class.

The ESOL team will hold another parent meeting next term where a guest speaker from Team Solutions will discuss reading at home with your child. Translated reading material will be available for parents who attend. Watch this space for the dates.

A parent meeting was held last Tuesday, 10 March to introduce the staff and ESOL programmes to parents. There was also an opportunity for parents to see the ESOL area, resources and students’ work. An outline was given of the programme for 2009. Then the Year 7 parents were given information relating to the school camps; whilst the Year 8 parents had an informal social time.