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.

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.