School camp
We aim for the whole school to go on school camp every year. This is paid for by Kea Kai fundraising, which is why it is so essential that every family supports Kea! In recent years we have had camps to Kaikoura, the West Coast, Mistletoe Bay, the Marae at Golden Bay and Totaranui. The photos below are from Mistletoe Bay, 2014.
school production
Every second year we aim to put on a school musical - and we aim to make it the best we can! In 2013 and 2014, we not only put on our show at the St Arnaud Community Hall, but we also moved the school to the 'Suter Theatre' in Nelson for two days to rehearse and perform in a real theatre. We performed a matinee for friends and other schools and an evening performance for the public and our families. This is a great opportunity for children to develop confidence and problem-solving skills in a theatre skills context. These photos are from our 2014 production of 'Treasure Island.'
winter sports
Our alpine environment offers the ideal opportunity for our students to take part in winter sports! Skiing has long been a key element of our sports programme - we aim to ski for 5-7 days during Term 3. We also like to skate on the natural skating pond when the opportunity arises.
brass band
Since 2007 we have had the fantastic Nick Sharpe coming into school each week to give lessons on brass instruments and to run our school band. Some of our first brass students are now in Wellington studying for degrees in music! There are opportunities for all learners to perform in various contexts and to take Trinity College Music exams if they wish.
year 7 & 8 tramp
Each year, the students in Years 7 and 8 go on an overnight tramp. The photos below are from our 2014 expedition - walking up Mount Robert to Bushline Hut, sleeping overnight under fly-sheets and then walking down to kayak across Lake Rotoiti the next morning.
athletics
In 2014, we hosted our first athletics event when we welcomed children from the district to come and enjoy a series of athletics activities at our school. This Year, 2017, we will host children from Wairau Valley School who will come to us in Term 1 to enjoy a day of athletics.
swimming
During the summer months we aim to swim in our pool every day! We have intensive lessons from qualified instructors - we believe that living in a lakeside environment, which also has lots of rivers, it is vital that our children are competent swimmers with basic life-saving skills. Currently, the Board of Trustees are in the process of organising the rebuild of our school pool to make it longer and deeper (and quite possibly warmer!) - we aim to have the pool open by November 1st 2017!!
Sailing on the lake
Yachting New Zealand spend several days with us each year, teaching older children to sail in Optimist boats. We value this activity as one of the ways that we get to learn new things in our unique environment. In 2014/15, there was also the opportunity for our children to sail after school with the Lake Rotoiti Sailing Club.
year 7 and 8 city experience
We like to take our students to experience the city at some point during Year 7 and 8. We find that taking just the older students allows us to pack lots more in to our days away from St Arnaud and can visit places more suited to older children. Most recently we've been to visit Wellington; we visited the Beehive, the observatory, the New Zealand Portrait Gallery, various museums (Te Papa of course!) and the Bolton Hotel (we had a private tour - including the suite where Katy Perry stayed!). We were able to fly from Blenheim to Wellington - it was the first time some children had been on a plane.
book week
Every year, in Term 3, we have a book week; we host a Scholastic Book Fair, hold a book character dress-up day and a book quiz (where student teams pitch against the parents!)
