Week 2 - Term 3 - 2024

 Te tīmatanga o te mātauranga ko te whakarongo

Te wāhanga tuarua ko te whakarongo

The first stage of learning is silence

The second is listening.

Week 2 29 Hōngongoi - 2 Ākuhata International Week TOU201 to Mt Hutt - Mon 29 French students concert at CBHS - Mon 29 Forestry Big Day out - Tues 30 Cultural Dress day - Wed 31 LEF Grades due - Wed 31 Whānau Hui - Wed 31 @6pm  Chamber Music competition - Fri 2 Year 11 Formal - Sat 3	Week 3 5 Ākuhata - 9 Ākuhata QUAD Tournament - Mon 5 Subject Selection opens on portal - Mon 5 Australian Maths Competition p3 & 4 - Wed 7 Junior Speech Competition - p4 Wed 7 UC Law and Criminal Justice Day - Wed 7 LipSynch - Thurs 8 Senior Speech Competitor - Thurs 8 International Ski Trip - Fri 9 Equestrian - Cant ODHT - Sun 11
Assembly -  Mon -  Year 10 PAC Year 11 - Gym Wed - International	Assembly -  Mon -  Nil - Subject Selection Wed - House Assembly - LipSynch practice
Meeting  Mon:  Learning and Teaching Tues: Learning Area Thurs: PCT	Meeting  Mon: Te Whare Haoura Tues: Staff Thurs: Nil

Information for Staff

1. A few updates from the MOE:

• NCEA Level 1 Subject support is still available and many of your curriculum leaders and teachers will be in contact with their subject specific NCEA Implementation Facilitator. Where your subject specialist teachers do not have a MoE contact, connections can still be made and the team can point you in the right direction.
• On-Line Workshops Across the MOE team of subject specific NIFs are currently being scheduled and organised as on-line workshops for Term 3, and these will be advertised on the NCEA website. 
• External Achievement Standard Assessment Specifications: The assessment specifications for the subject external assessments are available. These are on the NCEA website with the subject external achievement standard information. The same document is on the NZQA website by typing in the achievement number and scrolling down the page to the “Level 1 Specifications” link. Please be aware that the instructions and conditions of assessment of these external specifications differ from subject to subject, or standard to standard. It is VITAL that curriculum leaders and teachers carefully and thoroughly read the assessment specifications for the details of the external achievement standards they are using, rather than relying on information from another subject area or achievement standard’s document, or social media.

2. Here is a very interesting article - Navigating the impact of mobile phone bans in schools.

The idea of the 'popcorn brain' mentioned, where your attention jumps around rapidly, can affect a student's focus and it is interesting that the average attention span has decreased from 2.5 minutes to only 47 seconds in the last 5 years or so!

You may be also interested to know that this is not just students, but also many adults, meaning that there is only a superficial engagement with information that is presented to them. Food for thought.

Week 1 - Term 3 - 2024

 He mahi kai hōaka, he mahi kai tāngata

Just as work consumes sandstone, so it consumes people/everything worthwhile takes considerable effort

Week 1 22  Hōngongoi - 26 Hōngongoi  Geo101 to Quake City Tues 23 - Thurs 25 (1 Class each day) Young Writers Workshop - Tues 23 Orchestra - Intermediate Schools in PAC TOU201 to Hanmer Springs - Fri 26 Curriculum handbook updates to be completed - Fri 26	Week 2 29 Hōngongoi - 2 Ākuhata TOU201 to Mt Hutt - Mon 29 French students concert at CBHS - Mon 29 Forestry Big Day out - Tues 30 Cultural Dress day - Wed 31 LEF Grades due - Wed 31 Whānau Hui - Wed 31 Chamber Music competition - Fri 2 Year 11 Formal - Sat 3
Assembly -  Mon -  Nil Wed - Welcome back and Legacy Club	Assembly -  Mon -  Year 10 PAC Year 11 - Gym Wed - International
Meeting  Mon:  Nil Tues: Learning Area Thurs: Nil	Meeting  Mon:  Learning and Teaching Tues: Learning Area Thurs: PCT

Information for Staff

1. Welcome back to term 3. A couple of reminders for the upcoming term:

• Please have the curriculum handbook updated by Friday 26th July. This will go live again on our website after this date. Students will begin choosing subjects from the start of week 3.
• Subject choice afternoon is on Monday 12th August - there will be a shortened p5.
• All external entries for the end of year examinations should be in by 1st August - this gives students a chance to check their entries prior to the 1st September deadline. If you need to have conversations with students over digital vs. paper entry, please do this ASAP. If they have SAC conditions this can affect their ability to access a writer, so it is important that if a change is made to a student who has approved SAC conditions that JAC is informed ASAP.
• School examinations are scheduled for the end of week 8 and through week 9. Due to year 11 students having less exam based externals, they will not be off school for the full 7 days of exams. This also allows for subjects who need the time to complete over time submissions to do so before the end of Term 3 as the year 11 cohort will be back in class during week 9. There will be more information to come around this.

2. The University of Reading in the UK has revealed that ChatGPT can not only pass university exams but also outperform human students. This discovery is forcing institutions worldwide into an immediate dilemma. Do they fall back on traditional exams and risk irrelevance, or adapt?

The study paints a stark picture of AI's capabilities. Researchers created 33 fake student profiles and used ChatGPT to answer exam questions for first, second and third-year psychology modules.

The results were astonishing:

• 94% of AI-generated submissions went undetected by markers

• AI consistently achieved higher grades than human students

• Only in third-year exams requiring more abstract reasoning did human students outperform the AI

These findings raise significant concerns about the potential for students using AI to undermine academic integrity. The implications are far-reaching, challenging the foundations of how many university courses evaluate student learning.

To read more of the article - see AI adapt or retreat.