Samoan Independence Day

Since Samoan Independence Day is on its way in honor of this special day our Samoan class was given an assessment to write a Newspaper article about Samoan Independence day. To make this article newspaper realistic I added a few advertisements and small games.

       

AGGS TIMES

AFIO MAI

Samoan  Independence Day

              SAMOA MO SAMOA     

(Samoans For Samoa)   

Samoan independence day celebrates the day Samoa became an independent state. Samoa has become an independent state for almost 54 years. Even though Samoa became independent on the 1st of January, Independence day is modernly celebrated on the 1st of June. Where families come together, spend time with each other,  share food, and celebrate the independence of Samoa. This special day is also recognised by the samoan society in New Zealand and many other countries with the samoan community.

Continue to read as we have written interesting stories behind the samoan independence day and cover up how Samoa became an independent state.

Pg 1 - Influenza (Spanish Flu

Pg 2-The Mau Movement

Pg 3- Tupua Tamasese Lealofi iii

Pg 4- Samoan Independence Events

Samoa, arise and raise your banner that is your crown!

Oh! see and behold the stars on the waving banner!

They are a sign that Samoa is able to lead.

Oh! Samoa, hold fast

Your freedom for ever!

Do not be afraid; as you are founded on God;

Our treasured precious liberty.

Samoa, arise and wave

Your banner that is your crown!

(Samoan National Anthem Translation)

In 1914 New Zealand took control of  Western Samoa. But it wasn’t pretty. The people of Western Samoa were treated badly. As they would act very childish towards Samoa. And when I say  New Zealand took manage, I mean they really took manage! They controlled who married who, even the power of the traditions in Samoa such as the power of the Matai. Following that in 1918 an ugly deadly virus/disease also known as the spanish flu was spreaded in New Zealand, which then came to Samoa, killing thousands and thousands of the people in Samoa as well as the Western Samoa Population.

The Nz Colonial Masters did not care about it at all. It was forbidden that the people of Samoa receive treatment. And from that, many of the people died and were all buried in one grave.

Samoa was very sick of this non-sense and that’s when the Mau A Pule ( Mau Movement ) formed.

Mau movement in Samoan means opinion, unwavering or to be decided etc. The mau movement is a group of Samoans fighting for the the freedom and independence of samoa. Following their motto, Samoa for Samoans ( Samoa mo Samoa) as Samoa was then owned by New Zealand. The Mau Movement established in the early 1900s in Samoa, in the land of Sava’ii separate from Upolu. The Mau Movement included both Women and Men including their Leader Tupua Tamasese.

Black Saturday

The Mau Movement reached a climax on the 28th of December 1929 in the capital town of Apia. The streets of Apia were bombarded with bullet shots as the mau were trying to prevent the arrest of one of their member which the Nz Police arrested. This day became known as Black Saturday. During the war between Nz Police and Samoa, Tupua Tamasese Lealofi iii rushed in front of the violent crowd and urged both sides to make peace otherwise in Samoan language, Tamasese shouted “Filemu”.

Tupua Tamasese

Tupua Tamasese was born on May 1901 and was also known as joint head of state along with Malietoa Tanumafili ii. On the death of Tupua Tamasese some of Mau Movement Memeber were injured or shot trying to help him. As Tamasese layed down slowly dying, he said his last wish for Samoa.

“My blood has been split for Samoa. I am proud to give it, Do not dream of avenging it, as it was split in peace. If I die peace must maintained at any price”

INDEPENDENCE STRUCK

After all the efforts by the Mau Movement to gain independence the Nz Western Samoa act 1961 of 24 November finally gave independence to Samoa on the 1st of January 1962. Which followed along Samoa signing a kind relationship treaty with New Zealand. From that, Samoa is one of the first Small Pacific Islands to receive Independence. And that’s when Tupua Tamasese’s plead was fulfilled.

“Even though Samoa and Nz have an outrageous past. It is still very good to learn about as many of us young children need to know our roots and know what they did to protect all of us”

“Samoan independence day is still celebrated in most countries around the world with the Samoan community as we celebrate the independence of our country which was founded on god”

SPECIAL EVENTS

June 3rd:  schools celebrate.

29th of may - 4th of  June: Samoan Language week

Many more to look forward to

• Article of Malietoa Tanumafili ii
• Article of Tupua Tamasese’s Life
• Article of Schools In Samoa

I do not own any of these photos. Photo credits go to rightful owners.

Samoa - Research About Samoa

As most of you might have not noticed I now attend Auckland Girls' Grammar which does have some similarities to Point England School. This term I was able to learn some new subjects Science, Art, Samoan and more exciting ones too. In our Samoan class we were given a task to present a powerpoint, or something handmade to the class which gives a definition of Samoa. Here is the presentation that I presented on Friday.

2015 Reflection

This year has been a huge 'way to go' and this has been made possible because of our AWESOME teachers. Parakai, year 8 leadership camp, rainbows' end and even visits from Andrew Patterson.  This year couldn't get any better! Unfortunately this is my last year at Point England school and I wished all these events had happened sooner. All though, most of these events have a purpose to it. Such as our Year 8 camp earlier, the purpose of this was to learn, practice and take action in our leadership roles as we continue in the 2015 year. Here are a few reflections/flashbacks of my year at Point England School 2015.

Year 8/ Leadership Camp/ Term 1 
Year 8 means to show what awesome looks like, be a good role model and care for our school. Earlier in  term 1, team 5 had set up some cake stalls and our school had also set up a garage sale to be able to fund raise enough money for this camp (and we thank you for that!) This camp was very fun, amazing and inspiring too. We were all able to pick up on a few lessons and tips on our activities. Such as the water slide activity. Sure it looked like we were there just for the 'fun'. But we were able to co-operate and share our ideas openly and also be able to find new ways of formatting ourselves in lines to go down the slippery slide!

Garage Sale @ Pt England School 2015 from SchoolTV on Vimeo.



Year 8 Leadership Camp: Step up Marsden Camp from SchoolTV on Vimeo.



Tamaki College Talk Back For College / Term 2 
In order to prep ourselves for college, a few students from Tamaki College surprised us with a talk about things that happen in college. We were also very lucky to be given Tamaki College enrollment forms. You can read about how I found this talk, and into more what they were talking about by reading a blog post I posted just half an hour after the talk! Shows how much I was very excited for college. http://pesjosephinef.blogspot.co.nz/2015/07/tamaki-college-talk-back.html


Term 3/ Cindy In Da House 
Every two or three years, Mr Jacobson and some other few teachers organize and set up a production for our school and community to see. This year, our school were able to perform an eye opening act called Cindy In Da House. Unluckily, I wasn't apart of it. But I was able to be a supporter and enjoy the amazing show!




Reflection: 
So far this year, I was able to find myself as an independent person and be able to take huge responsibilities as a prefect. I have gained more knowledge in my leadership through out the year and I am very proud of myself.  Next year I hope my teachers would be able to pick up on how a confident speaker I am. As I go off to college I hope to take these teachings , learn from my mistakes and be able to be  a better person next year :)



Come aboard - we're expecting you! from SchoolTV on Vimeo.

Extension Reflection

Bioengineering, Tiritiri Matangi, Treaty Of Waitangi.. What else could there be!? It's been a really cool journey in extension and there's been some really cool stuff we've learnt this year as well. I would definitely miss extension as I head off to college next year.


Treaty Of Waitangi

To start off our year @ extension, we kicked off with learning about the treaty of waitangi.  Our task was to all make a document in groups and start researching about the history behind the treaty and why we have it. Once we had all the information, we had to gather it all together in a movie. Ana, Jordenne and I made a movie based on our knowledge of the treaty of waitangi. My highlight for this task was being able to co-operate with my group in making this movie such as sharing different ideas and even working with our new extension teacher, Mrs Lagitupu.



TOW JJA from Team 5 PES on Vimeo.


Tiritiri Matangi / Department Of Conservation 

Are you interested in birds? or even bizarre ones? Luck for us, because the extension also had the chance of learning about tiritiri matangi and the department of conservation. Unfortunately, during the process of research we found out that some of the species there are endangered. Our task was to create a home, or a model to help those endangered species so that they will no longer be endangered.
Josephine Biodiversity from Team 5 PES on Vimeo.


Bioengineering 
Our last project of the year happened to be very fun and cool to learn about. Why? Because through all our research we found out some very interesting facts about the things that happen, can happen, or will happen to your body. Thats right! We learn about bioengineering. Bioengineering, is another word for biological engineering. This can help you through severe injuries. Our task was to partner up, and create a presentation with all the evidence of our learning from our research. We even had a few discussion about the ethical and non ethical use of bioengineering.

Josephine and Jordenne from Team 5 PES on Vimeo.

Extension this year has been a huge journey for me here at Point England School. I've been in extension for about 4 years now and I have very much enjoyed all the different things we've learnt about. Extension places a huge part in my years at Point England school and I hope it does place a part in my years next year.

Also a huge thank you to my teachers who made it possible for me. Mrs Lagitupu and Mrs Tele'a xx Faafetai Lava

Yanomami

 This term, as part of our topic "Survivors" as a home class ( class 3 ) we have been focusing on some really bizarre countries. One of those countries happen to be the Yanomami people. Here is a presentation we did as group (Hannah, Angelina and Myself) to show you our understanding of the Yanomami people. 

Bioengineering (Term 4 Extension Task)

 This term , the extension group have been focusing on Bioengineering as part of our school topic 'Survivors'. We have learnt a whole lot from it and even had some discussions about the ethical and untethical uses of Bioengineering. Here is a presentation about Bioengineering followed by a movie at the end to guide you on what we have been doing and learning as part of this task,

Google Expedition

Dubai, Washington, England and even Space! Any place you could think of i’m sure we went there yesterday. What? Did you actually go there? Yes we did, with our eyes and mind. It may sound weird, but I tell you it was something realistic and so amazing! All the different places we went to and explored is something everyone would've definitely want to try again and again!

Tuesday afternoon, after a hot interval of playing in the sun, I knew it was time to get my mind back on track. Earlier that morning, all the year 7 and 8 students were announced that there was going to be a google expedition held in the morning for the year 7’s and after morning tea for the year 8’s. I was so thrilled, I couldn't even bother going to tech.

11:30 the bell struck loudly. I paused my play, and sprinted my way to back class. All though, I was getting a bit impatient and I couldn't hold all that excitement myself, so I shared some with my friends by basically doing what normal girls do, laugh and laugh and laugh. “Mrs Tele'a's coming!” I heard a small shout from the side of my shoulder, and I immediately got into position.

Mrs Tele’a then lead us inside the classroom and all the year 8s’ gathered together in the street for a few notices before trying the “Google Expedition.” Unfortunately, we had to do this event in our te reo groups ‘tahi, rua and toru’.  Rua was the first group to try it out and so tahi and toru had to go to into their maths classes and wait for their turn. I happened to be in toru, and it wasn’t really the outcome I expected.

“Woooww!” “Coool!” “Can I see yours?” All this excitement from the other group has really got me even more impatient. They looked so amazed, happy and looked like they were having a lot of fun. It felt like torture seeing them having fun.

12:06. I sat impatiently in maths class waiting for our turn. “Can they hurry up already?” “This is taking too long.” I complained in my head, as well as trying to stay on task with my maths work. “Toru, in the street now.” As soon as I heard that I raised my head and made my way into the street in quick movement. As we all sat together, Mrs Tele’a had told us our instructions before actually doing the real thing.

Google Expedition happens to be the name of the event that was happening. What we were using is something called a google cardboard. It looked very similar to binoculars, but with a smartphone inside. A way to hold it, well the only way to hold it, is if you’re holding a burger or sandwich, except it’s for your eyes not your mouth.

As I held it up to my eyes, I could see the different countries I could explore even the different few places. I even got to see David Attenborough (famous discovery narrator) in one of the places.

The coolest thing about the Google Cardboard is that we could zoom in and zoom out and even spot different insects and animals. I had a lot of fun visiting, different cities and countries.

The google cardboard is something that kids in the future could use as a part of their learning. This could also save a lot of money from going to trips and events. Hopefully there would be a way that you could make your own google cardboard! This is definitely an experience i’d try again in college and share with my friends.

A Talk For College

Earlier today, the year 8's were very fortunate to have an eye opening talk by Mr Andrew Patterson.  The purpose of this talk was to help us in our upcoming years in college, to prepare and organize ourselves for things we do in college that we don't do in primary or intermediate. What's a start in college, with out a talk about college before the year of college? 

In our talk, he discussed about the importance of time periods in college.  My favourite topic he discussed about was the "7 Habits of Highly Effective Teens" He showed a movie showing a summary of those 7 habits. And of course these will become our habits next year becoming teens in college. 

The 7 habits were 

1. Be proactive
2. Begin with the end in mind 
3. Put first things first 
4. Think Win-Win
5. Seek first to understand, then to be understood
6. Synergize
7. Sharpen the Saw

What I learnt from Andrew, has provided a huge boost for my years at college. It made me feel what college would be like next year for me. Hopefully these ' habits ' will be applied to my every day teenage school life. :) 

Amazing Race

“What team are you in?” “What do you think we’re gonna do?” “I honestly can’t wait!” Chatter started to fill up our whole street and there was no sign of shut lips. Everyone seemed to be excited that they just couldn’t stop talking or moving and you’d probably wonder why.

Earlier that morning, to our surprise, it was announced by Mrs Tele’a that we were going to have an amazing race after morning tea. “Okay, shhh, shhh.” Mrs Tele’a said, capturing the year 7 and 8’s attention.

There was a timetable displayed on the projector for all the groups and events that were going to happen. Just before morning tea, every teacher wrote on the board what groups we were in.

This was based on who we could work well with. I was placed in a group with 6 girls including me (Ana, Jordenne, Hannah,Jennifer, Angelina). After Mrs Tele’a had introduced all the different events happening, she then sent us off to our first challenges.

‘Room 3 1A’ was the name of my group and our first challenge was called the ‘brain bust’ which was taken care of by Miss Fuamatu. This challenge was set on knowledge and on how well we know things.

My group sat together on one table, eagerly waiting for the papers with questions to arrive. Miss Fuamatu started off the challenge by letting us know some instructions.

Finally, the papers were handed out and we all started to hunch over the paper, focused on the questions. I’d  have to say that this was one of the hardest challenges we had faced.

Unfortunately, out of the whole 15 minutes my group had only reached 50 points since we did only get one question right. Everyone had different reactions to the points they had gotten, some had happy, sad, and some were even in rage.

Luckily we were given extra points for departure and arrival. My favorite challenge was the photo booth challenge set by Mrs Tele’a. It had already looked exciting before we even did the challenge, due to the different colourful costumes that were laid out on the tables.

The aim for this activity was to be creative in our thinking and think of the many poses we could come up with. Our first station was the hat station. It was fun dressing our heads in flowers, hats, and even wigs too!

As Mrs Tele’a came by with the ipad, my group started to practice our poses. We had an idea of pretending to scare someone with our crazy hats. The street was full of amusement.

My group was lucky enough to score 100 points including arrival and departure. My group seemed to be ready and excited for our next challenge which was the cookie face activity!

As we walked through the street on our way to the cookie face challenge , we were able to see different groups doing their challenges. We even saw people eating spaghetti mixed with fruits and all sorts of odd stuff.

Once we reached the shade outside on the courts, we noticed a big board with lots of pictures. The pictures included cookies, smiley faces and even people attempting to do the cookie challenge. All of the teams sat together in their groups, facing Ms Flavelle for instructions.

The focus for this activity was to place a cookie on our forehead and attempt to put the cookie in our mouth with no sign of hands. This was a very challenging part of the amazing race. After announcing instructions, she then handed the cookies to us, which we then placed on our forehead.  

I could already feel the crumbles from the cookie falling out of place on my face. It was really distracting. “And... go!” Ms Flavelle shouted in excitement. In straight action, I moved my eyebrows up and down, trying to make an effort of getting the cookie at least down to my cheek.

Successfully, the cookie slowly made its way down to the apple of my cheek leaving leftover crumbles behind. I attempted to reach my tongue out, aiming for the cookie, eagerly hoping to at least have the cookie in my mouth. Unfortunately, I failed the attempt.

 The cookie fell out of place, and slipped its way down to the concrete. It then went in shambles, only leaving nothing but little bits of cookie.

The amazing race challenge is definitely a way to face challenges with people you get along with. Along the way, you get to find out new things and have fun at the same time! This is an activity, I would definitely do again, but maybe we could add even more fun stuff! But all that’s important, is that I got to face the challenges with my friends.

Missing Headphones

Missing Headphones

8pm Saturday Night,

I sat in the car listening to my favorite music with my headphones plugged into my ears from my phone. I actually felt happy and calm listening to the different types of artists such as Tori Kelly, Beyonce and even Drake.

To make it even more better the lights of the streets looked beautiful and suited the nights sky. I was with my mum, driving on our way home from a long day at the hospital. We had been visiting my uncle.

When we made our way home I placed my headphones on the nearest couch to the door and made my way to my room. To my surprise my older brother and his partner had arrived with dinner. We all sat together, ate and started to talk and laugh as usual. I felt very content.  

It was then time for my brother to go back home. He had picked up some new clothes that was brought by my dad for him on the couch next to the couch I had my headphones on.  I didn’t even think about him taking my headphones away, since he did lose his phone. I sat there watching television for a good 20 minutes. Then it came to a point where I felt tired and exhausted.

I grabbed my phone and charged it up while I layed out my clothes for church the next day. At this moment, I was still calm and happy but tired.  Then I walked into the living room to collect my headphones and place them in my draw.

To my shocking surprise, I had noticed nothing was there! So, I rushed myself around the house eager to find my headphones. My parents started to get annoyed at the fact that I had asked them about several times in one hour.

The next thing that was missing, was my happiness and calm emotions. It had all splattered all over the floor and my emotions were replaced with anger, worry and sadness. I had searched under the chairs, under the tables and even behind the tv.

I stopped, sat down and tried to trace my footsteps. Then I had thought of my brother collecting the clothes from the couch. Maybe he could’ve taken it. Because my brother could take anything.

I had then texted my brother if he had the headphones, and in relief, he said yes. The next day, we went to go pick up my headphones, which were still in good condition. And I enjoyed another nice ride with music in my ears.

This gives me a lesson, of telling myself where to put things. Especially when guests arrive. No matter how small it or big it is, it needs to be put in the right place. Another example is remembering where you put your stuff because this can help you find what you're missing.

The Secret Underground

To start off term 4, Mrs Tele'a's literacy group 'Aoraki' have been focusing on Cave insects and animals and to support this we have been reading a book called The Secret Underground. This book talks about the underground life of different varieties of insects and animals. 

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My Animal: Ambrosio 
The name behind Ambrosio means eternal and indestructible. Ambrosio happens to be one of the longest living animals on the earth and even happened to be living around ancient times. 
An Ambrosio has very soft white pale skin, this only appears when the Ambrosio is calm and happy. When on it's bad side, the Ambrosio happens to pop out spikes on its back. 
You can learn more about this in my upcoming DLO

Immersion Assembly Term 4 2015

Every start of the term, our school gather in the hall for an immersion assembly. Immersion assembly is where teachers dress up in costumes related to our topic and perform an item or present a movie about what they’ll be learning about this term. What is our topic this term? Our school topic is Survivor.  

We are learning overall about the living world and how to adapt to survive. For me , this happens to be one of the most exciting topics of the year because, in our team we are learning about different countries and the way they adapt to survive!

The morning started off with a warm welcome greeting from Mr Burt. We were very lucky to have the sun out.  Everyone looked anxious to see the team items. I turned my head around to see what the teachers were wearing. They looked very amazing and some even had tutus, even Mr Blakley. The hall was full of excitement.

Our first item was from Team 1. The teachers had worn shirts with our school topic printed on them.  I was surprised that there was no item from them. The teachers had chosen a few students to participate in their Karaoke to Katy Perry’s roar. Most of the other teams had great movies/performances and their focus looked very exciting. Lots of them were learning about dinosaurs and habitats! How amazing is that!

My favorite item was from team 5 because their performance was very understandable and funny too. The teachers all dressed up and acted in individual countries. They were playing the game show ‘survivor’.  Their goal was to try and adapt to survive.  

The first game they did was eating noodles with chopsticks, which obviously Miss Clark won. You could tell by the chopsticks that were placed on her head. Miss Clark is from Tibet, which is also an Asian culture! And in Asian cultures they use chopsticks to eat.

Since this is the last term of the year, I noticed that this was our last immersion assembly ever.  So far during my time at Point England I have enjoyed lots of immersion assemblies and so far this was one of the best.  Hopefully this is something that can carry on for history!

How To: Have The Plane Ride Ever!

 Here is a presentation about How To : Have the best plane ride ever! This was just something I worked on during the week, and I hope this helps you a lot!

Cyber Smart!

     

Today with Miss Kyla, we were very fortunate to take a quiz based on how to be a cyber smart person. The quiz was provided with 11 questions all on the same topic. It was a bit weird how , it was a bit hard to understand a few questions as I am the type of person to always be around social media. From the quiz that I took today, I learnt that it is important not to give out any information or passwords to strangers - even parents, family or friends!  Following the small quiz activity, we were then told to answer a few questions on the google drawing. You can see from there what i have learnt this term, and what i have learnt from the quiz. 

Last Year Of Netball

Netball has been a huge experience for me! Especially as I have played for full five years. I started  playing for Point England in Year 4, where Mr Jacobson was my first coach and his wife was the manager. Just because this does happen to be my last year of playing for Point England, doesn't mean i'll stop playing. Playing netball is a sport that I really treasure a lot. In year 5 I played for team 1, which was coached and managed by Mrs Squires. That year was probably one of the best years of netball! We came first in our netball grade and received medals as part of our gift :) In year 6 & 7 I played for team 2, which was coached by Mrs Erasmus. This year, I played for the Point England Storm team which was coached by Timmi and Managed by Greg. It was a really tough ride this year having cake stalls, and a few fundraisers for our fees but it was all worth it! Hopefully sometime when I grow up, I can coach one of our Point England teams.

Staying Smart With Mobiles

 Today, Miss Peato's maths class got to discuss about being cyber smart with personal mobile phones with Miss Kyla. We had a talk about the many things we should be aware of when we are using mobile devices. We were then set up to a task to fill out the speech bubbles with at least 3 advice's to people who own mobile phones.

BOOT CAMP! BOOT CAMP! BOOT CAMP!

Yesterday afternoon, Room 3 got the chance to participate in an activity usually called as "Boot Camp". Every afternoon Friday, individual team 5 classes get a chance to participate in boot camp that's usually managed by the training coach - Nickila. Boot Camp basically focuses on keeping students like us fit and' physical for the year.

Room 3 had finally made their arrival to the courts with nothing but being nervous. We were welcome to sit down on the courts while she announced the few instructions we needed to do. We were very fortunate to have the sun out to keep us warm during this fitness time. Nickila first set us all up into partners, from there we all had to get in one line with our partners. Our challenge was to get our partner to run up and down the court, while the others either do ' 5 burpees/ 10 squats or 15 push ups '  .  It was a very tough challenge and my partner and I only lasted 5 minutes! 5 minutes!

Our next challenge was to get in to three groups and we were set up to go to an individual station. My groups first station was having to do lunges for 1 minute. I know that seems short, but it was harder than you thought!!! My thighs were hurting and my calves too. Our next station was the "Mountain Climber" station. Where we had to get into a push up position and move our legs as if we were climbing a mountain. The last station was similar to the mountain climbing one. Except, we had to hold ourselves. That was the most challenging one we had to be honest.

Boot Camp is something that lots of our junior kids can look forward too. It's great for children who would like to develop a special sports talent. All though it is hard and sweaty, it all become worth it!

Spend Save Share

 This term we are focusing on Trade and Enterprise. And in team 5 our main focus is " How to be financially responsible!" This week we were given  a presentation to work on as part of our team topic. It listed a few questions on how we can be financially responsible and specifically why we save money. P.s The presentation will automatically update during the next few days ! 

Josephine Smart Surfing

 We have been learning about Smart Surfing with Mrs Kyla and how to search for information efficiently using Key Words. You can look at the presentation above to also help you search for things you need!

Moving In

 For inquiry, we have been focusing on Trade and Enterprise. Following our inquiry, we had the job to finish off a task of moving in. See what Ana and I have done in the presentation.