Dear Parents & Caregivers,
Wow, we have had a busy start to the year! We have been very blessed with a healthy growing Junior School department. Our current number of Year 7 & 8 students is 59, of whom 35 are new! We are getting to know each other and getting used to the new routines and life at LAC, including new teachers and navigating the 10-day timetable. Thank you for supporting us and choosing LAC. We are looking forward to getting to know you better as the year goes on.
This notice is to inform you of some important dates coming up and how to access the key online tools we use to support learning in the Junior School. If you have any questions, please don’t hesitate to ask.
Parent/Teacher Interview Booking Open
Interviews are being held Wednesday 25 March between 6-8 pm. Interviews are only 5 minutes long. This is a good time to briefly catch up and see how your child has settled in and also to discuss any questions or concerns you may have.
Bookings are made on www.schoolinterviews.co.nz event code is ppy5e (not to be confused with parentinterviews.co.nz!)
Christian Interschool Sports Day
On Friday 20 March our school will take part in a sports day with 8 other Christian schools, held at Cornerstone Christian School. The purpose is to mix and mingle with other Christian young people from the lower North Island. Students will need to wear PE uniform to school (with a school jersey or school jacket), hat, bring a hearty lunch, drink bottle, and sunscreen. Please complete the permission slip attached. Please ensure you indicate on the form if you will be transporting your child home from Cornerstone.
Camp
This year’s camp will be held Monday 30 March – Wednesday 1 April at Motuiti Marae, in Foxton. We have spent lots of time learning about Māori culture and history, and Te Reo, and we have each prepared our pepeha in readiness for our Marae visit. We are really looking forward to working with our young people and building strong relationships, working together and building cultural awareness and resilience. More information specific to camp will be coming out later in the term. Fees for this are covered in the LAC Activity fee charged through the school office.
Local Certificate of Educational Achievement (LCEA)
At LAC all year levels work towards attaining a LCEA at the end of year prize giving ceremony. This is gained by collecting credits earned for work completed to either an Achieved, Merit or Excellence level. In Years 7-10 a total of 120 credits are offered. Students need 80 credits to gain the LCEA. To get a Merit Endorsement – 50 of those credits must be at either Merit or Excellence level. To get an Excellence Endorsement – 50 of those credits must be at the Excellence level. This is
Logging On To LAC
LAC is a Bring Your Own Device (BYOD) school. We expect students to have a charged device each day to actively participate in learning in class. There are a number of digital apps we use to enhance the education of your child and would like to invite you to be a part of these with us.
The LAC Website
This is a great source of information for our community. Students can access information about house points, lost property, LCEA credit information, subject structure, itinerant music lessons information, etc.
LAC Portal/Live reporting
Our method of reporting at LAC is one where teachers add grades and comments to our Student Management System ‘KAMAR’, which are available for you to see through the Student Portal at any time. This means you will be able to log in anytime to see your child’s progress. Ryan Gounder (our IT manager) has recently sent information to all parents and caregivers with the student login details you need to access this.
There are a few ways to access the Portal:
- www.lac.school.nz
- School App
- KAMAR App
- When using a computer, laptop, Chromebook, or phone.
- www.lac.school.nz website.
- Click on Portal button top right screen.
- Logon with username and password given in separate email.
When using a phone or tablet.
- Download SchoolAppsNZ from Android Play Store or Apple Store.
- Search for Longburn Adventist College.
- Subscribe to the groups you want alerts for, eg; Year 7, Volleyball, etc.
- Set your alert tones/style through your phone settings (not the SchoolAppNZ settings – these are either on or off).
- Connect to Portal through the app with username and password given in the separate email.
Other Educational Apps
We are a Google School and actively use Google Classroom and the full range of Google Apps. Later in the Term, we will send an invitation for parents and caregivers to join our Google Classroom and have daily or weekly summaries emailed from the material given to students in class. This will help you to keep on top of the assessment due dates and projects being done in class.
We have also signed our students up to Mathletics – an online numeracy program; Education Perfect – a spoken language program, mainly to support Te Reo; and depending on e-Asttle results, Lexia – a literacy program. Students have been given these usernames and passwords to use at school, but the extra time spent at home would further support their learning in these areas.
If you have any questions, please don’t hesitate to contact us; email is our preference.
Rachel Paki, rachelp@lac.school.nz
Steph Ngarepa, stephanien@lac.school.nz