Ross Intermediate School
| Ross Intermediate School Te Kura Waenga o Ross | |
|---|---|
| Address | |
| 25 Freyberg Street, 4414, Palmerston North, Manawatu, New Zealand | |
| Information | |
| Type | State Co-Educated, Years 7 - 8 |
| Established | 1958 |
| Ministry of Education Institution no. | 2440 |
| Administrator | Toni Templeton |
| Principal | Wayne Jenkins |
| Age | 11 to 13 |
| Houses | Sheppard, Hillary, Cooper and Ngata |
| School roll | Approx. 495 |
| Socio-economic decile | 6 |
| Website | rossint.school.nz |
Ross Intermediate is a State co-educational intermediate school for Year 7-8 students in the city of Palmerston North in the Manawatu-Whanganui region of New Zealand. It is the first school in New Zealand to have its own television station and laptop programme.
In 2015, the roll of Ross Intermediate was at 495[1]students. Students are placed into a composite class on the first day of Year 7. Students usually stay with the same Teacher for their two years attending the school. As of 2015, class sizes are no more than 24 students. The school tries to keep numbers at 23 students per class.
School houses
In 2006, under the guidance of principal Wayne Jenkins, the school houses were established as a way of creating competition among the school. These are useful for organising competitive teams in sports and cultural events. In 2014, a new house was added, named Cooper. The Cooper house contained the school's media classes. In 2015, Batten house was removed. Currently, the school houses are Cooper, Ngata, Hillary, and Sheppard, which apart from Cooper, are the same houses used for Awatapu College, also in Palmerston North. However at Awatapu College, Ngata becomes Green.
| Hillary | Named after Sir Edmund Hillary. | |
| Ngata | Named after Sir Apirana Ngata. | |
| Sheppard | Named after Kate Sheppard. | |
| Cooper | Named after Dame Whina Cooper. | |
History
Ross Intermediate School was officially opened on 14 February 1958 by the Hon. P. O. Skoglund.
PB4L
PB4L is a new concept that has been released into the school community in 2015. This concept changes how teachers handle with bad behaviour. Instead of punishing the child, they are taught to have a 'positive' behaviour. PB4L stands for “Positive Behaviour For Learning”. PB4L is about rewarding students who do good things for and around the school and not giving students detentions for bad behavior or other reason. There are three values in PB4L. These are, 'Act with Integrity', 'Learn with Purpose' and 'Inquire and Dream'. If a teacher sees you doing any of these three, they may reward you with a student award.
Reward System
Jade
All Ross Intermediate students receive this at the start of the year.
Projects
Refresh
In 2013, the school assemblies were named to Fresh but then late 2014 it was renamed to Refresh due to a copyright infringement from the TV show Fresh.
Refresh is about ending a school week in a fun way and from the audience's perspective. It is a great and fun show with lots of cool giveaways, such as TV’s, iPods and Chocolate boxes. The biggest giveaway to date was a forty-inch TV.
Radio Ross
Radio Ross is a radio station that is broadcast to the school. It formed in 2008. All classes spend time developing a range of Literacy skills through their Radio Ross unit. All students experience this over their two years at Ross Intermediate. Students broadcast their shows at lunchtime and before school.
The radio channel is 88.8.
Snap TV
There was a program called Snap TV. Episodes were created every Tuesday and Thursday. Each class made four episodes with four presenters, two for the Tuesdays show and two for Thursdays show. There were Tech crews including 3 camera crew, one Word player, one story player, one sound controller and one vision switcher. Each student took the roles of each position and there were other positions such as "turn back time" and featured story groups.
Snap TV ended in 2014.
One Bag At A Time
One Bag at a Time is a project a group of students from Ross Intermediate created in 2015. It focuses on the issue with plastic bags where they found out some shocking facts about what plastic bags do to our planet, and what happens to them after we use them. The students decided to make their own brand of recyclable bag. They have developed a regional interest in their product through holding regular meetings with locally supportive companies (e.g. The Warehouse, i-Sight, and Organic Living). They have sold bags and are looking for companies to sell more too.
Laptop programme
The Laptop program began in 2010. There were initially two programmes, but four more were introduced in 2011. In the Laptop classes, every student in the class is focused on learning using a digital program. Each student has one MacBook on which to progress through their learning at Ross. The Laptop classes still work on the same program as other classes such as Reading, Writing and Maths. Ross Intermediate are the first school in New Zealand so far to run laptop classes.
Activities
Technology
The Ross Intermediate technology program is all about experiencing different life skills. Technology does not require a sign-up, but it is compulsory for all students. The activities students participate in are spread throughout the year depending on what school house they are in.
The skills available are:
- Wood skills
- Art
- Music
- Food Technology
- Science
- In Wood skills students make structures out of wood such as a box or a clock. In Art, students do wacky types of painting and possibly make a sculpture. In Music, students experience different types of instruments with other students to make harmony’s. In Food technology, students learn to prepare all kinds of meals and later eat them. In Science, students experiment and learn about the body and the universe.
In 2012 because of increased class numbers a sixth technology rotation was added called "The Back to the Future Technology". However, the rotation has now ended.
Library
The Ross Intermediate library is located on the upstairs level in the school. The library is a small cube-like room, with a selection of fiction, non-fiction and picture books, each located at their own section. There are no full-time staff for the library, as it is only open Monday & Thursday every week. Students may get out books from the library when it’s open, or when their class takes a trip there. There is no programme for getting books out, but the mechanism used is Google Sheets.
Art Academy
Art Academy is a Friday activity for young Ross Intermediate artists. First, students have to apply at the start of the year and be assessed on how good their skills are at art and design. If students get into the Art Academy, they will be expected to show up every Friday for the whole school year at 11am in the Art Room. There is a maximum of about 30 students in the class.
Every two years, the Art Academy signs up to a wearable arts competition. This is when students get to design a crazy wearable outfit by themselves or with a fellow student, which is fitted to the years theme. Students get to show off their designs themselves down the runway. Students might have a chance to go on school field trips or have special days where students go to learn more about art outside of the school.