For the last few weeks me and a lot of other year 8 girls did self defence for over 3 weeks and five sessions with our self defence instructor Linda. The first week we started off by yelling “Back off” and getting into a strong fighting stance. After that we practised some kicks and different ways to do them. The next day included Linda teaching us what to do if someone grabs our arms and tries to get us to go with them. We start by saying that we don’t want to go with them but if that doesn’t work we make the hand that is being grabbed into a fist and then we grab our fist and pull it up. That way we break free from their grip. Linda made it very clear to all of us year eight girls that it isn’t okay for people to go against your boundaries and if they do you need to tell a trusted adult until you feel the problem is resolved.

This week marked my ninth week back at school for 2025. I really think I done well and my positive this week was making dumplings at tech with Me, Quinn, Hugo, and Jaime. We all got meat and some vegetables but others chose to have a vegetarian dumpling. We each made 8 dumplings with six of them all a different design.

Something I enjoyed this week was doing my mahi-a-tahi because the puzzles that I chose to, aka the wordle and strands were really fun. I have 2 points to go until I have 5.

A challenge I faced this week was with my maths because we are learning algebra. We have these books that we do all of our work in and then the teacher marks it. Hopefully I can get better at that but I’m slowly starting to understand it.

Something I will work on next week is getting my literacy tasks done.

This week I think I have done really well. My most positive thing is that I learnt a new line dance called ‘Fireball’. It only has about 3 steps and I learnt it pretty easily.

Something I really enjoyed was tech because Me, Quinn, Hugo and Jaime made some bread with cheese on top a.k.a a cheese roll. We made it using yeast, water, flour, oil, sugar, salt. Once we had made it we did some book work at left tech on the busses.

A challenge I have faced was with my math because now we have a new learning tool and we had to do test on them and I feel that on all 3 of the test I got pretty low with my highest being 83%.

Something I will work on next week is my mahi-a-tahi again.

NZ’s wake-up call: Drowning increases in 2022

The number of preventable drownings in 2022 has already surpassed 2021 figures, statistics from Water Safety New Zealand show.

There have been 80 preventable drowning fatalities for the year to 9 December 2022, up from 75 for the same time period last year. Compared to this, there were a total of 90 drowning deaths for all of 2021, which Water Safety NZ said was the worst year for drowning fatalities since 2011, when there were 91 drowning deaths.

“Our drowning toll is something every New Zealander should see as a national disgrace and one we all have a responsibility to address. We all need to make better decisions around water,” Water Safety New Zealand chief executive Daniel Gerrard said. Drowning remains the leading cause of recreational death in New Zealand and the third-highest cause of accidental death.

According to Water Safety New Zealand’s drowning reports, there were a total of 797 preventable drowning deaths within New Zealand for the 10-year period from 1 January 2012 to 31 December 2021.

“This data helps us better understand New Zealand’s drowning problem – the risk factors and groups most at risk of drowning,” said Gerrard.

Of the drowning deaths so far in 2022, 

• 19 occurred while swimming
• 14 occurred from a powered boat over four metres. 
• 21 deaths occurred at a beach
• 16 were in rivers.

The 65+ age category was most represented among those who died, with 20 drownings, up from 17 in 2021. This was followed by the 25–44 and 55–64 groups, each with 16 drowning fatalities.

Males overwhelmingly made up the majority of drownings, at 82.5% of all drownings.

New Zealand Europeans were the most represented ethnicity, with 33 drowning fatalities in 2022, up from 22 in 2021. Māori were the next most represented, at 18, down from 23 last year.

“The number of people drowning is a wake-up call telling us that the way that we interact with water needs to change. It’s a shared responsibility to reduce our drowning rate. The New Zealand Water Safety sector is taking this seriously, but so must all Kiwis who are spending time in and around water.

Ultimately, we all need to make better decisions to ensure that ourselves, our whanau, and our friends are safe around water.”

Water Safety New Zealand is encouraging people to make better decisions around water by:

• Staying within arm’s reach of all kids under five at any time when they are near water. 
• Taking someone with you and keeping an eye on each other when you are spending time in or near water. In 2021, 44% of drowning fatalities occurred when the person was alone.
• Checking the weather conditions and wearing a life jacket at all times when out on a boat. 
• Wearing a life jacket when fishing from the shore in case something goes wrong.   

Questions

1. How many preventable deaths were there in 2022?

There has been 80 preventable downing fatalities.

2. Where did the most deaths occur?

Beach – It said 21 deaths had occurred there.

3. What age group had the most drownings?

65+ was most represented.

4. Do males or females make up the most drownings?

Males made 82.5% of drownings.

          What are the 4 things that Water Safety NZ encourage people to do?

1.  Stay within arms reach of all kids under 5 when near water
2.  Take someone with you when swimming
3.  Check the weather conditions and wear a life jacket when going on a boat
4. Wear a life jacket when fishing from the shore in case something goes wrong

This is my very safe river scene that Me, Amelia, And Aria made together.

This week has been a good week for me. I feel like I have accomplished a good amount of work and at tech I made some delicious burgers with Hugo and Quinn. And I feel like I might be progressing at maths because I’m getting my work done faster.

One main highlight of my week was during literacy time when me and my classmates had to do a spelling test. I got 56/58 because I misspelled two words but I did know how one of them I was going to fast and the other was American spelling.

A tough moment I faced was my mahi-a-tahi. I think I need to try and get most of it done on Monday because then I would have most of it done and then have time to complete the rest.

Here are the four unsafe things I noticed.

• A guy is getting pushed into the water while wearing clothes that could potentially get very heavy when wet and pull him down.
• A person is fishing in the water and it looks like a swimmer is about to swim into the fishing line and could possibly get caught on the hook.
•  A girl is jumping off of a dock where there is a sign that reads ‘do not jump’ This could be for multiple reasons such as people could be on boats there.
• A boat is tipping over and the two people that were on it have no life jacket on and could drown.

Today we have to set our self a fitness goal, my goal is to be able to complete the confidence course without skipping any obstacles. Once I have done this goal I will work on completing the confidence course faster.  

It has been one week since the school year began. I now feel very comfortable In my class and so do my friends. I have managed to do a lot of my work and I even worked on my handwriting. I would really like to get better at my maths and find out techniques to help me get through term one and the rest of the school year.

One of my positives is that I managed to get 77 on a math test out of a hundred. It took me around 9-10 minutes but I still tried. I really want to try and get better at some of my times tables and work on focusing harder so I don’t miss anything in future lessons.

A challenged I have faced this week is my mahi-a-tahi again. I’m finding it heard to be able to get all the points I need for the week. I think what I could do to help this is start with the harder ones and then do the easiest last. I feel like this would motivate to try even more than I did before.

Im super excited to see what else will challenge me this year.

This week was my first week at school as a year 8, I was quite nervous because I knew that there would be even more people in my class that I didn’t know. I’m also really excited to see what there is to come this year and if I can learn more learning techniques to help me through the year. One of the main things I would like to get better at is my handwriting.

One of my positives this week is that I managed to complete or nearly finish most of my work when my class was rotating to different groups. I have also started to catch up with my friends that I haven’t really talked to during school time, and I have helped them get comfortable in this class.

One challenge I have faced this week is with my mahi-a-tahi, I haven’t been able to get all three points for this because I was struggling with getting answers for some of it. I will try to improve on my skills and hopefully I can get it done faster.

I am really looking forward to see how this year will go.