News

August 2

The finalists have been announced - and I have to say I don't agree with the judging! So it's just as well I didn't do the judging!

There are so many gorgeous entries, how could I possibly have squeezed them into a limited number of finalists? Some of my favourites didn't make it on to the list - and I'm sad for those children who I wanted to encourage. So if you or your child missed out, and you thought your work warranted being a finalist - don't give up.

Not making it onto the list doesn't mean anything besides the fact that that judge had a particular way of looking at things. If you love art, keep going with it - there will be other opportunities to showcase your work, other competitions to enter. Learn from the other gorgeous work you're in company with, and keep on doing what you love.

 

July 15 - Closing today

The last two weeks have been mad - in a good way! Looks like there'll be around 2500 gorgeous entries, and 60,000 visitors to the School Is Cool website.

Everyday we've been blown away by the new gorgeous entries. We can be so proud - of our students, of our educators, of our schools, of families and communities. The quality of work is so very impressive - the ideas, the intepretation, the techniques, the impact.

Please, send links to all your friends and families - there's such a positive message here about the New Zealand education system. We are one of the best education systems in the world - but it won't stay that way without people getting behind it. Politicians are interfering in a great system. They're not interested in a conversation about how to make it better.

For the sake of our marvellous children, let's fight the good fight to keep our schools and centres at the top of the world.

 

June 30 - Wow!

Some of these works are so good, if it weren't for the employment laws, these artists could start applying for jobs! We're up to 1200 entries and 30,000 visitors to the website, on a roll.

 

June 29 - Competition extended

We had a heap of requests to extend the competition deadline - in particular from Auckland principals (you guys are always so busy up there!) The new deadline is July 15, and all going well judging will be completed and announced by mid August. We are just blown away by the quality of the entries, incredible. We're also up to something like 30,000 hits on the website, and closing on 1000 entries. It's never been more important to show New Zealand and the world just how good our kids are. Now - I must get back to putting together the magazine which goes to the printer in just over 2 weeks, all these amazing entries are very distracting ...

June 17 - Hundreds of entries

Entries are flying in thick and fast - especially from the younger age groups. Need some more from the older kids! Quality is hugely impressive. Some debate here about whether we should extend the closing date. We had the idea to do the competition late last term - so it all came together very quickly. Might have been better to have had a longer entry time ... closing day only two weeks away now, and some teachers and students haven't had time to fit it into the programme for this term. At this stage, thinking we'll stick with June 30 as it's more straightforward. Could spend hours looking at these gorgeous entries ... but must get back to writing the winter issue of the magazine. Might just have a wee sneak look again though. Love the 'looking' options at the top of the home page.

June 9 - Turn PowerPoints into movies using Movie Maker

We're delighted with the entries we've received - loads of amazingly good work, inspiration and creativity.
The site has had about 8000 visitors already. Great to see the interest being generated in our talented students and their great teachers - let's keep that momentum going!
If you have a PowerPoint you'd like to enter, the site can't accept it - but you can convert is quite easily to a movie using the program Movie Maker. With Movie Maker you can add special effects and other stuff.
If you only have one slide on the PowerPoint, take a screenshot of it, save it as a jpeg file, and upload that.

June 1 - Wonderful work

Some absolutely gorgeous pieces of art arrived on the EA desk even before the website opened!

It’s been very exciting for us here at NZEI – even a little bit too exciting at times as we worked on building the site and ironing out last minute glitches, all in a bit of a rush.

The idea for the competition came out of a discussion here about just how fabulous Kiwi students are – and how many New Zealanders don’t even know this.

A New Zealand writer/illustrator friend, who’d visited schools in the US, had told us how many students there didn't know what to do with a piece of paper and pens when he’d handed them out on a school visit. They were so used to being told what to do – copying and rote learning. Our kids are really do lead the world, he said.

It was Dempsey’s idea to run a competition (he’s our web whizz) – let’s get it out there. People need to know this!

These first pieces of art are totally impressive – you guys are good! Let’s show the world.