2015 Highlights

Valuable Waitangi Experience

 

Year 9-12 tauira taking Te Reo Maori ventured to Waitangi on Thursday 24 September. The group, accompanied by Whaea Maihi and Whaea Leauga experienced a Powhiri by the tangata whenua and responded with our Lynfield School haka!

After visiting the Treaty grounds, all got on to the ferry to head to Kororareka (Russell)  A fantastic day learning about the Treaty, Maori culture and Maori and Pakeha race relations.

Lynfield Students Prominent in Goethe Society Exams

Lynfield students have again been well-represented in the awards following this year’s Goethe Society exams. 34 students out of 48 participants were invited to the official prizegiving at the University of Auckland which is a very pleasing result.

Congratulations to the following students:

Prize Winners:
Year 10: Fabienne Distelzwey (1^st Place), Katherine Diep (2^nd Place), Yong Shan Zhao and Jackie de Pont (3^rd Place equal)
Year 12: Elsyha Negi (2^nd Place),

Prize of Distinction:
Year 9: Michael Howell
Year 10: Muskaan Somjee, Michelle Strapajevic
Year 11: Maddy Freeman
Year 12: Oliver Rusden, Meghana Moturu, Maddy Poland, Adam Herring
Year 13: Hannah McIntyre, Vahishta Patel

Diploma of Excellence:
Year 9: Amelia Hudson, Faye Hine, Sarah Young, Sameera Reddy
Year 10: Emily Liston, Manasi Nair, Krishen Chovhan, Cathy Lai,
Year 11: Aleece Monkman, Gus Barrowman, Gain Thawornjira-Angkoon
Year 12: Victoria McArdle, Heta Patel, Deenisha Khatri
Year 13: Andrea Lewis, Claudia Paine, Alice Purdie, Annabelle Larsen, Holly Mills

Scholarships to Germany for Adam Herring and Elysha Negi

 
Adam and Elysha have each won a scholarship  to travel to Germany. Adam will be travelling to Germany at the end of 2015 to spend 2 months in a host family going to school and being immersed in the German culture. Elysha has been selected to represent New Zealand in the German Olympiad in Berlin in 2016 where the top students from all over the world come together to participate in different language competitions.

Adam wrote:
 
“When Frau Zimmer told us there was an opportunity to receive a scholarship to Germany, I thought: okay, why not give it a shot. All I had to do was speak in German to an interviewer for ten minutes. How hard could it be?  A few days later when I received an email saying that not only myself, but my fellow class mate Elysha, had been accepted for a second interview in Wellington I was thrilled.  
 
On the 27^th of July the other students from Auckland along with Elysha and myself, caught a flight down to Wellington where we met our fellow finalists. Once we had been shown, where we were staying, and had become acquainted with each other, we were allowed to explore the city. Having only visited Wellington when I was much younger, I was lucky to get a guided tour from the local Wellington students. As it happened the day we were in Wellington, was the day that the Te Papa museum had a free open day, which we all took full advantage of.
 
For dinner we went to an Italian restaurant, which I thought was a little strange, as we were on a German language trip! It was only when we were ordering our food and the waitress answered me in German that I understood why we had gone there for dinner.
The next morning after our final interviews, it was time to say goodbye. Although we were only there for two days, we had made some good friends and had some experiences that we wouldn't forget.
 
A few weeks later I received an email saying that I had been awarded one of the scholarships, (or at least I thought that’s what it said, since it was all in German. I wasn’t completely sure, until my German teacher rang me confirming the news!)
 
I think that it is a great testament to my teacher Frau Zimmer that out of all the Year 12 students in New Zealand, two of us from her class were awarded scholarships to Germany.”

The photos are of the 14 finalists from around New Zealand when they went to Wellington for the final interviews.

 

Celebrating Maori Language Week

A special thanks to the Maori focus Group, Mr Tonks, and all of the staff and students who helped out with our Maori language celebrations.

 

We started the week with a powhiri for the visiting Shinagawa (Japan) students. After the ceremony, kai was shared and the haka was taught to our Japanese friends. Staff Haka practice was a success - this took place at interval with Mrs Leauga. during the week kai Maori including kaimoana and fried bread was brought to school by kaiako and tauira Kemu Maori Maori games were played in staff meetings and in the (classroom) akomanga. Prizes including tiakareti were awarded A performance at Green Valley Lodge Resthome in Glenfield from our akonga was a great way to share our language with our elderly through waiata and haka.  Arohatia Te Reo!

Language Classes Experience Chinese Culture

by Tashia Siew & Aimee Le Noel  (Year 9 Chinese)

On the 25th of June, two Year 9 Chinese language classes and the Year 13 Chinese language class went on a Chinese Cultural Trip to experience some Chinese culture including food, a visit to a temple, calligraphy and a martial arts lesson.

By 9:15 the bus was packed with students ready to go to martial arts and calligraphy lessons. We arrived at the cultural centre at about 9:45 and were greeted by the staff. After we were introduced to the instructor we were split into two groups, one would go to calligraphy and the other would go to martial arts.

Our group went to calligraphy first and we all sat down at one of the tables. We were taught a bit about the symbolism of the fish and characters that we would soon be writing. Very soon we all began to draw two fishes using black ink. We then all wrote a phrase and the date. As we walked out of the room to go to martial arts, we put the calligraphy on a table to dry.

We then walked to the martial arts room and started to warm up. We learnt two defensive moves, a front sweep and a tornado kick. The girls seemed to pick it up quite quickly but the boys seemed to be having a little bit of trouble! By the time the session finished we all knew the two moves well. We went to pick up our calligraphy and headed to the bus to go to Yum Char at Enjoy Inn for lunch.

We got to try a selection of Chinese dishes and were surprised at how nice they tasted. Some of the dishes there were spring rolls, prawn dumplings, lemon honey chicken, fried rice and stir fried noodles etc. They are very delicious. After lunch we walked to a famous Chinese temple in Auckland. We then explored the outside and took a group photo. Before we went inside we had to take our shoes off .
Once inside we began to realize all the detail that had been put into creating it.

We all enjoyed the trip a lot. We got to experience some Chinese culture that we would not usually get the chance to experience like martial arts. We are sure that everyone would love to go again another time.

Language Perfect Awards Ceremony 2015

This year’s Lynfield College Language Perfect World Championship Awards Ceremony at the end of term celebrated the success of the 38 Gold and nine Elite Award winners. The students answered a staggering 461,296 questions over the course of the competition and also came 1st in New Zealand for both Chinese and German. Lynfield College also won 1st place in New Zealand for the NZALT (New Zealand Association of Language Teachers) section and received a cup presented by Martin East, President of NZALT. This is an astonishing accomplishment and clearly shows the strong value and status that learning languages has at Lynfield College. Following some encouraging words by Acting Principal, Lexie Ridling, the students indulged themselves in some well-deserved food which was sponsored by the Language Perfect Team

.The nine Elite Awards were gained by Darren Ng, Nancy Sun, Scarlett Chen, Min Shyen Tan, Carrie Zhang, Gain, Thawornjira-Angkoon, Bethany Moxon, Andrea Lewis and Sophie Peung. We are all looking forward to the challenge of next year’s World Championships and hope to improve further on the success of this year.
 

Te Reo Students Weave with Blockhouse Bay Primary

 

On Monday 11 May Mrs Leauga took 6 senior Te Reo Maori students (and 1 junior Kapa Haka student) to Blockhouse Bay Primary, where they taught children how to weave. Our students enjoyed their time with the primary school students and the latter had a great time too. A letter from a Blockhouse Bay Primary staff member says..   "Thank you so much for arranging for your students to come.  They were excellent.  Our children learnt a lot from them and your students had a lovely mix of manners, social skills and knowledge that they shared with the children so well. We are trying to enhance our Maori curriculum here and this experience was definitely part of that.   I think it's great to make links with your college and I hope the girls got a lot from the experience too.  I hope we can continue these links into the future."  He mihi mo to koutou mahi! Well done girls!  Sabrina Subritzky-Cowen, Chadeney Mcmanus, Olivia Riggs, Charlotte Cowie, Jordan Tamatea, Amaia Kiripatea-Gage and Shanaia Panapa-Ruri.