February 2024

2BIO Smith’s Bush Field Trip

Level 2 Biology students visited Smith’s Bush on Thursday 29 February. Smith’s Bush has some of the oldest remnant bush on the North Shore. It has a series of looped walking tracks amongst the mature forest including a cathedral grove of giant pūriri, kahikatea and tōtara trees.

This was a half day field trip associated with an internal assessment. Here the students sampled abiotic data and recorded data about the plant species present in order to identify a community pattern. The trip also gave the students the opportunity to work across biology classes and learn about local flora.

We enjoyed good weather on both days and the students are now busy writing their written reports in class.

Year 9 Whānau Evening

We enjoyed seeing over 400 students and whānau on the field on the very sunny evening of Wednesday 24 February. Whānau met with Hui mai teachers, enjoyed a sausage sizzle, and made connections with other families.

Thank you to all those who were able to make it on the evening or who have connected with the school in other ways. We are looking forward to more of these evening during the year. The home-school partnership is vital in ensuring our young people are well-supported during their time at the College.

House Sports Day 2024

Held on Friday 23 February, this event is a Term 1 highlight and the students were ready for a huge day of fun and colourful House rivalry. Even our building construction crew from Naylor Love joined in the fun at the Tug of War!

Our Sports Captains and their Assistants tell the story ...

House Sports Day has been a tradition at Lynfield College for many years now. Students were dressed in their house colours and participated with enthusiasm and pride. All of the Houses (Bray, Fatialofa, Faumuina, Lewis, Reid and Zoricich) battled it out in different ways to earn as many points as they could.

We had different activities such as high jump, long jump, relays, 3-legged race, 100m sprints, basketball shooting, vortex and an obstacle course. At the end of the day everyone participated in our mascot and chant presentation which displayed amazing energy!

Congratulations to Bray for coming 1st for House Sports Day! Zoricich came in 2nd, Reid and Faumuina came 3rd equal, Lewis came in 5th and Fatialofa came 6th.

Sports Captains Fiona Siaopo and Annaleah Smith and Assistants Ryan Ghosh and Flynn Meiklejohn

Thanks to Ron Delgrosso for his superb photographs.

The House Captains had worked hard to involve all students in the presentation of their House Mascot. They really let their creativity flow as they came up with some interesting ideas, to impress the judges.

With a rotation of twelve 15 minute events in the morning students tugged, ran, jumped, threw and scrambled to gain points for their house. Teachers who took on the obstacle course had the incentive of winning 5 points for their house and were seen scrambling through the obstacle course too!

Special thanks to Mr Dye and his team of event organisers; Mr Waddington for providing the sound system; Mrs Van Nierkerk and her team for providing morning tea for the staff while they were all out supporting their houses and the Sports department for their co-ordination of this fantastic day.

Check out our Facebook page for more photos of this event: https://www.facebook.com/lynfieldcollege/

Badges Assembly 2024

On Tuesday 22 February, our 2024 Student Leadership team were presented with badges at our annual Badges Assembly. This celebration officially recognised our students and their roles to the wider community. The assembly was attended by proud parents, teachers, and the Year 13 cohort.

School Board Student Representative Rishitt Walavalkar welcomed everyone to the assembly, followed by the presentation of badges to the Young Māori and Pacific Pride Leaders. Michael Yu then entertained everyone, performing a piano piece by Bach. We were also lucky enough to have past student leader Jessica Varney (Lynfield College Head Girl 2019) as a guest speaker for the event. Her speech about goals and our vision for the school was inspirational and thought-provoking. The Year 12 Student Executive and Year 13 Student Executive next received their badges followed by the Senior leaders.

To round out the event, Head Students Daisy Chen, Zara Qureshi, Aaron Crasto and Calum Bint congratulated the entire 2024 Leadership Team and shared their insights into the year ahead. Finally, Ms Knell officially concluded the assembly. The 2024 Student Leadership Team is made up of 55 confident and dedicated leaders who are excited to make this year the most enjoyable for all Lynfield students.

Photo credit with thanks to Vini and Erica.

Gateway Students and the Construction Initiative

On Wednesday 21 February, Lynfield College Gateway students began part of a pilot programme linking schools to site visits to work experience and to possible apprenticeships. This is due to the investment of organisations and companies like Kainga Ora and Precision Construction who believe in working towards our future work force and developing apprentices.

Our students learnt about the importance of site safety, pre-construction, horizontal and vertical construction, materials that are used in the industry, and why. They also learnt that companies such as Precision Construction are taking the initiative in being a sustainable industry and cutting down on construction waste as it saves them $$$ in the long run.

Our students also heard from site managers about the need for leadership skills and they heard from apprentices, about what it was like getting into the industry. They found out that maths is soooooo important in the industry! Surprise! Surprise! Plus … problem-solving and being able to complete your paperwork are two really important aspects of apprenticeships. The students discovered that construction is not just a job but a career that can take them places, including Level 7 (equivalent of a degree) qualifications provided they are willing to be proactive learners.

From the students:

“I learnt about the tools that are needed by apprentices as well as funding that is available for tools.” Sol Alderton

“I learnt about the all the things that go on behind the scenes to make sure that everything runs smoothly on a job site.” Reuben Alexander

“I found out about the importance of planning ahead.” Reuben Elisaia

“I found out how important maths was in the construction industry.” Elijah Tallent

Huge shout out to Kainga Ora and Precision Construction for being part of our Lynfield College community and investing in our rangatahi!!! A fantastic out-of-class learning experience for our students.

Greentown Yuhua Qinqin School Visit

From 18 - 21 February China Hangzhou Greentown Qinqin School Language and Cultural Exchange Group, with 16 students and two teachers, were warmly welcomed and their visit both at the College and with their host families was very successful.

In 2010, Lynfield College established a sister-school relationship with Hangzhou Greentown Senior and Greentown Qinqin Junior Schools. This began a reciprocal exchange which has taken place every year until COVID-19.

This recent exchange has provided many Lynfield College students with exciting opportunities to practise their Chinese with local Chinese students, and also has provided the opportunity for Lynfield College students going to China with the exchange next year to be emersed in Chinese culture and understand China better.

Beautiful photos thanks to Vini Laga'aia

Scholarship Breakfast 2023

On Friday 16 February we celebrated our NZQA Scholarship award recipients, whanau, and teachers, at a celebration breakfast. It was fantastic to celebrate their successes, and for those moving off to University, hear about their next endeavours, and for those returning, not only celebrating but being challenged to continue to strive for excellence and better their achievements in 2024.

SCHOLARSHIP RESULTS 2023

21 Scholarships were awarded to 14 Lynfield College students across 11 subject areas for 2023.

Congratulations to all our Scholarship students:

Evan Huang (Year 12) in Statistics, Biology, Chemistry, Physics, Economic

Anthony Haze Fleming in English, History
Jessica Brewerton in Chemistry, Physics
Mei Matsuki in Japanese
Michael Yu (Year 12) in Calculus
Nyah Jarvis in Biology
Riya Patel in Biology
Kenan Egene (Year 12) in English

Neel Kumar in Japanese, Biology
Darred Godinez (Year 12) in English
Akhil Mathur in Physics

Nitya Kumar in Design

Jeremy Watson in Design

Kovid Dev (Year 12) in Technology

Our Robotics Teams are Seeking Sponsorship

A 'Give a Little' page has been set up where donations are welcomed to help support our students compete at the Worlds in Dallas, Texas, 25 April to 1 May 2024. The QR code is on the right.

Please help Lynfield College Robotics teams get to the VEX Robotics World Championships in Dallas, Texas, USA.

VEX Robotics NZ National Championships

This year the VEX Robotics NZ National Championships were held at Lynfield College in both of our Gyms over three days from 9 - 11 February. There were 65 High School teams and three University teams competing for seven qualifying spots to the World Championships in Dallas Texas (the VEX World’s).

Two of our five teams did extremely well, winning the NZ National tournament as an alliance, but one of them, our only Middle School team was outstanding in that they also beat all the High School teams in the Robot Skills section of the NZ Nationals and won the prestigious Middle School Excellence Award.

Both teams have qualified for the WORLD CHAMPIONSHIPS
held in Dallas, Texas USA in mid-April this year

TEAM 2915E MEMBERS (YEAR 11)

Markus Maertzschink, Sohail Asyaban, Harry Baker, Rio Carron

TEAM 2915X MEMBERS (YEAR 12)

Hola Afasa, William Hooper, Arnav Kumar, Oliver Mun

It is vitally important that we do all we can to help these eight students get to the VEX Worlds to take advantage of the opportunity they have worked so hard to achieve. Currently we are looking at needing a total of approximately $7,000 per student to enable them to travel and stay in Dallas, compete in the VEX Worlds and do a little sightseeing while they are there.

A special thank you to Beard Brothers Handcrafted Small Goods for their generous donation
of 30Kg of really great sausages that we used at our fundraising BBQ at Nationals.

If you own or know of a company that may be able to help with sponsorship, please contact Craig Yearbury at cyearbury@lynfield.school.nz for more details.

Student Action for Valentines Day

Our annual Valentines Day celebration involves writing a sweet message to another student in the school, to be then sent with a heart shaped chocolate on the 14th of February.

This event gives people the opportunity to express their appreciation for their peers, so they feel loved on Valentines Day. It is always so much fun opening up the little cards from our friends or even some anonymous messages to have a good laugh at some cheesy pick-up lines.

Our Heads, BOT Rep and the Year 12 Student Executive team had a great time preparing for this lovely event and maybe even being a recipient of a wholesome message and a little chocolate ourselves!