May 2013

An Experience of a Lifetime..

by Johnson Zhuang

For ten weeks spanning December to February 2012-2013, I spent time in Germany. I was selected to be one of three German language students who would have their flights paid to fly to Germany and experience first-hand German culture and be able to use our German in an environment where we would be constantly surrounded by the language.

I stayed with a host family in the small town of Ratzeburg in North Germany, population circa 9800. I went to school with my partner brother and attended classes with other German students my age and of course made a lot of new friends as well as experiencing a German Christmas, New Year’s or Silvester and travelling around different parts of Germany independently and also with my host family.

The organisation that paid for my flights to Germany allowed the scholarship winners to have a week of independent travel and for my week of travel, I went to Southern Germany where I saw the famous Neuschwanstein Castle (which was the inspiration for the Disney Castle), spent a day on the Zugspitze; the highest mountain in Germany, visited Salzburg (where the Sound of Music was set) as well as of course visiting the famous Munich.

I spent the whole ten weeks using all the German that I had learnt at school and of course learning more German. Being constantly surrounded by Germans, I was able to experience what it was like being a German student and see how things were done differently in Germany as I experienced “German Efficiency” for myself. I enjoyed constantly speaking German, eating so many different and new foods and being able to travel and see Germany.

I am continuing my German studies this year in Year 13 as I prepare for University next year. I plan to study Law conjoint with a Bachelor of Arts majoring most likely in German.

Success at High Speed
 

Year 10 student Joshua Head continues to progress with his motorcycling sport and proudly displays the Lynfield College decal on his bike.

Most recently he has competed in the Victoria Motorcycle Club (VMCC) road racing winter series championship at Fielding at  Mansfield Motorsport Park. He is currently 3^rd in the championship with the next round in the series scheduled for June 8.

Taeo Kim Wins National Speech Competition
 

Congratulations to Taeo Kim who has now won the national Chinese Bridge Speech Competition. He went to this national competition having already won the Auckland District contest.   The next step is the international competition and Taeo will travel to China in October as part of the prize for his New Zealand title. The photo shows Taeo with Deputy Principal Mr Aitken at the prizegiving held last week at the Confucius Institute.

Food and You Careers Experience Day

On Friday the 17^th of May Food and Nutrition and Hospitality Year 13 students had the opportunity to visit the Food and You Careers Experience day at the Kumeu Showgrounds. It was an informative and interactive day where students gained a better understanding of a variety of career opportunities in the food, farming and agriculture industry.

A number of organisations had hands on demonstrations of their leading technology; their presentations were interesting and fun for every student who came along, and some of these organisations were TB free New Zealand, Silver Ferns Farms and Dairy NZ. Students were also able to get a wider understanding of the food value chain by meeting and talking to educators from, Massey and Lincoln University, Taratahi, Telford and Primary ITO.

The students from Lynfield College had nothing but positive feedback, there was something for everyone to take interest in and enjoy.

"there was lots of interesting information about farming. I think I’d like to be a farmer’’

‘’learnt a lot of interesting facts about possums’’ 

‘’enjoyed all the free things- especially the jelly beans!’’.

Mrs Townsend, Faculty Leader Technology comments

‘’One of our faculty goals for the year is 'From classroom to career' so the trip fitted very well with this focus.’’

Even though the sunshine didn't come out for us and we spent most of the day using our waterproof ponchos and umbrellas the trip was overall very successful and I felt that everyone gained plenty of knowledge and had an enjoyable day.

Thanks for  a quality report, Angelique.
 

Winter Sports Underway

The past two weeks have been extremely busy in the Sports Office as staff work with over 550 students who are members of the 54 teams representing Lynfield College in weekly sporting fixtures this winter. Many, many thanks to staff and those in our parent community who have volunteered their time and expertise to coach or manage a team – the students really do appreciate this.
 
Competition began last week for junior netball, football, badminton, basketball, lacrosse and 1st XV rugby. Hockey, squash, rugby league, senior netball, table tennis and all other rugby start this week. Results so far have been mixed but there have been some excellent wins for our top netball teams at each level and also in boys football (1st XI scoring a first game win – something we have not achieved for some time). Our 1st XV have been promoted to Premier grade, 3rd division and had an excellent game against Sancta Maria in which they were narrowly defeated by 1 point!! It is promising to be a very exciting season for our Lynfield teams.

Individual Honours

Congratulations to our students who have attained representative status recently:
Nick Weaver (Y12) has been selected in the Auckland All Stars U17 Senior League Baseball team to represent NZ at the Asia-Pacific-Middle East Little League tournament in July.
Juee Bhide (Y12) is a member of the Squash NZ World Junior Girls Squad to travel to South Australia early next month.
The Auckland Football Federation Referees Committee has selected Aidan Moffatt (Y11) to attend the 2013 Kanga Cup Football Tournament in Canberra in July. Last year there were 250 teams in this competition so it is an honour to be asked to referee at such a fixture.
Taine Murray (Y11), Nathan Roberts (Y9) and Euan Reilly (Y13) are members of Tristar Gymnastics High Performance squad and will be travelling to compete in the Men's Artistic section of the Victoria Championships in Australia next month.

Student Artists in Finals of Art Competition
 

Four of our art students had work chosen as finalists in the 2013 Auckland Secondary Schools' Art Competition. Although none were eventually placed in the top few we congratulate them on doing so well in the competition which culminated in the Annual Charity Gala Night of the Original Art Sale.

The images below show, from left, the work of Carmel Donald and Wern Tje Lim (both Year 12), and Joaquina Rockwell (Year 13). The fourth finalist was Jeeun Koo (Year 11).

Professional Learning in Jerusalem

Lynfield College staff have numerous opportunities to extend their professional expertise. Ms Susan Jacobs reports on a very interesting one which she attended a few months ago. Sponsored by the Holocaust Society of New Zealand and the Israeli Foreign Affairs Department the visit was of special interest to staff in the Social Sciences Faculty.

"I had the unique experience of spending the last two weeks of the summer holidays in Jerusalem attending a series of seminars at Yad Vashem, The Holocaust Memorial Museum. Together with 20 History and English teachers from all over New Zealand we were given the opportunity of studying the impact of the murder of six million Jews in Nazi occupied Europe during World War Two.

Among our lecturers were survivors from the concentration camps and a marvellous couple who were original survivors from Schindler's List.

It wasn't all work. Jerusalem is rich in different cultures and religious traditions and we visited many fascinating sites I had heard of all my life, such as Bethlehem and Masada. As teachers of this period we aimed to deepen our knowledge and gain a uniquely immediate perspective that we will hopefully impart to our students.

More Quilts for World Vision

Lynfield College is continuing its quilt-making programme in conjunction with World Vision.

Devon Davids from World Vision has visited three Year 9 classes doing Technology (soft materials) to speak about the project they are involved in.

Each student has designed and is making an individual panel which is then to be sewn together as a whole quilt. The quilts then get taken to a country for whom World Vision are raising money and awareness. Last year they went to Papua New Guinea.

Devon talked to the girls about what World Vision does and the outcome of when they travel to these countries to donate the quilts and how much it means to them.

Our images show Ms Davids speaking to the class and the students and their designs at various stages of the Technology design process. Later in the year when the quilts are complete we will report again on this very worthwhile assignment!

Singaporean Students Enjoy Visit to Lynfield

Lynfield hosted a group of 20 students from Hwa Chong International School, Singapore for three days 8 – 10 May. They attended classes with their Year 9 and 10 buddies and really enjoyed the diverse range of classes our students attend especially robotics, PE, English, technology, art and health.

The visit to Lynfield is part of the group’s 7 day visit to New Zealand which also includes trips to Rotorua, Tauranga and Hobbiton. It has been a great opportunity for Lynfield to reciprocate the hospitality shown the Lynfield Business team that travelled to HCIS last year.

The buddies did a wonderful job in looking after the visitors, ensuring that the visit was a successful one and the students would return home with many wonderful memories

Parliamentary Press Gallery Awaits Erica D'Souza
 

Year 11 student Erica D'Souza is thrilled to have received the following communication:

Food for Thought at GATE Conference

On Thursday 9 May, ten students from Years 10 - 13 attended the Gifted and Talented Conference on Thinking. Lynfield College was well represented at the event with other colleges there including St Cuthberts College, Dioscesan College, Saint Kentigern’s College, Saint Mary’s College.
 
 The Conference was a series of Higher Order Thinking (HOT) lectures on philosophical topics followed by the afternoon debate. Topics this year were BIG ideas:
 
1) Cogito ergo sum, (I think, therefore I am)
2) Nanotechnology
3) The Self Image
4) How many animals did Noah take on the ark?
5) The afternoon debate: Free will is an illusion.
 
Quotes from our students:
“My… Mind… Is… Blown!”
“That was so good!”
 

It certainly gave them a lot to think about and most students made notes on aspects they want to investigate further. During the afternoon debate 3 of our students stood up to have their say and were eloquent, thoughtful and stimulating. Our students through their considered thoughts, expression and presentation were an excellent beacon for Lynfield College.   The day was a great success and our students left feeling as though their brains were thoroughly nourished with higher order thinking!

Entertainment Books Available from Culinary Club

We hope you made the most of your Entertainment book over the last year. The new books have arrived and are ready to go. The college Culinary Club is using them once more as the fundraiser for their Culinary competitions and are looking forward to your continued support.

They can either be purchased directly online at

https://www.entertainmentbook.co.nz/orderbooks/968r21

Alternatively, email Mr Davis ( sdavis@lynfield.school.nz )

Talented Musicians Hitting High Notes

Brief Friendship Visit from Greentown School
 

Students, staff and host families have welcomed a group of students from our friendship school, Greentown Yuhua School, from Hangzhou, China.

Although this has been a visit of just a few days the students have managed to spend time in school, around Auckland landmarks and exploring the area around Muriwai beach.

While in school on Monday the Chinese visitors spent time with our students in the Food Technology rooms preparing some Kiwi dishes for their lunch - pumpkin soup with garlic bread, mussel fritters and pavlova with kiwifruit. Then they experimented with their drawing skills in the Art department, with Ms Ankersmit introducing them to a special New Zealand motif - the koru, and guiding them through some design work based on this.

The photos show the students busy cooking their lunch and then in the art room.

Board of Trustees Elections

The following letter is from the current Board of Trustees Chairperson, Mr Brian Cadzow:

Dear Parent/Caregiver,

I would like to remind you that we are currently in the electoral process for the 2013 elections for the Board of Trustees at Lynfield College.
 
We have had a very strong and hard-working board for a number of years with a very stable core group of Trustees. The College is seen by the Ministry of Education as a high performing school and this has included the operation and governance activities of the Board itself. This year 3 of those trustees are standing down as they no longer have children at the College and after 9 years they feel the time is right to step aside. This means that the College is looking for new parents to step forward and take on the role of Board Trustee at the College.
 
Being a Trustee is a very rewarding experience. It shows you how a large school really operates and enables you to have input in to the governance and future directions of the College. Our College is very multi-cultural and the Board has in the past made a lot of effort to have representatives from a diversity of ethnic groups. We feel this helps with many aspects of the Boards operations.
 
If you have been thinking about stepping forward to a role on the Board then I would encourage you to do so as it is very important for the College that there is a well-resourced (in terms of members) Board to operate the processes of governance of the College.
 
The nominations for Trustee positions close on Friday week, 16 May at noon. Nomination forms have been sent to all parents and immediate caregivers; should you require additional forms please contact our Returning Officer, Alison Davis on adavis@lynfield.school.nz or via Lynfield College reception (Tel.627 0600 and leave a message). Completed nomination forms should be mailed or delivered to the college reception area.
 
If you have any questions regarding the role of a Trustee please contact me and I, or another Board member, would be happy to talk with you to answer those questions you may have.
 
Regards
 
Brian Cadzow
Board Chair
For and on behalf of the Board of Trustees of Lynfield College.
 

Head Boy Chosen for Youth Parliament

Rugved Deshpande, our current Head Boy  has been chosen to represent Labour List MP Dr Rajen Prasad for the forthcoming Youth Parliament in July.

Last week we reported Peter MacClure has been chosen to represent Mr Tim Groser, so to have two of our students heading to the Beehive in July is very special.

Dr Prasad said he was delighted to choose Rugved, who has excellent records academically, in sport, cultural activities and in community involvement.

Rugved said he was honoured to have been chosen to represent Dr Prasad as a Youth MP.

“I am pleased to be asked to discuss national issues with other youth from around the country. Hopefully we will bring a different perspective to light. One of the things I am concerned about is that many young people are finding it hard to get part- time employment. This is going to be my priority for discussion,” he said.

Youth Parliament, which is held once every three year parliamentary term, gives young New Zealanders the opportunity to gain understanding of the parliamentary processes. It is as close as possible to the real thing.

During the event, Youth MPs will debate legislation, sit on select committees and ask oral questions of Cabinet Ministers. They will also have the opportunity to hear from a panel of MPs to learn about the role of an MP and the many pathways to entering a career in politics.

It will be a significant opportunity for 121 young New Zealanders to gather the views of their peers and bring the youth voice to Parliament.