World Champions - our Robotics Team Defends its Title!
Our Robotics team (Steven Barker, Conor Thomas and Nicolaas Waddington) has returned from the United States – as World Champions – again! The team touched down in Auckland this week to a heroes’ welcome and with the spoils of their victory close by.
"It was just relief that we'd finally done it," said Nicolaas.
It is the sixth time a Kiwi team has won the competition and the second year that accolade has gone to Lynfield College.
"Just because we're in the Pacific, hidden away from the rest of the world, we can stand out and be amazing at what we do," says organiser Frazer Noble of Massey University.
Fifteen-thousand students from 27 countries took part in the three-day competition and they built their own robots.
"The game was called toss-up and the aim of the game was to move field objects from one side of the field to the other. The further you moved them across, the more points you got," says Mr Noble.
New Zealand teams say the secret to their success is all in the preparation. Organisers say New Zealand will ultimately reap the rewards.
"These guys, when they go through engineering programmes, they're going to create products that can be exported and maybe move away from an agricultural-based industry and into a high-value, technology-based economy," says Mr Noble.
Lynfield College was not the only team flying the Kiwi flag - Otumoetai College from Tauranga came second by one point in the competition.
Congratulations Lynfield! A brilliant achievement.
Cultural Celebration 2014
Our Cultural Day held last Saturday (12 April) was a huge success. Our Cultural Captains have written:
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“Last Saturday, we had our annual Cultural Day at Lynfield College, where we celebrated the broad cultural diversity we have here at the school. After nearly the whole term’s preparation, it was an enormous success! With a lot of delicious food from different cultures and incredible performances prepared by the various cultural groups in the school, it was an enjoyable and lively day for the hundreds of students, families and friends who attended. Well done and fantastic job for everyone who was involved and represented their own, and took part in other, cultures! And thank you to those who came in support! “ – Kathleen Tomacruz Cultural Captain |
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| One of the parents who has been attending over the years commented that it was one of the best festivals she has been to in terms of polished performances!
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Race Unity Speechmaker
Congratulations to Gauri Prabhakar 12KK who was one of six finalists competing in this year's National Final of the ‘Race Unity Awards’. As in previous years, the standard of speech making was outstanding. Gauri’s response to the theme I am Aotearoa New Zealand: Te ranga tahi / Together we grow included an account from her own life, a discussion of the place of The Treaty of Waitangi, and suggestions for the future as we appreciate our differences and grow together as a country. |
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Maddison Puts her Mark on the Athletics Field.
2 WEEKENDS = 3 GOLDS + 1 NEW RECORD!
Year 10 student, Maddison Wesche has put her mark firmly on NZ athletics. On two consecutive weekends of competition she has taken 3 significant Shot Put titles and set a new record.
At the NZ National Athletics Championships in Wellington the weekend of 28 - 30 March Maddi won back to back gold!! She won both the NZ Youth Women’s (U18) and Junior Women’s (U20) Shot Put titles. This is an amazing feat for a 14 year old athlete who only started this discipline less than a year ago. The following weekend Maddison was a member of the Auckland Secondary Schools team competing in the North Island Secondary Schools Athletics Champs in Masterton. Here she not only won gold in the Intermediate Girls Shot Put, she set a new record for this event by throwing a Personal Best of 14.92m. This is the second Secondary Schools athletics record Maddi has broken in the last month! Congratulations Maddison! |
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Digital Media Students Visit Museum
The students of the Year 11 Digital Media class enjoyed a field trip to the Auckland Museum on Tuesday the 8th of April.
Students draw Maori artefacts in the Maori Court for Achievement Standard 1.2. The drawings will be scanned into Photoshop and painted digitally.
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Runathon to Raise Funds
| On Saturday 5 April a runathon took place at Maungakiekie with 6 students: Lute Sikalu, Olivia Riggs, Rosie Kennedy, Shanaia Panapa-Ruri, Devoe Allen, Hudson Read and Whaea Leauga. The purpose of this event was to raise funds for the upcoming Te Reo students' Rarotonga Trip in May 2014. The girls did so well getting up and down the mountain and they thank all of the whanau members who turned up to tautoko (support) them.
Nga mihi ki nga kotiro katoa.
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This is Cultural Week!
Once again we take special time to celebrate and honour the diverse cultures which are woven into our college fabric. During the week the students have opportunities to participate in some specific cultural activities, and on Saturday 12 April we invite our community to join us.
With numerous food stalls and performances from cultural groups Cultural Celebration Day is prominent in the school calendar and students have been rehearsing for weeks so are sure to impress! Below the Cook island group is shown in rehearsal.
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Some of the activities for students during this week are:
Then on Saturday... 12 - 4pm - food and performances We hope you will join us! |
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Student groups prepare their banners for their food stalls and the Tongan groups rehearse their performances. |
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Pacific Pride on Show
The Pasifika Parents Support Group has met for the first time this year and has every reason to be proud of their students as their successes in academic, sporting and leadership fields were highlighted.
As Mr Bovaird reported : the recent Education Review Office visitors were impressed by the progress made by Pasifika students - their literacy achievement at Level 1 is outstanding. Pasifika students are well represented in senior Leadership positions this year -the Head Boy is Samoan and the Head Girl and Deputy Head Boy are Tongan. Pasifika participation in sport is 40% and is the highest in the College.
An important part of the meeting was the presentation of badges to the Pacific Pride leaders. Mr Tonks spoke of the background to the Pacific Pride Leaders and had on display the design for the badges that was done by David Hoeft. He also spoke of the induction of Year 9 Pasifika students by the Pacific Pride leaders at the start of this year and what a good job they had done for the young students. Nineteen Year 12 and 13 students came forward to receive their badges from Mr Bovaird and Mr Kaleta, a Board of Trustees member.
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Mr Solomona Siaopo was a very popular and inspirational speaker. Solomona grew up in in Samoa and became a professional wrestler and also entered body building shows. He became very well known and was widely recognised wherever he went. Eventually Solomona and his wife came back to New Zealand and he is now a personal trainer. His advice to the students was never to let anyone tell you that you can’t do anything because when you follow your dream and give it all your best you will find out just how good you can be.. The talk was enhanced by photos from his wrestling life.
| The last part of the evening was devoted to performances by the Samoan, Cook Island and Tongan groups. The dancing and singing was magnificent and it was evident a lot of work had gone into preparation for the performances. These groups and many others will be performing on Culture Day April 12.
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Latest Sporting Achievements
Michael Carswell (Y11) competed in the Teams event at the National Age Group Cycling Champs in Invercargill winning a bronze medal in the 300m Team Pursuit.
Maddison Wesche (Y10) became a double gold medallist when she convincingly won two national titles at the NZ National Athletics Championships in Wellington last weekend. She took the gold medal in both the U18 Youth Women’s Shot Put with a throw of 14.26m using a 3kg shot put, and the U20 Junior Women’s Shot Put (throwing 12.45m with a 4kg shot put). This is an amazing result….and Maddi only started this event less than a year ago!! She is at Masterton this weekend competing in the North Island Secondary Schools Track and Field meet. Watch this space!
If your son and/or daughter has achieved representative status (Auckland or NZ) or has competed in such events the Sports Office would very much like to hear about this. Please either ask them to bring proof of the team they made/ level they achieved (e.g. certificate, letter of selection, etc) so we have the exact wording of their achievement, or email these details to fwalbran@lynfield.school.nz.
2014 Tennis Championship Results
The College Tennis Championships were held last week. All participants demonstrated excellent sportsmanship and fair play, and there were some impressive matches of a very high calibre. Congratulations to the following winners and runners up:
Senior Boys Singles
Winner - Jason Pimenta, Runner Up - Vincent Schimanski
Senior Boys Doubles
Winners Jason Pimenta and Simon Stanimiroff, Runners Up - Callum Magee and Vincent Schimanski
Senior Girls Singles
Winner - Brooklyn Chitty, Runner Up - Vanessa Pimenta
Senior Girls Doubles
Winners - Vanessa Pimenta and Diana Lim, Runners Up - Brooklyn Chitty and Heather Jones
Year 11 Boys Singles
Winner - Lorenzo Dorian, Runner Up - Kiriffi Leilua
Year 11 Boys Doubles
Winners - Lorenzo Dorian and Caleb Mellor, Runners Up - Scott Out-O’Reilly and Ric Gozon
Year 11 Girls Singles
Winner - Adhya Choudhary, Runner Up - Maddy Poland
Year 11 Girls Doubles
Winners - Adhya Choudhary and Maddy Poland
Year 10 Boys Singles
Winner - Felix Barrett, Runner - Casey Newbrook
Year 10 Boys Doubles
Winners - Felix Barrett and Casey Newbrook, Runners Up - Andrew Isdale and Filip Trifunovic
Year 10 Girls Singles
Winner - Casey Scott, Runner Up - Neve Stanimiroff
Year 10 Girls Doubles
Winners - Casey Scott and Neve Stanimiroff, Runners Up - Hannah Purdie and Sabrina Subritzky-Cowen
Year 9 Boys Singles
Winner - Aaron Zhang, Runner Up - Harrison Quilter-Clarke
Year 9 Boys Doubles
Winners - Josh Boasman and Aaron Zhang, Runners Up - Josh Moraes and Kinsh Chhabra
Year 9 Girls Singles
Winner - Caitlin Schischka, Runner Up - Emily Liston
Year 9 Girls Doubles
Winners - Caitlin Schischka and Amy Cui, Runners Up - Emily Liston and Jackie de Pont