June 2014

2014 New Zealand Young Physicists' Tournament

This is the second year that we have entered students in the regional rounds of the New Zealand Young Physicists’ tournament that took place at Westlake Girls High School, North Shore. The tournament started at 9 am and finished at 6 pm.

We had a Year 12 team and a Year 13 team competing against mostly Year 13 teams from 17 Auckland schools (Each school could enter a maximum of 2 teams). Our Year 12 team consisted of Pyong Kang Her (captain), Raynil Laxmidas and Pratik Chandra while Year 13 was represented by David Wu (captain), Jessica Yao and Steven Ling.

The contest works this way : Prior to the tournament, competing teams, consisting of 3 students each, are given 7 complex problems to theoretically and experimentally research. These questions are released in Term 4 of the previous year. At the competition the teams present and defend the validity of their solutions against teams in “Physics Fights”. Juries consisting of respected physicists and physics teachers rate their reports and the discussion that those reports generate. Each team is graded out of 10 points per judge, with 5 judges in total per fight.

At the start of the tournament, our Year 12 students felt intimidated by the Year 13 students which may have led to them not doing do well in the first round of the “Physics fights”. However, once they overcame the initial fear and got used to the procedures involved, they gained valuable points in the remaining two fights. The Year 13 team continued to perform consistently in their “Physics fights”.

Our Year 13 team finished 7^th overall and our year 12 team finished 15^th overall. Both the teams must be praised for the long hours they spent in preparation for the competition. The depth of the research, both theoretical and experimental, which they undertook in preparation for the problems will linger in their memories for a very long time.

The teams look a little stressed just prior to the tournament (left image), but by the end were happy with their efforts (right image)!

Mr Reddy and Ms. Tebay were the supervising teachers, who also acted as judges on the day. In addition Mr Black, Mr van Dyck, Mr Eyre and Mr Kumar also provided valuable feedback to both the teams prior to the competition.

With this years’ experience behind them, they have already started the discussion for next year’s tournament. We are confident of having another good run next year.
 
 

Smokefree Rockquest Rocked for Lynfield's One Tribe
 

One Tribe was one of 12 bands that performed at the Smokefree Rockquest Auckland Central Regional Final on Friday 13^th June at the Dorothy Winstone Centre, Auckland Girls’ Grammar School. The band had previously been chosen for the Regional Final from over 40 bands in the contest heats in May.

One Tribe's 2 songs – ‘Dream’ and ‘New Kids in Town’ - were very well-received and the band placed 2^nd overall and ‘New Kids in Town’ was awarded The Lowdown Best Song Award!

They now have to go through a selection process in order to get to play at the National Finals in September.

Congratulations to the following students :   Craig Hebblethwaite 13MH Mine Dube 12YB Boaz Competente 13MH Jairah Perida 12KK James Samountry 13PK Toa Peteru 13TN Lygia Verhoven 13FE Tialena Evening 13GR Rebecca Gandhi 13MH Sarai McKay 12PNU

There is a  video on the  Lynfield College Music Facebook page: https://www.facebook.com/photo.php?v=642436785845103&set=vb.533450926743690&

 

Language Perfect Elite and Gold Awards
 

The Lynfield College Language Perfect World Championship Awards Lunch was held on Wednesday June 25 to celebrate the success of the 36 Gold and four Elite Award winners. These students were placed in the top one percent of all participants. Four Elite Awards were gained by Darren Ng (Chinese), Meghana Moturu (3rd overall in German), Dave Sharma and Carrie Zhang (Japanese). Following some encouraging words by Principal, Steve Bovaird, on the benefits of learning an international language, the students indulged themselves in some well-deserved food. A deserved thank you must go to the team at Language Perfect for supplying food and refreshments for the lunch. 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.

Shakespeare's Dream Entrances Primary Students
 

A Midsummer Night's Dream - the 2014 production by Lynfield College has had its full dress rehearsal. And if the reaction of the primary school  audience is an indication of the potential of this show to enchant and engage, then this is the show you should not miss! Students from May Road School and Waikowhai Intermediate attended today's final rehearsal, sitting through the two hour show with just a 10 minute intermission, and totally focussed on the Shakespearean language and poetry, the story, the wonderful array of characters, the music and the dance. The Lynfield students involved in the production have been given so much confidence by the obvious enjoyment showing on the faces of the young audience.

There are evening performances in the College hall this week Wednesday 25th until Saturday 28th June, beginning at 7pm. Tickets are $10 for adults, $5 for students and seniors, and are available from college reception during the day, or from the door from 6.30pm.
 

2014 Road Race
 

 

Road Race Results

Placing	1st	2nd	3rd	4th	5th	6th
Senior Boys	Dale  Pitout 18:54	Richard Allen	Leland Clarke	Matt Roach	Simon Yang	Jahanzeb Jahangir
Senior Girls	Juee Bhide 23:15	Alice Neville-Smith	Harshaa Prasad	Kalei Kennerley	Georgia van Sambeek	Asantewa Opoku
Year 11 Boys	Alastair Maisey 23:26	Marcus Henry	Aman Reen	Abdi Mohamed
Year 11 Girls	Grace Kaleta 26:30	Marika Ocampo	Deeann Fernandes	Jade Vaipa-Pergler	Sijiba Thilakaraj	Angelica Chand
Year 10 Boys	Anthony Jones-Lewis      13:14	Jonathan D’Souza	Thomas Yang	Tadele Wakjira	Yaro Sundermann	Deepak Prasad
Year 10 Girls	Clara Howard 16:55	Sivani Ventukuri	Rachel Clarke	Bhavina Rathod	Eskedar Yerga	Jun Zheng
Year 9 Boys	Woong Seo 13:22	Harrison Quilter Clarke	Michael Araya	Joshua Davis	Ricky Huang	Kais Azimullah
Year 9 Girls	Yong Shan Zhao 16:25	Chantelle Singh	Esther Tomkinson	Navjit Kaur	Stefenie Pickston	Faith Reed

Language Perfect Perfection

Once again Lynfield College students have excelled in the Language Perfect global competition. Below is an excerpt from a letter received by Mr Bovaird (Principal) from the organisation responsible for this competition.

" I would like to congratulate you on the outstanding results language students at Lynfield College have achieved in the 2014 Language Perfect World Championships. Over the 10-day period, nearly a million questions were answered across Chinese, German, Japanese, Spanish, French and many other languages.

Lynfield College ranked 22nd out of the 1151 schools worldwide that participated in this year’s competition. Particular mention must go to the Chinese as well as German department for coming 1st place in New Zealand, and 3rd and 5th respectively worldwide. These amazing results would not have been possible without the ongoing dedication and support from Judy Fang, Heike Zimmer and Adam Burden.

Congratulations once again on this year’s tremendous success."

Obviously we congratulate our students, but we also are pleased that our staff in our International Languages Department were mentioned and applauded in the letter above.

Language Perfect World Championships 2014 Lynfield College Achievements: 

• 22nd across all languages globally (out of 1152 schools)
• 6th across all languages in New Zealand (out of 246 schools)
• 7th across all languages in the 251-500 students category (out of 233 schools)
• 3rd in New Zealand for the 251-500 students category (out of 37 schools)
•  
• 5th in the world in German (out of 893 schools)
• 3rd in the world in Chinese (out of 809 schools)
• 21st in the world in Japanese (out of 932 schools)

 

• 1st for German in New Zealand (out of 177 schools)
• 1st for Chinese in New Zealand (out of 150 schools)
• 4th for Japanese in New Zealand (out of 178 schools)

This Wednesday there is an award ceremony for our top students and details of them and some photos will be uploaded shortly after.
 

Travelwise Expo
 

Recently the Travelwise and SADD groups ran a ‘mini-expo’ as part of Road Safety week.  The event was held at lunchtime in the hall and included a range of different events aimed at teaching students about good road safety practices in terms of driving, walking and using sustainable transport. 

The highlight of the event was the ‘smoothie bike’ which when pedalled, spun a blender on the back and made smoothies for the students to drink. 

A big thank you to Auckland Transport, the police and the fantastic student helpers for helping to run the event.

Spotlight on SPEC
 

Lynfield College runs the South Pacific Education course for selected students and here is an update on recent activities:

Year 11 SPEC student, Noa Tagicakiverata worked as a volunteer on Saturday, May 17 at the Kids Arts Festival held at the Corban Estate Arts Centre in Henderson. Noa arranged this independently and the experience gave him valuable insight to volunteer work which is part of the 11SPC course work.

Lynfield College is running a pilot reading project this year with senior Learning Support students. The scheme developed by a former Principal is aimed at students who have not achieved to learn to read and comprehend through other conventional methods/programmes. The whole programme has been designed and written with a New Zealand focus. SPEC reading books and resources are exciting, colourful and carefully constructed to ensure the student has success. For more information visit: www.spec.org.nz/NewReadingScheme

Spec students had a rare opportunity to visit the first ever Infrastructure/Transport day held at Motat on May 21. Students viewed various exhibits that promoted career pathways in the infrastructure and transport industries. The highlight for the day was watching a classmate on the Digger. Logan Collings displayed his superb mechanical knowledge when facilitating an activity for the day. Photo: Logan takes his classmates through a Safety Check for a Truck.

Supported SPEC students have recently been engaged in a study of Cultural Celebrations which gave them a first-hand experience of the Holi Festival of India. Students made barfi, a traditional sweet dish and paint powder which is thrown during Holi. In the image above the students are busy making paint powder.

Future Stars

On Friday 6 June about 300 of our Year 9 and 10 students were asked to meet in the Upper Gym for no apparent reason.

It soon became obvious that special guests were on the agenda as several TV reporters and cameras were being strategically positioned.  Nua Finau was the MC and introduced TJ Faiane and Leon Fukofuka, members of the NZ U20 Rugby team competing in the Junior World Cup.  After a brief chat with these 2 players, Black Ferns captain and vice-captain, Fi Fiao’o Fa’amausili and Amiria Rule walked through the students to the front of the group!  Just behind them were All Blacks Ryan Crotty and Ma’a Nonu!!  All players shared some of their thoughts about the international games they would be playing the next day and answered a few questions from our students.

Nua revealed the real reason these guests had come to visit.  Our school had entered a competition run by Auckland Rugby and the NZ Herald to identify their schools’ ‘Future Stars’. The winning prize for the school was a visit from some ‘future stars’ and some ‘current stars’, as well as tickets for the JWC 2014 final.  WE WON!!  These 6 top international sporting stars were then able to spend 30 minutes with many of Lynfield’s own NZ sporting representatives.

SPANTT (Sports People At or Near The Top) group members strengths lie in a variety of different fields but all are nurtured in a supportive environment which encourages dedication and commitment to their chosen field of expertise, their academic studies as well as just enjoying being a teenager!  Regular meetings provide our NZ Reps with the opportunity to chat with other likeminded students in the school and to chat relatively informally with a variety of guests who can offer advice on how to reach their goals, survive the journey, enjoy the thrills and prepare a 'Plan B' should it be needed.
 
 

A Midsummer Night's Dream - this week!
 

 Lynfield College's annual production will this year be A Midsummer Night’s Dream by William Shakespeare.
  Performances will begin at 7pm in the Lynfield College Hall from Wednesday 25^th to Saturday 28^th June. Tickets will be on sale at the door from 6.30pm onwards and are also available at the school office from now on.( $10 for adults and $5 for students and senior citizens). There is a 20 minute intermission, during which tea, coffee and refreshments will be available in the staffroom. (Proceeds will assist the senior netball teams travel fund.)

The play is set in Athens and a wood nearby. This production has the Athens scenes set in the present day and the “dream” set in a fantastical world with Elizabethan touches to the costumes. The wood is represented by dancers who play live trees and who react to the various situations.

As this is intended to be a comedy, there is an emphasis on physical absurdity which parallels the somewhat crazy turn of events for the four lovers.

The students have rehearsed for one and a half terms and on the way have acquired an appreciation of the bard’s poetic language
Cast - The roles and the players
 
The Elders
Theseus, Duke of Athens - Gavin Feng
Hippolyta, Queen of the Amazons; betrothed of Theseus – Aly Wongchiu
Egeus, father of Hermia – Gareth Barton-Lewis
Philosrate, Master of the Revels – Connor Gee
 
The Lovers
Hermia, in love with Lysander - Hermia
Helena, in love with Demetrius – Shakayla Campbell
Lysander, - in love with Hermia - Blair Faith
Demetrius, in love with Hermia – Jay Purandere
 
The Fairies
Oberon, King of Fairies – Toa Peteru
Titania, Queen of Fairies – Lygia Verhoven
Puck, Oberon’s servant – Kieran Sumner
Peaseblossom – Renee Prasad
Cobweb – Vishaka Murthy
Moth – Elizabeth Wongchiu
Mustardseed – Acacia Lord
 
The Mechanicals
Quince, a carpenter – Daniel Ly
Snug, a joiner – Adam Dewar
Bottom, a weaver – Ben Fleming-Yates
Flute, a bellows-mender – Anup Menon
Snout, a tinker – Jacob Danielson
Starveling, a tailor – Reon Sumner  
Dancers – Performing as the trees in the woods - Shannon Murray, Kelsey Murray, Alice-Neville Smith, Rosanna Kelly Nair, Rebecca Gandhi, Brittany Day, Serene Aun, Karina Thompson, Jayshri Ratnam, Adesola Adekunle, Bethany Edmonds, Jessica Zhang, Brian Wang
 
 

‘GET THE FULL STORY’ Auckland Writers' Festival 2014

 
Recently the students of the Year 12 and 13 English Crafted Writing classes attended the annual Writers' Festival held in Aotea Centre.

Gauri Prabhakar and Erica D’Souza attended, and wrote the following account :
 

Featuring artists like Benny Tipene, Cornelia Funke, John Marsden, and Grace Taylor, there is no doubt that the festival was enjoyed by the many high school students who attended from as far afield as Whangarei and Rotorua.   The most popular workshops of the day seemed to be Benny Tipene’s, John Marsden’s and Cornelia Funke’s. Shirley Xiao, a Year 12 student, described Funke’s presentation as" interesting, engaging, and enchanting". The rest of the crowd seemed to think so too as Funke needed to cancel her schedule in favour of letting the riveted number of students ask questions. One particular question that resonated in Shirley’s mind was when someone asked “How do we overcome writer’s block?” to which Funke aptly replied, “Well, it simply doesn’t exist. Instead, it’s just the story refusing to reveal itself.” John Marsden’s presentation was also met with positive reviews, with another Year 12 student saying “it was a highlight because of how entertaining he was.” Marsden spoke about the issues concerning hierarchy and status in our modern society which was greatly enjoyed by many students. Benny Tipene was also appraised, no doubt for his easy going nature and relaxed attitude. The queue to get his autograph can easily attest to that.

But perhaps, the most rewarding experience was meeting Canadian-born New Zealand author, Eleanor Catton. Winner of the 2013 Man Booker Prize Award for her novel, The Luminaries, Catton was warm, engaging, and introduced a step-by-step guide to producing top-notch quality fiction. From a caveman eating berries for two years, to his estranged wife returning home to knock him out with a boulder, the creative juices of all the high school students certainly flowed in the vast theatre. The genuine laughter between complete strangers and the support that was given to the brave students who shared their ideas invoked a sense of camaraderie that will definitely be a highlight of the 2014 Writers' Festival.

Craig Hebblethwaite and Boaz Competente with Benny Tipene

Poet Grace Taylor with Lynfield students. She visited our school last year as part of a spoken word workshop which was very successful and resulted in some good performances in the inaugural Word Works performance evening. Grace will be back to work with students again this year.

Eleanor Catton and John Marsden

 

Five Lucky Lynfield Students in Japanese Youth Exchange

 

Five Lynfield College students : Michael Davis (Year 12), Rebecca Gandhi, Eunice Lao, Eugene Kim and Asher Rofe-Ramsay (all Year 13) have returned from a wonderful experience in Japan.

The students were granted Japanese Government awards to take part in the 2014 JENESYS 2.0 Exchange Programme (Japan-East Asia Network of Exchange for Students and Youth). This new programme, established by Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe, aims to develop friendships among participating youths and to promote further mutual understanding to foster future leaders who will contribute to closer relationships in the region.

Approximately 400 students from 14 countries from South East Asia and Oceania took part in the event. Only 20 New Zealand secondary school students were selected for the exchange, in addition to 20 university students.

Our Lynfield students participated in a wide range of activities both with fellow New Zealanders and with students from a range of other countries. The first few days were spent near Tokyo before they split into mixed nationality groups and ventured off into mainly countryside parts of Japan. Much of the time was spent visiting the local community and learning more about their way of life. For example, some students spent time at rice fields which were maintained by a nearby agricultural high school.           

A special mention is deserved to all parties who gave our students an opportunity to participate in the programme, in particular the Japanese Government and the Japanese Consulate Office in Auckland.

The students will now embark on a mission to share what they have experienced with the wider New Zealand community.

Below are a selection of images the students took, showing where they were, who they were with and some of the activities they were involved in.

 

Authentic Carpentry Learning Experiences

This year  twenty-one Year 13 students are in the Technology Faculty's Carpentry course and they are getting as close as possible to a real-world building project.

This course encourages authentic learning and the students are definitely highly motivated and thoroughly engaged -  even coming to work on the project during their free time.

The students are put into five groups. Each student in their group has a different role, such as Foreman, Quantity surveyor, Machining person and Labourer. They are building huts which measure 3.6m x 2.4m. The students get a chance to learn exactly how buildings are constructed - they learn how to read plans, set up the foundation, floor construction, wall construction, roof construction, interior finish, electrical wiring and painting.

All five huts will be completed in Term 4 and the students already have pre orders from the general community to buy them.
 

Success for Junior Debaters

Congratulations to Lynfield College’s  Year 10 Debating teams (Lynfield 1 and Lynfield 2)  for winning  the Western Zone of the Auckland Secondary Schools Junior Open. 

Staff members Sherry Wagner and Lucy Kajzer Hughes report that Lynfield 1 won four rounds and a fifth by default while Lynfield 2 won all five rounds of the competition. Both teams will be undefeated as they move into the Octo- Finals in Term 3.

Lynfield Junior 1 Debaters in image on left above.
Lynfield Junior 2 Debaters in image on right above.
 

We look forward to hearing what these teams can do next term!