October 2014

Two Finalists in Young Sportsperson of the Year 2014

Huge congratulations.......
 
Grace Kukutai and Jocelyn Katu have just been named as finalists in the ASB Young Sportsperson of The Year. Nominations were sought from schools in the Greater Auckland area so to be selected as a finalist is very tangible recognition of the outstanding level of excellence these 2 students have reached in their sport.
 

Grace is one of 3 finalists for netball

Jocelyn is one of 6 finalists for golf

The winners will be announced at the ASB Young Sportsperson of the Year Awards to be held at Eden Park on the evening of 20 November.

 

Technology Faculty Showcases Students' Talents

Mrs Wensor reports..

The Technology Showcase Evening is about celebrating the achievements of our extremely talented students in all areas of Technology. This year the 13 Fashion and Design students went for a tropical theme creating a colourful explosion to warm the audience from our current climate. The class competently pulled together a tight evening of entertainment for parents and local community.

Guests entered through the hall to the exhibit space before being led to the staff room for the presentations of Mr Tan's DVC classes. Students displayed their vision for a new development space at Auckland's MOTAT. Some truly innovative ideas!
 
The senior hospitality students mentored by Mrs Townsend and Mr Davis were busy all day preparing tempting tasters and beverages to showcase their skill set. Students were praised for their customer service and exceptional food.

Mr Lee then demonstrated the motor bikes developed in his senior Technology class.

Guests then went back to the hall for the fashion show which delighted the audience with original garments made from textiles and repurposed materials. There was a selection of garments on display from Years 9 to 13. Students confidently modelled not only the garments but talents of the Beauty Therapy class with their creative use of stage make-up run by Miss Matheson.

Thanks to the Technology staff for their support in helping me run this yearly event and a special thanks and well done to my Year 13 Fashion and Design class for planning a flawless evening which truly demonstrated how talented and capable the students of Lynfield College are. 
 

Nutrition at Exam Time
 

With external exams rapidly approaching it is timely to emphasise how important it is for students to be eating well. The poster below details healthy eating habits in preparation for the demands of exams.( pdf version available here)
 

 

Students Create a Path of Hope

On the 22^nd of October, the Human and Environmental Rights group set up outside the library and created a Path of Hope with chalk. The purpose of the Path of Hope was to raise awareness about the number of countries that torture their people while in custody and the high percentage of people that believe torture can be justified

The path consisted of drawings, facts, definitions and Amnesty International hashtags (#).  The drawings began at 7:30am and finished at 8:45am with around 20 people helping create the eye-catching and thought-provoking path.  We also asked students and teachers to pose with the "unlike torture" sign and sign our petitions to free victims of torture. Later throughout the day, many students and teachers stopped  and read what was written and took photos, which was awesome to see. Thank you to everyone who came and drew images, posed for photos and signed our petitions. We couldn’t have had such a successful campaign (as well as a successful year) without you!

 

Biologists Enjoy Expert's Visit

 

Year 13 Biology students were lucky enough to experience a visit with Tore Kronqvist, an archaelogist and anthropologist specialising in the use and evolution of tools throughout human evolution.

He showed us the simplistic but well thought-out Oldowan tools of very early hominin species that used direct percussion, then showed how more time and thought was spent by upper palaeolithic and Neolithic hominins making tools using precision blows, indirect percussion and unilateral flaking, and pressure flaking methods. Pictured is a Neolithic style spear head made from Obsidian.

It was a unique and rewarding experience for our students and a thoroughly good start to revision for the Human Evolution standard.

Rugby 7's Prepare for Tournament

Auckland Mens 7s head coach, Waisake Sotutu, came to train our senior Rugby 7s team last Tuesday after school in preparation for their tournament on Friday 24 October.  He was accompanied by Shane King, Regional Development Co-ordinator for Auckland Rugby and together they shared their practical expertise with our team.  It was a very profitable 2 hour training session which our boys thoroughly enjoyed and appreciated.

Woolf Fisher Trust Fellowship for our Principal

Woolf Fisher Trust Fellowships are difficult to earn and can definitely not be applied for. But Lynfield College's record of achieving well above the expectations for a Decile 7 school has not gone unnoticed and it is with great pride that we announce to our community that our Principal Mr Steve Bovaird has been awarded a Woolf FisherTrust Fellowship  for his leadership of our high achieving school.

The first Woolf Fisher Fellowships were awarded in 1960 and are now awarded to secondary, intermediate and primary principals and secondary teachers. Through the Fellowships, the Trust acknowledges and encourages excellence in educational leadership and ‘in-school’ practice in New Zealand.

The surprise element of this Fellowship is integral to the success of the award. The Fellows never know they will receive one until they are informed, and because of that no applications can be made for the award. Yesterday morning Mr Nigel Evans of the Woolf Fisher Trust, and Mrs Kristine Mellor Chairperson of the Lynfield College Board of Trustees attended staff meeting to announce and present the award to Mr Bovaird.

The Fellowship will provide for a 10 week period of release from school, and for part of this time, next July, Mr Bovaird will attend the Harvard School of Leadership in the USA.

Mr Bovaird is delighted to receive this prestigious award on behalf of Lynfield College and very appreciative of the Trust’s acknowledgement and affirmation of all the hard work and commitment of college staff.. Against all measures Lynfield College continues to outperform many similar schools.
 

BayLyn Community Learning Expo
 

Over the past year four of the schools in our BayLyn community, Chaucer School, Marshall Laing Primary, Blockhouse Bay Intermediate and Lynfield College, have been working together as part of a Learning and Change Network in support of improving students’ writing skills.
 
On Wednesday 29 October they are holding a BayLyn Community Learning Expo at Blockhouse Bay Intermediate to allow the students and teachers involved the opportunity to share their learning with parents and whanau. The expo will be opened with a combined schools Kapa Haka performance at 6:30pm and will finish with a Spoken Word performance by Rebecca Ghandi at 7:45pm.
 
If you are interested in attending the Expo please contact Cath Knell (cknell@lynfield.school.nz) for catering purposes.
 
 

Junior Debaters Triumph in 2014

The junior debaters wrapped up a very successful year of competition in the Auckland Schools' Debating Junior Open and Championship tournaments for 2014. Over 112 teams Auckland wide competed in the Junior Open and 24 teams competed at the Championship.

Here's how they went::

Team 1: LYNFIELD 1  Karan Kalsi, Jia Dua, Kitty Sun and Paarth Rajpal

ASD Junior Open Western Zone winners
ASD Junior Open semi finalists
ASD Junior Championship quarter finalists
ASD Best Speaker in Western Zone Runner Up: Karan Kalsi 
 
Team 2:  LYNFIELD 2
Team members: Shahin Najak, Aleece Monkman, Mellissa Paet, Phoebe Liu and Kieran Murphy
ASD Junior Open Western Zone winners

Karan,  Jia and Kitty at the ASD Semi-finals

Lynfield 2, winners of the Junior Open Western Zone Competition

The teams were so good that one member was invited to join the Senior debating team to represent Lynfield at the Mount Maunganui debating competition held here at Lynfield. Karan Kalsi was selected and led the way to victory for the team.Photo below left.
 
Karan has also been invited to join the New Zealand Schools Debating Auckland regional team for 2015. 

 Three Lynfield junior teams went to the Auckland Secondary Schools Debating Championship held last weekend at Pakuranga College. After 3 rounds, Lynfield 1 were undefeated and moved into the final rounds held the next day at Auckland University Law School. They were defeated in the quarter final by Westlake Boys, who went on to win the tournament. However, the Lynfield 1 members say they are happy they made the finals in each of the tournaments.

Karan and teammates after the ASD prizegiving ceremony

And we are too! Congratulations to all the junior debaters who have really raised the profile of Lynfield in the debating world of Auckland.

Past Student Sends Current Student on First Solo Flight

We often hear updates on former students but the latest is rather unique. Here is the letter received by the college from Rob Utting..

 

Individual Sporting Successes

Congratulations to the following dedicated athletes who are reaping the rewards of many hours of training and careful time management to ensure they also meet their classroom commitments.
 
Sonia Mehta (Y12) won Gold in the Kumite and bronze in the Kata when she competed in the Oceania Karate Championships (Junior Women’s over 59kg division.)
 
Max White (Y13) had great success when he competed in the Northern Region surf lifesaving pool champs.  He won 8 Gold, 1 Silver and 1 Bronze medals.
Gold:                      U19 4 x 50m obstacle relay, 4x50m medley relay, 4x25m manikin relay
Open 100m manikin carry, 200m super life saver, U19 100m manikin tow, 100m rescue medley, 50m fins
Silver:                     6x50m mega relay
Bronze:                  U19 line throw
 
Jemma Read (Y13) has won selection to the Auckland Senior Women’s In-line Hockey team.
 
Nathan Maisey (Y10) has been named Vice Captain of the NZ U14 Cross Whites Football team. The team will travel to Sydney in the school holidays to contest the Australian National Title. They will be competing in the U16 grade.
 
Matt Roach (Y13) has recently returned to competitive swimming after several months away from the pool.  At the NZ Short Course Swimming Champs at the beginning of this month he finished 8^th in the 100m breaststroke (17-18yrs) – an excellent result
 
Caleb Moffatt (Y11) became an Auckland Football Federation Referee this year following in his older brother’s (Aiden Moffatt Y12) footsteps.  At the Auckland Football Referee Awards Night, Caleb was named "Most Professional Youth Referee, 2014”.  He was also 1 of 4 nominated for "Best First Year Referee".  Aiden was also nominated for 3 awards.
 
Ex-student Josh Maisey (Y13, 2010) contested his first marathon recently, taking on the very difficult Lydiard Legend over the Waitakere ranges.  He knocked the marathon off in 2hrs 29 minutes to post the 8^th fastest time in NZ this year!  Josh is a Lydiard trained athlete who follows the principles of Arthur Lydiard based on miles and miles of training to build up strength.  He proved these principles by finishing 15 minutes clear of second place. He will now take on the Auckland Marathon in November as an elite entrant.
 
Joshua Head (Y11) won the 150cc motorcycle championship following the final race last weekend.  Congratulations Josh!
 
 

Lynfield Students Loving Japan

A reminder you can follow the experiences of our group in Japan for the holidays by linking to http://lcjapan2014.blogspot.co.nz/

Technology Faculty Staff Enjoy Professional Learning

As the college introduces new technology to improve the teaching and learning, staff have been using experts to assist them in upskilling to take full advantage of the specialist machines.

An example of this is in the Technology Faculty - Christine McGrath from Brother International came in to demonstrate how to use the Scan and Cut machine that has recently been purchased for the Fashion and Design classes. Students can either free hand draw, complete a design on their device or download an image from the internet - and this new machine will scan it and then cut it in the selected material. There are numerous projects that this machine will help create.

Staff enjoyed their learning and look forward to teaching their students the possibilities the new machine presents.