November 2015

Quilt Gifted to Starship
 

Year 9 students have carefully crafted a quilt and presented it to the Auckland Starship Hospital at a special ceremony last week. The students were given a brief which required their quilt to reflect their thoughts on the need to end domestic violence. The squares of the quilt reflect their responses - some chose to create a square with cheerful imagery whilst others explored the sense of helplessness and the need for support from friends.  The squares are machine or hand sewn applique on a cream silk background. The image shows the Starship staff with our student representatives from 9ST  Shyla Mani and Aryaa Nadkani when the quilt was handed over - fittingly this was done on White Ribbon Day.

Senior Prizegiving 2015

We had a very enjoyable and successful Senior Prizegiving, where acknowledgement was made to those students who have achieved highly academically, or served their peers and the school.  Congratulations to all prizewinners, particularly to the following students:

Year 13

Dux Litterarum – Hanwei Peng
Proxime Accessit – Sarah Tribble
University of Auckland Jubilee Scholarship – Himanshu Daya, Jieun Lim
University of Auckland Faculty of Arts Level Entry Undergraduate Scholarship – Sarai McKay
University of Otago Academic Excellence Scholarship – Raynill Laxmidas
University of Otago Leaders of Tomorrow Scholarship – Pratik Chandra, Shrishti Aggarwal
Victoria University of Wellington Achievers Scholarship – Elisapesi Sikalu
AUT Vice Chancellor’s Scholarship – Amy Hight
AUT Significant Student Scholarships – Erica D’Souza
Unitec Partner School Study Award – Taine Murray, Abraham Wayne
The Trusts Community Foundation Scholarships – Hudson Read, Fleur Skeen, Sapphire Turner (Y12), Ben Fleming-Yates, Vahishta Patel, Huseina Thanawala, Karisma Patel, Bethany Edmonds, Pooja Patel, Luke Thompson, Isiri Samarappulige, Serene Aun, Elizabeth Wongchiu, Alice Neville-Smith, Andrew Sampson
Cadzow Family Trust ICT Hi-Tech Award – Nevil Patel
Sir John Turei Award – Sarai McKay
Ben Te Ninihi Tawhiti Memorial Award – Sarai McKay
D H Thurston Award, Top Service Award – Sarai McKay
Cathy Walker Cup, Service Award – Ricoh Kumar
Rotoract Cup for Service to the Community – Gauri Prabhakar
Hannam Cup for Executive Efficiency (Equal) – Erica D’Souza, Bethany Edmonds
Challenge Award Cup – Nicholas Nio
Glassey Cup (Y13 writing) – Sarai McKay
Senior Speech Competition Winner – Andrew Sampson
Blockhouse Bay Lynfield Lions Peter Schultz Memorial Award (Top Y13 Music Student) (Equal) – Dylan Goodisson,
Jake Krishnamurti
Neil Scott Memorial Prize (Top Y13 Languages Student) – Antonia Hunter
Pauline Gillett Scholarship (Top Y13 Humanities Student) – Sarah Tribble

Hanwei Peng (Dux) and Sarah Tribble (Proxime Accessit)	Andrew Sampson and Alice Neville-Smith (Head Students 2015)	Sachi Rachod and Raynil Laxmadas (Academic Captains)
Gauri Prabhakar _ Rotoract Cup for Service to the Community	Sarai McKay (D H Thurston Award, Sir John Turei Award, Ben Te Ninihi Tawhiti Memorial Award, University of Auckland Scholarship)	Taine Murray, Abraham Wayne (Unitec Partner School Study Award)
Erica D'Souza and Amy Hight (AUT Scholarships)	Alice Neville-Smith, Fleur Skeen, Serene Aun, Luke Thompson (The Trusts Charitable Foundation Scholarships)	Elizabeth Wongchiu and Bethany Edmonds (The Trusts Charitable Foundation Scholarships)

Year 12
       
Year 12 Dux – Ignatius Maher Memorial Prize – Katherine Heslop
Year 12 Academic Honours – Adya Choudhary, Nithya Narayanan, Numa Wadhwania, Alan Wu, Jainey Bhikha
Senior Merit Cup (Year 12 Girls) – Ryu Kodama
Senior Merit Cup (Year 12 Boys) – Elizabeth Fa’amamafa
Year 12 Honours Awards – Reshika Fonseka, Elysha Negi, Vanshika Patel, Rosie Kennedy, Henry Samuels, Muskan Verma, Alastair Maisey, Numa Wadhwania, Alan Wu, Renee Ju
Blamires Trophy – Amanpreet Reen
G H Blair Shakespeare Cup – Elizabeth Fa’amamafa
Year 12 Creative Writing Cup – Katherine Heslop
 
 
Year 11
 
Our Year 11 Prizegiving was well attended by family and friends wishing to support and acknowledge student success.  Congratulations to all award winners
 
Year 11 Dux – Griffen Memorial Prize – Kitty Sun
Year 11 Boys Merit Cup – Karan Kalsi
Year 11 Girls Merit Cup – Jia Dua
Academic Honours – Jenna Kumar, Phoebe Liu, Xinyue Zhang, Angela Competente
Honours Awards – Phoebe Liu, Aleece Monkman, Kitty Sun, Melissa Paet, Andrew Isdale, Dylan Kay, Paarth Rajpal,
Shahin Najak, Nancy Sun, Renee Prasad
Year 11 Creative Writing Cup – Karan Kalsi
Year 11 Speech Cup – Aleece Monkman
Trevor McConchie Memorial Cup – Skills in Cabinetry – Joshua Muollo
 

TRAVELWISE Group Chosen for Special Role

Our TRAVELWISE group has had a wonderful year and to cap it off, has been chosen by Auckland Transport to showcase the TRAVELWISE programme for Secondary schools throughout the Auckland district 

You can see the short film about us on their website which just went live this week.Click on the link here and scroll down to the bottom of the page:  https://at.govt.nz/cycling-walking/school-travel/travelwise-schools/travelwise-for-secondary-schools  

 

Google Expeditions Comes to Lynfield

On Tuesday November 17 Year 9 and 10 Social Studies classes were introduced to Google Expeditions. Students were taken on 3D Virtual tours of sites around the world using Google Cardboard glasses and a mobile phone.

Tours included a range of sites from the Amazon and Antarctica to tours of sites in Brazil, Mexico and Galapagos Islands. Aztec, Mayan and Roman ruins proved to be favourites for some Social Studies students. Some classes were even lucky enough to go on tours under the sea and on the moon.

The students thoroughly enjoyed their experiences. Here is some of their feedback. “It’s really cool! You can go to loads of places around the world” “I really like the 360 degree views of the places” “It’s awesome!” “It is really fun. I have never see anything like this before.” “Best period of the day” “I’ve been to the Taj Mahal. It was great to remember what it was like while I was looking at the virtual version.”

Teachers also got involved by participating in workshops before, during and after school. Google is going to be making this technology publicly available in 2016 so many teachers are hoping to be able to use it with their classes again next year.

Leavers’ Dinner 2015

The Year 13 Leavers’ Dinner will be held at Alexandra Park on Thursday 3 December 2015 from 7.00pm until 10.00pm.  The cost is  $55.00 per ticket.

Our Leavers’ Dinners have developed an excellent reputation for being enjoyable, well run and trouble-free.  To maintain these high standards, it is an alcohol free evening and students showing evidence of being under the influence of  alcohol or drugs will not be admitted.  Parents will be contacted.

The School’s jurisdiction ends at 10.00pm.  It is the parents’ responsibility to ensure that they are aware of and satisfied with the plans made by their son/daughter for the conclusion of the Dinner
 
 

 

Our MC Hammer - Lewis Tagaloa

Those who saw "Popstars", our musical production, earlier this year will fully understand why the judges were so wowed by Lewis Tagaloa. Lewis  won in his category at the Auckland Schools Showdown competition for best male vocal in a minor role. Competing against many other schools in the Auckland region, Lewis won for his outstanding performance of MC Hammer’s “You can’t Touch this” in this year’s Lynfield College Production of “Popstars”. Lewis had all the moves and the rap vocal down to a fine art (at left of image) The awards evening was held on Friday 6th November.

National Finals for THE FLOCK

 

Pacific Pride Evident at Parents' Meeting

The final meeting of the Pacific Parents Group demonstrated the impact this group and the students are making at school.  And  plans are in place to strengthen even further the support structure and motivating factors which are playing an increasingly significant part in the school lives of the students.

Students spoke  at the meeting..

• The Pacific Pride Leaders 2015 have looked at how Pacific Pride leaders are chosen and  decided they would run interviews for the leadership positions. As a result, the names of the Pacific Pride leaders for 2016 are known before the year is over and they get a flying start the following year.
• Late in Term 3, five senior students attended the Massey University “Aganu’u- My Cultural Space” course which looked at how Pacific students can use their culture to help enhance their success at school. There they met Andrew Wilson whose workshop so impressed them that they asked him to be the motivational speaker at the Senior Academic Fono held in the PAC on 16^th October. The fono was really well attended and the students were both moved and inspired by Andrew’s life story.
• Manu Fa’aea-Semeatu has been working with the school on ‘where to next’: We have asked Manu to present us with a plan that we can implement to make further progress in raising Pacific achievement in the College.

Andrew Sampson, Head Boy, spoke to the gathering ‘On being the only palagi in the Samoan group’: Andrew gave a very good speech on his experiences and offered some very interesting insights. (image far right) Elizabeth Fa’amamafa and friends then entertained with a hymn of thanks and the audience joined in and sang along. As has become the custom, the Year 13 students got up, said who they were and stated their career choices. As usual a range of interesting careers/study came up and included – arts and law, commerce, electrical engineering and PE. The Year 12 students thanked the Year 13’s for being such good role models and presented them with lolly leis. Finally thanks were offered to Mr Alistair Aitken, Deputy Principal,(image right) who is retiring next month. He said it has been his  privilege and pleasure to work with students and their families to improve Pacific achievement in the College. He also thanked the staff who are members of the Pacific Focus Group, Chris Peteru and especially  Brian Tonks who has worked tirelessly in the pursuit of the academic and cultural well-being of Pacific students over a long period of time.

2016 Student Executive Announced
 

After a rigorous application and selection process the students leaders for next year have been announced. Students and staff have celebrated the honour and responsibility given to the following students:
 

Head Girl  Grace Kaleta	Head Boy Aman Reen
Deputy Head Girl Elizabeth Fa'amamafa	Deputy Head Boy Gianni Gambassi
Academic Captain Kate Heslop	Academic Captain Ryan Xavier
Sports Captain Holly Harrison	Sports Captain Alistair Maisey
Arts and Culture Captain Marylinda Lamositele	Arts and Culture Captain Henry Samuels
Assistant Academic Captains Sophia Xu                                                    Alan Wu
Assistant Sports Captains Rosie Kennedy                                               Kaleb Bowles
Assistant Arts and Culture Captains Angela Lai                                                                Ryu Kodama
Social Co-ordinators Hamza Riazuddin                                      Ric Gozon                                      Renee Ju
Year 12 and Class Rep Coordinators Kiriffi Leilua                                                                 Rohan Menezes
Ambassador Coordinators Sarita de Pont                                                Latisha Chandra
International Student Rep Rosa (Ruozi) Zhang
Year 12 Executive Jia Dua,  Emma Gomes,  Karan Kalsi,                                   Dylan Kay,  Rupin Kumar,  Junior                                    Laveaina,  Vishaka Murthy,  Jessica                                  Zhang

 

Hospitality and Music for Community's Older Citizens

The International Day of the Older Person again offered Lynfield students the opportunity to share some time with local seniors. At the Blockhouse Bay Community Centre our students produced and served morning tea to a large audience who appreciated the food and the entertainment provided by several music groups.
 

Senior Biologists Tuned into Evolution

 

We had Tore Kronqvist visiting last week to demonstrate to Year13 Biology students the cultural evolution of tools in hominin species. He shows how even primitive Oldowan tools required thought and skill to make. He showed how tools became increasingly complex through Achuelian, Mousterian and Upper Paleolithic eras. He was also kind enough to donate some finished pieces to the school for use in teaching. The Year 13 students couldn't get enough and kept asking questions long after his scheduled leaving time.