Cultural Day 2019
Every year Lynfield College is celebrates its cultural and ethnic diversity with a week of activities where students are given the opportunity to share their cultural heritage.
The highlight of the week was our Cultural Day held on Saturday 30 March when our community were invited to sample the ethnic foods available for purchase, and enjoy watching some 25 different vibrant and artistic cultural performances reflecting the multi-cultural diversity of our staff and students.
Watch the fun at this link: Cultural Day 2019 Highlights
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Dragon Boating
The Auckland Secondary Schools Championships were held at Lake Pupuke on Sunday 24 March. This event is quite unique in the AKSS calendar as it is a fun, family-friendly event in which each team is in fierce competition on the water but welcomes their competitors ashore with high fives.
We had three crews (each of 20 paddlers and a caller), involved – one girls’ and two mixed teams. They all had a fantastic day with each team competing in three 500m races and three 200m races.'Lynfield Fury' (mixed) came home with bronze medals for the 200m and 500m.We were also able to enter a mixed team in the Open 200m and 500m races. This team was largely Fury but with a few swapped in from our other crews. This team just missed out on medals, finishing 4th in both races – 0.03s and 0.06s behind the 3rd placed boat!! The competition was VERY tight and exciting.
Check out the Lynfield College Sports facebook page for more detail and photos.
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Tennis
The weather has interfered with some games but this has not dampened the enthusiasm of our players. Despite the interference of inclement weather throughout the season there has been some excellent tennis played by our students with some games being extremely intense for long periods of time!
These photos are from our semi-finals held on Saturday 23 March. Finals will be played on Saturday 6 April.
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New Zealand Secondary Schools Tennis Champs
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For the first time in many years, we entered teams into the NZSS Tennis Cup held in Christchurch over the last four days. Five boys from our Senior A2 boys team formed two teams and played the best in New Zealand school tennis. Ethan Lobb (Y12) and Stanley Long (Y10) played as our Number 1 team while Nicholas Curin (Y11), Toby Runting (Y13) and Jake Runting (Y13) formed our Number 2 team.Every game was hard fought and resulted in some extremely tight games including two doubles games and one singles which went to tie breaks and we WON! Check out the Lynfield College Sports Facebook page for more detail and photos. |
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Auckland Regionals Debating
Catherine Barker and Sherry Wagner took four Debating teams to the Auckland Regionals at Diocesan School on Saturday 23 March for an epic day (from 8 am to 6 pm) of debating which included 46 teams from all over Auckland.
THREE Premier teams and ONE Advanced Open team participated in four rounds on Saturday. The first day's results were: Two Premier Junior teams were on two wins, the Advanced Open team on three wins and our Premier Advanced undefeated on four wins.
The top eight teams advanced to the final rounds on Sunday, and this included our Premier team; Isha Ramanlal (Y11), Raymond Feng (Y13) and Kyus Rodger (Y13). They won their Quarterfinal against Westlake Boys 2, and lost their Semifinal to AGS 1. Overall a very pleasing result to be one of the top four teams in Auckland.
The purpose of the event is to select none debaters for the two Auckland Regional teams (Auckland White and Auckland Blue) plus three reserves.
We are thrilled that Kyus Rodger was selected for Auckland Blue and Raymond Feng was selected as a reserve. This was the first time Lynfield has ever had two debaters selected for this Regional Squad and we are very pleased.
The National Debating Tournament will be held in Wellington at the end of May.
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Greater Auckland Secondary Schools Athletics Championships
These were held at Mt Smart last week. To qualify for this event an athlete must be one of the best 16 in all Auckland. This year 8 of our students qualified to compete. Despite very tough competition our athletes performed extremely well:
| TOM CHRISTIE (Y9) 1st Jun Boys High Jump (1.78m, 2cm off the record) 3rd Junior Boys Triple Jump 1st Junior Boys 80m Hurdles (11.74m) 3rd Junior Boys Long Jump |
BHAKTI PATEL (Y12) 2nd 100m Para Athletes 2nd 200m Para Athletes 2nd Shot Put Para Athletes 2nd Discus Para Athlete |
| MIA POWELL (Y11) 10th Intermediate Girls 200m |
SELENA GEE (Y12) 10th Senior Girls 200m |
| JESSIKA VARNEY (Y13) 11th Senior Girls 100m |
MATT ZHOU (Y9) 12th Junior Boys Long Jump |
| NEEL KUMAR (Y9) 15th Junior Boys 3000m |
DANNIELLE HEWITT (Y12) 15th Intermediate Girls 400m |
Thomas Christie, Mia Powell and Selena Gee have been selected for the Auckland team to compete in the North Island Secondary Schools Championships on 6 and 7 April in Tauranga. We wish them good luck for this very prestigious athletics meet.
Many thanks to Mr Ron Delgrosso for his outstanding photos of our athletes in action. |
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Standing Strong Together
Our student-led Lynfield College Week of Solidarity for Christchurch and our Muslim community included blue ribbons (representing peace, harmony, unity and trust) being given out at the school gates throughout the week, a memorial site, chalk drawings and messages, a haka for our Muslim students, one minute silence at each of the year level assemblies, a staff vs students fundraising football match, a mufti day fundraiser and school-wide interdenominational karakia and two-minutes silence at 1.45 pm on Friday.
A week of standing strong and standing together, embracing and celebrating the diversity that is New Zealand.
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The Pou Journey
On Thursday 21 March the carved Pou was transported from Waikowhai to Orakei Marae.
This piece was created from the drawings and voices of those who attended wananga, Lynfield College where the Marae based Hui was held in February at Te Ringa Awhina Marae.
It will be coloured and blessed over the next few days where it is hoped Te Ringa Awhina will host the carving for a month. Further details will be provided when venues and dates are confirmed.
Len and Te Aroha were the carvers for this Pou.
Whaea Leauga with Miss Muna were present at the hui and acknowledged by tumuaki and kai whakahaere.
Representatives from Auckland Arts, Nga herenga Waka, Roskill Together and the community were there to support the kaupapa which aims to bring our uniquely diverse community together.
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Central Western Swimming Zones
We had several our swimmers compete in this event at Westwave recently. Only the top 16 in each event from a combination of all four zones qualify for the Auckland Secondary Schools Champion of Champions meet to be held next Wednesday 3 April.
Congratulations and good luck to our three relay teams (comprising of two seniors and two intermediates), who have qualified:SENIOR BOYS FREESTYLE
Jackson Potauaine (Y13), Ben Henwood (Y12), Michael Jury (Y11), Levi Green (Y10)
Iman Ibrahim-Jerrywo (Y13), Julia Rennie (Y13), Emily Drage (Y13), Samantha Martin (Y13)
SENIOR GIRLS BREASTROKE
Lisa Davy (Y13), Julia Rennie (Y13), Emily Drage (Y13), Samantha Martin (Y13)
Photo credit: Mr Ron Delgrosso
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NCEA Information Evening
Many thanks to all those parents/caregivers and students who attended the NCEA Information Evening held on Thursday 14 March in the Staffroom. Although targetted at Year 11 students, Year 12 and 13 were also welcomed.
The presentation, given by Academic Advisor Neil Waddington, gave everyone an opportunity to learn more about NCEA and understand NCEA terminology such as Credits, Standards, Course, Portfolios and the requirements to achieve Level 1, 2 or 3 certificates.
This link takes you to our NCEA Parent Information Evening Presentation
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Te Roopu Kapa Haka o Te Kaareti o Pukewiwi
The Lynfield College Kapa Haka group performed in Division 3 on Wednesday 13 March at Polyfest on the Maori stage. They were privileged to be tutored by Hana Matene and Rangi Ferris.
PLACINGS
2nd Haka | 3rd Waiata Tira | 3rd Mau Rakau
Ka nui te mihi ki nga Kaiako, whanau, akonga hoki mo to koutou pukumahi.
To the tutors, group, whanau, kaiako and community CONGRATULATIONS. A special mention to Whaea Maihi and Matua Tuisamoa for their awhina throughout this campaign. Ngaa mihi to Ms Knell and Whaea Turketo who were willing to lend a hand throughout the journey of our roopu.
The performance can be viewed via Maori Television (once you have registered) via the link: https://www.maoritelevision.com/shows/asb-polyfest-2019/S01E001/asb-polyfest-2019-lynfield-college-full-bracket
Thank you Bela Tahu for these excellent photos. |
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Athletic Successes
| Jacob Penney (Y11) was a regular with our Run Club in Y9 who enjoyed starting his day with some fitness training. He has since become hooked on distance running and has now completed four half marathons. His best time was 1 hour 48 minutes in the Coatesville Half – a hilly event! We wish him luck for the Auckland Waterfront Half Marathon which takes place in April.
Matthew Haigh (Y9) has been competing in BMX races since he was six years old. He is passionate about BMX track sprint racing and currently is ranked 6th in the North Island and 7th nationally for his age group. Congratulations to the following students who have gained representative status in their chosen sports: Sophie Bradley (Y12) has been selected for the NZ Secondary Schools U17 Team, to play in the Dallas International Soccer Cup from 17 – 21 April. This is an amazing opportunity and a great experience, meeting and playing against a variety of teams. The countries in her grade include Denmark, New Zealand, Canada, Japan, Colombia and several USA states. Thomas Wandstraat, Stanley Long and Bunji Nakao (all Y10) competed in this year's U16 NZ National Baseball Competition which was held in mid-February. Dayna Reinink (Y9) is competing in the North Island Youth Championships representing the Auckland Archery Club of which she is a member. Maurizia Macciacchera (Y9) competed with the New Zealand Junior Rhythmic Gymnastics Team in a competition in Christchurch on 8 March. After an excellent performance, the team are delighted to be representing New Zealand at the the Australian Nationals of Rhythmic Gymnastics in May. Several of our girls were selected to play at the 2019 Junior Oceania Tag Football Tournament played last weekend. |
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