Auckland Schools’ Junior Debating Championships
Preliminary Rounds Saturday 30 July
36 teams from around Auckland came to Lynfield College to compete in the annual Auckland Schools Debating Junior Championships. We had three teams of Year 10 students competing in the three preliminary rounds. They all ended the day with at least one win and it was a great return to in person debating! I was extremely proud of all the debaters for their resilience and hospitality throughout the day.
Thanks to John Peri and Rob Skeen for their help with the use of the school on a Saturday. I also would not have been able to host without the amazing help of Chris Bangs, Ben Storey and Cathie Bunce. Their help on the day was very much appreciated!
Lynfield 1: Mishti Saha, Mia Bradley, Huda El Shareif and Srinidhi Totha
Lynfield 2: Maxwell Bancroft, Jonathan Mar, Sumedha Singaraju and Alina Murumkar
Lynfield 3: Noah Pin, Jasmine Miller, Holly McCutcheon and Rocco Gogh
Final Rounds Sunday 31 July
Lynfield 1 were successful in making it to the final rounds, which were held at Auckland University on Sunday 31st. It was an absolute testament to the dedication this team has shown in debating over the last two years. Making the top 8 teams in the competition was already a huge success, but they took it further as they effectively negated all three rounds to take out the tournament win. I am endlessly impressed by how they worked together when preparing (they only get one hour) as well as the grace in which they won.
Semi Finals: vs Avondale
Moot: That we would abolish primary and secondary school grades/years that group children based on age, and instead group them by competency and intelligence.
Quarter Finals: vs Auckland Boys Grammar
Moot: That we should build state houses in high socio-economic areas. (State housing is a system of public housing in New Zealand, offering low-cost rental housing to residents on low incomes.)
Finals: vs ACG Parnell
Moot: This house regrets the commercialisation of the LGBTQ movement (e.g. advertising campaigns by large corporations, sponsorship and participation in pride events, specific LGBTQ product lines and rainbow logos for pride month).
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Kevin Zhang wins Eight Medals from Eight Races
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Kevin Zhang (Year 11) competed at the 2022 New Zealand Secondary School Championships held at Waterworld in Hamilton from 28 to 31 July. This is a large and prestigious event with many of New Zealand’s top secondary school aged swimmers taking part. Kevin was one of the stand-out competitors. Swimming in the 15 years age group, he came away with a haul of six gold medals and two silvers from his eight races. His 200m Individual Medley result, in particular, was excellent. He swam the fastest time out of all of the age groups. In fact, for many of his races Kevin’s times would have earned him a medal, or close to one, in the 17-18 year age group. We look forward to tracking Kevin’s future in swimming. He certainly looks poised for more success. |
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Former Students: Commonwealth Games
We are looking forward to following our former students as they compete in the Commonwealth Games 2022.
EVENT: Women's Rugby 7's: Tyler Nathan-Wong
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The former Lynfield College student was the youngest to ever be selected to the Black Ferns Sevens team when she made her debut as an 18-year-old in 2012. She was a key member of the team that lifted the sevens World Cup a year later.
The second most capped Black Ferns Sevens player, Nathan-Wong captained the team during the 2017 season and was the second female to score 1000 points World Series. She has two World Cups, an Olympic gold and silver medal, Commonwealth Games gold medal and six World Series titles to her name. Tyla was named New Zealand Rugby Sevens Player of the Year in 2019. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wkWVQydMsko |
EVENT: Athletics: Women's Shot Put
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Former Lynfield College student Maddi Wesche is all set for her Commonwealth Game debut, Maddi Wesche enjoyed her breakthrough performance when winning shot put gold with her sixth round throw at the 2018 World U20 Championships in Tampere, Finland.
At the Tokyo 2020 Olympic Games the Aucklander set a personal best of 18.65m in qualification before bettering this mark to throw 18.98m to place sixth in the final. Wesche has continued to show her rising status in 2022, posting a new personal best of 19.50m at the World Athletics Championships in July. https://www.1news.co.nz/2022/08/02/wesche-cruises-to-shot-put-final-lucky-charm-sunnies-included/ |
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#NetsafetyWeek2022 | 25 - 29 July 2022
This year’s Netsafety Week theme is: Diversity Matters. Online Safety Done Together.
The week is about understanding different communities’ online safety perspectives and promoting respect and positive relationships online. Your support will help us reach our goal of creating a transformational online safety change for the people of Aotearoa New Zealand and have our most inclusive and diverse conversations yet.
Netsafe has developed a wide range of graphic resources to help supporters. They are available to download from our website. Here you will find key messages, social media assets, posters and banners. Netsafe encourages everyone to use the material as widely as possible. This is a joint effort and we couldn’t do it without you.
Website Link: https://www.netsafe.org.nz/netsafety-week-2022/
PDF Link: NetsafetyWK22_Supporter-Toolkit-071822
Some supporters choose to share Netsafety Week material within internal communications, others use social media channels to post key advice messages and announce they are proudly supporting the campaign. Some organisations arrange events for staff or facilitate discussions around online safety. It’s an excellent opportunity to reinforce the importance of being good digital citizens and what to do if something goes wrong online. It’s entirely up to you about how you promote the week.
Thank you for your commitment to connecting with your community and supporting Netsafety Week.
NZ Physics and Mathematics Competition (NZPMC) 2022
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On Saturday 4 June 2022, hundreds of students from across the country participated NZPMC Round 1. This includes home-schooled students and students from Christchurch, Dunedin, Auckland, Hamilton, Whangarei, Queenstown, and many other cities.
Congratulations to Evan Huang (11JPR), who was placed in the Junior Top 30 in New Zealand Physics and Mathematics Competition (NZPMC). The selected finalists will compete in the final round held at the University of Auckland on Monday 11 July and the University of Canterbury on Thursday 14 July. Throughout the competition day, students had a chance to network with various university clubs, hear seminars from the head of faculties, and participate in various workshops. The NZPMC is a nationwide standardised Physics and Mathematics competition that aims to help young Kiwi Scientists to extend their interest in Physics and Mathematics by providing a standardised national competition in a test-format. Results: https://www.nzpmc.com/results/2022-round-1-results |
Lynfield Represented at PENZ 2022 Conference in Rotorua
| This year’s conference was a celebration of the Health and Physical Education and Outdoor Education sectors, and the organisations that support what we do, coming together to share new findings, innovative and effective teaching and learning approaches, and new resources.
The aim for this conference was to provide quality physical education, health and outdoor education professional learning and networking opportunities. 58 workshops were held across six streams, one keynote, seven pechakucha talks, and a facilitated panel discussion with three educators over intensive two days. For three of our teachers it was their first time at this annual event and they made the most of the learning sessions on offer and the connections with teachers from other schools.Teachers from left to right: Billie Lal, Natasha Samson, Kat Wells and Jono 'Ilaua |
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Pacific Island Leaders of Tomorrow
The Year 13 Pacific Island Leaders of Tomorrow (PILOT) Polokalame took place at MIT Manukau Campus this year. On Wednesday 6 July Pacific liaison from many Tertiary organisations facilitated workshops with our students, embracing the core elements of academia and cultural identity.
The inspirational speaker Counsellor Efeso Collins shared his story and expressed the reality of what people have to navigate in the world. Students were encouraged to work on their Leadership and Resilience skills and be Accountable, connect with their ancestry and take leadership roles as young Pasifika to change the narrative.The programme gave time to future focus and plan first steps for transitioning on from school. Each student was presented with a PILOT Graduation badge for their final year on the programme.
“It was a great opportunity to learn more about my Pacific Island culture. It really was nice seeing other people that I could converse with about our similarities. Overall, a wonderful experience and I would recommend the programme to future students”.
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Cultural Week 2022 Report
From Cultural Captains Leigh Hine and Jack Harken
Cultural Week is highly anticipated by staff and students alike and the Arts and Cultural Captains can’t wait to showcase the rich diversity of our students here at Lynfield College!
Our cultural groups will be putting on performances on Monday, Wednesday and Thursday at lunchtime in the hall, while on Friday at lunchtime we will be holding a Cultural Fashion Show for everyone to showcase their cultural attire.
We will also be holding a number of other activities, such as a Cultural Non-Uniform Day on Thursday and a tea ceremony on Tuesday!
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| Above: Yemyung-won Korean Institute of Tea Ceremony and Lynfield College Students |
In preparation for Cultural Week, we’ve also had a number of other exciting events take place in the last few weeks. On the 16 and 17 of June, we held an excellent Taekwondo workshop where some of our students and staff got to try out their best martial arts skills! On Monday 27th of June, our amazing Japanese group performed at the Year 12 assembly to give some of our students a sneak peek at what was to come for Cultural Week. Though the group members were quite nervous about performing, they did a fantastic job!
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School Board Parent Election 2022
NOMINATION ROUND
Our school will be undertaking a parent election for five (5) School Board vacancies. This process will start with the issuing of nomination papers to our caregiver community by Friday 15 July 2022.
We have employed CES to undertake the election process on our behalf. This year with legislative change, our nomination form and full instruction on how to place your nomination into our own School’s Election website will be emailed to you if we have your email address in our database or you will receive it by post if we don’t have your email in our database.
Nomination papers will also be available at the school office. The school will send those on to CES for processing upon receipt from candidates.
Nominations close on Wednesday 3 August at 12 noon | Election day is Wednesday 7 September.
We look forward to your participation in this process.