English
Commenting on a line of her poetry that went, “a rose is a rose is a rose”, Gertrude Stein famously stated, "Now listen! I’m no fool. I know that in daily life we don't go around saying ‘is a ... is a ... is a ...’ but I think that in that line the rose is red for the first time in English poetry for a hundred years."
With that sorted, I’m free to say that 2011 has been a particularly busy, yet exciting year. At Year 9, students enjoyed the classroom focus of culture week with poetry, short stories and myths from a range of nations taking centre stage. The standard of visual presentations in response to this week was impressive. Writing has had pride of place in the junior English programme, and Erica D’Souza and Shrishti Aggarwal are to be congratulated for having their articles published in The College Herald (both articles have been reprinted here).
With two new courses offered at Year 11, students have welcomed the choices they now have which allow for more flexibility in assessment. In the creative writing course, students have been able to experiment with a range of writing styles. The formal writing course has also allowed for students to develop their writing from a greater range of topics and formats.
Lynfield students have demonstrated that they are confident, articulate users of the English language in their speaking and dramatic performances, particularly in Years 11, 12 and 13.
We welcomed Cameron Broadhurst to the department at the beginning of the year after a very successful teaching practicum at the College at the end of 2010.Sadly, Shelley Scarlett left at the end of Term 2 to take up another position. She will be missed, as she has made a huge contribution to Lynfield College during her two teaching positions here. We were very fortunate to have Dan Waldie join us in Term 3 following a number of years teaching of the mean streets of England.
Media Studies
“I couldn't spell anything. I couldn't remember anything, but I could go to a movie and I knew who starred in it, who directed it, everything.”
- Quentin Tarantino
Films have been watched, films have been made. All round a good year for all in the Media Studies department.
The addition of new cameras was highly anticipated, and Shawn Cleaver (at the time of writing) has been promising a home-made crane with a frightening level of eagerness for the last two months. Whether he follows through on this or not, the reckless boast itself is an indication of the ingenuity, creativity, and borderline madness of a typical Lynfield Media student.
Other notable developments include the excessive use of fake blood, which has been smeared, splattered, flung, doused, and even consumed during the production of any short film that can even vaguely incorporate violence. As Jean Luc Godard once said “It’s not blood, it’s red” and this visual emphasis has been accompanied by a gradual move towards narrative coherence. T
he tradition of one-upmanship that is always the attitude to last year’s work has continued, and there has been a move away from gritty, self-absorbed depression pieces. They have been replaced by a glut of films revolving around the annoyance of and pestering by others, be it teachers, friends, religious figures, or even natural disasters.
I will end by apologising on behalf of the entire Media Department to Alan Carter, the Property Manager, for the aforementioned liberal use of (fake) viscera, and if I may, extend this to anyone else who has been inconvenienced, frustrated, erroneously filmed, cinematically violated, or downright plagiarised: I’m sorry.
German
The year 2011 was again a busy and successful one for our students learning German. In April a group of 22 students went to Werder / Germany to put their language skills into practice. They spent three weeks exploring Berlin, Potsdam and Bavaria and lifelong friendships have been formed. They now look forward to returning the generosity they were given during their stay with German families.
On Cultural Day a large number of students showed off their baking skills by making cakes and biscuits, which sold out very quickly again.
In Term Three a large group of senior students went to the University of Auckland to see the play SEIN ODER NICHTSEIN where their comprehension skills were challenged. It was an enjoyable event. Only one week later Callum and Dairne visited the University again to take part in the Goethe Society oral examination, where they had to demonstrate their German speaking skills.
The Language Perfect World Championship has become an important event where students can compete online while improving their language skills. This year’s event saw our students enthusiastically competing for the title, with Demi Cox winning the title in German for the second time in a row. Demi was also awarded a scholarship to travel to Germany at the end of this year. She is going to stay with a German family for ten weeks to be fully immersed in the language and culture.
The New Zealand / German student exchange continues to be popular. Breanna Blackwell, Mac Wynn and Damian Hunter will be on their way to Baden-Württemberg and Bavaria in December to hopefully experience a white Christmas in Germany, and to put their German language skills into practice.
Viel Glück und gute Reise!
Bis nächstes Jahr!
Japanese
2011 has been another busy but productive year, with many of the events linked to the devastating earthquake and tsunami that hit the Tohoku region in northern Japan.
However, the highlight of the year was the Auckland Secondary School Speech Competition where Lisa Mickel placed 1st in the Year 11 category and Zhen Xu came 2nd in the Year 13 section. This is comfortably the best result in recent years. Congratulations to both!
With the postponement of the Shinagawa Friendship Trip to Japan due to the earthquake, all students of Japanese were involved in a “Cranes for Japan” project held in April, where students spent many hours folding and threading 1000 origami cranes, which were then strung together and sent to an accommodation facility in Japan housing 70 residents evacuated from the Fukushima area. This project also tied in nicely with Cultural Week in Term 1. It was comforting to know that in some small way our students were able to directly help those affected by the earthquake and tsunami.
During August students and families again showed their generosity when five students from the Tohoku region (an area directly hit by the tsunami) stayed at Lynfield College for three weeks as part of a charity project by TimeOut NZ. This also presented exciting opportunities for our students, as most classes were fortunate to be involved with cultural and language exchanges, such as Japanese cooking and kiwi sport. Similar exchanges were also possible with the larger Shinagawa Friendship School that visited. Various other groups of Japanese students visited our junior classes during the year, allowing them to get exposure to Japanese cultural aspects such as calligraphy.
The senior classes had an opportunity to visit several Japanese restaurants in the city. This fitted in perfectly with the new Level 1 writing standard, where students wrote about their visit.
It is pleasing to see that both students and staff, with co-operation from the wider school community, have strived to attain a level of excellence. We hope to continue such success in 2012 with the rescheduled Friendship Exchange visit to Shinagawa in September.
Adam Burden
Head of Japanese
Chinese
The year 2011 was again a successful year for our students learning Chinese. Students gained commendable NCEA results. Here are some of the highlights:
- Year 11 students performed very well in internal speaking and writing assessments with
- Year 13 students also performed at a high standard with 100% attaining Excellence and Merit in the speaking and writing standards.
Another academic highlight is the wonderful results that our students gained for the “Language Perfect World Championship 2011”. Language Perfect is an online programme used to practise foreign language vocabulary. It has become an important event where students can compete online while improving their language skills. This Year from 12 countries, there were over 80000 students from 1000 schools competed for the 2011 Language Perfect Championship. Lynfield College has 58 students from Y10 to Y13 Chinese classes participated in the competition. The results are:
- Five students received Gold Medals. Three of them are from the Y11 Chinese class: Mason Ng, Jinsu Choi and Alana Murphy; two are from Y10 Chinese class: Vincent Flusk and Chaitra Muralidhar. Four students received Silver and eight received Bronze. (see “2011 Achievers” for detail)
- Mason Ng from Y11 Chinese class won the championship 2011. He answered questions not only in Chinese, but also in 6 different languages. Well done! Mason!
The year was not all work, though. Throughout the year students were also involved in a wide range of extra-curricular activities such as visiting Chinese Buddhist Temple, enjoining Chinese food in a popular Chinese restaurant, participating in the Annual Cultural Festival. This year students from Chinese club performed a Chinese dance and fashion show and received huge applause from the audience. The food stall was also a huge success; spring rolls, dumplings and Chinese fried rice were very popular.
In May, we received a group of 23 visiting students and staff from Hangzhou Greentown School of China. Many thanks to the hosting students and their families for their warm welcome and hospitality. The visitors fully enjoyed their stay in Auckland. They were amazed by the hongi given by Lynfield students and staff. They were amazed by the huge waves and beautiful scenery at Muriwai Beach and loved the blue sky and fresh air of New Zealand. It was a wonderful opportunity for students from both schools to learn each other’s language and culture.
We look forward to another successful year in 2012!
Adult ESOL
The Adult ESOL programme has been operating continuously for 23 years at Lynfield. It was started to provide help for the parents of newly arrived Asian mainstream students. It is not a separate ‘language school’, but an integral part of the college. Only one other school in N.Z. has a similarly organised programme.
The vision of those who established the course has meant that thousands of new immigrants have benefitted, not only in acquiring English, but in making friends, gaining confidence and learning about the cultures of their adopted country.
In their words…
“I feel confident now I am studying at Lynfield College. I am happy that people know what I say when I go shopping. I am happy that I can talk with other mums at the play group.”
“I have made many friends in the class here. It makes my life so different.”
“I am happy every day at school.”
“Now I am not afraid of speaking to Kiwis anymore.”
“I will never forget my first time I came here. I could not speak English. Back then I thought I was like a deaf person. I didn’t have any friends. I felt helpless and I was in such low spirits.
One day I saw some information about the Lynfield College adult ESOL course. That school has helped me do things more easily.
Last week, I went to Westpac Bank to do something. I needed to talk with the bank manager. I was especially happy. We chatted to each other for half an hour. After I left the bank, I felt amazed because my English had improved. I didn’t need to think a lot and I spoke a great quantity.”
It is not only the students who benefit from this experience – we, the teachers, have been greatly enriched too. It is a privilege and joy to be part of this department.