June 2015

 

 

Travelwise Winners Climb the Harbour Bridge
 

On Thursday morning 25 June, an intrepid band of students from our Travelwise group set off with Mrs C Black and Ms H Arthur to do the Auckland Harbour Bridge Climb.

We had won a complete package of climb, photos and lunch through the Auckland Transport Road Safety Competition for our innovative Road Safety campaign. It was an amazing prize; informative and exhilarating, with wonderful views on a sunny winter’s day.

The students were: Erica D’Souza, Saagar Prasad, Phoebe Liu, Kavita laxman, Raksha Tiwari, Shristi  Aggawal, Tanisha Shah, Sargun Sethi, Ishmeen Daliwal and Karan Kalsi. We were accompanied by Mayur Chauhan from Auckland Transport

And More Congratulations to our Debaters!

Congratulations to Kitty Sun and Karan Kalsi for reaching the Semi-finals of the Auckland Schools Debating Impromptu Cup Tournament that took place at Auckland University Law school Sunday 28th June.

Here they are pictured with St. Cuthbert's best SENIOR PREMIER team, whom they narrowly lost to in their semi final debate. St. Cuthbert's went on to win the tournament.  Mrs Wagner (teacher-in-charge of Junior Debating) and their coach, Mr. Halligan, were incredibly impressed with the sophisticated arguments the students were able to formulate in only 7 minutes of prep time. It was their first impromptu debate, and to reach the semi finals was a huge achievement.  At their prize giving, Karan was selected for the "imaginary Impromptu Cup team", which is the only way to acknowledge the top 6 speakers at the competition (without the existence of an actual National tournament for them to compete in).    Furthermore, Kitty Sun has also been selected for the Secondary Schools Debating Auckland Regional Development squad, joining her teammates, Karan and Jia (who are already in the squad) to represent Auckland.

Kitty, Karan and Jia are our Junior Premier team which is currently well placed with 6 wins and 1 loss in the preliminary rounds of the ASD Junior Premier Open Tournament to move into the final rounds. The break for the final rounds will be announced in the first week of Term 3. If they continue to show the form they have shown against more senior teams, we will no doubt be following a winning streak!

Debating in Parliament - Karan makes his mark!
 

Lynfield College's Karan Kalsi was selected as a member of the Auckland White team which was narrowly defeated by Wellington Black, in the Grand Final of the Russell McVeagh New Zealand Schools’ Debating Championships held at Parliament recently. The final was the culmination of a weekend of debating between thirty six of New Zealand’s top secondary school students. The Championships, sponsored by Russell McVeagh, have been held annually since 1988 and are recognised as the country’s most prestigious school debating competition. Teams from Wellington, Auckland, Canterbury, Otago-Southland, Hawke’s Bay, Northland, Central North Island, Waikato and Kahurangi-Marlborough took part in seven preliminary rounds of debates, confronting such issues as whether criminal trials should be televised, whether alternative medicine should be banned, and whether President Obama deserved the Nobel Peace Prize. Karan is shown speaking during the debate.

 

Popstars! - our musical production is on stage this week!

Set in the 90s, the age of Spice Girls and Backstreet Boys, this musical rolls out some all-time favourites such as “Hit me Baby one more time” and “Bye, Bye, Bye”.  Shannon, an ambitious, pretty and popular girl at school, hears that a famous talent scout will be attending the school Talent Competition.  She immediately sets about plotting her future stardom and will let nothing get in her way.  She and her two friends drop their boyfriends in order to focus on their “careers”.  When Mark, Shannon’s boyfriend, finds out after everyone else, he seeks revenge and persuades his band to enter the competition too.  There’s just one problem – his band plays grunge and can’t dance!  The show opens on Tuesday 23 June with matinee performances for local intermediate and primary schools. 

 
Evening Performances......     Wednesday 24 – Saturday 27 June, starting at 7.00pm
Ticket Cost....                Adults $10; Senior Citizens, Students and Children $5
Door sales...... from 6.30pm
Food and drinks are on sale at intermission
 
And if you care to singalong you are bound to remember the following which are some of the 32 songs in the show...

Larger than Life – Back Street Boys
Bye Bye Bye – N Sync
Hero – Mariah Carey
All Star  - East 17
Can’t Touch This – MC Hammer
You get What You Give – New Radicals
Let’s get Loud – J Lo

Latest images from rehearsals

Languages Perfected in LanguagePerfect Championships.

Our Language students have gained 1^st place in New Zealand for the recent LanguagePerfect World Championships (NZALT section).
 
Aaron Nolan, vice president of New Zealand Association of Language Teachers (NZALT) wrote to our college..
 
“The students in your languages department at Lynfield answered a staggering 461,296 questions over the course of the competition and also came 1st in New Zealand for both Chinese and German. This is an astonishing accomplishment and, clearly shows the strong value and status that Learning Languages benefits from at Lynfield College.”
 
Each year our students do exceptionally well in this online competition and this year’s win is a deserved tribute to our students and of course to the dedicated staff who teach in our Languages Department.

We will publish photos when the trophy and certificates are awarded at an upcoming assembly.
 

Fashion Design Students Get Real Experience
 

On Friday 12 June the students in Year 11 Technology - Fashion and Design went to SewTec Fashion Academy. They were taking part in a bodice workshop where they had to draw  patterns, adapt the darts and construct their piece using the industrial machines. These pieces will go on display with the skirts they have created at the Fashion and Design show at the end of Term 3. An exciting and rewarding glimpse into the real world of fashion and design!

Musicians Rehearse for Popstars

Lynfield College bands are successful in many different musical genres, and they can now add 90s pop to their repertoire.

Nine musicians, led by Ms Lisa Norman, make up the band for the school musical Popstars. The musicians were selected both on their musicianship and their ability to learn pieces quickly: a necessary skill when there are 32 songs in the show!

A new initiative being used this year is Mainstage.  The school was provided with a USB pre-loaded with the synth sounds and sound effects of the original recordings.  The band’s keyboards are plugged into a laptop running the software.  While this has meant extra work for the students and teachers to master the programme, they are excited about the software’s potential.

Tickets for Popstars are on sale from the school reception or door sales.  The show runs from 24-27 June.
 

"I am Auckland Youth" Award - Gauri Prabhakar

Congratulations to Gauri Prabhakar (our student representative on the Board Of Trustees) who has won an Auckland Council  'I AM AUCKLAND YOUTH AWARD’ in the Youth Voice Category.
 
The Youth Week 2015 Awards recognise and celebrate the outstanding contributions that young people make to our communities and those that have made significant contributions to support young people. They are intended for exceptional individuals and groups who are valued as active members of their community.

Gauri has also won the Auckland sector Race Unity Speech Award and will have shields presented to her at an assembly in the last week of this term, attended by Race Relations Commissioner Dame Susan Devoy, Police Superintendent Richard Chambers and the NZ Baha’I Community Coordinator Eric Neal.
 

Sailing on the Spirit of New Zealand

We have 8 students who will be experiencing a Spirit of New Zealand voyage this year. 

Ryan Williams is the first to complete a voyage and he has had an amazing experience.  At the end of his voyage Ryan was awarded the ‘Amokura Award’ for the trainee whose community spirit and consideration to others contributed significantly to the success of the voyage. Congratulations Ryan!!

Sailing Away!

Ryan front and centre!

 

Gifted and Talented Student Academy Conference 

17 students, accompanied by the college's GATE Coordinators Mr Halligan & Miss Reed, attended this year's Gifted and Talented Student Academy Conference recently at St Cuthbert's College.

The conference  was themed 'All Great Empires Fall' - this was a world class 'thinking day' at which students engaged with a wide range of topics. There were a number of university style lectures aiming to broaden students' knowledge, engage their critical abilities and upgrade their thinking tools. The day finished with an opportunity for students to contribute to a lively debate..that "This house believes that without science civilisation would disintegrate into barbarism" More information is available here; http://www.academyconferences.com/index.php/gifted-and-talented-students/au-nz-programme

 

Our Winning Brake Road Safety Campaign
 

Our Travelwise group has worked really hard this year and came up with a great Road Safety campaign which Auckland Transport has declared to be the winner of the Brake Road Safety Week Competition for Secondary Schools.

The student group has won an exciting  ‘Climb the Bridge’ Experience for ten students and 3 adults.

A short film was made by the students about the dangers of distractions when crossing the road. See the link here - 
 
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GVr1TycPJgc
 

Inspiration From Careers Expo

 

Year 13 students attended The Auckland Careers Expo 2015 last week. This fantastic event provided students with a valuable opportunity to make important connections as they plan their next steps beyond school. Students took the advantage to talk face to face with a wide range of employers, industry, government departments, and training providers and came away well informed on the six Vocational Pathways in New Zealand to help ensure they know how to be prepared for the workforce.