September 2015

Lynfield Students Prominent in Goethe Society Exams

Lynfield students have again been well-represented in the awards following this year’s Goethe Society exams. 34 students out of 48 participants were invited to the official prizegiving at the University of Auckland which is a very pleasing result.

Congratulations to the following students:

Prize Winners:
Year 10: Fabienne Distelzwey (1^st Place), Katherine Diep (2^nd Place), Yong Shan Zhao and Jackie de Pont (3^rd Place equal)
Year 12: Elsyha Negi (2^nd Place),

Prize of Distinction:
Year 9: Michael Howell
Year 10: Muskaan Somjee, Michelle Strapajevic
Year 11: Maddy Freeman
Year 12: Oliver Rusden, Meghana Moturu, Maddy Poland, Adam Herring
Year 13: Hannah McIntyre, Vahishta Patel

Diploma of Excellence:
Year 9: Amelia Hudson, Faye Hine, Sarah Young, Sameera Reddy
Year 10: Emily Liston, Manasi Nair, Krishen Chovhan, Cathy Lai,
Year 11: Aleece Monkman, Gus Barrowman, Gain Thawornjira-Angkoon
Year 12: Victoria McArdle, Heta Patel, Deenisha Khatri
Year 13: Andrea Lewis, Claudia Paine, Alice Purdie, Annabelle Larsen, Holly Mills
 

 

Debaters' Awards Keep on Coming! Lynfield's Junior Premier Debating Team (Kitty, Karan and Jia) were awarded the Auckland Schools' Debating Junior Premier Open trophy at St Cuthbert's on Wednesday night in front of a packed auditorium. The prize giving also recognized the top 10 speakers in each grade, and our team was well represented at the top. Kitty Sun was awarded fifth best speaker and Karan Kalsi came first winning the trophy for Top Speaker in the grade.   Next year they will advance to the Advanced Premier, where they will be the favourites in this most prestigious grade!

Business Students Compete Strongly and Achieve Highly

 

Seven students received a Distinction and two gained High Distinction when the Social Sciences Faculty (Business)  recently entered a group of students into a University of Auckland Economics Competition. Congratulations to Edmund Hodges and Nithya Narayanan who will attend an award ceremony at Auckland University later in October to receive their High Distinction certificates.   And also from the Business Department.. The annual Auckland Secondary Schools’ Economics and Accounting Pursuits Competition has just been held and Lynfield College came second again this year in Accounting – a closely fought contest just missing out to Saint Kentigern College. The team members (image right) were: Jake Krishnamurti, Pratik Chandra, Meryl Saldanha, Hamish Bhana and Shrishti Aggarwal. A fabulous achievement! Our Economics team came fourth in their competition, narrowly missing out on the third placing.

 

Tourists in their own country

Level 3 Geography Students Experience Rotorua

At Tamaki Village, Chief Ricoh, also known as our Deputy Head Boy, accepted the wero on behalf of the Year 13 Geographers.  The Maori cultural attraction at Rotorua  is typical of the experiential activities that now attract more than 2 million tourists each year to ‘Rotovegas’.  Taking part in haka, stick games and martial arts was followed by a hangi (ground cooked) dinner.

No visit to Rotorua is complete without a geothermal  experience – the original drawcard for visitors to the area. At Whakarewarewa (image below) students saw boiling mud, the famous Pohutu geyser and also joined in a haka at a cultural performance.

A presentation at the ‘Bath House’ museum stepped through the history of tourism development in the city – the case study for our NCEA standard.

Adventure tourism is the fastest growing drawcard for visitors and students braved the luge, a 70km/h adrenalin rush down a concrete mountainside track. (image below)

Overall our students enjoyed being tourists and their field experiences gave them the "real" data to assist with their assessment.

NZ Secondary Schools' Swimming Champs

Hamilton, 11 – 13 September
 
Lynfield College was well-represented at the NZSS Swimming Champs by a strong team of junior swimmers. The event, which is run by Swimming NZ, is well supported by schools from throughout NZ (111 schools were represented) and the competition is of a very high standard. Our team of Samantha Martin, Jackson Potauaine, Aaron Tahu and Luke Tahu represented the College superbly, both in and out of the pool.

Samantha - butterfly

Jackson - backstroke

Aaron - butterfly

Luke (left) was the most successful swimmer, with a Gold in the 50m butterfly and Bronze in both the 100m and 200m freestyle races. He also set personal best times across his six races. Samantha had a particularly busy time, with entries in seven races. She recorded a personal best in the 200m freestyle and gained a creditable best result of 5th in the 200m butterfly. Aaron produced four personal best times in his races and Jackson a personal best in his 50m backstroke. The College would like to thank the swimmers for their efforts at this event and the parents for supporting it, so that it could happen. Congratulations to all involved. We look forward to continued success in 2016.

Year 11 Drama Evening
 

It is assessment time for Drama students in Year 11 and you are invited to attend their Drama evening on this Wednesday 23 September.
 

Family, Friends and Enemies is a collection of scenes from different New Zealand plays which deal with human relationships. Topics covered are: Betrayal, Racism, How history relates to the present, Teen love and culture clash.

The scenes are divided into two sections, the first being from the play Sunset Café by Gary Henderson which deals with problems in young people’s relationships.

The second section contains scenes from The Pohutukawa Tree by Bruce Mason, Niu Sila by Dave Armstrong and Oscar Kightley, Romeo and Tusi by Oscar Kightley and Wheeler’s Luck by Nigel Collins, Toby Leach and Damon Andrews. These scenes deal with religion, superstition, culture clash and teen love - often with humour. They explore familial bonds, friendships and animosity. It is important to note that some parts are played by more than one person.

 

We look forward to seeing you here!

Student Art Works Chosen for Pah Homestead Community Day

 

Pah Homestead on Hillsborough Road will be holding its Community Day on September 26 and over 1500 people are expected to attend. The event is an opportunity to celebrate local art and culture and exhibits will include art works from local school students. Secondary schools were invited to submit students’ art works and Lynfield student  Isiri Samarappulige is thrilled that her piece has been selected for the prestigious showcase. A Central Leader article on the event can be read at http://www.stuff.co.nz/auckland/local-news/central-leader/71955070/pah-community-day-will-showcase-students-artwork

Local students with their art works chosen for the event.Myles James of Mt Roskill Grammar School, Isiri Samarappulige of Lynfield College and Eniselika Ali of Marcellin College.

 

What’s the Word at Lynfield College?   

Hear Ye! Hear Ye!

 

The 2015 WORD ON event is to be held next Tuesday 22 September in the Performing Arts Centre at 6.30pm. You will hear a number of speakers who will present a range of work including spoken word poetry, formal speeches and poetry (some in languages other than English.)

Some detail and background on the presentations have been provided by HOD Drama/curator of the Spoken Word activities Susan Allpress..

Khadija Bari will present her spoken word poetry. We congratulate Khadija for making it into the WORD UP final which was held at Corban Estate on Friday 11th September. Khadija presented spoken word about her identity. From Kiwi and Pakistani descent, her piece was entitled Mixed. She presented with confidence and strength, challenging the audience to expand their ideas on who we are, where we come from and the often inadequate labels we are forced to be lumbered with. Although not placed in the competition, Khadija’s performance was warmly received by an attentive audience. The evening will be an excellent opportunity to hear the work of our WORD – THE FRONT LINE TEAM who are competing in the semi-finals of the FRONT LINE secondary school competition on Saturday 24th September at the Herald Theatre between 1 and 4 pm. (Poster with details below). The FRONT LINE team consists of students from Year 11 through to Year 13 who have been attending weekend workshops with Action Education and have explored writing and performance alongside students from teams all over Auckland. This is the first year Lynfield College has auditioned for the competition and the students are very excited to make it through to the semi-finals. Team members, Naomi Mores, Sachi Rathod, Bridget Logan Haley, Jia Dua,  Aleece Monkman and Melissa Paet will present work they have developed for their performance on the following Saturday. (No recording devices please.) Joining Khadija and the Front Line Team will be Karan Kalsi who was the team leader of the junior debating team. They have recently won their division in the Auckland Secondary Schools debating competition, making them the Top Junior Team in Auckland.  Jia Dua was also in this team. The line-up for the evening includes another outstanding speaker, Gauri Prabhakar who was a finalist in this year’s Race Unity National Speech Competition. Again ideas about identity and perception are explored and presented with passion and conviction. Another award-winner presenting in the Languages other than English section is Elysha Negi, who has recently been awarded 2nd prize in the Auckland Goethe Society Examinations.

She has also been granted a scholarship from the German government to travel to Germany to represent New Zealand at the German Olympiad in Berlin in 2016. Elysha will be presenting poetry in both German and Hindi.

•  Individual presentations will come from the very talented Sarai McKay and Andrew Sampson plus two dramatic scenes from scripted plays that will feature Bethany Edmonds with Ash Raju and Elizabeth Wongchiu and David Fa’autaga with Liam Fricker.

• To round off the evening we will welcome back former Lynfield students, Boaz Competente and Rebecca Gandhi who have presented their work at our WORD evenings for the past two years. It will be exciting to hear their new work and the perspective they bring after being at Auckland University for their first year. Both Boaz and Rebecca hope to pursue a career in medicine.

The Lynfield spoken word evening is becoming a highlight of the literary / performance Arts calendar and we welcome all students, family members and teachers to come and hear these talented and courageous young people speak about themselves and the world they inhabit.

Lynfield's Front Line Team : from left - Jia (front), Melissa, Sachi, Naomi, Aleece, Bridget

 

Special Achievement Award for our  Students

Our Learning Support students entered three garments in the Open category of New Dimension for the Schools Trash to Fashion Competition, winning the Special Achievement Award in recognition of all three of their entries. Dancing in the Rain (centre in image) was Highly Commended by the judges for its vibrancy and use of materials (inflatable swimming pool).   The entries were made by Sophia May, Albert Ama, Priyanka Anand, Leon Bartley, Rebecca Fleming-Yates, Andrew Huang, Xyniel Po-Nepia and James Warman. Congratulations to you all!

 

2015 12 Drama Class Production

                                                       "Harbouring Ghosts "

                                                                                                           - A play by Kerry Lynch
 

             “Stories help us to recognise that we are part of a narrative that is much bigger than our own lives.
                  Physics alone does not keep our universe together, it is also held together by stories.”
 -Kerry Lynch 2011

                                                 Date – Friday September 18^th
                                                 Where– Performing Arts Centre
                                                 When - TWO CASTS TWO SHOWS         4.30PM and 7PM

 

CAST	4.30 PM SHOW	7PM SHOW
Mick Rose   Tara Benton   Jesse Gordon   Simone Gordon   Mum   Muzza   Ted Benton   Byron Lorimar	Kaleb Bowles   Marilena Penteado   Shania Pirini   Shanali Mehta   Reetu Garrison   Zyad Rahman   Lewis Tagaloa   Mason Lauder	Reon Sumner   O’Shara Ardelean   Emma Purro   Sarita de Pont   Lana Nicholson   Connor Gee   Lewis Tagaloa   Mason Lauder
Ghost Chorus Marylinda Lamositele  Payton Rodger  Elise Ashford  Olivia Hamer  Marquise Henry  Kathleen Senfelices  Ruhi Surani

 

 

Pat Hanly Art Student Award 2015

Congratulations to Hannah McIntyre, recipient of the Pat Hanly Art Student Award for 2015! This award is presented by the Friends of Auckland Art Gallery to a Year 13 Visual Arts or Art History student who demonstrates 'outstanding commitment and passion for the visual arts, and community awareness.'   Hannah received her award at a ceremony held at the Auckland Art Gallery.

 

Bring It On !!

Secondary Schools’ HipHop Competition
 
Students approached staff earlier in the year to seek support for entering the Bring It On Dance competition. Mr Tonks, Ms Allpress, Ms Fletcher and Mr Lagaaia all offered to support the group and supervised their lunchtime and after school rehearsals with Mr Tonks liaising with the Bring It On school tutors and the parents.
 
The students developed a concept for the dance, selected the music, choreographed the sequences and decided on the costume style for the group.

“We were rough at the beginning but we made it at the end and it was worth the effort.” – T J “It took a lot of time and effort but, with persistence, we made it.” – Nick “Getting to know the other students was great.” – Trinity “It takes more than just one to create a masterpiece.” – Fusi

 
On Saturday September 5^th the group met at school for a final rehearsal. Spirits were high as they loaded gear into the school vans and headed off to the Vodafone Events Centre where the afternoon was spent rehearsing and preparing for the live performance. The atmosphere back stage was quite electric with teams from eight schools revising their formations, refining the routines and finally getting into costumes ready for the call to be seated in the arena.
 
There were six schools competing in the secondary division and Lynfield was first to hit the stage. They performed with enthusiasm and energy, clearly showing the audience how much they enjoy dancing.
 
After their performance the group could then sit back and enjoy the routines of the other competing schools. A special presentation from The Bradas – NZ World Hip Hop Champions -added to the excitement of the evening.
The build up to the announcement of the winning teams was tense with massive cheers from the huge crowd when Mangere College were announced as top team for 2015.
 
Although Lynfield was not placed, the experience of participating and following through on their dream to compete was a reward in itself. All the students were really excited and proud of their achievement. They are the first team in a long time to represent Lynfield in this competition, and have led the way for teams to participate in the future.

“Practice is everything in dance. Be committed and don’t give up.” – Setta “Work hard and dance even harder.” - Briana

 Special congratulations are due to Noa Tagicakiverata for his leadership role that involved ensuring rehearsal spaces were booked and students received the letters and information sheets to take home to parents. Elena Euese and Peya Ono are also to be congratulated for their tireless work in organising the team, refining choreography, along with Michael Evaga, and finalising decisions around costuming. Tj Fainu’u showed patience and skill working with the boys refining their moves and perfecting timing.
 
What is remarkable about this team is that the students participating were a mix of male and female students spanning Years 9 through to 13, with the bulk of students coming from Year 11. This bodes well for the future as the students develop their physical skill, creative ability and deepen their appreciation of the Hip Hop genre. Special mention must be made of international student Martina Izzo from Italy, who committed herself fully to this group and shone as an outstanding performer.
 
Tumeke Everyone!
(Awesome)

CONGRATULATIONS TO TEAM 2015
Year 9  Setta Kaisala, Nick Talosaga Kumar, Trinity Sheppard
Year 10  Briana Cassidy-Hughes, Fusi Ligaliga
Year 11  Elena Euese, Devoe Allen, Caidyn Kita, Gabrielle Ono, Natalie Prescott
Ebony Shepherd, Yasha Berith Vaivai, Israel Walker
Year 12  Noa Tagicakiverata, Michael Evaga, Selina Folau, Jeremiah Iupeli
Year 13  Peya Ono, Martina Izzo, Tj Fainu’u, Ruben Salamo
 
Check out their performance on YouTube.        https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Nzxf_lLFx5A
 

Pacific Families Enjoy Inspirational Evenings

At their meeting at the college last week and then at the Jazz and Soul Concert  the families of our Pacific students enjoyed performances from their students who have involved themselves in a number of arts and cultural events this year. In addition the students and their families gained extra inspiration from the guest speaker.

Seiuli Terri Leo-Mau’u, Equity Advisor for Auckland University talked of her journey and encouraged students to know the meaning and origins of their name. The importance of having family behind you was emphasised as was being prepared. She gave the following advice: Lead by example, Surround yourself with good people, Be the best version of you, and Be empowered by your mistakes. She also compared education to the tatau, saying it was shameful not to finish either. And then it was time to hear of past students' successes..  Brian Tonks gave news of Martha Johansson’s daughter, Martha who has won Fiji’s Kaila Star Search competition ,and Eli Kaleta and Matthew Fa’amausili spoke about what they had done since leaving Lynfield. Current students were next to celebrate their talents and achievements. These included the band ‘Soul Jam’ with four musicians and four singers, a video presentation put together by  Lynfield College students who had attended the ’Aganu’u ;My Cultural Space’  Leadership event run by Massey University, a CD of the recent school show which displayed the talents of Pacific students who starred in the show (including  Elizabeth Wongchiu, David Fa’autaga, Marylinda Lamositele and Lewis Tagaloa) and finally a very polished performance by the Lynfield College Hip Hop Crew who are competing in Bring It On 2015.

So much to be proud of and inspired by!

 

Most Outstanding Big Jazz Band!! - KBB Triumph

 

Lynfield College Music Department has had a very successful time at the 2015 KBB Music Festival.  Once again the Big Band (left) was selected to perform at the prestigious Gala Concert. At the conclusion they received a Gold Award, a new trophy for best Jazz Improvisation and were announced as the Most Outstanding Big Jazz Band!  This is a huge achievement by the band and their director, Mr Norman. The Concert Band received a Silver Award and the Chamber Orchestra got a Bronze Award. The Symphony Orchestra played a fantastic programme under the direction of their new conductor, Mrs Mittermeier, and received many favourable comments and valuable advice from the adjudicatory

Junior Premier Debaters make Lynfield College History

 

Congratulations Jia, Karan, Kitty and coach Mr. Halligan, for winning their grand final debate last Wednesday night against Sacred Heart. This is the first time in Lynfield’s history that a Junior Premier Open team have won a final!   The moot was "That it should be mandatory that people use their legal name on the Internet". Sacred Heart came out with the argument of 'safety from pedophiles and cyber bullying", while our Lynfield team took it to an international level and argued that freedom of expression and the right to anonymity –especially for human rights activists and for voices of dissent- are more important. This was cited as what swayed the adjudicators in Lynfield’s favour. Clearly drawing on the knowledge gained from other extra-curricular involvement including The Human Environmental Activists Group (HERC), PSSP and UN Youth group, you could say it was a cross-EXTRA-curricular advantage that set them apart from a very skilful group of orators from Sacred Heart.   Lynfield will be awarded their trophy Wednesday, September 23rd at the Auckland Schools Debating Premier Advanced Grand Final and prizegiving.

 

Winter Sports Teams Finish Well

As the winter sports season comes to an end we can look back on the performance of our teams over the last few months with pride.  There have been some outstanding successes at every level.  The last two weeks have been very exciting as several teams from various codes fought it out for top spots.
 
Rugby league
For the second year running our Rugby League team participated in the Premier 1^st XIII competition. The first round’s highlight was a great win over Avondale 20-14. Losses to St Pauls, Manurewa and Papatoetoe meant that we would be competing in the Bowl section in round two.  At the end of the second round we were third which earned us a semi-final spot against Manurewa.  Although we narrowly lost 14-6, overall the team finished 4^th in the bowl which the boys can be proud of. With most of the team returning, everyone is looking forward to 2016.
 
Rugby
The 1^st XV played in the 1C grade this year. Big wins over Selwyn and Kia Aroha in the first round had the team well placed for the business end of the season. Again they defeated Selwyn and Kia Aroha but lost to Sancta Maria and Waitakere which meant they finished 3^rd in the regular season and would have to play Sancta Maria in the semi-final. It was their 2^nd game in three days (having played Mt Maunganui on the Thursday) and they competed admirably but were beaten by a better side. Finishing 3^rd is a good result and we are looking forward to 2016.  We wish the Year 13 players who are leaving all the best in the future.
 
Football (girls)
The Girls First XI had a mixed season, finishing 7^th from 12 in Premier 2.  We had a shaky start to the season with lots of new players, including 5 juniors. However, the girls finally gelled and resurrected the season by 3 wins from 3 just after the midpoint including a great win against Kings College. The season was capped off nicely with a fantastic 4-2 win against Mount Manganui where the girls played with passion and flair to gain the victory they deserved. Kelsey Sutton scored a hat trick to win the match ball and Kelly Pinner was awarded Player of the Day with one goal and 2 assists.
 
We say good bye to some real quality players who have served the team well over the last few years, notably Sonil Metha, Kelly Pinner, Ruby LeMarquand and Teneil Pillay and look forward to our upcoming tour of Australia at the start of September.
 
Basketball (girls)
After qualifying for the Greater Auckland Champs, the U19 Girls’ Basketball team found the competition at the higher level quite tough but an excellent challenge and very enjoyable.  They had 2 close losses (to EGGS and Pakuranga) and this experience will be very valuable when they enter the 2016 season.
 
Hockey
We had an increased number of boys and girls teams this year, giving 7 teams in total.  This will bring strength and depth to our hockey next year.  The competition has been intense at all levels and all teams have shown real grit and determination to dominate and win many games.
 
1^st XI Boys - winners of the Open Boys B/C Championship.  After a very tense and exciting game of excellent hockey, this team defeated Kelston Boys 4-3 in the semi-final last week.  The final against Howick College was played on Wednesday and about 30 Lynfield supporters witnessed a great game which ended in a 1-1 draw.
 
1^st XI Girls winners of the Open C Championship.  In another nail biting game Lynfield fought back in their final against Rutherford on Thursday, to score a goal right on full time to draw the game 2-2!

Waterview Connection Pathway Challenge : Popular with our Students

The Waterview Connection: Pathway Challenge Programme is aimed at Year 10 students interested in Engineering.  It is a Ministry of Education incentive in which Lynfield was invited to participate. 

Teacher Mr Craig Yearbury has led this cross curricular programe involving Technology, Maths and Sciences  and he has been amazed by the number of Year 10 students interested in this event. The aim is to encourage students to choose Engineering as a career and this project fits in very well with what we do do around giving students information about future career options.

There have been various visits and activities for students and staff to participate in during Term 3.