February 2024

2BIO Smith’s Bush Field Trip

Level 2 Biology students visited Smith’s Bush on Thursday 29 February. Smith’s Bush has some of the oldest remnant bush on the North Shore. It has a series of looped walking tracks amongst the mature forest including a cathedral grove of giant pūriri, kahikatea and tōtara trees.

This was a half day field trip associated with an internal assessment. Here the students sampled abiotic data and recorded data about the plant species present in order to identify a community pattern. The trip also gave the students the opportunity to work across biology classes and learn about local flora.

We enjoyed good weather on both days and the students are now busy writing their written reports in class.

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Year 9 Whānau Evening

We enjoyed seeing over 400 students and whānau on the field on the very sunny evening of Wednesday 24 February. Whānau met with Hui mai teachers, enjoyed a sausage sizzle, and made connections with other families.

Thank you to all those who were able to make it on the evening or who have connected with the school in other ways. We are looking forward to more of these evening during the year. The home-school partnership is vital in ensuring our young people are well-supported during their time at the College.
 

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House Sports Day 2024

Held on Friday 23 February, this event is a Term 1 highlight and the students were ready for a huge day of fun and colourful House rivalry. Even our building construction crew from Naylor Love joined in the fun at the Tug of War! 

Our Sports Captains and their Assistants tell the story ...

We had different activities such as high jump, long jump, relays, 3-legged race, 100m sprints, basketball shooting, vortex and an obstacle course. At the end of the day everyone participated in our mascot and chant presentation which displayed amazing energy!

Sports Captains Fiona Siaopo and Annaleah Smith and Assistants Ryan Ghosh and Flynn Meiklejohn

Thanks to Ron Delgrosso for his superb photographs.

The House Captains had worked hard to involve all students in the presentation of their House Mascot. They really let their creativity flow as they came up with some interesting ideas, to impress the judges.  

With a rotation of twelve 15 minute events in the morning students tugged, ran, jumped, threw and scrambled to gain points for their house. Teachers who took on the obstacle course had the incentive of winning 5 points for their house and were seen scrambling through the obstacle course too! 

Check out our Facebook page for more photos of this event: https://www.facebook.com/lynfieldcollege/

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Badges Assembly 2024

On Tuesday 22 February, our 2024 Student Leadership team were presented with badges at our annual Badges Assembly. This celebration officially recognised our students and their roles to the wider community. The assembly was attended by proud parents, teachers, and the Year 13 cohort.

Board of Trustees Student Representative Rishitt Walavalkar welcomed everyone to the assembly, followed by the presentation of badges to the Young Māori and Pacific Pride Leaders. Michael Yu then entertained everyone, performing a piano piece by Bach. We were also lucky enough to have past student leader Jessica Varney (Lynfield College Head Girl 2019) as a guest speaker for the event. Her speech about goals and our vision for the school was inspirational and thought-provoking. The Year 12 Student Executive and Year 13 Student Executive next received their badges followed by the Senior leaders.

To round out the event, Head Students Daisy Chen, Zara Qureshi, Aaron Crasto and Calum Bint congratulated the entire 2024 Leadership Team and shared their insights into the year ahead. Finally, Ms Knell officially concluded the assembly. The 2024 Student Leadership Team is made up of 55 confident and dedicated leaders who are excited to make this year the most enjoyable for all Lynfield students.

Photo credit with thanks to Vini and Erica.

 

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Greentown Yuhua Qinqin School Visit

From 18 - 21 February China Hangzhou Greentown Qinqin School Language and Cultural Exchange Group, with 16 students and two teachers, were warmly welcomed and their visit both at the College and with their host families was very successful. 

In 2010, Lynfield College established a sister-school relationship with Hangzhou Greentown Senior and Greentown Qinqin Junior Schools. This began a reciprocal exchange which has taken place every year until COVID-19.

This recent exchange has provided many Lynfield College students with exciting opportunities to practise their Chinese with local Chinese students, and also has provided the opportunity for Lynfield College students going to China with the exchange next year to be emersed in Chinese culture and understand China better.

Beautiful photos thanks to Vini Laga'aia
 

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Scholarship Breakfast 2023

On Friday 16 February we celebrated our NZQA Scholarship award recipients, whanau, and teachers, at a celebration breakfast. It was fantastic to celebrate their successes, and for those moving off to University, hear about their next endeavours, and for those returning, not only celebrating but being challenged to continue to strive for excellence and better their achievements in 2024.

SCHOLARSHIP RESULTS 2023

21 Scholarships were awarded to 14 Lynfield College students across 11 subject areas for 2023.

Congratulations to all our Scholarship students:

Evan Huang (Year 12) in Statistics, Biology, Chemistry, Physics, Economic

Anthony Haze Fleming in English, History Jessica Brewerton in Chemistry, Physics Mei Matsuki in Japanese Michael Yu (Year 12) in Calculus Nyah Jarvis in Biology Riya Patel in Biology Kenan Egene (Year 12) in English

Neel Kumar in Japanese, Biology Darred Godinez (Year 12) in English Akhil Mathur in Physics Nitya Kumar in Design Jeremy Watson in Design Kovid Dev (Year 12) in Technology

 

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Our Robotics Teams are Seeking Sponsorship A 'Give a Little' page has been set up where donations are welcomed to help support our students compete at the Worlds in Dallas, Texas, 25 April to 1 May 2024. The QR code is on the right.  Please help Lynfield College Robotics teams get to the VEX Robotics World Championships in Dallas, Texas, USA.

 VEX Robotics NZ National Championships

This year the VEX Robotics NZ National Championships were held at Lynfield College in both of our Gyms over three days from  9 - 11 February. There were 65 High School teams and three University teams competing for seven qualifying spots to the World Championships in Dallas Texas (the VEX World’s).

Two of our five teams did extremely well, winning the NZ National tournament as an alliance, but one of them, our only Middle School team was outstanding in that they also beat all the High School teams in the Robot Skills section of the NZ Nationals and won the prestigious Middle School Excellence Award.

Both teams have qualified for the WORLD CHAMPIONSHIPS
held in Dallas, Texas USA in mid-April this year

TEAM 2915E MEMBERS (YEAR 11)

Markus Maertzschink, Sohail Asyaban, Harry Baker, Rio Carron

TEAM 2915X MEMBERS (YEAR 12)

Hola Afasa, William Hooper, Arnav Kumar, Oliver Mun

It is vitally important that we do all we can to help these eight students get to the VEX Worlds to take advantage of the opportunity they have worked so hard to achieve. Currently we are looking at needing a total of approximately $7,000 per student to enable them to travel and stay in Dallas, compete in the VEX Worlds and do a little sightseeing while they are there.

If you own or know of a company that may be able to help with sponsorship, please contact Craig Yearbury at cyearbury@lynfield.school.nz for more details.