May 2019

Results from the Debating Nationals in Wellington

The 2019 NZ School's Debating Championship Grand Final took place in the Legislative Chamber of Parliament to a full house of students, debaters and dignitaries, including the Governor General, Dame Patsy Reddy who spoke and distributed awards.

Ms Knell, Sherry Wagner. Raymond Feng (A Reserve for the Auckland squad), ex-Lynfield Debater Karan Kalsi (Northland coach) and Kyus's family were in attendance.

SECOND IN NEW ZEALAND

Auckland Blue is one of two Auckland Regional teams that took part in the competition. It is coached by Auckland School's Debating coach Chris Ryan. The team is comprised of the following three speakers: Millie Caughey (St. Cuthbert's College), Mitchell Palmer (Auckland Grammar School) and our very own Kyus Rodger (Lynfield College). Raymond Feng (Lynfield) was the Reserve for the team.

After being undefeated through seven preliminary rounds, they won their semi-final against Waikato and advanced to the final. They affirmed the moot "THW allow only female lawmakers to make decisions about female health issues". They finished runners-up against Wellington Black.

TEAM SELECTION

Kyus Rodger was selected for the New Zealand Schools' Debating Team (a 1st ever for Lynfield!), attending the World Schools Debating Champions 2019 in Thailand in July.

This selection represents years of hard work and we are extremely proud of Kyus!

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PRESS RELEASE FROM AUCKLAND SCHOOLS' DEBATING

Congratulations to Auckland's speakers on an exceptional performance at the 2019 New Zealand Schools' Debating Championships over the last four days.

Auckland Blue, after being undefeated through seven preliminary rounds finished runners-up against Wellington Black in a 3-2 split decision in the finals while Auckland White was defeated in a 2-1 split decision in the semi-finals.

William Price (Westlake Boys' High School) will be the Captain of the New Zealand Schools' Debating team and he will be joined by Mitchell Palmer (Auckland Grammar School and best speaker of Nationals), Grace Baylis (Macleans College), Kyus Rodger (Lynfield College) and Harper Smith (Waikato Diocesan School for Girls). They will attend the World Schools' Debating Championships in Thailand in July 2019.

Millie Caughey (St Cuthbert's College) is a reserve to the New Zealand team and was also the most promising speaker while Isaac Mellis-Glynn (Auckland Grammar School) received a promising speaker award.

Many thanks to the reserves Raymond Feng (Lynfield College) and Jack Sandelin (Auckland Grammar School) who came to Wellington to support Auckland's two teams.

Also many thanks to the Auckland Blue coach Chris Ryan and Auckland White coaches Zachary Wong and Arun Prakash for the work that they have put into coaching the Auckland teams this year.


Taichi Nakao, Year 12, Baseball Player

Congratulations to talented Baseball player, Year 12 student Taichi Nakao.

After a successful year playing for the North Shore Premier Men’s team, Taichi won Best Batter for the season at their recent annual Prizegiving. As well as this, Taichi was also awarded the Club’s top prize, the President’s Award. This is presented to the person throughout the whole club that best represents the values, behaviours and ideals of a model player. When presenting the award, the club chairman expressed his admiration for how Taichi conducts himself on the off the field, his kind and giving attitude from helping coach the juniors to helping with equipment every week, and the level of respect he has earned from everyone he plays with and against.

It is great to see Lynfield College students representing the values of Manaakitanga out in the community. Congratulations Taichi on your deserved success.

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Careers Expo at the ASB Showgrounds, Greenlane

On Thursday morning 23 May, all of Year 13 students visited New Zealand’s largest Careers Expo at the ASB Showgrounds, Greenlane.

Students were engaged in learning conversations with the exhibitors, and clearly enjoyed the event shown by the real buzz across all eight buses on their return to school with their Form Teachers for the afternoon of usual timetable.

There was definitely something for everyone, from the following range of exhibitors: Tertiary institutions, trades, earn while you learn opportunities, GAP year advice, opportunities to go straight into the workplace, experts giving career planning advice, study options overseas, CV and interview tips to ensure work readiness … and so much more.

A new initiative ‘Go with Tourism’ had an extensive addition of exhibitors to inform students about the boom in the New Zealand tourism industry, with the need to find 36,000 tourism workers across New Zealand by 2025.

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Pink Shirt Day a Stand Against Bullying

Lynfield was a sea of pink on Friday 17 May as the whole school got together to celebrate Pink Shirt Day.

The Pink Shirt Day movement began in Canada in 2007, when two students took a stand against homophobic bullying after a new year 10 student was harassed for wearing pink. Pink Shirt Day is about taking a stand against bullying, by celebrating diversity and acceptance.

The week leading up to Pink Shirt Day began with competitions and activities being run by PSSP, Safe Schools and Skittles, to raise awareness around bullying. Safe Schools also decorated bathrooms with messages and quotes, and students were asked “what pink shirt day means to them” through a social media competition. On the day, we gathered on the field in pink to take a drone photo, and PSSP ran activities as well as a photo booth at lunchtime. Overall, we had a very successful Pink Shirt Day this year at Lynfield. Together, we embodied our school value of manaakitanga, and also raised over $1400 for the Mental Health Foundation.

Kōrero Mai, Kōrero Atu, Mauri Tū, Mauri Ora – Speak Up, Stand Together, Stop Bullying!

Huge appreciation to everyone on staff for getting involved - especially those who had students from the various groups helping out today (PSSP, Safe Schools, Student Exec, Shakti). Thanks also to Deborah Kevany, Pauline Phelan and Catherine Barker.
 
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Pink Ribbon Breakfast

It was a very early start for the Hospitality department on Thursday 16 May.

Head of Hospitality Stephanie van Niekerk and Hospitality Teacher Jackie Hardy and their team of very talented Year 13 Hospitality students created a very special treat for staff with a Pink Ribbon Breakfast, and raised funds for the Breast Cancer Foundation.

The menu included Eggs Benedict, French Toast or the Kowhai Big Breakfast to choose from. Along with Breast Cancer Foundation merchandise that was on sale - almost $1000 was raised by the Hospitality Department for this event.

Pink Ribbon Breakfast is Breast Cancer Foundation New Zealand’s biggest fundraising campaign, held in May each year, where amazing Kiwis across NZ come together for good.

The money raised helps fund innovative projects by some of our country’s top researchers, and supports patients and their families as they navigate through their breast cancer journeys.

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Students Visit Roche Affiliated Conference

On Tuesday 7 May a group of Lynfield College students were invited to attend the Asia Pacific Diagnostics Leadership Team Conference which is a meeting held for the 15 Roche affiliate companies in the Asia Pacific Region. It is only held in New Zealand every 8 - 10 years as it is a small affiliate. Roche's local company philosophy is to provide our people a 'great place to learn' which links nicely with the College's motto of a 'learn to live'.

As a multi-national and that represents every culture and nationality worldwide Roche thought it would be great to expose delegates to our New Zealand heritage and culture, while also giving students and exposure to the opportunity of a career and insight into Healthcare which is Roche New Zealand's industry market.

The students opened the conference with a Mihi Whakatau and closed the opening session of the morning with Whaea Leauga introducing each part, but the lead student explaining their piece of content and the relevance to culture and the process. There was also an opportunity for our leaders to discuss New Zealand life, education and hopefully inspire the next generation of healthcare leaders.

Below are some of the comments from a very appreciative audience ...

"Thank you so much for allowing the student visit this morning. My colleagues and our international guests are still talking about the Lynfield welcome and performance from this morning. For a lot of our guests this is their first experience of New Zealand and your group was absolutely fantastic …

The pure nature of young engaged students practising their culture and the ability to discuss and inform others with real passion as your group did this morning was very enjoyable … They interacted well with everyone they encountered and were so obliging with every request.” Craig Martin, Roche Diagnostics New Zealand Ltd

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School Students Strike for Climate Change


STRIKE REVIEW BY LILY CHEN

On March 15th, I chose to not attend school in order to participate in the infamous climate strike for the purpose of vocalising my opinions pertaining to climate change, in hopes of our politicians finally paying attention to this epidemic, and put youth visions in the centre of decisions that will fundamentally impact our generation. It's my priority to see our government has our best interests at heart, so our elected leaders are incentivised to enact urgent and unprecedented change. Our list of demands were straightforward, including but not limited to: carbon neutrality by 2050, investment in renewable energy alternatives, regulation of agricultural emissions, and much more.

Upholding my status as conscientious global citizen comes at a cost, the cost being my absence from school. Ironically, I missed both biology and chemistry classes, in which I was exposed to the concept of climate change, along with its devastating environmental implications. By using the knowledge I obtained in strictly academic circumstances and applying it to real life contexts, I felt truly empowered by the education system for the first time in my life. Marching alongside my equally passionate constituents highlighted the value of critical thinking and proactivity when confronted with external adversities, such as the disheartening trend of climate inaction, which is a practical lesson I won’t be able to learn in a classroom.

Nowadays, school students are smarter than ever and we are no longer willing to tolerate the political sacrifices of our very existence for the sake of protecting corporate greed. Establishing this grassroots movement enables us emphasise the necessity of drastically altering the status quo, since the current trajectory is heading towards catastrophe. As members of a democratic society, our voices matter, so the climate strike served as an excellent opportunity to communicate our message.

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Despite requests that student strike action be held outside school hours further action is planned throughout a number of New Zealand regions on Friday 24 May.



Greentown School Cultural Exchange

From Monday 6  to Friday 11 May we had the pleasure of hosting students and teachers from Greentown school, Hangzhou China.

Our relationship with Greentown School goes back many years and is one we treasure immensely. This week our guests have been treated to many Kiwi experiences including a Pōwhiri, visits to Muriwai Beach and the Waitakere Ranges, Cornwall Park, local shopping, and of course tasting mince pies, sausage rolls and L&P.

They also spent all Thursday at school experiencing a typical New Zealand school day. The Greentown students have been hosted by many of our own families who have done a superb job looking after our guests.

They leave us on Saturday to fly back to Hangzhou having spent the last two weeks in New Zealand. We look forward to seeing them again when we visit Hangzhou in April next year.

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