May 2014

Lynfield LynC - the Lynfield College App.
 

Two weeks ago the new Lynfield College app was launched to students and staff. This app enables the community to keep up to date with what is happening at Lynfield College.

Features of the app include:

• Daily Notices
• Newsletters
• Events Calendar
• Absence Form
• Parent Portal access

The students are also able to access the:

• Senior Assessment Calendar
• Tuck Shop Price List
• Exam Timetable
• E-LynC

The app is available for free download from the Play Store on Android devices and the App store on Apple devices.

Workchoice Day 2014

 

This national event was attended by 25 Year 12 &13 Lynfield  students within three interest groups. Two different workplaces were visited by each group and students returned buzzing with new ideas about their career pathways. They saw employees in action, got an idea of the variety of job roles within each company and were encouraged to further their studies. This year the companies hosting us were: Jacobs SKM Telecom Sovereign Auckland Council -Economic Development Sanofi Coca-Cola	Above : Jacobs                            Right : Telecom
Student response: “ I was amazed with the culture within the company, the vibe within the working space and the passion of the employees-I’d never thought about that before, but to be there ‘on the floor’ was an eye-opener."

 

Year 12 Geography Ruapehu Ramblings

 

While some people might shy away from an active volcano, the Year 12 Geographers recently experienced a three day trip on the flanks of Mt Ruapehu, New Zealand’s largest stratovolcano. Students compared differences in stream velocity, vegetation and slope between two locations, including a walk to Silica Rapids.

Working on two assessments, they also investigated the issue of ski field development on New Zealand’s first National Park (and a United Nations World Heritage Site). In stunning, sunny weather, a highlight was riding the chairlifts to New Zealand’s highest café at 2020 metres.

Winter Sports Underway
 

Year 11 Economists Explore the Business of McDonalds
 

Model United Nations Assembly

 

On the 16th and 17th of May approximately 300 students from around the Auckland region took part in the 2014 Model United Nations Assembly. Lynfield College's proud history of participation in this event was capably continued by our two teams of senior Social Science students. Gauri Prabhakar, Liam Bateman and Zachary Walker-Rendall represented Pakistan and Tian Cooke, Anton Stuart and Gavin Feng represented the nation of Libya. As always, the teams needed to prepare and deliver speeches to the Model United Nations Assembly and engage in some frenzied coalition-building to get amendments passed and deals brokered. There was even a crisis the United Nations needed to urgently resolve (in this case, a Russian invasion of the Ukraine).

Greentown Yuhua Exchange

Nikki Singh, Year 12, reports on the recent trip to China..

19 students, Mr Prasad, Mrs Prasad and Mrs Fang made up the group who travelled from New Zealand to China on the 2014 Greentown Yuhua exchange. We didn’t realise how 18 days was all that was needed to change our lives for the better.

After 12 hours and 15min of sitting in a plane we arrived at our first destination: Shanghai China. The next four days in Shanghai were jam packed with activities such as visiting the World Financial Trade Centre (which is 100 floors high and the highest tower in the world), watching Chinese acrobats, visiting various temples, going to the Nanjing Road shopping street and riding in a bullet train that travelled at up to 433kmph. Nanjing shopping street was maybe the biggest surprise for all of us. In our minds we imagined a small run down road with little donkey pulled carts that sold handmade merchandise. Nanjing shopping street was however the equivalent of walking down Auckland city in the night time. Shops  ranged from beauty products like Chanel to clothing stores like Converse and Prada.. Our time in Shanghai disappeared with the wind and before we knew it we were sitting in a bus for 2 hours heading to Suzhou.
 
Suzhou was a beautiful city  but we only had two nights there. The only sight-seeing we were able to do was visit the Humble Administrator’s Garden which is the largest garden in Suzhou and the finest garden in all of Southern China. Most of the students didn’t want to leave our 5 star hotel in Suzhou but we had to because the most important part of our trip was coming up: our school exchange.

Going to Hangzhou all of us had the same thought running through our brains ... "What if we didn’t get along with our homestays?”...  When we arrived at Greentown we were greeted with a massive signboard that said "Welcome friends from Lynfield College New Zealand”. We all started to talk at once as excitement began coursing through our veins. The school itself was breath-taking! With 3 cafeterias, a giant all weather athletic track the size of Mt Smart Stadium, gyms, student dormitories, an archery centre and many different types of classrooms, Greentown Yuhua was a lot for most of us to take in, it was massive to say the least. Seeing the friendly faces of our homestays set us all at ease from our earlier thoughts and we were all able to fit in with the students from Greentown Yuhua. School started at 7:30am and finished at 5:0 pm Monday to Friday. Such an early start meant that Lynfield College students had to wake up at at least 5:30-6:00am each day.  The students of Greentown Yuhua have 9 periods a day which means they have to sit through at least 9 hours of school and only have one break for lunch throughout the entire school day. Soon Lynfield College students were trying to get their sleep whenever they could! Our homestays treated us like gold! Some students went to ice-skating with their homestays, others went shopping at massive malls and others would go to amusements parks. The homestays completely spoiled us. When it was time for us to leave to go to Beijing we were all tearful because the homestays had become like family to us .Tearful farewells were wished and emails were exchanged so that none of us would lose touch with each other.

The final leg of our journey had arrived. Travelling in overnight train was another story in itself! With two bunk beds and 4 students per room we all had to find ways to stow away our luggage without blocking our walking area and squeezing ourselves onto thin beds. But we all had fun and arrived in Beijing ready to take on the world!
 
Beijing consisted mostly of sightseeing and buying last minute present for people back home. We went to see the Great Wall of China and climbed it for 1 hour. We saw the Forbidden City, Silk Street Market, Wangfujing Snack Street and the Summer Palace. And before we knew it our 18 days were up. We were sad going home because we knew that we would miss the friends that we had made along the way but we started to takea look at our life in New Zealand from a new perspective (such as appreciating the fresh air) Ms Fang had told all of us before we left to open our minds, open our hands and open our hearts. That is what we did and we had the experience of a lifetime!

Te Reo Students Return from Rarotonga

From Friday 2 May to Saturday 10 May, 10 senior Te Reo Maori Students visited  Rarotonga for a Cultural Exchange. The students were: Lute Sikalu (Head Girl), Eli Kaleta (Head Boy), Sarai Mckay, Hudson Read, Olivia Riggs, Shanaia Panapa-Ruri, Devoe Allen, Rosie Kennedy, Henry Samuels and Aussie Koha. Whaea Leauga accompanied the group and Ms Ridling arrived soon after to join the group.
 
Titikaveka College was our host school and our students enjoyed learning skills such as Lei and ei making,  preparing kai for an umu, hula dancing, drumming and weaving.
 
Furthermore the group were invited to perform at the Award Winning Highland Paradise as guests on stage for a large audience. Basic Cook Islands Maori words were learnt and many great friendships were made during our stay.
 
One evening  all students presented speeches expressing their gratitude to their host families and the school, and presented gifts and a taonga to the Principal Mata Hetland and families (Mr and Mrs Rangi. Mr and Mrs Tuoro and Mr Napa, and their children).
Lynfield Students also performed the School Haka and a repertoire of waiata as appreciation towards all who displayed manaakitanga.
 
Mihi atu ki nga tangata katoa kia pukumahi mo tenei haerenga. Hei hua he wheako miharo ma matou.

Some images of a memorable experience...
​

Inspiration from Orion Visit

The students from Years 13 and 12 DTG (Digital Technologies )have just visited Orion Health, a software company that specialises in medical systems. As the students will soon be making decisions about their futures they were greatly enthused and inspired by learning what a huge demand there currently is in New Zealand for the very skills they are learning.

At Orion there is a huge variety of positions within the company with a great demand for workers who have a degree in computer science and software engineering. The company offers incentives to get these graduates to work for them  – including offering internships for students while they are studying. The company is 21 years old and has offices in 23 countries leading to increased opportunities for employees. The employees get free breakfasts each day, free fruit, flexible working hours, work in an open plan environment and can wear casual clothes to work. The company also supports younger students by running the Codeworx programming challenge and sponsors the ICT Connect program which sends people working in the ICT industries to schools to talk about their jobs.

The students came away with a goodie bag, and a chocolate bar (and for Dilon Dhanji, winner of an ICT quiz, a box of Favourites which he generously shared around!) but most valuably they now appreciate the opportunities that await them should they choose to continue their studies in computer science and software engineering
 .

Senior Students Explore Careers Expo

AUCKLAND CAREERS EXPO-BRIDGING SCHOOLS & INDUSTRY FOR OVER 20 YEARS

	The entire Year 13 cohort travelled in eight buses to the Careers Expo on Thursday 8th May with their form teachers, having prepared prior to the expo with an expo magazine and study resource as well as being given the chance to download the careers expo app, full of information.   Students took the advantage of the opportunity to talk face to face with the widest range of employers, industry, government departments, and training providers that New Zealand offers.  Providers informed students on Vocational Pathways so that students better understand how they can be prepared for future employment or further education.

Grace Kukutai - NZ Secondary Schools' Netball Team!

 

Huge congratulations to Deputy Head Girl, Grace Kukutai (Year 13) who  has been selected as a member of the NZ Secondary Schools Netball Team.  This is an outstanding achievement!   The team is comprised of the top 12 school age netball players in NZ. Grace has been a member of the Lynfield College Premier 1 netball team since she was in Year 10, playing in the mid-court, most often as Centre.  She was a key player when this team won the B Grade last year in the Upper North Island Secondary Schools tournament.  To be selected in the NZ team has been a goal of Grace’s for several years and she has worked tirelessly to reach this extremely high standard of netball.   She has been ‘put through the hoops’ by selectors at three different trials camps in the last few months.  The NZSS team will play in a Trans-Tasman tournament in Adelaide later this month, competing against their Aussie equivalents as well as teams from the Pacific region. During her time at Lynfield, Grace has developed some great time management skills which allow her to meet commitments to her sport, academic studies (she passed NCEA Level 2 with excellence last year) and leadership within the school.  Six days each week she is working on her off-season training regime which consists of cardio work (a mixture of spin classes, road runs and strength training in the gym), ball passes onto the wall for skills and lots of core work.  Grace has also been fully focussed on nutritional and hydration requirements for netball at the elite level.  These are all indicative of the commitment and dedication which have been absolutely critical to her success.

 

Te Reo Students in Rarotonga

With much excitement our Te Reo students have arrived in Rarotonga for a week of cultural exchange. The photos below show them enjoying  Highland Paradise Cultural Centre, performing a haka and a waiata.

 

 

Rainbow's End - and the Learning of Physics

The Rainbow’s End trip is an annual event in the Physics Department calendar. This trip aligns with the teaching of the Mechanics standard, which has concepts involving linear, circular and simple harmonic motion. The students are expected to not only experience the various rides but also measure and record relevant data that would be analysed back in school.

This year, 87 year 13 Physics students and 4 accompanying teachers went to the theme park. The students were divided into 4 groups and the majority of the first half of the day involved taking measurements,and  recording data in their Rainbows End workbook which was specifically designed around the majority of the rides.

Students busy taking measurements and recording data in their workbook.
The second half of the day involved students going in as many rides as possible and experiencing the forces acting on them, and in some rides like bumper boats and cars, the reaction forces acting on their colleagues.

 

The information gathered from the various rides was incorporated in the teaching of the Mechanics standard. And this year, for the first time, the weather was favourable! and both the students and teachers had a great time.