A team of Mission Heights Junior College Year 10 students have collaborated this year to produce an innovative project, earning the group a Merit Award in the 2017 Transpower Neighbourhood Engineers Awards and $750.00 for the school. Jamini Patel, Lia Arroyo, Camryn Chetty and Vanisha Rajan created ‘Robo-ish’ a robot programmed to sense and pickup litter and place it in rubbish bins.

The robot stays within a specific vicinity, using claws to move in a random order automatically sensing rubbish on its way, then finding its way to the bins. The project team was so determined to learn the new software of coding the robot and used certain codes to ensure the robot does the required job.

The students have used a small-scale robot (MBOT) currently being used for learning about robotics at the school and programmed it to achieve their goals. Special guests Craig Stephens, Consultant for Goodman Property and Sarah Kelly, Civil Engineer, Calibre presented the cheque from Transpower on behalf of Futureintech at the MHJC Champions Assembly this week. Congratulations Team Robo-ish! From left: Craig Stephens, Basil Taha, Teacher Maths & Technology, Jamini Patel, Lia Arroyo, Vanisha Rajan and Camryn Chetty and Sarah Kelly.

On Thursday, 16th November, National Adviser for Spanish, Señor Cristóbal Gutiérrez visited MIssion Heights Junior College. It was his first visit to the school since taking office in February this year. He met with staff and language teachers Ms Martin and Mrs Gao. Señor Cristóbal Gutiérrez discussed with Ms Martin a student trip to Spain and the valuable learning opportunities for the class. The goal is to make this trip a reality at the end of 2018 or early 2019. Señor Gutiérrez also brought valuable resources to share with teachers who are delighted he will provide ongoing support for our school’s Spanish teaching and learning programme.

Great to see so many students cycling to school, rewarded with hot chocolate as part of Enviro Week.

A huge congratulations to former MHJC student Dylan Townsend for receiving the People’s Choice award in this years prestigious ASB Brightsparks Award announced last night.

Dylan has built a device that essentially records the impact or dangerous moves that an athlete’s head is exposed to during impact sports like rugby or American football. For the full story from case studies to development click here to view Dylan’s video http://www.brightsparks.org.nz/concussion-conundrum/

Congratulations to our former student Dylan Townsend who was the recipient of the prestigious Waka Huia o Whakatupuranga Award. This award goes to a student who has consistently reached the highest levels of academic achievement, service and leadership.

Well deserved Dylan – we are very proud of you!

This award was made for the first time at the Ormiston Senior College Awards Ceremony. Congratulations to Rashmeen Sandhu who graduated from MHJC and is the first recipient of a scholarship worth $6000 to be used for tertiary study. The money is contributed by 6 schools located in the Flat Bush area – Baverstock Oaks School, Mission Heights Primary and Junior College, Ormiston Primary, Junior College and Senior College. Rashmeen plans to enter the field of medicine and we are very proud of our former student who continues to grow her greatness – kia mana ake!

For a second year, the MHJC Chinese Day Event was held during the NZ Chinese Language Week, celebrating Chinese language and culture. The event raised students interest in learning Chinese and about the culture – in line with the school’s goal – to foster future global citizens.

As well as the fun activities MHJC won three  merit prizes at the 2017 Chinese Short Film Competition, a merit prize at the 2017 Chinese calligraphy competition and to top it off, 12 of our student authors had their stories published in the book ‘Flying Kiwis’!

Here is the full article published in the Eastern Courier:  https://www.stuff.co.nz/auckland/local-news/eastern-courier/98024170/describing-kiwi-identity-in-two-languages

Proud published MHJC young authors below. Back row (from left): Ezekiel Ng Shiu, Mrs Gao, Principal Morrison, Willie Lan, John Kenneth Astadan Front Row (from left): Elsa McCormick, Siya Kumar, Ruby Tasmania, Gursimran Kaur Randhawa, Crystal Su (Absent) Megan Strydom, Kabir Sikh, Jordan Wandsworth and Andrew Ma.