Year 9 students took part in an exciting day trip to the Capital this week. First up was a visit to the Beehive, New Zealand’s parliament buildings. With the 52nd general elections looming, this was perfect timing to learn more about our country’s electoral system and a chance to visit the House of Representatives – where Ministers of Parliament (MPs) and Select Committees meet to debate and vote on matters of national importance. The MPs weren’t sitting at the time of our visit as they were campaigning for their Party in their own electorates.
This was followed by a fascinating guided tour exploring Te Papa Museum with its rare exhibitions and collections. Students were in awe of the stories behind many pieces from New Zealand’s history.
Deputy Principal, Ms Melanie Kindley, travelled with the group, “Our trip to Wellington afforded students with many exciting and rewarding new experiences. Te Papa’s giant squid and ‘Gallipoli – The Scale of Our War’ exhibitions were stand out highlights of the day, in addition to the authentic learning surrounding ‘Elections’ at Beehive.”
For many of the group this was not only the first time on a flight but also the first time to Wellington.
A phenomenal result for this year’s 40-Hour Famine from Mission Heights Junior College was recognised at a celebration Awards evening held this week at Elim College, Botany. Over $10,000 was raised by our pupils choosing to either give up food, technology, furniture or even talking – for a whole weekend in June! As one of the top fundraising schools this year, a special acknowledgement was also made to Maddison Taylor’s personal effort of raising $1,000. Thanks all for a huge effort for a great cause raising money for the Syrian Refugees. Shown here are students (from left) Maddison Taylor (10W1) and Georgia Hall (10F2) accepting the awards on behalf of our school.
Emails have been sent to all parents, students and staff with a link to our bi-annual community survey. Please take some time to respond to this as it will assist us to measure our progress and make future plans based on your feedback. The higher the number of respondents the higher the reliability of the survey.
As our senior debating team reached the top 8 schools in Auckland it struck me how well our Year 9 and 10 students are performing in all areas of inter school competition. Some highlights include our cricketers who are currently top in the Colts 2 Competition which would place them in the top 10 in Auckland. Similarly the Boys’ Soccer Team are currently near the top of the Second Tier of competition which would also place them in the top 10 schools in Auckland. Our Under 15 Basketball team has reached the top 8 schools in Auckland and will compete for higher honours this Thursday. We have been invited to an awards evening thanks to the efforts of a number of our students who raised funds for World Vision and we are placed second in the world in Education Perfect’s international academic competition.
Sixty students from Mission Heights Junior College will be attending the 2017 International AIMS games from the 11th to the 15th September. As costs associated with this tournament are high, this year sports teams sold raffle tickets to help lower the cost for families. Thanks to our sponsors who kindly donated prizes, we were able to raise $11,520.
Our sponsors are:
SHARP NZ
Click Chiropractic
Spices Thai Restaurant Botany Junction
Accounting Mechanix LTD
The draw was completed on the 9th August at 11am in the Mission Heights Junior College Staffroom.
A big thank you to Mr Groenewald and team for staging another successful Cross Country event this year. Although Mountains ultimately won the inter-Whanau event, all four Whanau impressed with wonderful levels of spirit and participation. The school drone captured some beautiful footage of students (and staff) on the course, which we hope you enjoy….
Congratulations to Sharon Zheng who is one of three finalists in the Senior category of the Brother Design Stars. The overall winner is being announced on The Adam & Eve Show on TVNZ2 today. The judges are shown below trying on Sharon’s headgear…
My compliments to all our students for the incredible effort they showed on Friday. The annual event was a show case of much that we promote at MHJC. While Mountains Whanau emerged as the overall winners, in a sense every student “conquered their mountain”. Our top athletes competed for top honours and as importantly, this year, every position counted. This meant we saw every student trying to get that crucial point which would assist their whanau to succeed. That sense of individual purpose contributing to something bigger is what we wish to promote at MHJC. We saw individual excellence and great effort by all. It was also pleasing to see and hear students cheering each other at the finish – first to 200th we all achieved something.
For the record Mr Morrison (aka Mr Plod) achieved a creditable 55th place in the Year 9 Event….He is aiming for a top 50 finish next year!
Now we look forward to our top Maths students competing in the much anticipated annual Mathex Competition this Thursday evening.
Mission Heights Junior College have released a school app available for parents and caregivers to download. This app is available at no charge for Android and iOS devices. The MHJCApp allows the school community to receive information on school events, news and personalised notices from the school.
Download Links
The Android MHJCApp is available on Google Play;
The iOS MHJCApp is available on the Apple App Store;
Adding a Student ID
To receive personalised notices for your child you will need their student ID card. You can add their student ID by going into the settings menu within the app and tap on “Add Student ID”. This will use the camera on your phone or tablet to take a picture of their ID card, which allows you to receive automatic notices from the school about sports practices, field trips, etc.
Reports were recently sent to parents regarding progress towards National Standards for Year 7 and 8 students. This has been our practice as it helps students to make plans and access the support they might need to reach their goals for the year.
It is important to note however that some students who have been reported as being below standard at this point are being measured against the standard that needs to be reached at the end of the year.
In a sense, it is expected that some students would be below standard at mid-year and my message to them would be that with consistent work they should be at standard or above by the end of the year.
The Senior Leadership Team has analysed the whole school National Standards and e-asTTle data which shows the progress of our students in Mathematics and English and we are extremely pleased with the results so far. While National Standards are aspirational goals we also consider each individual’s progress as of equal importance.
We will be having our Student Led Conferences in a few weeks where your child’s Learning Advisor will be able to give more information about e-asTTle and National Standards or you can contact your Whanau Leader.
Growing greatness – kia mana ake
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