Our kapa haka group came of age on Saturday with a wonderful performance at the Kōanga Festival at Somerville Intermediate . Mr and Mrs Tuhaka have worked tirelessly with their enthusiastic students who put on an emotional and polished performance. Mr Tuhaka has also written a haka for the school which was performed for the first time at the festival. Images to follow.
Growing greatness – kia mana ake
Māori and Pasifika Coordinator, Jason Tuhaka, has congratulated Tra Mi Nguyen (7W2) for designing the winning Mission Heights Junior College picket to represent the school at this year’s Kōanga Festival. The picket reflects our students voices characterising aroha (love) kotahitanga (oneness) and kia mana ake (growing greatness). Great work Tra Mi.
There will be over 30 South-Eastern schools taking part, showcasing the beautiful taonga (treasure) of kapahaka.
Dr Fu, the National Advisor for Chinese, visited our College in August to present awards to the winners of the Chinese Bridge Speech Competition. Congratulations to winners Elsa McCormack (8M2) and Aadi Singh (9C1) shown below, receiving their prizes. Dr Fu was impressed by our facilities and our Chinese Teaching Programme. Later, he taught a Year 7 class how to use chopsticks with first prize of the Chopsticks Challenge going to Leo Cao (7C1).
Dr Fu gave advice on expanding our language programme to include trips, scholarships, culture and language exchanges and establishing a relationship with a ‘sister school’ in China.
Dr Fu specialises in Chinese teaching pedagogy and is skilled in calligraphy and Tai Chi. He supports Chinese teaching programmes throughout New Zealand by visiting schools, organising events and running workshops.
Congratulations Nathan Zheng (8C2) for being placed first in the Kelston Deaf Education Centre Year 7 & 8 Speech Competition. Nathan is really happy to have won as he set himself this goal after placing second last year. Organisers described his presentation as outstanding!
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.
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.
For easy access the link for parents is below:
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.
A great effort indeed!
Growing greatness – kia mana ake
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.
The winners are:
