Welcome to the 2017 school year!

This promises to be another year of exciting opportunities for our students. I look forward to welcoming all our new and returning students personally and hope everyone has made suitable resolutions for 2017.

We were very pleased with our National Standards achievement data and wish to congratulate the Year 7 and 8 cohort who managed to exceed the 2016 target in Mathematics and reach the 2017 target of 85% at or above standard a year ahead of schedule! All our results will be placed on the web site in the Principal’s Report once the NCEA data has been received.

We also received the confirmed ERO report which is also extremely positive. The team were extremely impressed by the school and how we are bringing the vision of “providing innovative, constantly evolving, personalised learning” to life. The full report will also be put on the web site after it has been ratified by the Board of Trustees at its first meeting of the year.

A big year lies ahead for our students who will be the first to be able to work at school with their own devices. We predict this move will have a very positive effect on teaching and learning and reinforces every aspect of our vision. Please refer to our web site for more information about this important initiative.

Best wishes

Footage from CJ’s UK Football Tour

Many MHJC staff and students will be interested to view footage of training drills from CJ Lupena-Baker’s UK football tour, with the Westham Oceania Academy. During the second stage of the tour, CJ’s Team spent two days in Manchester before heading down to London, on the way they played Liverpool County FA winning 4-1.

They then had training sessions at Rugby Town, West Ham United and Wolverhampton Wanderers before attending the English Championship Game between Wolverhampton and Fulham at Molineux Stadium.  CJ reported that it was a thriller of game with the result being 4-4.

Click to view videos…
CJ’s Football Tour 1
CJ’s Football Tour 2

CJ’s team played their last game of the tour against Burton Albion at the National Training Facility, which they won 1-0. They then went on a bus tour of London, with extensive shopping taking place at the Nike and Adidas stores!  We are glad that CJ returned home safely from his overseas adventures and look forward to his continued success and enjoyment of football in 2017, and beyond.

 

CJ’s Football Tour of the United Kingdom

Year 8 student, CJ Lupena-Baker is having a marvellous time in the UK, with the Westham Oceania Academy.  He has reportedly enjoyed plenty of training/games (and sightseeing) at a whole different level of intensity, which has been a great experience for him to learn from and to try and apply upon his return to New Zealand

CJ’s Tour so far in Scotland…
Game vs Dundee United – Lost 1-4
Game vs Hearts – Lost 1-3
Game vs Glasgow Rangers – Won 9-3

CJ scored in the Glasgow game with a left footer, and has been playing in a number of positions, mostly CAM, with stints as a forward and right back.  The team has now arrived in Manchester, and have had a coaching session with Hugh McAuley, former assistant director of the Liverpool academy, and now are at Riverside Stadium watching the EPL game between Middlesbrough and Hull City. Tomorrow they have a game vs Liverpool County FA, before attending the Champions League match between Man City and Celtic. They then move on to London for the final leg of the tour.

We are extremely proud of CJ and wish him safe and enjoyable travels with the Westham Oceania Academy.  We look forward to the next update!

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Formula-A Propeller Driven Car Race

Well done to all contestants who entered the Formula-A propeller driven car race that was held on Tuesday the 6th of December, 2016 in the school gym. Two Year 7 classes from Coast Whanau competed against two Year 10 option classes in the construction and racing of their cars. Students applied their knowledge of Maths and Science and used simple recycled items to make their propeller driven cars. In Technology students have learned about electronics, componentry and building simple electric circuits.  High levels of fun, anticipation and excitement were observed throughout the competition!  Thank you to Mr Basil Taha for leading this wonderful event.

Congratulations to the winners:
1st Place: Grand race winner: Patrick Wang from 10W2
2nd Place: Hugo Lai from 7C1
3rd Place: Jeo Hanns Turtal and Andy Soryath from 7C2

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Santa Show

A big thank you to Abbi Shields and her wonderful team of student helpers for organising MHJC’s Santa show on Friday.  The event showcased the talents of singers and dance groups from across the school – including MHJC’s very own staff band!  The festive and entertaining extravaganza was enjoyed by all.

 

Reading plus

Gary Player, legendary South African golfer when asked why he was so lucky to chip so many balls straight into the hole answered, “It’s funny, the more I practice, the luckier I get”.

Much has been made of the assertion that to reach the top in any sport or activity a person needs to put in 10 000 hours of practice.

I am not suggesting that students need to spend 10 000 hours on Reading Plus (although it would be preferable to games or social media…..) however, we analysed our latest whole school data and there are interesting lessons to be learnt.

Reading Plus is one of the digital tools we use to deepen and strengthen our students’ reading and comprehension skills.The data shows the correlation between the number of sessions students completed on Reading Plus and the level gains the same students made. The magical figure is only 100 sessions (just over two sessions a week). Students who complete this minimum number show significant level gains and interestingly those who complete 200 sessions (just over four sessions a week) double their rate of progress.

So parents, please encourage your children to use Reading Plus at home. Some sessions can be done at school but as you can see valuable progress can continue any time, anywhere in keeping with our learning philosophy.

As holidays approach this is even more important as many students lose ground during this time – Reading Plus helps our students to get ahead and if we work as a team our students can improve even quicker.

Growing greatness/kia mana ake

Resilience means we finish strong

Resilience is a quality we promote within our GREAT acronym. I spoke to students this morning about finishing the year in the best possible way. We wish to acknowledge students for their amazing achievements, progress and commitment this year at the various assemblies and prize-giving designed for that purpose.

Some students will be leaving us and this message is perhaps more meaningful for them. I compare a school year to a 400 metre race. The first 100 can be hard for some as they struggle to start, the next 200 most students get into their stride but it is the last 100 that shows the most character. When you are tiring and near the end there is a desire to slow down or walk or even give up and stop.

Our students are RESILIENT, they don’t give up and they finish strong. They will be remembered not by how they started but how they finished.

I look forward to sharing the last few days with all our students and enjoying the celebrations of their success as we close.

Parents please support us as we maintain the high expectations of punctuality, appearance and manners right through to the end.

“Growing greatness – kia mana ake”

Rotorua Road Trip

Year 10 students from Water Whanau enjoyed a ‘Rotorua Road Trip’ field trip yesterday, that was a part of their Term 4 ‘Identity’ learning context.

A highlight of the day was a fascinating visit to The Buried Village, where students learned about the Tarawera eruption and visited the excavated Te Wairoa archaeological site. The eruption of Mount Tarawera in 1886 is one of New Zealand’s greatest natural disasters. The violent and unexpected eruption buried Te Wairoa and several smaller villages in the area under hot heavy ash and mud. It completely destroyed the famous Pink and White Terraces, one of New Zealand’s first tourist attractions. Sadly, around 150 people lost their lives as a result of the natural disaster.

Students also visited the ‘Skyline’ facility and enjoyed gondola and luge rides!

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