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!

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

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.

Here is a short clip from last Term’s Mathex Evening, which featured teams from Baverstock Oaks, Mission Heights Primary, Mission Heights Junior College and Ormiston Senior College. A big thank you to our parent and teacher teams for being such great sports, and to event organiser Neelam Taneja for running another successful Mathex event.

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!

The ABSL Summer Hoops 3×3 grand final was held last night, between MHJC’s ‘The Aces’  (Marlon Bolivar, William Chen, Jesse Manuel and Randy Dayrit) and Farm Cove’s ‘Big Time Ballers’. It was by all accounts a very exciting game and ended all tied up at full time with a shoot out to determine the winners!

The final result was MHJC’s “The Aces” being crowned the 2016 ABSL Summer Hoops 3×3 Champions!  Both MHJC teams that were entered into the competition represented MHJC very well, as did their supporters.  This is a tremendous result and wonderful feedback to receive!

‘Project Lockdown’ consists of group members Bella Lin, Katrina Mohammed, Ryan Ngo and Bill Wong. We were named as one of six national finalists in the 2016 NZ BrightSparks competition, having developed our project for the last 2 years and enabling it to be entered into the Engineering Category for this year’s competition. On 2nd November we attended the awards ceremony at the ASB Cube on Wynyard Wharf, with the support of our mentor Mr Hargreaves, along with Mrs Hewlett and Mr Morrison. Unfortunately, we did not win the top award, but are very proud of our achievements.