‘Safe Schools Week’ is a time of the year that students reflect upon the way they think, speak and act towards other students, to ensure that school is a place where everyone feels valued and protected. On Friday 26th June staff and students celebrated ‘Pink Shirt Day’ activities, to help strengthen MHJC’s culture of tolerance, respect and understanding towards others.
Mandarin Teacher Mrs Gao has returned from Beijing after her three weeks of study at the Beijing Language and Culture University. Mrs Gao earned the Chinese Teachers Scholarship to Beijing for 2017, during which she gained the opportunity to attend lectures by language experts from the BLCU and observe best practice in teaching Chinese. Mrs Gao has brought back many exciting ideas and resources that she will use in her Mandarin classes at MHJC.
MHJC entered the Yr 7 & 8 AIMS development team into an inter-school netball tournament in Papakura today. We are delighted to report that the team had an outstanding day on the court, winning all matches throughout the day and bringing home the gold medal for their ‘mixed’ section.
Team Members were:
Ricky Bassano, Zain Ismail, Sophia Lafaiali’i, Janke Maritz, Kyla Murdoch, Marion Aimee Petelo, Jo’res Taramai-Remo, Brooklyn-Rose Timu, Shalom Toilalo and Cyrus Tuhaka
Yr 10 student, Tiana Herewini provided GREAT leadership to the team throughout the day, supported by staff members Olivia Young and Laetitia Jansen Van Rensburg.
Year 7 student, Cathy Shipway is now a published artist, with her digital artwork (shown below) being published in the Toitoi magazine recently.
The four illustrations were some of the first “100% digital” art that Cathy created, using a simple drawing tablet that her family had given her for Christmas. This was also the first time that the Toitoi magazine had a contributor submit digitally painted artworks. Cathy used the Firealpaca free drawing software and learned digital drawing techniques by studying videos on Youtube from other Internet artists.
Baverstock Oaks Primary teacher, Mr. Gibbs recognised Cathy’s artistic talents and submitted a selection of her work to learn whether she would be eligible to illustrate one of the stories for the Toitoi magazine. Cathy was thrilled to learn that she had been accepted as an illustrator for the publication.
‘Bent Luck’ is story about a disastrous skiing trip in Queenstown, where a bent ski pole signals the start to a series of challenging experiences on the slopes. This story was a particularly good match for Cathy, as the previous winter her family had visited the ski fields in the story and had taken a ride on the chairlift – so Cathy had already seen and experienced the subject matter herself.
Cathy admits that at first she had intended to use watercolours, however after further consideration she decided to use her digital tablet to produce the four art works. First Cathy sketched the picture concepts, then blocked in the colours on the sketches. Next, she refined the painting and added highlights and details.
Cathy has found this to be a GREAT experience and next time hopes to be a published author-illustrator!
Congratulations once again to our Education Perfect participants who won the Social Sciences World Championships recently. Pictured below is teacher Catherine Hunter with two of MHJC’s winners, Amanda Lee (14th in the world) and Aliza Azba (19th in the world). We extend our best wishes to our Language Perfect participants, whose competition concludes on the 25th May.
The Vodafone Warriors visited MHJC today to discuss health and fitness regimes, and to offer advice about fitness strategies. Students found the practical advice most beneficial and look forward to applying the tips to their own health plans.
Mission Heights Junior College would like to raise awareness to students and parents regarding the ransomware (virus) called “Wanna Cry” or “Wanna Crypt”. You would have seen it on the news lately since last Friday. There are some simple steps you can take to keep your device safe on the internet;
Don’t open suspicious files that are emailed to you, even if you know the sender.
Don’t download files from places such as Pirate Bay, Putlocker, Mega, Mediafire or any other file sharing websites.
Always keep your machines (Windows or Mac) constantly up to date. For Windows users, update to Windows 10. This includes your home computers.
Backup your files regularly. You can use Google Drive for this. If you back up to an external drive, make sure you store it away from your computer in a safe place.
