School News

Te Petihana Movement

This week we celebrate Te Wiki O te Reo Māori and this year, we are excited to collaborate with our neighbouring kura, Mission Heights Primary School.

Today marks 50 years of Te Petihana movement.

“The Māori Language Petition (Te Petihana) presentation to Parliament on 14 September 1972, with over 30,000 signatures, kickstarted major shifts in the revival of Te Reo Māori as a living language in Aotearoa New Zealand. Since this moment 50 years ago, Te Petihana has, and continues, to inspire the Māori language movement.”

MHJC and MHP look forward to continuing this celebration for the rest of the week.

School News

AIMS 2022

Last week, a group of Year 7 and 8 students headed down to Tauranga for the AIMS Games (Association of Intermediate and Middle Schools). Teams and individual athletes competed across a number of sports and had a successful week with other athletes from across the country.

Congratulations to all who competed!

Principal's Blog, School News

New long term strategy for COVID-19 announced today (12/9/22)

The following message is edited from the Ministry of Education communication received today.

Changes have been announced by the government based on public health advice and reflect high levels of immunity and declining case numbers across Aotearoa/New Zealand. 

This new approach will result in minor changes to the way we operate:

  • Household contacts of a person who has tested positive with COVID-19 do not need to self-isolate, but instead are asked to complete a RAT test each day, for five days. Therefore ākonga and kaiako who test negative may continue to attend school. 
  • Anyone with symptoms should stay home, get tested and advise the school for attendance purposes.
  • Mask wearing becomes a matter of personal choice and is no longer required after midnight 12 September 2022.
  • Indoor spaces will continue to be well ventilated and 
  • Good hand hygiene and sneeze etiquette is encouraged.

Your cooperation during the very complex and sensitive period has been most appreciated and we hope the relaxation of the guidelines we have followed will not be needed in the future.

School News

Tournament of Minds

On Saturday, MHJC hosted over 30 teams from all over Auckland and Northland at the Regional Tournament of Minds Competition.

Tournament of Minds (TOM) is a problem-solving program for multi-aged teams of students who work together to solve a demanding, open-ended Long-Term Super Challenge. The program has Primary, Intermediate and Secondary divisions. Tournament of Minds aim is to enhance the potential of our youth by developing diverse skills, enterprise, time management, and the discipline to work collaboratively within a challenging and competitive environment. The teams had six weeks to formulate a solution to their one chosen challenge and ten minutes to present their solution in person. They also completed an unsighted Spontaneous Challenge.

Congratulations to team ‘Still Wondering’ who won in the Secondary Social Science Challenge. The team consisted of Saketha Jandhyala, Owen Chen, Savir Selagan, Riya Sutton, Yashvi Patel, and Alan Shipway.

Our Intermediate Language and Literature team placed 2nd in their category. The team ‘Literary Coven’ were made up of Dia Pokharkar, Tehzeeb Kaur, Max Jiang, Jay Govindji, Jasleen Brar, and Kirsten Pelayo.

School News

Year 10 Drama – ‘Dawn Raids’

This past Thursday, our Year 10 Drama students went to see the play ‘Dawn Raids’ at the ASB Waterfront Theatre. The show was an emotional tribute to a dark event in New Zealand’s history. Students loved being able to experience live theatre and get immersed in the story written by Oscar Kightley.

Principal's Blog

The MHJC Graduate Profile or Great Learner

With Student Led Conferences coming soon it is a good opportunity to explain a significant change in how we have been reporting to parents. 

Three years ago we felt it important to report on the whole child which is why we refer to the new report as a Holistic Report. We want students to be able to articulate their learning journey by referring to their Graduate Profile recorded within the following broad domains:

  • academic progress and achievement in all learning areas, as well as literacy and numeracy;
  • engagement at school which includes participation in our “Four Cornerstones” or co-curricular activities, attendance, punctuality and homework completion and
  • evidence of living our school values of pono/integrity, awhinatanga/compassion and whakamana/empowering through learning.

The thinking behind this change is that it reinforces our school vision and purpose expressed by our motto of “growing greatness/kia mana ake”. We believe that every student has a grain of greatness and it is our mission to help students to find and grow this grain of greatness. This should be represented by our report which is multidimensional and gives students opportunities to show their greatness in many ways rather than a one-dimensional report on achievement. We believe that all our students should feel or experience success in some way through their MHJC journey and the report acknowledges this.

Teachers have been working with students on what we consider to be an innovative approach to reporting. Rather than teachers passing a judgment on students, it is they who “write their own report” and progress through the stages of our Graduate Profile by understanding and showing evidence of our school values. This acknowledges the need for schools to provide learning opportunities for students to learn how to manage themselves effectively, reach out to others and learn how to learn. These are the messages we receive continuously as the critical ingredients for future success and so it makes sense that everything we do at school aligns with the report.

This is an exciting and at times challenging journey but one which we believe will be of immeasurable benefit to our students. Thank you for supporting us and I trust you enjoy hearing how your child/ren give expression to their journey.

Growing greatness/kia mana ake!

Ian Morrison

Principal/Tumuaki

The home of Mission Heights Junior College, Auckland, New Zealand