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.
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 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”
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.
During this experience, we got to meet other enthusiastic finalists from all parts of the country and heard inspirational speeches by “Nano Girl” Michelle Dickinson, engineering, electronics and commerce industry leaders and others. It is a huge accomplishment by “Project Lockdown”, as we are MHJC’s first finalists to be in BrightSparks!
Our students have shown two examples of being able to compete against the very best.
The first example is the Year 7 and 8 cricketers who reached the last four of all intermediate schools in Auckland in a limited over competition. In an exciting semi-final they were very disappointed not to make the final when the two teams finished on the same total. A count back to wickets lost meant their fantastic run ended after knocking over three local schools and St Kentigern College in the quarter final. An excellent achievement and credit to coach, Mr Pasupati and the boys.
In the area of academic competitions, our Year 10 team of problem solvers entered and reached the finals of the Bright Sparks Competition. This is a fantastic achievement and complements the four teams who won awards in the IPENZ Competition. Again credit is due to the students and mentors, I would also like to thank Mr Hargreaves whose engineering background is proving invaluable in supporting these and other projects.
“Growing greatness – kia mana ake”
Our students live in an exciting time in education with the opportunities created by digital technology. The benefits of using digital tools are well documented and I am excited by the high levels of engagement the advent of 1:1 learning has brought to schools. With the use of collaborative tools, students will be able to participate in a lesson, answering and asking questions on a level never seen before; develop on-line forums inside and beyond the classroom and engage with their learning. But we are conscious of the need to balance the digital connectedness our students are experiencing with the need to connect on a personal level with each other and with nature. Research is available which documents the harmful effects of people being wired 24/7 to their virtual world. There are physiological as well as psychological dangers from the excessive use of digital technology ranging from “ihunch”, the effect on posture, to the almost obsessional behaviour of some who cannot “disconnect” for fear of becoming isolated from their peers.
We are conscious of these dangers and intend to make digital citizenship a major focus of our learning in 2017. We want our students to see and harness the positive benefits of using digital technology. The responsible use of social media is a key competency for students as is the efficient use of technology and its many applications. Teachers will ensure that the use of digital technology will be balanced with other traditional teaching styles for example personalised discussion and class debate which fosters social interaction. We are also fortunate to be able to offer a comprehensive extra curricular programme which helps students to keep a balance. Year 7 camp, OPC, Outdoor Education excursions and Whanau organised EOTC trips are designed to provide the obvious benefits of being in the outdoors, enjoying nature and to be disconnected for a while. Our four cornerstones promote healthy activity, social development as well as participation in group and team activities.
We will also work with parents starting with the Netsafe evening on November 3 to ensure we work as a team so our students can become responsible and competent users of digital technology.
“Growing greatness/kia mana ake.”