44 Mahurangimatters August 17, 2016
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Mahurangi COLLEGE
From the
The 53rd annual exchange with Hauraki Plains College took part over two days at the end of term 2. Seven senior teams were involved and an enjoyable time was had by all. Our girls and boys hockey teams both had wins as did our girls soccer. The 1st XV narrowly lost 27-24, senior netball lost 48-46, boys soccer 4-3 and boys basketball also lost. Well done to all involved.
Principal David Macleod
Dear Parents and Guardians Congratulations to all our students involved in Stage Challenge this year on their excellent performance at the Aotea Centre end of term 2. The idea of Stage Challenge is that it is student led, so I would like to thank Rosalee Green and her team, who did extremely well and were rewarded three awards of excellence. My thanks also to the teacher in charge, Ms Chitty, to our Cultural Coordinator, Mrs Harper, and to all other staff and parents who gave of their time and energy assisting in so may ways. On Wednesday 3rd August, with the support of our Board Chair, Tracey Martin, we held a Youth Parliament at Mahurangi College. The auditorium was seated as in Parliament and a debate was held to discuss the proposal that NZ become a Republic. When the vote was taken it was 65-62 in favour of becoming a Republic with two abstentions. We had six visiting MPs from six different political parties who joined in on the debate and then spent time answering questions and talking in small groups with our students. There was a live feed into other classrooms and we greatly appreciated all the MP’s being present, some of whom had flown up from Wellington specifically to be part of this event. It was an excellent learning experience for our students, particularly around Democratic processes and our place in the world.
Tracey Martin (NZ First), Peter Dunne (United Future), Jan Logie (Green), Catherine Wynne (Honorary Madam Speaker!), David Seymour (ACT), Kelvin Davis (Labour), Charlotte Gipps (HOF Social Sciences). Also present for the debate was Mark Mitchell (National).
Girls First XI hockey team with their coach, Gill Kearins
The Senior A girls hockey team is having an excellent season having won both our regular school exchanges against Mt Roskill Grammar and Hauraki Plains, having retained the Greenwood Shield for lower Northland schools, and playing each week in the Auckland 1A competition where they are currently winning tier 2. They have played 10 games with 8 wins, 1 loss and a draw so far. We wish them well for the semi-finals, and hopefully finals, of this competition in coming weeks. The Technogy Faculty will be having an Expo in the school auditorium on Thursday 25th August starting 6pm. Level 2 and 3 Drama students will have a performance evening on Friday 26th August starting 6.30pm. Our senior Music students will have performance evenings on Monday 29th and Tuesday 30th August. Parent teacher interviews for our senior students will take place on Thursday 1st September. We wish all our teams well as they head off to WinterTournament Week in week 7, and our junior schools teams well as they attend the AIMS tournament in Tauranga in week 8. We also wish our Senior Under-Water Hockey team well as they compete at the Nationals in Wellington from 1-4 September. The senior school exams are in weeks 8 and 9 of this term.
Academic Academy Recently our Academic Academy students enjoyed a day in central Auckland. The day started at the award winning Mind Lab, where we had to resolve how to give 25 tennis balls “some air” over 600 times in two minutes with all members of each group having to touch them all! This certainly led to some confusion, elaborate throwing and catching configurations, and sheer determination, but we did succeed! Then we were challenged in pairs to create an electronic controller, using just cardboard, foil and a simple switch, to operate a Pac Man game. In the next hour designs were trialled and refined. Old style pressure pads and gear sticks materialised. We were all feeling rather proud of our achievements as Pac Man ate pac-dots, but then, at the end of the hour, Alex our Facilitator challenged us all to rework our designs so they could be used without the use of hands. We had just 30 minutes! Determination, collaboration and problem solving prevailed. All controllers were reworked and, with a 30 second “elevator pitch”, each group explained their designs to the rest of the group. The outcome? “I thought this would be good today … but it was so better than I expected”. After lunch in Newmarket we met Dr James Johnston, a past Head Boy from our school, at Auckland Hospital. He was happy to share his experiences and advice about careers in the Medical Sciences. He spoke of the opportunities he had at Mahurangi College that contributed to his success applying for scholarships and roles he has enjoyed as doctor. We enjoyed asking questions about university courses and his current research into Tonsillitis, and we got to see some fantastic photos of his time at Mahurangi College. Thanks to Mrs Gipps and Mrs McMillan for arranging such an enjoyable and worthwhile trip for us all.