B I N D E R - 8 May 2020

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Strengthening the Bonds throughout the McGlashan Community

Dear McGlashan Community, The move to Alert Level 2 is imminent and we will write to you next week outlining how and when we will be returning to school and boarding. We have surveyed our students twice under Alert Levels 3 and 4 regarding distance learning, and on the whole, the boys have connected effectively with their subjects. I don’t think any of this has been easy and I commend them for their perseverance.

Up to seven boys have been working in the Learning Centre over the past two weeks - they tell me that the environment helps them lift their motivation and work more effectively.

Our classrooms and boarding facilities are being cleaned and organised. This will set the scene for a return to some sort of normality.

We will return to school and boarding in the next week or so and are looking forward to being together again on campus and getting back to the routines of school life.

I want to thank you all for your patience, cooperation and many messages of support over the last seven weeks. We all know how difficult the situation has been, but once again, the staff have done their very best to provide quality teaching and preemptive pastoral care for the boys.

We still have a few challenges ahead but will keep you informed as we move forward.

Kindest regards, Neil Garry Principal

YEAR 7 SCIENCE “BUG HOTELS” In Science, the Year 7 students have been working on the “Native New Zealand” topic. This week we have been learning about the terms native, endemic and introduced.

In order to think about what native animals need in their habitat and how they need to be protected from introduced predators we have been making weta/bug motels. This has been a good chance to get away from devices and do some learning in the outdoors. In the photos you can see the “5 Star” hotels that Joshua Kyle and Simon Knopp have made.

LIBRARY RESOURCES We would normally have a display in the library for NZ Music Month, but this year, we’ve made a virtual display on the library web app for you to enjoy.

NZ Music Month homepage JMC Old Boys Making it Big in the Music Industry - Tom Kelk, Mitchell Sizemore, George McLachlan, Dylan Walker, Semisi Maiai Check out their music: MILD ORANGE HOT DONNAS MARLIN’S DREAMING RAGGED Also on Spotify you can find music from Purveyor of Fine Meats and more from Ragged.

Currently, we have many musically talented students at the College, among them Rylan Urqhart, Aidan Hung and Glen Ericsson.

Steven McNulty - HoD Music Pipe Band

8AHO’S HOME-BASED FOOD TECHNOLOGY

INTERNATIONAL As we entered week 7 of ‘lockdown’ we thought it might be interesting to ask our International Students about their experiences of being in ‘isolation’ in New Zealand.

Joe Mu, International Prefect, gives us his perspective: ‘As an international student having been in New Zealand for over four years, this lockdown is still quite a crazy experience. However, I was able to experience things I never thought I would. I moved out of the boarding house to a homestay for the lockdown period, and it was a completely different experience. Not being able to play any sports, or to hangout with friends were a shame, but that gave me the opportunity to go for runs or walk my host family’s dog, and gave me more time to study and to make some music’ We asked our students two questions: What are things you never thought you would experience whilst in lock-down in New Zealand?

What are you most looking forward to when the isolation period is over?

We received mixed positive and negative responses to the first question. On the positive, the students living in homestay have really gotten to know their surrogate family members quite well and enjoy the time spent with them. Some students have been lucky enough to experience feeding sheep and other animals, cooking and baking, gardening, fruit picking, farm life and not being bored which was a nice surprise… The negatives were mainly around not being able to see friends and play sports or comments like ‘never thought I would experience being so bored!’

There was one common thread amongst the feedback for Question two… ‘Getting back to school’ is what students were looking forward to the most, followed closely by ‘seeing friends’, ‘going to town’ and ‘playing sports’.

Overall, I think the International Students have coped incredibly well in the circumstances. They feel safe here in New Zealand and have really engaged in the online learning programme. If anything, they have gained a new appreciation for going to school and, like all of us, look forward to seeing the gates to John McGlashan College opening sometime in the very near future.

Photo: David Gan practicing ‘social distancing’ at Allan’s Beach on the weekend

ONE OF JMC’S GOOD SORTS Dan O’Brien from 8AHo has been providing a community service on the Peninsula during lockdown, by means of playing his bagpipes (from a distance) for people’s birthdays. On the Peninsula FaceBook group, people were asking what they could do to make a lockdown birthday special. So it was suggested Dan could play happy birthday on the pipes. From then it has grown! So far he has played for his old school principal, Bernadette Newlands, for a 5 year old, a 14 year old, a 40th, a 70th, a whole street (none of whom appeared to have a birthday), another 14 year old, a 48 year old, a 50th, a 25th, and Nev who is not well from the bowling club. He also played for ANZAC. Dan has to get on his bike in all weathers to bike out to Broad Bay, or Portobello, but he just gets on and does it without a fuss - fair play to him, he is a true McGlashan good sort.

The orders for playing have been flying in and he now has a waiting list. Dan doesn’t know any of these people (well he does now). His favourite was Shirley Parsons (Mrs P) who was celebrating her 92nd birthday. She wrote a thank you card to Dan. He has to get on his bike in all weathers to bike out to Broad Bay, or Portobello, but he just gets on and does it without a fuss - fair play to him, he is a true McGlashan good sort.

PREFECTS’ CHALLENGE This will be the last challenge, so let’s all get involved and have a go. It is a great challenge and we would love to see some creative projects big or small.

Rob and Jack’s Recycling Challenge Have a look around your house and create and construct something from recycled materials. Be creative! We are looking forward to seeing some great projects.

Here is our example:

WHAT’S BEEN HAPPENING DURING LOCKDOWN? Here is what Penny Ferguson has been up to during lockdown - in between zoom sessions with students: Our bubble consists of me, my husband Rob and our self absorbed, unfriendly cat, Tito. We have busied ourselves by attacking our neglected garden, walking, Netflix, reading and keeping in touch with family and friends.

Gardening was interesting as neither of us have great knowledge or really any skill in this area. Over the past month we have filled more than 30 wool packs and sacks of clippings which then took four trips to Green Waste to clear. We are now left with huge gaps in our section.

Some were necessary, and some, definitely not!

Flynn McGuigan (Year 9) reports that lockdown at Waikouaiti hasn’t been too bad: Apart from school work, I have been riding my motorbike, mountain bike and going down to the beach a fair bit as well as helping Mum and Dad around the farm and the house. I’ve been taking up cooking as a hobby and made homemade KFC last week and empanadas the week before.

And from Stewart Island, Angus Kenny (Year 13) writes: I was away on a search and rescue call when the lockdown started. So it didn’t start out too well. I spent three days on my hands and knees tracking a hunter who decided he’d go Bear Grylls and try to get himself out of trouble instead of staying put. In hindsight, it was actually a very good start to the lockdown. The search was successful, being out in the bush and flying around in the helicopter started everything off very well. I went from living off the grid outside to being stuck inside on Stewart Island which was probably the worst place to be stuck inside during the lockdown. It was very frustrating! However, we were able to go for walks and runs through and around the beautiful national park and coastline and at night times, we could hear the Kiwi and moreporks that live in our garden.

My sisters and I were all home for the first time in 5 years and geez how times have changed from when we used to try to kill each other haha! We shortly learnt how to play poker and spent the majority of our time learning how to lose all our money by betting on a pair of 3’s.

Cooking was also a big thing in our house, well, mostly who would do the dishes each night and then followed by someone saying they don’t have to do the dishes because they did the dishes two weeks ago on a Monday so they should get tonight off! We also had lots of yummy creations like my venison lasagna - I made the mince and pasta from scratch.

When we were finally released from level four I went for a spearfish and nabbed a 5-kilo moki which went down a treat in a curry. I hope that everyone has stayed safe during this time and continued to stay vigilant. I look forward to getting back to school eventually and seeing everyone there.

Thank you Ann-Marie Chamberlain for the amazing sunrise in Dunedin - what a stunning part of the world we live in!

MS GARDINER’S RECIPE OF THE WEEK She is the Queen of sweet treats.

TRIPLE CHOCOLATE CHUNK COOKIES Ingredients 170g butter (softened not melted) 1 cup brown sugar ½ cup white sugar 1 tablespoon of vanilla 1 egg and 1 egg yolk 1 cup plain flour ½ teaspoon baking soda ½ teaspoon salt 100g chopped white chocolate (half king size block) 100g chopped milk chocolate 100g dark chocolate Directions Preheat oven to 170. Line two baking trays with baking paper.

Sift the flour, soda and salt into a bowl and mix. In a small bowl, combine the egg, egg yolk and vanilla.

Cream the softened butter with the sugars for around 3 minutes – it should be pale.

You can use a handheld or a stand mixer. Add to egg mix to the butter mix and mix for another two minutes. Add the flour and combine gently. Finally, add the chocolate chunks and combine gently.

Roll into golf ball size balls and space evenly on the trays. Flatten the balls a little bit.

Refrigerate for 30 minutes (this stops them spreading all over the trays when they bake).

Bake approximately 13-15 minutes (but no more than 15 minutes).

YUM!! ENJOY!!