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From the desk of...
Tim Oughton, Executive Principal
“Dad! I’m going to study Chemistry!” I remember the day my eldest son, then aged 15, came home from school with this unexpected announcement. Unexpected in the sense that his father was a Chemistry teacher and he had been subjected to much ethereal chemical dialogue with dad’s peers over the years. Once I’d recovered from the initial shock I said, “What on earth made you decide that?” His answer illustrated one of the most fundamental truths in education. “Well actually, I’m not so interested in Chemistry but I really think the teacher is amazing!” Ten years ago, a young journalist by the name of Sandy Starr, carried out interviews with key thinkers in science from around the world, ranging in age from 19 to 93 and including young whiz kids and Nobel Prize winners. Each was asked the same simple question: “What inspired you to take up science?” The most common response was they were inspired by a teacher or someone who took an interest in them. Time and again, they pointed to a relationship of trust and inspiration between teacher and student.
Therein lies a most fundamental truth about education: Quality relationships lie at the heart of effective teaching and learning. At first, my son had little interest in Chemistry for its own sake. The spark of curiosity was ignited by a person and not a subject. The heart of this relationship is found in the power of openness, integrity, honesty and the transformation that comes from respecting young people as individuals. As the thinker Goethe put it, “we only truly learn from those we love.” That’s why Kristin places such an emphasis on the quality of relationships – in the playgrounds, in the classrooms and in the outdoors.
Footnote: My eldest son became a pharmacist.
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VEX Robotics National Champs
The championship was held at the Massey University Albany Campus. In a field of 70 teams, the four Kristin teams got off to a mixed start. Matt Mazer and Tristram Speedy who have had an outstanding season to date battled with software issues and tipped during the autonomous routine in their first two matches. This ended their hopes of finishing at the top of the table in the seeding rounds to get first pick of alliance partners for the finals. They performed well in the individual programming and robot skills leading the field early in the competition and eventually finishing in 4th place overall. They fought back well to win their remaining seeding matches.
Adam McLeod and Finn Beavis had an excellent start with their strong all-round design and finished in 2nd place at the end of the first day. Two loses on the second day, however, saw them drop down the rankings. Nic Ackland and Jai Pandya performed well and were placed in the middle of the field. Cam Scott and Joshua Wu finished at the lower end of the table in a tough competition but worked hard throughout the two days. Matt and Tristram made the second-ranked alliance but lost in the semi-finals. The remaining Kristin teams aligned together to form the eighth-ranked alliance but were eliminated in the quarter-finals by the first ranked alliance.
While our teams were eliminated in the final rounds, we secured the Create Award and the Build Awards. The team also received the Excellence Award which is the most prestigious award at the tournament. This recognises the highest overall attainment in the tournament, the skills competitions, the Design Award competition and also recognises the team's overall program and community outreach. As a result, the team has qualified to compete at the world championships in Louisville, Kentucky in the April holidays. The coming weeks will very busy as the team redesign, rebuild and prepare along with the other five qualifying teams to represent New Zealand on the international stage.
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Critical Thinking in the Middle School
By Siena Edwards
On Monday a group of Year 10 students took part in a critical thinking workshop with Mr Fee. For the first two periods, we learnt about questioning witnesses in court, learning how to pull apart people's theories. In the next two periods, we read a mock court case and learnt about what each role in a courtroom was. We were assigned roles, most of us getting two except for the judges. We had time in our groups to discuss what we were going to say, as well as interviewing the witnesses. After lunch, the mock hearing took place in which we experienced what a real courtroom would be like.
Throughout the hearing, Mr Fee would elect new judges and place the current judges into other roles. This worked well because it made us have to listen to what the others were saying in case our role changed. I really enjoyed the workshop and found it interesting to learn about what it is like to be a lawyer in a courtroom and what it takes.
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Coxed Four Win Gold
Sophie Wallace, rowing for the North Shore Women's Coxed Four, won gold at the National Club Rowing Championships held at Lake Ruataniwha.
Sophie also rowed in the North Shore Women's Eight gaining a bronze. This is a great effort by Sophie who has shown a huge commitment to Rowing.
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Year 7 Camp
By Keira Spelling
On Sunday afternoon, a very bouncy and bubbly group of excited Year 7 students headed off to Waipu Cove. The spirits were high on the bus with the students excited by all the activities they were going to take part in.
Tents went up quickly when we arrived, as everyone had learnt from the experience of tent pitching practice the week before. All the luggage was then moved into the tents and everyone got ready for their first swim of the camp.
Over the course of the camp the Year 7 students participated in swimming, surfing, surf life-saving, rock climbing, abseiling, caving, surf kayaking, raft building, the survival challenge and the coastal walk. Many students were taken out of their comfort zones during some activities but came out of them with a buzz.
Camp was a great chance for us all to make some awesome new friends and try some new things.
More camp photos >>
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Soft Toy Tea Party
As part of Year 1's 'Being Friends' unit of inquiry, the students have been learning about how understanding feelings helps them in relationships. They have been learning how to make new friends, and had the chance to put their skills into practice by meeting a new friend at the Soft Toy Tea Party. The students brought along their favourite soft toy, a delicious morning tea and a great attitude. Marcos and Yunie shared their experience:
"I met a boy called Lucas. He introduced me to his Mickey teddy and I introduced him to Snowball. We talked about what we like to play. I had chocolate sprinkle sandwiches and Lucas had a juice box and fruit. I learnt that Lucas is kind. Our soft toy tea party was lots of fun and very yummy." - Marcos
“I was walking around looking for a friend. I sat on the table waiting. Liz came up to me and she said, “Can you play with me?” I said, “Yes.” We ate our snacks. Liz ate crackers and I ate apples. After the soft toy tea party we went to the playground and played together. We were both happy. We had a good time.” - Yunie
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Excellent Start for Water Polo
The Junior Boys' Water Polo team was out competing for the first time this season at Sacred Heart College against teams from all around Auckland. The boys drew 7-7 against Rangitoto A team, which is a fantastic result especially as they were down 2-6 at half-time. They also competed hard against Western Springs and Sacred Heart but didn’t come away with a win. Well done on a great effort boys.
The Premier Girls also started off their official premier season with an excellent win over Carmel College winning 8-3 at the National Aquatic Centre and the Senior Boys' teams also had an outstanding win of 24-0 against Macleans College.
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