Hi everyone. As you may have noticed there had been a long time between posts and I'm sad to say this will be the final post in what has been our year group website for the last couple of years. I think this blog has served a useful purpose in introducing our community to the Junior school activities and it has created stronger ties between our families, the students and our School. The site will stay in place as a memory vault of our Junior school and will no doubt be looked at when our year group reaches the end of Year 13. On that note, on Wednesday our Junior school said farewell to the Seniors with an incredibly moving performance of our school Haka. The Haka is something special the Juniors have been working on over the last few weeks and the reaction of the Year 13's and many staff was overwhelming pride in our school community. The moment was captured in film by a keen Year 9 film-maker (Toby Harding) and is very much worth a watch. It seems fitting to end this blog by looking at a student-led performance, as I love to celebrate the diverse and supportive young people that make up this amazing year group. The next few weeks sees a focus on Examinations and I would like to wish everyone the best for the journey ahead. So long and ka kite. Ben Broadbent Year 10 Dean
Over the last few weeks our students in Year 10 have been visiting Whitireia Polytech in Porirua to learn more about courses after school. The days have been well organised and have shown the students a taste of what is on offer from Year 12 onward. We started at the Whitireia Trades Academy which specializes in construction, plumbing, automotive, and electrical and then followed on to the main campus which offers hospitality, music production, nursing, jewelry making, and much more. Students were given an overview of the features of tertiary education, comparing Universities to other institutions and this was followed up by a tour around the campus where we got to partake in various activities. A big thanks to two ex-Newlands students who were two of our guides for the day. Check out some photos below.
A few weeks ago a keen bunch of Year 10's participated in a Model United Nations event for a full day here at school. The students were each given a country to represent and had to partake in a debate about a range of topics, including Refugees and World Aid. Students had to research and present ideas from their country's perspective. A big thanks to Mrs McDiarmid, and Shine and Lilly (from Year 12) for their organisation of the day.
The Junior Basketball season has started for 2017. Last week three junior boys teams all were playing at home. I was lucky enough to be there and support our teams. Thanks to all the volunteers and parents who make school sport a real success at Newlands College. Here is a few pics of our boys and girls in action.
