40 localmatters.co.nzMahurangimatters June 1, 2016

NEWSLETTERMAHURANGI COLLEGE

from the PrincipalDavid Macleod

ISSUE 03: June 2016

Dear Parents and GuardiansTena Koutou Katoa

At the end of Term 1 we were pleased to host a visit from the Education Review Office. The verbal feedback to the Board was very affirmative towards current directions in the school and commented on the calm, settled, purposeful learning environment. We look forward to the final written report.

The tri-annual elections for our Board of Trustees are currently underway. The current Board has been together for two terms, six years, during which time it has given excellence governance to the school and I would like to thank each of our current Board members for their commitment and contribution to the school.

The new Board of Trustees will be announced and posted on our website on Friday, 10 June.

Our Senior Student Leaders represented the school well at the community commemorations of Anzac Day, laying a wreath at both Warkworth services. Our Head Prefects spoke at the 10am service and our Deputy Head Prefects at the RSA afterwards, sharing stories from their own families’ experiences of WW1 and WW2.

It was good to see our Year 8 students’ Kaitiakitanga Action Plans on how we can better protect and care for our environment. Many of these this year were presented as websites which can all be accessed via our school website – www.mahurangi.school.nz .

A large number of our students are currently practising for the Auckland Stage Challenge competition to be held at the Aotea Centre on Friday 1st July. Our theme this year is “Reach For Your Stars”. The performance illustrates the difference between being rewarded for little or no effort, compared to what happens when you learn to focus and put in effort to achieve goals. Some of the student leaders are shown in the photo and the overall student leader is Rosalee Green (on the right of photo).

David Macleod, Principal

B.O.T. left to right - Nyree Norrington, Bede Haughey, Jo Hathaway, David Macleod, Tracey Martin, Stuart Henderson, Steve Garner and Jamie Peterson.

Students practising for Stage Challenge

Student Leaders after laying a wreath at the ANZAC Dawn Service

localmatters.co.nz 41MahurangimattersJune 1, 2016

NEWSLETTERCelebrating Student Successes...

Proudly Supporting Mahurangi College WARKWORTH Corner Woodcocks Road & Mansel Drive, Phone 425 8119

Achiever of the Month: Tonya BotherwayPresented by Jeanie Sutherland, Store Manager at Mega Mitre 10 Warkworth

• Winner of 3 North Harbour titles at North Harbour Athletics Champs

• Member of Senior Mixed Touch team which came 2nd at Nationals 2015

• North Harbour Rep in Touch

• North Harbour Rep in Hockey

• NCEA Level 1 with Merit endorsement and 22 credits at Excellence

Charlotte Gipps Head of Faculty for Social SciencesIt is with great pleasure that we introduce Charlotte Gipps, our Head of Faculty for Social Sciences. Charlotte joined us here at Mahurangi College in July 2015 after 9 years at Epsom Girls Grammar School, where she held the position of Head of Department for Geography for 7 years. Charlotte moved up to the Rodney area with her husband and two young children. She is thoroughly enjoying her family becoming part of the surf-lifesaving community, trail running and managing a prolific vegetable garden!Charlotte is an experienced leader, who has held curriculum, pastoral and school-wide responsibilities. She has been a head of department from the introduction of NCEA, which has meant developing a comprehensive understanding of NCEA assessment standards, processes and practices. She has led the school wide development of Gifted and Talented Education, been a head of year, dean and held roles focused on developing senior student leadership. Her significant school-wide responsibility has allowed her opportunities to collaborate with whole school communities and enjoy learning with a diverse range of people. Charlotte recently completed a Postgraduate Diploma in Educational Leadership and is completing her Masters research with students at Mahu. Highlights at Mahurangi College so far include collaborating with others to develop the Year 10 trip to Wellington and the Mahu Lifelong Learning Habits. Both represent her beliefs in student-led learning that goes beyond the classroom. Learning that encourages knowledge-building, engagement, thinking and collaboration in supportive and creative learning environments. Charlotte’s previous extra curricular involvements have included trying to keep up each week with the Somali students in the running club in her London school, tree planting with the Motutapu Restoration Trust and leading many EOTC (Education Outside the Classroom) trips. She is looking forward to leading and learning with the Academic Academy students at Mahu this term.

WAI CAREOn Wednesday 11th May 2016, the students from Y8 shared action plans with the local community, that they had developed over 8 weeks. The action plans were based around the concept of Kaitiakitanga or Guardianship which means: having a duty to take care of the environment for future generations. Maori tikanga lays down specific rules or codes of behaviour for this task – like issues of “resting” fishing grounds and shellfish beds by imposing ceremonial rahui (prohibitions) at certain times of year or seasons.The Y8 students began their journey to Kaitiakitanga in the classroom, working with EMR (Experiencing Marine Reserves) and Wai Care, which led to field trips and camp where the cause and effect of environmental damage could be seen. The students learned that responsibility for the future of our environment lies with us and especially with them as future citizens. From their fresh water and marine environmental studies, students began to branch out, looking deeper into issues around the aquatic environment and then even further to those issues that impacted on their local community.Students built banks of knowledge about their chosen issues and formulated ways they could help, either by direct action or by informing the wider community about things they could do to help. Their actions were many and varied, from creating books and websites, to building contraptions to catch rubbish, to beach cleanups and planting trees. Students were encouraged to think outside the square, to drive themselves to do things they had previously not thought they were capable of doing. The result was an amazing collection of action plans which they were all proud to share.I would like to thank all of the experts who helped with the actions, the teachers in Y8 for guiding and supporting their students, the parents for their understanding and mostly the students, who never fail to make us all proud of their achievements.