De La Salle College Newsletter “A Catholic School for Boys in the Lasallian Tradition”

in this issue

TERM 3 WEEK 2- COLLEGE NEWSLETTER

College Principal - "Enrolling the Family"

Associate Principal - "Adventure"

Special Character - Ministry & Mission

Deputy of Curriculum - Curriculum

Deputy of Pastoral - Academic Counselling

Intermediate School

Endorsement Trip

Debating

OUASSA Experience

Geo101 Trip to Waihi Goldmine

Uniform

Notices

Enrol Now

Contact Us

“Enrolling the family ”

Mr Myles Hogarty

Principal

Greetings

Welcome back to the start of Term 3, the last full term of teaching and learning classes for our Year 11, 12 and 13 students before they commence their final exams in Term 4.

Myself and Mr English are currently interviewing families for the enrolment of their sons into Year 7 and 9 in 2023.

This process of enrolment is a thoughtful, considered one which takes many hours of planning, speaking and decision making.

We believe that sitting down with a boy and his family and learning about him, his family and aspirations for his education is crucial in his transition into De La Salle.

These Interviews take time, they are worth it.

There are schools in which the “just drop him off at the front gate”, mentality is used, there are not so many, particularly secondary schools whose philosophy is to “Enrol the Family”.

At De La Salle every family is made very aware of this inclusive philosophy at their son’s interview. We also put flesh around this statement through the actions that we adopt to “Enrol the Family”.

From my experience, families engaged in their son’s education, create young men engaged in their own education.

The following are some actions behind the words that happen at De La Salle:

The initial Enrolment interview with the family the year prior to entering the College.
A thorough Academic Counselling interview with the boy, his parents and Homeroom teacher in the first week of the year
A Weekly Note emailed every Friday to parents, informing them of their son’s progress on a scale of 1 (poor) to 5 (excellent).
Induction for parents and boys which includes an overnight Camp, Parent and Son Touch Tournament, Parents & Grandparents Mass, , Year 7 and 9 Retreats, Parent Partnership Evenings.
An Invitation for parents to be involved in sports coaching and management of any of the 15 sports offered at the College.
An expectation that all parents contribute towards the cost of their son’s education for his entire duration at De La Salle.
Parent-School Academic Counselling over the year for every Year Level with an expectation of 100% Parent attendance.
Invitation to parents to be involved in College Cultural and Music groups and performances.
Full and informative Academic reports to families twice a year.
Pastoral Care of our boys that always involves families immediately in any concerns over our young men’s health and well being
Our online Parent Portal that encourages our Parents to assist their son in his goal of meeting assessment deadlines and achieving NCEA credits.
Parent surveys to give the College feedback on our processes and programmes.

Does this philosophy and practical application of “enrolling the family”, have positive results for the achievement of our boys?

Definitely, families engaged in the life of the College create sons who are likewise engaged in their learning and wider education.

I thank the many parents who are fully engaged in the College and their son’s education and have shown this through their “enrolment”, at De La Salle.

Thank you to our parents, young men and our staff for another valuable and successful Academic Counselling conference on Monday. A very timely event that allows that strong partnership between home and school to focus on our young men’s learning goals for this term.

We look forward to a productive, successful term for our students, staff and families.

Stay safe and well.

God Bless

M. Hogarty

Principal

associate principal

Mr Dermot English

"Adventure "

Last week I was on a trip with a group of boys who received excellence endorsement at Level 2 last year. We first went up Mt Ruapehu to see snow and then stayed at National Park in a ski lodge. The next night we stayed with a community of people in Otaki near Wellington, who look after the marginalised and try and fully live the Gospel. The next day we travelled to Wellington and the boys were hosted by families from one of the top boys’ schools in the country, Wellington College. During our visit we met Cabinet Ministers, university lecturers and personnel, lobbyists, PR people, campaigners, charities, a range of MPs and their staff, visited Weta Workshop and visited Question Time in Parliament to see the parliamentarians debating the major issues.

Two main points kept being made by all the people we met. The first is don’t expect things to go as you planned. There will be failures and diversions, but just keep going. The second was that it’s all about service. All the people we met had found a way to serve the community, so as our senior boys leave its about them figuring out where they can serve.

The boys were as usual excellent and we received a lot of positive feedback about them. Once again these are top boys from a top school learning and excelling on the national stage.

special character

Assistant Principal for Mission - Mr Kane Raukura

Dear Lasallians, families and friends of the College, welcome back to Term Three! I pray that you are surviving the winter ills and that Covid / Flu complications are not affecting you to adversely? This week I shared the following piece of scripture with staff:

This was linked to words our Founder, Saint John Baptist De La Salle wrote to his Brothers in a letter in 1701. This letter is one of the oldest known communications we have preserved from our Brother John and he says,

“The remembrance of God’s presence will be a great advantage in helping you and in inspiring you to do all your actions well.” – Letter 2, 15th May, 1701.

His comments reinforce Joshua 1:9, that God’s presence is constant, unwavering and eternal. Our job is a simple one – Do not let life’s noise drown Him out. Do not let distractions drag you away from His presence. It was traditional practice in the Brothers classrooms of De La Salle’s time for a young man to ring a bell every 20 minutes. This was a signal for pens down and for all work to stop, to pause for 30 seconds and to remember ‘That we are in the Holy Presence of God’. It was a beautiful thing and it was habit creating. The regular reminders ingrained the fact that we are always accompanied by our God and that if we remember God’s presence, we realise deep in our hearts that all our actions and all of our works are profoundly better when we allow His inspiration to glorify what we do each day. This is something important to us all, regardless of age. So when you are feeling challenged, distressed, down, uninspired or just low on motivation, pause and remember God’s presence, pray and give all your concerns to Him. Find a relevant verse or chapter in the Bible, read it a few times and let its message sink in. The answers are there if you are willing to listen.

God Bless you and may these days be kind, Mr. Raukura AFSC

IN MEMORIAM

Sadly, news reached our community of the passing of three past staff members of the College. It is with thanks that we acknowledge the lives and contributions of the following souls now with our Lord.

Mrs. Janette Vinall – Past Principals PA.

An old staff member of the College and the Principals PA from around 1988 to 2010. Janette was a wonderfully kind lady and friend to all. She greatly cared for our school, boys and community. A true Lasallian who loved our place. I remember her fondly and so will many others. Janette’s sons Mark and Paul are proud Lasallian Alumni and her husband Les was a great supporter of the College as well. A woman that fully was devoted to serving the school and community. May she rest in peace.

Mr. Mike Waterhouse – Past Senior Master.

Mike joined the College Staff in 1987. He was born in Hobart, Tasmania and came with his family to Auckland when he was 2 years old. Mike was educated at Howick District High School, St Kentigern College, Selwyn College and later attended Auckland University. He taught at Auckland Grammar School for 6 years and Mc Auley High School for 10 years before coming to De La Salle as a Senior Master in Charge of Curriculum. He took keen interest in Cricket, Badminton, Genealogy and Orchid Growing. Mike left De La Salle in 2003. May he rest in peace.

Brother Michael Lynch FSC – Past Headmaster.

The death occurred recently of Br Michael Lynch who taught at De La Salle College Mangere from 1956 until 1967. For the last six of those years he was Headmaster. With a solid science degree behind him he became an excellent and inspirational teacher. He was respected by parents and students whom he treated well. A keen sportsman who was able to turn his hand to many sports. He was also keen on the movies, and at times he would go too far off theatres to view one that he considered special. With him here at DLS for part of that time was Br Declan. During those years, the total school staff was about fourteen, eight of these being Brothers. There was no administration staff of any kind and certainly none were employed to keep the place clean and tidy. There was just no money available. After Mangere, Br Michael went on to take responsibility of De La Salle Ashfield, in Sydney and later De La Salle in Scarborough, Brisbane. In the more recent years Dementia as a constant companion and Michael spent some time in a Nursing Home in Sydney, where he died peacefully at the age of 91. May he be welcomed home by the Good Lord with outstretched arms.

ROSARY MONDAYS AND ADORATION FRIDAYS

Focussing on the first week of each month moving forward, we will have a ‘Rosary Monday’ and an ‘Adoration Friday’ at the College. The purpose of these will be to dedicate our work and lives to God and Mary for the coming month. It will also give us an opportunity to participate in core practices of our faith – staff and students together.

ROSARY MONDAY FOR THE START OF AUGUST (1st)

Chapel at lunchtime. Staff and students all invited to participate. 1:40pm sharp please. Bring your own Rosary Beads.

https://catholiccurrent.org/wp-content/uploads/2019/09/TWIM-5-45-prayer-resource.pdf

ADORATION FRIDAY FOR THE START OF AUGUST (5th)

Chapel at lunchtime. Staff and students all invited to participate. 1:40pm sharp please.

Eucharistic Adoration | Quiet music | Bibles | will be available.
Sitting quietly, reading scripture, meditating on God’s presence.
What is Eucharistic Adoration? See here: https://catholic-link.org/how-to-go-to-adoration-eucharist/

REMINDER: DE LA SALLE COLLEGE SACRAMENTAL PROGRAMME

Big reminder to our families who have signalled their involvement and who have nominated their sons. The programme continues each week on Fridays College Chapel 3:30pm to 4:30pm.

PLEASE BE ON TIME – NO LATE COMERS AS THIS AFFECTS ALL PRESENT. ALL STUDENTS ENROLLED MUST BE PRESENT FOR 100% OF THE PROGRAM.

Looking ahead –

Sacramental program continues
Assumption Mass Friday 12th August @10:30am
Parent Year 7/8 Mass Friday 26th August @10:30am
Rosary Monday’s and Adoration Fridays
Hamilton Lasallian Meeting 10th September
Sacramental Mass – 30th September Father Martin Wu as Celebrant

Let us pray..

Let us remember we are in the

holy presence of God +

God our Father,

if I could trace back

through the last two thousand years,

marking out routes

from Jesus himself

and then through people

whose faith has touched others

and so reached me,

I would be astounded

by the individuals I would encounter.

I give thanks, Father,

for all those people

over two thousand years

who have inspired others

and played their part

in passing on

to generation after generation

the living heritage of their faith.

Especially I give thanks

for those who have lived their faith

through difficulties

and hardship and persecution.

I pray, Father, that I may grow

in your faith and love

through good times and bad.

Amen.

St. John Baptist De La Salle -

Pray for us! Live Jesus in our

hearts - Forever!

Amen.

curriculum

by Acting Deputy Principal - Mrs Ronise Laumemea

YEAR 7-10 STUDENTS STUDYING TOWARDS THE DE LA SALLE CERTIFICATE

The De La Salle Certificate is based on the four key Lasallian Values, Faith – Service – Community – Excellence.

The purpose of the De La Salle Certificate is to:

Motivate students to work towards a common Year level goal in the Junior school.
Empower students to take ownership and responsibility for their achievement by tracking their progress towards the required DLS certificate points.

To achieve the DLS certificate at each year level, students must gain:

80 points for Achieved
120 for Achieved with Merit
150 for Achieved with Excellence.

You can find more information about the DLS certificate in your son’s school homework diary.

2021 DE LA SALLE CERTIFICATE

Half way through Term 3 last year, we went into lockdown again and to recognize the difficulties students faced with distance learning – bonus points were given.

This week we celebrated the huge number of students who achieved their DLS certificate with Merit or Excellence in 2021. These students showed resilience through the challenges of distance learning and received a Merit or Excellence badge.

Thanks to our senior Art and Technology students, as well as our Academic Portfolio members and student leaders who, with the help of Sue Smith - designed badges to celebrate success by Year 7 – 10 students in the De La Salle Certificate. After all the disruptions due to covid the team were able to finalise designs and create using the Technology faculty’s laser cutter.

Sue Smith, Bayley Cummings, Liufau Kaloni, Charm Tuala and Gabriel Toreja

The De La Salle Certificate designs are different for each year level. Each badge uses elements of our school crest;

the Radiant Star
the Lightning Bolt
the Cross
the Silver Fern and
the Shield

The Star is the De La Salle Brothers symbol found on all their works. The Cross is the symbol of the Christian faith. The Silver Fern represents New Zealand as well as growth- boys to men, as they pass through De La Salle College. The Shield is a symbol of defence, and the Lightning Bolt represents the power of God and the freedom from ignorance.

The Year 7 badge has the star from our school crest.

Ezrah Lemalu

The Year 8 badge has the fern from our school crest.

Joel Leau

The Year 9 badge has the cross from our school crest.

Elijah Tia and Charles Palea

The white badge is for Merit and the gold badge is for Excellence.

Please encourage your sons to achieve Excellence here at DLS from Years 7-10 – see if they can achieve a DLS certificate badge every year then they can proudly display it on their school blazer in Years 11-13.

The work ethic, agency and attitude it takes to achieve in Years 7-10 will put them in good stead to achieve in the Senior years.

WEEK 10 – PRELIMINARY EXAMS AND ASSESSMENT WEEK

This term our Senior students Years 11-13 will sit their preliminary exams in preparation for NCEA externals at the end of the year. This will take place in week 10 Monday 26th – Friday 30th September. Some important reminders:

Students must be present for the preliminary exams, a timetable will be sent out in the next few weeks.
Some exams will be completed digitally, please encourage your sons to attend their exams with their device. This will be flagged for those specific classes.
Encourage your sons to start studying regularly in preparation for the exams. You can expect your son to do at least 30 minutes to an hour of revision every day as a study routine.
at least 30 minutes to an hour of revision every day as a study routine.

pastoral

Deputy Principal- Mr Elton Charles

Academic Counselling- Term 3

This year's second academic counselling session took place on Monday 1 August. Once again, we were impressed by the turnout of our parents. Parents and students were both engaged with our teachers in discussing our students' goals and the progress they had made with these goals so far this year. Below are some of the visits and meetings our parents had with our teachers about their children:

Sionetama Family

Mr Rex and Mrs Faalau with Isaac

Mr Singh-Clark with Mr Lemalu with Ezrah

Mr Brown and Ms Tafili with Peter

intermediate school

TERM 2 HOLIDAYS

The holiday for term 2 was something all students were excited about with 10 weeks of work and homework, which included me. Even though there we a lot of awesome things such as the cake stall and museum trip for year 7 & 8, it was time I could finally sit back and relax to have a wonderful time of bonding with family and friends. Or SOME people come in with your gamer skills and blast out of the battle bus with John Cena and destroy everyone in Fortnite. But all in all, it is still a great relaxing time and to enjoy the nice fruits of your labor, if you have any that is.

ACADEMIC COUNSELLING

As well as Academic Counselling with great interviews for parents and students with updates of their progress in school, I can assume a lot of parents had some good talks for the ride home. I personally love it as it’s a free excuse to grab some Maccas for lunch. Hopefully all went well for my other classmates with the status I always see in it for the whole 10 weeks the whole class spends together. But there’s still a whole lot of work to do; there’s more and more work to do every single day. But like my teacher, Miss Tufuga said, this is just the beginning of the term, and the third quarter of the year.

In other news, the year 7 & 8’s has started their spartan trainings for week 6, I personally think of it as military training. It is going to be a real hand full of sports every single Thursday with the sudden rise of foggy weather conditions in the area for the past few days. It is going to be quite a challenge to bulk up for the next 4 weeks of training until the finale in week 6, so all I am thinking is to stay tuned for updates.

There are a lot of things to come for term 3, after week 6 is coming for the speeches. The year 7 & 8’s are currently preparing speeches of their beliefs of something that should be changed or agreed upon. It can be any topic, mine was about store item prices to be lowered and my friend Javin is doing that animals should stay in the zoo, it is still being prepared but I and many others can’t wait to hear about others' opinions and their beliefs. So, it’s like 5 weeks to be excited about for parents to see their son up on a stage, so get ready for week 6 and week 7 as everyone will be ready for you.

by Elijah Tuala 7TUF

FIRST DAY OF TERM 3

For our news today in my opinion of term 3 the first week was probably the same as term 2. But there were changes needed for some people. Some boys did have to think about what they did last term and what would happen if they acted the same this term. There are still a few boys who have not started the term and are not today. Coming back to school was not scary to us but it was to people who did have bad behavior last term. There is still 8 more weeks left for us to press the refresh button, change our behaviour change our actions and make better decisions.

PEER MENTORS

Every Friday the Year 7 and 8’s are spending time getting mentored by their older brothers in Year 11 and 12. I think that peer mentors are good to have in school because they have good experience with the school as well as sharing their journeys with us tell us by explaining the rights and wrongs. When we listen to our Peer mentors, we can pass it on to when we become seniors and maybe someday, we can pass it on to other children that come and follow the footsteps of our brothers. This is an important part of our school lives - to become Lasallians. We chat about how we’ve been doing and they help us with any concerns we have about school or what we need to do to get through our years of High school and growing up.

by Javin Tomafua 7TUF

Year 7 & 8 Community Mass for Term 3

ENDORSEMENT TRIP

Saturday 23rd to Wednesday 27th of July, 11 boys who achieved an endorsement at the excellence level the year prior in Level 2 were rewarded with a 5-day trip travelling south from Auckland under the supervision of Mr. English, Mr. Tuiasau, and Mr. Nansen. On the first day, they departed from school to the Mount Ruapehu National Park, where many of the boy’s experienced snow for the first time, in which their first instinct was to throw it at each other, before ascending the mount and also experiencing the skywaka and the breath-taking views the mount had to offer. The Sky Waka is one of New Zealand’s most unique gondola experiences. On a return trip (one ride up, one ride down), we journeyed through the clouds, over waterfalls, and ancient lava flows, up to 2020m above sea level. The Mt Ruapehu scenery is majestic, with views to neighboring volcanoes, Mt Ngauruhoe, and Mt Tongariro. Soon after, the boys went tobogganing competitively through the snow and then spent the night at the Howard Lodge.

On the Second day, the boys were able to experience the wondrous nature surrounding the mount firsthand with early morning hikes, and a chance to swim and observe the majestic waterfall before departing for the small town, Otaki. Here, the boys were able to meet Adrian Leason, a school teacher who had previously been involved in many important events and protests. This included the fall of the spy base, home to the gathering of the 5 eyes alliance (which is now not held in New Zealand) as an attempt to protest against the wars that were occurring in 2016 where innocent children were being harmed and wanted to reduce risk and potential harm in New Zealand; as well as participate in the protest with the aim of wanting to stop the arms expo being held where multiple countries come together and sell their weapons. Finally, he also took part in the protest with the goal of completely removing the use of drones in warfare and assassinations as more innocent people were harmed than the intended targets. Overall, Mr. Leason shared his vast experience in which led him to build his own community where the homeless, mentally ill and vulnerable needed shelter and love the most. In addition, the boys had the opportunity to speak with one of the Pacific Panthers members, Mrs. Pritchard who spoke and taught the boys about leadership and the many examples within our community as well as her experiences with the Polynesian Panthers.

For the next three days, the boys ventured to the capital, Wellington, where they had the opportunity to visit Victoria University and the many pathways and support they had to offer, where they got to visit the law theatres and study halls, as well as in the business and commerce buildings. During this time, they were exposed to a little snippet of university life and what to expect within these courses and were able to ask questions regarding university during the one-on-one times with lecturers. Soon after, the boys were billeted in pairs and singles by Wellington College prefects, who were phenomenal hosts and enjoyed our company where mutual learning about one another’s lives took place. On the fourth day, the boys visited the Weta Workshop, where insight into how the development of films such as Lord of the Rings, District 9 etc. were developed from the materials used, special effects added, and the creative ideas and concepts of the directors such as Peter Jackson.

Afterwards, they visited an investment bank, where they were able to meet Bill English and hear about his company Impact Lab, which helps charities do their jobs better. Conor English and his wife Jo talked about trying to influence politicians, and their own stories of challenge. Soon after, the boys were taken to the beehive where they had the privilege of meeting Pasifika MP for the Labour party, Hon Aupito William Sio and getting to experience the debating chamber firsthand and witness Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern debate.

On the last day, the boys were farewelled by Wellington College and went to Ministry of Pacific Peoples where the boys met Su’a Thomsen, the chairman of the ministry of PIA, and Barbara Edmonds the Labour MP for Porirua who is also Johnny Timu’s cousin. We also heard the story of Tofiga Fepulea'i from the Laughing Samoans, and Caritas the Catholic Charity. All the speakers had stories of struggle and overcoming obstacles. The main point was to not panic and just keep going.

Finally, on behalf of the boys who attended the trip, we would like to thank Mr. English, Mr. Tuiasau and Joseph Nansen for organizing and supervising the activities, as well as dealing with the loud music on the long drives, complaints and providing us with unique, uncommon opportunities and the chance to extend out of our comfort zones for a once in a lifetime experience.

DEBATING

MODEL UNITED NATIONS 2022

This past weekend was busy on the debating front with the annual Model United Nations Assembly 2022 and the Junior Championships.

This year De La Salle entered two teams for the Model United Nations Assembly from the 29th/30th of July. De La Salle 1 represented the nation of Belarus – (Y11) Jodeci Poua (captain), Juan Koti, Jesse Dmello (Y10) Jordan Etei-Michael and Jacob Tominiko. De La Salle 2 represented the nation of Ghana (Y10) Sione Mafuahingano, Inglis Tavui-Lemalie (captain), Christian Fa’avae, Christian Letufuga and Tony Ulberg.

Both teams were exceptional! Team Belarus immediately forming alliances with Slavic nations and Team Ghana forming alliances with African nations. Model United Nations Assembly was an intense experience that pitted our students in political discourse with students from all over New Zealand.

Special mention to the team of Ghana who were honoured for the representation of their nation through learning the native tongue for their speeches.

Well done to our Year 11/10’s for representing De La Salle College with mana and pride at Model United Nations Assembly 2022.

JUNIOR CHAMPIONSHIPS 2022

Over Saturday and Sunday, was also the annual debating Junior Championships hosted by Auckland Debating Council at Lynfield College. A competition which pits the top junior orators from all over Auckland against one another. This year De La Salle entered two Year 9 teams, Team 1: Demetrius Ah Chong, Adeesha Fernando, CJ Vili and Team 2: Elijah Wilson, Leato Collins and Kelesi Filimoehala. Both teams did exceptionally well in the competition.

Team 1: Adeesha Fernando, Demetrius Ah Chong and CJ Vili

Team 2: Kelesi Filimoehala, Elijah Wilson, and Leato Collins

Special commendations for Team 2 of Elijah, Leato and Kelesi for breaking 5th for the entire competition which qualified their team to the final rounds of the competition hosted at Auckland University last Sunday. These students should be very proud of their efforts as this is the first time De La Salle College has qualified for the finals in this particular competition. A testament to their passion and commitment to the artform of debate. Special mention for Elijah who won 10th best speaker for Auckland and Leato for winning 4th best speaker for Auckland. A huge achievement! A reflection of the passion from their tuakana coach, Gabriel Toreja who also put a lot of time and effort into preparing the teams for Junior Championships.

ouassa Experience

Tevita Bloomfield is the first La Salle student to be accepted into the Science Academy at University of Otago in 2022. Over the year he travelled to Dunedin twice to take part in Science camp and group science project with other students from all over NZ.

Tevita shares his experience from attending Science Academy at Otago University.

Sunday 23rd of January I was on a flight to Dunedin for a Science Academy camp at the University of Otago. This camp was aimed at year 13 students who have a passion for Science and are looking into tertiary education studying courses involving Science. Like school, we were given timetables to follow with different projects, electives, and science communications. Every morning we had seminars with topics that included

What is science?
Do I belong here? and many more

Attending these seminars in the morning was an effective way to start the day, not only did they get the brain working but also had interesting topics that engaged everyone.

My first project was anatomy and physiology, where we learnt more in-depth about the knee, dissecting of a cow's knee, and had a muscle twitch response experiment using power labs. My second project was physics where we recorded data based on the oscillation of a mass, on a spring. My elective was pharmacology where we experimented on the power of the brain when drinking coffee- caffeinated or decaffeinated, and testing our results from game playing and our reaction time had improved or changed.

In our Science communications, we had group projects to prepare, then present in the museum during the July camp. I was placed in Museum Science where we researched and planned human evolution. As a group, we decided to present information based on the ‘Migration of early humans outside of Africa’

Throughout the period between January and July, we worked on our group projects via Zoom. I flew down to Dunedin again, Sunday 10th July, for the second half of the camp. Just like the earlier on in January we still had morning seminars- two projects, an elective, and science communications. All of which were still the same but more information and different experiments. Although we still had our classes, this half of the camp was more focused on bonding and being ready to present our group projects to the public. Presentation day arrived and everyone was ready to present their six months of work. After a long lively evening, we finished off the camp with a formal dinner before boarding flights the next morning.

Not only did this camp teach me many things academically, but also exposed me to what the University of Otago had to offer and to meeting new people, whom I hope to come across again in the future. This exposure did result in me making new friends and staying connected with everyone from camp, and I do not regret this experience.

GEO101 TRIP TO WAIHI GOLDMINE

OCEANA GOLD EDUCATION CENTRE

On Tuesday 14 June, 25 students from Year 11 Geography and Year 13 Economics attended a day trip to study Waihi’s Gold Mine. The students were given insight into how the work at OceanaGold affects the environment- for the purpose of an internal assessment in Year 11 Geography as well as context and information for the purpose of a Market Failure internal assessment in the Year 13 Economics course. The classes enjoyed the beautiful scenery in Waihi. We learned how the gold mine coexists with the environment and the township of Waihi- which sits right next to the mine.

Upon our arrival in Waihi, we were kindly welcomed by Mr Phillip Salmon who guided us around the mine. The mine is massive- it stretches across many kilometers above and below ground. These days all the mining operations is underground and the open mine “Martha” as known by locals, is no longer in use. This great cavernous crater, was excavated over the many decades near the town of Waihi. Some residents can see it from their backyard.

The great cavernous crater, excavated over many decades near the town of Waihi

Phillip helped us understand the workings and management of the mine, including the history of how the mine came to be, even showing us a small piece of gold ore processed from the mine. Students learned how mining effects the environment, as well as how the gold mine operates and its impact on the Waihi township and the wider economy.

Big thank you to Mrs Ainiu for her help in organising and running of the trip.

uniform

New College jacket $70.00 modeled here by L-R year 11 student Levi (sz 3XL) and year 7 student Jerome (sz L)

Dear Parents

We would like to inform you that we have made an improvement to our College Uniform Jacket.

We have had a group of parents, staff, students and Uniform specialists giving us their ideas on this jacket. This new jacket is well constructed, more waterproof and a lot smarter according to our students. Any student who already has the current College uniform jacket will be allowed to wear this until he grows out of it, there is no need for parents to buy the new jacket, the old one is fine to wear.

We have made the decision to change the jacket as we were not happy with the strength, material and weatherproofing of our current jacket.

The new Jacket will cost $70.00 which is cheaper than the old jacket, it can be purchased from next week at our College Uniform shop.

We ask that Parents clearly name all Uniform items.