Melville High News
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1 Hei Awhina Hei Mahi Melville High News Private Bag 3107, Hamilton, 3240, New Zealand Tel: 07-843-4529; Fax: 07-843-0358 To Serve and To Work Issue 6 September 2017 The Senior Boys’ and the Senior Girls’ Basketball teams are off to the Secondary School National Basket- ball tournament in Palmerston North during the first week of the October holidays. The teams gained selec- tion at the Zone 2 competitions held at the ASB Centre in Tauranga, both coming runners up. While being eli- gible to compete in the small school competition, the teams opted to compete in the Premier section which makes their achievements all the more significant. Our Junior Boys team competed well in the premier grade at tournament too. The teams head off to Palmerston North as Waikato Basketball cham- pions. This success comes on the back of some stellar individual per- formances including Kaylee and Hayley’s selection in the victorious Waikato Women’s under 23 team. I would like to acknowledge the sus- tained effort and hard work of the coaching and managerial staff in their commitment to the team. Spe- cial thanks go to whanau and friends who have supported all these young athletes and indeed all the students who took part in a very successful Tournament Week. Go well teams. We wish you all the very best. CALL BACK DAY FRIDAY 29.09.2017 FOR SENIORS—NO SCHOOL FOR Y9-10 SPORTS & CULTURAL SENIOR ACADEMIC PRIZEGIVING PRIZEGIVING Thursday 26 October 6.00pm Thursday 2 November 6.00pm School closes at 12.30pm 2 PRINCIPAL’S MESSAGE Featuring……………… Tena koutou katoa Principal’s Message — Page 2 –3 Greetings to you all Well done Janaia! - Page 4 It has been a busy time in the second half of this term with Tournament Week, Assessment Week, Academic Counselling and an extended visit from Year 12 Geo Trip to Rotorua — ERO. Page 5 This year, we had five teams from three codes participating in this sport fo- Australian Maths Competition — cused week where schools from across the country compete for regional and Page 6 national honours. Congratulations are extended to the Boys’ and Girls’ Bas- ketball teams for their runner up positions at regionals and we wish them all Year 12 Tourism Trip to Waitomo the very best at the nationals. This year we also had our netballers, junior boys basketball and boys soccer participating too. Caves — Page 7 Closer to home, both the senior basketball teams won their respective Waika- Access-it Roadshow — Page 8 to Competitions too, with the girls beating the current national basketball champions, St Peters. These are impressive achievements. Tumeke! 40Hr Famine—Page 9 There have also been some stellar performances by other students. Some in Tournament Netball — Pg 10 the sports arena like Te Mania in the boxing ring and others like Nina’s out- standing success in the Australian Maths competition. Tournament Soccer — Page 11 Once again I would like to acknowledge the tremendous support we have Tournament Basketball —Page received for our winter sports codes this season. All these activities could not 12 have happened without the consistent and determined assistance of family, whanau, clubs and the wider community. Long hours of training and practic- Futures Melville—Page 13 es, trips near and far, fundraising and a host of other activities have been un- dertaken to ensure successful seasons. We are currently reviewing and Northern Stars visit and high- strengthening our management and support of sport. Our new Sports Co- lights—Page 14 ordinator, Natalie Gallagher, is facilitating this process. Congratulations Kaylee & Hayley The PTA hosted a spectacular Melville Showcase evening as a follow-up to the school based “Melville’s’ got Talent”. All the successful performers from —Page 15 that day freely gave of their time for this evening presentation. There was plenty of food and raffles for sale and the evening was truly a showcase for MHS PTA Talent Showcase pic- our students’ talent. Performances by the schools’ Kapa Haka and Pasifika tures—Page 16 by Nature group were highlights of the evening. I would also especially like to acknowledge the PTA for their excellent evening. Over $1000 was raised while celebrating with the community our students’ musical and cultural abili- ties. UPCOMING EVENTS We have undertaken our practice external assessment week at the beginning 29 Sept Call Back Day for of this month. I would like to acknowledge the leadership and effort of Assis- selected students tant Principal Steph Ashton in raising expectations and standards. These 26 Oct Sports & Cultural ‘practice examinations’ will ensure that our students are better prepared for Prizegiving the national NCEA external examinations at the end of the year. 2 Nov Senior Academic With the latest results from assessment week available for our Parents/ Prizegiving Whanau Senior (Years 11 – 13) Academic Counselling conferences, they 7 Nov Appreciation Evening were a great success. The interim turnout at this stage seems to be a little for Coaches, Managers lower than our record 90% from Term 3 last year but was still in the mid 80’s. and supporters of MHS The feedback again has been very positive and the collaboration and focus achieved through such meetings are helping students positively target their learning and prepare for external examinations which get underway on No- vember 7th. The election for the new student representative has just been completed and I would like to take this time to acknowledge the contribution of Sophia. You have been an excellent student representative, Sophia. Thank you for setting a high standard. Mrs Chandra will be in school the second week of the holi- As a school we are focused on the external exams which begin in six weeks’ days from Tuesday to Friday time. We are also planning for 2018. Over 40 Parents and students attended from 9.30am to 1.00pm. She the Year 10 course selection evening in the Glenice Gallagher Library earlier will be available for tutorials this month. This was an excellent turnout and demonstrates families greater and extra support in prepara- awareness of the importance of such events. There was a discussion about tion for External exams. NCEA and plenty of questions about programmes and the selection process. Thank you parents and whanau for investing time in your children’s future. Any MAT101 and MAT201 The school should feel proud of the progress acknowledged by ERO in their students can make the most interim feedback. It was a demanding time over the seven full days of their of this opportunity. review, especially after the postponement from the original visit date. 3 Principals Message continued………. WAI MATHS COMPETITION I would like to particularly thank the Board for their effort Nina, Coleman and Ari’i from Year 9 took part in the in meeting with ERO. ERO reviewers have carefully WMA competition and they were placed 7th. scrutinised all the Board activity as well as all aspects of the school. I would like to acknowledge the staff and in particular the SLT, the LOC’s and all teaching and support staff for their effort and care during this external review. They worked hard in preparation and during the review to put the school in a positive light. While the draft report is some time away the SLT have already begun to reflect on some of the reviewers’ interim com- ments. The review this time was different in that it focused on priority learners, Māori, Pasifika and students with learning needs. Introduced in May this year, the new format is designed to work with schools to identify and accelerate the achievement of priority learners. The final report will be two months away. Our focus now turns to supporting our senior students. We also had Abigail, Mikhail and Corbin from Year 10 The weeks ahead for them are vital. The school pro- taking part in the WMA competition and they were vides extensive additional support to senior students placed 4th. with NCEA. This includes an after school homework centre on Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday after- The competition was held at Hillcrest High School on noons and also staff are providing additional individual 15 August 2017. I would like to thank the parents for lunchtime and after school tuition plus a raft of further their support in this event by providing transport to and assessment opportunities. Other staff will provide addi- fro. I also would like to thank Mr Joseph and Mr Chand tional support for students over the weekends and forth- for accompanying our students. coming holiday break. We are indeed so fortunate to Daya Chandra - LoC Mathematics have such a supportive staff who go above and beyond the call of duty. This is all in support of our students as they prepare for the external exams next term which get TE WHANAU MANAAKI TANGATA RE-ESTABLISHED underway in the second week of November. As a result of a Board of Trustees hosted hui last month, Finally I am looking forward to our upcoming Sports and our Whanau Support group was re-established. Whaea Cultural Prizegiving on Thursday 26th October (2nd Pania Huata is the secretary and the roopu is meeting to th week in Term 4) followed by the Academic Prizegiving prepare for the 40 birthday Celebration of our Marae, on Thursday 2th November. There is a very short turna- Te Manaakitanga. The establishment hui had 17 adults round between these two special events and there is and seven Rangatahi present and was a very construc- only three weeks of school next term for seniors. This tive meeting. timeframe is determined by the NZQA exam timetable.