Here at Mahurangi College the year has started extremely well. Students are happy to be back on site, and there’s a lovely positive tone around the school. Break times are wonderfully chaotic, with multiple basketball, volleyball and four square games competing for space, and students running around enjoying being kids. Four of our students excelled in the NZQA Scholarship exams. These are the most challenging academic examinations faced by Year 13 students, with only 3% of students across the country successful. Congratulations to Guy van Egmond, who achieved scholarship in English and Drama; Marizanne Smit who gained a Media Studies scholarship; Talia Bentley who achieved a Biology scholarship; and Saskia Wigman who achieved scholarships in Biology and Geography. Her Geography scholarship was awarded at the ‘outstanding’ level. A wonderful achievement! In fact, the entire Year 13 cohort of 2021 did extremely well, with 61% of students achieving their L3 qualification with either a merit or excellence endorsement. This is a new record for the College, and testament to the manner in which students coped with the disruption of last year. Well done. During January our rugby field and surrounds were ‘sand-carpeted’, funded by a one-off grant from the Ministry of Education. This means that the field will now be ‘all-weather’ and available to students and sports teams 12 months of the year. The days of slogging through mud, that many ex-students will fondly remember, will be a distant memory! An artificial cricket pitch has also been installed, and an embankment created adjacent to the river, which will provide the perfect viewing platform for cricket. We have some keen cricketers, so it is great to support their passion in this way. While the Covid shadow still hangs over all of us, we’re hopeful that the school year will be less disrupted than previously. Hopefully rapid antigen tests will soon be made available to schools to help us remain open for onsite learning. Regardless, the resilience of staff and students to cope with whatever gets thrown at them is just superb. Tony Giles - PRINCIPAL
Issue 01 2022
YEAR 7 EDUCATION OUTSIDE THE CLASSROOM WEEK As I write this, it’s the end of the first day of our Year 7 Education Outside the Classroom (EOTC) week. As well as exploring their outdoor learning environment, this week provides a unique opportunity for our new Year 7 students to get to know each other - thankfully in the beautiful sunshine. Today, some groups travelled by bus to Tāwharanui, where they helped out in the nursery and got to know about the bird their syndicate is named after, the Takahē. They learned about pests and also helped restore the “sand ladder” used by our wider community. Another group of students spent the day at the Warkworth cement works, swimming, kayaking, sketching and learning about the history of the Warkworth area. The third group spent the morning in the Marae participating in Whanaungatanga; learning about forming and maintaining relationships and strengthening ties between communities. Their afternoon was spent having fun on a water slide and enjoying the sunshine. Our final group spent the morning learning about their syndicate’s section of the river bank within our school, and how they will help care for it over the next year. They then headed to the Mansell Bridge swimming hole where they learned water safety, tested the water, explored the river ecosystem and developed their rope tying skills. Now it’s home for a good nights sleep, before doing it all again tomorrow! (For more Year 7 EOTC week photos and details please check out our Facebook page or follow us on Instagram.) Caroline Armstrong - HEAD OF JUNIOR FACULTY