Term 3 Connect Magazine 2022

Service - Senior School

    by KingsWay School

The Year 12s in Term 3 used Lifelab times to organise a series of student-voiced ‘community action projects.’ Motivated by the ideas of being Christ’s Hands and Feet (1 Cor 12) and having some resident expertise speak to local and global missional needs (Andrew Marriot of MotivateNZ / Colin Gray - Middle School Teacher and KingsWay Missions Coordinator), the Year 12 teachers had the privilege to use G suite apps to collaborate across the x6 Year 12 classes collectively. The students arrived at three causes and related projects:

  • Mental Health needs/care in Youth: A Bake Sale to raise funds for “Youthline”
  • Food and Essentials for the Homeless in Auckland: Care Packages distributed in the CBD
  • Kaiakitanga for our beaches in Hibiscus Coast: A Beach Clean up and Schoolwide rubbish collection

Our students amazed us in their joint capacity to envision and then implement meaningful action towards these causes. It is our hope that in these humble efforts passions are sparked towards lifetime commitment to voluntary, humanitarian and charitable causes. I honour and thank all the Year 12 students and the Teacher team for working remarkably towards these end projects.

- Mr Jared Grant

Student's Voice:

This term, our Year 12 cohort had a focus in Life Lab on helping the community, and I was interested in making homeless packages. Homelessness is an issue I see a lot around my area, and I have always wanted to help make a difference, but I don't always have the resources to give. After I expressed my interest to other students in my class, they were inspired to bring in some items, and we were initially going to make five packages. Other classes were also interested in joining in, so we invited them to drop off items or ready-made packages to my class, which I have taken home and packaged; there were ten plus packages altogether. I am now distributing these to people I see on the streets. The other day I gave my first one to a woman, and she almost cried. It's heartwarming to see the impact we are already making in people’s lives.

- Arahina Kirifi, Year 12

The Environmental Council teamed up with Year 12 students to run a school ground clean-up afternoon. Students collected five buckets of rubbish, mainly consisting of lunch box debris. An old tennis ball was found hosting a spider plant; life finds a way!

This is a good reminder to the community to play their part in maintaining our Kaitiakitanga in school.

Sam Stammers
Senior School Science Teacher

Image by: KingsWay School

On Sunday, 3 September, the KingsWay School Year 12 students organised a Community Clean-up on Orewa Beach. They collected an astounding amount of rubbish in the short couple of hours they were there: four jumbo-sized rubbish bags and two large green rubbish bags. This group of students gave a couple of hours of their time, for no monetary gain, to help beautify Orewa. In doing so, they gained the comradery and feeling of being part of something bigger than themselves.

Thank you to Gemma McNee and Micha Donovan for helping to organise the event.

Thank you to Econowaste for supplying the group with the equipment for safe rubbish handling.

- Connor Thompson, Year 12