News from Mansfield House

Kia ora Mansfield Whānau

Wow what a term, Term 3 has been! We are still trying to catch our breath in the Mansfield office, and are looking forward to a two week break, as I am sure all our hard working students and families are too.

It has been a great term, packed full of house activities, learning within and outside the classroom, and the lead up to school examinations for seniors in week 9. Year 9s were lucky enough to go to Orana Park this term, some hands-on learning ahead of their cross-curricular project on the UN sustainability goals.

Currently Mansfield are in second place for Junior Winterfest, two more rounds to go. It has been fabulous seeing the participation of the junior students in this house activity. A big thank you to our newly elected Junior Executive; Ruby Burt-Priddy, Caleb Orchard, Alex Burdon and Kasey Hauraki-Tumu, who have supported the Senior Executive by encouraging juniors to participate in this house event.

House Choir was in the middle of this term. We are so proud of this very hard working and dedicated choir and very excited to announce we were placed in the top three. All the Senior Executive really stepped up and ran the choir, but special mention must go to Molly-Kate Mullan and Frazer Phillip who dedicated all their form times, intervals and lunchtimes for the first five weeks of term 3 to run the choir. Their dedication, passion and love of music really shone through, there is no way we could have done this without them.

Choir was followed very quickly with 48 hour Film Festival (in fact the next day). Again the hard working executive ran this event, showing amazing time management and organizational skills. A special mention must go to Tyler Somerville and Ruby Marks, who lead this event that ran without a hitch. At the time of writing this, the films are still being judged and the winner will be announced on Thursday September 27th at a special Oscar’s night being run in the school hall.

Looking into Term 4, this becomes a really important time for our senior students, not only will they be studying for their final exams but they will be looking at next steps for 2019. It will be a sad time to see all our Year 13 students leave. But also exciting for them as they being the next journey in their life. For our Year 12 students, it will be a time for them to apply for the leadership roles available to them. There are lots of great opportunities, I urge them to think about what roles could suit them for 2019. For our Year 10’s it will be the last time they are juniors – make the most of it! Our Year 9’s will become leaders in their own right in 2019 by welcoming and supporting our new cohort into year 9. Last but not least our Year 11 students in term 4 will be sitting NCEA externals for the first time. Study hard and believe in yourself!