News from Lydiard House

Kia ora koutou,

What a big term this term has been. Senior students have just finished exams, we have had House choir, 48 Hour Flmfest, Senior Winterfest and currently are completing Junior Winterfest competitions. I would like to thank all those students and staff who have been involved with all these activities over what you can see has been a pretty busy 10 weeks.

House choir was a definite highlight of the term. We had 25 students in our Lydiard Choir who had worked hard to practice 'Nga Iwi E' and 'I Lived'. The performance was of an extremely good standard and it was great to see lots of student involved and contributing to this unique house competition. A big thanks must go to Caitlin Constable and Ms Himiona for all the effort and expertise they put into preparing the group for this event.

48 Hour Filmfest was a great event where the houses had the first weekend in September to produce a short film from a minimal amount of information given to them after school on Friday and then the final film edit was due in by 9:00am Monday morning. We had 13 students work on this event over the course of the weekend and the energy and enjoyment they took from it was great to see. The final screenings of the films will be held on Thursday, 27 September in the school hall.

Senior Winterfest took place early in the term and we had variable results over the course of the competition. This competition will be looked at as it does not seem to be meeting the needs of our senior students in its current format. Junior Winterfest has turned into a kind of ‘springfest’ and we have two rounds to go as I write this. Both our Netball and Football teams have been highly competitive and have been battling away. Keep at it team!

Individually, we have had many Lydiard students being active in various pursuits:

Charis Ripley has led the RHS Dance Troupe at the Outstanding Feet festival recently where she was widely recognized for her leadership and overall contribution as RHS Dance Captain.

Aria and Lara Marsh have both performed extremely well at the New Zealand Short Course Swim Championships with Lara being ranked in the top 10 in two of her events.

Tegen Bishop won the Slopestyle competition at the recent New Zealand Secondary Schools' Ski & Snowboard championship.

Zoe Loffhagen was awarded the Community Action Award at the recent YMCA Canterbury Youth Awards as a result of her extensive community service activities.

The end of term 3 is very much the beginning of the serious end of the school year for our seniors and they should be working out study plans leadings into their last three weeks of classes and the subsequent exams. Work hard, be smart about your preparations and good luck.

Ngā mihi,

Ian Johnson