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"Growing Excellence"

P rincipal's Message

With the start of spring and warmer temperatures just about here, the thirdterm is just about behind us. We are now looking at the final term of 2016 withwhat has yet to be achieved as we begin to forward plan some of the keylearning events and programmes for 2017.

There have been a number of occasions and events this term that haveinvolved the students and our school community and kept us busy. Theseevents have included ICAS competitions, Boys Breakfast event, CrossCountry, Inter­school speech competitions, Talent Quest, New familiesinduction and transition to MHP, Year 6 transition and orientation to MHJC,and other schools visiting MHP besides field trips to the Stardome, HendersonFarm and much more.

One of the most critical events for our school that took place in this term wasthe three yearly external audit by the ERO team during 15­19 August 2016.The informal feedback by the co­ordinator of our review team was verypositive as it added another lens on how well our school is placed to sustainand continue to improve performance in future years. During the review visit,the team met with various groups of students, senior leaders, Board members,parents and the teachers. They visited various learning zones, perused allschool documentation pertaining to governance and management,scrutinised students achievement data and intervention programmesparticularly our Maori and Pasifika students and saw all our programmes inaction including ACE, staff professional learning and online learningopportunities.

Through the many professional conversations we had over the week the EROteam affirmed and commended us for our achievements over the last fewyears, supported strongly our self identified areas of future development andshared their own perceptions and findings of what they termed MHP as 'Aschool that is in very good hands and one that continues to grow andimprove’. Their informal feedback further reiterated that MHP demonstrates astrong commitment to strategic decision making, focused accelerationlearning for all students within sustainable systems and practices that areunderpinned by deep levels of evaluation. We are awaiting the draft EROreport that is due in a few weeks to respond with our feedback before thereport is confirmed and is published.

MHP students continue to have some outstanding results in ICAS competitionswith High Distinction, Distinction and Merit and Credit Awards this year inScience, Spelling, Digital technologies, Mathematics and English.

With so much to achieve in the short holiday break and a busy term ahead,the final quarter of this academic year is certainly going to be full on as webegin planning the overview for 2017 along with the end of year activities,

In this Issue...Principal's MessageBoys EventCross CountryICAS ExamsEnviroHPPA Hindi SpeechFinalsHPPA GymnasticsHPPA MathexHPPA Science & TechHPPA Speech FinalsKiwi­a­thonChampionsKoanga FestivalMHP Closing EarlyMHP Science & TechSLC's Market DaysNZ MathleticsChampionshipsSchool UniformStaff MattersStardome Trip

Mission Heights Primary School103 Jeffs Road, Mission Heights, Auckland 2016

PO Box 64 448, Botany , Auckland 2163Phone: +64 (09) 277 7888 Fax: +64 (09) 277 7883

email: admin@mhp.school.nzWeb: http://www.mhp.school.nz

MHPS NEWS

The Mission Heights Primary School Newsletter

Issue 7 / September 2016 www.mhp.school.nz

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reports and events planned for Term 4.

All the best for a fabulous and sunny spring break! We look forward to seeingyou at the many events planned for our community.

Kind regardsVeena VohraPrincipal

B oys Event – Galactic Breakfast

The Boys Breakfast this year was again a huge success. This year’s breakfastwas based on a ‘Galactic’ theme and teachers, students and their parentsmade a big effort to dress in a wide variety of costumes such as Hans Solo,Princess Leia, Captain Kirk and Darth Maul! An intergalactic photo booth, JediBubble Wars, science fiction trivia and Star Wars bingo, entertained the largecrowd until our guest speaker, internationally renowned educationalconsultant Joseph Dreissen, took the floor to speak on educating boys. Anuntimely fire alarm unfortunately disrupted the presentation half­way throughbut Joseph has promised to return next term to give a free presentation toparents when he is in Auckland. We will nofity you in advance.

C ross Country

Students and teachers braved the mixed weather conditions to complete allthe fiercely competitive cross country races. The Year 5 girls in particulardeserve a special mention for completing their second lap in torrential rain!Well done to all the students who managed to complete the course. Our toprunners in Y3­6 will now represent our school in the HPPA Cross CountryInterschool Championship. A list of the top three students in each year groupis below:

Year 1 Girls Year 1 Boys1. Ruby Zeng LZ7 1. Harjan Singh Hanjra LZ72. Teagan Ali LZ8 2. Donovan Nghe LZ253. Diya Kumar LZ8 3. Nate Yoong LZ8

Year 2 Girls Year 2 Boys1. Anna Long LZ10 1. Jake Evan LZ62. Carenza Thong LZ10 2. Kevin Luo LZ53. Mahi Sandhu LZ6 3. Rohan Rama LZ6

Year 3 Girls Year 3 Boys1. Aimee Gao LZ3 1. Ethan Monk LZ22. Sienna Pellowe LZ3 2. Dylan Naicker LZ 33. Riya Prasad LZ 3 3. Sameer Mehta LZ 2

Year 4 Girls Year 4 Boys1. Vivienne Thong LZ23 1. Josiah Yoong LZ242. Jahzara Silva­Hoani LZ24 2. Leon Milne LZ243. Sophia Yu LZ23 3. Ray Wang LZ27

Year 5 Girls Year 5 Boys1. Shubreet Sran LZ13 1. Ishveer Singh LZ152. Cynthia Wang LZ20 2. Hunter French LZ133. Kayla Stewart LZ19 3. Adrian Carpenter LZ19

Year 6 Girls Year 6 Boys1. Kaylin Strydom LZ14 1. Lachlan Hendry LZ142. Jiya Patel LZ14 2. Arjun Desaraju LZ173. Risha Prasad LZ18 3. Andre Kowanjko LZ18

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On Wednesday 14th September, 44 students represented MHP in the annualHPPA Cross Country event.  The students showed great sportsmanship and ranto the best of their abilities.  Big congratulations go to Lachlan Hendry (LZ14)who finished 2nd in the Year 6 boys, Sukhman Waraich (LZ15) who finished 5thin the Year 5 girls and Aimee Gao (LZ 3) who finished 8th in the year 4 girlsdespite only being a Year 3.  The Year 5 girls team finished 3rd overall.  A bigthank you to all the parents who supported us with transport and marshalling.

I CAS Exams

Congratulations to the following high achievers for their wonderful results in therecent ICAS Exams;SpellingDistinction Naimah Daud

Rayan RazaAryan BarikVrinda ChatrathiMouchtika ChayanamDihini Thantrige

WritingDistinction Eric Pan

Dihini ThantrigeFrank Chen

EnglishDistinction Aashi Golchha

Josiah YoongNaimah DaudFrank Chen

MathsHigh Distinction Vir Makhni

Cyril Chen

Distinction Raymond WangAdrian CarpenterEric PanAshvin SathyWilliam LeeObli Shriram RavishankarJosiah YoongTian Rui ChenAnu Gill

E nviro ­ Kings Plant Barn

Adriana and Conrad represented MHP at the HowickFruit Trees at Schools launch. It was held at Kings PlantBarn who will be supplied us with 15 fruit trees andexpert advice on planting them. Adriana spoke onbehalf our school and thanked Auckland Council andKing's Plant Barn for their wonderful generosity. Wehave planted the trees on our school grounds and arewaiting to see the MHP orchard blossom.

H PPA Auckland Finals – Hindi Speech Compettion

Congratulations to Neksha Juneja who won the AucklandFinals of the HPPA Hindi speech competition on Thursday 1stSeptember.

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H PPA Gymnastics Competition 2016

On Thursday 1st September, 14 MHP year 3,4,5 and6 girls competed at the HPPA gymnastics festival atthe Howick Gymnastics Club. The girls workedextremely hard leading up to the competition andshowcased their skills in their vault, floor and beamroutines in front of other competitors and judges.Congratulations to Sarah Grant who placed 6th

overall for the Year 3 individuals and Jahzara Silvia­Hoani who placed 4th forthe Year 4 individuals. These girls also partivipated in the Champion ofChampions competition where they competed against the top 8 winners fromall Auckland zones on Thursday 8th September. A big thank you to all the staffand parents helpers who supported our students in the 2016 gymnasticscompetitions.

H PPA Mathex Competition

On Tuesday 20th September the Mission Heights Mathex team consisting of EricPan, Zack Harrison, Arvinth Sathy and Ashvin Sathy, accompanied by reservesJack Grant and Cyril Chen travelled to Sunnyhills School to complete in theHPPA Mathex competition. As the only Year 5 team amongst a sea of Year 6’s,the boys were very competitive and worked hard to answer as many questionsas they could in the 30 minute limit. They worked well as a team and were veryanimated as they discussed the questions with each other. Congratulations tothese boys and we look forward to seeing what you can achieve as Year 6’snext year.

H PPA Science & Technology Challenge

Point View Primary was the destination for our Annual Science and TechnologyChallenge. There were four members of the BP Technology Challenge, KowshiObli Raj, Frank Chen and Ashvin and Arvinth Sathy. They made us proud byusing their collective skills to compete against several other schools from theEastern Zones. Their challenge was to create a vehicle that would be able totravel down an incline at the greatest speed possible. They had a limitedamount of resources and had to come up with creative solutions. The studentsagreed that it was fun to be a part of this exciting competition whereparticipation, constructive arguments and problem solving skills are prized.

Our second team from the year 4's participated inthe Science Challenge. Obli Shri Ram Ravi Shankar,Josiah Yoong and Jessica Lang were all veryexcited and proud to represent Mission HeightsPrimary school.  They worked well as a team,communicating with each other to negotiate thebest strategies to solve problems and to get themost Top Trumps points.  The team competed

against several other Howick Pakuranga schools, they demonstrated goodsportsmanship and had a lot of fun.

H PPA Speech Finals

Congratulations to Andre Kowanjko on winning the Mission Heights SchoolSpeech Championship for 2016. Andre from LZ 18 represented Mission HeightsPrimary at the HPPA Speech Final at Elm Park School. Andre’s speech entitled ‘How Mums Know It All’ was exceptionally well presented and certainly amusedthe large audience.

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K iwi­a­thon Champions

Congratulations to Frances Hunt LZ 17­SLC & Aanya Ashrita LZ 1­ JLC for winningthe overall Kiwi­a­thon Trivia Championship competition.They received a certificate and book at assembly on Friday 26 August.

K oanga Festival

On Saturday the 17th September we took theKapa Haka group to perform as part of theKoanga Festival for East Auckland Schools.  TheKoanga Festival was split over two schools andwe performed at Pigeon Mountain PrimarySchool.  We performed a bracket of 4 waiataand it was truly beautiful to watch.  The groupof around 40 children who participated in thisperformance did an outstanding job andrepresented MHP in an excellent manner.   A

special mention to Justine Tuhaka for leading this group out on stage and to allthe staff who supported this group during rehearsals and the performance atthe Koanga Festival.  Thank you to all of the parents who turned out to supportthe Kapa Haka Group braving a very wet and windy day!

M HP Closing Early ­ Friday 23rd September

On Friday 23rd September (last day of term 3) the school will close at 12.40pm. The staff will be involved in professional development for the afternoon.  Afterschool care services will be available to parents. Please ensure you makearrangements for your child/ren to be collected promptly. The school Library willbe closed.

M HP's Science & Technology Showcase

This year's Science & Technology Showcase bearstestimony to the ever evolving and progressivenature of Mission Heights Primary School. It certainlywas our most successful exhibition of Science &Technology in our school. The real celebrationarises from the fact that all 725 students got theirhands dirty their minds questions and investigating.

The standard of the displays were excellent, and the enthusiastic explanationsfrom the students showed that they they were  engaged in their learningexperiences. The topics chosen were based on Physical and ChemicalChanges, these ideas will now translate into products for the upcoming SLCMarket Day within the theme of "Entrepreneurship". The technical aspect allowsstudents to experience integration across the New Zealand Curriculum, managethe making of their hand made products & profit & loss.

S LC's Market Days

The Senior Learning Community Market Day was awonderful learning experience for all senior students.The development of a scientifically based product andthe marketing, packaging and advertising of this

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product, culminated in the opportunity to sell to willing buyers, including bothstudents and parents. There was a diverse range of products on show, rangingfrom ornaments to hot chocolate to bath crystals to smores, all of which provedto be a big hit when it came to selling time. An understanding of profit and lossis now the focus for the students as they both evaluate the success of theirenterprise venture and inquire into the most valid educational resources theycan fund from their profits.

N ew Zealand Mathletics Championships 2016

Mission Heights competed in the 2016 New Zealand Mathletics Championshipsand had some exceptional results. In the week­long class challenge, where theclass with the highest average total wins, we totally dominated the competitiontaking out all places from first to fifth. However, it's even more impressive than itfirst looks, as some of the 'classes' were actually studios made up of 2 or 3 classes– so we actually took up the first 10 places!

1. LZ14 – average of 31,000 points per student!2. LZ13 & LZ153. LZ184. LZ19, LZ20 & LZ215. LZ1, LZ2 & LZ313. LZ22, 23 & 2436. LZ10, 11 & 1244. LZ17 & 18

On Tuesday was the Individual Mathletics Championship, where we also hadsome great results. Over 60 of our students featured in the top 100, withAnshveer Maan coming 3rd, Mantej Singh 4th, and Ethan Monk 5th. The full list ofstudents in the top 100 will be published once we have received confirmationfrom Mathletics.

S chool Uniform

With summer fast approaching, a reminder about schooluniforms.Please ensure that students are wearing the correct uniform andfootwear for school.School shirts must be worn and there should be no other topsvisible underneath. If you are concerned about the cold, pleasepurchase long sleeved tops.

School shoes must be flat, black with laces or a strap andworn with black socks. In summer, Roman sandals may beworn. Shoes can be purchsed from No.1 shoes or Hannahs.Sports shoes or fashion shoes are not permitted as part ofour uniform.

S taff Matters

Mrs Yu (LZ7) goes on Maternity Leave at the end of this term. We wish her andher husband well with the upcoming arrival of their daughter.

Mr Wilcock competed in the New Zealand Masters Crossfit Championshipsrecently, finishing in 8th place in the RX Division.

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S tardome Trip

1, 2, 3 BLAST OFF!

Ngahere and Fire Studio had the opportunity to exploreplanets, inquire into how day and night happen,become Space Men and Woman and explore the veryexciting playground at The Stardome.

The students travelled by bus to the Stardome (pointing out the Tip TopFactory). The students enjoyed their yummy lunches by having a picnic on thefields, then spent time exploring the playground (many enjoyed the very darkand tall slide. Even Mrs Thompson went down too). Afterwards theyinvestigated what the Stardome had to offer. All students learnt about day andnight, then looked around the foyer at all the planets and equipment that hasto do with space. Finally it was time to go into the PLANETARIUM! This is a roomwhere you sit on reclined seats and watch a movie about the moon, sun andstars on the roof (which was a big dome). A great time was has by all, so muchso that many of the students fell asleep on the bus on their return to school!