March

View this email in your browser >

Lytton High School

Newsletter · Week 1 Term 2 2023

Principal's Message

Tēnā koutou.

Kia ora.

On the evening of Wednesday 5th April, I attended the Term 1 Music Performance Assessment at Lawson Field Theatre. A wide range of performance art was shared. There were short dramatic pieces, a mixture of musical pieces and kapa haka performances. The range was broad, at one moment you were listening to a piano recital of Gymnopedie No 1 and then you transferred into a Heavy Rock drum recital followed up by a solo performance of Alexander Hamilton. It was an amazing evening and a great way to bring the term to an end.

The students showed great fortitude, for many this was their first ever performance in front of such an audience. The encouraging, perhaps coercing, influence of their teachers and whānau paid off. I wonder what else is possible across the range of extra-curricular activities that enhance the learning experiences of school.

Albeit an unusual start to the year, the end of term hints of more celebrations of talents for the remainder of the year.

Keep well, mauri ora.

Introducing our Head Girl & Boy for 2023

Yuna Preddy

My name is Yuna and I’m honoured to be Lytton High School’s Head Girl for 2023. I am proudly of mixed nationality by being half Japanese and half Kiwi. From when I first started at Lytton as a year 9 in 2019, each and every year has been filled with new challenges that allowed me to grow as a person and discover new passions both in and out of the classroom. Thanks to the support of the teachers around me, I was lucky enough to be selected as part of the Science Academy group at Otago University this year. This has given me the opportunity to gain more confidence, independence and the inspiration to study in the medical field.

My goal for this year would be to continue gaining new knowledge, becoming a positive role model, and building new and stronger relationships with students and teachers.

Wayan Parfitt

I'm Wayan and I am Lytton High School’s Head Boy for 2023. Over the past five years I have spent at this school I've grown into a confident and capable leader, likely in part to the environment of this school. The school has given me opportunities to develop new skills as well as pursue my interests in my favorite subjects such as business. Last year I attended a course at the BDO accounting firm and got to learn the inner workings of a business as well as learning about accounting. As head boy I strive to get the Lytton High School community involved in more projects and make the newer students feel comfortable and make the most of their time. I have really enjoyed the Relay For Life this year despite not being able to attend it at the Awapuni Stadium. Our team did an amazing job hosting it on our field. I am really looking forward to what the future holds.

Football Coaching

This term our students and some guests had the benefit of coaching from the Oceania Footballer of the 20th Century, Wynton Rufer, right here at Lytton.

His father Arthur, from Switzerland, played for Eastern Union in Gisborne.

Matua Wynton starred in New Zealand’s 1982 World Cup campaign and was a successful striker in European football, notably with Swiss side FC Zurich and German team Werder Bremen. He scored in Werder Bremen’s 2-0 victory over AS Monaco in the 1992 European Cup Winners’ Cup final in Lisbon, Portugal.

He plans to visit Gisborne again next month, and hopes to return on a regular basis. While here he had met Sport Gisborne Tairāwhiti and Trust Tairāwhiti representatives, as well as Central Football community development officer Lee Smith.

Rufer, 60, attended Gisborne’s Equippers Church on Sunday and visited relatives — he is of Ngāti Porou heritage through his mother Anne (nee Campbell), who grew up on the East Coast.

We are incredibly fortunate to have someone of Wynton’s profile keen to be involved with girls’ football in Tairāwhiti, and honoured for that to have begun at Ritana.

Building Academy

Our Lytton High School Building Academy is humming along this year. We have had another intake of Year 12 students, who have got straight in with hands-on learning. This year our students are building a 2 bedroom house from start to finish. A mammoth task but also an amazing opportunity for these students to learn in a practical environment. Our Year 12 and 13 Building students also spent two weeks out in Te Karaka assisting local building companies with the clean up and recovery of many homes. So wonderful to see these students' sense of community belonging in action.

Robotics Club

We've just started a Robotics Club, where we play and explore coding. We have a decent variety of bots and have just received our first Vex V5 robot which will allow us to participate in the annual VEX National competition. We are looking for any student interested in this field as we're ready to kick some serious dust in our competitors' eyes.

Building Academy Students Support for Te Karaka.

We went to Te Karaka for a few days to help out Dawson Building Company to strip out flood damaged houses. We removed gib board from walls, removed skirtings, doors, and bricks from fire places.

We were well looked after by the community with all the lovely kai provided every lunchtime at the school hall.

Although the work was hard, dirty and smelly we all thoroughly enjoyed the experience and were grateful for the opportunity to help out the community and local whānau.

First Aid Courses

Term One saw a group of 20 students from Year 11, 12 and 13 successfully sit their Comprehensive First Aid. For most of these students, this course is an added component to their class work in either Building, Primary Trades Academy, or Childcare. The Careers Department will run more of these courses over the course of the year.

Year 9 & 10 Foodtech

Apples, apples, apples are a fabulous local food resource right at our doorstep. As the Junior classes focus on using local food this is what they have come up with...nom, nom....Apple crumble, caramel apple pie, apple brownie, mini apple pies & apple danish.

Year 10 Fashion

Bucket hats are still a hit in Year 10 Fashion. Lots of different patterns were used and these creations are not for the faint hearted to create. Lots of different skills are required but we got there in the end. Ka pai Tamariki, Rose and Zaria.

"Unique Dolls"

A Mixture of Felt "Unique Dolls" from the Year 9 Fashion class. These are a lot of fun to create and the rangatahi get very involved with their creations. Tu meke Kiri, Maia, Kyra and Cadence.

Action packed Term One in Rongomaiwhiti Angitu

DANCE

Our Angitu team students continue to explore and enjoy extracurricular activities. For example, this term, we have introduced our students to a Dance class. Our Dance teacher Anita from On Pointe Dance Studios offered our students an alternative way to communicate with each other - Dance, music and movement.

Dance has been a fun way for students to practice balance and build awareness of their body rhythm. Repetitive movement has improved students’ focus. Anita has taken them through movement that is small, fast, slow - they skip, roll and isolate body movements.

The feedback from parents is that their child's dance experience is positive and enjoyable. Dance has been a beneficial platform for our students to share movement and connection.

ATHLETICS FUN DAY!

Te Whare Taupua embraced the opportunity to join in on the fun of Athletics Day. Our students enjoyed being part of our wider school sports day.

Angitu was part of contributing to the winning points of Makauri. Some of our amazing students entered in running, long jump and shot put.

TINO PAI MAKAURI!

Outdoor Education

While it was far from the sunny start to the year that most were hoping for, March has finally delivered some good weather and with it hope and opportunity for our Year 11, 12 and 13 Outdoor Education classes. Local Department of Conservation (DOC) tracks have started to reopen as well as Waikanae and Midway Beaches. All 3 classes have now learnt about ocean safety and have had a go at surfing at either Makorori or Waikanae Beach. This was an amazing experience for all involved.

The Year 12 Outdoor Education class completed their overnight tramp to Koranga Forks Hut in the Waioeka Conservation Area at the end of Week 8. This was a challenging track following the Koranga River with stream crossings, and steep climbs. Students had to pack appropriately for the conditions while keeping weight to a minimum, prepare their meals in groups and locate themselves on a map using natural features. Many highlights came from this trip but none could top Baby Bear Grylls (Matthew Van Zyl) landing a beautiful rainbow trout at the lunch stop on the walk out.

The Year 11 Outdoor Education class will complete their day hike at Cooks Cove in Tolaga Bay on the last day of Term 1 while the Year 13 Outdoor Education Class prepare for their multi-day tramp in Week 2 of Term 2.

Toitū te marae a Tāne-Mahuta, Toitū te marae a Tangaroa, Toitū te tangata.

If the land is well and the sea is well, the people will thrive.

Mr Hooper

Kaiako - Outdoor Education

Term One Sports Round Up.

Cyclone Hale, Cyclone Gabrielle and COVID 19 all played a big part in our sporting preparations for the first term, however we were able to accommodate our enthusiastic students:
Athletics – Unfortunately we had to cancel our representative athletic trip to Hastings. Once again we held lunch time events. Students took part in the various track and field activities 1500M, High Jump, 800M and Javelin during the week, accumulating points toward their houses, which were added to those gained on Athletics Day. A new Senior Girls record was set in the Discus by Rilee Walker, shattering the previous record of 21M, with a throw of 26.40M and Stella Perano etched her name in the record books as well, with a throw of 10.94M in the Shot Put. The relay involving staff was a fun way to end the day. Congratulations to Makauri House for winning this event. Ka mau te wehi.

Rugby – We are once again amalgamating with Nga Uri a Maui and Campion College this year as our numbers are such that we cannot stand alone. The U15s coach is Ropoama Hape of NUAM. The U18s coach is Mark Naden of Campion College. The games are scheduled to begin the second week back in Term Two.
Hockey – An early trial revealed that we can have a Mixed Team in the Tairawhiti Secondary Schools competition this year, under the auspices of returning coach David Preddey. At this time, we are unsure as to when we are likely to start and what conditions the games will be played under, due to the current water quality. We currently practice at Lytton every Wednesday after school.
Netball –We selected and trained a Senior A Netball team, but unfortunately we had to withdraw them from the competition due to lack of consistent numbers. We welcome new coach Hana Chaffey to our Ritana Mixed Team. The bulk of this squad are active in Ki o Rahi preparations and in Waka Ama, so getting together early has been a bit of a mission - but successful. We welcome O’Shae Rangihaeata Year 13 Student as our Junior A Netball Coach. A great Netball player giving back to sport at this level. I’m sure the girls will have a lot of fun and enjoy their netball with O’Shae and the guidance of Sabrina Street.
Waka Ama – The Lytton Waka Ama trials and selections for our teams put pressure on the selectors, given the short time available for them to confirm paddler combinations. The sacrifices made by the paddlers to forfeit other commitments and get themselves to the sessions during this time, displayed their passion for the sport, and it was commendable. Selectors/Coach Jason Devery, Luke McKenzie, Darryl Dunn and Lauren Carr, were able to put together a J19 Boys (Ritana Toa), J19 Girls (Hinetu) W6 and 2 xJ16 Girls (Hinemaia & Hinetoa) W6 teams. It is pleasing to report, that the Lytton J19 Mixed W12 took out the Te Takere Trophy in the 250M event final, held at Blue Lakes, Rotorua.
Ki o Rahi - Once again Koka Beanie is our capable coach and training has commenced for the NZ Secondary Schools Ki o Rahi Tournament first week of the school holidays (Easter Break) in Rotorua.

Sports Calendar

11–13 April, Ki o Rahi Nationals Rotorua
2–3 May, Boys Rugby begins
11 May, Ngata 7's Ruatoria
31 May, East Coast North Island Cross Country Gisborne
Golf (tbc)
28-30 July North Island Secondary Schools Indoor Bowls Mount Maunganui
14 Sept, Touch Rugby
18 Sept, Have a go Bowls

Barista Training

The Careers Department has recently upgraded their barista machine to a new fully mobile Barista Station. This is going to be up and running in term 2 for the first of many Barista Courses this year. This course is an excellent opportunity for our students to gain a specific set of skills to assist them with after school employment opportunities, or part time working while in tertiary studies. Keep your eye out around the school as we will be having our Barista students appearing at whanau events.

Community Consultation

We are reviewing our timetable and would appreciate your thoughts and ideas. Please complete this survey to help us shape our future timetable. It will remain open until May 5th. Your support is much appreciated.

Kind Regards,

Craig Christophers

Deputy Principal

Survey

Relay for Life

From 12.00pm on the 31st of March, the prefects and a few other Year 13’s started our 24 hour walk to raise money in support of the Cancer Society. The Gisborne community had planned to come together on the 25th of March, but due to the cyclone, the annual Relay for Life for 2023 was cancelled. The best thing we could think of to do was to create our own and Relay our Way! Our prefect camp, which was our chance to get to know each other better and build stronger relationships within our team, had also been cancelled due to the cyclone and we found that this was also a chance for us to get together and fill in what we had missed out on. In the short amount of time that we had, we gave our best effort to create our own event starting from 12.00pm on the 31st of March until the same time the next day. We organised our first "civvies day" for the year, sold sweets and sausage sizzles on Friday, ran an Easter raffle, and including the donations we received, we raised a total of $1,216.60.

Performing Arts Night

Wednesday April 5th saw the whanau and friends of some of our students come together at the Lawson Field Theatre to tautoko their rangatahi as they presented their NCEA performances for assessment. A wide range of live creativity was represented, with several subjects taking to the stage.

First up was a strong Year 11 group showing from Te Ao Haka, ably followed by a group from Senior Drama with a moving devised poem.

Next came a wonderful range of music pieces, from smoothly played famous works, to fresh takes on newer compositions. These performances by groups and individuals from Years 11, 12 and 13 truly had something for everyone.

Rounding out an entertaining, varied evening, we finished on a high note with our Senior Te Ao Haka roopu and a toe-tapping pair of vocal songs from Year 13 Music.

Many thanks to the students and staff who helped make our assessment showcase happen, and special appreciation to the whanau and friends who continue to awhi our rangatahi as they explore and share their talents!