MATARIKI AT CARMEL
On Wednesday June 16, the arrival of Maori New Year was marked at Carmel College with a special Matariki Day celebration. The lunch-time event was led by the school's four Tuakana Leaders, Tori Rickard, Cleo Philp, Eleanor Philp and Taylor Eastwood. These Year 13 students have spent the past month training in traditional Maori stick games, flax weaving and poi making. The group met weekly with their Kaiarataki or mentor, Rangi Davis, to plan and practise for the event. The event was launched with a karanga called by Marea Donegan and the students and staff welcomed by Principal, Mrs Kathleen Deady. After a prayer to welcome Matariki, the Tuakana Leaders demonstrated their skills, inviting others to try their hand at stick games, weaving and poi making.
YEAR 7 & 8 ARTS FESTIVAL
Recently Year 7 & 8 held their Annual Arts Festival over three days. The theme this year was 'Around the World in 18 Hours.' This theme focused on celebrating cultural diversity in accordance with our Core Mercy Value for this year of 'Respect for Human Dignity'. Each class had held speech competitions throughout the Term and during the festival the winners from each class presented their speeches to all 240 students and parents. This would be a daunting prospect for most people but the audience was wowed by the calibre of the speakers. There was also a poetry section with both written original poems and performed learned poems. The festival was a chance for the girls to showcase their talents, so singers, musicians and dancers took to the stage each day to show us what they do in their spare time. As well as the speeches, poetry and performances a Visual Art competition was held each day.
CARMEL REPRESENTED AT MUNA
Seven senior students recently represented Carmel College at the Model United Nations Assembly. MUNA is organised by Rotary International with the purpose being to simulate the working of the United Nations Assembly by having school teams of Year 12 and 13 students represent a particular UN country in debates on matters of world politics and social concern. The goal being to develop in students an awareness of the United Nations and the international situation of the countries of the world while enabling them to improve their public speaking and debating skills and be encouraged to share their opinions and friendship with students from other schools.
PAST STUDENTS PASS ON THEIR UNIVERSITY EXPERIENCE
This week five students who left Carmel at the end of last year and, have just completed their first semester at university, took the time to come and share this experience with our current Year 13 students who found this a most helpful experience. Pictured here from left are; Laura Mayhew and Christina Matthews who are both studying Biomed at Auckland University, Rachel Ramsay who is studying towards a Bachelor of Communication at AUT, Jessica Mead who is in her first year of Health Studies at Otago University and Tessa Sprosen who is studying towards a BCom/LLB at Auckland University.
2/07/10
CARMEL DAY AWARDS
Every year at the Carmel Day Mass members of our community who have honoured the Core Mercy Value for that year receive a Carmel day Award. Respect for Human Dignity is our Core Mercy Value for 2010 and awards this year were presented to the following people for honouring this value;
RANGI DAVIS who has been our guide in Tikanga Maori for many years now.
KATE MARSH, a Year 13 student, who has never hesitated to involve herself in charitable outreach to those less fortunate. AVERILL WATERS who has worked as a teacher, mentor and counsellor in our school since 1984 with her major concern always being the dignity and potential of Carmel students.
25/06/10
STAGE CHALLENGE 2010
On Wednesday this week, over 130 students and three teachers spent the entire day (and half the night!) at the Aotea Centre to compete in Stage Challenge against 9 other schools. Our theme was 'Ignorance is bliss....Under cover of darkness' and we peaked at just the right time! This 8 minute performance was the culmination of 6 months' work by many people . We were awarded Excellence for Student Led, Visual Enhancement, Concept and Set Design and Function.
18/06/10
BIG SING
The Year 9 to 13 Choir was one of 57 school choirs participating in the Auckland regional Big Sing Festival held in the Auckland Town Hall this week. The 40 strong choir sang ‘Ave Verum’ by Saint Saen, ‘Dear Examiner’ by New Zealand composer, Anthony Ritchie and the Jazz standard, ‘Can’t Help Loving That Man’ which they also performed at the Gala Concert on Wednesday evening. The Choir was rewarded for all their hard work and a very enjoyable performance with a ‘Commended Certificate.’
11/06/10
From the Principal
Some things never change. Values education has come to the fore in the late 20th and early 21st centuries, and has been written about and documented at length, as, for example, in the New Zealand Curriculum which came into force at the beginning of this year. The reality is that students have always worked out for themselves what values matter in their school, and whether those espoused are also actual. This has been going on since schooling began, as is shown in this piece of work by Grace Mason, a Year 10 Latin student who analysed the characteristics valued in Ancient Rome and identified their modern relevance in the context of our school - Carmel College.