Jonah Lomu

One of the most  famous All Black players, has died at the age of 40. Jonah Lomu (a legend) died of nephrotic syndrome.The news was a shock to the rest of New Zealand. He was known as a loyal and inspirational person  to younger people.

Looking Back: Rugby Courier

New Zealand's Sevens Star Eric Rush invited Jonah for a game of touch and was impressed by the way that the then  14 year old could play. He invited Jonah to a sevens match in Singapore.

Lomu played in the Rugby World Cup in 1995 and scored seven tries in five matches; two in the match against Ireland in Johannesburg, one in the quarter final against Scotland in Loftus Versfeld and four tries in the semi-finals against England in Newlands. In the world cup for 1999 against Samoa,  Lomu scored one of All Blacks’ nine tries.

Health Issues

At the end of 1995 Jonah was diagnosed with nephrotic syndrome which is a serious kidney problem. 2003 in May his doctors  informed Jonah that he was to attend dialysis three times a week. The side effects for Jonah’s dialysis treatment led to severe damage to his feet and legs, not only this but he was also warned that he would have to be going on a wheelchair if a kidney transplant was not going to be performed sooner. Coming to the end of July 2004 it was heard that Jonah had finally had a kidney transplant on July 28 here in Auckland. The Kidney transplant came from the Wellington radio presenter Grant Kereama.

The Unexpected Death

Early morning on the 18 November Jonah Lomu died in his Auckland home. The night before he died Jonah and his family had just finished returning from a short vacation in Dubai. He had been receiving dialysis on his visit in Britain where he was involved in heavy promotional work during the RWC 2015.

The first public service was held in his church home in Auckland Mangere with Jonah’s family and friends.

Lomu was added onto the International Rugby Hall of Fame on 9 October 2007. He lent his name to various video games including the ‘Jonah Lomu Game’ and ‘Rugby Challenge’. He was also portrayed by Isaac Feau'nati in ‘Invictus’ which shows Nelson Mandela’s journey with the South African Rugby Team in the 1995 world cup. Jonah Lomu will be remembered to the whole world as ‘Rugby Union’s Biggest Drawcard’.

Fast and Furious 7

Friday 17th April all my girl-related cousins went out for a “girls night out” at Sylvia Park. We were going to watch the greatest movie of all time ... Fast and Furious 7.

We went to the counter to pay for our tickets, we were put into cinema 2 but had to wait for a few minutes as they were getting the cinema ready. We all got to go into the arcade room and play some games,

“Cinema 2, all people waiting to go into cinema 2?”

We all got up and tried to fight our way through to see who could get into the cinema first. We were all walking inside and it was just full of darkness. We sat in our chairs and we were all on our phones when they dimmed the lights and the ads came up. We were so excited to finally watch the movie that we just had to take videos and photos of that.

The whole cinema was full of people talking and shouting way too much when finally everybody was being shooshed by something saying

“Please put your feet off the chairs, turn all cellphones off and remember to not throw your popcorn onto the floor, enjoy the movie”

I could just feel everybody’s excitement ( trust me you’ll know what I mean by that). It started out perfectly until the most horrifying, yet amazing part of the movie was when Dominic ( Vin Diesel) and Brian ( Paul Walker) drove a car on the highest level of 3 hotels (in a row).

The movie was going great but I couldn’t get to watch the whole because I was too busy going out of the cinema to get more drinks and popcorn from my cousins. Everytime I go back into the cinema I always have to ask them “What happened”. I always get so annoyed when they tell me to “shosh”, so the only thing I did was sit back and got to sleep but it was too hard cause I couldn’t but open up my eyes to see the goodness. The last part made everybody in the cinema cry, the tribute song called “See you Again” that was being sung by two famous American singers Charlie Puth and Whiz Khalifa. After the song had finished sung the screen was all white with the writing “ For Paul.

The movie gave everybody an emotional, exciting, Happy, Interesting, Adventuring feeling. Everybody came out of the cinema wiping their tears and humming the song. I could also hear people saying “I hope they make a Fast and Furious 8”, my cousins were thinking the same thing.

After we let the movies we drove to burger king and we all got a whopper jnr combo with Frozen Cokes. What a great way to end the holidays.    

Marine Education and Recreation Center

Room 8 is leaving for camp today. We each have written an individual biography about Merc, how it started, who started it, what's it's purpose and what activities do they offer. I have written a Merc Biography.

Merc

Marine Education and Recreation Center, also known as Merc is a camp facility that is located at Long Bay Regional Park.

Merc offers families and schools a variety of activities that are land based and water based. Land based activities such as the “Giant's Ladder” helps children to be able to communicate with each other better and work as a team better. Water based activities such as “Raft Building” gives children the opportunity to communicate, share their ideas and their constructing skills. The finishing touch for the raft will either tell the instructors that they either worked together or weren’t included.

Holiday Programmes do happen at Merc. They have different types of activities for 7 - 13 year olds and 14 - 16 year olds. The holiday programme is led by Merc’s qualified team of instructors. The 7 - 13 year old activities include Abseiling, Archery, Body Boarding, Giants Ladder, Kayaking, Mountain Biking, Outdoor Survival and many more. The 14 - 16 year old activities include Bush Walk, Canoeing, Mountain Biking, Paddle boarding, River Crossing, Reef Swimming etc. These activities do cost and have times, 7-13 yrs cost $35 per child, 14-16 yrs cost $40 per child. They start at 9am and finish at 4pm.  

Merc allows Day visits from schools or families. These Day visits are open from 9am - 4pm and only allows you to participate in 3 activities per day. Residential stays offers accommodation including bunk beds and catering food. The residential camps will give you different types of activities to challenge the children into becoming a confident person and a great leader. At Merc the children going in for residential stays or day visits must show attitudes and actions towards the leaders at Merc. These values are known as respect, leadership, confidence, peace, patience, Kindness, encouragement, and self-control not only to the leaders but to their peers.

Challenges and Strategies

We are learning to write down our fears and strategies to help us at camp. In Room 8 we all have challenges we will face at camp. This is my writing about my fears and what strategies to use at camp.

Challenges:

• Missing my home and family

1. People invading my privacy

Strategies:

• Talk to Anna
• Remind myself that it’s only 3 days

1. Tell the teacher when it does happen
2. Tell that person my I statements and ask why they did it

My Challenges

The word “fear” means and unpleasant emotion caused by the threat of danger, pain, or harm. At camp others are afraid of what their going to eat and not being able to work together. My biggest fear is missing my family, and people invading my privacy. These fears only occur when i’m going out to a faraway place, away from home for more than just  1 day with people that I haven’t went outside the school with. The reason why i’m scared to leave home is because I haven’t left my parents’ side and i’m afraid something might happen to them while i’m away. My second fear are my friends opening the curtains while i’m taking a shower or changing. Also they might go through my stuff and take out all my things and either take them (steal them) or show other people also I know that I have been there and I have confidence to shout at other people but when it’s my turn to do that activity I get really nervous that some of the year 8 boys might laugh at me when i’m doing the activities.      

My Strategies

The word “Strategy” means a plan of action designed to achieve a long-term or overall aim because these fears have been with me for a long time I need to come up with strategies to help me get over these fears just in case I go to camp in college. The strategies I will use to get over my fear of missing my parents are to talk to Anna about my fear and see what she can do to help me and to always remind myself to not worry because they’ll still be home when I get there. The strategies I will be using for getting rid of my privacy fear is to tell the teacher when it happens and to say my I Statements and let them know that it is not nice to do that to other people because “What goes around, comes around”. If I can get rid of these fears while we're at camp I can start feeling confident when going to camp.  

Manaiakalani Guest's In New Zealand

An Unforgettable experience!

Have you ever had to sit in the hot sun with no hat what-so-ever?

Well, Wednesday 25th March the 12 Manaiakalani Schools including: Tamaki Primary, St Pius X, Glenbrae School, Tamaki College, Panmure Bridge, Stonefields, Glen Innes, St Patricks, Sommerville Special School, Ruapotaka Primary and Te Kura Kaupapa Maori O Puau Te Moananui A Kiwa gathered at Pt England beach to greet the Hokule'a & Hikianalia Education Leadership coming all the way from Hawaii.

As the whole school walked  to our designated seating place,  we saw our classmates:Natalia, Giovanni and Johnnie.  These student were chosen as leaders to represent our school along with other leaders from the Manaiakalani Cluster, to lead the Haka and Waiata that had been taught by one of the Maori teachers in Pt England over the previous few weeks.   

The whole cluster was talking until the sound of a horn filled the air and caught the attention of the adults and children waiting patiently.  Everyone’s eyes stared out to the water of the Tamaki River to see looked the huge Waka slicing through the shining water towards the  2000 strong crowd.  It was so quiet at that time that heard the anchor drop into the water to bring the waka to a stop. At that same moment, a woman stepped up on the sandy foreshore before us and began a karanga, calling to the visitors and the ancestors.

When the woman finished her karanga,  a mini speed-boat glided to shore, bringing groups of our guest’s to shore.

The leaders started off perfectly singing “E Oho” and doing the Haka that goes with it. Everytime the speed-boat came the leaders would sing until every single person in the Waka had come.

When each guest had left the Waka a man did a  karakia and we our guest’s replied to his speech with speeches in their language. Our guest’s sang a Hawaiian Song and 3 students from Pt England school, said their Maori Mihi’s, followed by a koreo (short talk) about why the Manaiakalani Schools were there and how the word “Manaiakalani” had been formed. After the Mihi’s were finished the Principal from  Pt England, Mr Burt had a little hug with one of the guest’s and told the whole Cluster that it was time for ... ‘The Impossible’ This is where each school (starting with Pt England) got up and walked down onto the sand to personally be part of the welcome by doing  high-fives!
When St Patrick’s had finished high-fiving each guest we walked to our bus and left to school.

It was a great experience to see people part of our Manaiakalani Cluster coming to see how each school in the cluster is working with their Chromebooks. The student leaders were invited back to Pt England school to the Hangi that people from the Marae ( A Carved Building that usually belongs to the local iwi)  What a fantastic experience, definitely one to remember.

Morning Tea

Morning Tea Break

“Come on just hurry up and grab it” I said, Natalia grabbed the basketball,  grabbed her lunch and we all ran down to the bottom court.

“I’m Master,” I said         

“I’m first” Natalia said

“I’m second” Irene said

“I’m third and i’m fourth” said Celeste and Gabby as we formed a line to play master. Master is kind of like basketball but one person has to be the master while the others form a line to shoot the basketball into the hoop, if that person gets it in then their master, if they beat everybody in the line they get a life so when somebody else beats them they get to have another shot.

As Natalia went to shoot the hoop all the boys came into the court to play as well but that didn't stop us from playing. Natalia shot the ball and it went right into the hoop.

“WHAT”  I shouted, in a high pitched voice.  It sounded like I was those people singing opera. I just couldn't believe it,  she got it in on her first try. I was so angry but at the same time confused. Next up was Irene,

“Man you should watch this I’ll get it in on my first try,” she shouted.

Up went the ball but unfortunately,  it hit the edge of the hoop.  The look on her face showed that she was furious! She grabbed the  ball and bounced it so far it went to the other side of the court. Natalia just couldn't handle it and she immediately started  to  laugh.  She laughed  so hard that she turned red just like a tomato (well perhaps not that red) and she walked , confidently up to the ball, grabbed it and then positioned herself on the yellow line and can you believe it,  shot it right in.

Next up it was Celeste’s turn.  She  stepped up with the basketball in the palm of her two hands. She went to shoot it and unfortunately missed. Natalia grabbed the ball and tried to shoot and she missed as well , it just kept on going and going and going until Natalia finally shot it in and up came Gabby. Natalia passed the ball to Gabby and Gabby shot it right passed the hoop. Natalia threw it  and she got it in, and then I came and I shot it and on my very first shot, got it right in, I was so happy I did my victory dance -  but just for a sec.

Irene went to shoot but the bell rang and we headed out of the court to go to class. It was such an awesome but challenging game. The only thing I couldn't stop laughing at was the way each of us got angry because we couldn't get the ball to fit right into the hoop.  

A Birthday Blessing

On the 16th January the whole household were up getting ready for the big day. It was a day where my parents, brother, his girlfriend and her parents get to see their daughter/grandaughter get a 1st birthday blessing from the priest of the Mt Wellington Catholic Church.  

We all got dressed and headed to the church. We sat down while my older sister Vika went to talk to father in the back room. After they were done talking my sister came to sit down with us. When it hit 8:00 father rang the bell and we stood up while he walked through to the front. We all did the sign of the cross and said the “I confess” and “Lord have mercy” after father went quiet as we all did silent prayers.

Then we had the first reading, Responsorial Psalm,  Gospel  Acclamation and  Gospel reading it was time for prayers, during prayers more and more people started to come in.  When it was time to receive the bread and wine my sister, two nieces and I went to get blest last.

At the end of church my sisters and I went to the back of the room for her to get her blessing, unfortunately he thought thought she was turning 16 but my sister sorted it out so Father went to his house to get a little koala and recipe book for Avery and her mum.

I was proud and happy for Aavery because she has grown so fast and she has learnt a lot of new stuff on her journey. We were all proud and happy for her but we were mostly excited to go to Inflatable world.

An Important Place to me!

An Important Place to me!

The most important place to me is the house my cousins and I grew up in. Every Time I feel hurt or sad I always look back to that place and think about how it has made me ... well me.  

This house was important to the whole family because it was the house that we all stayed in with my grandparents, we also went to the same school, it was called Panama Road. My cousins and I were my grandparents’ number 1 priority. They have loved us non-stop. When my grandparents died my mum and her siblings looked after the house but we were still little.After a few years time my aunty decided it was time for them to move on and sell our family house.

Today my aunty and I visited the house to see how it has changed. As we walked in my aunty started crying, I didn't ask why she was crying because I already knew. She was crying because she missed all those times she had with her parents when she was a little girl. After she had checked out the rooms she talked to the new owner of the house, they were Samoan but my aunty already knew some Samoan words because her dad (my grandpa) was half Samoan.

Today my cousins and I always sit in a secret place and talk about the sweet memories we had in the house, but the one thing I’ll always remember is the day I first entered the house.

“Families are like branches on a tree, we all grow in different directions but our roots remain the same.”

St Patrick's Hunger Games Part 1!!!

Last week Friday Room 8 went to camp at Long Bay Marine Reserve. The activities we done were Archery,Kayaking and Snorkeling. In this Recount I will be talking about the Year 7's and the experience they had in their lesson of Archery. This is the Recount I wrote.

Have you ever done Archery before? This story is going to be based on a year 7 group of children from St Patrick’s School and the experience they had during their day of Archery at a lovely and marvelous place you might know as Long Bay.

Everybody in Room 8 excitedly got out of the bus, grabbed their bags and headed towards the entrance of their hall. We were all holding it in until our first activity was said. When we go into the hall we saw a group of girls standing near a white board that had the timetable for the day. We met our instructors for the day - Shavanna, Vicky, Leanne and Sarah they were very lovely names. After they went over the timetable and the rules (designed to keep us safe) they announced that the year 7’s were doing Archery with Shavanna and they year 8’s were doing Kayaking with Leanna and Vicky.

All the year 7’s gathered outside the hall on a bench. Shavana came and told us the instructions and rules about Archery. After we had done that we grabbed the Bow’s,Arrows and Target and headed far, far away from the camp site.

When we arrive at the clearing where archery is done, we set everything up and started by learning the position needed to stand and aim at the target.  Following these lessons we moved on to challenging others.

In groups of 2 and 3(2 groups of 3 and two groups of 2) I was with Vine and Natalia, Miriama and Melayka were partners, Giovanni, Kolio and Johnnie were in a group and Folau and Avishek were partners as well. Shavanna let each group pick out a name, these names were Mighty Lions, M&Ms, Arrows, Green Arrows. After all the picking and the choosing was about we got to shoot our first Arrow one by one. Shavanna blew up a balloon for points, and we started shooting to get points. Everybody had a go until it was time to go back for morning tea and get read for our next activity.

We all had fun in Archery some of us felt like we were ready to join the Hunger Games (Yeah Right). It was a great experience for all of us to do something that we have never done before we were pretty sure to do some other time.

Feelings

We are learning how to write an explanation. 

People express their feelings in different ways throughout their life.

The first feeling is anger. You can express this feeling by scrunching up your hands. Another way you could express this feeling is when your face turns red and inappropriate words start to come out. When this happens it can cause a huge fight between you and your friend.

The second feeling is sadness. This feeling is expressed when someone has passed away, someone has gone overseas or you have been bullied by someone at school or the internet. Sometimes when you're sad you can get really angry. Sadness is a very hurtful feeling to children and adults.

The third feeling is happiness. Happiness is when you have a huge smile on your face, and you say a lot of kind words to the people around you. When you say nice things to people they could say nice things back. This makes you a friendly person.

Feelings are very hurtful but some how they can also be very friendly to others.

My Yellow Star Postcard

We are learning about communication. I know that I have learnt this lesson when I can create a postcard that has a stamp, address and a picture to show where I am, what it feels/smells like. This is a presentation of my postcard.

LMGTFY

We are learning to research a question using Google. I know that I have learnt this lesson when I can search the meaning of PVA. PVA means a colourless odourless tasteless resin used in emulsion paints, adhesives, sealers, a substitute for chicle in chewing gum, and for sealing porous surfaces Abbreviation PVA. My question was "What is the meaning of

My Fabulous Invitation

We are learning to communicate with other people. I know that I have learnt this lesson when I can create an invitation to someone about the occasion. This is an invitation about Mission Day which I will given to my parents and see what their response is.

Facebook For Children Under 13

We are learning to persuade people if we should or should not have Facebook. I know that I have learnt this lesson when I can write a persuasive text about why children under 13 should not have Facebook. Here is my persuasive text of why children under 13 should not have Facebook.

I truly, fiercely, enormously believe that having Facebook is not that very good for children under 13. Having Facebook is bad, having Facebook is awful, having Facebook is fearful.

People could bully you on Facebook. If you just logged on Facebook and you see a lot of people from school saying “ Go kill yourself you look too ugly". You might go and commit suicide. Do you want people to say that on your wall about how ugly you are? They can. Did you know that Facebook members have harassed other Facebook members on Facebook, bullying victims are 2 to 9 times more likely to consider committing suicide. Having Facebook is bad, having Facebook is terrible, having Facebook is awful.

People can see all the private stuff you don’t want them to see. If people knew what school you come from then they will try and come and search for you. Would you want people to hunt you down? Facebook is the worst website for children. Children could run away just because they could get hunted down. Did you know that girls are about twice as likely as boys to be victims and perpetrators of cyber bullying, also only 1 in 10 of victims will inform a parent, or a trusted adult of their abuse, 68% of students agree that cyber bullying is a serious problem. I don’t like Facebook, I don’t want Facebook, I wish Facebook didn't exist.

People who are important to you can block you. If you needed to contact someone urgently and you search for their name you might find out that they blocked you for no reason. Do you want people to block you for no reason? They can. Did you know 81% of young people think bullying online is easier to get away with than bullying in person, also about 75% have visited a website bashing another student, another fact is that Nearly 43% of kids have been bullied online, Also 70% of students have report seeing frequent bullying online,    Blocking people is the worst thing. Blocking makes us bad, blocking makes us sad, blocking makes us mad.

This is why I believe that having Facebook is a bad idea. If you do have Facebook people could see private stuff, block you, and they could even be cyber bullying on your page. Do you want that to happen?  Never have Facebook, don’t have Facebook, stop having Facebook

 

AFOREST F

WALT: to write what AFOREST means. I know that i have learnt this lesson when I can create a Google drawing about the letter F in AFOREST. This is my picture of the letter F (facts and figures) 

Fletcher's Family Food Factory

Letter Received from Fletcher's Family Food Factory

WALT: Persuade people to build/ not build the factory on our courts. I know I have learnt this lesson when I have my structure such as Thesis, 3 Main reasons with examples to back my reasons up, and my conclusion to end my argument. Here is my persuasive text to Fletcher's Family Food Factory: 

I believe that we should not build a factory in this school. Would you want them to take half of your school? Building a factory is bad, building  factory is uncool, building a factory makes us sad.

There will be no courts for the big kids to have basketball training and also for the kids to have to fun. Would you want the big and little kids to be bored every single day? This is the worst thing that could happen to our school. The children will not be able to play their games on the court because its gone and if we don't get any fitness we are not treating the body that God gave, because God created us to be fit and healthy. We have to respect the body of God.

If we have a factory there will be a fire. There will be a horrible fire caused by the factory. If the workers leave something hot on the whole night long, there will be no school. It gets worse Rooms 5, 7 and 8's chrome books will be gone forever. Would you want that to happen? Fires are awful, fires are dangerous, fires are fearful.

The Bishop of our school will be furious because they are taking half of his land away. He will go to the council and argue with the council about them taking away his land away. Would you want the Bishop to complain? He will complain about his land being taken. He will be distracted by the noise when he is reading something so he could teach other people about it. The Bishop will be sad, the bishop will be fierce, the Bishop will be worries

I believe that this is why we should not build a factory. If they build the factory there will be no courts for people to have fun on them. There will also be a serious fire, would you want that to happen? There will also be an argument with the Bishop and the council.

My Persuasive Text

We are learning to write a persuasive text using AFOREST. I know I have learnt this lesson when I can use the AFOREST in my text and tell people what a AFOREST is.

A- Alliteration- The Wicked Witch Went to see the Whale in the Water.

F-Facts and figures- Did you know that 8% of students get enough sleep and 69% don't?

O- Opinion- I believe that we should now wear mufti.

R- Rhetorical Question- Are you listening?

E- Emotive Language- "My parents had to leave to Australia and now I have to live with my wicked aunties.

S-Superlaritives- Going to school is the worst part of the day.

T- Parents are fun, Parents are funny and parents are cool.
This is my picture of our persuasive text of why we should not go to school early.

My Struc-tastic Writing

We are learning about the structure of a persuasive writing. A structure is something put in order. I know that I have learnt  this lesson when I can explain to people what the right structure is. This is a photo of what my group the semicolons has come up with it is called Adopting a pet from the pound. 

My ad-tastic writing

We are learning to  discover why we have ads, how they attract attention and who they target. I know I have learnt this lesson when I can explain to people what the ad is bout and who it is targeting. This ad is about a color stay mineral foundation. It is targeting women who want smooth and flawless skin.

My Marvelous Presentation

We are learning about structure of a persuasive text. I know I have learnt it when I have a thesis a statement, 3 main reasons, 3 facts or examples to back up my main reasons and a conclusion that has one or two sentences that summarizes my argument.