With flashing lights, evolving costumes, a Robotic Ninja, and a giant Cell Phone and Twink bottle, the wearable arts festival was a celebration of creativity. Organised and ran by the Year 13 social committee, students completed for prize packages, and plaza vouchers. The biggest surprise came from Industrial Revolution Category entrants; Hannah and Emily whose giant candle costume suddenly dropped to reveal two models wearing digital lighting.
 
The Supreme Award went to Amy and Sarah Pinkney - who spent over 20 hours cutting and folding paper flowers and butterflies, for their garden themed dress. 

In their final year at Cornestone, Year 13 Music students rocked the globe theatre at this year's Rockquest. Entering the tightly contested Solo/duo category, Levi and Bailey (pictured) scored a near perfect score for their original song.
Fresh from headlining his first local concert, Namory Keita who goes by the stage name "Sketchy Mugz" brought his own brand or African Rap Hip-Hop to the stage as a crowd favourite.  Neither act managed to win their category, but certainly did the school proud. Images courtesy of Smokefree Rockquest .nz

International Pink-Shirt day came to Cornerstone today, as a show of solidarity against bullying. Students dressed in pink and wore stickers with slogans such as "Stand Together" and "Speak Up".
​Organised by Year 13 prefect, Alice Tate-Davis, some students made pink items seem to fit well within their wardrobe, while others went all out with pink bunny ears, tutus, wings and even hair.   

​Over $600 was donated for Ms Stewart's Zambia trip today. Cornerstone Teacher Ms Stewart was delighted at the generosity of students, knowing the money goes so much further overseas.
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In previous trips, donated money has bought hundreds of stationery packs, uniforms for poor families, and teaching resources for Limapela Cedric's school near Kitwe in Zambia. It is neat to see students donating their personal money, especially considering our focus value this term is Kindness

Ms Stewart wanted to thank the generosity of the school, and felt humbled by having such support as she steps on the plane for this next mission trip. 

The last of the Term 2 Senior Biology trips saw the Year 12 Biology class trek through hours of native flora at Totara Reserve in Pohangina. Students were analysing the interaction between plants, and tracking the distribution of native trees.
Head of Science Mr Hewitt was impressed with student fitness on the lengthy tramp, as well as the curiosity and passion they had for the forest.

Naphtali tribe returned to their 2017 winning form, by coming out clear winner in this year's Cross Country. Run through reserves near Celaeno park, the 3km track, the hills were a quite a challenge for a few runners. This year's competition featured a new collect and combine clues competition for lesser competitive runners. Second place was a close battle with Issachar drawing ahead of Zebulun tribe by a single runner, with Asher tribe a single runner further back - remarkably close considering all runners from Year 5-13 were considered. 

The Year 13 Biology class traveled to Kahuterawa Stream near Linton today, to collect field data. As part of an internal NCEA standard, students needed to collect a raft of invertebrate samples from the stream. The experience shows us how complex and wonderfully made the micro eco-system of a stream really is. 

Teacher in charge, Mr Hewitt enjoyed the day, appreciating students' inquisitive minds, and willingness to "get in there up to your knees". 

For this term's end of term activities, we had Bible competitions for each year group, as well as a series of summer games. One of the joys of working in a Area school for Years 1-13 is seeing secondary teenagers, take care of and work well with the smaller primary students. Summer sports like Longball, Dodgeball and Non-Stop Cricket took on a new twist as big and small students were paired and each given certain tasks. 

Zebulun Tribe started the day  with a convincing win in the teams Bible knowledge competition - winning most age groups. They continued on the success by winning overall in the Summer Games competition. After 24 events, Issachar tribe and Naphtali tribe, amazingly, were tied for second. 

"Halo! Oslem wanem?" The students asked each other. "I gud, by you?" Was the reply. To pretty much all of us, these words sound like gobbledygook, but to the people of Vanuatu, this is one of their native languages called Bislama. This was just one of the many interesting things we learned when the Vanuatu trip students listening to Mrs. Levy. The Levy family lived for 7 years in Vanuatu, and so it was awesome to hear first hand what the country is like, and learn about the beautiful people that live in it. 

We learned about Vanuatu as a country, its culture, food and clothing and are now all very excited to go! Learning about a different culture reminds us of how awesome our creator God is in creating people that are all so different and unique.

By Olivia De Groot - Year 13

Year 9 students were treated to a Gideon's Bibles presentation this morning, receiving free bibles. 

​Not to be left out, other life labs engaged in sports, food, games, as well as the usual mentoring, bible study and discussion.