After months of watching, from the first foundations, to final coats of paint, we've seen our new Gymnasium take shape, and today, the final day of Term 3 it is now open. Already it is being put to good use, with after school activities, holiday clubs booking the venue. The nine metre tall, full size international basketball court with office, and storage spaces, as well as weights, dance and class rooms will no doubt be put to good use for years to come.
Thanks to his Worship the Mayor Grant Smith (pictured), as well as local MP Ian McKelvie, the Proprietors, and local Kaumatua for joining us on the special day.

On Thursday 20th September, Mr Jorgensen took a group of 6 Level 1 students down to Wellington for the annual Geography Field Trip. The weather was absolutely stunning and the students visited 4 different locations, to gather useful case study information for their Final Examination. We have been looking at 'Extreme Natural Events' - in particular, Earthquakes. All of the students enjoyed the day and were awestruck by the fantastic landscape and scenery.

Tribe teams of over 100 children competed in Tyre turning, rope running, and a whole tribe obstacle course in this afternoon's end of term Tribe competition. Issachar tribe emerged victorious, winning the obstacle course by just a few seconds, and the tyre turning competition as well. 

Once again Cornerstone's values of kindness and humility were to the fore, as the smaller tribe members were befriended, cheered for and sometimes even carried by much bigger buddies. 

Term 3 Exams begin Tuesday 12th September (week 8), shortly after winter sports tournament week (week 7).

Check out our Examination Timetable page, for what you're allowed to bring into exams, study spaces, Exam rules etc. 

Cornerstone Christian School had it's first entries into a regional dance competition this week at the DanceNZMade competition. Two auditioned groups of Year 7 to 13s put in a lot of effort and practice preparing for the competition.
One of the groups managed a podium finish with their contemporary lyrical piece exploring the fragile nature of being human.  Lead by Head Girl Lily Tongs (pictured left), the piece was choreographed as part of a senior dance assessment. In the popular 'open' category, the girls placed third, ahead of some much more experienced groups.  

Kindly worded cards, acts of service, cupcakes and plenty of chocolate were shared around as Cornerstone celebrated Random Acts of Kindness day today - as the official RAK day is on the weekend. Students seemed quick to join in on a day celebrating one of our core school values - kindness.

As part of 11 Digitech students were instructed to program a reasonably complex game. Among the creative and original ideas was a Jesus Heals game, a Zombie game, some survival games and Pong.
​Try get a high score on these examples below.
Instructions: 

• Click blue button, top left, for full screen and green flag, top right, to start.
• In minesweeper (on left) use the '1' in the top right corner to toggle between mine and safe.
• In Pinball (on right) press space to move flippers. Hit orbs when yellow for points.

After (surprisingly) voting to include the Recorder in the Year 10 music course, there were some entertaining, and skillful end of unit performances this week. The theme tune from Titanic was popular, as was "Alice the Camel", and "Pokarekare ana", however it was the boys that memorised "Heart and Soul" the familiar piano piece, who added a little extra to their performance...