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.  

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...

Year 12 students Andrew and Caleb received their Silver Duke of Edinburgh awards from Palmerston North Mayor Grant Smith this week.

To earn the silver award, students had to first complete their bronze award, and then complete months of service, playing a sport, learning a skill and finally an expedition, tramping through the ruahine ranges for a few days.

​It is neat to see Cornerstone students living a full and fulfilling life, and we wish these young men well on their next step - the Gold award. 

This year's annual Music, Dance, Drama and Art showcase will be remembered for some hilarious acting , moving dramas, a lot of money raised for World Vision and a joke by young Amon.
As part of the school's world vision fundraiser, around $1000 was raised for South Sudan by auctioning art works created by students. This was followed by South African and Indian dancing, plays written and directed by Senior Drama students, and Senior Music class performances.
The evening had a community feel with parents and teachers enjoying a good laugh together, and celebrating the successes of our school's finest performers. Principal Dr Ferrar reported he smiled the whole way through the 'deeply satisfying' evening. Meanwhile Year 9 Amon Sahayam managed to steal the limelight in dedicating the final song to his math teacher. 

As part of the annual Rotary Music Festival, Cornerstone Senior Music class performed at Bethany's Cafe this week. The performers included recent Rockquest groups, original songs and NCEA compositions by Level 1, 2 and 3 Music class students.
For many the memorable moment was Namory's latest entertaining and memorable  lyrics, with his hiphop song about christian parties.
​Thanks to Palmerston North Rotary Club and Bethany's Cafe for having us. 

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.   

"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

On a glorious sunny day cultures from around the world were celebrated, bringing the Cornerstone community together. Dressed in costumes from their own culture, dances from Ireland and India, singing from Tonga and Samoa, Maori poi dancing, Dutch hat dancing, African drums and Chinese fan dances were all shared. Finally a shared lunch from global cuisines proved more than enough to feed the 500 students, staff and family visiting.