Cornerstone's first ever Year 7-13 Prize Giving was a night of special memories, celebrating successes and fond farewells.

• In the school tribe competition the big lead that Zebulun and Naphtali had mid-year, was slashed by the year's final events. After the final event, which was school discipleship points, was counted Naphtali tribe won the overall shield by a whisker. 
• Winning sporting accolades were Kate McDonald with the Junior Sports cup, Natalya Bissell with service to sports, each playing coaching, and umpiring several sports.
  ​The Dux Ludorum award for overall sporting excellence went to Opeti Tuimana, recognised by Sport Manawatu as the top Hockey player in the region, after his achievements at national level.
• The top arts award, Dux Artium, went to Head Girl Lily Tongs, whose singing, drama and especially dance efforts in local competitions, were deservedly recognised.
• Academically, the inaugural Dux Litterarum was awarded to Caitlyn Brown, whose consistent academic prowess, also saw her win $16,000 worth of university scholarships.
• It was also a night of recognising Christian character and service to the school, with Olivia De-Groot, whose passion for service and helping others saw her volunteer in a number of places both in and out of school. Olivia was also recognised as Proxime Accessit, and Board of Trustees Representative. 

Goodbyes were said to leaving staff, including Assistant Principal Mr Black, who is heading to bible college next year. The night ended with a light-hearted farewell video from staff, to the school's first Year 13 class, many of whom had been together since pre-school. With former Principal Nigel Tongs on the piano, we sung our school song for the last time to departing students, reminding them of our purpose as Cornerstone Christian School.

We've just had Year 9 Activities Week and Year 10 Camp. Students served the community, enjoyed hiking, swimming, team building and even morning aerobics. There were meaningful worship times, games, and even some Bible smuggling. 

For many students it was a chance to get to know their class-mates and teachers better. At Year 10 camp, the games and activities were certainly fun, but for most the highlight of the week was encountering God in the evening worship. 

In a popular tradition at Cornerstone, Book Day was a celebration of literacy across the school. Guest readers from outside the school as well as senior students read to classes, along with a variety of other book-related activities. 

The costume parade was memorable and extravagant affair across all year groups with Staff also joining in with the fun. Students were tasked with dressing as a character from one of their favourite books.

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.