The school Singing and Bible story competition went to a new level this year, with our school Gymnasium as the venue for the first time. Around 700 people came to hear the singing and bible stories, and were also treated to spaceship crashes, ninja fight scenes,  a fake Jesus, and a Grandma eating pizza. 

Asher tribe continued their strong form in the singing competition, this year winning both the junior and the senior event. Meanwhile, Issachar Tribe were marginally ahead of Asher tribe in the bible story - with themes of how God will be with us always, and how faithful he is.  

"Praise God", were the first words out of singer Timote Muli's mouth when it was announced Zebradahs claimed second place in the regional finals.
Performing in their first ever Rockquest, the four piece group aged in years 9 - 13 at Cornerstone, won $400 in Rockshop vouchers for their efforts. The group also placed well in the regional competition. 

​The next step is to put together a music video for the national competition.

Cornerstone turned Pink for Pink-Shirt Day - standing for kindness, and not bullying.
Many students gave their hand print in a giant 'celebrating being us' mural.
​Staff also joined in with not just pink clothing but a pink morning tea shout as well.

As part of including our students of Swedish culture, at lunchtime today the national festival of Swedish Waffle Day was celebrated. In Sweden, March 25th is known as the day Jesus came into the world - nine months before Christmas, his birthday.

The queue of students lining up for a waffle were asked to sing the Swedish National Anthem, as well as what sauce they'd like.  

Thanks to the Swedish students who brought us a taste of their culture through hundreds of waffles, and for reminding us of the miracle of Jesus. 

Thank you to everyone who supported the annual Cornerstone Gala over the weekend.  From people and businesses who kindly donated goods, to those who manned a stall, or came and purchased food. It was a wonderful event bringing the cornerstone and wider community together.
​Around $25,000 was raised for various projects chosen by the Cornerstone Fundraising Group, including items for a new playground between A and D blocks. 

 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. 

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. 

Zebulun Tribe has completed the performance double this year, by winning the Cornerstone's first tribe singing competition along with the Parables competition they won in Term Two. Unlike more entertainment or dance oriented tribes, Zebulun focused on strong harmonies, and a skilled string section. 
There were numerous memorable moments, with Naphtali tribe pulling out some 80s dance moves,  Asher getting everyone smiling and clapping, and Issachar tribe even managing costume changes. 
Well done to the student leaders coordinating their tribe, and thanks to Mr McDonald for organising and Central Baptist Church for hosting the event. Hopefully in 2018, we'll be able to hold the same event in our own Gym. 

As part of the biblical living aspect of Life Lab, Year 10 students spent a period serving the school this week. A couple of groups of boys got competitive over who picked up the most rubbish, which quickly evolved into who picked up the weirdest rubbish - A single shoe won. Some students chose to wash teacher vehicles, and others served primary classes, doing buddy reading, preparing art work and sorting resources. 
Many students particularly those working with Year 1 - 3 students were slow to return, preferring to stay and finish their books. Supervising teacher, Gareth Bell enjoyed seeing tough hunting and fishing boys crouch down to the level of little kids. The most common feedback from the class was that "it was fun",  and "we should do that again".  

At the end of last term our tribes participated in the inaugural parable competition.  This was a resounding success! It was fantastic to be a part of this family event which has become another way of bringing the whole school together as a community.  Well done to all the tribe leaders and senior students who put in a significant effort to prepare each tribe for their parable.  Congratulations to Zebulun who took out first prize!

The Cornerstone Arts Showcase was on Wednesday 5th July, from 7 - 8:15pm.

There were senior Drama performances, Year 10-12 Music class performances and an Art auction which raised over $1000 for World Vision.

Thanks to Youth Space for hosting the event. 

The annual World Vision 40 hour famine saw a number of events run at Cornerstone all aiming to honour and raise funds for Syrian refugees. Students ran a relay, a sausage sizzle, created art, ran an auction, and camped out at school. Many students also 'did the famine'.  The student council running these events managed to reach $1100 of their $6000 goal before the art auction and individual sponsorship came in.  

Almost 100 parents and family came to this week's Music Recital. Featuring guitarists, vocalists, pianists, flutists, and even a recorder duet. The quantity and quality of students taking music lessons at Cornerstone is clearly growing. Rockquest boys: Namory, Ethan and Bailey gave the night a memorable and upbeat finish with the songs they wrote.