PROJECT - NERD CORPORATION
Students: Matthys Zondagh, Kaiden Walters, Luca Pavlovich
Puna Wānanga area: REMAKE with Marc Lelievre & Suzanne Oliver
What the project is about: Helping people with technology and setting up computers to improve digital access for senior learners.
Future plans: Expanding out of the school into the wider community for example retirement villages, primary schools to support digital access and help upskill those who need it.
How can you help NERD CORPORATION:
Donating old technology such as laptops, computers, computer components, anything at all as we upcycle this into new devices to give them a second life.
We would love to connect with anyone involved in this kind of industry and be interested in sharing their expertise. Email: frandazondagh@rhs.school.nz
PROJECT - TRIPLET MEDIA TEAM
Students: Emily Sole, Rose Baker, Gemma Martin
Puna Wānanga area: MEDIA with Katie Jones & Mark Mortensen
What their project is about: Our project is about spearheading positive experiences at RSHS and getting student voice about what is happening.
Future plans:
Keep being consistent with our posts.
Keep sharing positive things going around the school.
Look at how we can share on Facebook
How can you help:
Follow rshs_pw & rototuna.senior.high on Instagram
Any Puna Wānanga groups who want a feature or people in the community who want to connect email emilysole@rhs.school.nz
PROJECT - POWER PLATE
Students: Eve Jordan, Tyler Lawson,
Puna Wānanga area: HAAKARI with Yvonne Townsend and Margaret Medland (Semester 1)
What our project is about: Providing a different RHS sports team a meal once a month, who has either represented our school well in the community, or has shown commitment and enthusiasm towards their sport. This meal will serve as a positive incentive for our sports teams, that will push them to showcase the sporting talent and competitive culture of our school. The purpose of this is to build healthy habits, encourage performance in sport, and create a sense of community throughout our kura. We believe that boosting sport participation has widespread benefits on the students themselves, which is the key reason we have chosen to execute this project.
Future Plans: We would love to create a social media page that allows us to communicate with the students, and create school wide camaraderie. Us as a group want to have that connection with our school, and contribute to the success of RHS sport.
What has been the highlight of learning in your project so far? Our highlight has definitely been experimenting with different recipes and further improving our cooking skills. We have currently been making meals to donate to charities, which has expanded our knowledge in the kitchen and helped people in our community.
How YOU can help/support us: The best way that you can help support us is by allowing your student to get involved in sport, and represent our school well in the community. We want a positive image of our school to be shown, as we have so many talented athletes at RHS!
PROJECT - ROTOTUNA BIKE TRACK REVAMP
Student: Jack Oliver
Puna Wānanga area: BIKES/OUTPOST with James Pinkerton and Phillippa Burgess (Term 1).
What the project is about: My project is about how we might revitalise our school's bike track to create an engaging and safe environment that promotes physical activity and creates a sense of community. The main idea is to redesign and rebuild the pump track with tarmac instead of the loose gravel that is sitting there at the moment. The track will be a lot safer and will be able to enhance the riding community in the area.
Future Plans: My future plans are to get a couple of companies into the board room so that I can present my website which has all my ideas and planning on it, and see if anyone is keen to help and sponsor the project. After that, we need to get the track designed and underway with the build process so we can have the bike track running as soon as possible.
What has been the highlight of learning in your project so far? My highlight of learning in Puna has been meeting new people and getting to talk about my ideas to the teachers and principals in Tuna Tank and an audience at the Puna Expo.
PROJECT - INTERNSHIP: GOLDSMITHS GALLERY
Student: Ella Malal
Puna Wānanga area: INTERNSHIP with Pathways
What the project is about: My project focuses on the management and marketing aspects of Goldsmiths Gallery. My responsibilities include creating newsletters, taking photographs, managing social media marketing, engaging with customers, and attending meetings with suppliers.
Future Plans: This work experience has given me valuable insight into the 'behind-the-scenes' operations of a business. It has highlighted the essential life experiences and subjects I need to pursue to excel in the business field in the future.
What has been the highlight of learning in your project so far? Engaging in conversations with customers and suppliers has been a significant highlight. These interactions have provided me with a deeper understanding of various career aspects that are usually hidden. Additionally, I enjoy the creative freedom I have in social media marketing, allowing me to express my creativity while learning practical skills.
PROJECT - SCULPTURE GARDEN
Student: Annabelle Mackie, Bella Simpson, Rachel Park, Emma Dickson, Erin Wu and Olivia Spaans
Puna Wānanga area: SVA with Franda Zondagh
What the project is about: The main idea and goal for this Puna is to start a legacy project. We are making a space to show off some of the work done by both present and past students. This doesn't just display their achievements but also helps to foster a deeper sense of community engagement and creativity within the school. By exhibiting a diverse array of student work, ranging from academic projects to artistic endeavours, the space becomes a dynamic reflection of the school's collective talent and innovation. In addition to displaying student work, this space could also benefit the community by involving students in environmentally-friendly art projects. For example, students could create sculptures using recycled materials like plastic, metal, or paper, conveying messages about sustainability and environmental awareness. This not only fosters creativity and artistic expression but also teaches students about the importance of environmental conservation.
Future Plans: We are focusing on completing the foundation of the garden, like adding fences and plants, and have the first lot of sculptures placed in the garden. This project is a legacy project, because as they are all year 13s this year, their long term hope is for other students to keep the garden space alive long after they’ve left.
What has been the highlight of learning in your project so far? Having communication with our community partners - it has been really cool to work with people from our local area. We have had Sonja from MacsMud come in and talk to us about the clay making process, as well as Andrew from the Plant Depot to share his knowledge on plants. There’s also an upcoming trip we have been looking forward to!
PROJECT - MODEL UNITED NATIONS
Students: Jannat Cheema, Lena Faisal, Vennela Puvvula, Sreshthaa Sivakumar, Diya Thangavadivel, Ellen Li, James Blair, Joshua Shinmar, Maryam Falak Falaah, Dyuti Duppati
Puna Wānanga area: NATIONS with Benny Pan, Martin Mai and John Oakley
What the project is about: In NATIONS we work towards our Model United Nations. We are assigned different countries and are the allocated delegates representing these countries in the model. We are also expected to represent their viewpoints, for example Global Health. We collaborate with other delegates from other countries, and come up with solutions to certain scenarios that we are given.
Future Plans: In the future, we hope to grow the presence of the NATIONS Puna group and take on more opportunities. We are going to continue hosting international students, and hope to run the Inter-school MUN again next year!
What has been the highlight of learning in your project so far? My highlight of NATIONS so far, was being involved in the inter-school Model United Nations last week. This was the biggest event that we have had this year, it required significant planning. On the Wednesdays in the build up we would get together to do specific jobs, such as making reels for social media to advertise, communicating with other schools to get them involved (visiting Hamilton Boys High) and even staying behind after school to prepare for this awesome event. Other members of our group sought funding from the Waikato Regional Council to support this event. The effort that we put into this event really brought our group together, it was such a benefit to meet so many other students from across the Waikato.
It was a great success because we had over 80 attendees from a range of different schools across the Waikato. This is the first MUN in the Waikato region since 2019. There were a lot of beginners that attended this event for the first time, so it was a great chance for us to utilise our leadership skills and model the MUN process to them.
