MAGS Blog!

By Claire Sauer Hundreds of students are staring at me expectantly as I walk up the stairs and onto the stage. Hundreds of faces the don't know the obstacles I had to overcome to get to this point. Well, that is, if you count forgetting the guitar and having to make a trip from the hall to the music room and back again.  Then realising the guitar needed a strap and having to make yet another trip to the music room and back. Meantime discovering that the guitar and microphone wouldn't even connect to the speaker.  Then with only fifteen minutes left until the bell to get all the equipment set up and to do a sound check and rehearsal, finding that the issue is the guitar itself so we needed to get yet another guitar for the performance, then finally noticing that the new guitar doesn't need a strap and that I will have to use a chair instead, with only two minutes left until everyone comes rushing in, as a “few obstacles”.  But nevertheless, here I am, about to perform

The cold hard facts! If you haven't already heard we have had so many reports on the weight of the students school bag and the effect its having on our healthy and now finally the boring bit. The maths side of it. Now we have decided that a students backpack should not be more than 10% of their weight. We collated the data around this and have come up with this table: Just to explain the difference is the right of the persons bag minus their suggested weight. We have a few people there that are carrying 5kg+ than they are meant to! Here it is as a graph for those who want to see it visually :) - Hannah

A conclusion to the story. By Ella Brislen 9.4kg. That is how heavy my bag is. Note how I use the word heavy instead light. Now, if I weigh about 40kg, that means that my bag is more than 20% of my body weight. This is the "incorrect" amount of bag to body weight ratio, and, please, 9.4kg's is too heavy to be carrying around for 6 hours.                                       I actually enjoy Mondays. Quite ironic right? Well Mondays are the day that I have the most options and options mean less books. Mondays = Light day Tuesdays are best described as a ton of bricks. I have a joke among my friends that I am starting a brick factory and every Tuesday I bring in a brick. Although I don't, it seems like I could be! Tuesdays I have the least amount of options meaning Tuedays hit me like a wall of bricks. Pun intended. Wednesday's (the day we weighed my bag) is still like Tuesday. My classmates found that I have some stuff that I don't really ne

    Comrade Savage   MAGS Year 13 Drama students performed Comrade Savage , a play by Alan Brunton on Wednesday and Thursday this week – 6 & 7 th April.   This well loved but little known New Zealand play brings one-time Kiwi Prime minister, Michael Joseph Savage to life (and death).   Mickie Savage’s Labour government swept into power in 1935 and is best known for its landmark social welfare reforms.   Savage was idolised by many New Zealanders. His photograph continued to hang on sitting room walls for many years after his death in 1940. If you wonder what a group of today’s teenagers might make of a political play set in the Depression, don’t worry. They loved it - many seeing parallels with what is happening in the world today. Here are some spontaneous thoughts gathered from the student cast about the experience: “It was thought provoking, and insightful into early NZ politics .”   “It was pretty stressful because of all the other commitments we had

IS YOUR BACK PACK TOO HEAVY? MAGS Bloggers investigate … Do you look like a turtle? With our limbs poking out from underneath super-sized canvas shells, we stagger around MAGS. If you’re lucky you share a locker to help alleviate the daily pain. Some of us seem to carry heavier and heavier backpacks every year we are at school. These huge bags look crazy and are often cumbersome.                           Are they really dangerous?     Medical experts say  YES . “Like the internal frame of a house, your spine keeps your body sturdy and upright. Put too much weight on this frame while your body is still developing, and it could muck with your posture. It may even compress your spine, and impair growth.”   Dr Robert Danoff, an osteopath and a family doctor states, “It can also contribute to severe back problems or injuries as young people get older.” How heavy is TOO heavy? As a general rule, research suggests that backpacks should be no m