1
Principal’s Report 2015 This report is supplemental to the Principal’s speech to be given tonight and provides our academic highlights for 2014 / 15 as well as illustrations, chosen from an extraordinarily wide range of successes, of this school’s progress against twenty first century (future learning) literacies. The complexity and high success of members of our school community is not an accident of talent or circumstance but rather the outcome of a relevant, rigorous and real-world based learning environment. “Empowering tomorrow’s women” is our vision, implemented by what happens here, by design.
NCEA Academic Success 2014/15 In each of the following three graphs, our performance, against National benchmarks, is the blue column:
% of Y11 students achieving NCEA L1
Y11 NCEA L1 2014 90 85 80 75 70 65 60
2008 2009 2010 2011 2012 2013 2014
Tauranga Girls' College
74
70.3
78.4
76
83.9
84.1
82
National Girls
74.6
75
75
77.3
78.9
82.6
82.7
72.8
72.9
75.2
77.5
80.7
81.4
Decile 4-7 Girls 74.8
2
Y13 NCEA L3 2014 % of Y13 students achieving NCEA L3
90 80 70 60 50 40 30 20 10 0
2008
2009
2010
2011
2012
2013
2014
81.1
68.9
80.9
85.4
87.7
84.4
84.3
National Girls
75
74.8
74.2
75.4
76
79.2
78.8
Decile 4-7 Girls
72.7
71.4
71.7
73.1
73.9
76.8
76.1
Tauranga Girls' College
Student successes – Scholarships 2014/15 To add to our great results in the 2014 NCEA examinations we also had our scholarship outcomes for last year. Our top students gained 19 scholarships in total; 5 of these were outstanding scholarships. Subjects were Art History, Biology, Drama, Dance, Design, English, French, Geography, History, Mathematics with Calculus and Physical Education. We also had: • University successes in Mathematics, Biology, Computing, German, Economics and Te Reo • National success in Young Enterprise • Young Innovators, joint supreme winners • Third year this year that a student from this school represented NZ in FedEx Competition Congratulations to these girls and thank you to all staff whose leadership and mentoring supported these talented young women in doing so well in these examinations. The year in review The following pages are a summary of highlights, month by month, of the activities of students and staff of TGC. They give strong examples of our school values of respect, participation and pride and also a sense of the richness and variety of opportunities here. What is here has been cut down from sixty- four pages of original material and with the months of November and December still to add in you will understand how busy we are, how successful, and hopefully be forgiving if your busy and high performing daughter is not represented in the picture painted by these words and photos.
3
February Year 13 Leadership Camp
Year 13 Leadership Camp, a time when Year 13 girls gain from being together at Totara Springs early in the year, testing their physical as well as mental limits as they settle in to 2015.
Coach Nine Programme One of the most valuable ways in which our Year 13 students work to support Year Nine tutorial groups as they settle into school is to train and act as coaches. Year 13 Coaches provide knowledge about the school, a friendly ear for student requests and a place for Year Nine to ask questions as they find their way into our school system. International Barbeque
We have International students with us every year and they and their host families gather together to share food, fellowship and get to know each other’s families at the annual March barbeque. Thank you to the International Department for organising and to all in our community who have welcomed students into their homes for 2015. House Assemblies The House Leaders and the council supporting them are to be congratulated in getting the year off to such a positive start in terms of House Spirit. Their workload has been huge, continuing through the first three weeks with House assemblies in the daily roster plus preparation for Swimming Sports and Athletics Day. All assemblies this year will be in vertical house groupings Gallipoli Speech Competition Congratulations to Maraea Ranui who at the RSA Gallipoli Speech competitions in Rotorua gained a Highly Commended award. The overall winner of the competition was the Head Girl from Opotiki College. Year 9 Barbeque and Pool Party The Year Nine Barbeque is a networking event for families and Year Nine tutors, the Year Nine Deans, DP in charge of Year 9 and the Senior Head Girls: Ana Morris - Head Girl; Rose Barker 4
Deputy Head; Pip Artus - Arts Director and Naomi Stewart - Sports Captain. It was very well attended, by parents and by staff and the atmosphere was very positive. The parent feedback was that their daughters are enjoying school, with many of them commenting that they had been waiting to get out of primary and intermediate schools and to move on to secondary.
Competitive Athletics
The college’s Competitive Athletics day was very early this year, and a very successful event for all participating. It was great to know that some long standing and challenging records fell on the day. English Department Author visits Year Nine As part of their literature studies Year Nine students have been able to spend time with local successful authors, visiting with them in class. The first author visit by Susan Brocker went very smoothly thanks to Piper’s Meijer’s organisation and Rosemary Middleton’s help in the library. Susan Brocker’s book is based loosely on her own grandfather’s experiences in the war and the horse that he took with him. It is called 1914 Riding into War. Year 11 Business Studies Field Trip In Week Three of Term One the 3 classes of Year 11 Business Studies visited Subway Cameron Road as part of their Marketing Internal Assessment. They were given a tour of the restaurant and asked the Manager about Subway’s marketing promotions, operations, logistics and their target market. As well as their Marketing Internal Assessment, the students will use Subway as a case study for their end of year exams. Buddy Day, Lantern Festival and Japanese visitors The International Department was very busy multi-tasking in Week Three, with a Buddy trip to Mount Maunganui and Tauranga on Wednesday, a group of Japanese students in school on Friday and then a trip to the 5 Auckland Lantern Festival on Friday night.
S.C.A.T (Sports, Cultural, Arts Team) Our SCAT leadership programme for Year 12 underwent a transformation this year moving from tasks such as gate duty to support for participation and school pride by involving Year 12 in the leadership of activities under the sports, cultural and arts banners. Athletics Day Athletics Day was colourful, busy and a great day. The girls really enjoyed themselves and participated well. Their enthusiasm and energy, for all events, including the novelty races, made for a very good day!
Swimming Sports
Swimming sports this year clashed with other events, including volleyball and a Marae trip but was still an event where those who were able to participate had a great time. Write on the Edge Congratulations to English teacher Piper Mejia on her work with and for young writers! In March her work was profiled on page 17 of the March edition of Creative Beat available at: http://issuu.com/ctbeat/docs/creativebeat_march_2015/9?e=11779793/11610986 Business Experience
A few photos from the Business Experience in the Hall in Week Five, Term One, taken while the groups were setting up their display stands, and during the prize giving.
March BOP Secondary School Athletics Day Congratulations to all our girls who participated in the BOP Secondary School Athletics. It is great to see all the strong competitors who are maintainng our traditions of high success in this area.
6
Zonta Women’s Day Breakfast, Friday morning On Friday March 07 the senior team and senior student leaders attended the annual Zonta breakfast. As well as networking, we also heard from Brigitte Wuest, a lead sculptor with Peter Jackson and Weta Workshop over the past ten years on her work with the Hairy Maclary project. NISS Rowing Champs
Well done to all involved in the North Island Secondary School Championships at Karapiro on the weekend of March 06/07. A gold, a silver and a bronze medal, and some very close finishes!! Young innovator Awards Week Six on Thursday morning saw a breakfast at The Raft to launch this year’s Young Innovator awards. Ann Marie Wilson and the finalists from last year’s competition (Maraea was overall winner) attended to compete with others present. Prefects’ Pool Party
Our prefects played host to the TBC prefects on Tuesday night of week six at our school pool. It was good to see the two groups mixing and enjoying each other’s company. Geography South Island Field Trip In the last week of the April school holidays a group of Geographers headed off on a fantastic trip to the South Island. This trip was the brainchild of Jen Peeters and has been seen though to fruition by Pam Jones. Geoff Shields and Kate Gallant the escorts on the trip gave very positive feedback. New Zealand Dance Company Visit
7
The New Zealand Dance Company visited on Wednesday of week six and worked with our students and some from a visiting school on creation of dances around a theme of World War One. A great opportunity for our girls, organised by Dance teacher Caroline Gill. Nga Manu Korero On Tuesday of week six a group of our student competed in the Nga Manu Korero competitions at Huria Marae. Heni Gardiner won the Junior Maori section. Heni is the photo on the left, and with other competitors on the right.
World Vision Conference, Hamilton, Thursday World Vision is a very strong facet of our fund-raising and community support and teacher-in-charge, Caroline Nemeth reports that four of our Year 10 students attended the World Vision Global Leadership Convention on Thursday of Week Six. This is an international leadership event for young humanitarians run by World Vision in countries across the world. Competitive Swimming The four girls were Monique Little, Pipi Northfield, Maggie Peters, and Danielle Welsh. After the serious silliness that is our annual swimming carnival it was good to see some serious effort being made during the competitive swimming event in week six. Well done to all involved in the competitions! Kind regards
Students Against Drunk Driving Training Day Five students went to the SADD workshop at Papamoa College on Thursday 12 March. They learnt about how Students Against Dangerous Driving (SADD) is a peer education programme targeting secondary aged students across New Zealand to reduce the harm caused on our roads by intoxicated drivers. The students will now organise regular events at school to spread the message. The first initiative will be in Term Two regarding cycle safety. Teddy Bear’s Picnic
8
The Teddy Bears’ Picnic for Gate Pa School, held on St Patrick’s Day in our gully, Irish themed and complete with bouncy castle is an annual outreach to our neighbouring primary school. Hosted by the Arts Council prefects, it was fun and excitement, for the big and little people involved. PTA Meeting, March 18 – Modern Learning Environments On Wednesday 18 the PTA met in the Library to see the outcomes of the work to create a modern learning environment and to hear from Rosemary Middleton, TGC librarian, the latest developments in providing our girls with library facilities.
The photos show how heavily the library is used on a Wednesday morning before school. Maori department Field Trip to Mauao There have been many field trips this year, and in week seven they ranged across History, Biology and Social Studies and included this one by the Maori Department to Mauao to hear the history of the area from Tamati Tata.
Doctor Seuss Mufti Day Student Council fundraises for activities and charities through the year and lots of colour and very elaborate costumes marked the first mufti day of the year, and can be seen in the photos below.
United Nations Speech Competitions We had two students entered in the Unites Nations Speech competition on Thursday night of week seven - Brooke Taylor from Year 12 and Aine Blackman from Year 13. Once again Aine won the trophy, the second year in a row that she has taken first place and goes forward to the National Competition in Wellington. She did extremely well especially considering she has just been in hospital having her appendix out the week before. Rotary Rypen Camp
On the weekend of March 20 and 21 I had the pleasure, as a Rotarian, of attending the annual RYPEN Camp at Ngamuwahine. Frances Lloyd, Kate Mear and Lucy Rowlands attended from TGC and all represented us very well. 9
Sports Girl of the Month The high success of our athletes led us to introduce our own Sportsgirl of the Month competition and it was good to see the first Sports Girl of the Month awarded in assemblies in Week Eight. Congratulations to winner Brooke Sommerfield for athletics. Others acknowledged were Rebecca Baron for Surf Lifesaving, the Novice Octi for rowing (Aimee Channer, Sophie Holland, Renee Fettes, Claudia Lamberton, Mele Folau, Leah van Zyl, Amelia Gooders, Latasha Yorke and Rebecca Kneale), Julia Newman for tennis, Emily Kneale for triathlon and Paris Patete and Emma Mabbott for Beach Volleyball (and of course Richard Taylor for the Ironman). Past Pupil Scholarship Winner We heard in Week Nine that former TGC student Mackenzie Bennett was one of the first recipients of the new Woolf Fisher First-in-Family AUT Scholarships, which covers the direct costs of study for the duration of the scholarship winner's undergraduate degree with a nominal value of around $20,000 per scholarship. Mackenzie was an accounting student with Jude Maurice. Multi-Cultural Festival, Chinese Community School “We all smile in the same language”. The 15th Tauranga Multi-cultural festival took place in Week Eight to celebrate Race Relations Day, which fell on the 21 March. For the first time the Chinese Community School had a strong presence at the festival and congratulations to Li Feng and the team for great participation and networking.
Shakespeare competitions The annual Shakespeare week is in Term One, and at the competitions on the Wednesday night our girls performed very well. While it was the boys’ year to go to Wellington our girls still did a superb job, particularly the director of the two student directed pieces, Ellie Goff.
Inspiring Sustainability in the Bay Dinner
This year’s Inspiring Sustainability in the Bay took place on the 26 March at Waimarino Adventure Park from 3.00-8:30pm. The vision for the event was to have a sustainable dinner sourced from local suppliers, the food rescue service and community gardens. Thank you to Sheryl Bailey for networking our Hospitality students into this event.
10
Students with published work
Congratulations to Kalais Going for the publication of her work in NZ Memories magazine and to Tayla Turner-Paki for her work being published in Legacy magazine. National recognition and great examples of students being challenged and enthused by teachers exposing them to something relevant and real life to fully explore their talents. Rowing At Maadi Cup at Karapiro on Friday of Summer tournament week our rowers performed very well. Following on from medal winning success in the North Island regattas the girls again made a number of A finals and added to their medal tally.
EAT (Export, Associate, Talk) breakfast Jude Maurice reports that in Week Eight she took four of the Young Enterprise girls to an EAT (Export, Associate, Talk) breakfast at 7am. The speakers are always interesting at these breakfasts and they mix the students up and sit them at different tables so that they have to communicate with business people usually unknown to them. The breakfasts are organised by Export Bay of Plenty and Priority One and school students are sponsored by local businesses. Rugby 7’s Success Our Rugby 7’s U15 girls’ team medalled at their North Island Secondary Schools’ tournament in Tournament week, gaining a silver medal against Hamilton Girls’ High School. A great effort and congratulations to them and to their coach Paul Pou.
Royal Society Scholarship Biology and Science teacher Richard Hendra has been away this year with the Royal Society of New Zealand, gaining a place on the Science Teaching Leadership Programme beginning Term 3 and 4 2015. The selection process was highly competitive and selection for this work is a real compliment to Richard’s skills and the strength of our Science Department.
11
On his return to school in 2016, Richard then works with the Science Department to implement curriculum change based on his experiences while away from school. Tauranga Alumni and Friends Luncheon 24 March 2015 On Tuesday of week eight Caroline Gill and the four Senior Student Leaders attended an Auckland University event at the invitation of the Vice-Chancellor, Professor Stuart McCutcheon. The Tauranga Alumni and Friends Luncheon’s guest speaker was Emeritus Professor Michael C. Corballis and the event venue was Trinity Wharf Tauranga Hotel. These networking events with tertiary providers give our girls valuable contact with the educational world beyond school. Carl Wilkens visit It was a privilege to have Carl Wilkens, director of World Outside My Shoes, in school in Week Eight. Carl is the only American citizen who stayed in Rwanda during the 1994 genocide. Throughout the 100-day massacre of 800,000 Tutsis and moderate Hutus, Carl not only stayed in Rwanda to protect friends in his home, but also took actions and risks to protect the lives of hundreds of others. Thank you to Murray for arranging the visit. Learn more at http://worldoutsidemyshoes.org BOP Mashup Competition 2015 Great news through late on Sunday of Week Eight from Amanda Haines about this year’s Mashup competition. One of our groups won the prize for Best Presentation! The group 'Lemon' consisting of Callie-Jay Dobbs, Gabriella Eaton (both 11HNS) and Madison Sykes (11PLD) won $400 for the group. Field of Remembrance The Field of Remembrance process has been well documented in the Bay of Plenty Times in terms of what we have done, but as significant as the actions was the effect on our community, in school and out. At the ANZAC Dawn Service the main speaker commented that the everyday is easily forgotten but it is the different and significant that we remember.
Our World War One focus has been one of those significant events in our school, and one that has involved all dimensions from junior to senior, all ethnic groups, our older community, our Maori community and dimensions of our younger community through from cadets to our Leo Club and student leadership. Remembrance Service, Wednesday Our remembrance service was very special and we will be working to create something visual for presentation from it that can be shared with the whole school before too much time has passed.
12
The poems that students read were powerful, as was Rose’s sharing, and the two English poems have been requested to be shared on the Hauraki regiment website, after they were heard at the Dawn Service.
ANZAC Day 2015 At 5.15am on ANZAC morning I found Ana, Naomi and Rose in the dark of the RSA car park using cell phone technology to give Ana light to rehearse the poems she was reading at the RSA Dawn Service. The girls had stayed overnight at Huria Marae with our Maori girls who were helping with the Dawn Service there. No alarm clock needed when Whaia Chrissy could wake them up all up at 4.00am! ANZAC Day was certainly a day to remember for all of us and for Ana Morris and the senior girls and prefects a very busy one too! Ana’s reading at the Dawn Service was powerful and a tribute to the work of our poetry competition winners, (she read both winners, junior and senior, of the English competition), as well as Ana’s presentation skills. Ana then went on to the Civic Service where, with a representative of Tauranga Boys’ College, she read the names of the fallen.
Photos above are from the Greerton RSA Dawn Service, as well as the Civic Service at the Domain. On the left, Zoe Beck, selected as one of only 2 Air Cadets from 16th Squadron, (and the ONLY female cadet), to represent Tauranga at the ANZAC Day Civic 10am service on ANZAC Day. On the right, Omokoroa Dawn Service, (photos from Philippa) Maori Dawn Service – Report from Chrissy Brooks
Our overnight stay at Hairini was awesome with girls telling their own stories about ANZAC, group quizzes and ANZAC skit presentations. It was great to also have our Head Girl, Ana, Deputy Head Girl Rose Barker and Sports Captain Naomi Stewart staying with us at this time, they certainly created relationships with our junior Maori students.
13
April Pasifika Competitions I was lucky enough in week two of term two to see our Pasifika girls rehearsing for their competitions in Hamilton. The dances from Samoa, Tonga and Kiribati showed evidence of a lot of hard work and repeated practice. It was also good to see ex-pupil Tausili Iupeli-Va'a back with the girls.
The girls placed 11th in the competition, but given the strength of the other schools and their history of performing this was a very creditable outcome for them. Trades Academy Lunch The conversation pit had quite a different look on Friday of Week Two as out Trades Academy girls who have been working in the area of Hospitality at the polytechnic hosted a lunch for teacher and deans. A very tangible and delicious outcome from their studies!
Visiting Authors – Apirana Taylor
This year the English Department is hosting a number of visiting authors and on Thursday of Week Two a very special treat for English students was the visit to the school of Apirana Taylor, poet, novelist, performer, story-teller, musician and painter. Apirana spoke to all of our Year 11s, 10s and 12s in the old gym, providing the kind of experience that comes only from first-hand input.
Napier Girls’ Sports Exchange Napier Girls continues to be a strong sporting school and to provide us with real competition in all the codes we field for the exchange.
No trophy this year but something to aim for in 2016 when they come to us for the next round of competition. School Cross Country Good weather, tight organisation and enthusiastic girls all combined to ensure that this year’s TGC cross country competition went well, with high participation and good times achieved. 14
Clinical School Installation of Display An artefacts display was installed at the Tauranga Hospital Clinical School in April. This project was started by the girls involved in Year 10 and they worked to see it through to completion this year.
There was huge appreciation from the hospital hierarchy of the work done by the girls, their persistence and energy in creating a very professional outcome. Health Expo
The annual Health Expo was a huge success, and the church venue added to the atmosphere for those participating. Our PHO funded Student Health Co-ordinator, Lisa Ferris, reports that the Expo was well received by providers and students alike and that she received several comments by the agencies about how well behaved, respectful and interested the girls were! Cultural Exchange with International Students On the Friday of Week Two, Term Two, the HOD International and HOD Maori worked together to facilitate an exchange between international students and students from the Maori department. Important networking for all involved, reciprocated when the Maori department hosted the international students later in the year.
May Temple Under the Stars, Year 13 Ball Congratulations to the Ball Committee and Year 13 Deans on all the hard work that went into the Year 13 Ball held on Saturday May 09. It was also lovely that so many staff were there to see them. The evening was a great success and it was lovely to see our girls and their partners all dressed up.
15
Lee Chisholm, Netsafe Week Four Term Two saw a real spotlight on cyber safety, with the visit of Lee Chisholm to talk to parents on Tuesday night and (briefly) to staff on Wednesday morning. The parent presentation had a small audience, (on a cold wet night perhaps not unexpected), for our outreach to community events but the discussion was productive for those parents who attended. There are a wide range of resources available to families to assist with navigating the social media environment and we will be publicising those with our parent community. Kia Eke Panuku Hui Wananga – Coherency, Spread and Ownership On Wednesday through Friday of Week Four an evolving team of people were at Hangarau Marae in Bethlehem to attend the Central North Island Hui for Kia Eke Panuku, our Maori student achievement initiative. The outcomes of those three days were then shared with staff at staff meeting on Monday.
The last photo above is the flying over the Marae of the three Iroquois helicopters being retired on July 01 after almost 50 years of service. We heard them overhead and all went outside to see them on their way to the Coromandel, we were told this flight was to deliver medals to one last survivor of the Vietnam War who had never received them. Sunrise Lions Defibrillator We now have, courtesy of the Lions Club of Tauranga Sunrise, a defibrillator on site for the first time. The club have sponsored the purchase of the defibrillator and the next step will be to provide key staff with the professional development to ensure that it can be deployed when and if it is needed. PTA Meeting, May 20, International Centre On Wednesday the PTA met in the International Centre to see where in the school our International student’s call home and to hear from Anne Robinson about the intricacies of her role as Homestay Co-ordinator for these girls. As well as covering some of the details of the workings
of the International department Anne also outlined the role of a Host Parent and distributed brochures and forms to those PTA members who may interested in taking up this role in future.
16
Student Successes – Tauranga and Districts WW1 Competition Outcomes, Essays and Diaries As well as congratulating the students who were so successful (a clean sweep of the top awards in both categories) in this competition I would also like to congratulate Murray Armstrong, Mark Elliot, Pam Jones and Rita Perigo. These students come from a range of classes, and all those teachers have a representative in the prize winners (and Julie Sommerville does own an International student too!)
For the students congratulations to: Essay Competition 1st place Aimee Tomlinson nd 2 place Kirsty Burrows 3rd place Clair Choo
Diary Competition 1st place Catherine Van Pelt nd 2 place Breana Allum 3rd place Phoebe Nicholson
Netball successes and congratulations We have many students named in representative teams in netball, including: Harbourside U15 Reps 2015, Congratulations to Britney Emery, Zahle Bannister, Ebony Thomas, Felila Simanu, Jade Carter and Minardi Daniel Harbourside U17 Reps 2015, Congratulations to Taylah Stack, Olivia Young, Atareta Rauwhero Stevens, Bree Meyer and Lauren Walker Tukutuku Panel Wananga The decoration of the Whare is a work in progress and in Week Six the students selected to create the Tukutuku panels took another step in the journey as they used the woodwork room to create the frames for the weaving. Great to see new skills being explored and acquired as the girls completed this important stage in the weaving process.
Rowing Prizegiving On the evening of Saturday May 23 the Tauranga Girls’ College Rowing Club had their annual prizegiving, a celebration of the year’s achievements and a lot of effort by some very talented and dedicated rowers, and their families. Lots of successes, memories, tears and fun! Thanks to all concerned, coaches, parents and staff.
17
Young Enterprise – Dragons’ Den Jude Maurice reports that the Dragons’ Den experience recently went very well for our Young Enterprise girls as they battled it out with other schools and with the judges’ expectations. A significant milestone in the annual Young Enterprise journey.
News of Past Pupils, Saran Goldie-Anderson In a news item in Week Six (and in Deaf Awareness month) the signer for the deaf signed exactly what the MP said when he swore in parliament, just included the language and moved on without blinking - very professional but very funny. And a staff member alerted me that the signer was our own Saran Goldie- Anderson. We do have such talented alumni! Dance Showcase
Some of the photos from the Senior Dance showcase held on May 25 are shown above, a snapshot from the smorgasbord of items that showed the choreographic and performance skills of students in Years 11, 12 and 13. Lions Speechmakers West Competition Sunday May 30 saw six contestants chosen to go forward to the Lions District Speechmaker Finals on June 20. Our finalist was Aine Blackman, sponsored by the Tauranga Pakeke Lions Club. First Aid
On Tuesday 26 and Wednesday 27 May students in Year 11 Smart Steps got to learn first aid from the visiting St John’s team and to gain their first aid certificate. With all this training and a defibrillator on site we can all feel a little safer about accidents and heart attacks! Bay of Plenty Cross-Country Championships The Bay of Plenty Cross Country Champs were held on Tuesday May 26 June at Waipuna Park. Conditions were cold and windy but great training for National Champs in Dunedin coming up soon! Junior Girls Intermediate Girls Senior Girls th nd 4 Abbie Mortimor 2 Kaylee Mudgway 1st Erin Conway th th 5 Kalais Going 4 Paris Heslop 2nd Naomi Stewart 18
6th Tabitha Marshall
6th Sophie McConnell 7th Jaysha Tippins 10th Bethany Millar
3rd Jessica Bitcheno
Youth Expo May 27 The Youth Expo at lunchtime on Wednesday May 27, provided by the Tauranga Youth Development Team featured some very entertaining games, a free sausage sizzle and a musical performance by a contestant from this year's X-Factor, all as part of the celebrations for Ara Taiohi Youth Week.
The Tauranga Youth Development Team is a consortium of agencies and services, including Tauranga City Council, working in partnership to promote engagement, safety and wellbeing for young people in Tauranga and the Western Bay. Volleyball Our Sports Council have been very busy this year inspiring inter-house competitions and sporting opportunities. An example of this is their volleyball competition on Wednesday May 27 lunchtime attracted a large number of participants and provided some friendly rivalry between the houses. Chalk Drawing
On Thursday May 28 at lunchtime the concrete outside J Block was transformed with multicoloured pictures as students took part in the annual Chalk Drawing competition. Chalk drawing was the Thursday event for Comedy Week, and the Arts Council did a great job of organising it. Miss World
In the Old Gym on Friday May 29 ‘Miss World’ was hilarious, thanks to the talents and sheer enthusiasm and energy of the boys from TBC! The sight of “Miss” Austria faultlessly and energetically lip-synching to the Sound of Music was unforgettable and very funny! Well done to the Arts Council for organsing and all involved for putting on such a polished and comedic event, and all the other lunchtime events of Comedy week.
June Mooting Success - 2015 Secondary Schools' Mooting Competition - Results of Preliminary Rounds Our girls are through to the next Mooting round. The team of Ellie Goff, Lucy Ketel and Aine Blackman compete next on the 19 June at the District Court in Hamilton. 19
Young Enterprise Success While we were still waiting for the outcomes of Dragons’ Den Jude Maurice shared this photo montage that the Young Enterprise girls sent in for the ‘Hero Image’ photo competition recently and for which they were awarded a special prize.
Workday
Well done to all concerned with finding work for students on Workday and a special acknowledgement to Linda Boubee-Hill for getting a team into the Squash Club to clean the walls! You can see the progress above from black marked walls to the white finished product as the girls applied themselves to the task! Big Sing Waikato/BOP Regionals and New Zealand Community Trust Chamber Music Contest It was a huge week for musical successes from the Music Department in Week Seven! The first news was that the Senior Chamber Trio was placed second in the New Zealand Community Trust Chamber Music Contest on Tuesday.
In the regional finals the Luminosa Armonia Chorale took out best choir and the excellence cup at the Big Sing Waikato / BOP Regionals, as well as best performance of a classical piece! And LBD took out the best impact award. Cultural Exchange
These photos are from Friday 05 June’s cultural exchange between our International students and our Maori students, the reciprocal visit organised by the International and Maori departments and participated in with enthusiasm by all the girls involved. These annual event allows much exchange of knowledge and understanding between different cultures of the world. Year 11 Geography Field trip Thank you to Pam Jones for these photos from the Waitomo Sustainability 11 Geography Field trip in Thursday and Friday of Week Seven. Black water rafting is currently on my bucket (things that scare me) list for this year!
20
Visiting Author Programme – Kate De Goldi On Monday of Week Eight we had Kate De Goldi visiting with some of our English classes as part of the Authors in Schools programme. Kate is a short story writer, author of young adult fiction, children’s books, writer of Journalism pieces and also presents book reviews regularly on radio and television. Kate won the American Express and Katherine Mansfield Memorial awards for short stories, as well as the New Zealand Post Book of the Year Award in 2005 and 2009. She was named an Arts Foundation of New Zealand Laureate for 2001. This visit, as with earlier ones this year, provides a real world context for the budding authors among our girls. Stage Challenge Outcomes From the Friday of Week Eight congratulations to our Stage Challenge girls, and liaison teacher Caroline Gill on Friday night’s competition outcomes, where we won an impressive list of awards, including first place. Emma Rae (centre) won Student Lead Award overall also.
The awards the girls won were: Award of Excellence for Drama Award of Excellence for Stage Crew Award of Excellence for Set design and function Award of Excellence for Visual Enhancement Award of Excellence for Spirit of Stage Challenge (voted on the day by other schools and stage challenge crew) Award of Excellence for Performance Skill Award of Excellence for Choreography Award of Excellence for Costuming Character Award of Excellence for Student Lead Award (written award submitted by liaison teachers 3 weeks prior to event and decided upon by Stage Challenge) Award of Excellence for Environmental or social awareness (written award submitted by liaison teachers 3 weeks prior to event and decided upon by Stage Challenge) Underwater Hockey Our Underwater Hockey girls had some spectacular success at the North Island Secondary Schools competitions. With no losses, one draw and all the rest wins our seniors came home North Island Champions, and our Juniors placed third overall in their division.
21
Field Days Field Days at Mystery Creek are an annual event that students from out Economics class visited. I was also there for part of the day as a guest of Waikato University, whose display won best overall indoor stand for its interactive nature. The stand was promoting the Agriscience courses offered at Waikato, which was one of three universities at the event, with Lincoln and Massey also exhibiting, along with agricultural tertiary providers.
The private Boarding Schools also had stands, recruiting students, among them ACG, Tauranga’s latest addition to the educational offering in Tauranga and environs. Tauranga business student Singapore bound Sophie Shrimpton represented New Zealand in Singapore in August at an international business competition. Sophie has been selected as part of a team of six in the Asia-Pacific final of the FedEx Express/Junior Achievement International Trade Challenge. Estrogems Success Two more musical success stories are that the Estrogems Barbershop Chorus are through to the National Finals and Soomin Kim has been selected as one of the soloists to play a concerto as part of the Rising Stars competition. International Mid-Winter Christmas Dinner
This is an annual event attended by international students and their host families and allowing our International students who are not with us at Christmas the chance to experience some of the fun of that festive season. Combined Schools Production - Spamalot:
From the DP in Charge of the Arts: Oh what fun, I didn’t realise how much I enjoyed Monty Python, giggled from beginning to end. The acting, staging was superb with strong singing. It was lovely to see HInemairangi as “The Lady of the Lake” She sang well, great to see how much her voice has 22
developed. Tate Fountain is a delight on stage, has real presence. All girls did well, lovely to see Year 9 students involved as well. Our girls were also Front of House, Ana’s cameo role was a treat, she played dead and then had more to say. Ella Jensen was energetic and had lots of different roles, she certainly enjoys theatre. Lots of fun, a good evening out. Congratulations to all the students involved, there have been many months of practice, it was evident that those involved had a lot of fun and can be proud of what they achieved. Classics /History Trip to Europe April 2016….. The Launch
Nikki Rhodes, Classical Studies Teacher’s enthusiasm was evident as she spoke to an audience of 120 people in Term Two telling them what will be involved in the 16 day tour of Western Europe. The students will be visiting Greece, Italy, France and Belgium in 2016.
July International Week, last week of Term Two In the last week of Term Two we had a focus on all things International as our students from other countries put on lunch time events for the rest of the school. They worked together to showcase their home countries in song, dance and food. On Monday we had games, Tuesday a concert (being rehearsed in the photo) Wednesday a garage sale from students returning overseas, Thursday was food day and on Friday the girls put on a movie. TGC Overseas - Russia, TGC Tiger networking I was away from school at the end of Term Two and through the holidays, traveling to the UK and following up on my sabbatical work from last year, and the tigress went with me! On the left is a photo of our TGC Tigress with Sir Ken Robinson and friend at the Digital Technology Show in London. Sir Ken is a leader in the field of 21st century education and specialises in the importance of creativity and entrepreneurship. He was the keynote speaker for the conference. The second photo is of the Golden Domes of the Orthodox Church, the Catherine Palace, Tsarskoye Selo, St Petersburg. It comes from the Facebook page of our wandering historians who went to Russia and Germany in the holidays. Feedback from the tour, which included visits to salt mines in Russia and to Auschwitz concentration camp is that it was a life changing experience and one our students will never forget. 23
Hamilton Exchange
The Hamilton Exchange on the last Thursday of term two was a mixed bag of results and some fierce competition, with the overall outcome that Hamilton took home the trophy. Individual sports outcomes were that Netball League 1 lost, Junior A won convincingly, Football 1 st XI lost, as did Football Junior A and Basketball Senior A, Hockey 1st XI and 2nd XI won. Taekwondo Congratulations to Pratistha Chauhan (11BRK), who has been selected by NZUTA to compete in 09th Malaysian Open Taekwondo Championship at Kuala-Lumpur. Pratistha was away competing from 18 - 28 August 2015. Tauranga Girls’ College Year 13 Students Receive Acorn Foundation Scholarship Dale Carnegie Course Through the generosity of the Acorn Foundation and donors Roy and Mary McGowan, three Tauranga Girls’ students along with twenty four Western Bay of Plenty Year 13 students graduated from the Dale Carnegie Course on 03 July. The program is one of the most successful leadership development programmes in history. With over nine million graduates in 90 countries over 103 years and is recognised by employers internationally with its ISO 9001 certification. Ex-pupils’ Success – Tauranga Performing Arts Society Competitions Congratulations to ex-pupil Anna Mahon who was placed 1st and to ex-pupil Felicity Tomkins who came 2nd in the Major vocal award at the Tauranga Performing Arts Competitions in the holidays. This is a major coup for our music department to have produced two such successful young performers. Anna is a Sir Edmund Hillary Scholar at Waikato University and both she and Felicity were taught by Glenese Blake which is another lovely connection to the school. Rotary Exchange Student A new student joined Tauranga Girls’ College from the second week of Term Three. She is Meline Boekel from Holland and is a Rotary Exchange student sponsored by Tezel Rotary club and hosted here by Tauranga Sunrise. I had breakfast with Meline at Rotary on her first Friday morning and she was very enthusiastic about joining us (and the novelty of wearing uniform). She will be coming to school with Emma Dalton so has a very good mentor to introduce her to the way we do things here. Student Successes - Elisabeth Minards-Black Elisabeth took part in the Federation of Lyceum Clubs Major Speech and Drama Award at Baycourt over the holidays. She received third place and has a nomination to take part in the Young Performer of the Year at Palmerston North in mid-October.
24
World Champion 2015 – Taekwondo
Frances Lloyd
New Zealand Representatives 2015 Athletics
Brooke Somerfield
Cross Country
Kaylee Mudgway
Beach Volleyball
Canoe Slalom
Georgia Coughlan
Jessica Lawrence
Ella Lawry
Football
Judo
Rifle Shooting
Tayla Forward
Jade Tuilaepa
Georgi Jovner 25
Courtney Williams
Madeleine Wilson
Synchronised Swimming Young Enterprise
Eva Morris
Sophie Shrimpton
Taekwando
Frances Lloyd
Underwater Hockey
Brooklyn Storey
Kirsty Burrows
Georgia Coughlan
Volleyball
Jessica Lawrence
Emma Mabbott
Ariana Moffatt
Eden Pou
Sophie Te Whaiti
White Water Rafting
Susan Cumming
Monique Hawthorne
Paris Taniwha 26
Courtney Williams
Tuia Hawaiki, Tuia I Te Uru Science Wananga
Te Rūnanga o Ngaiterangi Iwi and the Division of Sciences, University of Otago Science provided our student with a Wānanga at Whareroa Marae, Tauranga from 22-24 July 2015. Science Wānanga is a partnership between Ngaiterangi Iwi and University of Otago. The established science themes that were delivered were: resource management, water chemistry and hauora Māori/health science career pathways. The Wānanga provided eight of our students of Māori descent and their supporting teachers with the opportunity to gain practical scientific skills and knowledge in real-life contexts, working alongside university scientists, postgraduate students and the local Māori community and the cost of the Science Wānanga was free, due to a partnership of the University of Otago and Te Rūnanga o Ngaiterangi Iwi Trust. Dance Troupe Caroline Gill reports that our dance girls had a very successful time in the holidays, firstly travelling to do ‘You Dance’ performances in Auckland that were extremely successful. The photos below show a few pictures of the girls at the L & P bottle half way and some others after the performance. Caroline’s comment is ‘A fabulous bunch of girls to take away and they did us proud!’ The review of the performance is here: http://www.theatreview.org.nz/reviews/review.php?id=8293
The girls also competed in the Tauranga Performing Arts Festival in a large category of 17 strong groups. Seven of these were acknowledged (including our girls). They were also invited to perform at the Best of the Best concert on the Sunday night! They really held their own against some very strong dance schools. Individual Dance Student Successes Caroline also reported ‘We also had two of our students competing in America these holidays with 2 other students from Dance Avenue (1 at Otumoetai and the other at Tauranga Intermediate). Hannah Reid (Year 13) and Aliyah Le’Mon (Year 9). The girls competed in Starpower in Las Vegas which is an international dance competition (https://www.starpowertalent.com/). They have a Star Scoring system (1-5) with 5 being the best. The girls achieved fantastic results averaging 4-5 in the top divisions for Jazz, Contemporary, and Lyrical. Below are some fabulous images of Aliyah in action! A very talented young dancer!’
27
Young Innovator Awards The finalists in this year’s Young Innovator Awards were announced early in term three and we had seven girls through to the finals. The list of finalists (and their innovations) was: Charlie's Handgels Tauranga Girls' Hannah Payne Emoji Cup Tauranga Girls' Chelsea Clyde Flip A Bench Tauranga Girls' Ashley Cundy M.A.A.L.C Tauranga Girls' Eva Wilson Soapafresh Tauranga Girls' Hannah Philpot Spring Back Road Marker Tauranga Girls' Jaysha Tippins The Lorax Tauranga Girls' Maraea Ranui
Kapa Haka Live-in and competition As part of their pre-competition live-in the Kapa Haka roopu spent Saturday July 26- 27 at Arataki Community Centre, making good use of the mirrors there to perfect their moves. A few photos below from that day as they prepared for the competitions in Whakatane on July 31.
School Mini Van The Board of Trustees at the June meeting approved the purchase of a new minivan, which arrived this term. It is a very lovely beast and definitely an enormous improvement on the old diesel van we have been driving around for years.
Year 13 Common Room It was great fun on Wednesday July 29 to be able to return the Sports Pavilion/Year 13 Common Room to its original use and to surprise Year 13 with the official opening, complete with ribbon cutting and chocolate cake!
28
Cranbrook School Hockey Exchange We have a tradition of playing hockey against this UK school and this year’s The annual hockey exchange between Cranbrook School from Kent in the UK brought a mixed bag of results. The second eleven won, the first eleven narrowly lost, so I guess we could call it an honourable draw!
PTA Fashion Parade
The Fashion Parade was a great event and worth a few pictures. Highlights for me were the wedding dress made from toilet paper by Mikeely Ivil, Zoe Beck’s Fashion Week garments and, of course, the boys in boxer shorts doing their haka in the carpark on the second night. Congratulations to everyone and special thanks to the PTA team for a great event! Kaileys Lunch
I had lunch on a Friday recently in our restaurant, with staff from Yang Ming Junior High School in Taiwan and the experience reminded me what a great job our hospitality students do in Kaileys restaurant! The food was delicious and the service very professional. I recommend a visit to anyone wanting to eat well in very pleasant surroundings. Rotary Summer Science School – Sophie Godden On a recent Friday morning also at the Rotary Club of Tauranga Sunrise I heard Sophie Godden speak about her Science Summer School experiences over the summer. She was enthusiastic and funny and very much appreciated by her audience!
August Pin’d (formerly Global Connexions) Congratulations to all the talented students involved in Pin’d on Saturday night! We won several prizes, including for Jerushah Keightley first place in the Colour Swatch section (where we had a clean sweep of 1st, 2nd and 3rd ),2nd places in different sections for Bridie Mangos, Zoe Beck and 29
Mikeely Ivil and for Khryss Anderson 1st place in the White on White section.
Senior Model United Nations On Saturday August 02 we had 4 teams competing in the Senior Model United Nations forum. Pam Jones reports that she was really impressed with the high calibre of intellect and debate taking place in the Tauranga City Council debating chamber. Although we didn't take out winner's trophy - the team representing the International Red Cross (Molly, Ruby and Kathryn) were named as a 'stand out' team and won Best Dressed. Attendance Initiative – August, Every Day Counts! Kelly Sadler shared some very good statistics with students at the start of the August ’Every Day Counts’ initiative and congratulations to the Year 13 Deans and Tutors on the one that placed Year 11 as the highest truancy group where nationally it is Year 13.
Rotorua Sports Exchange
Congratulations to all participants in the RGHS Sports Exchange. It was a well fought event, with wins to us in Football, Hockey and one Netball game and to Rotorua in Basketball and the other two Netball games. A draw on the day but we keep the shoe based on the summer exchange. Young Innovators Awards – Joint Senior Supreme Winners Congratulations to all finalists in this year’s finalists in the Young Innovator awards and lists and particularly to Hannah Payne and Jayna Tippins for their joint supreme award win. Hannah also won the internship award. And huge thanks to the teachers who supported these girls in doing so well, particularly Carol Ogilvy, teacher in charge of Innovation.
30
Netball Semi –finals The netball semi-finals on Monday of week four were exciting, particularly the Aquinas/League 1 match, which we won, but not without some nail biting moments. The finals were rained off from
Friday night to Monday of Week Five and were equally nail biting, as we won in extra time after having drawn with Mount Maunganui at full time. Mathsweek – Year 9 and 10 Mathsmind competitions The Mathsweek focus took a variety of forms, one of which was the competitions in the hall on Tuesday for Year 10 and Wednesday, when a large number of very keen Year 9s were busy proving their ability with mathematics problems, ably assisted by staff and senior students.
Science Soils and Dollars Year 13 students had a great opportunity at a Wednesday afternoon assembly to hear representatives from Massey University taking them through Soil Science, its potential (both for NZ and its potential to earn them money)! The university and tertiary presence in the school continues to be strong, with a great contribution also to Option Night from the different institutions. Amnesty Freedom Challenge Week - Cake Stall This week was Amnesty International’s week to focus on this year’s theme – Freedom Challenge, providing safe havens for migrants and refugees, and particularly calling on New Zealand to double its refugee quota by 2016. The cupcakes were delicious! Maatangi Whenua It was good to see the schools competing in the hall last Thursday in the Year 11 Inter-school Geography Competition and to hear from Pam Jones on Friday morning how well we had done. Congratulations and thanks to Pam on the organization of this event. ArtsFest - Creative Tauranga
On Thursday evening of Week Four we had a real line-up of events showcasing the talents of our girls and the Artsfest exhibition opening was one of them (the other two being Kapa Haka at the Wharekura and ‘The Night is Young’ at Baycourt). Congratulations to Megan Johnson and the Art department team on such a quality line-up for the exhibition. 31
The Night is Young From Anne Robinson comes this report: The Night is Young was lovely. It was great to see all the schools from Te Puke through to Katikati supporting each other. TGC was involved in other areas of the evening. Pip and Marea were stunning second half comperes looking great in their No 1’s and Emma Dalton was part of the tech team. Mariko was the official photographer for the evening. We were the only school with students working behind the scenes in these areas. Ellie Goff and Tyler Nitschke were the runners for the evening. TGC/TBC Netball Game
Friday lunchtime of week four saw the annual staging of the TGC/TBC netball game, complete with Haka from the boys, some interesting shooting, the advantage of height being with the boys and in the end a loss to the girls. Great fun though, for all involved, including the cheerleading squad from the Arts Council, and a wonderful way to end the netball week. AsiaWise
News received from Australia is that there have been over 5,000 entries and 96% has been the top result attained by 4 students including 3 from TGC – Olivia Donaldson, Madeleine Thompson, and Claudia Lamberton – they were right up there last year as well and of course Olivia was top. Also in the Year 9 competition, 98 is the highest result by 3 students including 2 from TGC – Amy Earles and Abbie Mortimer.
Badminton Congratulations were due on the outcomes of this year’s Senior Badminton competitions this week, with the impressive results of our girls placing third in division one, and first and second in division two. Impressive achievements for all the girls. Underwater Hockey World Age Group Champs Georgia Coughlan and Kirsty Burrows both played an awesome and hard fought final at the World competitions in Spain. Unfortunately they lost (Georgia scored the first NZ goal) but have still come away with a silver medal. Playing in a team that is second best in the world in the U19 age group of any sport is an amazing achievement. Both girls played their heart out and were inspirational to watch. ERO Review Visit We have had very positive feedback from the ERO visit in August this year and the full report can be found on the school website at www.tgc.school.nz
32
PTA Evening, English Department Showcase Wednesday’s PTA meeting was in B Block, with Sally McCann showcasing what the English department has to offer. The PTA were able to view and/or discuss the currciulum, rooms, the technology and the exciting things our students are doing, including the visiting author project.
Year Nine Excellence Morning Tea The Year Nine Deans recently organized an ‘Excellence’ morning tea for the girls in year nine who have gained all excellence grades for their learning competencies in Terms One and Two. This is an amazing achievement and one that sets the girls up well for future success.
The girls were very happy to share food and accept certificates acknowledging their achievement in Kaileys on Friday morning of week seven. Mathsmind Successes Results from this year’s annual regional mathematics competition Maths Mind, held in Rotorua were extremely positive, as reported by Maths Deputy HOD Linda Boubee-Hill: Felicity Pitt and I took the 16 girls across to Rotorua yesterday. I am proud to report that we placed 2nd this year to Tauranga Boys’ College with our Year 10 team. Interactions with local schools - Lunchtime activities with Kaka Street students, led by Year 13 Every Friday it is lovely to see a group of our Year 13 students, led by PE teacher Michelle Pollard, busy at lunchtime on the back field with students from the Kaka Street Special School satellite class from Merivale Primary. Our girls organise a variety of ball games and activities and the younger ones have a great time Year 9 Dance Students workshop for Gate Pa Students
In similar vein it has been great to see our Year Nine Dance students passing on their skills in the hall to students from our neighbouring Gate Pa School and thank you to Caroline Gill, TIC Dance, for the photos.
33
Poi Workshop
On Friday August 28 at lunchtime in our Whare Mereaira there was a wonderful chance for students to learn the art of poi making, with our own expertise from students and the imported skills of an expert from Rotorua. Our weekly Wednesday breakfast club is evolving into a performance group for girls keen to learn to use poi. Talent Wars The annual battle between Tauranga Girls’ College and Tauranga Boys’ College is Talent Wars and that took place on August 28 was a great success and comments: from a (non-biased, I’m sure) judge were: ‘naturally we won. Emma Dalton said her poem –it was amazing and she won best overall item. Caroline and I were thinking that it would be great if a wider audience heard it—Arts prize giving? Or full school celebration assembly??’. One way or another we will be arranging a performance venue for Emma that we can all enjoy. Assistance Dogs On August 25 and in preparation for mufti day on August 27 we had the Golden Labradors that are being puppy walked in training to be assistance dogs at assembly and returning to be part of mufti day on Thursday. The work that these dogs do, particularly with children with special needs is making a real difference to those children and to their families.
International Food Fair
German strudel, Italian Pizza, Pretzels and a huge variety of other delicious foods were on sale Tuesday 25 at lunchtime from our International students. There were queues for the food and it was very soon gone. World Science Championships Success In the World Science (WordPerfect) competitions we are the 3rd best school in NZ, 5th= in the world and our own 10BTE is best class in the Bay of Plenty. The full results of the competition are: World-wide: TGC was 14th overall out of 876 schools. Nadia Snegirev was 58th overall out of more than 20 000 competitors. New Zealand-wide: TGC was 3rd overall out of 253 schools, Nadia 17th in NZ
34
BOP-wide: TGC was 1st overall (just under 110 000 questions correct) out of 7 schools. 10BTE was the best class in the BOP (out of 200 classes) with 43,375 questions correct and Nadia Snegirev, Clara Chang, Shari Webber and Ellie Faulkner (all year 10) were the top 4 overall students in the BOP. Planking -Strongest Girl Competition
The House Council’s Strongest Girl competition on Wednesday August 26th had an extra challenger in the shape of Ms Glenda Rowlands, who set the benchmark for the girls to aim for. Rose Barker was the longest stayer from among the students, but Ms Rowlands looked comfortable to go another five minutes past the time when Rose finally stopped. Daffodil Day Origami Daffodils On Wednesday August 26 in the hall there was a working bee of students creating origami daffodils. The plan was to create the daffodils with a message in the center to be delivered to cancer patients as a message of support and hope.
Hockey Success: The photo on the left is of our Tauranga Girls’ College 2nd XI hockey team who won their final 3-2 against Mt Maunganui 1st XI in Week Seven, a result which means they also won the Gemma Flynn Cup. Great result for our girls! Good to see yet another sport where we have come first and Mount College second. Outstanding Music Successes From Stephanie Geor on Friday August 28 came the news that our musicians had done very well in their competitions, with Big Band and Symphonic Band gaining Gold Awards, first in their sections and merit awards for that. Percussion Ensemble also got gold and our Guitar Group gained a bronze award. Great results from a lot of hard work!
35
Black and White Mufti Day Black and White was a very simple theme for mufti day on August 27 and one that was embraced with gusto by our senior (and some very well turned out junior) students.
It was great to see the creativity of our girls in creating these ensembles and then staying in character! International TBC/TGC Barbeque The International students from TGC and TBC had an opportunity to socialize on Wednesday August 26 after school, to share food, music and experiences and get to know each other.
Winter Tournament Week Congratulations to Kaye Barnett on organising the assembly for our Winter Tournament competitors prior to their departure. Acknowledging the girls and supporting them with ‘goodie bags’ Year 10 Business Studies Market Day was a great way to set them up for the challenges ahead and to let them know that the school supports them and will be thinking of them during the competitions. Year 10 Market Day
The Market day was the 10 BET students’ assessment for term three and included producing a business plan, creating a product that wasn’t food, completing a regular work log and writing an individual reflection after the event. A lot of work to prepare students for this day and a great result! Spirit of Adventure Berth Amber McNicol has been successful in gaining Sponsorship from the PTA for a 10 Day Spirit berth which occurs in the second week of the school holiday. Amber reported to the October meeting of the PTA on her experiences on the boat.
36
Trustpower Community Awards Week seven began on Monday August 31 with huge successes at the Trustpower Community Awards on Monday night, a good way to finish a (very wet) day.
Tauranga Girls’ College had three connections to winners on the night, the first two with Sophie Shrimpton being a finalist for the Youth Community Spirit awards and Simone Anderson (Jan’s daughter) winning the Art category for her work with the Incubator The third connection was that Chris Duggan (ex HOD Science at TGC) and House of Science won the overall supreme award! This was well deserved recognition of the work that Chris is doing for Science education not just across the Bay but New Zealand wide. National finals next in February! Winter Tournament and 1st IX Hockey
Congratulations to our 1st IX Hockey girls on some inspired games during winter tournament week. Sometimes the weather was against them, sometimes just a strong team from another school but they played with energy and enthusiasm no matter what the circumstances. Magenta Young Enterprise It was good to see the Magenta team in the staffroom in Week Seven, promoting their product for laptop computers. It is a very practical solution to the challenge of using a laptop truly as that, and the challenges of maintaining good posture when working on a keyboard.
Fashion Week Success Zoe Beck’s participation in the Auckland Fashion week was a huge accolade for this young designer and Zoe’s mother sent through a few photos of her involvement, included below, as well as an update:
Zoe was a young designer last week at the prestigious New Zealand Fashion Week held in Auckland at the Viaduct Events Centre. Zoe originally submitted 5 of her designs to NZ Fashion Week, and 37
when they saw what she was doing and did a bit of looking at her work on her designer Facebook page, they asked if she had any more to bring her collection up to 8? So Zoe submitted 3 more of her designs and before she knew it she was presenting a collection! Olivia Donaldson In Week Seven I received news from the Donaldson family on Olivia, who represents the College in interschool dressage, show-jumping and eventing competitions. A competent up-and-coming rider she is considered eligible to participate in some of the world's more 'unique' equestrian events. Mr Donaldson reports: I am delighted to say that Olivia has just received an invitation to participate in a commemorative horse-riding Safari in the Okavango Delta by one of her UK based mentors, Molly Jackson (Deputy CEO of the Southbank Centre London, London's world-famous Arts Centre - Molly has considerable riding credentials and involvement in a number of Olympic/major international equestrian events). Junior Model United Nations Pam Jones reported on the Junior United Nations competitions on Saturday August 29 that she and Rita spent Saturday supporting the girls in some fantastic debating regarding arms trading and internet access. Given that our girls represented North Korea and India their contributions would have been good to hear! The North Korea delegation gained an honourable mention for their debating skills and the India delegation was voted best dressed for the competition.
September Underwater Hockey Audrey Keightley kept me updated all weekend of mid-term break as our junior and senior teams fought their way through the Underwater Hockey championships in Auckland over mid-term break. Final results were 6th place for the Juniors and 4th place for the Seniors, Kirsty Burrows and Georgia Coughlan were named in the tournament team and Kirsty named top female player for the tournament and MVP for the senior team. Momo Hongcherdchai was Junior team MVP and in addition the seniors coach was named coach of the year!!! Great results all round! Visiting Author Programme - Gavin Bishop
On Thursday, the last working day of the week for our students before mid-term break, we had visiting author Gavin Bishop (Russell Bishop’s brother) in with the English Department and Year 10 classes, reading to them and discussing his writing and illustrations.
38
Pasifika Evening On the Thursday before mid-term break members of our Pasifika community were hosted in the library for an evening devoted to communicating to parents about NCEA subject and vocational pathways through school and to showcasing the dance talents of our girls. PICTT, the Pacific Island Community (Tauranga) Trust, helped organize the evening, which was a great way to reach out to the community.
It’s a Wrap Film Evening Congratulations to all involved in the ArtsFest Film evening on Thursday September 10. There were a few glitches and hitches which gave Tania and the girls the opportunity to demonstrate their resilience and problem solving ability but overall it was a great showcase for our students’ talents.
It was also a fitting farewell for Tania from the girls (and their families) that she has mentored and led over the past few years. House of Science On the afternoon of September 11 I joined Chris Duggan at the House of Science to celebrate with the volunteers there their recent win in the Trustpower Community Service Awards. With 220 boxes of Science experiments now going out to schools each week, and over 500 volunteer hours per month sitting behind that HoS is flourishing and with it Science learning in primary schools and Intermediate and Secondary schools throughout the Bay!
Chinese Community School The Chinese Community School and Tauranga's Chinese Community staged an event on Wednesday September 16 at the Village Hall, Historic Village. The programme included traditional dances, songs, Kung-fu display and a special guest - a renowned artist from China, who will present his paintings. A potluck dinner will follow the formal part of the evening.
39
Jade Tuilaepa’s Judo Successes Congratulations to Jade who has added to her impressive list if wins the outcomes of the North Island Judo Champs in Auckland on the weekend of September 5/6. Jade won Gold in the U57 Cadet Women’s, Gold in the Open Cadet Women’s and Silver in the U57 Junior Women’s and will next be competing in the NZ Nationals in Tauranga on the 17 October. Soomin Kim Successes As reported by Stephanie Geor, Soomin Kim had spectacular success at the ‘Rising Stars’ competition on September 04 . This year, and for the first time ever in the biennial competition's history, the Symphonia included a Composition category, which Soomin won. Friday’s concert featured a performance by the orchestra of this winning piece ‘Warmth of Passion' which was composed by concerto finalist Soomin Kim. Her composition was selected as the winner by a judging panel made up of prominent New Zealand composers Michael Norris, Alex Taylor and Martin Lodge. Soomin’s winning composition was described by the judges as ‘sophisticated', ‘harmonically adventurous', with ‘bold but well considered orchestration', and showed a ‘real flair for orchestral writing'. Zoe Stevenson It was great to see on Monday September 07 that Zoe Stevenson has qualified in rowing for the 2016 Olympics. Zoe is a Hillary Scholar and ex-pupil whose sporting career we follow with interest. Write off Line Winners, report from Piper Mejia Write off Line is a national writing competition that has run for the past four years. The competition is judged by awarding wining New Zealand writers and is supported by Tauranga writers, Spec Fic New Zealand, Bookrapt and the Phantom Paragrapher. This year students from Year 9 – 13 were invited to contribute short stories and/or poetry on the theme of “The Earth We Knew”. Helena Andrews (Year 10) has won first place in the Junior section for her short story Route 666 and Nadia Snegirev (Year 10) came second in the Junior poetry section. This is an amazing accomplishment as there were well over 100 entries from over 30 schools around New Zealand. Also, Maggie Peters (Year 10) is in the first ever regional BOP poetry slam that is being held on the 17 October, 3pm at Worlds’ End – she is very excited and terrified and hopes there are plenty of TGC supporters on the day. Music Update To finish the list of successes comes the news this week that our Barbershop is currently ranked the 9th best Girls Barbershop Chorus in the country. Not bad given that there would have been a couple of hundred girls’ choruses entering that competition around NZ! Symphonic band have their last competition at Nationals on Friday and that will conclude a highly successful season of music for 2015!
40
Term Three Chinese Community School Events: Chinese Mid-Autumn Festivals, ANZ Bank On Saturday September 12 I was privileged to attend the local Chinese community mid-Autumn celebration at the ANZ Bank. It was interesting to note that the number of attendees had doubled on the previous year and that there is significant growth in the Chinese community here in Tauranga in the last few months.
Living in Harmony and mid-Autumn Festival Congratulations to Li Feng, Nena and the students of the Chinese Community School for a lovely Living in Harmony concert evening arranged with the Tauranga Ethnic Council on Wednesday September 16 at the Village Hall, Historic Village.
. The entertainment included traditional dances, songs, Kung-fu display and a special guest - a renowned artist from China, who presented his paintings. The pot-luck shared dinner was also delicious!
Cheng Deyu, a famous traditional Chinese painter from Beijing with the painting he created on September 16. Mr. Cheng also demonstrated how to paint some easy traditional Chinese paintings like bamboos as well as showing and explaining the themes of his paintings. Mr Cheng exhibited a selection of his painting and has donated this picture to Tauranga Girls’ College and the painting will be framed and hung in the library. Booze Bus – SADD Thank you to Amanda Haines and our SADD committee girls for organising the Booze Bus (and goggles) visit to school on Friday September 18 at lunchtime as part of SADD awareness month. The girls were very lucky to have such easy access to education about the risks of drink driving and with the holidays looming it may help them to help others make sensible decisions around alcohol.
41
Golfing News We have a dedicated team of golfers at Tauranga Girls’ College and this is a window report on their progress at a recent tournament. On Friday September 19 came news from Anna Leach teacher-incharge of Golf that Emmalee Morrell had a good round and was sitting in 7 th place shooting 75; Olivia Choo played a brilliant round for her shooting a 76 and was in 10 th place. Anna also reported that Jodae Ngaheu did not have a great day and was placed in 20 th with a round of 83 which she will have been very disappointed with. Kia Eke Panuku Hui Tauranga Girls’ College continues to work on improving academic performance for our Maori students and on September 17-18 there was a two day hui in Rotorua that was interesting and busy and good networking with our fellow Tauranga schools of Tauranga Boys’ College and Otumoetai College (and my first visit to the Whakarewarewa reserve where the Marae was for about 30 years!) The hui focussed on planning for 2016 and on reviewing our progress (very pleasing) and setting ourselves new and higher challenges for next year and beyond in helping all girls to achieve their full academic potential.
Maori Prizegiving Maori prize giving is coming up on Friday November 13 and recently we had a display of trophies for that event in the staffroom. It was a really good reminder of what it is that our Maori students should be striving for and also of all the work going into this event and the others coming up soon where we celebrate excellence in all forms, academic, sporting and cultural. Outward Bound opportunity Yazzmine Woodhouse’s mother reported on September 21 that Yazzmine had late the previous week won a scholarship for $2,000 for Outward Bound in the South Island, from the 27 September for 21 days, a wonderful opportunity to gain valuable leadership skills for next year and experience something that had she not won the scholarship would most likely not have ever been able to participate in. A life changing opportunity for Yazzmine! Korean War Veterans Appreciation Concert On Saturday September 19 there was an appreciation ceremony for veterans of the Korean War, to acknowledge its 65th Anniversary. It was our Korean students who organised this, with Claire Choo being the main organiser. There were lovely items from the young Korean people, much appreciated by the veterans including musical items, a video from the Korean Government, and a poem written by Young You and Clara Chang who with Sojoung Son provided 42 the history together with Clara Chang.
Property - Activity Room renovation and Dance Facility
One exciting piece of work on property that happened over the holidays was the renovation of the Activity Room in the Gymnasium complex. There is now a new sprung floor, mirrors (with curtains) and a practice bar installed to make use of this room more flexible, particularly for performance activities such as Kapa Haka and Dance. The room remains multi-purpose for any activities that will not impact on either the floor surface or mirrors, although large ball sports now need to be timetabled elsewhere in the gymnasium complex. Tauranga Girls’ College/Tauranga Boys’ College Great Debate The topic for the Great Debate, held on Monday September 21 was that ‘marriage is an outdated institution’. Our girls had the affirmative and a challenge on their hands to present their case and rebut the boy’s arguments.
It was a very close contest in this twentieth consecutive year of debate and although the boys won we still have more years on the shield than the boys but we do need to win next year! Performing Arts Week –Drama and Dance Year 11, 12 and 13 all performed plays over the whole last week of term based on a variety of different genres and our dancers also staged their own production showcase on Thursday night.
From Grimm’s Fairy Tales to “Juvie” the performances ranged from comedic to dramatic and showcased the depth of talent developed by our girls over the past year. A huge thank you to Christina Cassells, Bronwyn Fenwick and Caroline Gill for adding this work to a very busy last week and providing our girls, and the audiences who supported them with these performance opportunities. Mardi Gras
The annual student council Mardi Gras, held on September 23 was a colourful and delicious smelling affair, as students battled with each other to tempt the appetites of those with the money 43
to shop. Congratulations to Ewan McLeod on some great busking and a prize for bravery to Chris Rumbold for raffling off his head as a canvas for some very colourful painting!
Chinese Community School Mid-Autumn Festival The mid-Autumn Festival celebration (also called the Moon Festival) is one of two important family reunion festivals in the year for the Chinese (and has parallels in many ways to the English Harvest Festival). On the Wednesday evening of the last week of term three we had the annual Mid-Autumn Festival for the Chinese Community School at the local Chinatown restaurant in Fraser Cove. We also had a turnout of over 180 people when we were expecting to cater for 100-120! By sharing of space and food we coped and the concert that students of the school (all ages from 5 to 75) performed was greatly appreciated by all present.
Whare Mereaira The decoration of our Whare Mereaira continues to progress and there was a meeting in the last week of Term Three to see the proposed designs for the tuku tuku panels, originating from the stories researched by our girls.
The proposed designs will be shared with staff and students for consultation and selection of the preferred ones to be in the whare, with those that are not selected being retained to be used elsewhere in the college at a later date. Classic Cakes Congratulations to Nikki Rhodes for her classics inspired baking competition in the last week of term three. The creations were spectacular and hopefully tasted as good as they looked! Congratulations to Tessa Catley (Temple of Athena Nike) and Tennessee Teddy (Roman helmet) for their First Equal Placing in the Classical Studies Cake Baking Competition and special mention also to Shireen Harper and Kodi Minnell for Second Place – for their three tiered homage to Augustus’ beautification policy in 1st century Rome, topped with Aeneas, Anchises and Ascanius travelling by sea from Troy! 44
October Scholarship Successes 1. Otago University Over the holidays Judith Sommerville heard that Aleisha Hulbert from 13PRV and Sarah Robinson from 13JNS have both been offered University of Otago Academic Excellence Scholarships worth $45000. This is an outstanding achievement for the girls and for our school to have two such scholarships. 2. Basketball Scholarship – Kaatia Watene Kaatia Watene has left us to take up a prestigious scholarship to Southeast Community College in Nebraska, based on her prowess in basketball and her performance in the recent entrance examinations. Chinese Language Conference
The key take home from this conference was the growing promotion of Mandarin Chinese in New Zealand primary schools and the level of support for training and delivering the language that is available from sources supported by the Han Ban arm of the Chinese government. Young Enterprise Exams Jude Maurice reports that the Young Enterprise exam results are out and all five students of our students who entered have passed. Their results were: Sasha Gudsell 66% Achieved one off Merit Kodi Minnell 79% Merit one off Excellence Jasmine Moor 73% Merit Sophie Shrimpton 87% Excellence Janaya Worthington 71% Merit Overall there was a 75% pass rate with 10% at Excellence, 21% at Merit and 44% at Achieved. Synchronised Swimming – report from Kya Lowans Eva Morris excelled at Synchronised Swimming Nationals which were held in Dunedin during the school holidays. Eva came 2nd in Junior Figures and 1st with her duet partner Jazzlee Thomas in Junior Duet. Eva was also a member of The Team Combination, which retained the National title from last year. There is always tough competition from both North Harbour Auckland and Phoenix Invercargill Clubs for this National Title…. it was very exciting to take home the trophy again and meant that the team qualified to represent New Zealand with the routine at Oceanias in 2016 in Fiji. Ekiden Relay Rotorua
45
Our runners did very well in the Ekiden Relay in Rotorua on Saturday October 10. They ran dressed up as Bumble Bee’s. There were 270 teams in total (lots of adults and corporate teams) and the girls were 2nd fastest team in costume (not ALL teams wear costume) and 2nd in the schools. Massey Scholarship Winners Earlier this year the student/s listed below earned scholarships to attend Massey Business School (MBS) through participation in one or more of these events. Massey University’s Scholarship Office has sent MBS Event-Based Scholarship certificates in combination with other Massey University academic scholarships to us for distribution at our academic prize giving ceremony. These MBS scholarships are valid for three years, can be applied at any of Massey’s campuses towards business papers for full time students and can be combined with other MBS scholarships including the $5,000 Future Leader’s Scholarship. Congratulations to: Sophie Shrimpton Business Boot Camp $1,000, YES-Enterprise in Action, $1,000 and Janaya Worthington, Business Boot Camp $1,000. Waikato University, Sir Edmund Hillary Scholarship The Sir Edmund Hillary Scholarship is one of Waikato University’s most prestigious scholarships and the university reports that the calibre of the applications received in 2015 was once again very high. The University has advised that Ariana Moffatt has been offered a Sir Edmund Hillary Scholarship for 2016. Ariana shared our Sportsgirl of the Year award with Kirsty Burrows at the recent Sports Prize giving. NZ Young Performer of the Year The three girls in the photo were all nominated by adjudicators throughout build-up competitions to compete in the NZ Young Performer of the Year in Palmerston North on the weekend of 17/18 October. Aine Blackman competes in Highland Dance, Hannah Reid in Modern Dance and Lizzie Minards-Black in speech and drama. Future Problem Solving Callie-Jay Dobbs and Danielle Sigley both from 11HNS along with 2 students from TBC are into the National Championships for Future Problem Solving in Auckland on Friday 30 October until Sunday 01 November. We wish them luck with that competition. Volleyball success Jessica Lawrence 12MRC is now a national champion in volleyball, as she represented Bay of Plenty at the U17 National Volleyball championships over the holidays. The team took out the National title. Also national champions in that team from Tauranga Girls’ College were Georgia Coughlan, Paris Patete and Emma Mabbott. Congratulations to all four girls on outstanding success. Mufti Day
Thursday October16 was the last mufti day for the year and it was good to see so many senior 46
students and staff getting into the Hero(ines) and Villains theme. It was also the most comfortable day of the year for me in that Wonder Woman onsie! Sports Prize Giving Sports prize giving was a great celebration of all that our young women have achieved this year and the guest speaker Kelly Hudson had some words of real wisdom for the girls from her journey to becoming an international hockey umpire and qualifying for the Olympics in Rio in 2016. Congratulations to joint Sports girls of the Year, Ariana Moffat and Kirsty Burrows and our Underwater Hockey team for taking team of the year, narrowly ahead of our Kayakers.
Waikato Blues Dinner
At the Blues Awards dinner on Friday 16 we had four blues winners, Ana Mahon and June Dams for Music, Mariah Ririnui for athletics and Zoe Stephenson for rowing. Zoe was also named Sportswoman of the Year for the second year in a row! Looking at the statistics from the Blues evening it is interesting to note that only three schools, Hamilton Boys High School, Hillcrest and Tauranga Girls’ College hade more than two Blues Awards winners on Friday night and that no other Tauranga/Mount Maunganui school gained any at all. Arts Prizegiving As with Sports Prize giving, the Arts night was a real showcase of the best that our students can do, both the award winners and the girls who (supported by dedicated staff) put together the evening of entertainement and celebration. Congratulations to Supreme Arts Awards Winners, Communications: Aine Blackman, Design Arts
Hannah Payne, Music: Hyunah (Claire) Choo, Nga Toi Maori: Hinemairangi Pahau-Wilson, Visual Arts: Ana Morris and Performing Arts: Pip Artus.
47
Kaumatua Morehu Ngatoko-Rahipere’s Honorary Doctorate celebrations On Tuesday of this week a group of our students travelled to Hamilton to attend the Waikato University graduation ceremony at Claudelands showground and tautoko Mr Morehu NgatokoRahipere as he was awarded of an Honorary Doctorate from the University of Waikato.
Special Care Baby Unit Visit
Pam Foyle reports that on Thursday 15 October her Year 13ECE class had the good fortune to be allowed to visit the Tauranga Hospital's Special Care Baby Unit. This is the first time permission had been given for a group of students to have a tour of the unit, hear first-hand information from the midwives and engage with some of the mums and babies. It was a real privilege for all of involved and hugely interesting for the girls. Pink Walk Thursday
Tuesday lunchtime was a great day for a Pink Walk as our students dressed up and remembered all those affected by breast cancer. It was lovely to see some of our short stay Japanese students also dressing up and joining in.
Amber McNicol, Spirit of New Zealand Amber McNicol spoke to the PTA on Wednesday evening about her recent journey on the Spirit of New Zealand. This is an extract from her presentation: Recently I just embarked on one of the most amazing experiences of my life! The Spirit of New Zealand. I just was to thank you so much for making this opportunity available for me. I have gone out of my comfort zone and challenged myself, particularly when I was elected the leadership role of navigator on trainee day. I was able to make a lot of really good friends that I will stay in contact with and hopefully go travelling to see! To name a few of the many highlights; I was able to see dolphins swimming in front of the boat as we sailed to Great Barrier Island, Bonfire sing-alongs, night games, climbing to the top of the mast-
48
the view was indescribable! And steering the boat! That is only naming a few. The memories I have made will be cherished forever. I hope that you continue sponsoring such a unique, exciting, eye opening opportunity for the years after me.
Waihi Beach Fashion Competition On the weekend of 17-18 October a group of our girls entered the open fashion competition at Waihi Beach, competing with adults to earn some very creditable results: Participants were Yazzmine Woodhouse, Erin Conway, Grace Westenburg, Rosie Pua, Jerushah Keightley and Lydia Gilmour and place getters were Brydie Mangos – 1st place evening wear, Zoe Beck – 2nd place Upcycled outfit and Tabitha Marshall – 1st place Upcycled outfit.
Victoria Excellence Scholarships We heard this week that the following students gained Excellence scholarships: Rae Charman, Jessica Crockett, Tayla Forward, Anna Morris, Emma Rae and Ella Williams. Auckland Scholarships We also heard from Auckland that Emma Dalton has won The University of Auckland Scholarship, Shireen Harper has won The University of Auckland Jubilee Award and Lucy Happe and Sophie Shrimpton both lhave Faculty of Business and Economics Entry level Undergraduate scholarships. Chemquest Rachael Leckie reports on ChemQuest, the annual Chemistry Quiz hosted by the Chemistry Department of Waikato University for Year 12 Chemistry students. This year 27 schools were represented at the Quiz by 77 teams and 6 schools from the BOP travelled over the Kaimais to the Quiz. Each of these schools entered 3 teams. TGC teams were Donald Trump (Hannah Park, Georgia Cox and Jada Mataroa), Solid Solutions (Emma Godden, Lydia Gilmour and Grace Wright) and the Buzzy Bees (Bianca Ruegg, Brooke Taylor and Bayley Coster). Donald Trump finished 5th equal in the BOP, 21st equal overall, Buzzy Bees finished 8th equal in the BOP, 42nd equal overall and Solid Solutions finished 11th in BOP, 47th equal overall.
49
Concert for the Elderly Our award winning musicians give community service every year by staging a concert for the elderly, combining superb music with enjoyable food for a great afternoon out.
Feedback from one group: Hi Stephanie, Yesterday at your musical afternoon was such a credit to you and your staff and pupils, I brought our bus of 12 people from Omokoroa Country estate and the pleasure you gave us all was outstanding! Thank you so much from us all, and please may we enjoy next year with you all, Best wishes, Denis. Young Enterprise Awards Our Young Enterprise team, Magenta, won three different categories of the regional awards, Business Operations, Marketing and Manufacturing and Production. We are very proud of their achievements and a huge thank to Jude Maurice and Ewan McLeod for all their work and support of the girls.
Dannika Worthington We had confirmation in week four that Dannika Worthington has placed top in New Zealand in the ICAS English examinations as will be awarded a medal for her achievement at The University of Auckland, Business School on Saturday December 05. November This month has just begun, but already we have successes reported from the rugby sevens that our girls won the U15 BOP Championships and that five students from the U15 team made U19 squad. We also heard that Ashlee Keelan-Orr has been awarded 2016 Tauranga/Kasaoka Rotary Clubs Scholarship. And so it goes on, with tonight’s successes to be acknowledged in the journey of ‘empowering tomorrow’s women’.
Pauline Cowens Principal 04 November 2015
50
51