September 2015
Dear Parents/Caregivers This September newsletter will be read by you in the middle of Winter Tournament week when large numbers of our students are participating at elite level in their chosen sport, and at the end of a long season of competition at national level for our musicians (see STOP PRESS). Rising to all challenges, academic challenge or extra-curricular challenges is part of what makes the journey of our students at this college so special. Tauranga Girls’ College passion, which spans across all learning environments in a wide range of settings, is passion for ensuring that girls succeed. Passion for the learning journey that is the focus of the goals your daughter sets for herself each year, and for nurturing the skills to flourish in an increasingly competitive world. Problem solving, time management, responsibility, resilience, creativity, work ethic and participation are all essential future skills, developed as much in the
environment of sport, the arts and community service as in any classroom. Once developed these skills transfer naturally to the lifelong learning from the specialist subjects your daughter is taking here and underpin her future success. As your daughter plans for 2016, selecting her options and structuring her year, please ensure she plans to take up the wider curriculum of learning opportunities that encompasses the extra-curricular as well as the set subjects. The more that she demonstrates evidence for what she can do, and the more she learns about her talents the more likely it is that she will succeed in her (lifelong) learning journey.
Pauline Cowens
STOP PRESS World Science Championships Tauranga Girls’ College entered the World Science (WordPerfect) competitions for the first time this year with the following results: World-wide: Tauranga Girls’ College was 14th overall out of 876 schools. Nadia Snegirev was 58th overall out of more than 20 000 competitors. New Zealand-wide: Tauranga Girls’ College was 3rd overall out of 253 schools, Nadia 17th in New Zealand. BOP-wide: Tauranga Girls’ College 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, Hojeong Chang, Shari Webber and Ellie Faulkner (all year 10) were the top 4 overall students in the BOP.
Outstanding Music Successes On Friday our musicians did very well in their regional 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!