B
TERM 3 WEEK 5 21 August 2019
NETBALL CHAMPIONS! After a nailbiting game against Massey High School last night, our Premier 1 netball girls emerged victorious to take the Netball Waitakere Premier One championships title - for the second year running! Their 44-41 victory is the latest success in what has been an excellent season for Avondale College netball; last week our Premier 2 team also won their division, and the double win has made the history books as the first time one school has won both Premier championships since 2002! Coach Rachel Rasmussen, herself an Avcol alumna and former national representative, says the double victory represents much hard work, and a strategic focus on taking netball at Avondale College to the next level. "As a coach, it is most rewarding to see the development of Avondale College netball over the past two years. We have players who have come through from the Year 9 Academy right through into the premier sides. The girls have worked really hard all season and have been very competitive at trainings. We have set high expectations of the premier squads - they train together - and they have put in so much effort, which has really paid off." The girls will take a few weeks to enjoy the win before embarking on the next step of their journey: the upcoming UNISS Netball Championships in September. Their ultimate goal, though, is to compete at Nationals - with last night's victory setting them firmly on the path towards achieving this.
KBB MUSIC AWARDS Involving over 4000 young musicians Auckland-wide, the KBB Music Festival is the largest regional youth music event in New Zealand. This year Avondale College was one of the most highly represented schools at the competition, with six different groups. We were one of the only schools to bring two orchestras and two big bands to the competition; and all six of our groups received awards, including two Golds, two Silvers, a Bronze and a Highly Commended! The adjudicated performances were all highly successful, with our Premiere Strings Ensemble (directed by Dave Snelling) not only receiving a Gold award, but being invited to perform at the Gala Concert on Saturday afternoon, after being recognised as one of the top four chamber orchestras in Auckland. Our Avondale College Big Band (led by David Edmundson) also received a Gold award, which means they scored between 85%-100% in the adjudication, and as the judging criteria states, delivered their performance "with exceptional accuracy and fluency, secure and superior technical skills, consistent balance and sensitive musicianship, and effective and convincing presentation skills... The [group] is performing at a level beyond that which is expected of a secondary school ensemble of this type." In addition to the two Gold awards, both our Aspire Big Band (led by Mr Mike Robinson) and the Avondale College Symphony Orchestra (led by Mr Mathew Stenbo) won Silver, our Preparatory Strings Group (led by Dave Snelling) were placed in the top half of 30 chamber groups to receive a Bronze award, and our Taikaka junior orchestra (led by Mr Jeff Thomson) received a Highly Commended award. Congratulations to all our students and staff on achieving such a high standard of performance!
FOR MORE INFORMATION ON SCHOOL ACTIVITIES PLEASE VISIT OUR WEBSITE WWW.AVCOL.SCHOOL.NZ THIS WEEKLY NEWSLETTER IS AVAILABLE ON OUR SCHOOL INTRANET WELCOME.AVCOL.SCHOOL.NZ