Education: Takapuna Grammar
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Head Girl carries on with tradition A Certificate of Exceptional Merit has been awarded to Takapuna Grammar Head Girl Mattea Mrkusic in a national essay contest, continuing a seven year run of successes in the Rodney Walshe Ireland essay competition. Three of her classmates: Rachel Love, Grace Single and Rachel Cho have also won Special Certificates of Merit this year. In the past seven years TGS students have won two second, and three third prizes and eleven exceptional, outstanding, and special, certificates of merit. This is a record unequalled in the country. To acknowledge the school’s record in this prestigious competition, now in its 21st year, Honorary Consul General of Ireland, Rodney Walshe, has created a special Certificate of acknowledgment and will visit the school to present it. Two previous second prize winners, Jennifer Matthews (2009) and Harriet RobinsonChen (2011) came close to taking out the top award; an all-expenses paid trip to Dublin for one month, and there was hope that this might be the year for TGS to produce the winning entry. It is an extra-curricular activity and involves the writers in researching a topic with some connection to Ireland and composing an essay of 1200 words. Mattea chose to tell the story of Bobby Sands, Rachel Love wrote about the oral tradition of Ireland’s story tellers, Rachel Cho investigated Irish stereotypes, and Grace Single revealed details of the life of George Bernard Shaw. All their essays are on www.ireland.co.nz under Scholarships and Awards. Do read them! They all demonstrate that our best students are literate and highly articulate.
Our welcome to
The Wilson Home
Takapuna Grammar Ireland essay award winners Rachel Cho, Rachel Love (back), Mattea Mrkusic, Grace Single (front).
I See Red! When the Red Cross held their annual appeal week TGS students donned red t-shirts, grabbed collection buckets and lent a helping hand. Over the course of the week, a group of volunteer students adopted a collection bucket to scoop people’s loose change, and topped the week off with a very successful bake sale, raising more than $300. On the Friday and Saturday, they “spread the red” through Devonport, setting up a main public collection site at Devonport New World, with other students situated up and down the main street. The response was wonderful, with the little Rolly Dog soft toys donated by Purex proving a huge hit with the littlies. Students clocked up over six hours of volunteer work, and according to one collector, “every second of which was absolutely worth it. The donations were generous and frequent, and really heart- warming.” – Rachel Love
There is a special, long standing, and important, bond between Takapuna Grammar and the Wilson Home Trust. Recently, its director, Russell Ness, decided to have a formal ceremony to acknowledge this link and to thank the school and students for their on-going contributions. Over the years, the school’s students have painted murals, organised functions for the children, assisted with the crèche and much more, often outside of school hours but Ness described the procedure as “always coming in the back door to work but never being invited up to the front room”. Following a powhiri, the prefects performed the new school song for the first time and the haka, there was a blessing for the kai, and now, the students feel like they have been invited into the front room! – Aless Smith
ASPIRING TO PERSONAL EXCELLENCE
Takapuna Grammar School, 210 Lake Rd, PO Box 33 1096 Takapuna, Auckland, New Zealand Tel: 09 489 4167 Fax: 09 486 7118 Email: office@takapuna.school.nz Website: www.takapunagrammar.school.nz
www.channelmag.co.nz Issue 22 - JUNE 2012
Rachel Love