Kaleidoscope Issue 60

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Prefect Camp

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INSIDE: ECE Service of Excellence Mindfulness in the Middle School Academic Planning: A New Way Foward

Photo Credit: Getty Images

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Youth Olympics

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From the Board

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Whole School News

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Alumni

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International News

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Junior School News

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Middle School News

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Senior School News

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Performing Arts

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Sports News

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Advertising

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Publishing Kaleidoscope is published by the Department of School Relations of Kristin School and distributed to the wider school community.

For all advertising and general enquiries please contact the Editorial Team: Pamela Peryman and Lucy Wilson Telephone: +64 9 415 9566 Email: kristin@kristin.school.nz Design and Artwork: Anne Vindriis, Benefitz Telephone: +64 9 477 4700 Printing: Benefitz Web: www.benefitz.co.nz

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t has been an exciting year for two of our top athletes, who travelled to the Youth Olympics in Nanjing, China to represent New Zealand in August. Robbie Capizzi was a member of the New Zealand Men’s Hockey team and Cameron McTaggart competed in Weightlifting.

To perform at this level takes immense commitment, dedication and hard work, and we commend Robbie and Cameron for their success. Both of these boys showed brilliant form in the lead-up and subsequent to this event. They have bright futures and we look forward to following their progress as they continue to pursue their sporting goals.

Hockey Robbie Capizzi and his team-mates marched through their pool unbeaten in Nanjing, with Robbie contributing regularly on the score sheet. Eventually the Kiwi team finished 6th after losing to Pakistan, a team with whom they drew 6-all in pool play earlier in the week. Robbie worked incredibly hard at the Youth Olympics and we are all very proud of his achievements.

Weightlifting Cameron McTaggart broke his own New Zealand Youth 69kg Weightlifting clean and jerk record in Nanjing. He was one of only five to succeed on all three of their attempts, first lifting 125kg, then 128kg, before his record-breaking 131kg. Cameron recorded an overall 238kg to finish 10th.

Afterwards he said he learned a lot from the experience and intends to continue striving to improve his strength and achieve future successes.

Cherry Webster, Director of Sport

School Tours We are very happy to organise tours for prospective students and their families. Please visit our website for scheduled tour times or contact the Registrar, Linda Teagle, admissions@kristin.school.nz or 09 415 9566 ext 2324 to arrange a personal visit.

board from the

Future Ready

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nother year is drawing to a close.

In the ’mature ’ mind (euphemistically speaking) there will likely be this prosaic and trite thought – how on earth can it be that in a few short weeks it will again be Christmas? But, in the minds of those of our young people who are knuckling down to face end-of-year examinations, there is likely to be a whirl of troubling thoughts and fears what’s the point? What does the future hold?

None of us know the answers to such questions. In truth, no young person expects us to. But a different – and more important – question is this: are we preparing our young people for what the future holds? This question focuses on what is within our control.

In response to the commitment to making our students ’future ready’, Kristin strives to adapt its offerings to meet student needs. The philosophy underpinning this strategic objective is one which the school has long held – namely that the world of the future will not demand its citizens to have a repository of static knowledge, but rather will require a range of flexible skills to adapt to change by finding, analysing and using knowledge creatively.

Kristin also strives to constantly change to meet student needs and predicting what those needs will be as they eventually enter adult life. A small sample of our initiatives this year include: • In the Junior School, the strengthening of creativity (a key future-ready skill) by the introduction of Visual Art as a specialist lesson. Exhibition electives in Year 6 included Robotics, Digital Media, Gaming and Programming. The New Zealand-developed web-based application Storypark enables the instant uploading of real-time events – a picture or a video and a message (to parents and family members) – and is proving a highly useful classroom tool on the iPad. •

The Middle School has engaged cognitive reading strategies based on the work of Sheena Cameron, a well-known New Zealand educator. The ’Well Within’ programme, which contains a number of components all aiming to increase student resilience and happiness, has been highly successful as well. One component of that programme - the mindfulness teaching trial in Year 8 – will be extended to all Year 7 and 8 students in 2015. Another is the Odyssey 21day experience on the Whanganui River, in which students disconnected from technology, family and school life to discover who they are and what they are capable of.

• This year the Senior School, which has had an NCEA pathway in this area for many years, has introduced Computer Science to the IB curriculum for 2015. This will enable our IB students to enjoy enhanced future pathways in technology-based careers. In addition, 2015 will see an enhanced modern teaching environment within which all digital technology subjects will be taught. Other initiatives include the hugely exciting US Study Tour programme. Kristin is one of a very small number of schools that has been given an opportunity to nominate students to attend a three-week, all expenses paid, educational exchange to the US.

• At a whole-school level, we opened the Canon Cloud Suite.

Already it has proved its value as a teaching space and a pedagogical tool. It is currently booked 76% of the time.

What is particularly pleasing is that its use is spread across all year levels. I would like to again acknowledge the very generous support of our sponsor, Canon, and the enormous contribution of the parents on the Cloud Suite Committee, Tracy Morgan, Ian Watson and Khalid Naseem, who worked so hard to bring about this exciting innovation.

• Kristin will shortly announce the appointment of a Head of Differentiated Teaching and Learning. This will provide us with an in-house specialist to lead the team of enrichment staff across all three schools. The objective is to ensure that students across the learner spectrum are assisted to overcome any barriers to learning and develop their full potential throughout their years at Kristin.

• While professional learning and development remains something of a political ’hot potato’ in the state sector, Kristin continues to benefit from having teaching professionals in all schools who willingly embrace enhanced professional development opportunities.

• Following the introduction of extended (and flexible) opening hours in the Kindergarten, we have seen a significant strengthening in roll numbers, to the point where there is now a waiting list.

• This year we saw the completion of the new Medical Centre.

This is a key element of the widening of Albany Highway and the creation of the signalised intersection to Kristin. Not only does this help to future-proof access to the school but it also provides an income stream independent of parent fees.

In the middle of the year we said farewell to Mr Peter Clague. Kristin’s new Executive Principal, Tim Oughton, does not officially start in this role until Term 1 2015. Until then the Principals of the three schools have worked as a collective to be responsible for the management of the school. It has been a pleasure for me to work closely with such a fine group of highly skilled professionals. They have enthusiastically taken on and collaboratively discharged a number of additional responsibilities placed on them during this interim period. I am extremely grateful for everything they have done over the last two terms.

I wish you all a happy Christmas and New Year break. For those students who are leaving us to venture into the future, all the best for what lies ahead and a final thought: “Our future will be shaped by the assumptions we make about who we are and what we can be” (Rosabeth Moss Kanter).

Philippa Fee Chairman

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news whole school

Farewell Peter Clague

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ourteen years can be a lot or a little depending on your perspective.

For a teenager, it is a lifespan. All things appear as new challenges, and restrictions imposed by youth can frustrate or inspire. For parents, those same years can fly by. In the context of a school, 14 years can bring growth and success, challenges and hardship. It can be the difference between a good school and a world-class institution.

For the last 14 years, Kristin has grown under the strong leadership of Peter Clague, and in the final weeks of Term 2, the school community came together to offer thanks for his years of service to Kristin School.

A series of events was held to allow all members of the community to say their goodbyes, starting with an afternoon tea for Kristin Family and Friends. Among the guests were a number of past Kristin parents, board members and friends of the school, including Stephen Lloyd who spoke of Peter’s lasting contribution to Kristin’s students, teachers, community and environment. In a quote that would be featured throughout the farewell events, he recited the words of Nicholas Henderson: “The true meaning of life is to plant trees under whose shade you do not expect to live.”

Two assemblies were held over the final days of term; the first was a shared occasion for Junior and Middle School students and staff, and the second for the Senior School, Alumni and special guests. Students, principals and board members shared heartfelt messages of thanks and 2

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a series of musical performances captured the huge contribution that Mr Clague has made to the school during his time here. Included in the line-up were seven Kristin Alumni (Madison Cooper, Guy Davis, Hamish Mouat, Hamish Polson, Catherine Rood, Emily Scott and Sean Topham – star performers from Kristin’s Night of Stars) who performed a moving rendition of For Good from the musical Wicked. The final assembly culminated in a powerful haka, led by Year 13 student Tom MacFarlaine.

A chapel service was held also, on the final day of term, with Reverend Ian Gow returning to Kristin to honour Mr Clague’s contribution to our community. A small group of former head prefects attended the service as well and were joined by over 50 past students for a special Alumni function that followed the Senior School Assembly. Antoni Tisot (PY 2008) spoke on behalf of the group to thank Mr Clague for his inspired leadership and the huge impact he has made to the life of every student under his watch.

It was fitting that alongside the farewells of the Kristin community, Mr Clague’s many years of service to education in New Zealand were also recognised by Independent Schools New Zealand (ISNZ). At the ISNZ Conference this year, Mr Clague was awarded the ISNZ Distinguished Services Award for leadership and service in the Independent Schools sector. He is only the third recipient of this notable award, which was granted posthumously in 2012 to former Kristin Principal Claudia Wysocki.

International Baccalaureate Specialists

Canon Cloud Suite Kristin students who are passionate about creative technologies now have access to a new and exciting suite of opportunities. In June we opened a brand-new facility that has been developed to provide students with the tools, space and inspiration to explore the world of multimedia, and it is set to become a hub of creative technologies at Kristin.

Opened on 18 June by New Zealand actor Karl Urban (Lord of the Rings, Star Trek), the Canon Cloud Suite features a nine-metre-wide green screen and professional-grade film, lighting, sound and post-production equipment, and the latest digital video cameras from Canon, including the Canon C100 and XF205.

At the opening of the facility, Karl Urban spoke passionately about the work that can be done by students with the tools they now have at their disposal. Referencing film greats such as Steven Spielberg and J.J. Abrams, two world-renowned directors who began making short films in their teenage years, Mr Urban urged students to get creating. “Don’t wait to leave school to start your careers. If this is what you are interested in, start now.”

Deputy Head Boy and TEDxYouth speaker, Christian Silver, gave a compelling presentation about the risks associated with relying on ‘out of the box’ and easily accessible tools such as Instagram or iMovie in regard to creativity. “When the software is doing everything for us, we don’t develop our creative skills with technology… we so easily become complacent.

There is no bypassing the creative process. With the Canon Cloud Suite, there is no longer a gatekeeper to the world of industry-standard software. It’s open for everyone and the process is exposed… we’re now able to create beautiful things in the digital world, using all the tools that are available to us.”

As well as providing the latest camera technology for the Canon Cloud Suite, the partnership with Canon will provide students with extensive technical support, exposure to the latest products and trends, and the opportunity to participate in industry-related exhibitions and competitions.

In the months since the facility opened, it has been exceptionally well utilised by all areas of the school. Kindergarten classes have created videos to extend and demonstrate their numeracy skills, Year 6 students have explored their Exhibition inquiries through collaborative storyboarding and video production, Middle and Senior School classes across all faculties have used the studio as a backdrop for their learning, and an extension programme has enabled staff to up-skill in new technologies. The new professional-grade equipment has also enabled the Performing Arts team to produce HD recordings of recent productions so families can share the theatre experience with friends and relatives.

With usage growing by the week and the facility currently booked 76% of the time, it is clear that the development of the Canon Cloud Suite will meet the growing demand for creative technologies here at Kristin. The introduction of a new teaching space for all computer science subjects in 2015 will further support this shift towards innovation, creativity and technology in all aspects of classroom learning.

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ver 160 parents from across Auckland attended a special International Baccalaureate (IB) Information Evening, held at Kristin on 19 August. Delivered

by IB representatives and specialists from IB Asia Pacific in Singapore and open to all parents interested in an IB education for their children, the presentation provided an overview of the IB philosophy and continuum of internationally recognised programmes.

The focus was on the IB’s unique approach to teaching and learning, which is applied across the Primary Years Programme (PYP), Middle Years Programme (MYP) and IB Diploma.

Ashish Trivedi, Regional Schools Services Manager for the MYP, gave parents an overview of the latest research supporting this globally renowned approach to education. Stefanie Leong, Head of Development and Recognition in the Asia Pacific region, discussed global university recognition of the Diploma and was also on hand to answer questions from parents about the three IB programmes.

In addition to the information evening, a second session was held concurrently for teachers of the PYP. Delivered by Marcia Behrenbruch, Regional Head of School Services in the Asia Pacific, the workshop was an opportunity for PYP teachers to further develop their knowledge of the different ways that inquiry can drive Science and Mathematics in PYP schools. The 35 teachers who attended from schools around Auckland left with a wide range of new ideas to implement in their programmes.

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Whole School News

Blokes’ Breakfast A beautiful, albeit chilly, winter’s morning brought with it a sizeable crowd of Kristin fathers and sons for our Blokes’ Breakfast on 29 August. Drawn by the promise of bacon, eggs and an extensive display of Big Boys’ Toys, the guys (and a few girls) enjoyed the opportunity to get a closer look at some of the immaculate cars, bikes and boats on show.

As well as inspecting the Maserati, Austin Healey and Mercedes (to name but a few of the amazing vehicles on display), the purpose of the event was to promote some good old-fashioned male bonding while supporting a very worthwhile cause – Ronald McDonald House.

Ronald McDonald House CEO Wayne Howett was in attendance and gave a compelling insight into the work of the charity, which provides a home away from home for hundreds of Kiwi families in what are possibly the hardest days of their lives. Over $470 was raised for Ronald McDonald House Auckland through the morning’s collection.

We’d like to offer our sincere thanks and gratitude to everyone who came along and contributed to this worthy cause, especially to the families who brought along vehicles for the display. It was a fantastic morning, enjoyed by all.

Kristin Family and Friends

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eeping our Kristin parents well informed and up to date on what’s going on at school is one of the main functions of Kristin Family and Friends (KFF). Our regular meetings provide a great opportunity for parents to get together, hear relevant news from the school and attend specialist presentations, and over the past few terms we have had some very interesting speakers at these meetings.

We have heard from the Middle School about the Pasifika Project’s trip to Samoa and have enjoyed a very informative talk by our community constable, Michelle Bluemel, on cybersafety for students. We always endeavour to make our meetings relevant and informative, and a tour of the newly opened Canon Cloud Suite truly delivered on this objective.

This fascinating high-tech media facility would be the envy of schools across the country, and giving parents the opportunity to experiment with the green screen technology really emphasised the boundless opportunities that now exist for our children to explore creativity in all areas of their learning.

At the end of Term 2, KFF had its own special opportunity to farewell Peter Clague at an afternoon tea in the LIC foyer. A homespun New Zealand mohair and opossum throw was gifted on behalf of the KFF, symbolising the importance of family here at Kristin. We wish Peter all the best for his new position.

An outing to visit the sculptures and art work at Pah Homestead in June

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was enjoyed by small a group of parents, and the prayer and walking groups continue to encourage friendship and support within our school community.

Another aspect of KFF that is so very important is the welcoming of new families to the school. Our class co-ordinators continue to do an amazing job, making contact with our new families and providing a friendly face as they find their way around life here at Kristin. Regular afternoon teas or informal coffee mornings are a great way to help many new parents make friends and feel at home here in our school community.

We continue to grow the online resources we have available for parents, including a vast Frequently Asked Questions section on the website. We welcome any suggestions from families who would like to contribute to this helpful feature, which has become a brilliant resource for families new to the school.

As I near the end of my tenure as KFF Chairman it has been a thrill to serve the Kristin community and I thank you all for your support and friendship over the years. This is a very special school, and while we won’t be here as often after my fourth child graduates from Year 13 at the end of this term, I cherish the fact that our family will always be a part of this wonderful community.

Priscilla Collins Chairman, KFF

alumni Emerging Artist - Emily Scott

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alented soprano Emily Scott (PY 2007) has been selected for a prestigious Freemasons Dame Malvina Major Emerging Artist Internship with New Zealand Opera. The 25 year old, who is in her final year of a Bachelor of Music at The University of Auckland, was announced as one of five aspiring performers selected to receive the prestigious award earlier this year.

The Freemasons Dame Malvina Major Emerging Artist Internship is run by New Zealand Opera with funding from the Freemasons Roskill Foundation and the Dame Malvina Major Foundation. It aims to assist young artists in developing skills for a professional career in opera by exposing them to a learning environment where the emphasis is on practical experience within the professional world of opera. Emily will be learning from the best and will receive personal vocal tuition from Dame Malvina Major as well as many other talented and experienced opera practitioners.

Emily auditioned for the internship on the recommendation of her performance teacher, and was surprised when she was selected. In an interview for The University of Auckland she said, “One judge asked me if I’d ever sung in an opera before and I had to confess that I hadn’t.

I realised then that I was probably one of the most inexperienced people to audition and was glad that I had chosen two intense contrasting pieces in the hope that the panel would see some potential in me.”

To be selected for this internship has been a fantastic and defining moment in Emily’s fledgling operatic career. Already she has had the opportunity to perform alongside international opera stars in two of New

Zealand Opera’s 2014 productions. In June she sang as part of the Chapman Tripp Opera Chorus for La Traviata, and in September took on the challenge of Mozart’s Don Giovanni.

In this modern interpretation of the iconic opera, Emily played four parts – a paramedic, an escort, a bridesmaid and a dancer. She underwent specialist training in preparation for her performance, which not only included challenging vocals but also a demanding dance scene where she was elevated high above the stage. She continues to gain acclaim for her work, also winning the esteemed Ronald Dellow Memorial Vocal Recital Competition for singers aged 17 to 28 years, in August.

Emily has returned to perform at Kristin twice over recent years; she was a star performer in our Alumni Night of Stars in 2013, which marked Kristin’s 40th anniversary, and returned with members of the same cast to sing at Peter Clague’s Farewell Assembly at the end of Term 2 this year.

She maintains close ties with Kristin and credits her parents’ decision to enrol her at the age of 10 as one of the best things they could ever have done for her. “Kristin was a great source of inspiration and opportunity,” she says.

“I feel as though my passion for performance really derived from my time there.

“I was present in everything musical I could be part of; jazz bands, choirs, musicals, drama classes, theatre productions, and it was at Kristin that I met some of the biggest influences for my career, Nick and Shelagh Richardson.

Nick was Head of Department for Music, and Shelagh was our vocal coach. I also spent a year after school being tutored by Shelagh at a time when I felt unsure of my future in performance.

It was Shelagh who gave me my first aria and I fell in love instantly with the depth and intensity as well as the challenge this new genre offered me.”

When Don Giovanni closes in October, Emily will spend six months working closely with New Zealand Opera, receiving vocal, stagecraft and language coaching as well as performing.

In 2015 she will complete her Honours degree at The University of Auckland before heading overseas to begin a Master’s degree.

Since making the decision to embrace opera, Emily has never looked back. “I have learned not only about the operatic and classical genres, but also about language, technique and, most importantly, about myself as a person through the experiences I have been fortunate enough to receive.

“This new venture, which sees me as part of the New Zealand Opera Company, has cemented the belief that I am in the right place at the right time in my life and have truly found what I was destined to do. I feel as though I am on the first leg of my journey of what will be the rest of my life and career as a professional vocalist.”

A Tale of Two Gavroches

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he historical importance of this year’s production of Les Misérables extended to some very significant personal connections.

Young Gregor Burns (Year 5) played the role of Gavroche with fervour and to great acclaim. At one of the season’s performances there was one very special audience member watching him - Kristin’s Gavroche of 2005, Sean Topham (PY 2008).

Following the performance, Sean came backstage to meet Gregor. He was wearing the very cap he had worn as Gavroche in 2005. Gregor and Sean then went on set together to stand in Gavroche’s very special place where he sings: “And my theatre’s always open and the curtain’s never closed.” In the spirit of these words, the Les Mis link merged two moments in Kristin theatre that spanned almost a decade.

Lorna Rood Director of Performing Arts

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news international

International

Welcomes & Farewells

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his year, we have a record number of 61 International students hailing from 13 different countries, including our very first student from Vietnam, Do Lihn Chu. In the last two terms, we farewelled Helena Becker, Julius David, Moritz Off and Nicolas Schommer from Germany, Michelle Han from mainland China, Kevin Shen from Taiwan, Chae-Won Jung from Korea, Benedetta Lasagno from Italy, Johanna Hoeppel from Austria and Emma Pineau from Tahiti, French Polynesia. No doubt their families and friends were delighted to have them home; however, for the Kristin community, their stay was far too short.

In Term 3, we welcomed Sophia Arnhold from Brazil, Beatrice Gavino from Italy, Valentina Johannson, Lara Schlieben and Vivien Vollmer from Germany, Anastasia Petrenko from Russia, David Guo, Cherry Lai, Rui Ming and Haoshu Wang from China, and the three Yoo brothers from Korea: Do Hyun, Joo Hyung and Daehyung. We hope all of them will take home great experiences and memories from their time at Kristin.

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Centre for Talented Youths During the July holidays I made my second journey to the summer programme at the Centre for Talented Youths (CTY) in the USA. Last year I was accepted to take part in Introduction to Bio-medical Science, and this year I was invited back to take part in the Fast-paced High School Chemistry programme.

This class focused mainly on the subject of Chemistry itself, to an AP college level (an advanced US programme of education, similar to IB). Founded by Johns Hopkins University, its aim is to enable students from all around the world to go deeper into academic knowledge, and motivate them to inquire further. A test is given at the beginning and at the end of the programme to see and reflect on whether students have taken a step further.

CTY has changed the way I think, both intellectually and critically. This is thanks to many labs that took place over the course, and the explanations and guidance of experienced teachers. As our instructor said, “We can’t look at only one tree, but we must see a whole forest to really understand a student’s progress.” For each class, there is an instructor who serves to be the main ‘teacher’ of the subject. These tutors are volunteers who are selected from colleges all around America. Each class also has a Teacher’s Assistant who helps the instructor and students in any way they can, whether that be showing students how to solve specific problems or setting up the lab for us.

By having two teachers in the room, each with great knowledge of the subject, the class becomes a great environment in which to learn. Both teachers are highly experienced and, what’s more, extremely friendly to approach!

Having friendly teachers also helps students to be friendly towards each other. This is what makes students more passionate to learn through social life. By having fun with similarly eager people in one campus site, everyone is able to bond and share experience and passion. The students and staff make it all the more unique. They were all friendly, passionate, and co-operative - I couldn’t have asked for better people to meet and study with.

My experience at CTY made me think about the IB learner profile. While I was taking part in the programme this year, I had to be an inquirer, risk-taker and a good communicator.

I also had to be open-minded, caring and reflective. Spending time in class made me realise that I should never take my study environment for granted. This kind of supportive environment doesn’t happen without the principled aim and effort from teachers and students.

I am thankful for all the wonderful memories and useful knowledge CTY has given me and I am also grateful and proud to be a student at Kristin. Through this, I hope that I can do my best to pursue my dreams and passions in my future endeavours.

Jung Woo Bae

This year in the Japanese Club

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rom Sumo to Sushi, the Japanese Club has had the cultural spectrum covered in what has been an amazing year for our club. Students from across all schools, all year levels and nationalities have enjoyed participating and witnessing the club in its many forms, with our presence increasingly prevalent within the school.

As a result of the collaborative efforts of our club members, Mrs Ogata, our wonderful Japanese exchange students and the Japanese parents of the school, we have been able to participate in community events through the preparation and selling of food, sports, dancing, crafts and weekly cultural activities. Anyone who witnessed the Bon Odori and Soran Bushi dances at International Peace Night or Designz would agree that, from graceful performers to the dance of the fishermen, our club members did justice to the stunning, diverse facets of Japan’s culture.

However, we are perhaps more commonly recognised for our presence, or perhaps I should say the presence of sushi, at International Food Day! Dressed in traditional Japanese clothing with authentic market signs made by talented club members, we sold the masses of food that the Japanese Parents Committee had carefully made.

Weekly preparation for events like International Food Day also offer an opportunity for the club to enjoy making origami, playing Japanese games and watching Japanese films, to name just a few of our activities. These afternoons provide a chance for our exchange students to get a taste of home too.

With a desire to give Japanese a continued presence in the school, we have pooled the interests and talents of the club to ensure all of our activities encapsulate Japanese culture to the highestpossible standard. For our club members it has been an amazing year of learning, organising and enjoying the Japanese culture and watching it thrive within the school.

Declan Weir

Dovetail to

Buenos Aires Buenos Aires is 10,348 kilometres from Auckland. It takes two flights, and 16 hours of travelling to reach. The primary language is Spanish, and English, although spoken by some, is not widely known. Rewind two years and I would never have guessed that I would be getting on a plane with Lucy Clumpas and travelling all the way to Buenos Aires, Argentina – a country I had never visited before, with a language I had only marginal knowledge of.

That, however, is exactly what happened on 29 March this year.

We arrived in Buenos Aires, both apprehensive and excited about what the month ahead would hold. And there is no doubt; it was one of the most eventful and exciting months of my life.

I learnt so much about a culture and language

that were previously almost totally unknown to me. I made friends who I know I’ll keep for a lifetime, and not only that, but I also gained a second family halfway around the world. I experienced what it means to attend a music festival in Argentina, learnt how to survive going to school for eight-and-a-half hours a day, and became used to eating dinner at 10pm.

I got to spend a month exploring an amazing city, one that is so different from anywhere in New Zealand. Buenos Aires is so rich in history and culture, and so wildly different from Auckland. My month in Argentina not only allowed me the opportunity to experience a new culture, but also helped me appreciate home that much more.

Molly Codyre

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Pasifika Project

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y anyone’s standards, three weeks is a long time. When travelling with a group of people for such a length of time, it forces you to become a tight-knit community where you each understand the others’ attributes and flaws.

During the Term 2 holidays, 19 Kristin students, along with Mrs Newbold, Mr Taylor and Mr Murray (with visits from Mr Ah Sam, Mr Heath, Mr Kelly and Mrs Patchett) had the chance to experience the closeness that comes with an overseas trip of this duration in the beautiful land of Samoa. The Pasifika Project was established as a connection between Poutasi Village in Samoa and Kristin, and the partnership is now stronger than ever.

General life in the village was what I imagine living with a permanent power cut would be like. Technology was hard to come by, with an advanced mobile phone being a Nokia ‘brick’ and shower blocks being the ocean. On a short walk up the street you could feel your nostrils filling with the smell of smoke, as all food was cooked in an ‘Umu’ – the Samoan hangi that is cooked above, not below, the ground. I got to experience this process first-hand when I went to my buddy’s house to see his way of life. This was a new experience for me, and one that I am grateful to have had.

Something that I will cherish for the rest of my life was the moment we started to give the students and teachers (from the schools of Poutasi) the donations which we had brought from New Zealand. The items that we presented, made possible through numerous generous donations, delighted everyone beyond measure. This was also a lesson to me, not only about the feelings of exultation that come from giving, but in gaining a deeper understanding of what giving really means. People say the point of giving is to expect nothing back. I do not agree with this. You can expect to get something back: you gain new experiences, ideas, friends,

a bigger heart and the pleasure of knowing that you’ve done something to be really proud of.

The Samoan people are very much about giving; it’s second nature to them. And the way the schools could give back to us was to provide us with meals. These incredibly generous banquets were so large, not even nine starving boys and ten ravenous girls could finish them! These meals usually included large amounts of a seemingly tasteless, potatolike root called Taro. When cooked in coconut cream, this root becomes a delicious, creamy, rich cake, which we all came to enjoy. I think my stomach had doubled in size by the time I arrived back home!

These demonstrations of generosity reoccurred when we said our farewells at the schools. Children ran around smiling, cheering, waving, laughing, hugging and sometimes crying. Despite the general student body being less well off, every single person in the schools brought in a farewell gift for us. People with so little were opening their hearts and giving to the ‘Papaalagi’ who they’d only known for a week or two. This was a humbling experience and something I have definitely learnt from.

I always thought leaving home and immersing myself in another culture would be easy. I like to think of myself as independent; so, logically, the trip would be easy - right? This did not end up being the case. Despite having the time of my life and learning so many things that just cannot be taught in a classroom, in the back of my mind was always home, with my family, friends, technology, hot showers and my own bedroom. When the plane touched down again in New Zealand, we were tired and ready to greet all of these things again with open arms. But we were different people from who we were when we left. The trip had provided us with the opportunity to experience a different lifestyle; something that has better prepared us for whatever our future may hold.

Adam Sinclair

K-Force Robotics Trip to Canberra Between 22 and 25 August, 11 students from our K-Force Robotics team flew to Canberra to attend the first VEX Robotics scrimmage between Australia and New Zealand. The event was sponsored by Northrop Grumman with the aim of establishing VEX Robotics in Australia. The New Zealand teams helped to mentor teams from Melbourne, Sydney and Canberra in friendly competition and workshop sessions to enable the Australian teams to return to their home cities and establish their own competitions.

On the first day, we arrived and set up at Dickson College before taking a tour of the school’s technology department. The scrimmage and workshops were then held

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over the following two days. Students competed, learned from each other and networked, while teachers discussed strategies to ensure the success of the VEX competition in Australia.

At the end of the event our team visited the Australian War Memorial Museum where we were honoured to be able to participate in the Last Post ceremony. Our oldest and youngest students, Marco Tyler-Rodrigue and Matteo Mazer, laid a wreath at the reflection pool to remember all the fallen soldiers.

Finally, on the fourth day, we visited the Australian Institute of Sport and the Questacon, which is the national science and technology centre. We learnt a lot about

technology, chemistry, physics and physiology in an engaging and interactive environment.

We had a lot of fun traveling to Canberra to help the Aussies; we learnt a lot and hopefully we will compete with Australian teams in future trans-Tasman competitions.

Ethan Bull

International News

Junior School Beijing Cultural Tour

T International Peace Night

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nternational Peace Night 2014, Life in Technicolour, dazzled, awed and inspired.

But this annual event also plays a much greater role. It teaches students, staff, alumni and parents to respect and love the cultural diversity Kristin and the greater community have to offer, and it asks us to maintain a very fragile yet ever-strengthening notion of world peace.

The successful collaboration between the International Committee and UNESCO Club produced another extraordinary and breathtaking concert of cultural celebration.

For the past few years, part of the money raised from IPN has been donated to the Imani Children’s Trust, a charity which aims to fund the education of children in The Democratic Republic of Congo. This year, we continued our commitment to this wonderful cause as the entire $2,650 raised was donated to the Trust, established by Kristin teacher Mr Riseborough and his team four years ago.

Kristin is well known for its widespread community service and internationalism, and IPN encompasses both aspects at the optimal level. It was wonderful seeing the students, staff, parents and alumni in the audience enjoying the nights of vibrant talent. The highcalibre performances were both creative and evocative, promoting the ideals of world peace and cultural diversity.

On behalf of the International Committee and UNESCO, we would like thank everyone for their continued support and guidance, and may this unique concert continue to prosper and flourish for many more years to come.

Elizabeth Lunn and Vincent Hou, International Committee, and Anna Zhigareva and Jenny Lei, UNESCO Club

he walls of Auckland Airport’s International Terminal were still ringing hours after the Beijing Tour members had performed their haka in front of the departure gates and left on an adventure of a lifetime.

When the entertainment system stopped working 60 minutes into the flight it was not looking good. Conveniently, Singapore Airlines came to the party with vouchers that could be spent on in-flight shopping, which entertained the group as they flew to Singapore. A quick change of planes and we arrived in Beijing ready to experience the sights, sounds and smells of this unique cultural metropolis.

Our trip to the New Zealand Embassy was an experience that was not to be missed.

Graci Kim – an ex-Kristin student and diplomat – hosted us, and after hearing a little about what the embassy does we were able to share some of the things we had seen on our travels and raise the roof with another rousing haka.

We encountered amazing people at every turn. No sooner had we said goodbye to Graci than we bumped into the grandparents of a current Kristin Middle School student while shopping in the markets. They recognised our hats and came over to say hello! Another person who left a lasting impression was Victor, our host during a thrilling rickshaw ride through the Hutong area of old Beijing. His enthusiasm for history and staying connected to the past, along with his animated delivery style, kept us spellbound. The icing on the cake, however, was the group of ladies who were visiting the Forbidden City from southern China. This was their first time to Beijing, and the first time they had seen Western people.

They were fascinated by our appearance, likening us to beautiful fairies, and had to stroke our arms just to check we were real. It is the people who you meet that really make a trip like this worthwhile.

While the people kept us entertained, the history and vast scale of the places we visited meant that there was always something new to enjoy and explore.

Climbing the Great Wall was definitely a highlight, especially making it to the top and realising just how much work had been required to create this amazing structure.

Tiananmen Square was decorated, ready for a national holiday, and its ability to hold one million people was mind-blowing, as was the vast size of the Forbidden City and the number of people it must have taken to construct and then maintain it.

There were opportunities to practise our Chinese language skills, none more so than when shopping in the markets. When a stall owner had to ‘check with his boss’, we knew that our finely tuned bargaining skills had arrived close to the right price.

During the journey we spoke to the students about what they were experiencing, how they were growing as young people and the challenges they were embracing and overcoming. From making it to the top of the Great Wall to culinary and cultural shocks, the students embraced each new experience with courage, passion and enthusiasm.

Chairman Mao was right when he said ‘He who has not climbed the Great Wall is not a true man’, and we would like to think that this trip pushed all of us out of our comfort zones and brought us back home feeling wiser about ourselves and just what is possible for us to achieve.

Rob Hutton Assistant Principal, Junior School

ISSUE No. 60

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news junior school

PYP Exhibition

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t the start of Term 2 all the Year 6 classes started the biggest Inquiry of our lives. We had many meetings to confirm what we needed to do and what the Exhibition was about. Then when the term was about to end, we finalised our issues, our Central Ideas and our Lines of Inquiry. We also formed groups with other students in Year 6 who were interested in the same issue. The Exhibition was becoming real.

When Term 3 started we went straight into researching and note taking.

We started with our definitions, and then we went through our Lines of Inquiry. We turned our notes into a wide range of different pieces of work, all presented in interesting ways. We had everything from interactive models to competitions and quizzes, working hydro schemes, a cage so that you could feel what it was like to be in captivity, and badges about the rights of women.

While this was going on we also practised our staging (songs, dances, plays, videos and presentations) that were presented in Week 8 - to our parents in the evening and to the school during the afternoon.

When the hard work was done the fun began, showing all of the students in the Junior School what we had done and taking them on a tour of our static displays in the LIC Foyer. The Exhibition ended with the pack-down and the happy chattering of tired but satisfied Year 6 students on the Friday afternoon.

Anna Li and Leenie Kim

Coding and Game Design

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he next generation of computer programmers is coming to a classroom near you; in fact, some of them are already here. In the Junior School we are always looking for new and interesting ways to make mathematical concepts fun and engaging, and as our iPad programme evolves we are able to utilise new and innovative tools to deliver these ideas.

Throughout the year we have been testing a range of coding apps with a passionate group of young developers, and since the beginning of Term 4 we have begun to introduce these tools to classes throughout the Junior School. This exciting initiative will aid our students in improving their problem-solving and thinking skills, while challenging and stretching their mathematical ability.

In our introductory workshops the students used the ScratchJr and Hopscotch apps on their iPads to learn about the precise processes required for coding; they have been finding out how to follow instructions and then issuing instructions for others to

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follow, which is much more challenging than it sounds!

After their initial sessions on how the apps work the students were let loose on a series of different challenges, ranging from driving a car across the screen to making a cat dribble a basketball down a court or creating a dance party. When the basic commands and operations were mastered the task was set – can you make a computer game?

With user-friendly apps at their disposal, the students created a wide range of games.

Providing the skills and opportunities for the students then sitting back and watching what

they could create was very exciting for all of the teachers involved.

The PYP Exhibition was the first opportunity for the students to demonstrate their coding skills by creating something that related to the school curriculum and testing it out with fellow students. The Child Labour Challenge (which involved helping a child to escape from where they were employed and go to school instead) was a very popular activity. The ‘hard’ level was particularly challenging, even for its creators.

The success of this initial phase has been great to see. The students are excited to explore the world of coding and game design, and our teachers are eager to see the learning opportunities that will surely come as a result.

Our next step is to take these tools into the Kindergarten to see what the students there can create; no doubt the results will be amazing.

Rob Hutton Assistant Principal, Junior School

Year 2 Emergency ECE Service of Excellence

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ristin Kindergarten has been named as one of New Zealand’s leading early childhood education centres by the independent ECE information service, My ECE. Recognised for its quality programmes, specialist staff, personal family-oriented service, and ongoing commitment to excellence, our Kindergarten is one of only five centres in New Zealand to have been admitted to the ECE Academy of Excellence.

This is a wonderful acknowledgement of the outstanding work being done by our Kindergarten team members who provide such an invaluable first introduction to formal education to the very young children in their care. By taking the time to establish strong connections with each individual child and family, they uncover the unique gifts that each brings to the class. This wonderfully nurturing approach encourages a delightful natural curiosity and inquisitiveness, and sets them up well for their transition to school.

The My ECE report also highlighted the Kindergarten’s learning programmes as a unique feature of the centre, stating: “It focuses on the development of the whole child as an inquirer, both in the classroom and beyond”.

It is pleasing that the benefits of the

International Baccalaureate PYP model of inquiry-based learning are being recognised in early childhood education. The pace at which our young students develop is individual, so we are careful to manage the transition in a way that is in the best interests of the child. Our students transition to school exceptionally well, leaving the Kindergarten with the academic, social, physical and emotional skills to thrive in the Junior School, and beyond.

We are very proud of the service offered by the Kindergarten for children and their families, and we are committed to maintaining this standard of excellence.

Diana Patchett Junior School Principal

GET DOWN, GET LOW, GET OUT FAST! Year 2’s final inquiry for Term 2 looked into the structure and function of organisations that are here to help us.

Our central idea was ‘In communities there are special people who keep us safe’, and we looked at what we needed to do in an emergency. We sorted and classified what events were emergencies and who to call at the time of an emergency. We all practised how to dial 111 and did role-plays telling the operator what our emergency was and what emergency service we needed.

Part of our home learning was to learn our phone numbers and addresses off by heart, facts that all children need to remember.

We had visits from the police, the fire department and a paramedic. There was lots of interactive learning, resulting in a very successful inquiry. Here is what Joe Pilley had to say: Yesterday was the best day of my life because the firemen came. We got to see them dressed in their firefighting gear; it looked very heavy. It is all fireproof. The air tanks help them to breathe during a fire. They have super heavy hoses. We got to go in the fire truck and it smelt like smoke because they had been to a fire.

Then we got to squirt the hoses - it felt SPECTACULAR! When I am older I will be a firefighter.

Volcanoes and Natural Disasters Year 3’s Inquiry about ‘How the World Works’ led us to investigate the changes that happen to the Earth when there is a natural disaster and how we need to be prepared.

When we visited the Auckland Museum we were given a variety of items. Our task was to choose which ones were essential and would help us survive a disaster. Just like in a real emergency, we only had a few minutes to make our decisions. After some discussion, the key items were chosen and other pieces,

like warm fluffy slippers, discarded!

Another activity involved naming rock samples and identifying the different types of volcanoes that they would be associated with. Some were quite tricky but luckily we had a team of specialist scientists to help us.

The range of displays helped us to extend our learning and inspired us to question and wonder about our Earth and what actually is under our feet.

ISSUE No. 60

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100 Days at School

Book Character Day

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ook Character Day is always an exciting occasion for everyone in the Junior School, and this year it was held on the second Friday of Term 3. Everyone had a unique, colourful costume to proudly display during the parade around the whole school. We even walked right through the middle of the Middle School Learning Centre, with the Middle School students cheering us on every step of the way!

After the parade, we had a special Assembly on the theme of Book Character Day. The Seniors performed a funny play they had made about the different types of Disney fairy tales. Everyone in the audience loved it and joined in, clapping and laughing. Last but not least, we sang our favourite Book Character Day song, The Library Song, which we only sing once a year. It was a wonderful treat to have this special day and we look forward to it again next year.

Gina Kim, Year 6

On Tuesday 5 August, 2T celebrated 100 days at school in 2014. Over the course of the year in their Mathematics lessons, the students had developed their place-value knowledge and basic number facts around the context of cumulative days at school.

On day 100 the children enjoyed a number of quick fitness activities that totalled 100 different exercises, they challenged themselves to write 100 different words correctly, explored the probability involved in 100 rolls of a dice and worked collaboratively to complete a 100-piece jigsaw puzzle. They also learnt how to do simple Sudoku puzzles and made crowns with 10 parts, each of which required the affixing of 10 different stickers.

They had lots of fun listening to a story about a little centipede who struggled with all his shoes, socks and shoelaces. This developed into a wonderfully rich Mathematics task where the children calculated whether the centipede had enough shoes to sell to a variety of multi-legged creatures.

Discovering Inventions at MOTAT As part of their inquiry into ‘How we organise ourselves’, the Year 4 students visited MOTAT to inquire into the history of inventions, the impact of change and reasons for change. The central idea was ‘Inventions develop over time and affect our lives’.

The Year 4 students engaged in a rotation of three activities. The first activity was an educatorled workshop session, which enabled them to explore the development of inventions over time and the impact they have had on our lives. They discovered innovative New Zealanders and their products, and were encouraged to think about the process of invention and be innovators.

The second activity was an adult-led trail around MOTAT using invention-related trail cards. While exploring, the students researched the impact that important technological inventions had on people. In the communications exhibition they had the chance to use ‘old-fashioned dial’ phones and actually talk to their friends. The students were really excited to find MOTAT had a mirror maze and challenge zone; these were the most popular activities. The final activity was the highlight of the trip for many - the tram ride. The tram driver took us on a journey back in time and he explained the history of the tram. Everyone got to see the 123-year-old steam tram motor, No. 100, in action. It was a fun day and an enriching experience.

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Junior School News

Feeding Communities

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House Captains We are very fortunate in the Junior School to be ably assisted in fostering a strong sense of community by a remarkable group of young leaders who are keen to be fully involved in the life of the school, to create opportunities to raise House spirit, and to assist in a leadership capacity wherever possible.

Each semester, new House Captains are elected by their peers. The role of House Captains is highly sought after and enthusiastically contested. Teachers are invited to vote also, and often contribute important insights.

The elected House Captains then attend a series of breakfast meetings, in which they take part in a leadership programme. The programme involves the group learning about different leadership styles and how to identify their own, how to be an effective public speaker, strategies for decision-making and problem solving, and tried-and-true ways to be a great leader. The Senior School Liaison Prefects attend these meetings too, and are fantastic mentors with a wealth of experience.

During their time as House Captains, the group takes on an important role on School Tours, sharing their knowledge of the Junior School with prospective families. House Captains also open and close all assemblies for the Junior School and have an active organisational role in school-wide sports events such as Athletics Day. In addition, one of their major roles is to plan and run major events at each year level to raise House spirit and promote participation in fun lunchtime activities. So far, in 2014 we have enjoyed the Great House Easter Egg Hunt, fantastic Soccer and Hockey tournaments for Years 3 to 6, and some spirited Dodgeball competitions.

We thank the House Captains for their service, leadership, care and commitment to the Junior School. They are extraordinary role models and we are excited to be with them on their leadership journey.

Semester 1 House Captains: Allegra Bouwer, Digby Eele, Ethan Field, Molly Lewis, Isabella Powell, Zack Robertson, Kevin Wei and Jennifer Wu. Semester 2 House Captains: Eeshan Bhatia, Joshua Daken, Georgia Gao, Leenie Kim, Georgie Shotter, Lucy Steele, Hudson Taylor and Isaac Tetro.

Tamsin Neubert Teacher-in-Charge, House Captains

tudents in the Junior School have been working hard over recent terms to make a difference to those in need by providing food for needy families.

Over seven weeks during Term 3, Junior School students and their families collected cans of ingredients to be used to provide hot lunches for students in low-decile Auckland schools.

The students partnered with Feed the Need, a locally based charity that delivers hot, fresh and nutritious lunches to kids who would otherwise go without. A Feed the Need trolley was moved around the school each week, from the Kindergarten to the Year 6 classes, and each year level took on the challenge of filling it with staple ingredients and supplies.

Thanks to the wonderful support of our Kristin families, the students collected over 1,000 cans during the seven weeks of their collection drive.

Our Year 6 Chapel Committee has been busy also. The students visited Windsor Park Baptist Church in Mairangi Bay where they worked together to prepare meals. These meals were then frozen and given to people in the community, such as those recovering from a stay in hospital, new parents or families supporting someone suffering from illness.

The students learnt food preparation skills and teamwork as they prepared cottage pies and chicken curries, and enjoyed doing something that would make such a difference to people in the local communities.

Joshua Daken said, “It felt really good to prepare the meals because I was doing it to help others,” and Isabella Powell remarked, “It was fun to do something that benefited the community.”

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International Day

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ach morning, we hear students greeting teachers and each other with a cheerful “good morning”, said in their mother tongue or any other language that they know.

It is a delight to realise that the students at Kristin are growing up in an environment of cultural richness. This was particularly evident at International Day in June, when many students dressed up in a traditional outfit representing a particular country. We witnessed a smorgasbord of nationalities and an array of colours in the clothes worn by the students.

Melinda Xu (Year 3) wrote a poem about the costume she wore: Head to toe, Soft flowers dance with joy on my dress, Silk material blowing everywhere, On my head a headband, Sparkling with little balls of red.

Do you know the people who work at Kristin?

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ear 1 have been inquiring into the people who help us at Kristin. We began our unit by visiting different areas of the school, observing people doing their jobs and acting as the Year 1 paparazzi on their iPads.

We then each chose someone whose job interested us and formulated our own inquiry questions to find out more about them. Following on from this, we interviewed our chosen person and created Keynote presentations to document our learning.

We would like to thank all the people who helped us with our inquiry. We learned a lot about different people and their jobs, and know that there are so many wonderful people working at Kristin who help us each day.

See if you can match these four photographs to some of the interesting facts we learned about each of these people and their job.

Jeanette Verster

Who am I? A. At university I studied cell biology and zoology. The most difficult thing about my job is being able to fit everything into the day. I was a teacher for a very long time and before that I used to teach people to swim. My favourite job is when students come to visit me and show me their good work. Almost 40 people help me do my job.

Rob Hutton

B. I have to buy the machines like the fridges, ovens and microwaves from the big companies that sell them. My favourite food on the lunch menu is the chicken wrap. I order food from the Pavilion Café. I decide what goes on the lunch menu by seeing what are the most popular items.

C. I used to work in the Junior School. I measure students so I can see how big they are. I design and make costumes for the Junior, Middle and Senior Schools. I have directed so many productions that I have lost count of how many I have been involved in.

Karen Grant

D. I try and help everyone at school, the teachers and the children. I help the teachers to help the children, because trying to help 400 children by myself is a bit of a tricky job. On my computer I email people, type things up and make things. My main job is looking after each class’ curriculum (the things the children will learn).

Diana Patchett

Answers: A - Diana Patchett, B - Karen Grant, C - Jeanette Verster, D - Rob Hutton

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Junior School News

Scottish Dancing Movement is a way to express ourselves and that is exactly what all the Year 3 students were doing on a winter’s afternoon. One of our talented teachers taught us to do Scottish dancing while we were inquiring into different types of dance. It was a bit difficult because we needed to change partners all the time and still keep dancing in time to the music. It was good dancing with each other; we got to make new friends. The music was different but a lot of fun to listen to. I really liked the rhythm and dancing to it. It’s interesting learning about different dances and how to perform them.

Claire Bachmann

Emerging Leader

Jump To It

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his year it was decided to split our Gymnastics programme between North Harbour Gymnastics and North Shore Trampoline Club. The purpose of this was to provide our students with a fun way to explore movement, improve their sense of balance, develop strength and condition of muscles, strengthen the heart through cardiovascular fitness and take advantage of an excellent, locally-based resource. Students in Years 2, 4 and 6 took part and their faces said it all as they bounced their way through a range of progressive actions and activities, often challenging personal boundaries.

Keira Spilling (Year 4) explains what she learnt on her trip to North Shore Trampoline Club: Everyone was excited about our trip to North Shore Trampoline Club. For most of us it was our first time so we were looking forward to getting started. We began with a warm-up, and then we were split into two groups.

On the trampolines we were told how to do a pike jump, straddle jump and a tuck jump. For a pike jump you put your legs out straight in front of you in mid-air, for a straddle jump you put your legs out to the sides, and for a tuck jump you tuck your legs into your body. We all practised those jumps for a while, and then some of the students who had previously done trampolining demonstrated a range of flips and routines.

After that, everyone was allowed to jump and do flips onto the inflatable training mat, used for athletes to dismount onto. When we left, everyone was exhausted, but we all agreed that we’d had a great time!

One of our emerging leaders has been recognised thanks to the Sir Peter Blake Leadership Awards. In a special Term 2 Leadership Assembly, Year 6 student Allegra Bouwer was named as this year’s recipient of the Sir Peter Blake Young Leader Award.

The Sir Peter Blake Young Leader Award, in association with Westpac, recognises young people who have shown promising leadership in their schools and communities. Nominees for the award must demonstrate a number of leadership qualities and characteristics such as integrity, determination and a will to succeed, to be a good team builder, leader and member, be hard-working and know how to have fun.

The Leadership Assembly coincided with Red Socks Day in the Junior School.

Students wore their red socks in place of their usual school socks to raise money for The Sir Peter Blake Trust. We were able to send the Trust the $700 we raised to support their work.

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Year 5 & 6 Speech Competition Exhibition Electives Electives were six sessions of pure fun! On each Day 6 we could take a two-period break from our Exhibition work and do an activity we enjoyed. We were given the options of Virtual Worlds, Robotics, Music Band, Art Sculpture, Video FX and Photography. We had a choice of ranking what we would like to do and were put into groups.

Throughout the elective project, we worked to achieve a challenging and interesting goal. The electives were not only a fun break from Exhibition, but they also gave you some different opportunities like being able to perform in the staging (Music Band), have your movie shown in the staging (Video FX), and go on a trip to the zoo (Photography).

I really enjoyed the electives and they gave me a chance to work with different people and develop teamwork skills. Overall, the elective process gave us the opportunity to do something we may not have done before. It also helped to develop skills. I know that during the process, I learned to do many things I could not do before. The electives were enjoyable and I still learned throughout the process too.

Allegra Bouwer

Kindergarten Enrolments 2015 Kristin Kindergarten is the entry point to our Junior School.

As part of our enrolment process, our Junior School team is currently meeting with children who will turn four years of age later this year or in 2015. Places in our Kindergarten are under high demand so If you have not already done so, or if you are aware of friends who would like to enrol their children at our Kindergarten, please note that applications should be submitted as soon as possible.

We encourage you to bring your children to visit our Kindergarten. For enrolment information or to organise a visit, please contact Linda Teagle, Registrar, admissions@kristin.school.nz or 09 415 9566 ext 2324.

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Senior Students Sign Up For sKids

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wo familiar faces have become popular features of the sKids after-school programme in the Junior School. Hana Kashkari (Year 13) and Hannah Bourke (Year 12) have recently taken up part-time jobs with the programme, working with our younger students as they complete their homework, and running fun games and activities. Their arrival has been a hit with the children, who relish the opportunity to get to know Kristin’s ‘big kids’.

So far, the decision to employ two Kristin students has proven to be a popular one. It has been a wonderful way to build links within the community and provides parents with the assurance that their children are working with positive role models who understand our shared Kristin values. Hana and Hannah are using the opportunity to gain valuable work experience while they explore the potential of a future career in education.

Literacy work in Years 5 and 6 in Term 2 included the construction and delivery of speeches. Following preliminary presentations in class, our 14 finalists were selected to compete in the Auditorium.

The standard was exceptionally high, with the students presenting speeches that engaged their audience, were easy to follow, and delivered compelling messages - many with humour included.

Head of the English faculty, Mr David Shaw, and Middle School Assistant Principal Miss Kate Dickson were our adjudicators for the Finals. Both judges were full of praise for the students and the oratory skills they demonstrated, making the final decision a difficult one. Our winner and Kristin representative at the Zone Cluster Final was Zack Robertson, with his speech on the importance of having ‘COOL’ goals, entitled A Dozen Diggers and a Good-looking Woman.

1st place: Zack Robertson (A Dozen Diggers and a Good-looking Woman) 2nd place: Molly Lewis (Sayings) 3rd place: Emma Hoseason (Speeches) Finalists: Cara Bouwer (Another Crazy Afternoon in the Bouwer Family) Ethan Field (Spies) Georgia Gao (The Protection of the Environment) Tiffany Ho (Small People, Big Minds) Anna Li (Dreams) Kali Raj (Poverty) Nicholas Sparg (Why Can’t Every Day be Friday?)

Rose Steele (Dyslexia) Noah Tetro (Embarrassing Families) Aiden van der Nist (Overcoming a Fear of Snakes) Kevin Wei (Cool or Uncool)

Junior School News

The Power of Advertising Year 5 students have been looking into how advertising influences what we think and the choices we make. We were lucky enough to welcome two guest speakers, Mrs Pamela Peryman and Miss Lucy Wilson from the School Relations office, to share some insights into how they advertise Kristin School.

Director of School Relations Mrs Peryman and her team have to find interesting ways of promoting the school to a huge community. Many have seen the school’s advertising on billboards and on the back of the buses – advertisements such as Building Greatness, My First School and, of course, Progress.

We learned a lot about what goes into designing advertisements and the many ways that an advertising message can be delivered to an audience.

Technology allows the team to track who sees a digital advertisement and on what particular day it was viewed. We had the idea to conduct an experiment to show this data, so Lucy loaded a photo of the students onto the Kristin Facebook page for all of the Kristin families to ‘like’ and ‘share’. It was amazing to see our photo reach almost 10,000 people in only a few days! We’ve been across New Zealand, England, Wales, South Africa, the USA, Canada, Australia, Denmark and many more places!

The afternoon was extremely captivating, full of information and fun.

Physical and Chemical Change

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o one in Year 5 is ever going to forget our Science unit on Physical and Chemical Change; it was super fun and hands-on. That’s because, using science, Year 5 could do something few classes did well. Come closer. I’ll tell it to you.

Begin by making a hypothesis. A nice simple guess. That’s the way to start. And now, our journey can begin.

First, something messy, grubby and squalid, more like it. Quicksand’s the name. Careful with this simple alloy of cornflour-y water-ish gluelike goo. This pale xanthous mix mightn’t seem like much, but behind the scenes molecules are at work. Poke it hard - hey! It’s a solid! Now those are the flour molecules being pressed together and these trap in the water. Let it go with the flow and you have a liquid. Year 5’s reaction? 50/50: some people were scared out

of their wits, while others plunged right in!

Now, moving on to a more elegant style of experiment (drumroll please): the BORAX CRYSTALS! Plenty of people like this experiment, especially in Year 5! Let’s make this nice and short, ’cause you sure have some waiting to do if you’re going to make your own crystals.

A close eye was kept on the white pipe cleaner stars suspended in the hot borax-ey water. A certain science-loving group observed and, day after day after boring-observational-day, the crystals grew. Grudgingly, the students headed out on their term break. And what a surprise greeted them on the other side of the holiday! Jars almost an eighth full with crystals, gleaming like Grandidierite (and looking a lot like it, too, only more opaque).

Tiffany Ho

Extended Learning and Innovation Sessions At Kristin, we like to think of our teachers as being learners as well.

With this in mind the Junior School has run an extended learning programme for teachers, with a series of Innovation Sessions held during Term 3.

Our focus has been on developing rich mathematical tasks, enhancing the potential available when teachers use myKristin and also the various ways of using the Canon Cloud Suite with students. The teachers had the chance to select the area they would like to work on and spent three afternoons on the tasks that were set. The opportunities that these sessions presented enabled participants not only to further develop their skills in these areas, but also to share with teachers across different year levels. This is an experience that we will replicate in 2015.

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Junior School News

Action Ideas Summit

Student-led Conferences Students in the Junior School always relish the opportunity to take charge of the teaching on Student-led Conference Day to teach their parents a thing or two. This year, the conferences were held on 14 August. Students had approximately 40 minutes to demonstrate their work in their classrooms before taking their parents on a walk around the school, visiting the Performing and Creative Arts, Physical Education and Chinese classrooms along the way.

Student-led Conferences are a great opportunity for the students to take responsibility and explain their learning to parents themselves. They are in charge of what activities their parents are to do and what is coming up next, and inevitably the students take great pride in demonstrating the work they have been doing in class.

Storypark

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amilies of our youngest students have enjoyed a direct line to classroom activities thanks to the introduction of Storypark; this is a New Zealand-developed online system that enables real-time news updates and instant communication between students, teachers, parents and other selected family members.

Launched in the Kindergarten in Term 3, Storypark provides students with their own private online account, visible only to parents and teachers. Parents can then nominate additional people who they would like to be sent updates on the students’ activities, such as grandparents or extended family living overseas. Throughout the course of the term, teachers can upload news items to illustrate the student’s learning and celebrate important achievements. Parents receive instant notifications via the Storypark app, and can send

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messages of encouragement directly to the student, helping to consolidate their learning.

This dynamic and engaging system takes the place of the traditional paper portfolios that would be sent home with the children at the end of each year. Because of its ease of use and the availability of iPads throughout our classrooms, teachers are able to load content instantly, freeing them up to focus on the children’s development. The students love it too, with great engagement shown as they peruse their stories, reflecting on their learning and interacting with their loved ones throughout the day.

Kindergarten teacher Mrs Maree Kelly has seen a great increase in engagement from all of her students and their families since the introduction of Storypark. “The children really love to see their stories and it is so encouraging for them to read messages from their loved ones during their school day… Being able to view their achievements on the iPad makes them feel really special.

“Our parents feel more connected to what

One of the big ideas for the Year 6 PYP Exhibition was to take action to make a difference. We had an Action Ideas Summit in the Hockey Pavilion. Our main goal of the afternoon was to brainstorm our ideas on the four different types of action we could take - direct action, indirect action, raising awareness and educating people.

We were split into two groups. When one group was brainstorming, the second group would go around helping to give ideas to the other group and then we swapped over. It was great to have so many parents there to help generate ideas.

When we had finished we grouped ourselves together with others who were also looking at similar issues. This gave us the opportunity to share our ideas and look to see if we could work together to take action.

At the end of our Action Ideas Summit we went away to decide what we were going to do to take action and fill out our action plan.

Some of the ideas that came out of this activity included creating a website about endangered species, going to Motutapu Island to plant trees, creating a plan for Kristin to go solar and making brochures to give to others at our static display areas.

Allegra Bouwer

we are doing here at school and it helps to bring the community together. It is also a great opportunity to illustrate how our classroom activities link back to the curriculum and learning goals of Te Whariki (the New Zealand Curriculum) and the PYP, and it helps families to connect what the children are doing in the classroom with what they are working on at home.”

Feedback so far has been immensely positive with parents remarking on its immediacy and ease of use. Parents are able to gain a richer insight into the activities of the day – well beyond a quick conversation with teachers at pick-up or drop-off times – which in turn helps to build and strengthen the vital relationships between school and home. New students have been able to settle more quickly, and parents who may not have felt comfortable asking questions directly are able to engage openly through the Storypark interface; language barriers are overcome and all interactions become a celebration of student progress.

news middle school

Mindfulness

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uring Term 3, we have had the privilege of having Grant Rix from the Mental Health Foundation take the students of 8VJO through formal mindfulness training. Practising mindfulness allows students to anchor themselves in the present, giving them a break from the competing demands for their attention. It strengthens their ability to regulate emotions, concentrate and connect to how they are feeling. It is our hope to extend the programme to all Year 7 and 8 students in 2015.

Morgan Taylor took part in the Mindfulness pilot. Here’s what she had to say about the experience: Every week on a Thursday, Grant has come in to teach us about mindfulness. Mindfulness is a mental state achieved by focusing one’s awareness on the present moment, while calmly acknowledging and accepting one’s feelings, thoughts and bodily sensations, used as a therapeutic technique.

My class, 8VJO, was chosen as the ‘guinea pig’ to test the usefulness of mindfulness on children our age at Kristin. We didn’t really know what we were getting ourselves into; to walk into our classroom and see all of our tables along the edges of the walls and our chairs in a big circle in the middle of the class, with a man we had never seen before… well, it was certainly a surprise!

It took us a few lessons to stop giggling in discomfort at this new thinking, which we thought was stupid, but when we started to open up, we realised how great it was.

Grant talked us through exercises as we focused on our breathing; we learned self-control, how to stop our mind from over-thinking things. We

also did a segment at the end of the session called ‘mindful eating’. Every week, he would bring in a piece of fruit and would say, “Smell the fruit.

What does it smell like?” He would then let us have a bite, but only one; we then had to hold it on our tongues and wait about 30 seconds before fully biting it. This was very useful, showing us the actual flavours of a fruit and embracing them.

For me, this experience has helped me so much. I am a person who often over-thinks things, stressing about little stuff. Mindfulness has helped me realise that in order to achieve things in life you have to take a moment to centre yourself to focus on only what you actually need to. It helps take away the drama!

I would like to extend a thank-you to Grant, Miss Dickson and Mrs Jones for initiating the programme with us. Mrs Jones has definitely helped ‘hold the fort’ on days when Grant was not at school, running us through 10 minutes of mindfulness each day.

Morgan Taylor

Year 10 Sports Studies

Disabilities in Sport

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n Term 2 our focus topic in Sports Studies was Disability in Sport. Our lessons began with a discussion about what our interpretation of disability in sport was. We then went on to watch videos of various disabled sports, many of which the class had been unaware of, and discussed our thoughts and views on them. In our outdoor lessons, we played sports we had done throughout the year for other topics, and modified them to limit our physical abilities. One game we played was volleyball sitting down, which is a professional sport simply called sitting volleyball; the same rules apply as in standard volleyball except you can’t have use of your body from your waist down.

We also welcomed a visit from Gavin Rolton.

Gavin is a Wheel Black, which is basically an All Black in a wheelchair. He plays for New Zealand in the sport of wheelchair rugby, a contact game where paralysed athletes play on a basketball court.

Gavin is a tetraplegic and is rated 0.5. (Ratings

indicate the severity of the disability; the lower the rating, the more sever the condition.

Most players are rated at around 2.5.) He first debuted with the Wheel Blacks in 2009 and, this year, he captained the team at the 2014 Wheelchair Rugby World Championships in Denmark. Gavin came to talk to us about what it means to be a paralysed sportsman and the struggles and challenges that come with it.

After a brief introduction, he presented a slide show about wheelchair rugby and its rules and gave us plenty of opportunity to ask questions.

As well as outlining his sport, Gavin told us about how difficult simple things like getting dressed can be for him because he doesn’t have full movement in his arms and fingers. But he also discussed some positive aspects of his disability. He told us he would have probably had just an average job and never represented New Zealand in anything. He is very proud and grateful for the opportunities he has had and the people he has around to support him.

As he concluded his talk, Gavin invited us out into the car park where he had some rugby wheelchairs waiting: an attack and a defensive chair, designed for the specific purposes of bursting through defenders or stopping attackers in their tracks. They proved as tough as a $2 piece of steak when we were lining each other up and flying into one another.

It was great to meet someone as inspirational as Gavin; through this topic, I believe we have all gained a greater awareness and respect for people with disabilities.

Jamie Black

ISSUE No. 60

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Hosting Toorak

Odyssey “Wilderness areas are first of all a series of sanctuaries for the primitive arts of wilderness travel, especially canoeing and packing. I suppose some will wish to debate whether it is important to keep these primitive arts alive. I shall not debate it. Either you know it in your bones, or you are very, very old.” - Aldo Leopold, A Sand County Almanac: With Other Essays on Conservation from Round River Here at Kristin we feel it in our bones! The concept of a self-sufficient canoe expedition for 21 days in the wilderness of the Whanganui National Park is one of intrepid exploration, adventure and intrigue. And, over three weeks at the end of Term 3, 24 brave Year 9 students embraced the challenge wholeheartedly as they embarked on Odyssey 2014: a three-week adventure in selfsufficiency, bushcraft and survival along the length of the Whanganui River.

Split into two groups of 12 and accompanied by two instructors per group, the students worked with the Department of Conservation, local iwi and private landowners on service and conservation projects. They weathered wild spring storms and icy blasts, met locals and designed their own journey to the Whanganui River mouth.

Their vessel of choice was a traditional two-man 16 to 17-foot open canoe; its versatility when carrying large loads, stability and manoeuvrability made this the perfect option for the novice paddlers. The Kristin Base Camp was manned throughout the journey, with the teams checking in daily via mountain radio with supply requests and regular updates on their plans for the coming days. While the teams had the same overall objectives, there was little interaction between the two. Independent river and land excursions meant that both groups followed their own path, embarking on adventures as they came upon them in the wilderness.

Resilience and self-management played a significant part in their adventures and it was great to see the students stepping up when faced with challenging situations unlike anything they’d experienced before.

Throughout the trip the students were challenged socially, intellectually, physically, emotionally and creatively, both by the natural consequences of the wilderness environment and the requirements of their activities. Ultimately, the journey was a success thanks to the way the students embraced the unknown with an open mind and invested their efforts in developing a comprehensive new skill set. Increased self-awareness, both as individuals and as a group, was a natural consequence of the adventure and the students who disembarked from the bus on their return to Auckland were markedly different from those who set out three weeks earlier.

E rere kau mai te awanui, mai i te Kahui Maunga ki Tangaroa. Ko au te awa, ko te awa ko au.

The river flows from the mountains to the sea. I am the river and the river is me.

Jono Taylor Teacher-in-Charge, Odyssey 2014

Tuesday 24 June was finally here... the day that the billets arrive from Toorak. At 3:55pm, all the billet hosts were impatiently waiting for the bus. At four o’clock Mr van den Bergh had a call from Mrs Aliotti saying they were five minutes away - everyone started jumping up and down with anticipation. The five minutes felt like forever until finally a big coach bus turned the corner and came into the school. Everyone started waving to each other; it was great to finally meet our Toorak friends in person! The 8th annual Sports and Cultural Exchange between Kristin and Toorak College was under way.

Wednesday and Thursday were two exciting days of football and netball competitions, held between Kristin, Albany Junior, Northcross and Toorak school sports teams.

Although the Kristin and Toorak teams played well, Albany and Northcross managed to win both the soccer and the netball events.

Friday was super fun as we all went to Auckland Zoo and had a look around. In the early afternoon it started pouring with rain so everyone ran to the exit. When the parents got to us we were allowed to go and do some shopping in the gift shop before heading home.

On Saturday the billets spent the day with their host family. We took my billets (Chloe and Zoe) to the Albany Mall to do some more gift shopping and then we went to the Parakai Hot Pools for a swim and a ride on the hydro slides, which we all really enjoyed.

On Sunday it was time to say goodbye - our Toorak friends were going home. In the afternoon we took them to school where the bus was waiting. It was very hard to say goodbye because we all had such a great time together and became such good friends.

The time passed quickly but I know the friendships made will last.

Georgia Alexander

Project 8 Visit Ronald McDonald House Following on from our fundraising efforts at Britomart, the Project 8 Group had the opportunity to visit and help out at Ronald McDonald House Auckland.

When we got there we were given a tour of the house. It was really big, different from what I expected. There was even a school there!

We split into three groups, as there were three different jobs to do: staining the wooden tables, housekeeping and cooking. I chose to do the cooking.

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We worked in a huge kitchen where we made two batches of pinwheel scones, a savoury and a sweet version. For the savoury version we put in ham, cheese and pineapple, and for the sweet ones we used brown sugar and chocolate chips. They looked really good for the parents of the sick children to have at lunchtime.

It felt very rewarding to help everyone who works and stays at Ronald McDonald House, and I would like to go back and help out again soon.

Mark Swanson

Middle School News

Year 7 Character Reading

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he Year 7 Character Reading competition was the culmination of five weeks of preparation by each and every Year 7 student. Characters at the competition ranged from Connor Gilbert as Roran from the book Eldest to Adam Sharp as Danny’s father in Danny the Champion of the World. Our judges included past principal Mr Ted Berry, who congratulated each student and issued the challenge to continue reading and to always say yes to an opportunity of being involved in public speaking.

Our winner was Santenay Jordan, who portrayed Beatrice Prior from Divergent. Second was Amber Brinkman as Jill Marshall from Postman and third, Cam Scott as Beck Granger from Bear Grylls.

Cricket World Cup Year 9 Reading Day Friday 6 June was the day for our gigantic adventure through the world of books; the Year 9 Reading Day started and finished with a bang! Having author Brian Falkner talk to us about his experiences with story writing had everyone inspired. He is a great speaker and was very entertaining; we sure learnt a lot. After reading our chosen stories to the Kindergarten and Junior School children, the Year 9’s all felt like giants and were blown away by the fact that these little kids were so advanced in their reading. In Period 3, Mr Heath, Mr Kelly, Mr Clague, Mrs Patchett, Mr Gurney and other teachers shared their favourite books with us; not all of us would have read them but they each captivated us by reading extracts from these stories.

We finished with wonderful games that Brian Falkner was hosting. These ‘Story Sports’ were challenging and we were all very enthusiastic and competitive. This wonderful event couldn’t have happened without Mrs Mansfield and all the teachers who put a lot of effort towards this day - we are very grateful.

Teri Marinus

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n Thursday 5 June, the Middle School was very privileged to have the Cricket World Cup organisers visit the Sports Awards Assembly, along with cricketing great Mark Greatbatch.

Mr Greatbatch addressed the assembly and kept the students and the parents entertained with stories of his sporting career. The cup is spectacular and many students were fortunate to have their picture taken with it after the assembly. The visit was a part of the lead up to the ICC Cricket World Cup, which is being held in New Zealand and Australia next year.

We are very grateful to the ICC and Mark Greatbatch for taking the time to visit and for inspiring our young players.

Pink Shirt Day Pink Shirt Day is an anti-bullying initiative that was inspired by a boy in Canada who came to school in a pink shirt. He was horribly taunted and teased for the colour of his chosen garment, so the next day a group of his peers wore pink shirts as an act of support. And so, Pink Shirt Day was born.

Our Middle School Good Guys team recognised that this initiative portrayed an important message to do with embracing uniqueness and fighting the negativity of discrimination. Because of this, on 23 May we joined with the NZ Mental Health

Organisation’s nationwide campaign and held our very own Pink Shirt Day here at Kristin.

Members of the Good Guys team donned their pink shirts and sold wristbands and stickers to students. Although it’s an international day, Kristin alone managed to raise over $180 for the cause.

A big thank-you to the Good Guys for their work in making the day happen, as well as all those who supported bullying awareness through the purchasing of wristbands and stickers.

Eleanor Dewar

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Maritime Museum In August all Year 9’s visited the Maritime Museum as part of our migration unit titled: The Melting Pot. We learnt a lot about immigration to New Zealand. We looked at canoes and wakas that the earliest immigrants may have used to travel from the North Pacific to New Zealand. We also watched an informative video of how the Maori settlers travelled from ‘Hawaiki’, a mythical land of their ancestors.

The Immigrants exhibition showed images of families leaving their homes from the 1850s to the 1960s, and it also included an accurate replica of an overcrowded, squalid steerage cabin, which rocked to imitate the motion of the sea. We learnt about whaling too, and we got to see how the harsh conditions affected the earliest settlers on New Zealand’s coastal areas.

Our tour guide also showed us the importance of ferries, connecting New Zealanders everywhere. It was very cool to be able to enter the actual wheelhouse and ‘take control’ of it.

James McCracken

Electives

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he highly anticipated Year 7 and 8 Electives Day finally arrived on Friday 23 May. This year, students were able to choose from an array of experiences including 3D animation at MindLab in Newmarket, an adventure to the Military Arts Academy in Matakana, special effects make-up with BodyFX, Mini Master Chef, windsurfing, and 15 other offerings to stretch young minds and bodies. Some were held on site while, for others, participants climbed aboard buses to travel to their chosen activity. Students relished in the opportunity to try something different and the campus was abuzz as students returned at the end of the day, recounting their various adventures. Our sincere thanks go to all of the staff and parents who contributed to the organisation and running of the various electives.

MYP in Action Day / Bring a Guest Day On Friday 5 September we hosted our Bring a Guest Day to enable parents and family members to experience the MYP in action.

Students in Year 7 and 8 welcomed their loved ones by throwing them in the deep end and having them participate in interactive lessons. Some wrote poetry, others had their general knowledge tested and some used technology they had only just laid their hands on for the first time.

In the Year 9 and 10 classes, family members were taken to workshops in the various subjects and had the opportunity to see first-hand the array of learning experiences on offer in the different subjects.

There was a great energy throughout the school as the students finished the morning by showing their guests their favourite spots around the campus. We would like to thank all who attended and hope that the experience highlighted all that makes up the great tapestry of learning here in the Middle School.

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Supplies for Starship On Wednesday 6 August, the Year 10 Alliance team had the chance to visit Starship Children’s Hospital. We had been running a collection for toys, clothing, books, games and other items in the Junior School throughout Term 2, and our August trip was an opportunity to deliver these items to the kids at Starship. The hospital staff were very happy to see us and gratefully accepted all the good-quality items that we were able to deliver to them.

While we were there we had a tour of the building. It was great to see how their hospital works and how the items that we donate are put to use. It was a fantastic experience for the whole Alliance team and was enjoyed by all.

Tom Hine

Middle School News

Forensic Analysis

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orensics@Kristin has grown significantly over recent years and the 2014 camp, held in July, offered three programmes for students from Years 3 to 13. More than 300 students came from schools across New Zealand to embrace the challenge and test their problem solving, research, logic and creative skills, and to solve a complex simulated homicide case.

The three different camp formats included a five-day experience for students in Years 5 to 10, a one-day Junior Edition for Years 3 to 8 and, for the first time, a five-day Senior Scholars’ Edition for selected students in Years 11 to 13.

Joining together as teams of Detectives, the students had three days to work through their cases. They utilised forensic techniques, such as fingerprint testing and DNA analysis, and the multitude of resources, skills and intelligence at their disposal to sort through the evidence and direct their own lines of inquiry. Their investigations culminated in a simulated court trial where Detectives became defence and prosecution lawyers, interviewing key witnesses and arguing their side of the case.

The 15 participants in the Senior Scholars’ camp acted as expert scientific witnesses in the mock court trials. In an extraordinary simulation, the Senior Scholars’ investigation included the discovery and subsequent examination of a burial site in relation to their homicide scenario, and their evidence was critical for the prosecution of many of the Detective teams’ cases.

Over the course of the week, participants had the opportunity to meet with specialists from the field who explained the real-life application

of what they were learning and the realities of forensic investigation. Detective Peter Litherland spoke to the students about the role of a detective in the police force and what it takes to solve a crime. Forensic scientist Laura Fabian from Environment Sciences and Research (ESR) took to the stage to explain her line of work. She provided many tips for the camp’s Detectives to help them build a strong and compelling prosecution case. Independent forensic scientist Dr Anna Sandiford gave the participants an amazing insight into the world of forensic investigation for the defence, breaking down the myths created by television shows and shining a light on the fascinating and challenging aspects of her profession. Crown prosecutor Josh Shaw gave valuable insights into the trial process.

The complex scenarios were designed by a team of students in the roles of Controllers and Scenario Doctors. These students, mostly in Year 9 and 10, had been selected from the very best of previous years’ Detectives. They invested many weeks in preparing the scenarios and related evidence, and were kept busy throughout the week, generating information and responding to the many lines of inquiry from the Detective teams.

An additional team of students was responsible for the logistics of running the camp. This included catering for all of the participants and supervising teams, overseeing the science laboratories and the general day-to-day business of running the camp. While staff were on hand to help and guide as necessary, it was the students who led the camp, addressed the participants and took responsibility for its ultimate success.

Market Day On the final Thursday of Term 3, the Year 10 economists ran their market day, where teams would sell their products and attempt to make a profit. This was part of our assessment: learning and experiencing the process of creating a product and selling it. This day was an excellent opportunity for us to experience the challenges firms face when creating, pricing and promoting their products.

Preparation during Period 4 was hectic for all of us. All that could be heard was the shouting and anxiety in people’s voices as they ran around the Year 7 area making final arrangements for their market stalls. By the time the lunchtime bell rang, it was chaotic for all the food stands; our willpower and determination was tested. Some of us were fortunate to have busy and quiet periods, whereas others experienced continual intense selling. Some teams sold out of their produce in a few minutes, while others resorted to reducing prices to clear their stock. Regardless of the profit made, this market day was an excellent learning experience for all the Year 10 Economics students.

Jaffar Al-Sakini

Middle School Enrolments 2015 New student enrolments for entry in 2016 have begun. We look forward to receiving your child’s application and including them in our enrolment process.

For a Middle School tour or enrolment information, please contact Linda Teagle, Registrar, admissions@kristin.school.nz or 09 415 9566 ext 2324.

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TEAR Fund Talk On Tuesday 26 August, the Year 8’s curiously gathered for an insightful look into our Humanities topic, ‘Children in Crisis’.

We were greeted by an employee of TEAR Fund, which is an organisation formed to improve the lives of deprived children around the world. Their name stands for The Evangelical Alliance Relief Fund.

Some of the main topics we focused on were child trafficking for labour and gender equality. Although we had already looked into what child labour is like, it was interesting to learn more about gender equality and how it affects our way of life.

Additionally, we were told some personal stories from the presenter’s own experiences in India. This gave us all an increasingly realistic view of the challenges these children face and we are all very grateful for all the time and effort Beth Harper spent putting this presentation together. This event was very beneficial to us and I think we all walked away with a better understanding of this worldwide issue.

Ella Walton

New York

Fire Fighters Visit

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n Wednesday 17 September, we were privileged to have New York Fire Department firefighters Christopher Barber and John Mills join our Assembly.

They were in New Zealand to commemorate the 13th anniversary of the 9/11 tragedy.

The two, along with Tony Scott from the New Zealand Fire Service, were interviewed by Helena Wiseman and Jaffar Al-Sakini of Year 10 and kept the audience enthralled.

They spoke of the disaster but also of their day-to-day lives as firefighters in New York City.

Tragically John Mills’ father died in the south tower on that frightful day and this motivated him to join the fire department. The students were fascinated by their most ‘unusual’ jobs, which included performing CPR on a dog and rescuing a bird stuck in a tree! We are very grateful for the opportunity to host these special guests afforded by the American Consulate.

Year 8 Bring ‘n’ Buy I am sure many people have come across village markets in their overseas and local travels, and enjoyed the buzz and activity that surrounds these places. Well, the same could be said for the LIC Foyer on Wednesday 18 June. From before 8am, there was a hive of activity as tables were being set up, fruit squeezed and blended for home-made juice, cupcakes displayed on attractive stands, sherbet and crafts laid out, as well as treasures, books and games piled high for perusal. Added to this was a hum of voices, which ascended to a cacophony as ‘opening time’ drew near. The excitement in the air was almost tangible!

When Mr Heath declared the Bring ‘n’ Buy open, it was difficult to contain the eager buyers and stop them from rushing around in

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search of the ultimate bargain. (Mind you, the shopping had started a lot earlier as students could not contain themselves with all those lollies on sale!) How lovely it was to see all the mums, dads, nanas and granddads get caught up in the excitement; hopefully they went home with lots of bargains.

As the morning went on, items reduced and prices dropped. There was some excellent bargaining – both from parent helpers and students. The Bring ‘n’ Buy ended with a performance by Ellie Burns, Celestine Png and Hannah Reddy, all expertly accompanied

by Elaine Wang and Mr Ah Sam. It was wonderful to have the students share their special talents. What a day! It was certainly enjoyed by all.

All this effort was in support of ‘Hands Across

the Water’, the initiative of an Australian charity that gives at-risk Thai children and their communities a helping hand - in particular an orphanage in Thailand that was badly affected by the 2004 tsunami. One of our parents, Ms Nickie Race-Jones, has been working tirelessly to raise funds for these people and Year 8 parents and students were only too happy to support such a worthwhile cause. We are proud of what we do here and our philosophy of ‘Progress with Vision, Integrity and Love’ underpins our mission to encourage every student to give back something of themselves.

Mrs Colleen Wassung Year 8 Dean

Middle School News

Auckland Writers’ Festival

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he chattering crowd was momentous as we entered the colossal amphitheatre for the 2014 Auckland Writers’ Festival.

The sea of literature enthusiasts buzzed with excitement. As the Kristin Year 9 and 10s ventured towards our school’s allotted seats, we noticed complimentary parcels of books including a small notebook for every single student. Overjoyed and filled with anticipation, we took our seats and waited for the festivities to begin. And begin they did: author after author took to the stage, astounding us with their knowledge. Our pens did not stop as they flew across each page of our notebooks. We learned so much while having a great time.

Jennavieve Rice, Taylor Dunn and Camryn Dyson

Stardome Observatory Over two days in May, the Year 7 tutor groups each visited the Stardome Observatory and Planetarium at Cornwall Park to focus on our science theme for Term 2: Space Exploration. As we arrived at our destination we knew that it would be a fun learning experience for all of the students, and staff too. And we were not wrong.

When we entered the vast and historical building we were seated in the dome and were soon intrigued by a movie they put on - How Big is the Universe? Shortly afterwards, we began roaming the corridors, which were filled with models of space shuttles, planets, black holes and even asteroids. Each display included information, which helped us answer our quiz.

I personally enjoyed the Stardome enormously and I can’t wait to go back soon. I learnt so much that there is to know about space travel (especially facts on the speed of light) and I’m sure that if you are lucky enough to go you’ll have the same great experience that I had.

Thomas Walker

Visiting Lady Allum House

Year 9 Options Taster Day

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xcitement and anticipation filled the air on Friday 8 August as the first-ever Year 9 Options Taster Day got under way for the Year 8 students. All students in Year 8 were able to choose six of the 12 option subjects on offer in Year 9 for a taster lesson in each. The purpose of the day was to allow students to experience the subjects they are interested in before they make their final subject choices for 2015.

The Taster Day came about as a result of student feedback from the 2013 Middle School Student Survey in which a number of students made the suggestion that they would like to ‘try

before they buy’ with regard to subject choices.

It is important for us to listen to student opinion and this is a prime example of a brilliant student idea being turned into an initiative which we are sure will remain a fixture on the annual calendar for many years to come.

The array of activities on offer spanned from hang-gliding (on a low scale!) in Sports Studies, bushcraft in Outdoor Education, creating a hip-hop sequence in Dance and learning to use design software in Graphics. Students are to be congratulated on the way they embraced the day. They were then left with the difficult task of making their final choices.

Every year, members of the Middle School Student Council take the time to visit Lady Allum House in Takapuna. While there, the students spend time talking and getting to know the residents, sharing a game of cards and performing music to entertain their audience. This tradition has grown to be valued immensely by our students as much as the Lady Allum residents. Year 10 student Oliver Denny has taken part in a number of these visits and he reflects on his experiences below: On Thursday 21 August the Student Council made their third visit to Lady Allum House, once again strengthening the bond between the youth and elderly of our community. We have deduced from these visits that, while there can be misunderstandings between age groups, there are more similarities than differences. Our preconceptions of these good-humoured people were that we would have difficulty finding connections with them, but it’s been quite the opposite. Therefore, our conclusions are that society places barriers between generations in the form of stereotypes, and so regular interaction is essential.

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VEX Robotics Kiwi Challenge The final VEX Robotics Kiwi Challenge competition was held at Massey University’s Albany Campus on Saturday 17 May. The Kristin teams competed well during the seeding rounds. Following finals round alliance selections, Dimitri Petreski and Matt Mazer’s teams were the lead robots in the 7th and 8th-ranked alliances respectively. Will Smith and Joshua Jung’s teams secured places in the finals round alliances too, and Tristram Speedy’s team worked hard throughout the seeding rounds.

In a great day for the underdogs, Matt Mazer and James Buckle’s bottom-seeded alliance nearly upset the top-seeded alliance in a great tussle. They won the first of their three quarter-final games and lost the second by only one point before going on to lose the third. Dimitri Petreski’s 7th-seeded alliance with a Rutherford College and Ormiston College team made it to the finals match, where they recovered from a first game loss to win the tournament by two games to one. With Will Smith and Connor Stott, together with two Rangitoto College teams, opposing them in the final, the Kristin Robotics team as a whole couldn’t lose. Our older Middle School Robotics students can be proud of their great job in mentoring the new students through their first competition.

Base Day 8.2 On the first three consecutive days of Week 5 all the Year 8 students were bubbling with joy, waiting for their turn to take part in Base Day 8.2! As soon as the bell rang on our allocated day we all made our way to the Pacific and Tasman rooms to start our thought-provoking activities.

First up was a short introduction from the Reverend Ramsay and Sarah, our Chapel leaders.

We were then given paper to create a pretend Facebook profile. It contained questions such as ‘What’s your favourite movie?’ and other personal questions. Throughout the day our responses were shared with the class and we had to try and guess whose profile it was. This was a quiz to see how well we knew each other.

Next up we had a guest visitor who was known, to our amusement, as ’Dan the Puberty Man’. Dan told us some amazing stories about life; we ended up in hysterics. From his lessons we realised that we should not try to be someone else and just be happy as we are.

Dan concluded his presentation, and we were then left with the Rev. Reverend Ramsay kept us amused while teaching us the characteristics and personality traits of different superheroes. This highly entertained the boys! We then left for lunch but before we knew it, lunch was over and we were back in the Pacific and Tasman rooms. The Rev and Sarah surprised us by taping a piece of paper onto our backs. We were all very confused about what we would be doing. Everyone walked around and had to write five different personality traits on the paper on someone’s back. Once we had done this, we compared our list to the positive personality traits we thought we had. This was interesting because we got to see what everyone thought of us. Many of us were surprised to see so many lovely compliments from our classmates.

We played a fun ball game to conclude our day; when Sarah rang the bell, the person who was holding the ball had to share the question under their left thumb. This was very humorous because some of the questions were quite funny. It was sad when the bell rang and we had to go home.

Goodbye, Base Day 8.2. Base Day 9.1, here we come!

Olivia Milsom and Nora Zhang

Jean Batten Reward Activity

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he Jean Batten girls had their reward event on the last Thursday of Term 3.

Girls who had participated in the programme and shown an improvement in their organisation and completion of homework and assessment tasks were rewarded with a baking session.

Here they got to make lots of lovely sweet treats of their choosing. We had a range of goodies from Russian fudge, chocolate cake, muffins and slices. The girls thoroughly enjoyed their afternoon cooking up a sweet storm and appreciated a visit from Mr Murray who came

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to check our their culinary skills.

Some of the students have benefited from having a mentor in their class and so it was great to have these students come along to share in the activity. The Jean Batten mentors are students who act as role models, helping with the strategies necessary to be well organised. This term the girls are working towards a reward trip that involves taking high tea at The Langham hotel.

Sandra Milliken Teacher-in-Charge, Jean Batten

Middle School News

Mathex

T Robotics Success at World’s First Skyrise Scrimmage Our senior Kristin VEX Robotics teams enjoyed great success at the first competition for the new season’s game, at Whangaparaoa College on Saturday 7 June.

This was the first scrimmage held in the world for this game which is called ‘Skyrise’. The game requires some very high lifting, and poses some very challenging design problems.

Team captains Marco Tyler-Rodrique and Finn Beavis performed well in the seeding round and selected each other for their finals round alliance. They were ably assisted by Matt Mazer, Logan Nutsford, Tristram Speedy and Matthew Williams.

The Kristin alliance went through the quarter- and semi-finals to beat a Glenfield College and ACG (Senior College) alliance 2-1 to take out the competition. A particular mention should be made of Finn Beavis’ key contribution to the win with some very composed driving under pressure.

Five Kristin teams competed at the competition, the results of which count towards qualifying for the New Zealand national tournament to be held in Term 1 2015.

hirty-two excited Year 7 and 8 students boarded the bus for the North Shore Events Centre on Wednesday 13 August, to compete in the annual North Shore Intermediate Schools’ Mathex competition.

Four Year 7 teams and four Year 8 teams were entered. It was the first for all the students as we were unable to participate last year when the competition was held during our school holidays.

All our teams were very competitive, but the stand-out one was the Year 8’s team comprising Alyssa Chia, Ginevee Engle, Jaqlin van Schalkwyk and Joshua Phillips. After a sudden-death play-off against Murrays Bay Intermediate for 2nd and 3rd places, we finished a very commendable 2nd behind Northcross Intermediate. Well done to all our mathematicians; you have done Kristin proud not only in your behaviour, which was exemplary, but in your problem solving abilities too.

Swati Puri

A First-hand Account of the Holocaust Our Year 10 students were honoured to meet and speak recently with two child Holocaust survivors as a part of their Humanities programme. The students have been studying World War II for their unit on ‘The Abuse of Power’, and Bob and Freda Narev’s annual visit has become a highly anticipated part of the course. For the past seven years the couple has shared their stories at Kristin, providing students with a direct human connection to the atrocities of the war and delivering first-hand accounts of the cruelty and injustice inflicted upon the victims and survivors of the Holocaust.

Bob spent two-and-a-half years in Theresienstadt concentration camp before being sent on a prisoner exchange to Switzerland. He lost many family members at the camp and while generally well cared for, he attributes his relative good fortune to the adults who shared their rations and protected the children from the fear that surrounded them. At three years of age Freda was sent to live on a Catholic farm to protect her from

persecution because of her Jewish faith. Her sister later claimed her and together they went to live in a refugee camp, but throughout her life Freda has had to cope with the loss of her identity; she has no memories of her parents and all records of her family, including her birth, have been destroyed.

The Narevs’ message of peace and remembrance resounded with the students.

Student Council representative Olivia Just said afterwards, “Their stories were so heartbreaking and emotional; all of us were hanging on to their every word, barely able to imagine what these lovely people have endured in their lifetime. They spoke incredibly well and welcomed any and all of the many questions that followed their presentation.

Following on from this, we engaged in further discussion, not only about their lives but also religion’s dominance in people’s lives today. We all learnt so much from their wise words, and their willingness to forgive but not forget.”

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news senior school

Leadership Roles 2014/15

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n the last day of Term 3 we celebrated leadership and service in all its forms with a very special assembly. Taking as our starting position the belief that ‘leadership is leadership only when it exists for others’, this ceremony recognised the visual proof of our commitment to servant leadership, our desire to see leadership in terms of purpose not just position.

It therefore gave us cause for much pride to present Merit, Excellence and Distinction awards to many deserving students, and to celebrate our 2014 Liberalitis Cup recipient, Sophie Large. Turning to our new leaders, we were then delighted to announce our Prefects, House Captains and Senior Committees for 2014/15, more than 120 positions of genuine delegated leadership. All leaders received their badges of office and enjoyed the warm applause from the rest of the Senior School.

A very special part of this assembly was the formal commissioning ceremony for the new Prefects team, who received their ties and badges of office from the outgoing Prefects before they left the stage for the last time.

The 2014/15 Prefects’ positions are as follows: Head Boys and Girls: Head Girl: Lucy Josephson Head Boy: Conrad Edwards Deputy Head Girl: Amelia Vincent Deputy Head Boy: Declan Weir

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House Prefects: Apollo – Lucas Hinton Jupiter – Grace Steele Mariner – Marko Garlick Saturn – Gina Boniolo Liaisons: Junior School Liaison: Anna Selak and Jack Ramsay Middle School Liaison: Yezen Kubba, Mitchell Hageman and Anna Chambers Committees: Cultural Committee: Antonia Wilks Events and Hosting Committee: Gracie Scott International Committee: Anthony Tuxford Tertiary Futures Committee: Grant Holtes Management Committee: Matthew Sinclair Publications Committee: Samantha Weston Service Committee: Sharn Fonseka Sports Committee: Rory McCutcheon Well-being Committee: Georgia Nelson House Captains: Apollo: Andrew Lee, Kate Manihera and Rawan Al-Hakeem Jupiter: Hannah Bourke, Jack Donovan and Thomas Trengrove Saturn: Cameron Stables, Michelle Lau and Gen Woods Mariner: William Deane, Ji Won Jung and Devon Fisher

Emerging Leaders

Prefect Camp 2014

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t Kristin, we love camps. We camp to build community, we camp to test ourselves in the outdoors and we camp to experience new places and activities. From Junior School onwards we have a proud tradition of using camps as a very special learning opportunity and, in addition to our annual Camp Week excursions, a student can experience the outdoors in Duke of Edinburgh trips, Middle School journeys and Senior School Outdoor Education trips. As well as this plethora of opportunities, however, one of the most eagerly anticipated camps is our annual Prefect Camp, taking place over the penultimate weekend of Term 3.

Set in the rural valley of Ahuroa, near Puhoi, the four days of the camp involve both the old and the new Prefects, bringing together those who are ‘retiring’ with those who will shortly be starting in the role. This opportunity to both debrief and train underlines the learning nature of leadership at Kristin with the emphasis on process over position, and a strong commitment to models of servant leadership.

As well as the normal team challenges of scaling walls, crossing lakes, negotiating a ropes course and participating in a giant outdoor game of ‘race to the flag’, this year’s Prefects had to cope with some of the worst weather ever seen on this annual weekend. While this may have curtailed activities on many camps, ploughing through deep mud simply added to the challenge here! When not outside, Prefects also experienced many indoor classroomstyle lessons of social styles analysis, developing a vision for leadership and a personal style inventory, in addition to discussing the strengths and weaknesses of our context for leadership and how to select, plan and implement a major work of altruism, commonly

referred to as the Prefect Project. One of the most beneficial times are the hand-over meetings that take place between old and new Prefects, establishing a model of leadership mentoring that will run for the remainder of the year.

While Prefect Camp involves much fun and enjoyment, there is always a time of sadness when our current Prefects leave us on the Sunday afternoon to return home. This was a poignant moment this year, particularly given the deep respect the new Prefects had for those they now follow. Farewelling such a group of outstanding leaders as the 2013/14 team is not easy. They were a very special group who personify the very values on which this school was founded: a group of students who gave themselves completely to the task of serving their school, their fellow students and the wider community.

It has been said that “action springs not from thought but from a readiness for responsibility” and this was especially true of the leadership class of 2013/14. They embraced the responsibility that came with this role with a certainty of purpose, great courage and a readiness for the challenges that it brought to them. While we probably always know that our leaders will be capable, what surprised us this year was their relentless pursuit of a lasting excellence in all that they undertook.

It is not an easy thing to lead your peers - Kristin students are all strong and capable people - but the 2013/14 Prefects have done so with courage, conviction and a deep passion for service. In completing their duties with such determination, they have left behind not only a long list of accomplishments but a legacy of principled leadership that will inspire many for years to come.

Brendan Kelly Senior School Principal

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Direct to America

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lready the North Shore’s sole SAT/ PSAT examination centre, Kristin has consolidated its position as the region’s pre-eminent school for US University and College guidance and counselling as a result of a variety of events specifically targeting students aspiring to study in the US when they finish school.

In May, Drew Dumas, the Educational Advisor to the US Embassy New Zealand, hosted a free SAT/PSAT workshop at Kristin. The workshop, which was attended by senior students from a number of North Shore schools, covered a range of themes from SAT/PSAT preparation, funding and parental information, to the Common Application and essay advice. Such was the success of the workshop; Drew followed it up with a series of one-on-one planning sessions, exclusively for Kristin students.

The same relationship with the US Embassy saw Kristin selected in August to be the only North Shore school (and one of only three in New Zealand) to host a US University and College Expo, featuring admissions personnel from a selection of leading US Universities and Colleges. The expo, which included a recruiters’ tour of the school, attracted staff from California

Institute of Technology (Caltech), University of Missouri, University of Oregon, Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University, UCLA, The University of Arizona, Savannah College of Art and Design, Joliet Junior College, the University of Colorado Boulder and America’s largest recruiter of international students, New York University.

September saw Alumni James Allan (2012) visit the Senior School to talk about his successful application and share his invaluable experience of Stanford University. He received admission offers from Cambridge University (UK), MIT, Brown, Princeton, Colombia and Caltech amongst others, and had been invited to participate in Duke University’s Scholars Program. Ultimately (through the process of

Duke of Ed Gold Tramp Finishing a Duke of Edinburgh Gold tramp is no mean feat. This is a fact that the 17 practice and qualifying trampers (plus adult helpers) who braved Lake Waikaremoana, during the first four days of the October holidays, can all agree on.

We had hoped to catch many glimpses of the lake’s magnificence, as we walked its shores and climbed towering bluffs - but this was not to be. The wind, rain, and cold had turned serene views into a landscape shrouded with a mythical mist. Even though the weather as against us, we persevered onwards.

While we may not have had the opportunity to see the true beauty of the lake, we did get an authentic outdoor experience we will never forget. Especially for us Gold qualifying

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trampers, since this will be the last Duke of Ed tramp we would ever do. Our most poignant memories won’t be regret over the things we missed out on, but of our trials and triumphs; the struggles of climbing towering bluffs, conquering the cold, navigating the backcountry, the camaraderie of evening card games, and reaching the next hut at the end of a long day.

Through our Duke of Ed tramping careers, we have all forged new friendships by exposing ourselves to tough new adventures, never losing our sense of humour. So, a shoutout to all my fellow trampers for journeying with me, and Mr Van den Bergh for his loyal organisation of an experience we will always treasure.

Matthew Flower

elimination), James chose to pursue his tertiary studies at Stanford as he strongly believed it would provide a natural extension of his learning experience at Kristin by allowing him to pursue “a well-rounded education”. For James, this also provided the opportunity to study his two passions: humanities and physics.

Next year, Kristin will host, in association with Kingdom Education, its first-ever US University and College Tour.

The purpose of the tour is to provide ambitious Senior School students an opportunity to experience first-hand the real possibility of pursuing a US college degree at a leading university when they finish Year 13.

Taking place over two to three weeks in the July holidays (US’s summer break), the tour will offer an experience of campus life at some of the most famous universities in the US, as well as an introduction to university study in a range of vocational subjects, including: economics and business studies, engineering and technology, medicine, law, politics and international relations.

Justin Peat Assistant Principal, Senior School

Senior School News

Academic Planning: A New Way Forward

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t the end of this year over 185 students will graduate from Year 13 at Kristin. With the final hurdles of their secondary-school years behind them, many of these students will be looking towards the challenge of tertiary study and onwards to their future career. The reality, however, is that when they step out into the workforce, many will find employment in jobs and industries that do not exist yet.

Traditionally, to decide on the best tertiary pathway, students would consult a careers advisor – that is, unless they made their choice based on chance, the whim of social conditioning, or the wellintentioned advice of a favoured relative or highly regarded family friend. The careers advisor model is still widely utilised in schools around New Zealand. However, it is an inconsistent system that matches students to a career based on the personality traits of those already in the profession; it is a model suited to a static career landscape, not our dynamic and rapidly evolving situation.

So, how then do you prepare students for jobs that don’t exist? Three years ago the Senior School embraced a new paradigm to help our students navigate their academic pathway and tertiary potential. This year’s Year 13 graduates are the first group to have followed this process for their three years in the Senior School, and we are seeing the benefits of this new approach in the confidence with which they are moving towards tertiary study.

Utilising the well-established and highly-effective vertical House system, every student in the Senior School has direct access to a House Dean who, in partnership with the student, is responsible for their individual academic and tertiary plan. Acknowledging that achieving success starts with having a plan, we have personalised the educational experience of our senior students, recognising that each is unique and that no one approach can meet the needs of every student effectively.

Each Senior School student meets with their House Dean for three academic planning sessions per year. During these sessions, every student, with guidance from their House Dean, works to develop a personalised academic plan tailored to their individual attributes, skills and aspirations.

The sessions primarily focus on the setting (and subsequent monitoring) of SMART goals (specific, measurable, achievable, relevant and time-bound) for each student’s time at the Senior School, and then on articulating a plan of action to help students to achieve them. Embracing the idea that we are preparing them for life beyond school, students are then equipped with the all the information necessary to make informed decisions about their future.

In doing so, we recognise the importance of aligning a student’s unique tertiary aspiration with short and medium term academic goals. Any disconnect between the two is promptly identified and resolved. In this way, the student who aspires to study engineering, for example, is quickly put back on track when they aren’t performing to the necessary level in subjects such as mathematics and physics - both a prerequisite to entry into engineering.

Tertiary institutions have also upped their game in recent years by establishing and improving both on-site and online career consultancy and recruitment services. The need to produce graduates who are indeed employable has become clear, and these institutions also appreciate that the University experience exposes students to a multitude of career pathways that were unknown to them when they left school. Their thinking: you are not who you were when you left school at 18, when you graduate from University at 22. It is for this reason that we now place a stronger emphasis on the secondary-tertiary interface and are increasingly leaving the ‘first’ career choice to the domain of the Universities.

Justin Peat Assistant Principal, Senior School

Uplifting Art for CAS For my CAS project this year, I was lucky enough to have the opportunity to create several art pieces, specifically for the needs of those at the Wilson Home.

The Wilson Home is a wonderful place that supports people with disabilities from all over the country, as well as their families.

As a child, I was in and out of hospital with a heart problem; therefore, I know the feeling of being stuck inside an unfamiliar, dull and sterile room filled with bizarre machines.

This sparked my idea to create several artworks with the aim of lifting spirits and inspiring those in need so they can achieve their highest potential.

Each of the pieces I created was designed to evoke a thought of happiness, joy and self-confidence for the children and their families who were each facing a lifechanging experience. I used bright bold colours and crazy statement pieces, even covering an entire room in hand prints!

Although this may sound like fun, it was also a shock to the system as I was able to volunteer several times and help with the children. I was strongly affected by their stories and charisma; even though they were going through an immense struggle, caused by something out of their control, they always had a smile on their faces. I felt the Wilson Home was the perfect place to share my uplifting designs and I feel very privileged to have been able to be a part of their community. I would also like to acknowledge those who helped me to make this possible.

Helena Young

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Making a Difference in Cambodia In December 2013, I travelled to Cambodia’s capital, Phnom Penh, where I was involved in a two-week Care and Community project with the volunteer organisation Projects Abroad. Along with 21 other high-school students from Australia, my part of the project involved commuting an hour out of the perpetually busy and bustling streets of the capital to a care centre run by the local church. The centre catered for men living on the streets, but mainly accommodated disabled children, where disabilities ranged from polio to Down syndrome.

Our help involved easing the role of the few carers who visited on an irregular basis, by feeding the children who were unable to do so themselves and providing company and support whenever it was needed. Over the short period of time we were in the country, we ensured the community was provided with sustainable supplies for the future through replenishing their otherwise minimal vegetable gardens, as well as building a number of new ones for them.

Spending a considerable amount of time in a schoolroom just next door, we also undertook the role of teaching and playing with a number of local schoolchildren and packing large buckets with simple, yet vital, household necessities. These were provided to over 100 local families.

More than anything, to know that you were able to provide a level of aid that was so greatly needed and appreciated by one select group of people was enough to want to do it all over again.

Kirsty Sutherland

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Students Against Dangerous Driving (SADD)

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t has been a great year of new initiatives, campaigns and events for SADD at Kristin and we hit a milestone this year, reaching over 40 members in our team. This massive influx is partly thanks to the excellent new team dynamic, sparked by the SADD rebrand to Students Against Dangerous Driving. With the new cause as our driving force, the team was unstoppable, producing one of the most successful in-school SADD campaigns across the country.

From bake sales to obstacle courses, roaming photo booths and giveaways, SADD Day attracted the masses, who all enjoyed the activities designed by our team around the principles of safer driving on our roads. SADD Day truly encapsulated the crux of the issues in a more positive way, with students quickly learning the effects that water balloons and shaving foam had on their ability to transport themselves safely! Junior, Middle and Senior School students were sent on their way with a sheet of SADD stickers and are now all that much more aware of the importance of driving safely and as a team. We look forward to executing many more of the plans up our sleeves!

So, from the SADD team at Kristin: Drive to the Conditions, Slow Down, Avoid Risks, Build up Your Experience, and Drive Sober and Without Distractions.

Declan Weir Co-Leader, Students Against Dangerous Driving (SADD)

Management Committee Report The Management Committee has been really busy during 2014, organising and initiating super exciting events for the Year 13 community. The year has been full of free sausage sizzles, BBQs, pizza lunches and table tennis tournaments, and even saw the Common Room turned into a movie theatre in Term 3! The Management Committee also had the privilege of maintaining the pristine (or sometimes otherwise) condition of the Year 13 area, and this was an opportunity for us to practise for our tertiary study accommodation. The final hurdle for us was designing and co-ordinating the 2014 leavers’ gear – a challenge that kept us busy until the very last moments.

The committee strived to bring the whole year-group together and make Year 13 the best year to be a part of the Senior School. It was really important for us to ensure the well-being of all final-year students, and to make the Common Room a place to relax and unwind throughout all the assessments, productions and other commitments.

Everyone in the Common Room benefited from the actions of our committee, and there were numerous leadership possibilities from within the Management Committee to further our presence in the Year 13 community. Overall, this whole year has been a brilliant success and has seen the individuals of the committee really grow and develop their skills for the future.

Stephanie Sole Chairman, Management Committee

Senior School News

Millennium Youth Camp

Roots & Shoots 2014 Roots & Shoots is guided by the founding principles and extraordinary vision of Dr Jane Goodall, renowned primatologist, environmentalist and humanitarian, who visited Kristin in 2010. Her firm belief is that young people, when informed and empowered, when they realise that what they do truly makes a difference, can indeed change the world.

Murdoch Thomson and Emma Poole were lucky enough to meet with Dr Goodall this year on her quick visit to New Zealand.

We aim to foster respect and compassion for all living things, to promote understanding of all cultures and beliefs and to inspire each individual to take action to make the world a better place for people, animals and the environment.

The Roots & Shoots students of 2014 have worked hard to consolidate the tremendous work of our 2013 group. They have organised first-aid courses, tree-planting sessions, supported and worked with Auckland City Mission, Wilson Home, SPCA, World Vision and Riding for the Disabled. Students are also involved with growing fresh vegetables for local food banks, investigating the feasibility of regularly purchasing Fairtrade products for the school staffroom and exploring alternative energy options for Kristin.

Roots & Shoots aims to inspire tomorrow’s leaders by encouraging the philosophy that every individual matters, every individual has a role to play and every individual makes a difference. I thank all of you who have chosen to make such a positive difference this year and look forward to what we can achieve together in 2015.

Glenis Paul Teacher-in-Charge

I spent a truly incredible week during Term 2 in Helsinki, Finland, at the 2014 International Millennium Youth Camp (MYC), where I enjoyed meeting new friends, great experiences and incredible learning.

I had the privilege of being among 60 talented, like-minded and dynamic young people from 28 nations who were awarded scholarships to attend. All of us had faced a highly competitive selection process to be there, with only 3% of all applicants being accepted to attend the camp.

Throughout the week, we worked in small groups on a diverse range of science and technology research projects with experts,

and participated in a myriad of engaging science-related activities and field trips. As a member of the Urban Planning group, I studied regional revitalisation, conducted intensive fieldwork and developed a comprehensive plan for a reimagined university campus.

The camp also had a truly international atmosphere, created by the real diversity of all the campers. We experienced each other’s cultures, had stimulating conversations on topics that spanned the globe, and I even managed to practise my Spanish with native speakers from five different countries! Truly a memorable experience, it’s one I’ll never forget. From October onwards, anyone aged 16 to 19 can apply for MYC 2015.

Matthew Flower

Life on the

Spirit of New Zealand

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earing of storm warnings, 52 strangers, 6:45am morning swims in the middle of July, hammocks for beds, scrubbing the deck and no showers, one would not initially assume that this would be the makings of the best 10 days I have ever experienced.

Life on The Spirit of New Zealand is the furthest I could have got from my life at home, with an array of daily tasks that challenged me far beyond my comfort zone. Understandably, living in the close quarters of 52 strangers caused me to be apprehensive at the beginning. However, by the 10th day I was living on a tall ship with 52 great friends from across the country and all different walks of life.

Day 6 at Port Fitzroy, Great Barrier Island, was a particular voyage highlight for me. I was filled with immense pride as I reached the top of the 33-metre-high mid-ship’s mast (armed with my camera for the selfie evidence, of course).

These 10 days were a massive learning experience for me, not only in the way of marine terms and sailing processes but, more significantly, my ability to adapt to unfamiliar situations and then step up as a leader.

I would like to thank the school for its support of my voyage on The Spirit - an experience I will never forget.

Declan Weir

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Academic Pathways and Tertiary Futures Evening On Thursday 31 July, the Senior School hosted its annual Tertiary Futures Evening, organised by the Year 13 Tertiary Futures Committee. The night showcased the wide array of opportunities open to Kristin students when they graduate. Students and parents had the chance to speak with University representatives from throughout New Zealand and Australia, getting the latest University information face to face – a far more satisfying way of learning about your course requirements than trawling through various University websites and prospectuses.

Invited guests and Kristin Alumni spoke about specific career pathways throughout the function, providing valuable insights and advice about the transition into University life. Every seminar was packed with enthusiastic students, many of whom came away inspired to pursue a career they hadn’t even considered before. The night was a huge success, with record attendance reflecting the positive attitude of Kristin students who are now well informed of the opportunities that exist beyond graduation and know exactly what they need to do to get there.

Grace Chignell

Building Kristin’s own Mountain Bike Skills Course

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idway through last year, my passion for mountain biking led me to recognise a ‘gap’ in the NCEA Outdoor Education curriculum. Not being an NCEA student myself, I was envious that there was an entire term in Year 13 dedicated to learning how to mountainbike. However, realising that the only way in which students were developing their skills was during off-campus trips, I began speculating as to the possibility of having a dedicated facility at Kristin.

After bouncing ideas off Ms Paul and Mr Taylor, and presenting a proposal to Mr Clague, I had the full support from the school to go ahead. With a sizeable patch of ground to work with and funding to create a curriculum-benefiting facility, I considered multiple concepts before settling on the final design.

The course would be comprised of nine wooden structures in varying sizes and shapes - all designed to ensure the safe development of mountain biking skills through challenge and fun.

Time was set aside, the materials were ordered and my troop of student and teacher volunteers recruited. It was extremely rewarding for me to see my dream turn into reality. We measured, cut, nailed and concreted for four days, overcoming hurdles in building know-how and the sheer physical labour of it all!

This project was a huge learning curve for me in terms of leadership, project management and problem solving. One year after conception, it is so rewarding to see the valuable learning opportunity and promotion of the sport that it provides. It has already seen its first successful term of service.

A huge thanks to Conrad Barry, Daniel Beaumont, Dinesh Fonseka, Idi Jones, Sam McDonnell, Harrison Stone, Anna Townend, Laura Townend, Anni You, Mr Allen, Mr Coulson, Mr Hayes, Mr Lee, and my dad for their infinite help in putting hammer to nail - and much more.

Andrew Sussman

Well-Being Committee Report Established only two years ago, Kristin’s Well-being Committee is a fairly new committee to the Senior School. As a result, a lot of people don’t have a very clear idea of what this committee does: the Wellbeing Committee aims to improve student welfare through a variety of ways.

This year we raised money for a children’s charity at the Family Picnic by holding a ‘Sponge the Teacher’ game and selling candyfloss.

Through these activities we raised $780. We also ran a ‘Bouncing Back’ initiative, where Junior School students got their photo taken while holding a sign about bouncing back from a bad situation. These pictures were collated into a large banner that was presented to the Junior School.

Throughout the year, we distributed posters with advice about

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prominent issues, such as examination stress and eating for energy so that there was a consistent well-being emphasis across the school, providing gentle advice, particularly at busy times of the year.

I would like to thank our supervisor, Jane Falkiner - Director of Wellbeing and one of the counsellors at school - for being very helpful in assisting the committee. Additionally, thanks to the committee members for their hard work, and to fellow Prefects for their help and support.

I am sure the Well-being Committee will continue to grow with time and improve the future well-being of Kristin students.

Calum McInnes Chairman, Well-being Committee

Senior School News

Cultural Committee Report This year the Cultural Committee first contributed to the school by providing entertainment for the Family Picnic, including face painting, a treasure hunt and organising a dance to be performed by Junior School students. We also contributed to Book Character Day, performing a skit for this event during the Junior School Assembly and visiting classes in full costume.

House Challenge was our third major event, which we helped to organise and run with the aim of making it bigger and better than ever before. This year the event was broadened to include a greater emphasis on all the performing arts and successfully attracted passionate House supporters from across the school.

Throughout the year, we’ve helped select processional and recessional music for Senior School Assemblies and have tried to choose current, enjoyable pieces of music to add a positive note to the students’ days.

In addition, we’ve consistently supported the cultural events of the school, working in a front-of-house role for many of the productions and musicals.

As a committee, we’ve aimed to increase support of all forms of the arts within Kristin and have hoped to involve as much of the school as possible in doing so. Together, we’ve had an incredibly rewarding year that we will never forget.

Anna Townend Chairman, Cultural Committee

Publications Committee Report

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he three editions of Make Dove Not War have headlined with the album release of Mr Churches dot com; Mr Clague’s career direction as a Cold Stream Guard; and the Many Directions at Kristin. Each edition has enabled us to create a range of articles incorporating the lives of the Senior School students and staff, many of whom have fully entered into the spirit of the magazine and allowed us to show them in a whole new light. As the publication is intended for ‘Senior Student Eyes Only’, we have of course taken liberties with our articles as is the purpose of such a magazine!

The Leavers’ Book is now coming to completion and will contain a favourite quote, memory and photo of each Year 13 student to help us all remember our time at Kristin. Our next project, to finish the year, is to create a video for the Graduation Dinner, where we aim to display an array of photos and videos reminding Year 13s of the fun times and perhaps a few embarrassing moments of their school days.

Our Editors, Bella and Anna, have done an outstanding job this year, ably assisted by the rest of the team: Finn, Alex, Andrew, Tom, Celeste, Tracey, Sophie and Henry. Together we have created articles, taken photographs, written reports, interviewed the Kristin elite and improved our Adobe InDesign skills. I’d like to thank all the Publications team for being supportive, creative and committed to completing our tasks this year, Mrs Debbie Dwyer for all her guidance, and to thank John and Camille at Spacific for printing all our publications.

Elspeth Carroll Chairman, Publications Committee

First-aid Skills & Emergency Management

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or my CAS project, I organised a firstaid course at Kristin on 5 April. The instructors were funny and engaging and able to pass on their knowledge and skills in a way that was fun for everyone involved. The course was as much hands-on learning as it was theory and students had the opportunity to test out their new skills by carrying out accident simulations, with a lot of fake blood and bandages.

In amongst the fun, we were taught the basics of how to help ourselves and others in an emergency situation, including how to tie bandages, deal with burns, stop choking, clear airways, perform CPR, use a defibrillator, and how to manage an accident situation.

While it sounds the least exciting, we learnt that accident management is actually one of the most important aspects of dealing with an emergency situation; diverting traffic, effective communication with emergency services and hazard control can be just as crucial as helping the victim.

All in all, it was definitely a day well spent, and while I hope none of us ever find ourselves in an emergency situation, having done the course I feel we are now all far better prepared to take action and make ourselves useful, rather than standing around panicked, wishing we knew more about first aid.

Grace Chignell

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Senior School News

Designz

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t was the evening of Tuesday 5 August, the crowds were seated in the LIC Foyer and we gave the cue to begin the show; the MC sauntered down the stairs of the LIC and onto the runway, welcoming the audience to what promised to be a very fashionable evening. Designz 2014 had started and the cast, crew and audience were ready for an unforgettable night. All dressed and in make-up, our young designers and models took to the catwalk, showcasing their incredible talents.

There were full collections of breathtaking garments created by Claire Large and Bianca Lim-Yip. Yeeyore Gao, an IB Design student, presented stunning cultural masterpieces that she had crafted to show the intricacies of the cultures she drew inspiration from. Students from the Japanese and Chinese clubs showcased traditional garments and costumes from their home countries, celebrating the diversity of the students and the deep cultural significance behind design and fashion.

Middle School students were able to show off their in-class creations, of

not only wearable garments but also practical items such as beanbags and pencil cases, exploring the varied use of fabrication and sewing within society.

There were so many other talents on display throughout the evening, such as the Year 12 IB wearable art designs, the newspaper designs for our new competition, the Year 11 NCEA skirts, our returning designer Grehta Davis (who, in just her first year out of Kristin, has already created a fabulous collection) and the food technology students who provided the delicious supper at interval. Oh, and of course there was the motorbike that flew across stage at the beginning of Act Two, exhibiting the limitless possibilities for students at Kristin.

As you can see, Designz isn’t just a fashion show: it’s about creation, and more specifically the capabilities of students to create designs of anything their imagination can conjure up.

Sophie Large

NZ’s Next Top Engineering Scientist While most of Kristin enjoyed the bliss of having a Saturday morning lie-in, a few students (and one dedicated teacher) found themselves back at school for a day of fun, panic and mathematical modelling.

The University of Auckland Department of Engineering Science runs the NZ’s Next Top Engineering Student Competition annually, and this year it was held on Saturday 2 August.

Teams from schools around New Zealand are given nine hours to come up with an answer to a real-world engineering problem. Kristin entered four teams of Year 12 and 13s. The question posed for 2014 was: ‘If Mt Taranaki erupted, how much would it cost the aviation industry?’

Solving the problem required equal measures of creativity and food. Our solution was based on the 2010 eruption of Mt

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Eyjafjallajökull (not even the YouTube video helped us pronounce this!). We made various assumptions and tried modelling wind patterns to calculate an average cost per passenger per day of the eruption, ending up with a fairly conservative $17.4 million. Other Kristin teams tackled the problem by estimating the effects of different amounts of erupted material, and whether the ash cloud would be carried by strong winds at high altitude like the Chilean Puyehue-Cordón Caulle eruption in 2011, and their answer exceeded $100 million.

Nine hours is a long time to work on anything, and was made possible through the gift that is junk food. Our team went through about six bags of crisps, packets of lollies, a couple of jars of salsa (shot James!), copious amounts of Pepsi and a sizeable amount of pizza (thanks to the wonderful Mr Campbell).

Stress levels definitely spiked throughout the day, as the deadline for the 10-page report inched closer. Everyone got their answers in on time (some teams closer to the deadline than others), and now we wait for the results of judging in November!

A big thanks to Mr Campbell for rallying the troops and giving up his weekend, and to Peter Bier and the organisers at the Department of Engineering Sciences for making these competitions happen.

This initiative is exhausting, stressful and a whole lot of fun. Any Year 11 or 12 student who thinks they know something about Mathematics, modelling, Physics and typing really, really fast should definitely give it a go.

Arun Rodgers

Sports Committee Report

Prefect Project Opening

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n Tuesday 5 August the Prefects team travelled down to Mansell Senior School in Papakura for the official opening of their new school health clinic, the result of our 2014 Prefect Project.

This year our team decided to partner with ManaKidz, The Middlemore Foundation and the Manukau District Health Board to transform a room at Mansell Senior School into a new medical clinic with the hope that the facility will help decrease the risk of rheumatic fever within the school community.

At the opening, we were greeted with a welcoming powhiri from the students, followed by a special blessing inside the clinic. We were lucky enough to secure a few players from the New Zealand Warriors, who joined us for the assembly, sharing their support for the Rheumatic Fever Prevention Programme and having fun with the enthusiastic students.

The intermediate-age students performed some beautiful songs and a powerful Kapa haka performance to finish off the formal assembly. Afterwards we were treated to a delicious meal, which included a traditional hangi.

As well as helping with the school clinic, we also planted native gardens and created an art feature wall outside the clinic. We were really touched by how much these things were appreciated by the students. It was a humbling and unforgettable experience.

I would like to say a huge thank-you to everyone involved, including the parents, staff, companies and individuals who supported us. Lastly, none of this would have been possible without the amazing Prefects team.

Olivia Barker Deputy Head Girl

International Committee Report Kristin is fortunate to welcome students from countries throughout the world, adding to the rich cultural diversity already present within our school campus. The International Committee’s role is to interact with and help new and existing International students integrate into the Kristin community. We also provide opportunities for students to immerse themselves into the Kiwi lifestyle and share their own culture, which is mutually enriching.

This year has been characterised by numerous social events as well as our main event, the International Peace Night Concert, held in the second term. The planning and organisation of International Peace Night occupies a large portion of the committee’s time, energy and creativity. The concert provides opportunities for visiting students to share their own customs with the wider school community.

The show was a huge success, and the theme ‘Life in Technicolour’ was particularly apt as the stage was graced by a plethora of vivid performances. Benedetta Lasagno, an International student from Italy, was

met with particularly enthusiastic applause after a flawless performance of Listen by Beyoncé. Do Linh Chu, from Vietnam, played his traditional Đàn bau instrument also, to a fascinated and appreciative audience.

In addition, the committee has organised social gatherings and BBQs throughout the year in order to welcome and farewell International students. A new initiative this year was the ‘Decorate a Cupcake’ stall at the Family Picnic, which proved extremely popular with the Junior School students. The funds raised enabled the committee to treat the International students to a ‘day out’ bowling and eating ice cream in Auckland City, which was greatly enjoyed by all.

Overall, this year has been thoroughly successful in fostering closer relations with our International students and enhancing the global mind-set which is actively encouraged at Kristin.

Elizabeth Lunn Chairman, International Committee

The Sports Committee has had a very busy year in 2014. As a committee, we are set the task of assisting with all of Kristin’s major sporting events. Since Term 4 2013 we have been helping out with the Junior, Middle and Senior Schools’ Athletics Days and Swimming Sports.

One of our main tasks this year was to organise Carnival Day, the integration of fun House events into the Senior School’s Cross-Country Day. This year’s Carnival Day was a huge success and, with the help of the House Councils, we were able to take House spirit at Kristin to new heights as well as enjoy all of the great activities.

Teamwork and delegation was key to organising these significant events in the school calendar.

The biggest sporting event in the Kristin calendar is the annual Sports Dinner; since late in Term 2 we have been planning for this event. So far we have made great progress, coming up with interesting and original ideas, with the goal of making the 2014 Sports Dinner the best Kristin has ever experienced.

At the beginning of the year we sat together as a team and outlined what we thought we could do to cement our legacy at Kristin School. Unsurprisingly, we put emphasis on the need to gather support for our Premier teams, create a greater awareness of sporting achievement and assess how we could increase participation in sport at Kristin. We have tackled these in several ways, initially by adding a nomination element to the Honk Cup’s Team of the Week award. In addition, we created an opportunity to speak to members through social media and are currently working on ideas to utilise this medium for sport-specific communication. There are many exciting ideas that are currently being worked on by our committee, but I am proud of what we have achieved overall and the impact we have made to sport at Kristin.

Callum McDonald Chairman, Sports Committee

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Senior School News

A Wish Upon A Star

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eld at Auckland’s Vector Arena on Saturday 14 June, this year’s Senior Ball and After Party were both a great success. It was the fourth time the event has followed the formula of the two functions being held within the same complex, and thanks to a few new additions courtesy of the Events and Hosting Committee (such as online student voting for 2014 King and Queen), everything ran seamlessly and a great night was had by all.

The Ball itself is a formal affair, held in the main arena. Complete with an amazing array of glamorous ball dresses and dinner suits, the event featured a buffet dinner and live music by Black Salt. In contrast, the After Party was relaxed, fun and informal. Everyone changed into casual clothes to move into a new venue within the Vector complex, and the Sweet Mix Kids provided the music. The emphasis of both parts of the evening was on celebration and fun, and students have embraced the school’s alcohol-free format with great enthusiasm.

Chairman of the Senior School’s Events and Hosting Committee, Emma Poole, said that her team was absolutely thrilled with this year’s event. “It was incredibly rewarding to see all of our team’s hard work come to life.

We’ve been planning this night since last October… it was like seeing our dreams come true when we walked into the venue.”

The current Year 12 and 13 students have grown up with the two-part event at Kristin, and based on the examples set by previous years, Emma believes in this format for the Ball and After Party. “I can see that the inclusion of the After Party is a positive addition. It provides a more relaxed and casual environment for after the Ball, and I think a key to its success is in ensuring that the two events are held within the same venue but stay very separate. Our committee strived to achieve a more light-hearted atmosphere at the After Party so it really felt like a different event, not just an extension of the Ball, and the result is that our guests had a great time at both functions.”

Mr Kelly is proud of the example set by Kristin’s Senior students: “Ultimately, the success of any school-sanctioned event is determined by the actions of the students. This year our students have once again demonstrated what responsible young people we have here at Kristin; it is a pleasure to work with them on an event such as this.”

Service Committee Report The Service Committee of 2014 has been involved in many service-related activities around the school and the community. To begin the year, we started a new tradition of giving welcome cards to the new students of the Senior School. In February, we executed the well-known tradition of gifting roses and chocolates on Valentine’s Day, with the proceeds going to the SPCA in the hope that the quality of life of animals will be improved.

Throughout the school year, the money raised from mufti days was donated to various charities of our choice; this year the funds were given to charities such as the Prefect Project and the Make-A-Wish Foundation.

In the final semester of the school year, the committee organised the Try Out Technology Day, during which senior citizens came along to the school, equipped with queries about technology such as cellphones, laptops and modems. The Try Out Technology Day was

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organised in collaboration with Age Concern, a government-funded charity project that helps senior citizens in New Zealand with all aspects of life. The event was exceptionally successful and we all found the opportunity to help our elders especially rewarding. They finished the event feeling joyful and satisfied that their queries had been answered.

In August, the committee encouraged donations to the Cancer Society and organised a bake sale to raise funds for Daffodil Day to aid in cancer research for the benefit of future generations.

Working in the Service Committee for 2014 has been a rewarding experience, especially seeing the faces of those who appreciate the time and effort given by students who want to make a difference in the world.

Yee Yee Wang Chairman, Service Committee

arts

performing

Kristin’s Award-Winning Musicians

Dance in the Dove

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he semi-permanent, ever-changing and fascinating nature of water was investigated from every angle at the annual Dance in the Dove showcase – from surging and turbulent rapids, to gently lapping waves over a coral reef and frothy ocean foam.

Kristin’s senior Dance students captured the mesmerising ebb and flow of river rapids through a demanding and visually stunning piece. The students crossed the stage continuously from right to left, performing a dynamic range of solo, duet and group work, enhanced by the video projection of flowing water and bursts of smoke enveloping and swirling across them.

A magnificent variety of lyrical, contemporary, ballet and hip-hop dances filled up the rest of the programme. Winter storms swirled around the stage, snowflakes coated everything in white, and abstract water molecules darted around playfully.

The Frozen item from the Kindergarten and youngest Junior School dancers brought a smile to every audience member at the Saturday matinee. The Middle School hip-hop crews conveyed clever interpretations of identity and popularity, and the Year 9 and 10 lyrical troupe presented their best performance yet of their beautiful piece, Freedom.

Intricate patterns of movement rippled continuously across the stage from the Year 3 to 6 Dance items, bringing to life a series of fun and enchanting underwater worlds. And the audience was treated to outstanding barefoot, ballet and contemporary solos from our stunning senior soloists Eleanor Lang, Leah Winters and Noa Wittenberg. Behind the scenes a hard-working group of students and staff worked tirelessly to ensure the shows ran smoothly, and that each student had their moment to shine.

Teresa Lauago Teacher-in-Charge, Co-Curricular Dance

Our young and talented musicians have been achieving great success over recent months in a series of local, regional and national competitions.

In June, Year 13 student Celeste Yeung received 1st place at the North Shore Piano Competition Finals, tallying up another three wins in the preliminary rounds on her way to the finals. From all the winners of the preliminaries, only three students, including Celeste, were then selected to play a live concerto with an orchestra at the Pumphouse Theatre. Celeste had twice reached this final stage, but this was her first win at the North Shore Finals.

Year 11 student Tina Zhang was awarded Highly Commended for her performance at the Auckland Chamber Music Contest, also held in June. Tina is a very talented violinist and a member of Suk Trio, a group that includes two other musicians from Rangitoto College and Westlake Boys. The trio was selected as one of 12 ensembles (from more than 500, nationwide) to travel to Christchurch for the National Finals in August.

Since being awarded the 2014 Auckland Philharmonia Orchestra Scholarship earlier this year, Year 12 student Gen Woods has clocked up another string of awards at regional events. At the Hamilton Performing Arts Society Annual Competition the talented violinist was awarded the Erica Colbert Cup for winning the Orchestra Stringed Instrument section, and the Celia World Cup for Excellence in String Playing.

Following this, Gen went on to compete in the South Auckland Performing Arts Competitions Society (SAPACS).

Here, up against very accomplished musicians, he was awarded the Patricia Appleton Trophy as Senior Strings Champion for the highest overall marks awarded. He was also presented the Infomace International Challenge Shield, for being the most charismatic player of the festival in the 15 to 21-year-old category.

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ights, camera, action! The Kristin Middle School production of Disney Jr’s The Little Mermaid created a breathtaking display of colour that stunned and delighted the audience.

Comprised solely of Kristin Middle School students, the entire cast and crew worked exceptionally hard to achieve what was an incredible school production, devoting many hours to make it a magical experience for the audience.

On 5 September, when the curtains opened for the first time, the characters that had become so familiar to us were brought to life on stage. Ursula cast her spells, Sebastian scuttled around the stage, Ariel morphed from mermaid to human and Scuttle squawked away. Parents and friends alike were delighted to witness classical Disney numbers such as ‘Under the Sea’, ‘Part of Your World’ and ‘Kiss the Girl’.

Everyone in the cast and crew thoroughly enjoyed the experience, and would recommend it to others in a heartbeat. When the curtains closed again on the final night, the cast and crew were overwhelmed by receiving a standing ovation. A special thanks to Mrs Rood, Mr Richardson, Mrs Verster and the many other dedicated staff members who, through their hard work, made this spectacular show possible.

Zoe Corboy and Adam Sinclair

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Ensemble Impact On Thursday 12 June, the students of Drama and Theatre Arts (Years 10 to 13) all gathered in the Dove Memorial Theatre to watch a performance by a visiting theatre company: Ensemble Impact.

This group of four talented actors performed a collection of 10 scenes from 10 plays by Asian New Zealanders entitled Asian Invasion. Amongst this compilation of thought- and debate-provoking drama was a play by Renee Liang (The First Asian All Black), who has featured as a guest speaker here at Kristin during an earlier Senior School Prize-giving.

The 10 plays stimulated terrific post-performance discussion amongst the students around the developing identity of Aotearoa-New Zealand, from a bicultural nation to being a multicultural one.

Nick Brown Teacher of Drama

Silver at World Champs

I Behind the Scenes - The Little Mermaid The Little Mermaid is a fun and colourful story, packed full of iconic scenes and a musical score to challenge our young performers and entertain their audiences, but it is also a demanding production that required the talents and effort of many backstage crew members.

As well as the acting, singing and choreography of the production, The Little Mermaid represented a significant media project. Through filming scenes using the Canon Cloud Suite’s green screen, we were able to create seamless transitions from land to sea. All such filming had to fit in meticulously with on-stage action; a projected ‘drowning’ Eric, floating to the ocean bed, had to be rescued by another green-screened clip of Ariel saving him. Within five seconds of the film fade, the real Ariel and Eric had to roll over rocks onto the beach on stage. Many hours were spent synchronising the media, music and live stage action, and the result was a wonderful effect that contributed immensely to the theatrical experience of our audiences.

In addition to the multimedia and lighting effects, Jeanette Verster, assisted by some very generous and supportive parents, spent weeks creating giant light-operated jellyfish, moving coral reefs, starfish, electric eels and more – the genius of which easily rivalled some of the creations in The Lion King!

This kind of on-stage magic would never have happened without the efforts of all who contributed in backstage crews, in wardrobe, at tech desks, calling cues, working on the set and creating memorable illusions enhanced by sound and lighting, and this article is a tribute to each and every person involved.

Lorna Rood Director of Performing Arts

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have recently returned from the 2014 World Hip Hop International Championships, which were held in Las Vegas, USA. My crew, Duchesses, qualified to represent New Zealand at Worlds in the Varsity division, which is for dancers aged 13 to 18. It was very nerveracking to step on to the world stage for the preliminary round where automatically half of the 48 crews are eliminated on the first day, especially since our crew was only formed at the beginning of the year. At the preliminaries we placed 3rd, which was a fantastic start. We then went on to compete in the semi-finals where we placed 2nd. After this they only took the top-six crews through to finals at the Orleans Arena in Las Vegas.

At this point we were the only Kiwi crew through to the finals. We worked very hard and often trained through the night to perfect our set. We wanted to be ready for the millions of eyes that would be watching us, either in the audience or on a live stream. It was a lot of pressure and quite scary as nobody wanted to let the other dancers, our studio or our country down. We walked on to that world stage confidently and left everything we had there. Hearing our crew named 2nd in the world and being presented with a Silver medal on the world podium is a moment I will never, ever forget. I am so grateful to everybody who helped and supported me to get there, as it is an experience of a lifetime which I am honoured to have had.

Houston Murray

Performing Arts News

Big Sing Finale Gold Euphony produced another spectacular performance at the recent New Zealand Choral Federation Big Sing National Finale to win Gold for the third consecutive year.

Kristin was one of 24 schools, selected from 280, to compete at this prestigious event following a very successful regional competition in the Auckland Town Hall.

At the Big Sing Finale, each school presented two recitals to four adjudicators, after which Bronze, Silver or Gold were awarded.

Euphony, under the baton of Mr David Squire and accompanied by Mrs Sheryl Clarke, was one of only six choirs in New Zealand to be awarded Gold. Their feature piece was Child with a Starry Crayon by Eleanor Daley, in which Anna Wingham sang the soprano solo. Euphony sang this in total darkness, with small candles held by each member. The Town Hall audience was mesmerised. Congratulations and thank-you to everyone involved in the Big Sing 2014 journey.

Megan Bennett Teacher-in-Charge, Euphony

A Golden Performance by The Treble Clefs

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ristin’s Junior School Choir, The Treble Clefs, excelled at the annual Auckland Regional session of The Kids Sing in August. As a junior version of the secondary schools’ The Big Sing, this festival serves to encourage the pursuit of choral music across New Zealand.

Our young singers looked fabulous on stage, full of the joy of singing, and they delivered a beautiful repertoire. Kristin’s two ‘own choice’ items were clever compilations by our very own talented conductor, Mrs Edith Poon-Lai. Her commitment, energy and enthusiasm brought out the best from our choir members in Years 4

to 6. Ms Renee Morin supported Ms Poon-Lai and the students with her deft accompaniment on the piano and with various percussion instruments during the a cappella piece.

After the spectacular performance in the Auckland Town Hall – in which the students’ voices were beautifully amplified to deliver goosebumps-a-plenty – the choir was awarded one of four Gold Awards, as well as the inaugural Adjudicator’s Award. While the success of the choir should not be determined by accolades, the hard work of all involved is recognised by these wonderful tributes.

International Ballet Workshop Last year I was fortunate enough to have won the Bobby Stafford-Bush Scholarship, which gave me the opportunity to dance at SIBA; this is a four week International Ballet Intensive Workshop in Salzburg, Austria. I was able to learn from many famous ballet instructors and work with numerous talented dancers from around the world. I danced six days a week, starting from 9am and finishing at 6pm. My days included ballet classes in the mornings and rehearsals for the four gala shows we were performing at the end of the workshop in the afternoons.

There were three gala shows in Salzburg and one in Munich where I performed Swan Lake, Bolero and Nacho Duato. I had the most amazing experience and I hope I get the chance to return again next year.

Natasha Katavich

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news sports

Quadrangular Trans-Tasman Netball Tour

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n 11 April, 27 excited Kristin students and staff travelled down to Hamilton for our very first Quadrangular Trans Tasman Netball Tournament. The students were a selection of eager girls from Years 8 to 12, who made up two teams to compete against four other schools from New Zealand and Australia.

The Quadrangular Trans-Tasman Netball Tour is held annually with the hosting role alternated between the two countries each year. The five participating schools were Kristin, Geelong College, Scotch College, St Paul’s Collegiate and Pembroke School.

The three-day tournament included some fun ventures along the way with a rigorous amount of Netball, of course. As part of hosting the competition St Paul’s put on an amazing menu, a wonderful quiz night, a Fast Five mini tournament and, finally, the formal dinner where our captains spoke beautifully to congratulate the players and articulate our sincerest gratitude to all involved in making this tour happen.

After three extensive days of competition, fun, friends, games and unconditional support from our hard-working coaches, our teams finished the tournament in 4th and 7th place. Geelong College took out 1st place to the delight of the Kristin players who, during the tournament, had quickly established special friendships with the Australian team members.

This experience was incredibly worthwhile and beneficial, especially for our young players who faced aggressive and experienced older-aged opponents throughout the tournament. Our Year 8 and 9 players will be a force to be reckoned with as they continue to develop in the coming years.

All of our girls are eagerly awaiting next year when the tournament will be held in Melbourne, Australia, with Geelong College to be our hosts for 2015. We look forward to reconnecting friendships as well as bringing even tougher competition to the court. This tournament gave us the opportunity to develop our talents and skills, as well as to make lifelong memories. It was wonderful to share this experience alongside our new Executive Principal, Mr Tim Oughton, and his lovely wife, who kindly brought our team many words of encouragement and a box of L&P. Grace Steele and Kate Manihera Tour Co-Captains

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Youth Basketball of America After months of preparation and trainings, 25 June was the day when I would embark on my first trip to the USA for Capital City Basketball.

The trip to Orlando, Florida, took a total of three flights, with an airtime of 27 hours and the much-loved airplane food.

Upon arriving, however, there was no time for jet lag as it was straight into trainings. The first five days of the trip were set aside for preparation, as the tournament would last for the remaining five days.

We went to an authentic American YMCA, along with other gyms, to get back into the Basketball frame of mind.

We stayed at the Comfort Inn on Universal Drive, which meant we were conveniently close to Orlando’s famous landmarks. We were lucky enough to go to Universal Studios on the third day of our trip.

This experience in itself was truly incredible, with team bonding being a large focus of this excursion. We also had the pleasure of going to authentic American take-out places, with carbohydrates being an athlete’s necessity.

Then it was down to business as the Youth Basketball of America tournament was starting on 30 July. There were skill tests on the first day, where players who were particularly talented in the required areas were selected from the team; I was selected for the ‘three-point shot’ category. Then the tournament began.

Our team did well, winning each of our first three games. When the game came that we had to win to qualify for the semi-finals, we lost by one point. Naturally we were quite disappointed, but we pushed through this, and realised we still could play off for 5th or 6th place.

We came home with 5th place, leaving on a high.

This was a truly amazing experience, which I will never forget. My Basketball skills drastically improved over this short time. Now that I have had a taste of the American Basketball culture, I aspire to go back there, but on a Division 1 scholarship next time. This trip helped me experience such a diverse culture, while also playing the sport that I love. I am truly grateful.

Chanel Brodeur-Muir

AIMS

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n an adventure of a lifetime, nine different Kristin teams participated in the AIMS Sporting Championships: football, netball, boys and girls’ hockey, gymsports, tennis, basketball, golf and water polo. The competition was intense, with 7,500 students from 228 schools. To put this in perspective, the recent Commonwealth Games had only 4,950 competitors. The Kristin teams had a very busy schedule; despite this, each was excited to support the other Kristin teams in their matches. It truly felt like a Kristin family! All our teams performed very well, and both gymsports and water polo came away with medals.

Lena Jacob and Christina Yang

The Water Polo Final Two teams: Aquinas and Kristin. We line up on opposite sides of the pool and wait for the names to be called out; we stand there nervous, anxious, ready to dive in, breaking the calm, flat water. We all dive in at the same time, four laps to warm up. We gather on our side of the pool in our team circle. Claudia leads the team cheer, “Kristin, on three: one, two, three, Kristin! ” The game has now begun, the race for the Gold medal. One game, four quarters, and 20 minutes of intense play. The screams of onlookers and supporters echo throughout the complex. The clock has stopped but the game is still on; we had tied 6-6. Now we are in a penalty shoot-out: five players from each team line up to shoot. Aquinas score 5 goals, Kristin only 3.

The final is over; a new Kristin Water Polo record has been set: 2nd place - runners-up.

All the team members receive Silver medals, while Dominic Chen, Daniel Harris and Claudia Morgan are each awarded a bonus AIMS Tournament Team medal.

Daniel Harris and Bridget Swinburne Silver Medallists, Water Polo Team

All Whites Train at Kristin Much to the excitement of our Football teams, Kristin hosted two training sessions for the All Whites on 27 and 28 May in preparation for their friendly contest against South Africa at Mt Smart Stadium.

Nike joined the All Whites on the first day of training to promote their new ‘Magista’ boots and gave several of our players the chance to wear this innovative new footwear and train with Marco Rojas, Tyler Boyd and Tim Payne, who all featured in the game against South Africa. The lucky students played some 2 vs 2 games on a Nike-branded pitch. Hannah Reddy was a stand-out with her ball skills and won a Nike prize pack. Each player who took part received a signed ball and Nike shirt.

We have been fortunate to host the All Whites and other national and international Football teams at Kristin several times in recent years thanks to the impressive work of our grounds team, who carefully manage our fields to such a high standard that they have become known as some of the best playing surfaces in Auckland.

This has been recognised by FIFA who have selected Kristin to be one of the official training venues for the FIFA U20 World Cup in 2015. We look forward to welcoming the best young footballers in the world to Kristin next year; their presence will undoubtedly inspire our rising Football stars and will provide a great deal of excitement to anyone with an interest in the beautiful game.

Cherry Webster Director of Sport

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Orienteering Zone Day

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n Thursday 8 May, Kristin sent four Year 7 and 8 teams to the North Harbour Schools’ Orienteering Zone Day at Long Bay Regional Park. This was the first time that Kristin has entered this event with one boys’ team, two girls’ teams and one mixed team.

Each team consisted of six runners and combined times were calculated (minus penalties) for an overall time/place.

The course was relatively flat, but this made it very fast-paced with runners chasing the clock. The event involved all six team members having their own map and course to follow. Most runners completed the course in 25 to 35 minutes, but penalties were imposed for controls (markers) being made out of sequence, and this let our boys’ team down in the end.

It was a great event and the students had a lot of fun on the course and working in their teams.

Congratulations to Team 2 (girls) on placing 5th overall out of 36 teams (Lana Holgate, Claudia Morgan, Celestine Png, Clara Simmons, Alice Steele and Ella Tobin). It was a fantastic effort against experienced schools that had many teams entered.

Nigel Messervy Clubs Manager

Junior Golf’s Rising Stars On Tuesday 17 June, the Kristin Junior Golf team, consisting of Georgia Gao, Aiden van der Nist, Kevin Wei and Rian Wongsarot, took part in the final round in the North Harbour Primary Schools’ Golf tournament, held at Peninsula Golf Club. After strong performances in the previous two rounds – finishing 4th and 2nd respectively – they headed into the final day of competition in 3rd place, only five shots behind the leaders.

The boys ‘hit their straps’, winning the final round with a score of 29, which included six birdies in trying conditions. While it wasn’t quite enough to be crowned the North Shore Primary Schools’ champions, they finished a very credible 2nd and only five shots off that of the winning team.

What makes this achievement even more remarkable is that this tournament was the first time they had combined and competed as a team. Their success has undoubtedly positioned Kristin’s Junior Golf team as one to be reckoned with in the future. Well done on an amazing achievement.

Equestrian Events Year 9-13 Kristin organised and hosted the Intercollegiate Ribbon Day at Woodhill Sands in May. This event saw 129 riders from 30 schools competing in teams of four. Kristin entered two teams as follows: Kristin Blue – Lucarne Dolley, Olivia Foster, Courtenay Harrison and Gia Hughes; Kristin Green –Caitlin Lally, Bridie McCullough, Clodagh McCullough and Maia White. Congratulations go to Lucarne and Caitlin for their success in the morning’s events. In addition, Bridie and Maia achieved notable results in the afternoon showjumping classes. Thank you to Abbey Beaumont, Kim Campbell and everyone who helped to make this event such a great success.

Kristin Blue and Kristin Green teams also competed in the Secondary Schools’ Equestrian Cup on 8 August. This event consists of two riders in the Show Hunter rings and two in the Showjumping rings.

More than 250 riders took part in this event and the Kristin Green team finished 10th overall. Maia White and Vianne Coleman finished 1st and 2nd respectively in the 90cm Hack Showjumping. Lucarne Dolley was 2nd in the 1m Hack Show Hunter and Bridie McCullough, 1st in the 70cm Show Hunter Pony class.

Our riders have represented Kristin superbly and are to be commended for their excellent attitude and teamwork.

Gaenor Clarke Teacher-in-Charge, Equestrian

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Sports News

Year 7/8 Basketball Zone Days

Year 7/8 Cross-Country Championships

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ristin was represented by a strong group of athletes at the Year 7 and 8 Cross-Country Zones event, held at Onepoto Domain on Tuesday 12 August. The runners were met with typical Auckland weather and some very heavy showers, which made conditions underfoot very wet and soggy to say the least. All the Kristin runners did the school proud and there were some fantastic performances from Yasmine Knight, who finished 6th, and Ayla Hall, who finished 9th in the Year 7 Girls’ race.

In addition, there were some strong performances from Diogo Oliveira, who finished 14th in the Year 7 Boys’ race, and Alex Crook, who placed 9th in the Year 8 Boys’ race.

Based on the results at this event, three runners progressed to the Auckland Inter-Zone Championships at Muriwai Beach in September: Alex Crook, Ayla Hall and Yasmine Knight. This competition included all the top Intermediate runners from across every Auckland region.

Alex and Yasmine both had outstanding races, with Alex finishing 19th overall in the Year 8 Boys’ category and Yasmine placing 12th overall in the Year 7 Girls’ race.

The result of the day came from Ayla, who produced a remarkable run and one of her best-ever performances that saw her finish in 3rd place in the Year 7 Girls’ event.

Congratulations to all of the Kristin competitors; we are really proud of your achievements.

Graeme McKinnon Sport Manager, Cross-Country

The North Harbour Basketball Zone Days were held at the North Shore Events Centre on 19 and 20 August. The boys’ event saw 16 intermediate schools competing for supremacy and the chance to represent North Harbour at the Greater Auckland Championship.

The format for the day involved four pools, each consisting of four teams, playing a round-robin draw. The two top-placed teams from each pool would progress to quarter-finals, semi-finals and finals, while the 3rd and 4th-placed teams from each pool would be finished for the day.

Kristin had a very tough pool, which included Glenfield Intermediate, Murrays Bay Intermediate and Albany Junior High. The Kristin boys struggled to score and lost 29-2 to Glenfield, 29-4 to Murrays Bay and 29-12 to Albany Junior High. Their defence was consistent and the boys should be commended for playing with real effort and never giving up. Both Murrays Bay and Albany Junior High made it to the semi-finals and eventually finished 3rd and 4th respectively. In all, it was a good learning experience for our team, who continued to improve from game to game. Outstanding performers on the day were Matthew Bish, Curtis Blanchard and Mason Orchard.

The next day was the girls’ turn. Only 12 teams entered the competition, which meant pool play consisted of just two games, with the top two teams qualifying for play-offs.

In their first game, the Kristin girls came up against a team of giants from Birkdale Intermediate. However, size was not the key factor in the game as the Kristin defence swarmed early and pressured Birkdale into turnovers to reach an 8-2 lead at half time. Birkdale came back in the second half, though Kristin held on to secure the win, 10-8. The second game was much tougher, against Albany Junior High, and we went down 7-16. Albany Junior High was too strong for Birkdale, which meant we finished 2nd in our pool and qualified for ‘top eight’ and were through to a quarter-final.

Our quarter-final match was against Takapuna Normal Intermediate School (TNIS). They were a formidable team, full of rep players, and we were comprehensively beaten 30-nil. TNIS went on to win the tournament. We then played Albany Junior High again and this time came so very close… Down two points in regular time with seconds left on the clock, we secured a rebound and worked the ball down court before passing to Samantha Robertson, who scored the basket to tie the game as the clock ran out. We eventually lost in overtime by just one point, but it was a much-improved performance! The girls beat Mahurangi College in their final game to finish 7th, which was an incredible effort and they can be proud of their performance. The girls all played extremely well and especially outstanding performers on the day were Eleanor Burns, Grace Jack and Holly Watson.

Simon Mesritz Sport Manager, Basketball

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International Yachting Results Kristin’s Yachting Club kicked off the year in style, winning Gold in the Harken team’s event. Following on from that great start, our sailors have been stars on both the National and the International stage.

Josh Berry (Year 8) was selected to represent New Zealand at the International Optimist Dinghy Association (IODA) Asian Championships in Bahrain earlier this year. This event involved 130 boats from 22 countries. Josh qualified to race in the Gold Fleet where his best placing was 28 out of 130.

Lachlan Grimwade (Year 11) started his season with a 1st place at the NZ National Laser Championships (4.7 Laser). He then travelled to Queensland, Australia, in the Term 1 holidays and placed 1st at the Sail Brisbane Regatta (4.7 Laser). He travelled back to Australia in July, competing at the Queensland Youth Week and placed 4th. These results saw Lachlan selected for the New Zealand team to compete at the World Champs in Japan in August where he made the Gold Fleet finals, placing a credible 33rd.

Oscar Gunn (Year 11) sailed in the North American 29’er Champs in Kingston, Canada, with sailing partner James Wilson. The pair was placed 11th, which was a fantastic result in their first international regatta. They then went on to compete in the 29’er Open World Championships where they finished 31st (6th in the Silver Fleet) out of 101 entries.

Jackson Keon (Year 10) followed up his 5th placing at the Nationals’ Regatta with a selection for the New Zealand team to compete at the Optimist World Sailing Championships in Argentina.

Jack Rogers (Year 11) finished 2nd at the NZ 29’er National Regatta earlier this year. After winning a 2014 Youth spot to represent New Zealand in the SL16 class, Jack and his sailing partner Micah Wilkinson headed to Biarritz, France, to compete in the SL16 Open Worlds, finishing 7th in a fleet of 49. The boys then headed to Tavira, Portugal, to sail for New Zealand in this year’s ISAF Youth Worlds, finishing 5th. Finally, across to Kingston, Canada, they competed in the 29’er Open World Championships where Jack and Micah finished a credible 5th overall.

Leonard Takahashi (Year 11) was part of our winning Harken team earlier this year, and also finished 2nd overall at the NZ Starling Nationals at Parua Bay, Northland, in Term 1.

Nigel Messervy Clubs Manager

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Northern Bays Super Cluster

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he annual Northern Bays Super Cluster was held at Kristin on Thursday 28 August. This is always a highly anticipated day where our Junior School students compete in Football, Netball, Hockey, Miniball and Rugby tournaments against their local rivals.

Two boys, Cam Collett and Larry Lambourne, represented Kristin in the Upper Harbour Rugby side. The Netball girls worked solidly all day against stiff opposition. Our Football boys came together to produce some effective passing, and both of our Hockey teams had some convincing wins. We entered two Miniball teams and our players worked hard throughout the day, with Team 1 narrowly losing by one basket in the final. Well done to all these students who represented Kristin proudly.

As well as our players, our Sport Managers were hard at work, making sure their codes ran smoothly, and our Groundsmen once again came on board as referees for the rugby. Thank you to all the parents and students who assisted with managing, umpiring or coaching. You were fantastic and we really appreciate your help.

Fiona Ackroyd Junior School PE Specialist/Sports Co-ordinator

Sports News

Netball Age-Group Tournaments

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n addition to our action-packed season of competition, this year we have seen a total of 57 players and 7 umpires be proud representatives of Kristin at various age-group Netball tournaments hosted by Netball North Harbour and Auckland Netball.

Netball North Harbour held three local events for our top up-and-coming teams, providing them with the opportunity to test their skills against local schools: the Year 6 Field Day, Year 7/8 Zone Day and Year 9 Zone Day. The challenge of an Auckland-wide competition was delivered by the Auckland Netball Combined Points Tournament, to which we sent our top Year

9 and 10 teams, as well as our Premier Girls’ squad.

These events provide a valuable opportunity for our age-group teams to develop skills and teamwork on top of their regular season’s games. They also help our coaches to prepare players for the next phase of their skill set.

Leadership is seen in many shapes and forms and we learn very quickly who can be responsible for personal preparation throughout the day.

This year our teams battled ice-cold weather and torrential rain in pursuit of their love of Netball, and the development we have seen

across the board indicates some exciting possibilities for future teams. While final results didn’t see Kristin amongst the leaders at these events for 2014, each of our teams has delivered brilliance on the court and developed significantly throughout the season. We have seen our girls strive for personal excellence and lead by example. The encouragement of younger players and the vocal support of teammates during games have developed fantastic camaraderie, and the efforts these girls have put into their game this year is sure to pay dividends in future seasons.

Stacey Morgan Head of Netball

Surfing Nationals Six students travelled down to Raglan in August to compete in a Surfing tournament open to schools across New Zealand. The event is held annually and is organised by the Raglan School Surfing Academy. It is highly competitive. Schools from as far south as Gisborne and as far north as Orewa had teams competing.

Our group, consisting of Max Boocock, Jackson Coyne, Alex Crook, Thomas Crook, Brit Kindred and Matt Newdick stayed at the Raglan Holiday Park and was supported by parents and teacher Ashleigh Grant.

In similar conditions to those experienced at last year’s event where the swell was upwards to two metres, our boys met fierce competition and all - with the exception of Matt Newdick failed to progress to the next round. Matt unfortunately was eliminated in the second round’s heat. Brit Kindred, the only girl on our team and fresh from returning from the World Junior Surfing Championships in Ecuador, continued on through to the finals and finished 3rd in her division.

Our participants showed a great team spirit and all are keen to compete again next year. They were in awe of the talented surfers in the competition and are keen to keep practising to give it another shot.

Jan Newbold Teacher-in-Charge, Surfing

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Sports News

Isaac’s Golden Run Isaac Hoshi has continued his brilliant form from earlier this year, representing New Zealand at the Oceania Karate Championships in Suva, Fiji, in September where competitors included representatives from New Zealand, Australia, Fiji, Tahiti, New Caledonia, Papua New Guinea, and Wallis and Futuna.

In an outstanding result, Isaac secured Gold medals in both the Junior (16/17 years) and Senior Male Kata events. This means that Isaac has an unbroken record, achieving 1st place in every single tournament he has attended this year at both National and International level.

In recognition of his hard work, dedication and brilliant results tally, Isaac has been selected to attend the Senior World Karate Federation Championships, to be held in Bremen, Germany, in November. With each country’s entries limited to only one representative per category, it is a great honour and a major achievement for Isaac to be selected for this event where he will be representing New Zealand in the highly competitive Male Kata division. We look forward to following his progress at the event and congratulate Isaac on this fantastic achievement.

Cherry Webster Director of Sport

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Challenger Cup

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ver Queen’s Birthday weekend, in June, the Kristin Junior Girls’ Water Polo team journeyed down to Hamilton to compete in the Challenger Cup, along with other school and development teams.

Our first game was at 8.50am on the Saturday morning, against Carmel College’s B team, which we won 8-3. Our goalie, Alice Steele, did an amazing job, allowing us to get ahead of Carmel and take the lead. We went on to play Mount Maunganui College, and unfortunately lost 9-2.

The next day we played three games throughout the course of the day, against Long Bay College, St John’s College and Hillcrest High School. In all three games, our team played incredibly well. Our defence improved immensely, allowing Sarah Dixon, Rachel Marsden and Bridget Swinburne to steal the ball and keep the opposition on their toes.

On the Monday, we had another early start against Lynfield College and, after a harrowing game, won by one goal, the final score being 7-6. Once again we saw strong defence from all players and brilliant work by our centre forward for that game, Jess Swinburne, who managed to score several of the goals. Jess was well backed up well by Claudia Morgan and Sarah Swanepoel.

We were able to go on to compete for the Bronze medal against Mt Maunganui, who had beaten us the previous day by seven goals. We won the tip-off and went on to score several goals and stayed just ahead of them for the first half, with incredible work by all of the team, in particular Brooke Churches, Natasha Clemmett and Charlotte Hardy, who manned the wings and allowed the centre players to move forward and shoot for the goals. We were just ahead of Mt Maunganui and giving them a real run for their money when they managed to score a few goals. When the buzzer went off for the end of the game, the score was 5-7 to Mt Maunganui. The team played great Water Polo during the entire tournament and we were all extremely proud of ourselves, finishing 4th overall in the B Grade.

Catherine Harris

North Island Secondary Schools Ski and Snowboard Competitions

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his year we again had two teams travel to the slopes of Turoa to compete in the Ski racing and Freestyle events. As always with Mt Ruapehu, the weather is a major contributing factor and this year was no exception with only one of the three available days being suitable for getting racing under way.

It was in very marginal conditions with the visibility coming and going that they managed to hold the ski racers’ Giant Slalom.

Despite difficulties with timing and reruns for competitors, it was from this race that 2014’s final placings and results would come.

Here, Sophie Corser, in her final year of the competition, reinforced her dominance in the Senior Girls’ Giant Slalom, not only retaining her title as North Island Champ but doing so in style with a two-second victory margin.

Adding to the teams’ success with top-five finishes were Eden McKay, finishing 3rd in the Junior Girls’ GS, and Rhys Davies, 5th in the Junior Boys. These results, combined

with those of the rest of the team members, saw them finish 2nd equal, only to end up 3rd overall on a countback. Most disappointing was the fact that the Skiing Slopestyles event was cancelled as we had several athletes poised to claim the podium in an attempt to defend their titles or placings from last year.

The following week it was the turn of our snowboarders. Similar inclement weather made it difficult for our athletes, who lost one training day and the first day of competition; however, the other three days dawned bright and clear with fresh powder, providing the perfect base for racing. Our three snowboarders, Jonathan Brownlee, Sam Ross and Liam Price, enjoyed the opportunity to further develop their skills in a competitive racing environment.

I would like to thank all those who participated in these competitions, as well as the parents who came to support and assist.

Brent Goldsworthy Sport Manager, Snowsports

WC Eagles Hockey Tour Kristin welcomed the WC Eagles Hockey team from the USA to the school in August for a two-game mini-series against our 1st XI Girls. These games completed the Eagles’ tour of the North Island, where they had decimated all before them, including their 4-1 defeat of National finalists, the Auckland U18 Girls’ team.

Unfortunately the Kristin 1st XI were unable to change the pattern with a 6-0 loss in the first game and a 3-0 loss in the second. However, the contrasting styles of the Kiwis and Americans made for extremely enjoyable Hockey. The second game was especially close with two goals being scored in the final moments of the first half, giving a slightly misleading scoreline.

The Kristin girls should be very proud, however, as six of the opposition were selected for the USA Youth Olympics team. The Eagles were extremely gracious in victory and invited our team to travel to the USA for a rematch.

Hockey Representatives

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he talent of our top Hockey players is being recognised across the region with a large cohort of players being selected to North Harbour and National representative age-group teams.

Most notably, Robbie Capizzi has enjoyed a brilliant season. In addition to his selection to the New Zealand Youth Olympics team which finished 6th in China (see contents page), Robbie was named in both the North Harbour U18 and U21 Men’s teams. At the U21 Nationals he was instrumental in his North Harbour team taking out 1st place. To cap off an outstanding season, he was top scorer at the Mayhill Cup Secondary Schools’ tournament (see page 53) and has been selected into the Junior Black Sticks Men’s Squad.

Joining Robbie in the spotlight of the selectors has been Hannah Ostick, captain of the Kristin 1st XI Girls’ team. Hannah has had a superb season in which she was selected into the North Harbour U18A Women’s team and, similar to Robbie, into the Junior Black Sticks Women’s Squad. Hannah’s success has been a result of her extraordinary commitment to a tough training regime and the 1st XI has certainly reaped the rewards.

Also, Susannah Howlett was selected into both the North Harbour U18 and U21 Women’s teams. In addition, we have had another 17 Kristin players be selected into A-grade representative teams and many others gaining selection to B teams, which is a testament to the strength of the Hockey programme here at Kristin.

Cherry Webster Director of Sport ISSUE No. 60

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Tournament Week Jim Wishart Tournament - Boys’ Football Coming towards the end of the Football season, the Kristin 1st XI Boys’ Football team had been working together well and had experienced much success, but it was a drowsy, overcast Sunday in late August when the team would set out in search of more.

The Jim Wishart boys’ Football tournament was held in Whangarei this year and we travelled north to join 15 other teams from all over the North Island to compete over the course of the week. We enjoyed the accommodation of the local backpackers and it was Monday afternoon before we were off to play our first game, against St. John’s College.

As forecast, the rain was falling steadily, and the team, who are used to the pristine-quality pitches at Kristin, was in for a tough game in the mud that left their kits a distinct shade of brown. As the week progressed, so did the team, making it through the pool stage, 2nd out of the four teams, then winning the quarter- and semi-final matches. A shout out goes to the Girls’ 1st XI Hockey team, who came to support the players from the sideline in the semi-final.

A contentious penalty call in the final against Rosmini College was enough to cement the final outcome, with the team finishing 2nd in the Jim Wishart Tournament – a result the entire team can be proud of.

It was a week that we all enjoyed: we played some good Football and had a good time as a team.

Ben Cashmore

Marie Fry Tournament - Girls’ Hockey

For the last two seasons the 1st XI Hockey girls have achieved an outstanding record of success, with 50 games played and a win/draw percentage of 90, scoring 145 goals while only conceding 28 goals. The On Sunday 31 August, the Premier Kristin Netball team took on the culmination of these two years came in early September at the Marie Fry challenge of the Upper North Island Secondary Schools’ (UNISS) Trophy National Secondary Schools’ Hockey Tournament, held in Whangarei. tournament, held in Henderson.

The event brought together teams ranked from 17 to 32 in New Zealand.

We were expecting to play in B grade but arrived to discover we had a Our girls faced a difficult pool and had to overcome Whangarei Girls’ High surprise promotion into A grade. Not only that, but our first game was School, Gisborne Girls’ High School and Mt Albert Grammar to progress against the top team in the competition: Mt Albert Grammar School. through to the quarter-finals. This was accomplished with wins of 2-1, 6-0 This gave us the opportunity to shake off all the cobwebs and trial a and 2-0 respectively. range of combinations against top-level opponents. Our second game Our quarter-final opposition was Tauranga Girls’, a foe we had encountered of the tournament proved we were able to hold our own in the A grade on a number of previous occasions so we knew to expect a tough game. with a draw against a very skilful Tauranga Girls’ College side.

The hours spent training to develop fitness and stamina, and the girls’ Our second day involved two hard-fought matches against Massey determination to stick to the strategy enabled them to prevail with a hardHigh School and Hauraki Plains College; we played well, although were fought win, 2-1. not able to come through with a win. Wednesday brought about a The semi-final brought us up against Saint Kentigern, and a draw of 1-1 at full North Shore clash against Rangitoto College where hard lessons were time meant supporters had to agonise through the penalty stroke-off. In this learned after a seven-goal lead at half time resulted in a close loss. We situation our goalie showed her mettle, saving two of the opposition shots bounced back in time for our last game with a nail-biting win against the and the final score was 5-4 in our favour. team we shared a motel with: Macleans College.

So to the final, which was against the team we had come up against at the Thursday was a success as we pulled off two great wins against start of the week, Whangarei Girls’. The stands were filled with students Hamilton Girls’ High School and Bethlehem College. And as Friday from both the Whangarei Boys and Girls’ schools, but our supporters approached, fatigue didn’t seem to hold us back. We closed our valiantly attempted to address the numerical balance with their enthusiasm, campaign by once again ‘Mc’Claiming’ Macleans College in another vociferously letting us know they were present. Unfortunately we couldn’t nail-biting one-point-match win. quite pull off another win, losing 0-1 and having to settle for the Silver medal.

Rachel Segar Mrs Jan Lewis 1st XI Girls’ Manager

UNISS - Premier Netball

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Sports News

Mayhill Cup - Boys’ Hockey

Basketball - Junior and Premier Boys This year we had two teams competing at Tournament Week events, with the shared focus of gaining experience and developing our younger players.

A Year 9 and 10 boys’ team was put together from three different Kristin teams for the Basketball New Zealand Junior Secondary Schools’ Tournament, which included teams from northern, central and eastern parts of the North Island. Kristin finished 5th in their pool and 10th overall in the A grade.

Our Premier Boys’ competed in the Basketball New Zealand Zone 1 Secondary Schools’ Premiership Tournament. With three of our starting players choosing to play Football for Tournament Week, the younger members were presented with an opportunity to be granted extended playing time and gain some invaluable experience against tough physical opposition. It was hard-going, but our boys demonstrated great teamwork and sportsmanship throughout the tournament.

Simon Mesritz Sport Manager, Basketball

The end-of-season Mayhill Cup Tournament has been the focus of the Boys’ 1st XI throughout the year. With new coach Mike Delaney and a returning Youth-Olympian in the form of Robbie Capizzi, as well as a slew of age-group representative players in the team, confidence was high.

The pool matches started in fine style with a solid 3-0 win against Heretaunga College. Two goals from Robbie Capizzi silenced any concerns of jet lag and a third from Connor Petrie cemented the win.

The second and third pool games followed in similar fashion with a 7-1 victory over Rotorua Boys’ High School and an 8-2 win over St Patrick’s College. In the game against St Patrick’s, it appeared that Robbie Capizzi and Henry Will were having their own highest-scorer competition with the boys scoring tit-for-tat during the game. Henry’s phenomenal hat-trick was finally outdone by a late Robbie Capizzi fourth, taking his personal tally to 10 goals in three games.

In their midweek game, the boys met a resilient St Pat’s Silverstream side who had finished 2nd in their pool after two draws and one win.

They had also developed a reputation of staging late comebacks. It was to be the case again, as two late goals saw a 2-1 Kristin lead become a 3-2 St Pat’s win at full time. (St Pat’s went on to win the tournament).

Kristin had to regroup quickly to face a rampant Rosmini team who had beaten Kristin in the final game of the Auckland Supercity competition the week before. An early Rosmini goal was cancelled out on the stroke of half time by Sam Houston. The second half was scoreless until a penalty corner was awarded to Rosmini in the final minute of the game, an opportunity they seized to finish as 2-1 victors.

Kristin’s final bout was a rematch against their opening game opponents, Heretaunga. Our boys secured the win by the same three-goal margin, 4-1, at the final whistle. Two more goals from Robbie Capizzi (a total haul of 13 goals and finishing as the tournament’s top scorer), one goal from Stephen Beale and a last-minute penalty stroke from team captain Nathan Sycamore saw Kristin go clear and finish the tournament in 7th place, a significant improvement on their performance the previous season.

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Sports News

Water Polo Winterfest

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ur newly established Water Polo team took part in the Winterfest Water Polo Competition, which was held across various Auckland pools from 8 to 10 August. This was the first time the combination of Kristin players from Year 7 and 8 has played together, so Winterfest provided a great opportunity to prepare for the AIMS Tournament.

The team entered into the A grade and, although they took a while to become comfortable, started well with a promising 3-3 draw against a strong Mount Maunganui mixed team. Kristin then faced a very big and powerful King’s side who were shocked by the skill and determination of Kristin when we won comfortably, 8-2.

The draw didn’t get any easier for the Kristin team, who then played Murrays Bay Intermediate, a team with a reputation as being one of the strongest teams in the country.

Kristin proved their previous game was no fluke, winning 4-2 in what was a very tight tussle. Kristin’s next encounter came against

Motorsport It doesn’t always get a lot of attention here at Kristin, but motorsport is a driving passion for a small group of our students who devote significant time and effort to bettering themselves on the local circuits. From the track to the water, these high-adrenalin pursuits require immense skill and discipline. It is great to see these boys working hard and making their presence felt at these extremely competitive events.

Offshore Powerboat Racing Christopher Haeger (Year 12) has been involved in the sport of Offshore Powerboat Racing for a couple of years now and 2014 is his first year participating as a driver.

Christopher competed in the Sports 150 class of the NZ Offshore Powerboat Series earlier this year, a national series with a total of 12 races at six events throughout the North Island. He won 11 out of 12 races and came a very close 2nd in the only race he didn’t win.

Christopher is officially the 2014 NZ Offshore Powerboat Series Sports 150 Champion, and is the youngest person to ever win a championship in the series.

Due to this achievement Christopher was invited to drive a ‘Supercat 400’ in Australia for the Kwozzy Offshore Race team. He flew to Townsville and competed in round three of the Offshore Superboat Championship, which is the Australian National Championship event.

He is the youngest-ever person to drive a race boat in an Australian

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Saint Kentigern, another team made up of very strong players. This didn’t faze the Kristin team, who continued to grow in confidence, winning the game easily, 8-2, and finding themselves in the semi-final of the A grade in their very first tournament together.

The semi-final was very tough, as expected.

Kristin did their best to combat Sacred Heart College and Northcross Intermediate, but these teams proved too strong, so we went down 4-6 in both matches.

Massive congratulations go to all the players for achieving 4th place in the North Island competition and producing one of the best results ever seen from a Year 7 and 8 Kristin Water Polo team. Also, a big thank-you to coaches Miss Grant and Sinead Seo, and team manager Mrs Jackie Grant, for their superb efforts over the weekend. Special congratulations to Daniel Harris, who picked up one of the Most Outstanding Player awards for his performance throughout the tournament.

Graeme McKinnon Sport Manager, Water Polo

offshore championship and won the Supercat 400 class, becoming the youngest to ever win this class.

Motocross Callum Hay (Year 10) has clocked up some great results this year. In April he attended the NZ Junior MX National Championships where he competed in the 13 to 16-yearolds’ 85cc and 125cc events.

His best result of the weekend was in the 85cc category where Callum finished 6th in a field of 41.

At the NZ National Motocross Club Championships, Callum represented Pukekohe/Auckland and achieved the fourth-fastest time in his class; his team finished 4th overall.

In July, Callum placed 3rd in the 13 to 16-year-olds’ 85cc event at the NZ Time Trial Nationals, and then, in October, he finished 8th and 10th at the North Island Junior Champs in the 13 to 16-years’ 85cc and 12 to 14 years’ 125cc events.

Speedway Corbin Anderson (Year 12) has been racing 1/4 midget cars since 2011.

He has raced at Western Springs Speedway, Rosebank Speedway and, this season, has travelled to Waharoa, Kaikohe and Taipa for racing.

Corbin has had a great season and has received trophies and other rewards. He had a big crash in Kaikohe, breaking his thumb, however this did not stop him from racing and finishing the season. Now too old to race in this class, Corbin will move up to a bigger car next season where he will race mostly at Western Springs.

Junior School Cross-Country

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wonderful show of sportsmanship and athletic talent was on display at our Junior School Cross-Country Day in June. We saw fantastic personal achievements from students across the board, with everyone giving their best effort on the day. A blistering pace was set by these students, who gained a 1st, 2nd or 3rd in their year group:

Northern Bays Primary Schools’ CrossCountry With eager anticipation, a few nerves and smiles on their faces, the Junior School Cross-Country team set off for Long Bay’s mud-filled slopes for the Northern Bays Primary Schools’ competition. A gruelling uphill pace was set in all races, providing a test for every runner. Each of our runners gave their best effort, racing through to the finish tape with dogged determination. Outstanding results were achieved by the following students:

Event

Result

Boys

Girls

Year 1

1st

Isaac Preece-Twose

Miqi Su

2nd

Heinrich Otto

Kennedy Shields

3rd

Richard Gao

Yoyo Liao

1st

Joe Pilley

Hazel Hall

2nd

Jayden Wang

Evelyn Power

Name

Result

Event

3rd

Jonathan Mueller

Kate Wyber

Keira Spilling

1st

8-year-old Girls

1st

Lachie Heath

Zara Preece-Twose

Maya Harrison

4th

8-year-old Girls

2nd

Cooper Clague

Katie Brown

3rd

Joey Li

Lucinda Cotton

Nicholas Sparg

4th

8-year-old Boys

1st

Luke McBeath

Keira Spilling

Grace Kingsnorth

5th

9-year-old Girls

2nd

Thomas Williams

Maya Harrison

3rd

Leo Clancy

Hermione Aris

1st

Nicholas Sparg

Kylie Holgate

2nd

Logan Chalmers

Kate Stables

3rd

Luke Swanepoel

Chantelle May

1st

Jesse Harrison

Grace Kingsnorth

2nd

Mitchell Orchard

Claire Liang

3rd

Oscar Wallace

Soraya Melsness

Year 2

Year 3

Year 4

Year 5

Year 6

Congratulations to these athletes on their performances. Thank you to the parents who came, for the support on the day, and to Nigel Messervy, for the thorough preparation he gave the team in the lead up to the competition.

Fiona Ackroyd Junior School PE Specialist/Sports Co-ordinator

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National Fencing Success

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t has been an exciting year for our Kristin fencers who have been competing against some of the top young competitors in the country and representing New Zealand across the Tasman.

Age-Group Championships Lena Jacob, Nicholas Miehlbradt, Sally Zhang and Anriena Zen travelled to Wellington for the New Zealand U15 and U17 Fencing Championships in April. The two competitions were held over four days and included visiting competitors from Australia and Tahiti. Our fencers performed well and achieved some great results.

Event

Name

Placing

Girls U15 Foil

Sally Zhang

2nd

Anriena Zen

7th

Lena Jacob

11th

Sally Zhang

9th

Anriena Zen

15th

Boys U15 Foil

Nicholas Miehlbradt

9th

Boys U17 Foil

Nicholas Miehlbradt

5th

Girls U17 Foil

Nicholas and Anriena were then joined by Cameron Grimwade as the trio travelled to Australia in July to represent New Zealand in the Australian U15 and U17 Championships. Their results were: Event

Name

Placing

U15 Girls’ Foil team

Anriena Zen

3rd

U15 Girls’ Foil individual

Anriena Zen

14th

U17 Girls’ Foil individual

Anriena Zen

26th

U15 Boys’ Foil individual

Nicholas Miehlbradt

18th

Cameron Grimwade

36th

U15 Boys’ Epee team

Nicholas Miehlbradt

2nd

U15 Boys’ Foil Team

Cameron Grimwade, Nicholas Miehlbradt

7th

U17 Boys’ Foil team

Nicholas Miehlbradt

7th

U17 Boys’ Foil individual

Nicholas Miehlbradt

26th

In August it was the turn of our younger fencers to test their skills in the Auckland Fencing Competition, held at Kristin, where they gained some excellent results.

Event

Name

Placing

U13 Girls’ Foil

Chantelle May

1st

Olivia Roberts

3rd

Otis Dickeson-Allen

1st

Sam Le Noel

3rd=

Haydn Muckersie

3rd=

U9 Boys’ Foil

Lena Jacob and Olivia Roberts then travelled to Wellington to represent North Harbour at the Auckland Regional Competition, where they came 2nd in the U13 Girls’ Foil team event.

National Championships Two big events were held over one weekend in early September: the National Secondary Schools’ Championships and the U20 National Championships. The highlight for the individual event of the secondary-schools’ competition was Nicholas Miehlbradt’s very narrow loss of 14-15 to Auckland’s top school-age fencer. Both our boys and girls’ teams fought well and had very close semi-final matches, but lost to the eventual winners. Our boys finished 4th and our girls were 3rd.

The U20 Nationals brought an improved performance, especially from Chantelle May and Nicholas Miehlbradt who finished a remarkable 7th and 9th respectively. Nicholas, ranked 3rd in Auckland, was included in the North team and was also joined by Kristin Alumni Michael Claydon. In a thrilling final, the team managed to control the better-ranked Central team to win the National U20 Men’s Foil team title.

Nigel Messervy Clubs Manager

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SPRING/SUMMER 2014

Cheerleading

W

ith the Cheerleading Club at Kristin now in its second year, we are fortunate to have a great team made up of both experienced and novice girls who compete at four major events throughout the year: Rock‘N’Cheer, Schools Spectacular, Spring Carnival Championship, and Cheer’N’Dance Rave Internationals.

The first event for our Kristin All Stars was Rock’N’Cheer in June. Attracting over 1,000 athletes from around New Zealand and Australia, it is a significant way to start the season. The Kristin team, coached

by Year 12 student Poppy van Loghem, placed 2nd in a large division, which was a wonderful way to begin their campaign.

Next up, the girls headed to the CheerBrandz Schools Spectacular, which is New Zealand’s premier National Cheerleading Championship designed specifically for primary and secondaryschool students. Here, the Kristin All Stars finished 3rd. It was a close result but a credible performance at such a major competition.

They improved on this result at the All Star Spring Carnival, held on Sunday 28 September. At this competition, the girls worked hard to secure 2nd place in their division.

The fourth and final event of the year for the Kristin All Stars will be the Cheer’N’Dance Rave Internationals in November. We look forward to seeing how the girls progress in their fourth and final major competition of the year.

At each of these major events, a number of our athletes compete with their own club teams. Congratulations to the following students who have achieved great results with their All Star teams: Erika Bruce, Megan Bruce, Victoria Ford, Sophie Hassell, Grace Hickson, Keziah le Gros, Annabella Simmons and Poppy van Loghem.

Nigel Messervy Clubs Manager

Sports News

Orienteering

Champions

I

t has been an extremely busy and rewarding year for our Kristin Orienteering team. From its humble beginnings in 2013, we now have a large squad of both novice and experienced athletes, competing locally and at National level.

New Zealand Secondary Schools’ Championships The New Zealand Secondary Schools’ Orienteering Championships were held across Auckland from 17 to 19 July. The events were broken down into Sprints on the 17th, Individuals on the 18th and Relays on the 19th. The terrain for these events varied from school grounds and parks, to forest and farmland. For this reason, experience went a long way, but even our novice orienteers have been building up their confidence and strategy to be competitive at this level. In order to help with overall team points, Tegan Knightbridge, who is one of our most experienced runners, raced up an age group in the Intermediate Division. Our top 10 results included: Event

Name

Placing

Junior Girls’ Sprint Distance Championship

Georgina Dibble

2nd

Sophie Katavich

7th =

Tegan Knightbridge

4th =

Intermediate Girls’ Sprint Distance Championship Junior Girls’ Long Distance Championship

Georgina Dibble

3rd

Intermediate Girls’ Long Distance Championship

Tegan Knightbridge

3rd

Year 7/8 Boys’ Standard (non-Championship event)

Angus Syminton

1st

Junior Girls’ Relay Championship

(Tegan Knightbridge, Sophie Katavich and Georgina Dibble)

2nd

To round off the NZSS Nationals, Kristin won the Small Schools’ Competition for girls, we came 5th in the Top Schools’ Competition and placed 2nd overall in the Premier Schools’ trophy for girls outstanding results given the small number of Kristin competitors who took part.

NZSS Rogaine Championships Four Kristin orienteers competed at the New Zealand Secondary Schools’ Rogaine Championships on Saturday 9 August: Megan Bruce, Georgina Dibble, Sophie Katavich and Tegan Knightbridge. The event was held in the challenging forests around Rotorua.

Georgina and Tegan, leading their rivals by 200 points, won the New Zealand Junior Girls’ title in emphatic style. They truly deserve this New Zealand title.

The success of this growing Kristin team has also been influenced by our experienced orienteers.

Our team captain, Tegan Knightbridge, is no exception and it was no surprise to see her selected into the Junior Girls’ team to represent New Zealand in Perth this year and Tasmania in 2015.

Nigel Messervy Clubs Manager

North Island Primary Schools’ Ski & Snowboard Champs While it was with a smaller team than previous years that travelled to Mt Ruapehu for the North Island Ski and Snowboard Champs, our combined NIPS skiers and snowboarders managed to complete a great competition, despite losing a day to poor weather.

All students competed well, skiing and snowboarding with the determination to succeed, which was great to see. For some it was their first time competing, while for others it was their second or even third time taking part in the Champs.

It was in fine weather with blue sky that Grace Johnstone tore down the slopes to win the Senior Girls’ Giant Slalom title by over 1.5 seconds - a very impressive effort. The following day she went on to win the Dual Slalom too. Oliver Whiley did well also. He was a solid contender in the Boardercross, amongst a strong group of snowboarders, until a fall in the quarterfinals knocked him out of the running.

On the whole it was a great trip and all students did well, enjoying their time competing on the snow.

Brent Goldsworthy Sport Manager, Snowsports

West/North Harbour Cross-Country Kristin sent a strong team of athletes to the West/North Harbour Secondary Schools’ Cross-Country event, which was held at Moire Park on Tuesday 20 May. Our runners, who qualified by finishing in the top three at the Kristin Cross-Country, produced some fantastic results. This included a 4th-place finish for Connor Petrie and a 5th for Haoting Ma in the Intermediate Boys’ event, and a 2nd in the Senior Girls’ race for Olivia Kitson after a remarkable run.

Graeme McKinnon Sport Manager, Cross-Country

ISSUE No. 60

57

Hawaiian Invitational Tournament I travelled to Hawaii on 3 August with the Born ’99 New Zealand Water Polo team to compete in the Hawaii Invitational in the Boys’ U16 Division. The team did extremely well, only losing one game during our entire tournament. It was the semi-final, which meant we ended up playing for 3rd and 4th place overall. The team produced an outstanding performance in our final game, taking out the Bronze medal.

This experience was invaluable for me; it was the first international competition I’ve participated in and the first time I had played in an outdoor pool where the team faced the new challenges of dealing with the glare from the sun. I learned a lot on this trip and the team members really bonded and played well together. I had an amazing time and will look back on this tournament in years to come with fond memories and a great sense of achievement.

Henry Dick I also took part in the Hawaiian Invitational as part of the Born ’98 New Zealand Cadets team. When we first arrived in Hawaii we had three days before our tournament started. We used these days to settle into our surroundings and train for the games. Each day, we travelled to a new beach where we would do an ocean swim and some leg training. This was one of the most interesting parts of the experience for me because I had never trained in an outdoor pool, never mind in the sea.

For the first three days of our tournament we had pool games, which we won convincingly. The last of these was a tough match against British Columbia, which we won by two points. This meant that we were now in the quarter-finals against Corona Del Mar. Due to a hurricane that hit Hawaii the following day, the games got pushed back to the Saturday, which meant we had to play our quarter and semi-finals on the same day. This was very tough and draining but we won our quarter-final by a few points. Coming up against Drumone in our semi-final, we managed to win again, which put us into the final against Coronado.

Our last game was very tough and the score was very close all the way to the end. We finished the game even, the score 9-all, resulting in a penalty shoot-out. Five shooters from each team were chosen to shoot. I was chosen as one of the shooters and shot first, luckily getting it in. Coronado got all five of their goals in, while we only got three of ours, making the final score 12-14. Coming 2nd was a very good result for us and was a good finish to the amazing experience I had.

Jess Marsden

58

SPRING/SUMMER 2014

International Water Polo Double Gold

T

his has been a huge year for me in my Water Polo career. I have competed in three international competitions and won two Gold medals.

The Panasonic Pan Pacific Games took place in New Zealand and included teams from USA and Australia. In the U20 Men’s Division we won Gold, beating Australia in the final, 10-8. In the U18 Men’s division we won Gold, beating Canberra Academy 10-5 in the final. This was the highlight of my Water Polo year as I was named Most Valuable Player for the tournament.

In August, I went on to compete in the FINA Water Polo World Champs in Istanbul, Turkey, with my New Zealand Youth Men’s team. This was the biggest International tournament I had ever played in. We had a pre-tour stay in Hungary for eight days where we trained twice a day and played games against the local club teams in preparation for Worlds.

Once we reached Istanbul the pressure was on for us to perform in our pool rounds against world greats Serbia, Croatia, Canada and Peru; we then went on to play Egypt, Iran and Brazil. The tournament itself was an awesome experience; we had to be checked through security to get into the pool and have police escorts to games. The competition at this level was fierce and many games were lost and won in penalty shoot-outs!

Nevertheless, I had one of the best times of my life travelling with my New Zealand team.

Daniel Marsden

Senior Swimmers in the Medals

T

wo of our Senior swimmers have produced great results in the pool this year. At the New Zealand Age Group Championships in Wellington, Kelsi Boocock was in great form. She secured three brilliant podium finishes, winning Silver in both the 50m and 100m Backstroke, and Bronze in the 200m Backstroke. Based on these results, Kelsi was selected for the NZ Age Group Swimming Squad, however an unfortunate and poorly timed injury meant she was unable to attend the development camp.

Olivia Williams carried the flag for Kristin at the Auckland Secondary Schools’ Individual Swimming Championships at West Wave Pool and Leisure Centre in June, where she placed 3rd in the 50m Butterfly, 50m Freestyle and 100m Backstroke events.

Graeme McKinnon Sport Manager, Swimming

Sports News

North Shore Primary Schools’ Swimming Competition

O

ur top young swimmers represented Kristin at the North Shore Primary Schools’ Swimming Competition, held in early April. The team achieved 2nd place overall, one place up on last year’s position. This year, 15 schools attended the event, which was held at the Takapuna Leisure Centre. Outstanding results were achieved by many students, with those listed below achieving a 1st to 6th placing.

Girls 8 Years & Under

Name

Result

Year 7/8 Rugby Field Day

33m Backstroke

Sophia Maud

3rd

33m Breaststroke

Jacqueline Tsui

4th

Boys 8 Years & Under

Name

Result

33m Breaststroke

Daniel Wyber

4th

9-Year-Old Girls

Name

Result

33m Backstroke

Chantelle May

5th

Kate Stables

6th

33m Freestyle

Chantelle May

3rd

66m Backstroke

Chantelle May

4th

9-Year-Old Boys

Name

Result

33m Backstroke

Remo Lock

5th

66m Backstroke

Luke Swanepoel

6th

66m Breaststroke

Logan Chalmers

5th

Girls 10 Years & Over

Name

Result

33m Freestyle

Cristelle Blanchard

5th

33m Backstroke

Cristelle Blanchard

6th

66m Backstroke

Grace Kingsnorth

2nd

Georgina Shotter

5th

66m Breaststroke

Allegra Bouwer

6th

100m Freestyle Open

Grace Kingsnorth

3rd

Georgina Shotter

4th

Grace Kingsnorth

2nd

Georgina Shotter

5th

Boys 10 Years & Over

Name

Result

33m Breaststroke

Larry Lambourne

1st

Kenneth Kim

3rd

33m Fly Open

Kenneth Kim

5th

66m Breaststroke

Larry Lambourne

4th

33m Freestyle

Larry Lambourne

5th

Age Group

Event

Result

8-year-old Girls

Medley Relay

2nd

Freestyle Relay

2nd

The Kristin U55kg Rugby team had an enjoyable day at the North Harbour Schools’ Rugby Field Day. Although cold in the morning with frost on the rugby fields, it was a stunning day with the sun shining brightly and some good Rugby played by all.

In their early pool games the boys played against Rosmini College, which was a big task for the first game. They disrupted the opposition’s ball and ensured they had to do plenty of tackling with our attack making several line breaks, however it was a definitive victory for the opposition. Player of the game was Ivo Seerden.

The next game was against Albany Junior High, with whom the boys had a warm-up game the previous week. This was a hardfought match with the opposition having a few talented players dominating the game and scoring individual tries. The Kristin player of the game was Thomas Hassell.

Heading into the bowl division play-offs, Kristin scored an early try against Wairau Intermediate through an individual effort from Hunter Jackson from 75 metres out. Wairau came back to even up the scoreboard at 5-all. Our boys put pressure on their line and scored their second try with Connor McBeath carrying well and scoring in the corner. Wairau scored on the final whistle to draw the game but, because we scored first, Kristin advanced into the final of the bowl. Our player of the match was Hunter Jackson.

The final was against Birkdale Intermediate, who had a team full of very skilful boys; so it was important for us to maintain possession. Our players all tried very hard to do this but Birkdale’s tactics were to move the ball wide and run hard. Kristin placed 2nd in the bowl play-offs and our boys learnt a lot about what it takes to work as a team when playing Rugby.

Player of the game was Caelan Burns, who captained the team very well, leading by example throughout the day.

Carl Murray Teacher-in-Charge

33m Fly Open

9-year-old Girls

Medley Relay

3rd

10-year-old Girls

Medley Relay

1st

Freestyle Relay

1st

Fiona Akroyd Junior School PE Specialist/Sports Co-ordinator

ISSUE No. 60

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Kristin Dominates AKSS Snowsports Championships

T

his year’s Auckland Championships saw a very large and strong Kristin team enter into the event. This competition, while relatively new to the Snowsports calendar, was widely supported by most of the top schools in Auckland, which led to some great battles on the snow. With points up for grabs in every event, the top two competitors’ scores in each category went towards the overall teams’ scores. With Kristin students competing in every discipline, we scored handsomely to collect both the Boys and Girls’ team titles along with a handful of podiums along the way. It was great to see the event supported so positively by many of our athletes, parents and Kristin Snowsports fans.

Event

Name

Placing

Boys’ Ski Slopestyles

Luke Hughes

1st

Matthew Bos

3rd

Girls’ Ski Slopestyles

Gia Hughes

1st

Boys’ Snowboarding Slopestyles

Samuel Christie

1st

Liam Whiley

2nd

Boys’ Snowboard Giant Slalom

Kristin Girls’ team

1st

Kristin Boys’ team

1st

Girls’ Team: Sophie Alexander, Sophie Corser, Merle Davis, Gia Hughes, Laura Jackson, Rachel Segar, Sasha Tetro Boys’ Team: Matthew Berry, Matthew Bos, Samuel Christie, Sam Hassall, Luke Hughes, Jake Lyons, Lachlan Paterson, Nicholas Paterson, Liam Whiley Brent Goldsworthy Sport Manager, Snowsports

Gymsports Gymsports at Kristin continues to share success across both individual and team events. With the growth of the club over the past few years, we are fortunate to have students competing in Rhythmic, Artistic and Trampolining, with many often crossing over between disciplines.

Rhythmic Gymnastics The Kristin Gymsports club has qualified 15 gymnasts to compete at the 2014 NZ National Gymsports Championships this year. Jacqueline Tsui (Year 4), Zoe Chia and Irina Johnston (Year 5), Leenie Kim and Dasha Ruzich (Year 6) and Bella Cooper (Year 7) represented North Harbour at the event, while Loretta Wang (Year 4) and YeNa Kim (Year 6) qualified but were unable to attend. Training outside of the Kristin club, Year 10 student Victoria Gancheva enjoyed an array of Level 9 1st and 2nd placings at events across the country throughout the year. She also attended the National Championships in October where she placed 5th in Rope, 6th in Ball and Clubs, 8th in Ribbon and 8th Overall in Level 9.

Artistic Gymnastics Year 10 student Olivia McTaggart competed as a Step 9 gymnast this year, placing 1st and 2nd at the Midland Championships in June. This qualified Olivia to represent North Harbour at the National Championships in October, however a back injury prevented her from making it to this event.

Ethan Dick (Year 9) and Sam Dick (Year 8) have continued their

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SPRING/SUMMER 2014

outstanding success at events across New Zealand and Australia. Their hard work has paid dividends with both boys gaining National recognition; Ethan has been selected for the U18 National Talent ID Squad and Sam, the U14.

At the Gymsports Nationals, Sam did extremely well, holding his own against much older and more experienced Level 7 competitors to finish 3rd overall, medalling in all individual apparatus events and achieving National Champion status in Rings and Parallel Bars. Ethan competed in Level 8 where he won the National title for All Around and the NZGA President’s Trophy. He was also awarded the Howard Hill Trophy for Men’s Levels Gymnast of the Year (for obtaining the highest overall score in senior levels on All Around day) and the David Allan Memorial Trophy for Men’s Gymnast of the Competition. This is the second consecutive year that Ethan has been awarded both of these trophies.

Trampolining It has been wonderful to see an increase in the number of students getting involved in trampolining through our school Gymsports club.

This year, for the first time, we will be sending up to eight students from Years 1 to 9 to form two teams at the North Harbour Schools’ competition in November. We look forward to seeing how they get on.

Nigel Messervy Clubs Manager

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ISSUE No. 60

63

Our ‘Kristin Kitchen’ test cooks guarantee you won’t find a cake or cookie to better these.

the

kristin

kitchen Made to a traditional recipe, this Christmas cake is packed full of fruit and glazed with almonds. $35 small / $45 large

Melt in your mouth festive cookies, individually wrapped and ready to go.

• Dove Gingerbread • Heart Shortbread $3 each

Christmas Cakes and Cookies

Order Form

Name:

Please order a total of _____ small Christmas cakes @ $35.00 each

Email: Phone:

Please order a total of _____ large Christmas cakes @ $45.00 each Please order a total of _____ Dove Gingerbread cookies @ $3 each Please order a total of _____ Heart Shortbread cookies @ $3 each My cheque/cash for $

Place order by Friday 21 November, cakes and cookies will be available for collection on Wednesday 3 December from the Main Office.

Please make cheques payable to Kristin School, PO Box 300 087, Albany 0752 or put in order form boxes at the school office.

Enquiries to: tpetrie@kristin.school.nz

is enclosed.

Charge my school account for the amount of $ Credit card:

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Your child is invited to spend the day at My First School on

Friday 28 November Register for our next Kristin Junior School Discovery Day (Year 1-6) by contacting Linda Teagle 415 9566 Ext 2324, admissions@kristin.school.nz

PO Box 300 087, Albany 0752, Auckland, New Zealand 360 Albany Highway, Albany 0632, Auckland, New Zealand Telephone: +64 9 415 9566

www.kristin.school.nz