August Newletter 2011

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August 2011

Headmaster’s point of view Welcome back to Term 3! What a busy and exciting start to the term we have had. Blokes night

keeps on getting bigger and bigger with over 220 people attending. It is turning into a ritual and we had great fun watching the boys do the Haka and sing the National Anthem. These are memories the boys will never forget and I had a lot of really positive comments from the older blokes as well. Oral Assessments are in full flight as I write this and I believe we have done exceptionally well with a number of Distinctions coming through. Personally I won’t be sorry to hear the last talk about crayfish pots and duck shooting in my household. It is a fantastic programme and I am very proud of the positive attitude the boys have towards achieving high grades. It is important for boys to be able to confidently converse with their peers and adults. At some stage in their lives they will be required to speak publicly and these experiences will give them confidence in how to come across naturally and confidently. Over the holidays I have put the finishing touches to the Huntley Curriculum and I am very happy with the resulting document. This has been a culmination of two years work but gives the theoretical base to what we do here at Huntley for the boys. If anyone would like a copy of this please feel free to come in and have a look.

The Haka

Inside this issue:

Headmaster’s Point of P1

New Tutors New Boys Colours Honos Awards

P3

Boarders of the Week ICAS Science Results PNBHS Testing Day And Parents’ Evening

P4

Wanganui Cross-Country Scots Fixture Times

P5

Year 8 Dinner and Play Parent Interviews

P5

Notices from the Deputy Headmaster

P6

Weekend Leaves Best Uniform Cricket Coaching

P7

Golf Day P8

Mr Ord’s Farewell Speech

P11

Preparing boys for the adventure of life

Here are eight common ways (and behaviours to be wary of) children use to involve parents or staff in their peer disputes.

1. Beware the teller of tales because they can draw you into disputes you don’t need to be in. “Tell Tale children” tend to involve parents in fights and disputes when they don’t need to be. Tales also invite parents to take sides, which disrupts open communication with teachers. Parents who fall into this mistake make comments like, “My son never lies!”. He probably doesn’t but he may not tell the full story. Course of action: “I will ring Mr …… and ask him to tell me in his own words.” If they start stammering and saying anything to avoid the phone call it is usually a good indication of them not telling the whole story.

2. Beware the blame gamers for it is never, ever their fault! Some boys will blame other boys for wrong-doing but will rarely see their side in a dispute. It usually takes two or three to tango so make sure you point out their place in the dispute. We generally separate the boys and ask for both sides of the story and then bring them together to find the common threads in the argument.

3. Beware the tantrum-throwers as they divert attention away from themselves. Boys who throw a wobbly when something doesn’t go their way have found a great way to keep mum or dad on tender hooks. Parents often back off and side with their sons when boys throw a wobbly. Luckily staff don’t have quite the same emotional attachment so this happens very rarely here and normally with the younger boys. As they mature they grow out of it, but stick firmly to your decision.

4. Beware of children’s tears as they can make us feel pity rather than look at the whole story. A boy who comes to you with tears in his eyes and a tale of woe sure knows how to get their parents onside. Tears work really well to gain sympathy, especially when used over the phone! Remember that sometimes the boy who cries the loudest is the boy who caused the dispute in the first place. If a boy feels unfairly treated they should first see the teacher involved and if this doesn’t work they should see Mr Edwards or myself. However, this still may mean they don’t get the answer they want!

5. Beware of children who say that they couldn’t help teasing, hurting or misbehaving. Children always have a choice. They just choose the easy way or a way that suits them a lot of the time.

6. Beware of the boy who is always, always the victim. Sometimes they revel in this role. Some boys, particularly younger boys, love to play the victim in fights and arguments with their peers. “He always picks on me” is their catchcry. Don’t give these boys too much attention and give them some options about how they can keep away from their peers if things look likely to ‘cut up rough’.

7. Beware of the child who acts like the deputy sheriff, always giving orders and bossing others around. They can make life unpleasant at home and sometimes try this on at school too! First born boys can sometimes act like your deputy and believe it is their job to keep peace on the ‘family range’. Only trouble is they use methods more akin to the ‘wild west’ than you would learn in any negotiation skills workshop. Violence and power is their preferred methodology. Keep a firm eye on these kids and don’t put them in charge of the ‘family range’ too often.

8. Beware the donkey who whines and whinges about his siblings -“Hee Hawlways picks on me!” Give them some ideas about how to deal with their siblings and refuse to be drawn by incessant whining. Mind you, like water torture, whining gets to you after a while.

Preparing boys for the adventure of life

August 2011

New Tutors

George Combe I grew up in Wiltshire in the south of England, on an arable farm. I was a student for 7 years at Dauntsey’s School where I enjoyed all aspects of school life including sport, drama, clubs and even a bit of academic work! I am so far enjoying my time at Huntley, and look forward to the following year both at Huntley and exploring your great country.

Sarah Jeffrey I am from Suffolk which is on the East coast of England. I went to Woodbridge School where I studied Religious Studies, Classical Civilization, Design Technology and Italian. Hopefully after this year I am going to study Childcare at Nottingham Trent University.

While I am here, I hope to travel around the whole of New Zealand and make lots of new friends! I am really excited about being a tutor at Huntley, and I know that it will give me lots of great memories!

Welcome to New Boys This term we welcome six new boys to Huntley, Sean Tweeddale (7MM), Jack Collier (5BP), Harry Kennedy (6BW), Gun Urunanon (5BP), Daniel Davy (7MM) and Leveson Jensen (7MM). Gund is Guy’s twin brother from Thailand.

Awards

Colours Drama Michael Welch, Ben Pritchard, Max Halliwell, Duncan Mackay, Jimmy Duncan, Bradley Hughes, Henry Gay, Matthew Perry

Honos Awards Term 3 Week 1 8GB Bradley Downs, Kent Robertson 8SE Finn Caldwell Stanton 7DR Jonty Lombard, William McRae, Alec Pedersen, Mchael Welch, Jacob Wells 7MM Henry Gay, Samuel Oakden, Connor O’Hagan, Connor O’Leary 6BW Harry Newman

345BP Kelvin Brown, Jack Gay, Alex Millar, Sam Sherriff Term 3 Week 2 8BG Angus Tylee, Baxter Perry 8GB Mark Bartlett, Jamie Connell, Darren Hirschberg, Simon Hunter, Kent Robertson 8SE Theodore McNaughton 7DR Jonty Lombard, Alec Pedersen 7MM Harlan Oliver 6BW James Borrell, Bruce Donald, Jake Hobbs, Harry Kennedy 345BP Geordie Ellis, Jack Gay, Sam Sherriff

Boarders of the Week The following boy has been awarded Boarder of the Week: Sean Tweeddale

ICAS Science Results Distinctions Ben Dawson, Daniel Hadlow, Sam Reddish, Boom Ratanaparadorn, Joshua Bergen-Bronson

Credits George Reddish, Joe Reddish, Jack Trotter, Finn Coleman, Max Halliwell, Max Harder-Barfoot

Duncan Mackay, Ben McAlley, Fraser Martin, Jack McKnight, Baxter Perry, Angus Tylee,

Oliver Walker, Taami Wright

Well done to all the boys who did well in the ICAS Science exam.

PNBHS Testing Day -- 28th September

The following arrangements have been made:

1. Boys who will be Day Boys in 2012 will travel by bus to PNBHS, departing Huntley at 12.00 noon.

2. Boys who will be Boarders at College House in 2012 will travel by minibus leaving Huntley at 10.30 am. Parents will meet their sons at College House at 11.30 am for lunch.

3. At the conclusion of the placement tests (3.00 pm) all Huntley boys will return to Huntley on the bus.

PNBHS Parents’ Evening - 27th October - 7.00 pm

Huntley will not be responsible for taking boys to PNBHS for this evening. Parents will need to arrange

transport for their sons to Palmerston North and return them to Huntley at the conclusion of the evening.

Please let Mr Edwards know what transport arrangements you have made.

Dress code for the boys on both days is greys and red jersey.

All parents of 2012 PNBHS boys should have received information from PNBHS.

If you have not, I suggest you contact them immediately.

Cross-Country Event A reminder that the following Cross-Country event is coming up. Boys will advise parents if they are competing, nearer to time: ∗ Wanganui Intermediate Cross-Country Years 7 and 8 - 22nd September at Wanganui

Collegiate

Revised Times for Scots Fixture - Thursday 18th August (Away) Following are the times for the games against Scots which differ from those in the Term Calendar.

1.00 pm 1st XI Hockey at National Hockey Stadium

1.00 pm 2nd XI Hockey at National Hockey Stadium

1.00 pm 1st XI Football at Wakefield Artificial, Island Bay

1.00 pm 2nd XI Football at Wakefield Artificial, Island Bay

1.10 pm 1st XV Rugby at Scots

12.00 pm 2nd XV Rugby at Scots

Year 8 Dinner and Play - 23rd and 24th September

As you know, we now charge $15.00 per adult for admission to the Year 8 Dinner and Play. Numbered tickets will be issued and as we have only 109 seats in the auditorium these will be sold on a first in first served basis. All parents are invited to this extravaganza. RSVP Monday 19th September.

The cost of the tickets can be charged to your Incidental Account. There is no charge for siblings.

Please book your seats by completing the form enclosed with this Newsletter. Your tickets will be available for you to collect on the night.

Parent Interviews We will again use the automated interview booking system which has proved very successful. This is

done via the internet and lets parents have control over the interview time they want and also saves

hours of work for the office staff. I have also allowed 15 minutes for interview times after feedback

from the PFA ring around. We are doing interviews over two days. Thursday is designed to cater for

day families or nearby boarding families and Friday is designed for boarding families from further away.

A link is available on the school website - http://www.schoolinterviews.co.nz/

The SCHOOL CODE on for these interviews is 9R3A2 Parents without internet access can ring

the Office and they will go on line and book an interview for you.

Reminders and notices from the Deputy Headmaster

Huntley School Boarder Survey

The boys have slipped back into Huntley routines very quickly with only a handful of boys still in ‘holiday mode’.

The boys have recently completed a Huntley School Boarder survey where they had to rank the following aspects out of ten and comment if necessary. The areas of boarding life were Morning routines, After school time between Sport and Dinner, Prep, Lights out, Dorm arrangements and any other ideas and/or opinions that the boys would like to voice whether it be weekend activities or any other aspect of Boarding life at Huntley.

The majority of the boys rated the areas of Boarding at Huntley very high which was good to see. Some of the key ideas that were identified after analysing the survey were:

Morning-Later wake up time

After School-Better gym showers and digital devices allowed out on half days

Prep- Less prep time and no prep on Fridays

Lights Out-Longer reading time in the weekends

Dorm Arrangements-Some boys would like to change dorms for various reasons, Squad jobs need to be shared out equally and fairly and Year 8s not being fair.

The staff and I will address these issues in due course.

Here are some ideas from the Boarders to improve Boarding life at Huntley:

Self serving breakfast- think American high school style

Tuck Boxes- This keeps coming up but will not happen as Mr Gay says no way!

Longer Leave- The new flexi boarding allows the boys to have this

Heating- The boys like the new heating in the dorms

More socials with Carncot-The year 8s are trying to organise and plan another social

I must mention some of the following ideas that were rather interesting:

Hot water bottles for everyone

Electric blankets

No silence bell in the dining hall except for seconds!

Reminder about leave on bye weekends:

If your son has a bye on a Saturday he will still be required to attend a team practice and leave will be after that unless there is a special reason why he will miss the practice.

I would like to thank the parents for getting their leave requests in on time.

Weekend Leaves

Friday 19th August – Sunday 21st August

and

Friday 9th September – Sunday 11th September

Just a friendly reminder that boys should return to school after a weekend leave between

6.30pm – 7.30pm. Boys should have time to unpack and change into their pjs and dressing gown before the bell goes for roll call at 7.30pm.

Weekend leave and picking up your son is 4.00pm on the Friday at the start of a Weekend Leave!

Best Uniform

It has been noted that boarders are leaving the school to go on leave or for appointments wearing their day uniform or mufti clothing. It is a requirement of the School that boys are dressed in their “Bests” when they are coming and going from the school.

Cricket Coaching

There is an opportunity for a cricket coach to come in on a Sunday to do one on one or small group coaching. Please would you email [email protected] if you are interested in your son being involved. This will only go ahead if we have sufficient interest.

Yours sincerely

Bradden J. Gay

Headmaster

Encl: Year 8 Play Booking Form

Golf Day Entries

Huntley School Parent and Sons’ Fun Golf Day

Sunday 18 September 2011 at the Marton Golf Club

The Huntley Golf Day is a regular event on the Huntley School calendar and aims to bring the school community

together for a fun day of golf which caters for all golfing abilities and as well raises funds for the school. It was

initially for Year 8 boys only but is now open to all Huntley boys from years 3 to 8. The Golf Day is only open to

Huntley School boys. All Huntley families not participating in the golf are welcome to come for the afternoon to

take part in the fun activities around the clubhouse, share lunch and participate in the tender and auction. Parents

must be responsible for other young children at all times.

The Golf – An entry form is included which needs to be completed and returned to the office by 24th August with

the $50 entry fee for each adult/boy team. The entry form gives details about the 3 levels of golf on offer for 12 hole

golfers, 6 hole golfers and 4+ hole non-golfers. Indicate on the entry form which level best suits your adult/boy

team’s golfing ability. Also give your handicap if you have one otherwise indicate how often you play golf and/or an

approximate handicap. Handicaps will be assigned for all adults and boys who don’t have an official handicap. A

programme and draw will be sent to you prior to Golf Day.

Sponsorship – Our principal sponsors Tranzit and Gracies have kindly agreed to support us again this year. We have

also had a very positive response from businesses willing to be hole sponsors. Please see the attached page of current

sponsors for golf holes and starter packs. We thank them all for their great support.

Prizes – Thank you to the parents who have been collecting prizes, tender items and auction items for us during the

school holidays. Thank you also to the families who have donated prize items to date. We would welcome any

further items that you would like to donate to help make the day a success. For example, families have previously

donated auction items of a weekend stay in their bach, a jetboat ride, hotel accommodation package, a painting, etc.

Tender items donated have included a rugby jersey, jams, books and wine, etc which are sold to the highest tenderer.

Please contact the office or Lynda Hunter (ph 06 3276824), who is coordinating the prizes, if you are able to help.

Food – In addition to sausages and fresh ham buns being available on the course throughout the day, a shared lunch

will be held in the clubhouse after the golf. As food heating facilities are limited, you are asked to bring cold finger

food only. The food is brought in the morning and left with the helpers in the kitchen to organise for lunch. Light

refreshments will be available on the course.

Activities around the Clubhouse – There will be a number of fun activities taking place around the clubhouse

including paintball, putting for $$, etc. Other activities still to be confirmed.

Scatterball - Table tennis balls are dropped from the sky with the help of Rangitikei Helicopters Ltd. The ball closest

to the designated hole this year wins a fabulous Ninja Scooter and helmet. A Scatterball form is enclosed so you can

sell balls to relatives, neighbours and friends. Each ball costs $5.00 and there is no limit to the number of balls you

can buy. Please bring or send your completed form back with payment to the school office by Friday 9th September.

Every boy who sells 10 balls or more will receive a small something on the day. We will allocate the ball numbers.

The list will be displayed in the Clubhouse on the day so you can check your numbers. There will be up to 1000 balls

available.

Rangitikei Helicopters Ltd has again offered seats on their helicopter. These have been offered to boys initially.

There are three seats to the Golf Day and three seats on the return journey. These will be sold for $100 per seat. If

there are more than six boys wanting this, a draw will be held at school assembly to see who will get to fly to and

from Golf Day. The successful boys will need to get to the Rangitikei Helicopters base at Rewa but we envisage there

will be car pooling and details will be sorted with the successful boys and Rangitikei Helicopters. If you would like

your son to have this opportunity, please phone Mrs Taylor at the school office.

We need names by Monday 12 September.

Volunteers: Golf Day relies on the parents helping out before and on the day. A list has been drawn up indicating

where help is needed. Please check this list and if you are able to assist we would really appreciate it. Please contact

Rachael Werthmuller (ph 06 3286887) or email the office if this is easier and your name will be passed on to

Rachael.

Other Information:

You will need to provide your own golf clubs and some for your son.

Wii Golf will be held prior to Golf Day at school. Forms to be returned to the Office by Wednesday 24th August.

A programme will be provided with the draw giving the Marton Golf Club location and the format for the day. This

will be sent out one week before Golf Day.

There will be no EFTPOS facilities on site so it will be necessary to bring some cash. Large items can be invoiced to

you. Cheques relating to Golf Day need to be made out to Parents and Friends of Huntley Charitable Trust.

All boarders will be given a $20 voucher to be used on the day. This will be charged to their incidental account

and is to be used to buy food and do activities.

Please ensure you are able to get your forms back by the dates stated as this helps with organising the day.

If you have any questions, please phone one of the following committee members.

Bridget Morris 06 3547824, Rachael Werthmuller 06 3286887, Maree Pritchard 06 3293899, Jo McAlley 06

3228181, Lynda Hunter 06 3276824, Peter Morris 06 3547823 or Mrs Taylor at the school office.

We look forward to a fun day and there’s still plenty of time for some golf practice.

Bridget Morris

Chairperson Huntley Parents and Friends.

Golf Day 2011 The sponsors of our Starter Packs are currently:

Our current Hole Sponsors are:

If C / F il ld lik t b l t t

Mr George Ord’s Leaving Speech

*The Indispensable Man*

It seems quite appropriate to base this speech around a poem, with book week having just passed, and

my return to England being because of an English degree. Some of you have heard me recite that poem

before. It’s called ‘The Indispensable Man,’ and the author is unknown. ‘Indispensable,’ by the way,

means essential, or vital. It is one of several poems I can recite from memory, and, like most poems or

pieces of literature, it has a meaning. Can anybody guess what that meaning is?

Well, the meaning in this case, is the harsh reality that, no matter who you are, when you leave some-

where, there’s a good chance that you will not be missed. You will, in fact, be easily replaced, life for

the people you’ve left will go on, and eventually, they will not miss you. ‘One day when you feel that

your going, will leave an unfillable hole,’ followed by the metaphor with the bucket being ‘The meas-

ure of how I’ll be missed.’

I am saying this because I am under no illusions as to how you boys will think of me when I’m gone.

Some will be sad that I’m going, others happy. Some will hopefully want to keep in touch, others will

not care. I know that, and I’m not going to kid myself into thinking that everybody here is going to

miss me. This might seem a bit of a depressing topic to have in a leaving speech, but there is an upside

That upside, that positive, is that while once you’ve gone you’ll not necessarily be missed, while you are

here, you can make an impact. You can make a positive difference to other people’s lives. ‘You may

splash all you like as you enter, you may stir up the water galore,’ and, you should ‘do just the best that

you can, and be proud of yourself.’

I’ll go into what difference I feel I’ve made in my time out here shortly, but first, I need to thank peo-

ple for giving me the chance to make that difference out here, as well as covering a few personal high-

lights. Firstly, I need to thank Mr Gay who, with Mr Osmond, selected myself and Miss Newman as

the Huntley School Tutors. We could have ended up anywhere, and I for one am glad I ended up

here. I also need to thank all of the Staff members, not just those sat behind me, for making my time

here so enjoyable, and for not being too hard on me when I got things wrong. One staff member

stands out, though, and that is Mr McAlley, purely because he will never turn down a chance to talk

rugby, so it’s no surprise we get on! Thanks for looking after me, and sorry about the shoulder, and

breaking your trampoline, and smashing you on the Lido Sumo Ring, and beating you in Virtual

Rugby, and the rugby refereeing tests. I should probably thank Miss Newman for putting up with my

living standards, but she regularly whinged and complained, so I won’t. I’ll have to thank her for being

a good friend instead. I also need to thank you boys. For not being too much trouble (apart from

Loftus), for trying really hard in my sports teams (apart from Connor Bright, who rarely turned up for

cricket) and for providing good conversation (apart from William McRae who asks stupid questions)!

The most memorable things that I’ll take away from New Zealand include the scenery in the Bay of Is-

lands, the Coromandel Peninsula and the South Island. Bungee jumping in Queenstown was scary at

first, but then fun. Playing rugby for Hunterville is a stand out highlight, but isn’t over yet; we’ve got a

semi-final next weekend, then hopefully a final the week after. Highlights like that, though, aren’t really

relevant to you guys, so I’ll stick to the Huntley highlights.

Things like Athletics Day, refereeing the odd Prep Match, trips to the Lido, Year 8 Camps and so on will

live long in the memory. Coaching a little bit of Softball in summer was incidentally the only Huntley

team involving me that won a game, but even then Mr Williams was the coach, I was more a supervisor. I

wish I had put a bit more effort into my cricket coaching, as the boys in my team wanted desperately to

improve and to win, as I only really tried once, and we lost by a slender margin of one wicket to Marton in

our last game.

At Huntley my fondest memory will no doubt be coaching the Junior Rugby team. I need to especially

thank the boys in my team, who have been fantastically led by Harry Newman as Captain. I define being a

successful coach as being able to see improvement in the players I coach. It would’ve been nice to have

won a game, but the improvement in the juniors is undeniable. They lost to Hereworth at home 100-5,

then with me as coach and a huge effort from the players went down 34-10 away, after they brought on

their 2nd XV centre. In my first Saturday game last year, we lost to Kaierau 95-7. In my very last Saturday

game, we lost to Kaierau 28-29, by a point, which was an 87 point turnaround. If that isn’t improvement,

I don’t know what is. I do think I am cursed, though, to lose my last cricket and rugby game as coach by

the smallest possible margins.

So the most impact I’ve made in Huntley School has been on the rugby field. I feel pride in my juniors,

and I know that next term they will get that win that the boys so desperately deserve. I also feel that I’ve

helped boys in other rugby teams when they’ve come to me for advice.

However, I wish to make one final impact now. The thing I’ve learnt more than anything out here on my

Gap Year in New Zealand is that the world is filled with good people. Nice people. People who will look

out for you, who will guide you, aid you and help you and not ask for anything in return. A lot of those

people are sitting behind me, several of those are your parents. Those people, more often than not, have

themselves been overseas or away from home and have been looked after by other good people. It’s like a

cycle. I know that when I am home, I’ll be trying to look after people in the same way I have been looked

after. So in that spirit I’ll say now, that if in the future, any of you guys are on an OE over in England, and

you need advice, or help, then I’ll help you as best as I can, all you need to do is ask. That’s the favour

people have done for me over here, I’ll repay that favour when I am in their shoes.

So that is my final major impact at Huntley School. You’ll see me around for the first two weeks of next

term, hopefully, but after that, I’ll be pretty much gone. Thank you for a good year boys. Like in the poem

‘The moral of this is quite simple. Do just the best that you can. Be proud of yourself, but remember;

there is no indispensable man,’ I’ll walk away from Huntley with my head held high, and my heart and my

heart filled with pride.

The Indispensable Man

Some day when you’re feeling important,

Some day when you’re ego’s in bloom,

Some day when you may be feeling,

You’re the most important man in the room.

Some day when you feel that your going,

Would leave an unfillable hole,

Just follow this simple example,

And see how it humbles your soul.

Take a bucket and fill it with water,

Put both hands in up to the wrist,

Take them out and the hole that remains,

Is the measure of how you’ll be missed.

You may splash all you like when you enter,

You may stir up the water galore

But wait! And see in a minute,

It looks just the same as before.

The moral of this is quite simple:

Do just the best that you can,

Be proud of yourself, but remember,

There is no indispensable man.

August Newletter 2011

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Transcript of August Newletter 2011