The Lion - June 2014

LIONTHE

Mount Albert GrAMMAr SchoolJune 2014

j8243 - MAGS - Lion News Term II_section 1.indd 1 6/06/14 2:30 PM

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Mount Albert Grammar SchoolAlberton AvenueMount AlbertAuckland 1025

Ph 09 846 2044

www.mags.school.nz

Photo by Jed Bradley, taken on a Year 13 Geography field trip to Muriwai (see page 27).

The Lion is the official magazine of Mount Albert Grammar School

Editorial enquiries to editor Estelle Sarney [email protected], ph 09 846 2044, x 8236

Advertising enquiries to Tim Kay, MAGS [email protected], ph 09 846 2044 x 8127

Design by Blueriver Creative (Nikki Ross)

Proudly printed by Webstar


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Contents4-5 From the Headmaster

6-9 Awards and scholarships

10-15 School news

16-21 MAGS in the community

22-29 Academic news

30-31 Creative writing

32-37 Performing Arts

38-41 International student news

42-57 Sport

58-63 MAGS Foundation

64-66 Albertian news

67 Key dates

Photo by Jed Bradley, taken on a Year 13 Geography field trip to Muriwai (see page 27).

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On my desk, in a frame below images of MAGS students, is the following message:

This was gifted to me by a great friend and mentor when I left my previous school to come to Mount Albert Grammar School. It is located where it is because it reminds me, when I need reminding, the reason I come to work as a teacher.

Teachers become teachers to make a difference. I know I did. In fact, it was the life changing experience that I had at school that made me want to enable others to have the same.

The impact a teacher can have on the life of a student is well known. For many students, apart from their parents, it has been their teachers who have done the most to shape their lives. We can all remember those teachers who have had a powerful influence on us. All of us have had someone who at some stage made a real difference in our life.

From the Headmaster“A hundred years from now It will not matterwhat my bank account wasThe sort of house I lived inOr the kind of car I droveBut….

The world may be differentBecause I was important in The life of a child”

- (Anonymous)

Professor John Hattie, in his 2003 paper Teachers Make a Difference highlights the importance that teachers have, above all other school-based influencers, on student achievement. Hattie found that of all the things teachers do, it’s the quality of their instruction and feedback to students that count for the most.

I think the tired old arguments of the pros and cons of various aspects of the curriculum, what assessment regimes are the best and whether or not a English-based examination is better than an international standards-based qualification or better than a New Zealand qualification, is really arguing about different coloured keys that open the same door. It’s what you have as well as a qualification that will ultimately determine how you get on after you have gone through that door. We need to stop debating and arguing about the small stuff and start debating and discussing the really important things, such as what are the characteristics of a quality teacher. And how do we make sure that all of our students have a quality teacher in front of them for every lesson, every day.


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The essence of teaching has not changed over time. The ability to engage young minds in learning can take a variety of different forms depending on the students, the teacher, the nature of the subject and the time and place. Socrates was an effective teacher, but whether he would be able to meet the needs of the 21st century learner is questionable.

We know more about how students learn now than ever before, and we have constantly developed our pedagogy in order to engage the greatest number of students possible.

Our students give feedback to us regularly that says the teachers they enjoy the most are those who know their subject really well and make it interesting, are friendly, firm but fair, and who like them. A positive relationship between the teacher and the student is paramount if the student is to reach their potential. The ability to understand that the emotions and attitudes of students need nurturing and developing is really important. For our

students at MAGS, and elsewhere I hope, teachers make sure that they are developing the “whole student”, ie, their hearts as well as their minds.

The teachers here at our school constantly amaze me with their genuine desire to make a difference every day. Outside of the FW Gamble Hall are two photos of MAGS staff. One is the Foundation staff of 1922 - 12 men. The other photo of the staff of 2014 shows a very large, multi-cultural, gender balanced group. In this sense they seem like two very different groups of staff. However, they not only share the common ground of being teachers at Mount Albert Grammar School, they share the love of making a difference in the lives of young people, albeit almost a century apart.

Per angusta ad augusta

Dale Burden



Disability Commissioner Mr Paul Gibson attended a special assembly on Friday, 11 April to present an award to the MAGS Samoan Cultural Group.

The Te Urunga Award for Inclusiveness is open to groups who perform at the annual ASB Polyfest, and recognises inclusive practice in a creative performance at each of the festival’s six cultural stages.

MAGS’ Samoan group includes Year 12 student Amelia Eades, who has Down Syndrome. She has performed with the group since she was in Year 9, and took part in its return to the Polyfest stage for the first time in eight years this year.

“MAGS is leading the way in including all students who want to be involved in a cultural group,” says Mr Gibson. “By using these opportunities to increase your creativity in the performances you give, you are doing the best for all your students.”

Human Rights Commission Award for MAGS Samoan cultural group

Jack Scahill, a Year 13 student in 2013 who passed NCEA Agriculture and Horticulture at Scholarship level, has been awarded a DairyNZ Scholarship to study at Lincoln University this year.

The Scholarship will pay for Jack’s formal tuition fees up to a value of $5750. He is studying for a Bachelor of Science degree.

“The success of Jack in being selected is a great achievement and a wonderful testament to the quality of education at the school,” says Susan Stokes, the Industry Education Facilitator for DairyNZ Ltd.

The industry body granted 59 scholarships to students taking degrees in agriculture or related subjects who had a particular interest in a career in the dairy industry. The scholarships are funded through the industry good levy allocated by Dairy NZ.

The teacher in charge of the Samoan group, Mr Peter Sua, says the award meant even more to the students than the song and dance they had perfected for Polyfest.

“They all embraced Amelia and helped her learn the words and movements, as they have every year,” says Mr Sua. “She loves Samoan culture and her fellow group members love her.”

Amelia is pictured with Samoan Group student leaders Josias Faleolo and Lillian Kome.

Headmaster Mr Dale Burden says MAGS encourages all students to take up the varied opportunities it offers.

“We believe in including everyone who wishes to take part in an activity, whatever their ethnicity or capability. We’re very proud to have been recognised for our inclusiveness with this award.”

DairyNZ Scholarship for outstanding student“This significant support to outstanding young scholars is part of the dairy industry’s determination to encourage the best people into the industry as future research scientists, farm advisers, farm managers, farm owners and rural professionals,” says Ms Stokes.

Scholarship winners are mentored and supported through their university years, and can expect to gain employment in a variety of positions, either on-farm or supporting the dairy industry.

* MAGS Deputy Head Girl in 2013, Jessica Munro, was granted a Future Leaders Scholarship by Lincoln University. It is paying all her academic fees for the year, and will roll over each year depending on her grades and commitment to the Future Leaders Programme. Jessica is studying for a Bachelor of Commerce (Agriculture).


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Scholarship for Dux ArtiumMAGS’ Boy Dux Artium of 2013, Matthew James, has been awarded a $1000 scholarship towards his tertiary studies by the Ara Lodge.

Matthew, pictured at the scholarship ceremony with MAGS Board of Trustees Chairman Mr Greg Moyle, has begun studying graphic design at AUT. He gained Excellence for both his Design and Painting Boards in last year’s NCEA Level 3 exams.

The Ara Lodge Annual Fine Art Awards are made to top art students from secondary schools across Auckland.

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Premier netball captain in 2013, Jamie-Lee Price, was one of six under-20 athletes selected by the New Zealand Herald for its Future Stars of Sport Awards in May.

Jamie-Lee won a trophy, product pack and a $1500 training grant. She and the other five winners also featured in a photo and story in the Herald, and attended a celebration lunch.

Jamie-Lee led her team to back to back National Championships in 2012 and 2013, being selected for the New Zealand Secondary Schools Team both years and as co-captain last year. At 17 she was selected for the Netball New Zealand Under 21 Development Squad. Last year, with the Waikato U23 team she won the inaugural U23 New Zealand regional tournament.

After securing NCEA Level 3 she left MAGS to take up a contract with the Waikato Magic, and is now taking part in the 2014 ANZ League.

Jamie-Lee found time to revisit MAGS in term 1 to meet the new Year 9 Netball Academy members, offering inspiration for the girls to follow in her footsteps.

Jamie-Lee Price wins NZ Herald Future Star Award


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Shakespeare awardHead boy Liam Ferguson has won the Auckland Central regional competition of the National Shakespeare School Programme, and will go on to compete for a place in a trip to the Globe Theatre in England in 2015.

Liam won his regional award at the Sheilah Winn Shakespeare Competition on Saturday, 12 April, with a powerful performance from Henry V, co-directed by himself and fellow Year 13 drama student Scott Morrison. The pair brought the 15 minute scene into a World War I setting, creating their own costumes for Liam and 13 ‘soldiers’, their own make-up, including fake blood and dirt, and set, which included the topical reference of red poppies. Their musical score included a character playing a bugle.

MAGS Head of Drama, Dr Lilicherie McGregor, says Liam planned the performance from the end of last year, and already knew all his lines before Christmas.

“We gave him a few tips but he did most of it himself. He really interrogated the role, and it’s a tribute to his performance that he won what is arguably the hardest region to compete in, when he was up against students and schools with far more resources than MAGS.”

Liam will join other regional winners in Dunedin in the October holidays for a week of intensive workshops and rehearsals with the Shakespeare Globe Company of New Zealand. The top 24 students will then be selected to travel to England in July 2015 to perform and study at Shakespeare’s Globe Theatre in Stratford Upon Avon.

Two MAGS students have received $1000 scholarships from a charity set up to help up and coming sports stars.

Maia Wilson and Bernard Togiatomai received the awards from the National Party’s Mt Albert-based MP Melissa Lee, on behalf of the Korean community’s HiWell Charity. Maia was recognised for her success in basketball and netball, and Bernard for his growing achievements in athletics, rugby and rugby league.

Jamie-Lee Price wins NZ Herald Future Star Award

Scholarships for young sports starsThe charity raised $20,000 for 18 scholarships through a golf event, in which Ms Lee and golf star Lydia Ko took part – both were born in South Korea.

“The motivation for the scholarship fund came from Lydia Ko turning pro,” says Ms Lee. “HiWell and I have helped raise money for Lydia Ko in the past; we felt that if we had a charitable organisation established specifically to help young up and comers like Lydia, it would be fab.”

Ms Lee asked MAGS to nominate two of our up and coming sports stars for scholarships. Maia is a member of MAGS’ Premier Netball team, which has won the National Championship for the past two years, and in basketball helped her club team to the U17 national title last year, and has also taken the court for the Junior Tall Ferns.

Bernard came 9th in the shot put at the NZSS Athletics Championships in December, and second in the Auckland Championships in March. He also competes in discus.

The other scholarship recipients were from across Auckland, and eventually the charity hopes to offer the scholarships nationally.

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Welcome to our new staff

Helen Dunham has joined the Science Department as the Head of Biology and general science teacher. She enjoys skiing, traveling and spending time outdoors tramping.

Glenn Stewart has joined the English department at MAGS as an English teacher. He has previously taught English as a Foreign Language in China, Korea, and Poland.

John Auckram has joined the Mathematics Department from Waitakere College in West Auckland. He loves teaching Mathematics at all levels. Outside school he enjoys tramping and cycling.

Samantha French has joined the Dance Department. Samantha, who has experience within the New Zealand dance industry, has spent the past four years studying dance and education at university.

Peter Boettcher has started joined two departments - Technology as the Engineering teacher, and Maths. Peter competes in motorcycle trials at national and international level recently completed an event in Northern Italy. He has a life long passion for Engineering, spending much of his spare time in his home workshop creating new school projects.

Elizabeth Pitu replaced Richard Roberts, who was on leave, teaching Economics for Term One this year. Elizabeth grew up in Mount Albert and returned to the area until the end of the term, bringing a wealth of teaching experience from the Waikato where she taught commerce subjects for many years at both Hamilton Boys’ High School and St Paul’s Collegiate School. More recently she worked with teachers in a number of Waikato, Bay of Plenty, Hawkes Bay and East Coast schools as a professional development facilitator.

Shaun Bailey is new to the country. He and his wife and two children immigrated at the end of last year. He will be joining the Technology department. In his spare time he enjoys running and spending time with his family.

Mary Niulesa is pleased to be joining the English Department this year. A New Zealand-born Samoan, she has taught in Auckland for the past seven years and is passionate about the study of New Zealand, Pacific and Early Modern European literature. Her background in music performance becomes apparent as her students inevitably develop their understanding and appreciation of the role of art in shaping the ‘classics’ of English Literature.

Jason Capper has recently immigrated to the country. He has joined the Maths Department. In his spare time he enjoys fishing, cricket and travelling.

Carl Perry has joined the Physical Education department. He is a former student and Head Boy of the school and will be involved with Rugby and Touch.

Jenny Cannon has joined the Learning Support Department after a move up from Christchurch this year. Jenny enjoys travelling and has taught in South Africa, the UK and the East.

Deborah Matheson has joined the English Department as an Assistant Head of Faculty. Deb has previously taught in the South Island, as well as Spain, England and Indonesia.

Hannah Lasenby has returned to the PE Department after two year of overseas travel.

Michael Walden joins the Mathematics Department after attending the University of Auckland where he majored in both Mathematics and Statistics. Michael is very enthusiastic about sharing with his students his passion for mathematics and celebrates the diversity MAGS offers him to do this. Outside of the classroom he plays cricket and football and loves rugby league. He also enjoys a wide variety of music and closely follows NZ politics.

Graeme Smith has joined the Guidance Department as a counselor. Graeme was a high school economics and accounting teacher for 20 years before making the change to guidance counselling seven years ago, partly to follow his interest in the area and partly to enable him to spend more time with his young son.

Bill Temmplehoff has joined the Technology Department. He is interested in motor sport, boating and is a keen fisherman. He also enjoys gardening and hiking.


Guidance counsellor Kathryn Harford-Nielsen left MAGS on Thursday, 17 April, after 14 years at the school. In her final week she reflected on her time here …

Kathryn Harford-Nielsen has seen Mount Albert Grammar School transform since she started work here in 2000 – the first year girls were admitted to the roll.

“There were 1200 boys and 180 girls – to say the atmosphere was different then would be an understatement,” she smiles.The girls’ arrival and rapid growth in their numbers had a positive effect, she says.

“The boys were always polite, but there was more awareness to tone down some of their more brash behavior. You could say their EQ (emotional intelligence) improved. Girls made the atmosphere more holistic.”

While the school had to play catch up in some areas to properly cater for girls – such as stocking books for English topics that were not primarily written for boys – the opportunities for girls grew exponentially. Today Mrs Harford-Nielsen thinks students have the best of both worlds – separate classes for girls and boys in the Junior School, merging to co-ed from Year 11 on, and a plethora of extra-curricular activities in which both boys and girls can take part.

“Socially I think the school is far more healthy and rounded than when it was boys only,” she says.

Mrs Harford-Nielsen has seen her department grow with the school roll. When she started there was only herself and Mr David Lyon, now there is a team of four, led by Director of Guidance Mr Paul Ferner. She may see more than 25 students a week with problems ranging from small arguments with friends, to the fallout from divorce, to depression and suicide attempts. In severe cases like the latter, the guidance department uses

the additional skills of outside agencies. School Nurse Monica Haworth is also a valued member of the team.

Mrs Harford-Nielsen says that over time the guidance team’s handling of some student issues has developed, particularly regarding conflict between students.

“We’ve found ways of helping the students learn from each other what is not okay, how their behavior might affect others and why they need to change. They benefit from the opportunity to grow up together.”

Mrs Harford-Nielsen feels privileged to have been invited into the trust of students and staff, and advocate for them when she can.

“The highlights of my time here are all to do with the people. I’ve met so many amazing staff who give of themselves tirelessly – few appreciate how hard they work and how committed they are to the school and their students.”

MAGS has also meant a lot to her personally – her son Ben Schischka came here, and she met her husband here, teacher Rex Nielsen. Mrs Harford-Nielsen is soon to meet the staff and students at a different school – Orewa College, close to where she and her husband have built a house.

“I won’t miss the commute,” she says, “But I will miss the many friends I’ve made here. MAGS has been an important part of my life, and the people are the most important part of this place.”

Carissa Calvert has joined the English and Social Studies department at MAGS this year. Originally from Canada, Carissa immigrated to NZ to pursue a career in teaching after studying History and English at university. She enjoys travelling, reading, and coaching cheerleading and gymnastics.

Tony Stenhoff has joined the Science department as a Chemistry/Physics teacher. He has taught in a number of schools in both the UK and New Zealand. Tony’s hobbies include clay target shooting, tennis, skiing and rugby coaching.

Will Maling has joined the PE department and is currently teaching PE and running the Rowing Academy. He has worked for the school since 2009 as the Director of Rowing.

Michael Ashby has joined the Physics Department after spending a few years travelling the world. He has previously taught in Napier, as well as France and the UK. His hobbies include flying, hiking, skiing and reading a lot of books. He is passionate about teaching his students how to think, rather than what to think.

Tom Clark has joined the Science department as a Chemistry teacher. Originally from Dunedin, Tom has spent the past 5 years studying Chemistry, Mathematics and Education at the University of Auckland. In his spare time he enjoys camping, running and tramping.

Farewell to Kathryn Harford-Nielsen

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Year 9 students had the MAGS campus to themselves for their first day on Monday, 3 February. They met their teachers and form classes, received their timetables and learned about the school’s routines and procedures.

Year 13 Peer Support Leaders spent the day helping Year 9 students settle into the school. They gave the younger students tours of the campus, answered their questions, and organised games to help classmates get to know each other.

Peer Support Leaders spend time with MAGS’ Guidance Department staff during the summer holidays to learn how to support new members of the school. They enjoy the responsibility their role brings.

The school considers the Peer Support Programme a vital part of putting The MAGS Way into action, engendering respect among students for themselves, each other and the school. The connection with senior students also helps those new to the school to feel at ease on campus from their first day.

Peer Support Leaders guide new students


An enthusiastic group of 35 prefects and 8 positive staff members headed off to Onemana on the Coromandel for a fun-filled bonding experience the weekend before school started for the year.

Goals for the camp included developing an increased awareness of the leadership requirements of the talented group of prefects, and to clarify their roles. The Year 13s impressed the teachers with the quality of their speeches and for being committed and proud of their school.

A huge thank you to Mrs Sangster for keeping the prefects’ stomachs full with delicious home baking, and to teacher Mr Allan Sangster for organising such a successful and happy camp. The 2014 prefects aim to be the best group ever!

Paul Ferner, Director of Guidance

Prefects camp 2014

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The Government is providing funding for 21 new classrooms at Mount Albert Grammar as part of a $6 million rebuilding and expansion project.

Work will begin in Term 2 on stage one of the project, a new wing on the farm road side of D Block beside the existing Maths building. Joined to the original block by an atrium to provide additional shelter from sun and rain for students, the new wing will contain 12 new classrooms, to be used mainly for Maths, a modernised Health centre, space for the Careers Department and will incorporate a renovated Student Centre.

Further stages, to begin in 2015, are likely to benefit the Performing Arts, Technology and Science Departments.Headmaster Mr Dale Burden said the Government funding was recognition of MAGS’ in-zone roll growth, which is increasing at about 3 per cent each year. This year nearly 2700 students are attending the school, making it the second largest in the country.

“In an area where there is plenty of choice of secondary education, in-zone parents are increasingly choosing MAGS’ brand of progressive co-education over single-sex school options,” says Mr Burden.

In announcing the funding, Associate Education Minister Nikki Kaye said: “The Auckland region is growing rapidly and the Ministry of Education anticipates that up to 600 new classrooms will be needed across the region over the next four years. The new buildings for Mount Albert Grammar … are part of a broader classroom building programme provided for in Budget 2013, which will address the capacity needs for the region.”

New buildings for MAGS


Albertian Andrew Wilkie brought a new element to MAGS’ annual ANZAC assembly on Thursday, 17 April, in playing the bagpipes at the start and end of the service.

Mr Wilkie played the Call to Service at the beginning of the assembly in the FW Gamble Hall, and, at its conclusion, a Resurrection of Life Lament which he composed, called Sarjini – Charles Wilkie, in honour of his father.

The pipe music enhanced the moving ceremony, attended by old boys, Albertians’ Association President Mr Ben Stallworthy, a Guard of Honour from the Air Training Corps, Headmaster Mr Dale Burden, Prefects and students of Years 9 and 13.

Prefect Rohith Nagulan gave a speech about the meaning of ANZAC Day to New Zealanders, learnings from war, and how the ANZAC spirit is part of our nation’s character.

The names of 50 Albertians who have died in various wars were read, the Last Post and Reveille were played on trumpets by Gina Holden and Tim Sinclair, and wreaths were laid by Mr Stallworthy, Head Boy Liam Ferguson and Deputy Head Girl Alexandra Chaptynova.

After the service, old boys attended a reunion lunch at School House. The guest speaker was Director of Rowing Mr Will Maling, who spoke about the resurgence of the sport at MAGS. In attendance were four notable rowers from the sport’s heyday at the school in the 1940s and 1950s – Maadi Cup winner and Empire Games double silver medallist Mr Bill Tinnock, Maadi Cup winners Max Weston and Bruce Cato, and fellow rower Ted Hughan.

Piper enhances ANZAC Assembly

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The group Women in Educational Leadership (WIEL) hosted the Minister of Education, Ms Hekia Parata, at MAGS on Thursday, 6 March.

More than 150 women from schools across Auckland attended the function, at which Ms Parata spoke about her journey as a woman in education and politics. The event was organised by MAGS Deputy Principal Ms Yevette Williams, who is on the committee of the Auckland branch of WIEL. About 20 women staff members of MAGS were among the audience, and MAGS’ girl prefects helped host the evening.

“Hekia was very personable, and spoke for over an hour, relating stories about her life and talking about what it had taken her to succeed,” says Ms Williams. “She talked a lot about commitment and tenacity.”

The visit tied in with International Girls’ Day on Saturday, 8 March.

Albertian Paul Lucas and his wife Tina have generously offered two Scholarships for Northland boys to board at School House so that they can gain their education at MAGS.

The first recipients of the Lucas Scholarships are Elijah Toetu’u (pictured at left with Mr and Mrs Lucas) and Waimana Riedlinger-Kapa.

Minister of Education speaks to leaders of the future

WIEL was established in Australia and branched into New Zealand in 2013. The group organises events at which inspiring women can share their learnings, and attendees can network and find support. It is open to anyone aspiring to be leaders in the area of education, from teachers and support staff to managers.

The next event is planned for June. Called The Next Step, it will focus on how women in education can progress in their careers. More details will be posted on the WIEL website: www.wiel.com.au

Albertian offers School House scholarshipsMr Lucas attended MAGS for four years and says his time at the school was a significant part of his teenage years.

“My formative years were spent in Northland where times were very challenging for me and the rest of the family. Eventually, we came back to Auckland and I attended Mt Albert as a day student. A number of masters provided great support during my years at the school. This enabled me to obtain an accounting cadetship with Fisher & Paykel that set me up to embark on what has been a successful business career.”

Mr and Mrs Lucas have maintained a connection with Northland and support students at Northland College with two university scholarships. They also wanted to provide assistance to boys who were boarders at MAGS, and, through the MAGS Foundation have established the two Lucas Scholarships to assist with boarding fees. The couple’s only stipulation is that the students come from north of Wellsford, and show potential “in the wider sense.”

“In my time at Mt Albert the school was extremely highly regarded, and we applaud the progress the school has made recently to once again be at the forefront of educational excellence,” said Mr Lucas. “We are delighted that we can be part of this in the coming years.”


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The annual Year 9 Parents’ Welcome evening was a great success once again this year, with dozens of parents visiting the school on the evening of Tuesday, 11 February.

Drinks and nibbles in the Albertian Quad was followed by an introduction to the Friends of MAGS parents’ group by Vice-Chair Mr Ian Moody.

Parents then moved into the hall for a welcome from Headmaster Mr Dale Burden, who explained how the Junior School worked and the structure of Form Classes.

Prefects and other Year 13 students, who helped throughout the evening, guided parents to their children’s Form classes, where teachers spoke about curriculum and school procedures. Many parents who already have older children at the school had returned for the evening, showing how much they value contact with MAGS and updates on the school’s progress.

Two year nine students from Northland have been given the opportunity to attend MAGS and study Agricultural Science thanks to the ASB Bank’s Rural Scholarships.

Liam McNally from Kaikohe and Terrell Peita from Panguru in the North Hokianga are the inaugural recipients of the Scholarships, and were presented with their grant letters by the ASB’s General Manager of Rural Banking, Mark Heer at assembly on Monday, 24 February.

The Scholarships will pay for half of each student’s boarding fees at School House for the next five years, enabling them to study Agriculture and Horticulture on the School Farm, complete their other studies, and take up some of the many other opportunities offered by MAGS.

ASB Rural Scholarship

Put your faith in usthen put your feet up!

Ph O9 846 947O Email [email protected] 746 New North Road, Mt Albert, Auckland 1025 anneduncan.co.nz

RESIDENTIAL SALES • RENTALS & PROPERTY MANAGEMENT

In 2013 the ASB Bank renewed MAGS’ lease on the farm for another 99 years, securing the future of the farm for the community and the 120 students who study Agriculture there every year. To celebrate the lease renewal, the Bank, through the MAGS Foundation, established the Rural Scholarship to support students from outside Auckland who wish to study Agriculture and Horticulture at MAGS. Speaking to the assembled Year 9 students, Mr Heer said that the ASB Bank was proud to help students prepare for rural studies at tertiary level.

“Agriculture is a key provider in the economic prosperity of the New Zealand economy, and provides 260,000 jobs,” says Mr Heer. “Rural studies can lead to jobs working on a farm, managing a farm and one day owning a farm, or into the rural service industry and areas of education, science and research and innovation.”

Headmaster Mr Dale Burden said the farm’s lease renewal was “hugely generous” and the ASB’s Rural Scholarship was further evidence of their belief in the value of rural education. Liam McNally’s mother, Ms Jade McNally, was among the two boys’ family members who attended the assembly presentation. She thanked Mr Heer for the bank’s generosity.

“This is a wonderful opportunity for Liam, and he’s already telling me about all the activities he wants to get involved in at MAGS,” said Ms McNally.

New families welcomed

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The Duke of Edinburgh’s Hillary Award scheme is widely recognised as a stimulating way for young people to challenge themselves for their own personal growth and development, and to learn to appreciate the needs of others in the community and find ways to help them.

MAGS facilitates the scheme as an extra-curricular activity, led by PE teacher Mr Andy Belson, who is also the Year 11 Boys’ Dean for 2014.

The year started well when 20 students received their Duke of Edinburgh’s Hillary Bronze Award at assembly on Monday, 17 February. Each had completed the requirements of the Award’s four sections - Service, Skill, Physical Activity and Expedition - over a minimum period of six months. Mr Belson said the students had fulfilled the scheme’s underlying principles of individual improvement through persistence, voluntary participation and challenge to the individual.Recipients of the Bronze Award were: Hoorayah Asif, Ruby Beadle, Rayna Bhika, Thomas Butler, Emily Cavell, Benjamin Dean, Jack Duley, Rosa Henderson, James Kirkham, Abbey Lissaman, Parie Malhotra, Katy MacKenzie, Virginia Megson, Claire Norbitt, Andy Patvekych, Liam Quinlan, Hannah Rahman, Mahima Taunk, Alex Thompson, Ben Williamson.

Duke of Edinburgh’s Hillary AwardIn March, 23 students completed their Silver adventurous journey. For many of them this was the final step towards completion of their Silver Award.

The students tramped 35km through the Waitakere Ranges, carrying food, tents, clothing and cooking gear. Mr Belson says the students were self-sufficient, worked together as a team and often showed good interpersonal skills.

Also in March, another 36 students also headed into the Waitakere Ranges to complete either their Bronze journey with Mrs Jessica Wilson, or participate in their Silver practice journey with Mr Belson and Miss Natalie Absolum.

Once again the weather was kind to the group as they tramped up and down through the ranges and enjoyed the campsite at Barn Paddock. The students learned how to navigate, manage their team and cook in the outdoors.

Mr Belson says all students were enthusiastic and tackled their respective journeys in an energetic manner. “They were a credit to the school.”

The Silver students will complete their qualifying journey at the start of Term 2.



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Relay for lifeA team of 18 students and three teachers took part in this year’s Relay for Life at the AUT Millenium Institute in Mairangi Bay on 5-6 April.

The event is a fundraiser for the Cancer Society in which teams do as many laps of a 400m course as they can over 18 hours. The weather was fantastic and everyone involved had a great (if a tad sleepless) time. The MAGS team got involved in several of the activities put on by the organisers. We participated enthusiastically in the tug of war, three legged race, midnight zumba and bumper football.

The team baton completed 360 laps, giving a distance of 144km. However, the individual totals gave the team 1220 laps, giving a total distance covered of 488km. This was a fantastic effort and something the students should be very proud of.

Prior to attending the event several students set out with personal goals of the number of laps they wanted to complete. Special mention must be made of Alexandra Ragg, Nicole Kearney, Alex Anderson and Jess Middelberg, each of whom completed distances of more than a marathon in length. Jess covered 50km.

The relay provided a special moment for MAGS teacher Ms Sarnia Slabbert, who completed the “Survivors’ Lap of Honour”, a celebration of those who have successfully fought cancer.

The team, which also included teacher Ms Alayna Pulham, raised more than $1400 for the Cancer Society.

Tom Clark, Teacher and Organiser

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Drawing pictures in chalk all over the Albetian Quad would be a case for detention most days, but on Friday, 11 April, it marked the start of 30 hours of Prefect team building and fund raising.

Students and staff arrived early in the morning to find the Quad covered in colourful designs, names and even a fitness circuit – Prefects had been there since 6.30am to create the artwork. At lunchtime Headmaster Dale Burden was at the front of the queue of volunteers to get dunked in aid of the Child Cancer Foundation. Students bought tennis balls to throw at a bucket stationed above the volunteer’s head. An accurate throw meant a dunking for Mr Burden, teachers and Prefects.

At 6.30pm the Prefects gathered once more in the Quad for the annual “Lockdown”, when they play team building games and then sleep out under the stars. This was also a way of welcoming 10 new Prefects to their ranks, named earlier in the week. A few showers overnight didn’t deter some hardy campers, who slept through the drops while others migrated indoors.

There were more games in the morning, rounded off with a spot of yoga, complete with human pyramid.

Prefects fundraise, then lockdown

MAGS Prefects for 2014Head Boy: Liam FergusonHead Girl: Katie BudgenDeputy Head Boy: Eric MunroDeputy Head Girl: Alexandra Chaptynova

Oliver Barnett Aaron Booth Jed Bradley Eilish Buckley Luke Butler Eduard Canning Sarah Crowhurst Sanjana Dudaki Ben Dekker Felix Drissner-Devine Milly Hawkins Mattais Heimuli Gina Holden Claudia Howlett Louisa HowseZachary King Te Uri KingiFlynn Letford Lauren LiellEric Liu Elizabeth Lyon

Harshil Magan Alice MallonGabrielle Marsh Emily MillsRohith Nagulan Marshall Norbitt Chae Yun (Christine) Park Michael Parry Emma Pearce Charlotte Pritchard Farhan Rahman Ashlee Ridgway-KeehnLaurena Roquero Phoebe RossLiam Rudd Kathryn SherlockTimothy SInclair Alexshana SivarajahYuchen (Aaron) Wang Israel Wong-SeeIrene Wu


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SADD carwash Members of the MAGS branch of Students Against Driving Drunk (SADD) wielded hoses and sponges to clean teachers’ cars for their good cause on Thursday, 3 April.

About 40 teachers signed up to have their cars washed by 20 student volunteers after school, in return for a donation. The event raised about $200 to fund SADD Week activities in Term 3.

Year 13 students Sanjana Dudaki, Elizabeth Lyon and Irene Wu organised the carwash with teachers Mrs Amy Wiltshire and Ms Haana Bovaird.

Sanjana says the other aim of the carwash was to raise awareness of SADD’s cause among teachers, and enlist their support. The students gave each teacher a SADD sticker they could apply to their rear windscreen to help raise community support against drink driving.

Prefects were blown away with the response to a call for students to sign up to the MAGS’ Interact charity fundraising group for 2014.

About 200 students from all year levels met in the hall in February to hear about the programme of fundraising events planned for this year, and give their details to Interact leaders, Prefect Kathryn Sherlock and fellow Year 13 student Laura-Marie Rodahl.

Among the causes they will support this year are the Child Cancer Foundation in Term 1, with sales of badges and bracelets; the Heart Foundation in Term 2 with sales of roses and balloons; and Shave for a Cure, also in Term 2, when students and staff shave off their hair in aid of Leukaemia & Blood Cancer New Zealand. More events are still being planned.

Kathryn Sherlock said the students’ enthusiasm to help was heartening. “We were blown away with how many came along to sign up. Hopefully most of them will stay involved through the year,” said Kathryn.

Students keen to help fundraise

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22 Mount Albert Grammar School22 Mount Albert Grammar School

Mount Albert Grammar School students have again achieved with outstanding success in the 2013 New Zealand Scholarship awards. These examinations represent the pinnacle of academic achievement for secondary students.

Our 2013 tally is 83 scholarships, of which 6 were at the “outstanding” level. Sincere congratulations are extended to our students for their achievements, and acknowledgement is made of the academic ability, preparation and perseverance required of them to reach such degrees of success.

Nuowei (Oliver) ChenFive Scholarships,including one Outstanding

Jamie HucklesbyFour Scholarships

Ryan Cory-WrightThree Scholarships,including two Outstanding

Tobias CampbellThree Scholarships, including one Outstanding

Achieving two scholarships each are: Oliver Brooks, Jessica Courtney, Sarah Crowhurst, Kuldeep Dalvi, Benjamin Dekker, James Drummond, Robert Gore, Leanne Ho, Ursula Lukaszewicz, Sean Pearce, Milos Stojanovic, Yiping Wang, Eric Liu and Run Wu.

Single subject Scholarships success is also acknowledged, and congratulations extended to:Olivia Adams, Samuel Buckman, Jennifer Chen, Jessica Chen, Lauren Curd, Liam Ferguson, Alice Gray, Shuyu Guo, Alexander Hark, Molly Henderson, Hamish Jellyman, Felix

Scholarship success 2013Scholarships were achieved across 15 different subjects - Accounting, Agriculture and Horticulture, Biology, Chemistry, Classical Studies, Design, English, French, Geography, History, Mathematics with Calculus, Media Studies, Photography, Physics, and Statistics.

Outstanding Scholarships were achieved in History, Mathematics with Calculus, and Statistics.

Particular acknowledgement is made of the following students who achieved multiple Scholarship success:

Kibblewhite, Zane Koch, Enoch Korapatti, Lan Huong Lai, Jessica Munro, Samuel Nicholson, Zhane O’Neill-Harvey, Jade Robertson, Paht Satjipanon, Jack Scahill, Sarah Tevelyan, Riki Guernier, Nathan Van Dort and Yingying Xiao.

These achievements also provide great satisfaction to the dedicated teaching staff who develop Scholarship programmes to support, coach and direct our students in their Scholarship pursuits, and also the many staff who have contributed to the academic development of these students across their time at Mount Albert Grammar School.

From left, Krishna Balachandran, Jeremy Barnett, Stanley Deng, Anika Radojkovich, Meshak Ranjit Singh each achieved three Scholarships.

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Ryan Cory-Wright has saved himself two years of study by jumping straight from Year 12 to the equivalent of Year 2 of an engineering degree.

Ryan gained entry to the Engineering Accelerate Programme at the University of Auckland after gaining Scholarships in Physics, Statistics and Calculus in the 2013 NCEA

exams. He gained his Statistics and Calculus Scholarships at Outstanding level.

His maths teacher, Ms Johanna McHardy, says the university made space for Ryan after he also gained A+ grades in stage one maths and computer science papers last year.

The 17-year-old dropped into MAGS at the end of Term 1 to say hello to Ms McHardy and some of his other former

Overall the academic progress for the school continues to be what The Education Review Office described as “outstanding”. Our NCEA results of 2013 were our best to date, and at Scholarship level the school remains in the top 7 schools in New Zealand for the second year in a row.

While our results at Levels 1, 2 and 3 continue to improve and are well beyond the national averages for similar types of schools, there will always be room for improvement.

Particularly pleasing is the extent to which our students’ qualifications are achieving endorsement at Merit and Excellence levels. At Level 1 we are in excess of decile 10 averages of Merit and Excellence endorsements, at Level 2 we are well in excess of averages for other schools in the same decile 7 as us, and at Level 3 we are well in excess of decile 9 averages. We can all be very proud of these results but also acknowledge that although there has been huge improvement over recent years, we are not yet at 100 percent.

NCEA results best everOur overall Level 1 results continue to improve at a steady rate. While endorsements at Level 1 are in excess of averages for decile 10 schools, there remains a group in the cohort that take a little longer to get their Level 1.

The Level 2 results continue to track upwards and 2013 was another great year of progress. By the end of Year 12, 91% of our students have Level 2 – already 6% above the Government target to have 85% of students attaining Level 2 by 2017. It is pleasing to see such great progress and achievement that is well above schools of have higher deciles. It is also pleasing to see the ongoing success of our students at Merit and Excellence level.

The Level 3 results are very pleasing with ongoing improvement in terms of pass rates and the quality of those pass rates, ie, Merit and Excellence endorsements. More detailed graphs can be found on the Academic Achievement page of the school website.

Top scholar in university accelerate programmeteachers. Ryan said the accelerate programme was like doing a conjoint degree “but more intense – it’s like doing a four-year degree in three years.” He is finding the work challenging and enjoyable, and got to know his fellow engineering students on a field trip to Rotorua early in the semester.

MAGS is one of the biggest suppliers of students to Auckland University’s engineering school, so Ryan is not short of familiar faces around campus.

“There are at least 50 MAGS kids doing engineering this year; Matthew Ting who was in Year 13 last year is also in my accelerate programme, and (former MAGS student) Kevin Jia is one of my teaching assistants.”

He has chosen to study Engineering Science, which will enable him to work in a broad range of fields once he is qualified. “I’m not sure exactly which direction I want to go in yet,” he says. “I’ll make it up as I go along.”

NCEA - Levels 1, 2 and 3

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Leadership AssemblyThis year’s Prefects, Arts and Sports Leaders were presented with their badges at the Senior Leadership Assembly on Friday, 14 February.

The ceremony was attended by parents, Headmaster Mr Dale Burden, senior staff, the Chairman of the Board of Trustees, Mr Greg Moyle, and guest speaker Ms Parekawhia McLean.Ms McLean, whose her daughter Te Uranga Royal is in Year 11 at MAGS, is the CEO of Waikato-Tainui tribal authority. Ms McLean gave an inspiring speech to the assembled Year 13 and Year 9 students about taking time to find their true direction in life, how a path first chosen may not be the final path they walk, to not be discouraged by having to change course, but see a new direction as a new challenge and opportunity to learn.

Having attended a Leadership Camp at Stanford University in America last year, Ms McLean also spoke about the qualities of leadership. “A good leader takes people where they want to go; an outstanding leader takes them where they ought to be.”

Headmaster Mr Dale Burden with Head Boy Liam Ferguson, Leadership Assembly guest speaker Ms Parekawhia McLean and Head Girl Katie Budgen.

Headmaster Mr Dale Burden and Head Girl Katie Budgen

hand out the Prefects’ badges.

Deputy Head Boy Eric Munro with his brother Isaac and sister

Jessica, who was Deputy Head Girl in 2013.

Parents, staff and students at afternoon tea in the staff room after the ceremony.

Board of Trustees Chairman Mr Greg Moyle with Prefects, from left, Elizabeth Lyon, Liam Ferguson and Oliver Barnett.

Head Boy Liam Ferguson

with his mother

Nic Smith.

Prefect Ashlee Ridgway-Keehn

Mount Albert Grammar School24


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Junior GraduationOn Friday, 7 February, a diploma ceremony was held in the FW Gamble Hall to mark the graduation of last year’s Year 10 students to the senior school.

Attended by about 200 parents, Headmaster Mr Dale Burden and Board of Trustees Chairman Mr Greg Moyle, students who gained a Junior Graduation Diploma with Excellence were recognised in being called to the stage to receive their diploma.

This is the third group of junior students to experience MAGS’ two year Junior Graduation programme and it continues to go

Leadership Assembly

from strength to strength. Deputy Headmaster Mr Paul McKinley, who oversees the Junior School, say students track their own academic achievement in each subject, identifying clear goals of what they hope to achieve and receive academic counselling from subject teachers, form teachers and Deans.

“The feedback from the students has been one of overwhelming support as they are enjoying the opportunity to strive for something that is tangible in the Junior School,” says Mr McKinley.

Some of MAGS’ most successful Year 13 students from 2013 returned to the school for the Scholars’ Assembly on Monday, 17 March.

Among them were the 2013 Boy and Girl Dux, Nuowei (Oliver) Chen and Anika Radojkovic, who have had their names inscribed on the Honours Board for Scholars. Oliver gained four Scholarships in the 2013 examinations, including one Oustanding; Anika gained three Scholarships.

The Assembly honoured all students who gained NCEA Level 1, 2 and 3 with Excellence in 2013, with each awarded a Scholar Lion. The Headmster, Mr Dale Burden, commended the students for their hard work, organisation and dedication, and thanked the school network and parents for their support of the students’ endeavour. Many parents attended the ceremony, and the afternoon tea held afterwards in the staff room.

The other top students from 2013 whose names have also been inscribed on the Honours Board are Krishna Balachandran, Tobias Campbell, Ryan Cory-Wright, Meshak Ranjit Singh, Jeremy Barnett and Stanley Deng.

Top students return to MAGS for Scholars’ Assembly

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Outdoor Education Year 13 Outdoor Education students did some of their learning at sea in Term 1, with a day trip to learn surfing at Piha, followed by a three-day sea kayaking expedition.

The Head of Outdoor Education, Mr Darren Whitehead, said the surfing day allowed the students to begin evaluating the role physical activity plays in influencing their well-being, explain factors that influence participation, explain motivational factors that lead to people doing physical activity and to begin to recognise and explain barriers to physical activity.

“The conditions at Piha were ideal for beginners, and by the end of the second two-hour session the majority of the class were able to catch a wave and get to their feet,” said Mr Whitehead.

The kayaking expedition provided students with a real life event to focus on safety management issues and strategies. Each student was required to complete a Risk Assessment and Management Strategies (RAMS) form for the trip. They used this to monitor their identified risks while on the trip and implemented the strategies they devised.

The class kayaked a total of 40km, paddling between St Heliers Bay, Browns Island, Motuihe Island and Motutapu Island. They camped each night on Motuihe Island, sleeping under fly shelters and cooking as groups using Trangia stoves.

The Year 13s final activity was leading Year 10 Outdoor Education students in a High Ropes course at AdventureWorks on the Unitec campus.

The Year 10s acted as the Year 13s “clients” for the leadership assessment.

Year 12 Outdoor Education students had a trip to the Poor Knights Islands on 19 March. The Poor Knights Islands are the remains of a group of ancient volcanoes. Beneath the waves these volcanoes have been hollowed and shaped by the ocean into a web of caves, tunnels and cliffs which Jacques Cousteau rated as one of the top 10 dives in the world. Because of their incredible form and biodiversity, the sea surrounding the islands has been a marine reserve since 1981. It extends to 800 m around the islands and is 22 km off the east coast of Northland.

Students spent their time snorkelling in the area as part of their OE course. The afternoon allowed time for some kayaking and paddle boarding as well. The main aim of the trip was to put in place and analyse risk management strategies around the activity. This was for an achievement standard and allowed students to plan, prepare and evaluate a risk management plan relating to a real situation.

Good weather and co-operative students made this an excellent day trip. The Year 12 students also spent four days on the High Ropes course at AdventureWorks on the Unitec campus. The aim was to enhance personal and social development through team activities, problem solving and adventure-based learning.

Year 11 students went on a kayaking day trip to the Manukau Harbour, starting from Little Huia and paddling east to the Kakamatua Inlet and up the creek that flows to the beach. The aim of this trip to was study the anatomy of the forward power stroke required for safe kayaking, and to develop safe behaviours with water-based activities.

Year 10 students took part in a Surf Survival course, starting with classroom theory, then pool activities at the Mt Albert Aquatic Centre, and finishing with a trip to South Piha where they spent a day with lifeguards putting what they had learned into practice.

Coming up in Term 2Year 13: Bush craft, including two four-day trips to Lake Waikaremoana and the Kaimai Ranges.Year 12: Mountain biking at Woodhill and in the Hunua Ranges.Year 11: Mountain Biking at Woodhill and the Tough Guy Tough Girl Challenge at Woodhill.Year 10: Indoor climbing at Extreme Edge in Glen Eden, and mountain biking at Woodhill.

* MAGS would like to thank Auckland Canoe and Kayak for their ongoing support of Outdoor Education at MAGS. Please visit them at 502 Sandringham Road, Sandringham for all of your kayaking needs.


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Every term a variety of classes go on field trips to a range of interesting locations to engage in real world learning. Here are the places visited by MAGS students in Term 1.

Year 11 Science – Mangere MountainThis trip was to study the surface features of the volcano and learn about the processes that lead to their formation. DOC rangers carried out activities with the students such as building model volcanoes and taking students around the mountain to see both natural and human-made features.Mr Brent Booker

Year 12 Georgraphy – Ataraki, Waitakere RangesStudents looked at changes in the forest over time. The also collected and processed environmental data.Mr Colin Adam

Year 13 Geography, Muriwai beach Students looked at coastal processes. The Auckland City rangers discussed human impacts and the students collect data looking at the beach and dune system. They recorded transects and collected wind speed and sand samples to support their hypotheses.Mr Colin Adam

Year 11 Geography, Mangere Mountain and Ambury FarmWe looked at volcanic activity and civil defence. We formed a “what to do” scenario if an eruption occured, had a go at our own mini-explosive eruptions and lava flows, and climbed down inside one of the lava caves.Ms Donna Hobbs

Year 12 Business, Pak’nSave, Mount Albert This visit was to help students understand the planning, management and level of business operations behind a nationally significant business in New Zealand. Students were given a ‘behind-the scenes’ tour of the warehouse, bakery and butchery and participated in an informative and interactive discussion. Ms Nisha D’Lima

Year 10 Horticulture, Cascade Kauri regional park, Waitakere RangesThe topic for this visit was ‘Maori and the Forest’. A ranger explained how pre-European Maori used the forest in their daily lives and showed students the plants and trees Maori used for culinary, medicinal and building purposes. The ranger also showed students how to make fire, and demonstrated musical instruments made out of different native timbers. Ms Patricia Bevins

Learning outside the classroomYear 11, 12 and 13 Horticulture, Arataki Visitors Centre, Waitakere Ranges On this ‘native nursery experience’ a ranger took the students for a walk through the bush, focusing on seed collection and plant propagation. The learning focus was the techniques used for seed germination and how to take cuttings to propagate native plants, predominately in large numbers.Ms Patricia Bevins

Year 11 Economics, Auckland International Airport This trip was for an assessment on how various sectors of the economy interact. The Airport was an example of a business that interacted with households, Government, banks, importers and exporters, among other organisations. The students heard from representatives of Customs, the Ministry of Primary Industries and Airport staff. They saw the Customs drug dogs in action and were shown examples of illegal items that people tried to bring in or take out of the country, including guns, knives, flick-blades, grenades and ammunition. The field trip enabled the students to see how different agencies worked together for the benefit of each other and the public.Ms Sarah Hayes

Year 11 Agriculture, Taratahi Agricultural Training Centre, TaranakiMilking cows, handling livestock, riding ATVs, fencing, driving tractors, chainsawing and chemical spraying were among the activities experienced by eight Year 11 students who spent five days at this camp 11km south of Masterton. Ella Campin, Josh Kelly, David Hemingway, Isaac Coupe, Campbell Harris, Tom LaHood, Sam Darin and Emily Cavell were selected for their conscientious dedication to Agricultural Science and the potential they show to carry their study through to tertiary level. The students experienced commercial farming systems and management decisions that were relevant to farming in the 21st century.Mrs Michelle Farmer

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Other field trips undertaken in Term 1Yr 10 Horticulture – Auckland Botanic GardensYr 13 French – Pyrenees CaféYr 12 Travel and Tourism – Auckland AirportYr 11 Japanese – Auckland ZooYr 12 Biology – Arataki, Waitakere RangesYr 11, 12, 13 Agriculture – Limestone Downes

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Five weeks in Franceby Jackson Enright, Year 13

During the 2013-2014 summer holidays a group of students and teachers from Mount Albert Grammar School and Westlake Boys High School travelled to France to complete the second part of an exchange with Sainte Croix de Neuilly. The first part saw students from the French school come to New Zealand in June-July 2013 to stay with their exchange student for five weeks. In return, we headed to France on 6 December to spend five weeks with them.

For the first two weeks we attended school at Sainte Croix - spending about half the day in classes and the other half visiting tourist attractions and going on tours.

During our third and fourth weeks in France we were on holiday with our exchange families over Christmas and New Year. Some of the MAGS contingent were lucky enough to have their homestays take them skiing in Switzerland, while others enjoyed a winter holiday in Paris. I was lucky enough to be taken to Bruxelles in Belgium, and also to Normandy. We all experienced a traditional French Christmas.

For our final week from 3-9 January our French teacher Ms Selaries had marvellously organised a trip around France.


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A gap year in ParisYear 13 French student Jackson Enright will spend next year in Paris helping teach English to students at a school his class visited over the summer holidays.

The opportunity arose while Jackson was attending the school, Sainte Croix de Neuilly, with 20 other MAGS senior French students as part of an exchange programme.

“I met an Australian who was having a gap year teaching at the school, and thought I would like to do the same thing,” says Jackson.

The Head of the MAGS Languages Department, Ms Helen Selaries, helped arrange for Jackson to return to the school next January to begin work as a teacher aide.

“I’ll be helping students to learn English but it will also help me improve my French,” says Jackson, who has studied the language from Year 9 and plans to continue with it at Auckland University when he returns from Paris in 2016.

We travelled by train to the south of the country to the city of Avignon, then on through beautiful Provençal towns to an old Roman town called Nimes, where we stayed for two nights visiting many ancient sights, including the old Roman arena.

From there we travelled to the Pont du Gard, an ancient Roman aqueduct, then on to the medieval town of Carcassonne for a night. We then went to the town of Tours for two nights, visiting a few Châteaux, such as Chambord, before heading back to Paris for one last night with our homestays, and our flight home on 10 January.

Madame Selaries did an amazing job organising this exchange for us. It was an unforgettable experience, and an unbeatable way to improve our French.

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Money Laundering by Jonathan Buckman, Year 11

You could almost tell just from the cigar smoke wafting through the air that this was where the mob hung out, not that I needed confirmation. As I approach, the doorman turns to scowl at me suspiciously, but his scowl softens into a bright smile as I pull a bunch of fragrant violets from my sleeve – his missing teeth and cherubic face suddenly making him look like an oversized child, beaming with pleasure.

He gestures distractedly for me to go on in, having eyes only for the bright gems in his rough hand. The cigar smoke thickens as I walk up to the boss’s door, billowing in clouds up to the ceiling. I knock politely on the door and am immediately answered by a call of “Come in, Mr Finnegan.”

I push the door open, trying not to cough as the smoke rushed out, seeking new places to pollute. “I always know it’s you by the knock” the boss explains, as I heave my bags onto the desk.He looks at them appreciatively, especially the larger one.

“These are the actual profits from my flower shop, and the other money which I have laundered as you asked.”

“Glad to see you can do something right, Finnegan.” He says. “At this rate you might actually rise up in the family.”

I carefully acknowledge the compliment. “Thank you, sir” I say politely, my face blank.

He scans me again, looking for the reaction to his taunt, the reaction that I’m not giving. He gives up after a moment and opens the large bag which he then peers into.

“There must be 20 grand in here”

“Yes sir, 25 grand sir, and 5 grand in the smaller one”

His grin widens “Very good work indeed...” he trails off slightly as he closes the bag, but then looks up at me.

“As reward for your good work, I’ll let you keep the profit from your little shop, and I’ll take this.”

He takes the handles of the large bag and begins to slide it across the desk towards him.

Ah. “Well the thing is sir...” I say “That’s not the drug money. The 25 grand, that’s all from the flowers.”

Pieces on the Floor by Daphney Erlano, Year 11

“I’ve tried my best to be patient with you, doll. You know that right?” He spoke through gritted teeth, with a forced sort of calm that people only used when they’re trying to be tolerant. He exhaled sharply. It ricocheted off the walls like an unspoken threat.

“And you know I can’t help but feel like my brain is about to explode every single time I see or think of you.”

To this, she said nothing.

He held onto her so hard that his knuckles paled.

“I—You... I just hate how you’re so hard to please. I never know what you want me to do, I mean, for God’s sake can’t you be a little less difficult than that?” He raised a shaky fist and continued to give her a harsh look that suggested harm.

“I can’t even handle you right now!”

With much force, he flung her against the wall. He heard the thud of her impact and the crack of her breaking, but felt neither satisfaction nor remorse. All he could feel was a cloud of anger and frustration suffocating him with tendrils of enmity. All he could see was his vision slowly clouding with acrimony. She lay sprawled on the floor, unmoving.

“I try to keep it all in, for your sake and for mine. But lately, I feel like I’m losing my grip on reality, doll. Our relationship is falling apart and I just don’t know how to solve all these problems, much less where to start!”

He met her gaze that seemed to communicate, do you feel better now?

“I love you, you know that right?”

He took a hesitant step towards her disjointed figure.

“It’s just not easy for me to express it.”

And another, he was so close now.

“Do you believe me?”

She didn’t respond or in any way react. However, despite his temper, she knew that he loved her unconditionally.

“I’m sorry.” Feeling deflated, he picked up the pieces of his broken Casio fx-9750G II calculator, lying lifeless against the carpet. He swore he didn’t mean to, but maths can just be so provoking sometimes!

Besides, he thought, my calculator has got to be at least a century old.

“Forgive me doll,” he croaked. “It had to be done.”


Photo by Keaton Stevens, Year 13


Me and Myself by Lisa Zhang, Year 11

My chubby little hands stubbornly attached themselves to grandma’s dress. Two fountains of black hair spouted from just above my forehead.

“I want the red one! Not this one!” I spoke in fluent Chinese. People nearby paused to look over at us and I winced.

“Fine,” grandma turned to my cousin, who was only six. “Keep our place in line, Zhen Li.” She walked me over to the aisle, where I triumphantly grabbed a red lollipop. Grandma handed my forgotten green lollipop to Zhen Li. I was grinning broadly, staring at my lollipop like it was the love of my life.

At the checkout, grandma had to let go of my hand to pay for everything. I took the oppurtunity to tear open the wrapper. The lollipop disappeared, as if by magic. The stick was now the only proof it had ever existed at all.

I started to breathe hard. I hunched over. It was almost comical. That is, until you saw my eyes - wide with panic. My hands clawed at my throat. I couldn’t scream.

Looking around for help, I realised no one else was noticing. Grandma was counting bills at the checkout. Zhen Li was putting the groceries into the bag. The worst part was watching people pass by, some had even glanced at me but none stopped to help.

I was dying. Unable to stand there any longer, I walked over to myself. I patted myself hard on the back and on the third time, I swallowed. Then, I left. Looking over my shoulder, I saw my younger self panting. She - I - had her eyes locked on me.

“Who are you?” She spoke fluent Chinese, more fluent than I can manage now. I felt a pang. This girl will begin to lose her grasp of Chinese when her grandma leaves for China.

By the age of 10, even as she will struggle to grasp the written language, her speaking skills will be slowly slipping. Until, in the end, she cannot help but speak English. Until she will no longer consider herself Chinese. And never will she realise what she has lost.

“Nobody that you know.” I replied. Though I had whispered, though there was much distance between us, I knew she had heard.

The girl’s family had caught up with her. She waved her lollipop stick at them, smiling gleefully. Then, she grabbed young Zhen Li’s lollipop before he had the chance to open it, ripped off the wrapping and stuck it into her mouth.

Lifeby Gina Holden, Year 13

Life isn’t a game. There are no checkpoints. And no replay button if you screw up. You have to live with your mistakes; you can’t just restart the level.

Going through your senior year of high school is like being in a sweet shop of careers, and being told that you can only choose one. One thing for the rest of your life. The inner child in me throws tantrums at this; the spoilt child who wants the lollipop, gumballs, and a bag of chocolate fish too.

I want everything.

I want to publish a gobstopper book - with words that will last forever on its sweetly printed pages. I want to make it to the moon, as well as on the silver screen. Uncannily like a lollipop, sweet and over all too soon. I want to compose a masterpiece for a movie. Something bright and cheery, but still deep and delicious on the inside - just like a Jaffa.

Life doesn’t come with checkpoints. You only get to live through things once. So screw the law and expectations: I’m going to rob that candy store.

I may be young,But I have seen the world,Fought Battles,Killed Giants,Slain Dragons of many colours,Who am I?Do you know?

Tales or twoI can tell you,of Dungeons deep,of fiery mountains,of Joy and Peace,of Despair and sorrow.Who am I?Do you know?

I have witnessed,the rise and fall of nations,the beginning,and the end.the birth of all things,and their untimely death.born a hundred timesI have died a thousand times more.Who am I?Do you know?

I have met;Kings and Queens,Heirs who have nothing,Paupers who have everything.Mythical creatures,so old they are forgotten,Heroes,Villains,Nobodies.Who am I?Do you know?

I have traversed many places,Hills and valleys,Homely hovels,Great halls sitting aloft,reigning over their land.Ruins,Deserts,Places which know no land.Who am I?Do you know?

But be quiet now,Hush now,Do you know why?

I’m reading.

Hush Now by Hamish Jelleyman, Year 12

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Photo by Christine Park, Year 13

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For the first time in eight years MAGS’ Samoan and Tongan cultural groups joined our Kapa Haka and Indian performers at the ASB Polyfest.

The largest Pasifika performance festival in the world, this year’s Polyfest ran from 12-15 March at the Manukau Sports Bowl and Trusts Stadium in Waitakere.

Nearly 200 MAGS students performed in Indian, Tongan, Samoan and Kapa Haka groups.

Deputy Principal Ms Te Aroha Keenan commended the student leaders, teachers in charge and parents for their commitment in preparing the groups for performance over six weeks leading up to the event.

The Tongan group gained a third place for their Tau’olunga dance, the Kapa Haka group came seventh in the first division and the Samoan group won the Manaoga Faapitoa TeUranga Award for including students with disabilities (see story on page 6).

Polyfest 2014


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A Midsummer Night’s Dream


Shakespeare’s comedy of love and errors was brought to life on stage by MAGS performers from May 21-24. It was the first school-wide production in three years, combining the drama, music, dance and art departments.

Staged at the Playhouse Theatre in Glen Eden, the show was a spectacular blend of acting, music, singing and dancing, with performers dressed in stunning costumes, makeup and masks. Lighting is used to great effect over a minimal set, creating the feel of the forest setting and alternate worlds of fairies, mortals and a comical troupe called The Mechanicals.

Head boy Liam Ferguson brought the lead role of Oberon to life in energetic style, showing his command of Shakespearean language which recently won him an Auckland award.

Year 10 student Jenna Ackerman composed a lullaby for one scene, which she sang in a beautiful four-part harmony with three other girls. Year 12 dancer Lisa McLaughlan performed a moving solo dance to the lullaby, and also choreographed a dramatic wedding dance for the final scene of the play.

“A Midsummer Night’s Dream is about young people in romantic feuds, when three different worlds come together in one night of madness,” said Liam.

The Head of the Drama Department, Dr Lilicherie McGregor, said about 30 actors were cast, some played by members of the Jazz Band who performed as part of the show.

Workshops on mask-making, lighting and stage management were held for students keen to help behind the scenes. Staff helped to make costumes and many parents provided support.

The setting was evocative of native New Zealand bush with characters adorned with bird references; Dr McGregor was inspired by the paintings of Bill Hammond and West Coast artist Zeke Wolf. She says pulling together all the threads of such a large production was challenging, but exciting.

“A Midsummer Night’s Dream is a comedy and ends happily. It is a fun play by Shakespeare and is known for being popular with young audiences,” she says.

“It’s wonderful that so many students could be involved, and are thankful to the school community for turning out in such big numbers to support them.”


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Dozens of MAGS dancers performed a stunning showcase of work before their biggest audience ever on Wednesday, 16 April.

Slice of Heaven was a compilation of works by students from Years 9-13 and performed as part of their assessments, and was held at the Centennial Theatre at Auckland Grammar School.

Each piece was set to music by New Zealand musicians, and had a New Zealand theme. They varied from fun pieces by a Year 9 group to comedian Fred Dagg’s song If it weren’t for your gumboots … to a moving dance on the loss suffered in the Erebus disaster to the song Never Gonna Change by The Broods, to an inspiring Pasifka themed piece by a large group of Year 12 students. A number of dances were also choreographed by students.

Head of Dance Ms Jacqui Cesan was proud of all the groups who had worked hard all term to perfect their pieces. “The fact that we can present a full evening’s show of dances from all age groups after only one term shows dance is in excellent heart at MAGS,” says Ms Cesan.

Dancers produce a Slice of Heaven


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Dancers produce a Slice of Heaven

End of the Golden WeatherYear 13 Drama students presented the play The End of the Golden Weather by Bruce Mason for their class production assessment on 14-15 April. The performances were held in the school’s Drama room to an appreciative audience of parents and supporters.

The End of the Golden Weather

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International fee-paying students have been welcome at Mount Albert Grammar School since the 1970s. Our current roll of 107 adds wonderfully to the cultural diversity of the school. Countries represented by our students include Austria, Brazil, Chile, China, India, Japan, Korea, Malaysia, Russia, Thailand, Tonga and Vietnam.

Our 2013 University Entrance results continued the excellent standard of

previous years, with 88% of our International graduates gaining entry to a university in New Zealand or overseas.

Welcome to our International Student community

International students Chae Yun (Christine) Park (Korea) and Yuchen (Aaron) Wang (China), at front, with, from left, Deputy Head Boy Eric Munro, Deputy Head Girl Alexandra Chaptynova, Head Boy Liam Ferguson and Head Girl Katie Budgen.

Two outstanding International students are school prefects for 2014 - Chae Yun (Christine) Park (Korea) and Yuchen (Aaron)Wang (China). Christine and Aaron attended the Prefects’ Camp at the start of the year and are now enjoying their duties as Prefects with the rest of the team. Christine started at MAGS in February 2013 in Year 12. It was a return to New Zealand for her, as she spent several years in this country at primary school.

Christine has thrown herself into every opportunity available at MAGS, and helped out in any way asked - she was joint compere of the Food & Culture Evening in 2013; took part in the Auckland Schools Speech Contest 2013 with domestic students from around Auckland, and gained an honourable mention; and was part of a group of seven senior Internationals interviewed by Kim Hughes of the Educational Review Office last year. Ms Hughes commented very favourably on Christine. Christine lives with a family-appointed caregiver.

Back row from left: Anmol Singh (India), Chirasin Tangpromphan (Thailand), Seong Jae Khun Park (Korea), Shuliang (William) Cui (China), Hirohisa Takasugi (Japan). Front row: Hien (Helen) Thu Nguyen (Vietnam), New Zealand prefect Alice Mallon, Chae Yun (Christine) Park (Korea), Yuchen (Aaron) Wang (China), Mengyan (Monica) Xia (China).

International Student Leaders These outstanding young people join the International Student Committee, led by prefects Aaron Wang and Christine Park.

International PrefectsYuchen (Aaron) Wang arrived at MAGS in February 2012 and was placed in Year 11. All his reports to date have commended his ‘Excellent Conduct’.

Aaron was an International Student Leader and Mentor in 2013 and joint compere at the Food & Culture Evening. He is a highly motivated student, keen to support any and all International student activities. Aaron also lives with a family-appointed caregiver.

We wish Christine and Aaron all the best for their final year at MAGS, which will be enriched by their experience as Prefects.

One of the MAGS’ unique services is our on-campus, NZQA-approved English language course, designed to improve the English of new students as quickly as possible so they can enter mainstream classes at their enrolled year level. The course consists of 18 hours per week of English, and seven hours per week of Mathematics, New Zealand Studies, Art, Music, Technology and Physical Education. The course enables MAGS to provide International students with a high-quality alternative to the many private English language school courses offered in Auckland.

I hope your enjoy reading the International Department’s news from Term 1. If you have any queries please contact us at [email protected]

Evan Gray, Director of MAGS International Department


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Mud slides, flying foxes, night rope course, kayaking … the first MAGS’ International Students’ Camp was not only fun, but also a “life-changing experience” for many of those who had never attempted such challenges before.

International Dean Mr Ian Cole organised the weekend in March, which saw him take 48 students to Camp Adair in the Hunua Ranges with help from MAGS teachers Ms Uki Oki and Ms Li Wang.

“We wanted to get our international kids into the outdoors and enjoying the Kiwi lifestyle,” says Mr Cole. “For many of them that meant pushing themselves outside their comfort zones.”He was impressed by how many students succeeded in this, and came away with increased confidence.

The “four C’s” the camp aimed to engender were challenge-taking, confidence-building, communication and connecting students with each other. The teenagers were split into four teams of mixed nationalities, led by international prefects and student leaders, who competed for the first place prize of tickets to the Easter Show. The team aspect meant students did not

International Camp the experience of a lifetime

want to let each other down, so took on challenges they might not have attempted otherwise.

Glow worm walks through the bush at night and evenings around a campfire were gentler experiences but still firsts for many of the students.

“Their feedback forms were fantastic – they all loved it. One girl said it had been the best weekend of her life,” says Mr Cole, who admits that running such a camp was also the most challenging thing he had ever done.

He paid tribute to his helpers Ms Oki and Ms Wang with special mention for Ms Wang’s offering of 250 dumplings. Since the camp Mr Cole has noticed the students are more relaxed, confident and friendly and have improved social skills in general. He’s now looking forward to next year’s camp, when other international students will have the opportunity to experience what their school-mates did at Camp Adair.

“The weekend was proof that education outside the classroom brings out the best in kids.”

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VIETNAMESE SCHOLARSHIPThis year’s Vietnamese scholar is Hien (Helen) Thu Nguyen, Year 11. Her performance in 2013 was excellent and the school was very pleased to be able to offer her a scholarship for part of her tuition fees.

The Vietnamese Scholarship was established four years ago by the school in collaboration with Mr Thuan Vovan (pictured), our Vietnamese consultant, as a way of rewarding the best all-round Vietnamese students.

In February our new students were given an orientation to the school and then taken on a guided tour around Auckland, making stops at North Head and Mission Bay. A traditional Kiwi barbecue for all our International students was also held at the school.

Two International students at Mount Albert Grammar are stars of a new Government video marketing New Zealand education to the world. 2013 Prefects Nayuta Hori and Xin Yuan (Iris) Li represent the academic opportunities and pastoral care that international students receive in this country.

Nayuta is seen with his host family and at school. Iris was asked to leap ahead a year and act as a student at Auckland University, which she did convincingly. Nayuta’s parents were also filmed in Japan talking about how sending their son to New Zealand fulfilled their dreams for him.

The video was made by Education New Zealand, the Government agency responsible for the promotion of New Zealand education around the world.

You can watch the video through the International page of the school website, www.mags.school.nz or on the Education New Zealand website, www.enz.govt.nz

Mags International Video: This short introduction to the school was completed last year and can be found in the International section of the school website, www.mags.school.nz.

It provides a very good introduction to what MAGS can offer young people thinking about coming to New Zealand to study.

Orientation 2014

MAGS International students showcase NZ to the world


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When four students from Brazil and Chile were told they had been selected to attend school in New Zealand for six months, each admits that they knew little about our country.

“We knew where it was, and that the All Blacks come from here, but that was about all,” smiles Javier Legaza, who travelled from Chile to join MAGS’ Year 11 classes in February.

Diego Mella, also from Chile, thought it might be cold here, and Brazilian students Lais da Silva and Alice Coelho say they feared it might be too isolated.

Tennis: This year we have a very good tennis player enrolled with us. Diana Voroshchuk from Russia is in Year 11, and was a member of our top tennis team that took second place in the Auckland schools’ competition.

Table Tennis: Guiting (Lucy) Lu is a Year 11 student from China who is an outstanding table tennis player. She is still only 15 years old, but last year was the New Zealand Under 18 and Under 21 singles champion. This year she has already won the Auckland Under 21 singles and doubles titles, with more awards expected.

Instead, they joined a school much bigger than the ones they attended in their home countries, with a culturally diverse student population, in a city that has bowled them over with its vibrancy and opportunities.

“The experience has been amazing,” says Diego. “We have come from schools of 200 or 400 students, so the size of MAGS was a bit overwhelming at first, but it’s been interesting meeting people from so many different cultures.”

Students and staff at MAGS have been supportive and helped them make the most of the opportunities the school, and Auckland, has to offer.

“We have had to learn how to live without our families or our culture – it has made us grow up, but we have had lots of friends at MAGS to support us,” says Diego.

“There are so many different things to do in this city,” says Javier. “The beaches, shopping, eating places – we are hoping to get out to the islands like Waiheke before we leave.”The students were selected for their New Zealand experience on academic merit. Lais and Alice were awarded their scholarships by the Government of the Brazilian north-eastern state of Pernambuco; Javier and Diego travelled courtesy of the Chilean Government’s “Penguins without Frontiers” scheme.

The students are heading home in June, and say they will be sorry when their New Zealand experience is over.

“We will recommend to all our friends back home that they apply to come to New Zealand next year, and to ask to come to MAGS!”

Scholars from South America

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Athletics – Auckland championsAaron Booth led the MAGS Athletics team’s campaign at the Greater Auckland Championships, winning both the 300m and 110m hurdles events. MAGS athletes won seven other individual titles and two relays.

Futsal – National ChampionsThe Girls’ Futsal team defended their National title, convincingly winning every game and scoring 8-0 against Havelock North High School in the final.



Swimming – Auckland ChampionsFor the fourth year in a row MAGS won the Girls Open 200m Butterfly Relay at the AKSS Champion of Champions event at West Wave in Henderson. Theirs was one of a number of top 3 placings by MAGS swimmers this year.

Softball – National ChampionsThe Boys’ Premier Softball team defended their National title, beating St Patrick’s College of Wellington 8-0 in the final.

Cricket – NZCT Plate WinnersThe MAGS Girls’ First XI won the NZCT Cricket Girls’ Plate Tournament, bowling out their opponents for as little as 10 runs.

Rowing – National MedallistsMaria Markovich and Kate Wislang, seen with their coach Sarah Wolff, made history when they won MAGS first girls’ Maadi rowing medal, taking bronze in the Girls’ Under 16 Double. It was MAGS first medal at the national championships in 37 years. We also boated our first Senior Eight in 28 years, which won an elite Top 10 Badge.

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Athletics School ChampionshipsTrusts Stadium, Waitakere, 18 February

Twelve new records were made at the 2014 School Athletics Championships, with two athletes breaking multiple records. Rebekah Van Dort (pictured in green singlet) showed her dominance in the Senior Girls’ long distance events, breaking the 800m, 1500m and 3000m records. She won the Molly Swanson Distance Cup. Niven Longopoa (above) broke the 100m hurdles and the 400m records in the Intermediate Boys’ grade.

The other new records were set in a variety of track and field events and outstanding performances were seen throughout the day. To compete for the champion cup in each age group, athletes were required to choose five track and field events in which to earn points.

The age group champions for 2014 are: Senior Boys: Aaron Booth

Senior Girls: Celine Pearn

Intermediate Boys: Niven Longopoa

Intermediate Girls: Jacqueline Hand

Junior Boys: Karl Pearn

Junior Girls: Malia Longopoa

The following athletes are new record holders. The previous record holder is shown in brackets:

Malia Longopoa ran 12.34 in the JG 70m Hurdles (Kodi Barlow ran 12.37 in 2013)

Paige Witehira threw 26.92m in the JG Javelin (Lausapai Nikoro threw 19.97m in 2013)

Symone Tafuna’i ran 25.87 in IG 200m (Mandy Enright ran 26.13 in 2008)

Niven Longopoa ran 53.63 in the IB 400m (Aaron McLelland ran 53.64 in 2010)

Niven Longopoa ran 13.87 in the IB 100m Hurdles (He ran 14.12 in 2013)

Michael Gardner jumped 1.82m in the IB High Jump (Aaron Booth jumped 1.78m in 2012)

Celine Pearn ran 1:00.59 in the SG 400m (Jamie Sowter ran 1:01.81 in 2012)

Rebekah Van Dort ran 2:30.29 in the SG 800m (Porsche Tiavale ran 2:34.24 in 2009)

Rebekah Van Dort ran 5:18.82 in the SG 1500m (Molly Swanson ran 5:30.82 in 2011)

Rebekah Van Dort ran 11:45.06 in the SG 3000m (Molly Swanson ran 12:04.60 in 2011)

Kilian Segers ran 16.02 in the 110m Hurdles (Aaron Booth ran 17.36 in 2013)

Aaron Booth jumped 1.90m in the SB High Jump



Greater Auckland Athletics ChampionshipsMt Smart, 20 March The MAGS Athletics team won nine individual events and two relays against schools from across the Auckland region. They also claimed 11 second or third place finishes.

Senior Boy Aaron Booth led the team, winning both the 300m and 110m hurdles events with smart times of 41.80s and 15.28s, respectively. He also placed third in the high jump clearing a personal best height of 1.95m.

The other athlete to win multiple titles was Symone Tafuna’i in the Intermediate Girls sprints. She won the 100m/200m double with times faster than the winners of the Senior Girls sprints. Her 100m final time was 12.44s and the 200m was 25.47s. She used her exceptional speed to win a third title as part of the MAGS 4 x 100m team which also had the fastest girls time of the meeting.

The other MAGS winners on the track were hurdlers Celine Pearn and Malia Longopoa. Celine won the Open Girls 300m hurdles in 47.20s and Malia was first equal in the Junior Girls 70m hurdles, clocking 11.70s. Celine backed up her hurdles victory finishing third in the Senior Girls 400m in a time of 62.64s.

Three MAGS athletes won field event titles, all in jumping events. Freedom Vaha’akolo won the Senior Boys triple jump, getting out to 13.35m into a headwind. Paige Witehira claimed another triple jump title for MAGS, winning the Junior Girls triple jump with a personal best effort of 9.93m. Michael Gardner won the Intermediate Boys high jump clearing 1.78m before some close attempts at a new personal best of 1.86m.

In the throws the best results were second place finishes in shot put and javelin events. Paige Witehira threw 24.36m in the Junior Girls javelin and Vincent Liku threw 33.34m in the Junior Boys event, both finishing second. Waimana Riedlinger-Kapa claimed second in the Intermediate Boys shot put with a throw of 12.71m and Bernard Togiatomai threw 14.74m in the Senior Boys event, also finishing second.

The best performed distance athletes were Rebekah Van Dort and James Hellriegel in 800m events. Both claimed third place finishes, Rebekah in the Senior Girls, running a personal best of 2mins 26.78s and James in the Junior Boys in a time of 2mins 13.45s. Rebekah was a great role model for the younger athletes as she ran two 800m races, a 1500m race and the last leg in the 4 x 400m relay all in one day, and always gave her best effort.

The other top three place-getters were Killian Segers, Kodi Barlow and Waiana Jones. Killian was third in 15.83s in the Senior Boys 110m hurdles and Kodi ran 13.03s in the Intermediate Girls 80m hurdle final. Waiana ran third in the 300m Junior Girls final, with a time of 46.25s

Two MAGS teams won 4 x 100m relays, the Intermediate Girls and the Junior Girls. The intermediate team of Kodi Barlow, Symone Tafuna’i, Felicity Te Ahuru-Kakahi and Jasmin Bull clocked the fastest time of all the girls’ teams, running 51.29s.

The Junior Girls also had a slick time of 53.05s to win their final by a comfortable margin. The team was made up of, Malia Longopoa, Janelle Kara, Paige Witehira and Chantel Young.

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Girls’ First XI wins PlateThe MAGS Girls’ First XI won the NZCT Cricket Girls’ Plate Tournament held at Keith Hay Park in March.

Their opponents were Lynfield College, Botany Downs School and Kelston Girls High School.

They remained unbeaten in all their matches, posting 162/1 against Kelston who were all out for 42; Botany Downs School made 18 all out in reply to MAGS 104/4; and Lynfield College were all out for 23 before MAGS made 24 for the loss of 1 wicket.

This placed them against Botany Downs in the final. MAGS elected to bowl first, bowling out Botany Downs for a total of 10 runs. They made the required 11 runs in less than two overs.

Boys’ First XI Runners-up in Pool A of One Day CompetitionThe 2014 team had a new look to it this year with only four players with First XI experience returning to the school. However, transfers to the school of brothers Ethan and Jared Challis from Kelston Boys High School, and Ethan Keller from Hawera High School, gave a more solid look to the team for the coming year.

The One Day Competition started with a good win over Liston College with Aniket Parikh performing with both the bat and ball, and was followed by a close win over Rangitoto College thanks to another good innings from Aniket and a four wicket

bag from Ethan Keller. A six wicket loss to St Kentigern College and a disappointing two wicket loss against Avondale College meant that the team had to beat Westlake Boys in the final match to have a chance of competing in the Auckland Gillette Cup knockout competition. They did so in style, winning by 8 wickets, with Aniket scoring 83 not out and Katene Clarke taking four wickets.

The Gillette Cup knockout match against Sacred Heart was a closely fought affair. MAGS failed to win by only five runs in a match that they should have won, but which showed the improvements that had been made by the team.

Two Day CompetitionTop batting performances against One Day champions St Kentigern College in the first match of the Two Day competition by captain James Michie, Jared Challis and Aniket Parikh counted for nought as the second day’s played was washed out. However, the good progress made in the previous three matches was not evident in the next match against Sacred Heart, when the team succumbed to an outright loss.The Two Day competition continues in Term 4.

Congratulations to Aniket Parikh and Jared Challis for being selected for the Auckland Secondary Schools team in fixtures against their Canterbury counterparts.

Cricket



Highlights of Term 1 playJared Challis 88 vs St Kentigern College

Aniket Parikh 83* vs Westlake BHS

Aniket Parikh 75* vs Liston College

Max Thomson 73* v Avondale College

James Michie 73 vs St Kentigern College

Aniket Parikh 73 vs St Kentigern College

Aniket Parikh 64* v Rangitoto College

Ethan Keller 4/17 off 8 overs vs Rangitoto College

Ethan Keller 3/16 off 10 overs vs St Kentigern College

Katene Clarke 4/22 vs Westlake Boys High School

Tariel Lamb 56* vs Mt Roskill Grammar School

Samantha Brake 50 vs Kelston Girls’ College

* Not out

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FootballStar footballer farewells MAGSLiam Jordan, a star of the football First XI for the past two seasons, farewelled MAGS this term before moving back to his family’s home country of South Africa.

Liam, 15, boarded at School House for Years 9 and 10, and trained as a centre/mid-fielder under Football Academy Director Mr Kevin Fallon. He is an outstanding young player and helped the First XI to many wins in 2012 and 2013.

Liam’s father passed away last year, and his mother wanted to return to her home city of Johannesberg to be near family. Liam has been offered a place at the city’s professional Bidvest Wits Football Club and will train with the Under 19 side and the Premier Men’s team.

“I’m very grateful for this opportunity,” said Liam when he visited MAGS to say goodbye and thank you to Headmaster Mr Dale Burden, Mr Fallon and the Director of School House Mr Chris Metcalfe.

“Mr Burden has been like a father figure to me, and School House was an awesome place to live. You can be yourself there, and the food’s great!”

Most of all, Liam says he will miss the “brotherhood” of the MAGS First XI, and is hugely grateful to Mr Fallon not only as a coach, but as a mentor.

“After so many years in the game he still treats every season like his first - he has so much passion and experience. He was also someone I could talk to and he taught me a lot of life lessons - he was an inspiration.”

Mr Fallon, who also coached Liam’s father Keryn when he played for Gisborne City, says Liam is an exceptional player who he expects to see more of as a professional.

“His dad played for South Africa, and Liam has his Dad’s talent,” says Mr Fallon. “Liam’s departure is a very sad loss for us, but I wish him all the best. I did tell him to make sure he finished his education!”

Mr Burden says Liam is an “outstanding young man who is mature beyond his years”.

“I will personally miss him, but he’s pursuing a dream. He deserves every success.”



MAGS girls at U17 World Cup

Two of MAGS’ top football players represented New Zealand at the FIFA Under 17 Women’s World Cup in Costa Rica in March.

Jade Parris helped the side to a 1-1 draw with Paraguay, and also played in a 3-0 loss to Spain.

Bella Kingi joined Jade on the pitch in the final match against Japan, which New Zealand lost 3-0.

Deven Jackson was also selected for the side but had to withdraw due to injury.

All three girls were in the First XI which won the NZ Secondary Schools Championship last year.

Jade Parris

Bella Kingi

Futsal team defends National titleThe Girls’ Futsal team defended their National title in Wellington in March, convincingly winning every game and scoring 8-0 against Havelock North High School in the final.

Coach Paul Marshall said all the girls were also in the First XI football team, winners of the National Girls’ Football title last year and still a young group. Only two members are in Year 13 this year; two are in Year 12 and the rest are in Years 10 and 11.

The National Futsal tournament featured 10 teams from all over New Zealand. MAGS scored 79 goals and conceded just 5.

“The girls were fantastic,” says Mr Marshall. “We dominated from start to finish and had a really enjoyable time.”

He says the core team had played together since Year 9 and were used to travelling. He would like to take them to the World High School Futsal Championships next year.

“I think we could be really competitive internationally.”

Photo by Photosport

New Zealand reps Jade Parris (front row third from right) and Bella Kingi (back row fourth from right).

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Orienteering is a minority but growing sport in New Zealand, with elite New Zealand orienteers beginning to make their mark in the high level European competitions.

Partly due to this increasing profile at elite level, orienteering has taken off as an inter-school sport with a full range of regional and national secondary schools events on offer. A number of our talented senior orienteers moved on to tertiary study in the last couple of years, so MAGS orienteering is now focusing on junior development and on introducing as many students as possible to the full range of orienteering events on offer – from urban sprint to farmland and forest, individual and team relay, and rogaine-style events which start to merge with adventure sports.

The 2014 orienteering calendar kicked off at the start of Term 1 with the Auckland Schools Sprint Series. More than 50 MAGS students, ranging from complete beginners to highly experienced orienteers, took part in the series of 6 short races, held on various school campuses, including MAGS. For a number of students this was their first taste of competitive orienteering and it was great to see skill and confidence levels grow week on week. We also had some top performances – notably Rebekah van Dort (Senior Girls), Milan Bonkovich (Intermediate Boys), Gabriel Dean (Junior Boys) and Theresa Boyd (Junior Girls) all of whom won their grades for the Western Zone, Milan and Theresa each achieving the possible points score of 4000.

Overall 23 MAGS orienteers qualified for the Inter-Zone Sprint Finals Day. This was a two-race competition against representatives from the five Auckland zones.

MAGS orienteers featured in the top 10 in four of the six secondary school grades, the top performance being Theresa Boyd, 6th in Junior Girls.

Term 1 finished with the Auckland Secondary Schools relays, held at Cornwall Park. MAGS fielded three 3-person teams,

two in Junior Boys and one in Junior Girls. Unfortunately our best Junior Boys’ result was disqualified due to a mispunched control. However, it was a very fun event with a huge turnout of students from all over Auckland and a new experience for a lot of the MAGS competitors.

In the April holidays, a team of 16 students from MAGS competed at the North Island Secondary Schools Championships, held in and near Hamilton, along with more than 400 school orienteers from all over the island. This was a big step up for a lot of the newcomer MAGS orienteers who had little experience on rough, steep farmland, but everyone made it round their

courses and most were smiling at the finish. In the NISS Top Schools competition, MAGS placed 7th of 27 boys’ teams

and 13th of 31 girls’ teams.

Going in to Term 2, the core orienteering development group is looking forward to the AKSS Individual Championships and then to a school and club based training programme to develop skills for the NZSS Championships in the July holidays. The team is still open to new orienteers, especially junior girls.

Many thanks to Mrs Christine Cato for her sterling support as Teacher-in-Charge, and to parent manager/coach/organisers Lyn Stanton and Karen Woods and Albertian Kieran Woods.

Orienteering

“Orienteering is a family of sports, where competitors use maps to complete navigational challenges in unfamiliar areas. Orienteering involves both physical and mental challenges and rewards competitors with a unique adventure on an ever changing playing field.” www.orienteeering.org.nz



GolfAfter an absence of several years, MAGS returned to the greens in the Auckland Secondary Schools Tournament in Term 1.

Managed by teacher Mr Max Jeremic, the group of three was Captained by Year 13 student Hoani Taylor. The other members were Year 9 students George Stephens, who is boarding at School House, and Eric Lee, an international student from Korea.

The group competed in the 9-hole tournament, playing at a different course each week. They played individual stroke play, then totaled their three best scores. The team with the lowest score won.

While the MAGS team had no wins in their first season, they played in good spirit, and recreational golfers commented that it was great to see MAGS’ collared shirts back on the greens. The New Zealand Herald did a story on the team for its College Sport page.

We hope to see more players joining Eric and George next season. nzherald.co.nz | The New Zealand Herald | Wednesday, April 9, 2014

B23SportCollege sport

The wrapTennis

Auckland Grammar School have won their firstSenior A1 boys tennis title since 2010.Grammar defeated Westlake BHS 7-2 in a tight finalat the Scarbro Tennis Centre last Saturday. Fouryears ago Grammar lowered the same foe for theirlast Auckland title. The 7-2 margin did not reflect thecloseness of the contest. Grammar captain Cam-eron Philpot led the way, combining with NathanMetzger to win the top doubles, and outlastingMatej Minic in a hard-fought singles.Grammar won all three doubles, with the middlepairing of Antonio Valero and Sam Jeffries having avaluable win over their higher-ranked opponents.This left Grammar needing two out of six wins in thesingles, but it proved to be a tough task. Westlakewon two of them but Philpot continued his out-standing recent form to win the top singles and AlexLimberger came from behind to clinch the No 5singles in a tie break. Jeffries had a solid 6-4 win andPetar Gorgiovski also had to fight hard to win in a tiebreak.Sacred Heart College finished third after a 6-3victory over King’s College.In the Senior A1 girls grade, Westlake Girls’ High,after a 9-0 hiding of Carmel College, won by eightpoints from MAGS. St Cuthbert’s were third,followed by Dio, Baradene, EGGS and Carmel.Both Senior A1 winners benefited from St KentigernCollege’s withdrawal of their top boys and girlssides before the start of the competition inFebruary.Rosmini, in their first Auckland final for some time,upset top qualifier Auckland Grammar in theIntermediate A1 boys final, an excellent effort afterqualifying third in the round-robin. The St KentigernIntermediate A1 girls team proved too strongfor Baradene, winning 8-1, but Baradene beat StKentigern 5-4 in a close contest in the Junior A1 girlsfinal. The Auckland Grammar Junior A1 boys teamcompleted the round-robin against the otherunbeaten team, St Kentigern, and dominated the tieto win 7-2.

SoftballMt Albert Grammar are the the undisputed kings ofschoolboys softball in both Auckland and NewZealand after achieving a notable double for thesecond year running.At the Christchurch secondary schools nationals,MAGS triumphed with an 8-0 win in the final over StPat’s Town. This follows on the heels of itssuccessful retention of the Auckland premierschools title, won in February over AucklandGrammar.MAGS dropped just one game (out of 12) alltournament week to spoil their unbeaten season, toNewlands College of Wellington, but the team hadalready qualified for the final.Seth Bourgeois was the star turn as MVP and toppitcher, but he was also the second top batter,illustrating his all-round talents, which are alreadyseen on the Auckland premier club scene withRamblers.Not to be outdone, infielder Cole Evans, grandson ofthe coach, had the best RBI for the week with 17 andhe made the tournament team alongsideteammates Bourgeois, David ‘‘Cooper’’ Hutchison,and outfielders Jonathan Cantle and EthanNgauamo. Outfielder Cameron Sutton was in goodform too. Marshall Layt-Maynard stepped in on thepitching mound at times to give Bourgeois a break.‘‘After the final, I said ‘That’s it, I can retire now’, andthey said ‘No, you have to stick around for a three-peat!’’’ says Kinghorn, who has had four seasonscoaching the MAGS premier boys. ‘‘All of them playsoftball [regularly] and nine out of my 12 play forRamblers. They’re all educated in softball, they allwant to play, and they’re all good kids.’’The school’s junior side made it through to theAuckland final, while the premier girls finished thirdin the Auckland division one tournament.MAGS won the 2013 national title by defeatingNelson College 3-1 in the final.● Not be outdone, MAGS’ futsal girls also retainedtheir national title, in Wellington. All of the girls playfirst XI soccer and are coached by Paul Marshall.

Several dominant displays at the futsal nationalsculminated in an 8-0 victory over Havelock NorthHigh School in the final. Futsal is played on a smallerfield to regulation football, and is generally indoors.

GolfAuckland Grammar School are the Aucklandschools premier 9-hole champions after defeatingMassey High School in the final last Monday.After a tough season of close games resulting inwins against Lynfield, St Kentigern, Macleans andOrmiston College and a close loss to King’s College,Auckland Grammar had to deal with the challengeof Westlake Boys in the semifinals. Westlake put upa solid showing with a very young squad butAuckland Grammar managed a comfortable victoryin the end.The match between Massey High and AucklandGrammar was held at Manukau Golf Club.The course and weather were perfect for bothteams. Mitchell McLean set the tone for the day witha birdie on the very first hole, and his partnershipwith Ryan Steven had a talented but very youngMassey pair on the back foot early.Their final scores of 2-under and 1-under parrespectively were testament to the intelligent andquality golf they produced.In the top pairing, George Helsby put on amasterclass, regularly driving well over 300m andbacking this power hitting up with an exquisitedisplay with the putter for a best score of the day of4-under par.Jordan Loof played with minimum fuss andanchored the team to victory with a typicallystraightforward, yet excellent 2-under par.Their final combined total secured them a nine- shotvictory over a very promising Massey team that willlikely be favourites for next year’s title.Next on the to-do list for the year is to qualify for theSeptember national schools golf championship inTaupo.

Aussie RulesSeveral Auckland schoolboys are among the Under-16 New Zealand Hawks AFL squad which travel toAustralia tomorrow for the South Pacific Cup.They are: Viance Vano, Christian-Jordan Tupou andJirah Manoisea of St Paul’s College, Carlos Donnell-Brown and Danny O’Callaghan of Green Bay HighSchool, Kalib Lewis of Aorere College and NathanCurran of Rosmini College.Play starts for the 25-man squad on Saturday andthe side returns home on April 17. Coach ShannonWall will be assisted by Mike Gregson and MickCoultard.Included in the squad are some of the stars of therecent U16 New Zealand national championships. TeKopa Tipene-Thomas of the Bay of Islands wasdeclared the Best and Fairest for the tournamentafter his tireless work around the field. BraydenHerewini of Wellington and Donnell-Brown wereboth named Best and Fairest for their respectiveteams.Te Rei Clark, Nathan Lenihan, Connor McGeoughand Liam Caldwell will be looking to replicate theirform on attack, after kicking multiple goals acrossthe tournament.New Zealand has participated in the Oceania Cupand more recently South Pacific Cup since 2009.These tournaments provide a prime opportunity forathletes to represent their country, develop theirskills and showcase themselves in the hopes ofsecuring an AFL international scholarship.Currently four New Zealanders hold AFL interna-tional scholarships, with former Oceania Cupparticipant Shem Kalvin-Tatupu (who played for theSt Peter’s College First XV last season) beingelevated to the Hawthorn rookie list. Anotherformer New Zealand international scholarshipplayer, Kurt Heatherley, made his pre-season debutfor the Hawthorn Hawks.The 2014 AFL NZ National Combine in Wellingtonsaw the St Kilda Football Club sign GiovanniMountain Silbery of Aorere College to an AFLinternational scholarship.

New opportunities for young AFL players torepresent New Zealand are always opening up. In2013 a new addition to the AFL New Zealand HighPerformance calendar saw the Under-16 NewZealand Hawks host the inaugural tour from theAFL Flying Boomerangs.From the South Pacific Cup, AFL New Zealandhopes to provide the Under 16 South Pacific teamwith a number of reps who will go on to participatein the Australian national championships later thisyear.

CricketDion Nash was back at his alma mater of AucklandGrammar School recently to help promote the ICCCricket World Cup and present caps to the First XI.The former Black Cap was already a consistent andtalented allrounder when he played for the 1989Grammar First XI. That team was back playingschool cricket after several seasons appearing inthe club Senior A grade. First XI coach of that year,Graeme Syms, recalled in the 1989 AGS Chroniclethat ‘‘Nash was severe on bowling attacks and adelight to watch in full flight’’. He was also capableof working up a good head of steam with the ball.Nash was later mentored in the Black Caps by hisformer principal Sir John Graham, who was teammanager through the late 1990s.The ICC Cricket World Cup will be held jointly inNew Zealand and Australia in February and Marchnext year, with several games, including a semifinal,to be held at Eden Park. Older fans will well recallthe stirring exploits of the 1992 New Zealand side,then known as the Young Guns, when skipper andAuckland Grammar old boy Martin Crowe led theway with some marvellous batting and innovativecaptaincy. Nash was too young to be involved inthat World Cup, but did impart his wisdom from the1996 and ‘99 World Cups and spoke fondly of histime at Auckland Grammar.All the school’s cricket captains had their phototaken with the World Cup, held by India in the50-over format.

MAGS gets into the swing of golfTheymay not havewon anymatches yet, but Mt Albert Grammar’s newest sports team shows early promise

Campbell Burnes

It’s been a promising start for the 2014MAGS golf team (from left) GeorgeStephens, Hoani Taylor and Eric Lee.

Picture / Mt Albert Grammar School

M t Albert Grammar Schoolis well known for excel-ling in team sports suchas softball, cricket, rugbyand soccer.Maybe in the not too distant futuregolf will join that list.The sport is undergoing arenaissance at the school after sev-eral years when MAGS did not evenfield a golf team. Over five Mondaysthrough February/March, however,the team competed in the Aucklandschools division two. The 0-5 recorddid not look flash, but you have tostart somewhere. The three-manteam of skipper Hoani Taylor, GeorgeStephens and Eric Lee enjoyed thecompetitive afternoon golf andmadesufficient progress to be pushing hardfor a win by the end of the shortseason.

Taylor is a Year 13 student, playsoff a 6 handicap and is a member atthe Remuera club.‘‘One of my friend’s older brotherswas in the oldMAGS team,whichwasabout seven years ago. That was asocial side. Then we thought it mightbe a good idea to start it backupagain.With high school sport, you kind ofneed to have that culture and back-ground to move forward. I find thatwith cricket as well,’’ Taylor, also amember of the MAGS First XI, said.There was an element of the un-known stepping into division two,and most teams have four players,taking the best three scores in eachmatch. MAGS did not have thatluxury.‘‘Having three players was a bit ofa struggle. Hopefully we’ll have morestrength in depth in coming years,’’he says.They have two ready-made forlong golfing careers at the school.Stephens is a Year 9 boarder out ofTaumarunui and plays off a 15, butoften went much better than that,especially as the season wore on. Heis strong off the tee. Lee too is in Year9, an international student fromSouth Korea, and has already rubbedshoulders with Halberg winner LydiaKo, herself not long out of school. Thetwo first crossed paths at the NorthShore club, where Lee used to be amember.

‘‘She gave me some putting tips.She told me to think of the hole beingbigger on the greens,’’ Lee said. Youcan bet he’ll be working through the

winter at his Akarana club on low-ering his handicap from 17.5.The Monday afternoon competi-tion is popular, allowing students toplay other sports. Stephens, for ex-ample, can turn out for his junior Acricket side on Saturdays and stillplay for the golf team.Coach/managerMax Jeremic, him-self a recreational golfer, says thefuture of golf at the school is ‘‘lookingreally bright’’.More players, more teams, moreinterest — that’s his aim and alreadyhe is fielding inquiries from parentskeen tohave their boys involvednextyear. There may even be some girls(the competition is mixed gender,

handicap-based), perhaps inspired byKo, wanting to compete.‘‘Golf is great. It teaches patience,perseverance, etiquette and respect,’’Jeremic said.Jeremic wants more players tocreate depth. In turn, that will giveMAGS more of a shot at winninggames, improving handicaps andmaking the move eventually intodivision one, this year won by Auck-land Grammar School over MasseyHigh School.

In the short-term, next month seesthe Auckland SS teams champion-ship and regional stroke play champs.Skipper Taylor may just be in thethick of that.

Coming up

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FridayWater poloPremier boys’ championship final: Sacred HeartSharks v AGS 1, Diocesan, 8pm; Bronze medalmatch: Rangitoto v St Kentigern, Diocesan, 6pmPremier girls’ championship final: Kristin v Rangi-toto, Diocesan, 7pm; Bronze medal match: Diocesanv Westlake GHS, Diocesan, 5pmSaturday

Water poloAuckland SS junior tournament, various pools, from12pmWrestlingNew Zealand SS championships, Hamilton BHSSundayWrestlingNew Zealand SS championships, Hamilton BHSWater polo

Premier boys’ plate: Sacred Heart Dolphins v King’s,Diocesan, 6.30pmPremier girls’ plate: Baradene v St Mary’s, SacredHeart, 7.30pm

TuesdaySwimmingChampion of Champions qualifiers, West WaveAquatic Centre, Henderson, from 10am

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MAGS’ first Maadi medal in 37 years, a Top 10 placing for the first Boys’ Under 18 Eight to be boated since 1986, and invitations to trial for New Zealand and North Island squads were highlights of a successful 2014 Maadi Cup campaign by MAGS Row. They capped off a season which saw us also win our first North Island gold medal since the 1970s.

Maadi Cup National Championships, Lake Ruataniwha, Twizel, 24-30 March

Kate Wislang and Maria Markovich make history when they won bronze in the Girls’ Under 16 Double - our first Maadi medal since the sport was restarted at the school five years ago. It was also the first ever Maadi medal won by a MAGS’ girl crew, as girls did not attend the school the last time its rowers took the national podium. To make their win even more historic, Kate’s great grandfather was in the army corp that brought the Maadi Cup home to New Zealand from Egypt after World War II. It became the trophy awarded to the winning Under 18 Boys’ Eight, and the adopted name of the national championships.

Our Under 18 Eight then won their B final in convincing style to earn an elite Under 18 Top 10 Badge. They led from the start and won in clear water, by over a boat length, with a beautiful display of rowing that was worthy of any championship crew.

In total MAGS’ Maadi squad achieved four A finals and five B finals, with both boys and girls, from novice level to Under 18s, representing the school on finals day.

To top off this success, Fergus McSwiney and Jonathan Winter were invited to trial for the New Zealand Junior Squad, while Matthew Smith, Carl Pracy, Evander Tangiiti, Dylan Dodds, Marnina Hyland and Kate Wislang were invited to trial for the North Island Squad. These are steps on the pathway to one day rowing for New Zealand, and the invitations were a great vote of confidence in MAGS Row’s coaching programme. Carl, Evander and Dylan succeeded in being selected for the North Island squad.

MAGS’ Director of Rowing Mr Will Maling thanked his coaching team of Josh Schmidt, Ged Campbell, Sarah Wolff and Leah Hankey for their help in getting MAGS back into the top tier of schools rowing after only five seasons back in competition following an absence of nearly 30 years.

North Island Championships, Lake Karapiro, 7-9 March

MAGS Row’s first gold medal since the 1970s and the first ever medal for a girls’ crew were highlights of a success-laden weekend at the North Island Secondary Schools Rowing Championships.

Jonathan Winter and Fergus McSwiney claimed a decisive victory in the Under 18 Boys’ Pair early on finals day (pictured above with coach Josh Schmidt). Later, Kate Wislang and Maria Markovich brought MAGS Row girls into the record books with a bronze medal in the U16 Girls’ Double.

In between, Jonathan and Fergus joined Matthew Smith, Carl Pracey and coxswain Dylan Dodds to win silver in the U17 Boys’ Four, and a bronze medal was won by the Novice Boys’ Four of Tom Butler, Jack Morrison, Cole Brann, Damon Trumper and coxswain Bradley Shelton (pictured above right with coach Ged Campbell).

In all, MAGS Row crews fought their way into 12 A finals. Success ranged from our Novice to our Senior crews, boys and girls. Our Senior Eight earned starts in the finals of the three blue ribbon events, the U18 Pair, U18 Four and U18 Eight.

Head of the Harbour Auckland Championships, Lake Pupuke, 15 February

MAGS Row’s three Under 18 Boys’ Pairs took out first, second and third places at the Head of the Harbour Auckland Championships (pictured top).

This rare clean sweep of a Premier event was a highlight in a day when the MAGS colours featured frequently in the placings.

Other wins were secured by Girls’ U16 Double Scull rowers Victoria Peri and Abigail Marshall, and the Boys’ U18 Novice Four of Jack Morrison, Cole Brann, Tom Butler, Damon Trumper and coxswain Joseph McNamara.

Rowing



Of the U18 Pairs (pictured below with coach Josh Schmidt) Jonathan Winter and Fergus Cruickshank-McSwiney claimed first place, Carl Pracey and Matthew Smith were second, while Todd Martin and Evander Tangiiti wrapped up the top three places for MAGS.

They later joined Jed Bradley, Dallas Marshall and coxswain Dylan Dodds to come third in the premier event - the Boys U18 Eight. This was the first year since 1986 that MAGS has boated an U18 Eight, and to gain a place at the Head of the Harbour is a credit to their intense training, led by coach Josh Schmidt and MAGS’ Director of Rowing, Will Maling.

The weekend got off to a great start at the Westlake Junior Regatta the previous day, when the Girls’ U15 Eight (right) won their event.

The boat of Year 10 rowers in their first season - Amy Hirst, Megan Farquhar, Aimee Hunt, Ella Goddard, Laura Francis, Gloria Tinney, Laura Bradley, Reese Jacques and coxswain Cameron Richards - rowed an assured race to cross the line several lengths ahead of their competitors.

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SoftballThe Boys’ Premier team defended both their Auckland and National secondary schools’ titles this season, with a number of players named the best in their postions nationally.

In the Auckland final at Warren Freer Park on 25 February, MAGS beat Auckland Grammar 3-0 in extra time. The score was tied at 0-0 at the end of normal time. The game pushed on to 11 innings before MAGS drew first blood, with three batters making it home. Auckland Grammar had no answer when it was their turn to bat, and the final was won 3-0 by MAGS.

Most Valuable Player was pitcher Seth Bourgeois (right), who claimed 26 strike outs from 33 batters.

The National Championship was held in Christchurch in March.

The round-robin tournament required 11 games to reach the trophy match, but MAGS still won the final decisively, beating St Patrick’s College of Wellington 8-0.

Seth Bourgeois was named Most Valuable Player of the tournament, and Top Pitcher. David Hutchinson was named Top Catcher; Cole Evans, Ethan Ngauamo, Jonathan Cantle and Captain Andrew Sutton were named in the Tournament Team; and Stu Kinghorn was named Tournament Team Coach.

* Softball New Zealand selected two former MAGS students and one current student as members of the Junior Black Sox team to contend the World Series in Canada in July.

Bradley Bennett, Callum Elson and Cole Evans are part of a 17-strong squad coached by Thomas Makea and Jarrad Martin. They team heads to Vancouver at the end of June for warm up games before the World Championships start in July. Follow their progress at www.softball.org.nz



In all 23 swimmers competed for Mount Albert Grammar School, some in both individual and relay events.

Individual races - top 3 placings

Katherine Grozev (14): 1st place Girls 14-15 50m Backstroke

Charlotte Pritchard (17): 2nd place Girls 16-18 50m Butterfly

Caitlin Pritchard (15): 2nd place Girls 14-15 50m Butterfly

Charlotte Pritchard (17): 3rd place Girls 16-18 50m Backstroke

Hana Newnham-McGrath (14): 3rd place Girls 14-15 50m Breaststroke

Relay races - top 3 placings

Morgan Wadley (16), Caitlin Pritchard (15), Charlotte Pritchard (17), Katherine Grozev (14): 1st place Girls Open 200m Butterfly Relay

Maria Markovich (15), Caitlin Pritchard (15), Hana Newnham-McGrath (14) and Katherine Grovez (14): 1st place Girls 14-15 200m Freestyle Relay

Katherine Grozev (14), Morgan Wadley (16), Charlotte Pritchard (17) and Caitlin Pritchard (15): 2nd place Girls 16-18 200m Medley Relay

Ajaleyah Taylor (14), Hana Newnham-McGrath (14), Fia Jones (14) and Jessica Hefford (14): 2nd place Girls 14-15 200m Medley Relay

Swimming MAGS Swimming Sports Day, Mt Albert Aquatic Centre, 11 February

Four records were broken and one equaled at MAGS annual Swimming Sports Day.

Yinhu Cui broke three records and equaled one, while Swimming Captain Charlotte Pritchard sealed the other new record.

Yinhu is the new record holder of the Intermediate Boys’ 200m Freestyle (2.01.70), 25m Backstroke (13.91 ) and 100m Individual Medley (1.05.74). He also equaled the record for the 100m Freestyle event (55.56).

Charlotte created a new record in the Senior Girls’ 100m Butterfly (1.06.25).

Auckland Secondary Schools Central and East Zone competition, Diocesan School, 27 February

Twenty seven students represented MAGS at this event, competing individually and in relay events, with many first places and personal bests recorded.

Events Won By MAGS Swimmers Were:Boys (14-15 years) 50m backstroke: Yinhu Cui

Girls (14-15) 50m breaststroke: Hana Newnham-McGrath

Boys (14-15) 50m breaststroke: Flynn Campbell-Scott

Boys (16-18) 50m freestyle: Jakob Buiter

Girls Open 200m Fly Relay: Morgan Wadley, Caitlin Pritchard, Charlotte Pritchard, Katherine Grozev

Girls (14-15) 200m Freestyle Relay: Caitlin Pritchard, Hana Newnham-McGrath, Maria Markovich, Katherine Grozev

Girls (16-18) 200m Medley Relay: Katherine Grozev, Morgan Wadley, Charlotte Pritchard, Caitlin Pritchard

AKSS Champion of Champions, West Wave Aquatic Cenre, Henderson, 15 April

For the fourth year in a row MAGS won the Girls Open 200m Butterfly Relay at the AKSS Champion of Champions event.

The team is made up of Caitlin Pritchard (Y11), Charlotte Pritchard (Y13), Katherine Grozev (Y10) and Morgan Wadley (Y12). Swimming Captain Charlotte Pritchard has been part of the team in each of the four winning years.

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For the first time MAGS students took part in the Auckland Secondary Schools Special Olympics, held on 18 March at Mt Smart Stadium, and came away with six wins and a number of placings.

Learning Support teacher Jenny Cannon says the event offered students of all abilities the opportunity to represent their school, develop team skills and have a fun-filled day.

“The MAGS students were so excited to take part, and by the end of the day all wanted to go back next year,” says Ms Cannon.

“The event was a wonderful way for the students to engage with each other and celebrate their success. It was inspiring to see them overcome their challenges and be successful. It’s about inclusive education.”

MAGS students excel at Special OlympicsThe students’ results were:

Brenna Simmons: 1st in the 100m run, 1st in the mini javelin

John Siliakivai: 1st in the 100m walk, 4th in the mini javelin, 3rd in the softball throw

Tyler Chen: 1st in the 50m run, 2nd in the 100m run, 3rd in the mini javelin

Gerich Navarro: 2nd in the 50 run, 4th in the 100m run, 1st in the mini javelin

Niroj Sivarajah: 5th in the 100m run, 2nd in the mini javelin, 1st in the softball throw

Brenna, Niroj, Gerich and Tyler came 3rd in the 100m relay.

Team Tag TriathlonMount Albert Grammar School sent two Junior Boys’ teams, an Intermediate Girls’ and Senior Girls’ and Boys’ teams to this event, held at St Kentigern College on 2 April.

The stages consisted of a 400m, 500m or 750m swim, a 10km, 15km or 20km bike race and a 4km or 6km run. A transponder had to be taken off each athlete and placed on the next before each stage.

Our two Junior Boys’ teams came 7th and 8th, our Intermediate Girls’ came 16th, Senior Girls’ came 7th and Senior Boys came 13th.



MAGS’ Girls’ and Mixed Touch teams both qualified for the National Championships at the NZSS Regional Competition in Auckland on 22 March.

In pool play, both teams went through the round robin games undefeated. The Mixed Team won their semi-final against Macleans College with a convincing 8-2 victory. In the final, they narrowly lost 6-5 to Alfriston College, finishing in second place, which qualifies them for Nationals.

The Girls’ team won the competition so also go on to Nationals, which are held in December.

Earlier that week, on 18 March, the Mixed team became Central Zone Champions after beating last year’s champions Western Springs 7-2. The team went through the competition undefeated with a total of 47 trys for and only 7 against.

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From Tim Kay, Director of Advancement, Mount Albert Grammar School Foundation

For MAGS to achieve its aspiration of becoming the best secondary school in New Zealand, the Mount Albert Grammar School Foundation last year established the Advancement Office with a vision of establishing a $10 million Endowment Fund by our centenary year 2022.

The income from the Fund will support scholarships for our students and staff as well as funding capital projects to support our infrastructure requirements. It will provide an enduring solution for the school’s continuing financial needs. A culture of philanthropy needs to be developed within our school community which will enable us to provide even greater opportunities for both our current and future students. Investing in MAGS is investing in New Zealand’s future.

The Mount Albert Grammar School Foundation announced the creation of its Centenary Endowment Fund on 31 January, seeded by a large commitment from two of its old boys - John and Chris Liddell.

The Foundation will build the Fund over the next eight years as the school approaches its centenary in 2022.

Foundation Chairman Tim Goulding said the Foundation’s vision to have MAGS become “the premier school of choice in New Zealand” will be aided enormously by the Centenary Fund.The Foundation aims to raise $10 million for the Fund by 2022, which will be used to generate income for capital projects and scholarships for students and staff.

Brothers John and Chris Liddell, old boys of the school, have made a commitment of $1 million to the Foundation. Around half of this donation will be used to continue the very successful Liddell Scholarships for students and staff.

The scholarships are awarded to the top boy and girl all round students, and also to teachers who make an outstanding contribution to the school. The other half of the brothers’ donation will seed the Centenary Endowment Fund.

John Liddell attended MAGS from 1969-1973, Chris Liddell from 1971-1975. In Chris Liddell’s final year he was Dux and Best All Round Sportsman. He has gone on to a successful career in international business, including senior roles at Microsoft and General Motors in the United States. John Liddell is an army officer who has served both at home and around the world during a long career with the New Zealand Defence Force.

Liddell brothers kick start Centenary Fund with $1 million donation

“Educational excellence is fundamental to the success of our nation,” said Chris Liddell. “John and I were fortunate to have an education at Mount Albert Grammar that set the foundation for our lives. The school is a leader in New Zealand education. We have been delighted with the outcomes of our student and teacher scholarships and we wish to continue contributing to the school’s future.”

Headmaster Dale Burden said it was reassuring to know there were former students in the community willing to support the school in this way. “The power of giving, whether the gift is big or small, is that it sends a very positive message of support to the school. If MAGS is to continue to offer outstanding opportunities to students in the future, support of this kind is vital, and greatly appreciated.”

The Foundation’s Advancement Office will provide a framework for a more effective and collaborative approach to advancement that will invite a meaningful engagement of the school’s various constituent groups, including alumni through the Albertians Association, current school parents through the parent group Friends of MAGS, as well as students, staff, the business community and individual and corporate donors.

The focus is to build a wide and more active community that is involved in a co-ordinated effort to advance MAGS in an increasingly competitive fundraising environment, as well as providing a point of difference to set MAGS apart from any other school and make it the best secondary school in New Zealand.The success of building up a $10 million Endowment Fund by 2022 will depend on both significant individual donations and a significant number of smaller donations, coupled with a commitment to think more expansively and embrace new and different fundraising strategies and activities.

In order to secure the school’s educational excellence in perpetuity the Foundation must forge an enlightened community of interest that can help expand the school’s resource base. I look forward to working with you on these goals in the future.

Mount Albert Grammar School Foundation - Investing in the future of the school

Chris Liddell (left) and his brother John (far right) with Dale Burden and Tim Kay.


Successful MAGS alumnus Chris Liddell spoke of building a culture of philanthropy when he helped launch the MAGS Foundation on Thursday, 20 March.

Held at the Northern Club in central Auckland, the dinner evening was attended by notable former students of the school, the MAGS Foundation Board, MAGS Board of Trustees members, senior staff, school supporters and parents.

Chris Liddell, who with his brother John donated $1 million to the Foundation earlier this year, was a keynote speaker at the launch along with Headmaster Mr Dale Burden and Foundation Board trustee Grant Watson.

“A culture of philanthropy is important for New Zealand’s future,” said Chris Liddell. “MAGS has never been in better heart – what Dale and the leadership team is doing is magnificent – and I can’t think of a better place in which to invest, or a better time than now. I would not have been as successful without its culture of excellence.”

Chris Liddell is a former CFO of Microsoft and General Motors in America, and is now the Chairman of Xero, the New Zealand accounting technology company.

Dale Burden gave a presentation outlining the progress the school was making in a variety of areas, and the importance of support from its alumni and wider community to continue to improve the education for which it is sought after.

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The MAGS Foundation board members, from left, Grant Watson, Tim Goulding, Greg Taylor, Dale Burden, Tim Kay and Greg Moyle.

Albertian Rachael Peeters spoke about the importance to her of receiving a Liddell Scholarship.Headmaster Dale Burden and

his wife Yevette Williams.

Chris Liddell, his wife Renee, brother John and at front, the boys’ sister Deborah Greig.

Three All Black Albertians - Olo Brown, Bryan

Williams and Mark Brooke-Cowden.MAGS Row patron Kerry Ashby and his wife Winkie.

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Josh Bayliss, the CEO of Virgin Group, was named Albertian of the Year at the annual Albertians Reunion Dinner on Thursday, 3 April.

Josh Bayliss travelled from his base in Geneva especially for the occasion, held at the Northern Club in central Auckland, and attended by

fellow Albertians, Headmaster Dale Burden, Board of Trustee members, staff and parents. Josh Bayliss’s parents Carolyn and Peter and brother Jake were also present.

“This is a truly wonderful honour,” said Josh Bayliss, in accepting the award from Mr Warwick Gibbs, a long-time teacher at MAGS who became a friend of the Bayliss family.

“I can’t understate how important education is. The philosophy that MAGS imparted to me still motivates me to continue to strive for excellence, and to take opportunities to help change people’s lives for the better.”

Josh Bayliss works closely with Richard Branson in a range of areas, from overseeing billions of dollars worth of investments, to the development of the Virgin brand, to extending Virgin enterprises to include elements of health and education that benefit employees and the public.

“When I was an 11-year-old at Royal Road Primary School in Massey I would not have dreamed I’d be doing what I am today. But my parents made the decision to move to Mount Albert so that my brother Jake and I could attend the fine institution that is Mount Albert Grammar School, and I thank them for that.”

Josh Bayliss says he left MAGS with learnings from three “pillars” – sport, academic endeavor and philosophy.

“The sense of camaraderie and team spirit that I learned through sport at MAGS has stayed with me. Striving for excellence academically and taking any opportunity presented has served me well, from persevering at university when others were falling away, to taking the chance to be interviewed by Richard Branson in the back of a taxi when he was on his way to the Brit Awards. Philosophically I’ve very aware of the responsibility business has to help plug gaps in society that governments can no longer afford to fill.”

An example of this was in one of Virgin’s latest endeavours – building two cruise ships that contain schools for staff. “Many cruise ship staff around the world come from third world countries where educational opportunities are poor. After three years on one of our ships they could gain a high school diploma, which means a huge amount in their home countries. I remain on the hunt for opportunities to change peoples lives for the better.”

Radio presenter Mark Watson and

former MAGS Headmaster Greg Taylor.

Colin Mathura-Jeffree was in the same class as Josh Bayliss at MAGS.

Josh Bayliss and President of the

Albertians Association Ben Stallworthy.Josh Bayliss (right) with his brother

Jake and parents Peter and Carolyn.

Headmaster Dale Burden gave an update on the school’s progress.

Headmaster Dale Burden with Josh Bayliss.

Albertian girls from left, Daryna Kulakovska, Bridget Taylor and Danica Atkins

“Knowledge creates value, and I remain on the hunt for excellence and opportunities to change people’s lives for the better. MAGS’ motto, Through Hardship to Glory, seems very apt to me.”


Virgin Group CEO is Albertian of the Year

Josh Bayliss accepts the Albertian of the Year Award from long time MAGS teacher and family friend, Warwick Gibbs.


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Colin Mathura-Jeffree was in the same class as Josh Bayliss at MAGS.

Josh Bayliss (right) with his brother Jake and parents Peter and Carolyn.

Headmaster Dale Burden gave an update on the school’s progress.

Virgin Group CEO is Albertian of the Year Fundraising Golf Day a hole in oneThe MAGS Foundation’s inaugural Golf Day raised $20,000 in support of the Bryan Williams Rugby Endowment Scholarship Fund.

Nineteen teams comprised of 76 players teed off at the Titirangi Golf Club on Tuesday, 8 April. Those who took part were the school’s corporate partners, sponsors, Albertians and parents.

Funds were raised through entry fees, golf hole sponsorship, raffles and an auction of two items of rugby memorabilia linked to Bryan Williams – a MAGS First XV jersey signed by MAGS All Blacks, and a print of images representing Bryan Williams’ playing days.

Albertian Mark Watson, a host on Radio Sport and ZB, was MC at the prizegiving function after the game. The individual winner was Albertian Mark Birtwistle (who has played rugby for Samoa), and the team challenge was won by Coverstaff Recruitment.

MAGS’ Director of Advancement Tim Kay said the day was a great success and would become an annual event.

The Bryan Williams Rugby Endowment Scholarship Fund will help enable talented young rugby players from outside Auckland to board at School House and benefit from the rugby coaching and academic opportunities offered by MAGS.

MA

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Fine Art ShowThe inaugural Mount Albert Grammar School Fine Art Show will take place in August.

More than 60 professional artists – painters, photographers and ceramics-makers – will present over 200 works at the Fine Art Show, to be held at the school’s FW Gamble Memorial Hall from Friday 22 August to Sunday 24 August.

In line with other similar art shows hosted by schools, a percentage of the sales from the art works will go towards supporting the fundraising programme of the MAGS Foundation.

The Art Show is being organised by the Friends of MAGS and will also feature a selection of works by MAGS’ senior art students.

Friends of MAGS has spent a number of months inviting artists from around New Zealand to take part in the Show and project chair Suzanne McNamara says the response has been very reassuring. Notable artists who have put their hands up to take part include Dean Buchanan, Lorraine Rastorfer, Neil Palmer, Frances Hansen and Sheyne Tuffery.

The Fine Art Show launches on the Friday night with a cocktail evening and will wrap up on the Sunday evening. Suzanne says the Friends of MAGS hope to raise between $40,000 - $50,000 from the Show for the Mount Albert Grammar School Foundation, which will be used to support various School projects.

Headmaster Mr Dale Burden says “the School is thrilled to see the Fine Art Show coming to fruition. It’s a great event to add to the school calendar, and will also bring a welcome boost in supporting the Mount Albert Grammar School Foundation.

We look forward to it becoming a regular part of our fundraising programme.”


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MAGS is making waves in high school rowing, so what better way to raise funds than a harbour cruise on a 105 ft super-yacht.

Eighty guests joined MAGS Row parents aboard the Pacific Mermaid, New Zealand’s largest corporate charter super-yacht on 5 April, for a luxurious evening of fine food, fine wine, live music and a two-hour cruise.

The evening’s proceeds of $13,000 went toward buying equipment and supporting MAGS Row’s vision of once again becoming New Zealand’s top rowing school.

After an absence of nearly 30 years, MAGS is now five seasons into its revived rowing programme and is already winning medals against schools with much more established and well resourced programmes. As the squad continues to grow, so do its equipment needs, so a fundraising programme has been put in place to support MAGS Row’s ongoing development.

Thursday, 26 June: Old Boys Luncheon, School House

Saturday, 2 August: MAGS V St Kents Sports Day

Friday 22 August-Sunday 24 August: MAGS Fine Art Show, FW Gamble Memorial Hall

Sunday, 31 August: Mount Albert Grammar School Albertians Association Sydney Reunion

Tuesday, 2 September: Mount Albert Grammar School Albertians Association Melbourne Reunion

Wednesday, 24 September: Old Boys Luncheon, School House

Thursday, 4 December: Old Boys Luncheon, School House

MAGS Foundation Events Calendar

MAGS Row fundraising cruise

From left, Alex Kennedy, a member of the NZ Mens’ Eight, his partner and former NZ rower Louise Ayling, MAGS Row coach Ged Campbell, his partner and NZ rower Kelsey Bevan, Rita Harre and MAGS Director of Rowing Will Maling.

MAGS Row coaches Sarah Wolff and Josh Schmidt board

the Pacific Mermaid.M

AG

S Fo

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64 Mount Albert Grammar School64 Mount Albert Grammar School

Old Boys Luncheon

The Term 1 Old Boys’ Luncheon was held at School House following the Anzac Service in the FW Gamble Hall on 17 April.

The guest speaker was Director of Rowing Mr Will Maling, who spoke about the resurgence of the sport at MAGS.

In attendance were four notable rowers from the sport’s heyday at the school in the 1940s and 1950s - Maadi Cup winner and Empire Games double silver medallist Mr Bill Tinnock, Maadi Cup winners Max Weston and Bruce Cato, and fellow rower Ted Hughan.

The Annual Inter-College Old Boys Golf Tournament was held on 14 March at the Pukekohe Golf Club.

The event saw 28 school teams of four competing. It has been played for the past 18 years. Three of the players in each team must be old boys of the school they’re representing, with one ring-in allowed. Our team of four comprised (in age order) Ken McKinley, Paul Teamoke and John Johnson, with the outsider being 2 handicapper Ross Valentine (ex St Kents).

Based on stableford (3 or the 4 scores counting) the winner was Sacred Heart 1, with the MAGS team finishing a creditable 2nd. Cheques were presented for handing to the schools, in the form of $1000 to the winner, $750 for second and $500 for third.

Paul Teamoke played the shot of the day, a wonderful 2nd shot at the par five, 1st hole, which went into the hole. For non-golfers this is called an albatross, and is far more rare than a hole-in-one. Perhaps one player in a thousand might achieve that in their golfing career.

Albertian news

The MAGS Old Boys golf team, from left, Paul Teamoke, Ross Valentine, John Johnson and Ken McKinley.

Former MAGS rowers, from left, Ted Hughan, Bill Tinnock, Max Weston and Bruce Cato attended the Old Boys Luncheon.

We are not sure whether MAGS has entered this tournament previously, but it is hoped that we can muster up a second team for 2015. All in all it was a great day, and the camaraderie between the teams was outstanding. Roll on 2015.

Ken McKinley

SINGING TEACHER - Margaret Lindsay BA, Dip Tchg, ATCL, LTCL (Tchg), FTCL

EXAMS or for PLEASURE. Improve your breathing, extend your vocal range, create warmth in the voice. Learn about music theory, and vocal technique. Sing in Italian, French, German, English. All Repetoire - Opera, Music Theatre, World Music, Cabaret, Jazz.

Help with NCEA, and also ABRSM and TRINITY GUILDHALL exams

PHONE 849 8070/ 0210428855. Or Email: [email protected]

MAGS runner-up at Old Boys’ Golf Tournament


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ObituaryPeter Clifford LeCouteur PhD (UBC)

Attended Mount Albert Grammar School 1954-1958 Peter LeCouteur began in 3AFr, then 4AFr, Spec 5B, 6Lang and 6A. In his early days he played softball and hockey and was in the boxing class and played the violin in the orchestra. Later he was also in the rifle club and played First XI hockey.

He qualified as a geologist at The University of Auckland and at the

University of British Columbia, and went on to prospect for oil, gas and diamonds for various companies and on all continents.

Tramping with Sir Edmund Hillary in the South Island led to his inclusion in an expedition to the Antarctic where he fell down a crevasse, but kept his cool (as it were) until rescued.In a South American jungle he discovered a fraudulent gold claim and was lucky to get out with his life.

Peter had a shrewd and perceptive intelligence. He enjoyed knowledge rather than knowing it to get marks. He was inventive, causing some explosions in the lower lab while devising his own fireworks as a lab boy. He was big and strong but never a bully. While he took part in many activities, he, like many MAGSsters, left a light footprint. I would like to think that many present pupils could take heart from his accomplishments. You don’t have to top the class to do amazing things.

His typical phone call on arriving in New Zealand was to impersonate a tax officer from Canada Revenue about unpaid income tax, or to make an earnest query on the true story behind the square on the hypotenuse. He teased fellow geologists with phone calls questioning the validity of their New Zealand qualifications.

When I saw him in July 2011 he still looked the strong, healthy, understanding, witty man we always took for granted. In September of 2012 he found out he had cancer, which he faced with stoic humour. He died on 4 November 2012. He was 72.

His obituary in the Canadian National Post included: “He hiked, flew, sailed through some of the most remote and rugged parts of the world, living in camps, yurts and huts of every kind --- he co-founded a successful business processing till samples for diamonds in Northern Canada”.

He had two memorial services, one in Canada, the first in North Vancouver, attended by family and a large gathering including the Lieutenant Governor of British Columbia. A second service in New Zealand was attended by family and many friends and university colleagues.

Vale, Peter Clifford LeCouteur, Albertian.George BowenSchool and life-long friend

Peter Clifford LeCouteur is at the far right of the third row from the top in this class photo from 1957.

Albertian actor in lead role

Albertian Albert Walker received excellent reviews in the lead role of Pericles, Prince of Tyre, for the University of Auckland’s Summer Shakespeare of 2014.

Reviewer Paul Simei-Barton wrote in the NZ

Herald that “Albert Walker brings a fine clarity of diction to his Pericles ...”

As a student at MAGS he did the same in a number of performances. One notable role was that of Alfred Ill in the school’s 2007 production of Fredrick Durrenmatts play The Visit.

He is seen here with Jenna Erkkila who played small-town-girl-made-good Clair Zaccanassian, back with a vengeance.

She outrages the town by offering “a million” if anyone will kill her former lover Alfred. Alfred turns from a highly-regarded happy-go-lucky shop-keeper to a haunted shadow of himself as the town turns against him.

Albert played Alfred with an understanding beyond his years. We wish him success for his future acting career.

Alb

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an N

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Some Albertians who have been elevated to the rank of Professor, or Associate Professor or Adjunct and visiting Professors (with a known full academic year) are listed below. A few have held other appointments of the same rank. In most cases the position is the current one, or the one held at the time of retirement. Some listed professors are deceased. If an academic moved into administration the last known teaching position is given. Some professors have or had named chairs; these are not given here. Institutions are fully named.

If you can add to this list please notify Brian Murphy at [email protected]

Where liberty has arisen, learning must be cherished – or liberty itself becomes a fragile thing. - Lyndon B Johnson

• T.J.(Trevor)Bagust,ofPopulationHealth,UniversityofGeorgia.• M.E.R.(Michael)Bassett,ofHistory,UniversityofWestern

Ontario.• A.J.C.(Andy)Begg,ofEducation,AucklandUniversityof

Technology.• D.R(David)Bell,ofMarketing,UniversityofPennslyvania.• J.A.W.(Jack)Bennett,ofMedievalandRenaissanceEnglish,

University of Cambridge.• J.B.(John)Blennerhasset,ofPathology,UniversityofOtago.• R.D.(Raymond)Bradley,ofPhilosophy,TheUniversityof

Auckland.• B.J.(Bruce)Biggs,ofAnthropology,TheUniversityofAuckland.• D.A.(David)Brown,ofGeology,AustralianNationalUniversity.• R.H.(Harvey)Brown,ofCommunityDentalHealth,Universityof

Otago.• G.T.(Tim)Burnstein,ofMaterialsChemistryandCorrosion,

University of Cambridge.• S.R.(Selwyn)Caradus,ofMathematics,TheUniversityof

Auckland.• A.A.(Andrew)Christie,ofAccounting,LouisiannaState

University.• C.G.(Colin)Crisp,ofFilmandMediaStudies,GriffithUniversity.• I.G.(Ian)Culpan,ofPhysicalEducation,Universityof

Canterbury.• A.(Alan)Cumming,ofEducation,UniversityofNewEngland.• SirGraemeDavies,ofMetallargy,UniversityofSheffield.• T.W.(Trevor)Doouss,ofSurgery,TheUniversityofAuckland.• W.L.(Wayne)Edwards,ofEducation,MasseyUniversity.• W.B.(Warwick)Elley,ofEducation,UniversityofCanterbury.• E.H.(Eric)Gould,ofEnglish,UniversityofDenver.• H.J.(Harry)Hanham,ofHistory,HarvardUniversity.• L.J.(Jim)Holt,ofHistory,TheUniversityofAuckland.• R.J.(Roger)Horrocks,ofFilm,TelevisionandMediaStudies,The

University of Auckland.• I.(Ian)Hunter,ofBusinessHistory,TheUniversityofAuckland.• L.S.(Stan)James,ofMedicine,ColumbiaUniversityintheCityof

New York.• R.F.(Ron)Keam,ofPhysics,TheUniversityofAuckland.• P.R.(Peter)Knight,ofSurgery,McMasterUniversity.

• D.(David)Kronfeld,ofAgriculture,VirginiaPolytechnicandStateUniversity.

• D.R.(Douglas)Lines,ofChildHealth,TheUniversityofAuckland.• P.J.(Peter)Lorimer,ofMathematics,TheUniversityofAuckland.• A.H.(Tony)McNaughton,ofEducation,TheUniversityof

Auckland.• R.E.F.(Dick)Matthews,ofMicrobiology,TheUniversityof

Auckland.• A.(Alan)Maxwell,ofAstronomy,HarvardUniversity.• I.C.(Ian)Medland,ofEngineering,TheUniversityofAuckland.• J.G.(John)Millar,ofMathematics,UniversityofCalgary.• L.H.(Laurie)Milliner,ofBotany,TheUniversityofAuckland.• K.E.(Kingsley)Mortimer,ofAnatomy,TheUniversityof

Auckland.• M.J.(Mike)Morwood,ofArchaeology,Universityof

Wollongong.• R.(Robert)Nola,ofPhilosophy,TheUniversityofAuckland.• D.J.(Dennis)Osborne,ofAnaesthesiology,TheUniversityof

Queensland.• P.C.B.(Peter)Phillips,ofEconomicsandofStatistics,Yale

University.• L.D.(Leo)Pointon,ofLaw,MultimediaUniversity.• W.S.(Bill)Rapson,ofChemistry,UniversityofCapeTown.• D.E.(David)Richmond,ofGerontology,TheUniversityof

Auckland.• M.S.(Mervyn)Rosser,ofEngineeringMathematics,The

University of Auckland.• SirJohnScott,ofMedicine,TheUniversityofAuckland.• G.A.F.(George)Seber,ofStatistics,TheUniversityofAuckland.• J.D.(Jack)Sinclair,ofPhysiology,TheUniversityofAuckland.• SirKeithSinclair,ofHistory,TheUniversityofAuckland.• R.J.(Richard)Shannon,ofModernHistory,SwanseaUniversity.• SirPeterSnell,ofSportsMedicine,UniversityofTexas(Dallas).• C.K.(Karl)Stead,ofEnglish,TheUniversityofAuckland.• SirAlanSteward,ofAgriculture,MasseyUniversity.• R.C.J.(Russell)Stone,ofHistory,TheUniversityofAuckland.• M.B.(Mike)Taggart,ofLaw,TheUniversityofAuckland.• J.L.(Jeff)Tallon,ofPhysics,VictoriaUniversityofWellington.• R.H.(Dick)Toy,ofArchitecture,TheUniversityofAuckland.• M.W.(Michael)Walker,ofBiologicalScience,TheUniversityof

Auckland.• G.F.(Gary)Waller,ofLiteratureandCulturalStudies,City

University of New York.• R.J.(Dick)Walton,ofRadiology,UniversityofManitoba.• S.R.(Rae)West,ofGeneralPractice,TheUniversityof

Auckland.• T.G.(Trevor)Wilson,ofHistory,TheUniversityofAdelaide.• N.(Norman)Wong,ofAccountingandFinance,TheUniversity

of Auckland

Former staff members to become Professors• J.A. Asher, of German, The University of Auckland.• E.M. Blaiklock, of Classics, The University of Auckland.• R.O. Buchanan, of Geography, London School of Economics.• J.G. Prendergrast, of Zoology, The University of Waikato.

The list of Albertian Professors (revised May 2014)


67

June 2 Monday Queens Birthday

5-12 Thurs-Thurs Year 11 Examinations

10-12 Wed-Thurs Big Sing Competition

13 Friday Staff Only Day

16 Mon-Thurs Year 9 & 10 Examinations

World Refugee Day

24 Tuesday International Food Evening

25 Wednesday MAGS School Concert – Raye Freedman Centre at 7.00pm

July 2 Wednesday Careers Expo at 6.30pm

4 Friday END OF TERM 2

5 Saturday Annual School Ball

21 Monday START TERM 3

2015 Option Booklets / Forms go out

28-30 Mon-Wed Year 9 2015 Information Evenings

August 4-9 Mon-Sat KBB Music Festival

8 Friday Cultural Group Photos (Photolife)

11 Monday Albertian – Hall of Distinction Ceremony

13 Wednesday Winter Sports Photos (Photolife)

14 Thursday Pasifika Academic Tracking Interviews (11-13)

22-24 Fri-Sun MAGS Fine Art Show

September 1-5 Mon-Fri Winter Tournament Week

10-19 Wed-Fri Senior Examinations

Key Dates

Please refer to our website www.mags.school.nz for the calendar of all sporting events.

Auckland Anniversary Day Monday 27 January

Waitangi Day Thursday 6 February

Good Friday Friday 18 April

Easter Monday Monday 21 April

Anzac Day Friday 25 April

Queens’s Birthday Monday 2 June

Labour Day Monday 27 October

2014 School Holidays2014 Public Holidays

September 23-25 Tue-Thurs Arts Alive Week

26 Friday END OF TERM 3

29 Monday Term 3 Holidays – Japan Trip

October 13 Monday START TERM 4

20 Monday Service Lions Ceremony

27 Monday Labour Day

28 Tuesday Arts Dinner

29 Wednesday School House Prize Giving

30 Thursday Annual Sports Dinner

31 Friday Year 11 Prize Giving

November 3 Monday Senior Prize Giving

Leavers Dinner

4 Tuesday School House Dinner

5 Wednesday Year 8 Girls Testing

6 Thursday Year 8 Boys Testing

7 Friday NCEA Examinations commence

11-14 Tues-Fri Junior Examinations

December 2 Tuesday Year 9 Inter Form Class Competition

3 Wednesday Year 10 Inter Form Class Competition

5 Friday Inter Form Class Competition Winners – Movie and Lunch

9 Tuesday Year 10 Prize Giving

Year 9 Prize Giving

END OF TERM 4

TERM 1 Tuesday 28 January Year 9 only to Thursday 17 April

Wednesday 29 January Full school in

TERM 2 Monday 5 May to Friday 4 July

TERM 3 Monday 21 July to Friday 26 September

TERM 4 Monday 13 October to Tuesday 9 December


An investment in adventure.Buy at Macpac and 10% of your purchase goes to our outdoor education programme.

We are delighted to announce that Mt Albert Grammar School has joined with iconic Kiwi company Macpac as a partner in their MAP (Macpac Adventure Partnership) initiative. The MAP programme partners Macpac with communities that promote “adventure for life” (the motto that Macpac use to define their brand).

As a MAP partner, Macpac will donate 10% of all your purchases back to Mt Albert Grammar School to be used for developing our outdoor programme and equipment. This funding will be used to ensure our students are extremely well prepared as they experience adventure on outdoor programmes. Not only will students and the school benefit, you’ll also receive 30% off the RRP of the Macpac range of products when you mention you are from Mt Albert Grammar School, whether you are a current, past or future student here! All you need to do to save 30% and for Macpac to donate 10% to our outdoor programme is to ensure that every time you buy, mention that you support the Mt Albert Grammar School MAP programme.

macpac.co.nz

As a MAP partner, Macpac will donate 10% of all your purchases back to Mt Albert Grammar School to be used for developing its Outdoor Education programme. This funding will be used to ensure MAGS students are well prepared as they experience adventure in the outdoors. Not only will students and the school benefit, you’ll also receive 30% off the RRP of the Macpac range of products when you mention you are from Mt Albert Grammar School, whether you’re a parent of a student, a business contact or a friend of the school.

All you need to do to save 30% and for Macpac to donate 10% to MAGS Outdoor Education is to ensure that every time you buy, mention that you support the Mt Albert Grammar School MAP programme.

macpac.co.nz

New ZealandPermit No. 245910

Buy at Macpac and 10% of your purchase goes to MAGS’ Outdoor Education programme.

We are delighted to announce that Mt Albert Grammar School has joined with iconic Kiwi company Macpac as a partner in their MAP (Macpac Adventure Partnership) initiative. The MAP programme

partners Macpac with communities that promote “adventure for life”.

If undelivered, return to:

Mount Albert Grammar SchoolAlberton Avenue

Mount AlbertAuckland 1025

An investment in adventure


The Lion - June 2014

Documents

Transcript of The Lion - June 2014