School News

Campbell Attwood, Caleb Sampson and Lani Lousi won awards sponsored by School Supplies and National Art Supplies to the value of$80.00 for their contribitions to the Transfusion Schools Painting competition, held last week. The competition, where artworks are gifted to the hospital, has been running for four years  and is the brainchild of HBHS Head of Art, James Sutherland.

The highly competitive annual WaiMaths Competition was held on the 8^th of August at the Hamilton Gardens Pavilion. The top three problem-solvers in Year 9, 10 and 11 from more than twenty Waikato schools competed on the night. Each team was given 20 questions, covering all disciplines of Mathematics, which they attempt to solve within forty five minutes. Each question allowed for three chances at submitting the correct answer, a point being deducted with each attempt.

Our boys did extremely well with the Year 9 team consisting of Christopher Mayo, David Lee and Jacob Cheatly finishing a close second place. Patrick Costley, Christopher Symon and Michael Woods won the Year 10 competition in a playoff with Waikato Diocesan School. The same team won the competition last year.

They are already looking forward to next year’s competition to try and be the first team to win three years in a row. Each team member was rewarded with a Casio Graphic Calculator, book vouchers and movie tickets worth about $150.

HBHS had the opportunity this year to contest the W12 on day one of the competition. We were fortunate enough to combine with Turakina Maori Girls’ College. The team placed fifth in the Plate Final. This was a great effort, given the two schools had never paddled together.

The beginning of the heats for 250m and 500m were held on day two.  This was fortunate for the boys, as they made it into the Plate semis for both the 250m and 500m, which were to take place on day three of the Nationals.

Unfortunately for the boys their racing ended on day three with only a 3third in the 500m Plate semi and sixth in the 250m Plate semi.  Neither performance was strong enough to advance them through to the Plate Finals.

The final day of the competition saw the boys supporting Hamilton’s Fraser High girls, (the other travelling team we coached), as they were competing in the finals.

Once again, it was a pleasure to take Hamilton Boys’ High School to the Waka Ama Nationals and we would like to thank Mr Miller for his support, encouragement and dedication to get the boys to training, to take them for training and also to encourage them to participate. Paora and I both look forward to 2013 Nationals which I understand are to take place the week 18 March 2013.

The boys were excellent representatives of the school.

Marina McGrath

The first week of the new year is very important for our returning Year 13 cohort.  These young men, the majority of whom are now between seventeen and eighteen years of age, play a crucial role in maintaining and developing the ethos of leadership and service in the school.  Almost all of the 370-plus Year 13s attended Leadership Camp last week.  Matthew South gave an account of his experiences there.

What was camp like?

It was a great experience.  It was an opportunity for all of us to show staff the ways that we've learnt to leader. We did team building exercises that pushed us physically, and made us problem-solve at the same time.  There were theory-based activities which explicitly talked about leadership and everyone had a chance at some stage during the camp to put what we had learnt into practice.  I saw specific examples very often - boys who were missing their friends were welcomed into other groups, students were working hard to keep the camp tidy and everyone was on the look out for chances to make things easier for the adults that were supervising us.

The 2013 Cross Country was held yesterday in the cold, damp and foggy conditions that are typical of a Waikato winter's morning.  This was no deterrent to the hundreds of enthusiastic championship and non-championship athletes who ran the 4 - 6 km circuit (the distance varied from juniors, through to intermediates and seniors) around the perimeter of the school and through the gully.  The individual championship results are as follows:

Junior Champions:

(Cont)

Teacher in charge of Golf, Mr Brendon Cooley, reports on the second annual HBHS Golf Championships held on Thursday 14 February at St Andrews Golf Club, Hamilton…

A total of 33 students, ranging in ages from Year 9 to Year 13, competed in Thursday’s tournament.  The conditions were excellent, with the course in fantastic condition considering the dry few months we have had this summer.  However, some golfers did struggle as the wind got up in the late afternoon.  Captain of Golf for 2013, Denzel Ieremia, was a stand-out performer, shooting a 2 under round to take out the senior division by 2 shots.  (cont)