School News

HBHS Old Boys Aidan Davey (pictured left on the far left) and James Hussey (pictured right on the right) graduate this Wednesday from the University of Canterbury Mechanical Engineering Department after having completed cutting edge final year projects which were sponsored by some of New Zealand's most important companies. Courtesy of the University of Canterbury, we present an outline of what these students have accomplished, and we congratulate them on their achievements.

James was tasked with redesigning Methanex’s remote measurement ‘Mole’ device. Stainless steel reformer tubes are used to chemically convert natural gas from New Zealand’s gas fields into methanol for export. Several years ago the first Canterbury Methanex Mole team invented a device that could be lowered down the tubes which are several stories high to measure the tube diameter and detect if a tube was starting to fail (cont)

Congratulations to HBHS Old Boys Russell Nye-Wood and Daniel Krippner on winning a 2013 Alumni Association Prize for Excellence.  These prizes recognise academic excellence and are awarded to second-year students with the highest grade point average in each Faculty or School in their first year at the University of Waikato.  For more information, check out the link below:

http://alumni.waikato.ac.nz/alumni-groups/association

Former HBHS students Shaun Kirkham (pictured, kneeling front row left) and Caleb Shepherd (front row, right), are newly crowned world champions, after winning gold in the final of the Under 23 Men's Eight at the World Rowing Championships held in Linz-Ottensheim, Austria on Saturday 28 July.  Congratulations to the crew and their proud families on what is an outstanding achievement and we look forward to following the achievements of Caleb and Shaun in their rowing careers.

Staff Coach Stuart Hakeney’s bitterness was palpable in the after-match analysis of HBHS’ annual Staff vs Prefects Soccer game.  Spirit Week began dismally for this taciturn but stoical man, as he struggled to explain his team’s performance.

 ‘The game yesterday started slowly.  Mr Scott and Paul Nixon were looking good in the first half, but young guns then started to run us down.  Fitness became a factor.  The substitutes didn’t help us.  It didn’t go our way.  The highlight of the game for me was Bradley Scott running around like a teenager – he was absolutely brilliant.  But unfortunately he missed opportunities in front of the goal.  He had his chances… Big Mr McLean at the back was solid.  It was more about the people who didn’t shine.  Mr Atkins is new to the department, the school and apparently football.  Daniel Powell throwing the ball in from the middle of the field was unbelievable.  Jemma Cheyne was blown all over the field and spent most of her time on Field Two when she was supposed to be playing on Field One.  Mr Vesseur – lovely man; needed to get angry.  Needed to get really angry; he was too courteous.  Mr Tucker, the referee, was too fair.  Far too fair – he did allow us to have more players than the Prefects, but he needed to give more penalties to us as well.  The goal keeper [Mr Hakeney, himself] did a great job of filling in for Mike Erceg, who was injured.  Mr Muggeridge didn’t make himself available to play, saying he hadn’t run around for six weeks, but by my reckoning that made him perfect for the squad because he wasn’t injured.  You’ve got to think these things through. What can I say?  A two-nil loss.  Probably a fair result, but we should start looking far more carefully at our selection of prefects.  The number of footballers in this group is an immediate handicap for the staff.’

 Mr Hakeney then dried his tears, blew his nose, and got on with the business of the day.

On Wednesday 15 May, Deputy Head Prefect and Leader of the Service Committee, Oliver Wilding, proudly presented Kids Can representative Ms Natalie Vincent with a cheque for $8612.15, the final total amount of money raised by the Charity Run For Life held at the end of Term 1. Oliver acknowledged the contribution that every boy who ran had made to this total, and the efforts of Mr Pat Cheyne, Chayce Glass and Purak Patel who worked so tirelessly along with the Service Committee to make the event such a success. Ms Vincent promised that the money would go towards helping needy children in the Waikato, who have to go to school hungry, cold and often without even the most basic necessities such as shoes. At present, Kids Can is feeding 6000 children daily, but they estimate that there are 33 000 New Zealand children who need this help. For more information, check out the Kids Can website at www.kidscan.org.nz or talk to Oliver and his Service Committee to find out what you can do to help.