School News

New Zealand has an unusually high number of monolingual citizens, which has important implications for some kiwi job seekers. Simran Singh (Yr 13) is an articulate advocate of learning other languages. He is on the cusp of tertiary study and the world of work, and has shared some of his thoughts about the need for second language learning in the global marketplace.

Preparatory examinations for all students studying Levels 1, 2 and 3 at Hamilton Boys’ High School got underway on Friday.  The examinations are specifically to help students identify areas that they need to work on, prior to the external NCEA examinations in November.  Students from Years 10 (Cambridge Programme, Level 1) through to 13 are released from Friday 17^th August to Friday 24^th, to revise and prepare for the gruelling schedule of assessments.  The logistics of organising the examinations are significant – the main gymnasium and the Study Centre are dedicated to examinations this week, as well as a number of other classes around the school.

We wish all of our students the best of luck for their examinations and advise parents who would like to support their son’s study to refer to suggestions in the HBHS School Diary in the first instance.

Today at the Founders Theatre, HBHS celebrated the academic achievements of the Year 11, 12 and 13 students.  It was an opportunity to acknowledge the students who have contributed so much to the school and to wish them well as they head into their NCEA and Cambridge examinations.  We congratulate all of these students on these fine efforts, and offer a special congratulations to David Cuellar who was named as the 2013 Dux of HBHS. The full list of prizewinners is as follows:

(List cont)

Congratulations to the HBHS Under 18 Four on their silver medal in this afternoon's Springbok Shield final at the 2014 Maadi Regatta.  The crew consisted of Theo Krielen, Matthew Munro, Sam Macky, Drikus Conradie and cox Hayden Shaw, and was coached by Bruce Holden.  Well done to all of the medal winners in today's races, and good luck to all of the crews in tomorrow's finals.  Go HBHS!

The Under 18 pair and the the Under 17 eight have both won silver medals as the Maadi Regatta heads into finals mode today and tomorrow.  The Under 16 four will race their final at 1.25pm, and the Under 15 eight will race at 3.05pm.  The Under 18 four, consisting of Ryan Rasmussen, Alex Bardoul, Drikus Conradie, Tom Healey and coxwain Ben McPherson will race for the Springbox Shield at 3.50pm.  The High Achiever will be following these races this afternoon, and will post the results as soon as traffic and technology permit.  We wish the crews the very best of luck!

Between the 21st  to the 23rd of June, Phil Simms attended an open Oceania Athletics Championships.  There were 22 countries participating at this event .  New Zealand and Australia were the strongest teams present, so this year, the organisers decided to allocate separate medals for the west and the east of the area.  This meant that New Zealand and Australia were not in the same zone, so it gave smaller countries a chance to gain a medal.

On the first day, Phil ran a very good time of 54.42 in the 400m hurdles.  This time was good enough to secure him a silver medal from the eastern zone.  He was only 0.2 seconds behind the winner, who also represented New Zealand.  Later on that day, Phil ran out of the blocks to lead the way for New Zealands’  4 by 400m relay.  The team came second to the quick Fijians.  Phil ran the same leg as the 19 year old who broke the 100m and 200m Oceania record.

On the second day, Phil competed in the 4 by 100m relay.  Despite being taped up from head to toe and looking like a mummy, from running injuries as well as poolside antics, he bought the team home in second to the same Fijian youth from the day before.