School News

Hamilton Boys High School student Simon Blanchett (Yr 13) won the Waikato DHB-supported Transfusion art competition in Hamilton tonight and received the top prize of a year’s free tuition at Wintec.

More than 150 year 12 and 13 painting students from around the Waikato entered the competition. The winning pieces are on display at Waikato Museum for a month and then hung in Waikato Hospital so the young artists can be assured of public appreciation of their work and be doubly sure that their art will make a real and lasting impact on the lives of others.

The Wintec scholarship allows for one year’s free tuition for a first year student enrolling fulltime in an undergraduate Media Arts programme.

Health Waikato chief operating officer Jan Adams said Transfusion was about the power of art and the power of the artist to influence the lives of others for the better.

Yr 11 IGCSE Economics student Thomas Simpson has placed first in the country in the year 12 section of the New Zealand Economics Competition. Kurt Reed came third in the Year 13 category. The boys would like to acknowledge the support and encouragement of Mrs Denise Weren, and the teachers of the Economics Department.

Thomas Simpson won the award for Best Individual Mooter in the 2011 University of Waikato Faculty of Law Secondary Schools Mooting Competition, held in June.

 Thomas Simpson, Chris Jury and Morgan Steel reached the semi-finals.

 Our first round teams comprised of: (1)  Isaac Whatnall, Thomas Campbell and Russell Nye-Wood and (2)  Scott Cameron, Neeraj Khatri and Nathan Budd.

 Waikato University Faculty of Law Secondary Schools Mooting Competition

 The mooting competition was established by Te Piringa - Faculty of Law to provide secondary school students a taste of the law. Just as in a law court, this competition pits teams of "lawyers" against one another to argue a legal case before a judge.

Since 2001 the competition has grown significantly each year, with more than 35 teams competing in the 2010 competition, with schools from Hawkes Bay, Taranaki, Auckland, Waikato and the Bay of Plenty taking part. The members of the winning team are each presented with book vouchers and a $3,000 scholarship to assist with the first year of study at Te Piringa - Faculty of Law. The winning team also receives the Secondary Schools' Mooting Trophy. In addition, there is an award for the Best Individual Mooter.

Year 12 Thomas Simpson recently returned from the World Schools Debating Championship in Scotland. He shared some of his experiences yesterday afternoon:

When did you leave?

We left on the 6th August, and have been away for about three weeks.  One week was spent in training in Sydney, and then we flew to Dundee for the actual tournament.

How many times did you personally compete?

There were five of us representing New Zealand; the competition teams consist of three speakers.  Throughout the tournament we were rotating speakers and speaking in different positions with different combinations of people each time.  I competed in six debates in total, of the nine that New Zealand was entered for.  I was happy with that.

We won all eight of our preliminary round debates, but then lost our first knock-out round in the octo-final to Singapore.  Singapore went on to win the entire competition. We qualified for knock-out rounds in second position, and came ninth overall.  Only New Zealand and England won all eight of the preliminary debates with only one dropped ajudicator.  What this means is that all three debate judges during each speech found 'for' us, except for one individual, in one instance.  This was a really pleasing result.

Waikato has defeated Wellington to win the Russell McVeagh New Zealand Schools' Debating Champs in the Grand Final held at Parliament this afternoon. It is the second year in a row that Waikato has won the competition.

The Waikato team (Christopher Jury, Thomas Simpson -photographed here with Neeraj Khatri - and Kayla Grant) argued against the proposition that people should have to pass a political literacy test before being allowed to vote.  

Christopher Bishop, the President of the New Zealand Schools’ Debating Council, said that the Grand Final was a great debate in a highly appropriate setting. "Waikato argued with passion that voting was an important human right, and that making people pass a test would be unfair and elitist. These arguments defeated the claims by Wellington that imposing a test would improve political literacy and decrease voter apathy about democracy." The final was the culmination of a weekend of debating between thirty six of New Zealand’s top secondary school students at Victoria University of Wellington.
 

The best five speakers at the tournament were named as members of the Russell McVeagh New Zealand Schools’ Debating Team, which will represent New Zealand at the World Schools’ Debating Champs in Turkey in February. The team consist of Thomas Simpson, James Penn (Captain, Wanganui High School), Edward Foley (Wellington College), Ashley Varney (Kings College) and Jemima Lomax-Saywers (St Mary's College, Wellington).

IPENZ WAIKATO BOP BRANCH SCHOLARSHIP AWARD 2011

• This annual Scholarship is open to applicants who enrol at the University of Waikato for their first year of study towards the Bachelor of Engineering (BE) degree in the School of Science and Engineering in the year of tenure

• The Selection Panel is directed to give preference to candidates of high academic calibre who will be expected to achieve at a high level in the engineering profession through qualities of integrity, competence, kindness, generosity, and leadership within the wider community allied to a strong commitment to the field of engineering.
 

At the June 2011 IPENZ Waikato BOP Branch meeting the Chairman Barry Dowsett presented the Branch Scholarship Awards for first year Batchelor of Engineering Students studying at our own Waikato University Engineering School. The judges reported that the selection this year was particularly difficult and complemented all participants upon their dedication to their studies and wished them every success in their careers.