Kia ora, Kia orana, Talofa Lava, Fakalofa lahi atu, Malo e lelei, Namaste, Ni Hao, Greetings

Issue 7/17 24 October 2017

NEWSLETTER

SENIOR PRIZEGIVING

Friday 3 November in the DWC

at 11 a.m.

Parents and caregivers of our Year 12 and 13 students and

of our Prizewinning Year 11 students are invited to attend

our Senior Prizegiving on Friday 3 November. Prizegiving

is always a very special occasion where we acknowledge and

celebrate the achievements of our senior students.

All of our Year 12 and 13 students must attend Prizegiving

and Year 11 Prizewinners must also attend.

All other Year 11 students are welcome to attend but they

must be in full school uniform, alternatively they may

choose to spend the day studying at home. There will be no

school for our Year 9 and 10 students on Friday 3 Novem-

ber.

School buses will run at the normal time in the morning on

Friday 3 November, but there will be no school bus after

Prizegiving and students will need to find their own way

home. We expect that the ceremony will last approximate-

ly 2 hours.

Our Senior Prizegiving is always a very well attended event

and parking is limited, so if you plan on attending it would

be a good idea to get here as early as possible.

Year 11 students will be given their final reports to bring

home on Thursday 2 November and Year 12 and 13 girls will

get their reports on Friday 3 November.

The first day back to school next year for Year 11, 12 and 13

students will be Thursday 1 February when school will start

at 9.00 a.m. and finish at 2 p.m.

This will be our last Newsletter this year for our senior stu-

dents.

AGGS FACEBOOK PAGE

We now have an official AGGS Facebook page where we will

post items of news and other items that we think will be of

interest to you. Here is the link

https://www.facebook.com/AucklandGirlsGrammarSchool/

Our website www.aggs.school.nz is also kept up to date and

is a useful source of information.

External examinations start on Thurs-

day 9 November and finish on Friday 1

December.

Your daughter should now be revising each evening and on the weekends. Subject teachers will also be providing lunchtime tutorials and other revision and study opportu-nities. Please encourage your daughter to attend these.

Please make sure that you go through the Examination Booklet and the examination timetable with your daughter and that you keep them both in a handy location.

The NCEA external examination timetable is printed on page 2 of this Newsletter Important Examination remind-ers are on page 3. Please ensure that you and your daugh-ters are familiar with these

The i-Centre will be open every school day during the examinations from 7.30 a.m. to 5 p.m. and is an ideal place if your daughter wants a quiet place to study with access to resources and technology. Students are also reminded that they need to return any library books to the i-Centre before the examinations start.

SCHOOL UNIFORM FOR

YEAR 13 STUDENTS IN 2018

The Board of Trustees has approved all Year 13 students

wearing school uniform from Term 1 2018.

A special shirt has been designed for Year 13 students

only and this will be compulsory, along with a school tie.

The rest of the school uniform will be the same as what

your daughters are wearing now.

Students will be shown the new shirt and tie at an as-

sembly next week and purchase details will be e-mailed

to all Year 12 parents, before the end of Term 4 and will

also be available on our website and Facebook page.

Our Year 13 students are the student leaders of our

school and we feel strongly that a distinctive school uni-

form will identify them as role models and leaders of our

younger students and will help to promote school pride

throughout the school.

The Board has also made this decision because of Health

and Safety concerns, as a school uniform will make all of

our students recognizable as being AGGS girls.

Important Examination Reminders

Check the timetable to be sure of the date and start time for each examination. Morning exams start at 9.30 a.m. and afternoon ex-ams start at 2 p.m.

Students should arrive at least 20 minutes before the start of each

examination.

Students who arrive more than 30 minutes after the exam has

started will not be allowed to enter the exam room. Missed exam-

inations cannot be done at a later date

Allow plenty of time to get to each examination – being stuck in

traffic is not an acceptable excuse for being late!

Students must take their admission slips to every exam, which

must be face up on the desk during all exams.

If lost, students can reprint the admission slip by logging onto their

learner login on the NZQA website. This must be signed by Ms

Lamberton before students will be allowed to sit the exam.

Students must also bring photo ID to each exam, such as a school

ID card, driver’s licence etc.

Students must bring their own pens, pencils and calculator (if ap-

proved). Students must not bring any blank or refill paper into the

exam room.

SPORTS AWARDS 2017

Our Annual Sports Awards will be held on Thursday 26th October between 1:20 and 3:20pm

in the DWC. This year’s special guest is Silver Fern and former AGGS student, Phoenix Karaka.

Our Sports Awards are an opportunity to recognise the fabulous achievements of our sporting

students whilst also acknowledging the contribution of the many volunteers that give up their

time to make sport possible at AGGS.

All students that have represented the school in sporting activities this year are expected to

attend. Parents and whanau of award recipients are warmly invited to attend our Sports Awards.

Term 4 Sport has already begun

with touch and volleyball getting

underway in week one. We ad-

vise students to pay careful

attention to the daily student

notices and the AGGS Sport Face-

book Page as there are a number

of one-day events like Rugby 7s,

Softball and Lawn Bowls that stu-

dents can take part in.

Waka Ama

Junior Waka Ama training has been moved to Fridays between 5

and 7pm, which is a major change from the information circulated in the

original permission slips.

Students have been informed of this change through the Year 9 & 10 assem-

blies; student notices and at a meeting held on Tuesday 17th October.

New permission forms have been given to all Waka Ama students and these

will need to be returned to the Sports Department before any student can

take to the water.

NEW STUDENT REPRESENTATIVE

ON THE BOARD OF TRUSTEES

Congratulations to Year 12 student, Lauryn

Patea , who was recently elected as the Stu-

dent Trustee on the Board. Lauryn’s first

meeting was the Board’s September meeting

and her term on the Board is for one year to

September 2018. Lauryn replaces our Deputy

Head Girl, Chante Leafa, who has made a sig-

nificant contribution to the work of the Board.

BOARD MEETINGS FOR THE REMAINDER OF

THIS YEAR

Tuesday 31 October

Tuesday 28 November and

Tuesday 12 December

All Board meetings are at 5.30 p.m. in the Ju-

bilee Library. Members of the public are wel-

come to attend.

AGGS SPORT

TERM 4 SPORT

07/17 Page 4

BASKETBALL NATIONALS - PALMERSTON NORTH—OCTOBER SCHOOL HOLIDAYS

The 2017 AGGS Premier Basketball Team (it’s cold in Palmerston North!) We had high hopes for this competition

as the reigning Auckland Premier and

Regional Champions.

Early games were really promising as our

team beat its first four opponents before

playing Hamilton Girls in the final game

of pool-play. We had had won against

Hamilton in April and were confident of

doing so again. Sadly we started slowly

and our recovery was too late. The loss

left us second in our pool and while we

advanced to the quarter finals, we found

ourselves on the same side of the draw

as all the teams who finished 1st, 2nd, 3rd

and 4th last year.

The Quarter finals saw an epic rematch

with Mt Albert Grammar School that was

probably our best match at nationals. Like the Auckland Premier final it was AGGS who triumphed, and like the Auckland

Premier final it was by a single point!

The next day the team faced two-time reigning champions St Peters Cambridge. The first quarter of the match was dominat-

ed by AGGS as we were able to neutralise their attack and finish the quarter with an 8 point lead. In the second quarter St

Peters was able to break our defence and their higher conversion rate saw them take the lead and dominate the rest of the

game ending our hopes for a first national basketball title. In the final match a much deflated AGGS won against Melville

High School in the play-off for 3rd Place. At the end of the tournament we finished 3rd, the top position for any girls team

from Auckland and the same position we finished last year.

Congratulations to all the players for a great campaign and a successful season. Special congratulations and farewell to Mele

Latu who was selected in the New Zealand Secondary School Tournament Team. Farewell also to captain Karma Skilton-

Roberts and Rionne Papa who during their time at AGGS have played more than 100 premier games for the school. We

also say good bye to Lucy Keung and Mariah and Tevena Ropati who are also leaving this year and a huge thank you to coach-

es John Subritzky and Miu Tuala for their continued support. Thanks also to the many supporters who travelled to Palmer-

ston North to support our girls and to all the many well wishers who text messages of support and watched the live streams

of the games. We’ll be back next year.

YEAR 10 AGGS BP BUSINESS CHALLENGE

In September, about eighty five Year 10 students took part in the

BP Business Challenge, which was held over three days.

In teams we had to dream up a new product, prepare a business

plan for it, then present our work to a panel of real business peo-

ple, who acted as judges.

From working with others, meeting new people, choosing a CEO

and deciding on other roles, it was a great 3 day opportunity and

a wonderful chance to gain some insight into what is involved in

being in business. The best part for me was being able to present

our product (Memory 2000) to the judges. I would recommend

this course! By Marara Havea, Y10

NGA TUMANAKO O KAHURANGI

NZ Women’s Golf Open Celebration

A big mihi to our Kahurangi students who performed for Lyd-ia Ko and other professional golf players at the opening cere-mony of the NZ Women’s Golf Open. It was a successful evening for our students and a lot of dedication was shown in the preparation for a strong performance. Lydia Ko was absolutely amazed with our Kapa Haka group and the stu-dents represented AGGS very well. Well done Hayvn Adams and Shaadiya-Lee Filoa for your outstanding leadership and your commitment to ensuring that the performance was perfect. Nga mihi e nga tuakana otira, nga kohine katoa o Kahurangi!

BLACK FERNS welcome home celebration

What a way to finish Term 3! Kahurangi was honoured to per-form for our Black Ferns, New Zealand’s dominant team in women’s rugby worldwide. This performance was for the pur-pose of celebrating and supporting the Black Ferns for bring-ing home the World Cup. Our students also had the privilege of being able to listen to what went on during their world competition tour. The performance was live streamed across the nation and students received very positive feedback from players and the public. As a reward, our Kahurangi students were able to take photos with the Black Ferns. You make AGGS so proud Kahurangi! Ka mau te wehi!

KAHURANGI WHANAU HUI

On Wednesday 1 November 2017

6 p.m. Refreshments followed by the Hui from 6.30 p.m. to 8 p.m.

This will be an important hui where information about the upcoming Kahurangi Review, which has been commissioned

by the Board of Trustees, will be shared. We encourage parents and caregivers of our Kahurangi students to attend.

Professor Tania Ka’ai who will be conducting the Kahurangi Review will present details of the planned review at the

hui.

DEDICATION OF HEADSTONE TO SARAH SOPHIA STOTHARD

founding Principal of Auckland Girls Training and High School in 1877. The girls Training and High School was the forerun-

ner of Auckland Girls and Epsom Girls’

Grammar Schools.

When it was discovered that Miss Sto-

thard was lying in an unmarked grave

at Purewa Cemetery, Old Girls of

Auckland and Epsom Girls organized a

fundraising campaign to purchase a

suitable headstone.

On Tuesday 17 October in a moving

ceremony attended by Old Girls of

both schools, the headstone was un-

veiled and dedicated by the Dean of

Trinity Cathedral assisted by a small

group of Kahurangi students.

From Wednesday the 27th to Thursday the 28th of Septem-ber, one small group of Auckland Girls’ Grammar students, Me, myself included ventured off into the unknown. Daydreaming into space, we passed our van journey along quintessential country roads and celebrated with chocolate splendor. I marched along with my fellow comrades along the har-rowing trail, glowing with vibrance in the first half and dy-ing in the second half. Nearly there, we hit the Captain Bou-gainville Monument taking a few well deserved selfies served with a cup of hot chocolate. At the end of the day, left aching to our bones we retired to our cabins feasting on nachos. We danced to music, squar-ing some dance offs. Ending with spooky stories as well as rampant laughter. Morning rise, we set off again. Tracking along the beaches, we passed them leaving only the imprints of our footsteps in the face of the sand. Tide in, we treaded ever so carefully across the rocks to get to the next beach. Ending our journey, I can definitely say that highlight on the way back was staring at the collapsed tunnel that used to lead to Mermaid Pool. We all shivered at the thought that anyone had been inside. Overall, I have to say that during this journey, I learnt a lot about my fellow peers, teamwork and experiencing the great outdoors. It was definitely the best sleepover ever! Amy Goodier, Year 11

Duke of Edinburgh Bronze Award Students—Whananaki Adventure

AA Defensive Driving Course

Take 6 months off your restricted drivers license time with an AA Defensive Driving Course. This course is offered for $185 which is a discounted rate to Auckland Girls Grammar students and is available to both learner and restricted drivers license holders.

Course starts 1st December 2017 and is held at Auckland Grammar School. Places are limited.

To book or for more information please email: aadefensivedrivingcourses@gmail.com or phone 022104061

MIT AGGS HORTICULTURE EXPO

At the end of Term 3 our students were treated to a day’s

practical experience of what a career in horticulture or as an

aborist might entail, when a group of tutors and students

from MIT set up a classroom on the front lawn. A few lucky

senior students got to try their hand at being aborists and

many others helped with planting herb boxes and spent

time talking to our visitors about the courses that MIT

offers .

Flying high—cellphone in hand!