newsletter #7 - Blue Mountain College

12 Sept 2013
Dear Parents/Caregivers
He aha te mea nui o te Ao
He Tangata, He Tangata, He Tangata
Ti Hei Mauri Ora
Tena koutou nga Matua me nga Kaitiaki
The middle part of the Term has been full-on as always. One of the cultural highlights of the year occurred on 14 August with the staging of the Performing Arts
Festival. Thanks to the great organisational work done by the staff team of Miss
Liz Waples, Mrs Vicki Crawford, Mrs Lyn Marwick and Miss Stephanie Green
along with all of the teaching staff the day ran without a hitch and we were delighted to be able to host a large number of parents and supporters as well as students
from our main contributing schools. Mr Jim Erridge provided his usual witty commentary throughout the event and we are very grateful to this year’s adjudicator
Mrs Jane Mathews who sported a huge supportive smile for every performance
and then honoured us all with an outstanding performance of her own to round off
the day.
Apart from the excellent variety in the programme and polished presentations
across the range of performing arts, the major highlight for me was the way our
whole school community responded to and supported all of those who had taken
the personal risk of performing in public. I was so proud of each and every one of
our students and the whole day had an awesome positive vibe to it.
NEWSLETTER #7
Blue Mountain College
Tenei te mihi atu kia koutou
Many of you were able to see some of the raft of talent that abounds in our school
in the Pot Pourri concerts the following week.
Week 3 saw the Year 7 & 8 students being treated to some quality learning in regard to making
healthy choices, when the Life Education Bus came to us. The educator Pip reported that they
responded very well and carried themselves respectfully and responsibly in this high-tech and
stimulating mobile learning environment.
It was great to have Regional Sports Director Nicki Paterson and a team of specialist coaches
here at the end of the week to provide some quality skill development sessions for our students
in a range of sports.
Week 4 began with an excellent
assembly presentation from
Year 13 student Alex Falconer in
relation to his adventures on the
Spirit of New Zealand and this
was followed up with Miss Anna
Pennicott bringing the Attitude
team to the College to give a
range of positive health-related
presentations to students from
Years 9-13.
After much anticipation students and teachers began
working in the new Mathematics/Science learning
space on 20 August, following a brief blessing
ceremony led by Matua Hone, Mr Edward Hutchison
and our Year 13 students. Everyone is loving the new
light, airy and visually stimulating accommodation and
we look forward to showing it off to you at the official
opening on 18 October.
Mrs Kay Roughan has been doing a lot of research
work around updating our wireless network to allow
both students and staff to maximise the capacity our
ultra-fast broadband connection provides and the
BOT recently approved the installation of 12 Ruckus units which gives us coverage for all of the
school buildings. Thanks to her conscientious work we were able to do this at an extremely
competitive cost which frees up resourcing for the purchase of further pods of laptops and
iPads for student use.
At the end of Week 4 Matua Hone and Matua Piripi took a group of our keen Kapa Haka students
to perform in the Murihiku Polyfest in Bluff. They combined with students from Gore High School,
St Peter’s College and Longford Intermediate School and as expected carried themselves with
real mana and represented BMC with style.
Our Claybird Shooters under the expert tutelage of Mr Alan Gunn, Mr Ron Finlayson and Mr
Kevin Baxter defeated Caitlin’s Area School in their inter-school fixture on 23 August.
That afternoon our SADD committee had arranged for a mock crash to take place on the
boundary of our school grounds. They had done a superb job and we are extremely grateful to
our local policeman, Mr John Mawhinney, the members of the Tapanui Fire Brigade and St
John for the very realistic response they provided to the accident and to the team at South West
Autos for supplying the vehicle. Our students got a very sobering and up-close and personal
demonstration of what the consequences of students driving drunk could potentially be and at
the same time developed a much greater understanding of the challenging and important work
that voluntary organisations in our community do to look after us all.
The beginning of Week 5 saw a cultural treat for the whole
school when we hosted the Kahurangi Maori Dance Company
in the WOTS Theatre on 26 August. This talented and
high-energy group took us on a mesmerizing journey as we
followed the voyage of the Takitimu Canoe, through
Polynesia to Aotearoa during the great migration. The
programme included traditional dances from Tahiti, Hawaii,
Samoa and the Cook Islands.
Thanks to the great organisational work done by Mrs Lynette
Young with support from Mrs Liz
Murray and a fabulous team of
parents/caregivers, our Year 7
students had a fantastic ski-trip
to Coronet Peak, with every
individual, including those who
had never skied before, getting
to the top of the chairlift by the
end of the two days. The staff
were delighted not only with this
achievement but also with the
excellent social responsibility
skills demonstrated by the
children. It was gratifying to
hear that our Positive Behaviour
for Learning (PB4L) behavioural
expectations were being lived
up to in this challenging outdoor
education environment;
ir2 = bmc = Year 7!
Mrs Liz Murray, with the generous support of her husband
Mr Bruce Murray arranged for two groups of students to
complete courses they had begun earlier in the year through
outside providers, in the form of Farm Machinery and
Shearing, on the weekend of 31 August. These are not only
NZQA accredited programmes which allow students to earn
NCEA credits but also provide an opportunity for developing
and solidifying extremely useful life skills.
The same weekend saw the beginning of Secondary Schools’ Winter Tournament Week. This
year we had two teams participating and I was lucky enough to watch some games at both the
Year 9 & 10 Girls’ Basketball in Dunedin and the SISS Netball in Christchurch. The former team
finished a creditable 5th and impressed with their skilful and gritty play and I’m grateful to their
coach Mrs Suzie Burrows (complete with her baby son on her hip), Manager Mrs Vicky Weller,
Mrs Nicky MacKenzie and our Sports Co-ordinator Mrs Sue Stark for the fabulous work they did
in fundraising and supporting this talented team in what was a first for BMC in entering this
tournament.
The Senior A Netball Team was equally impressive in finishing 18 th (2nd in the 2nd tier of B Grade)
after some excellent wins against teams from much larger schools and narrow losses by 1 and 3
goals respectively. In the final of the second section they lost by 7 to Mt Aspiring College and all
this after losing three of their top line-up players, through injury and leaving school, in the run-up
to the tournament. The new–look team pulled together wonderfully and quickly developed strong
combinations thanks to the encouraging work of their Coach Mrs Andrea McKee, Manager Mrs
Pauline Cormack and the College’s Netball Co-ordinator Mrs Janine Venz.
Another cultural opportunity also featured during Tournament Week with the Auckland Grammar
Stage Band giving a concert for us on 3 September. This was their second visit to BMC and
once again we couldn’t help but be impressed with their individual and collective virtuosity, with
my personal favourite being an instrumental arrangement of the Eagles’ classic Hotel California.
The next day a group of talented Year 7 & 8 students travelled to Roxburgh with Mr Jim Erridge
and Mr Regan Pretorius to take part in the BP Technology Challenge. They were impressive
indeed, emerging victorious in a number of the problem-solving assignments and bring home a
fist-full of prizes for their efforts.
It was heart-warming to see the way these students worked as a team and employed their collective creativity, initiative and thinking skills to approach the tasks, and were obviously having
so much fun doing it. This was another example of ir2 = bmc in action with myriad examples of
inclusiveness, respect, and responsibility being displayed throughout the course of the day.
No reira
Tena koutou, tena koutou, tena tatou katoa.
Naku na
Lindy Cavanagh-Monaghan
Te Tumuaki
2013 South Island Secondary School
Junior Girls’ Basketball Tournament
The Blue Mountain College Year nine and ten girls’ basketball team competed in the
Junior Secondary Schools’ South Island Premiership in Dunedin from 31st August to 2nd
September 2013. The members of this team were: Tamara Weller, Annie Mackenzie,
Olivia Borlase, Kate Heffernan, Georgia Heffernan, Tessa Kelly, Melissa Bain, Cindy
Weller, Ashleigh Reihana and we also borrowed Shoshanna Solamen from Fiordland
College. We departed from Tapanui by Minibus on Saturday morning at 8.30am
en route to the Aberdeen Motel in Dunedin with our tournament being held at the Edgar
Centre.
On day one, we started off with a convincing 80 – 26 win over Rangi Ruru Girls’
School. Tamara Weller top scored with 23 points, Kate Heffernan was close behind
with 22 points and Georgia Heffernan scored 15 points including one three pointer.
Tamara was also the top rebounder with eight. The girls dominated right from the first
quarter, putting a lot of defensive pressure on the opposition and created many
turn-overs (including ten turn-overs to Kate). The second game of the day was a very
hard fought battle against Villa Maria College. The Villa team was quite strong and the
game was extremely physical. The girls played very well but the opposition got off to a
better start and every time we closed the gap they would pull away again. The final
score was 56 – 42 to Villa Maria. Tamara top scored with 18 points and Georgia made
some wonderful long shots, finishing with 12 points. Tamara, Georgia and Mel Bain all
secured five rebounds each.
We played just one game on day two against Southland Girls’ High School. They were
a very well drilled team with a lot of representative players and after our tough game
the night before we struggled to get in the game. The final score was 62 – 11 with
Ashleigh Reihana scoring five points and Mel gaining five rebounds. Both Ashleigh
and Mel are new to basketball this season and show great promise in this sport. As
there were no more games for us on Sunday, the girls were able to go to the Otago
Boys’ and Ranfurly Shield Rugby games in the afternoon.
On the third day, we played off for 5th & 6th position against Taieri High School. Despite
a few injuries and some tired bodies we managed to put the pressure on the opposition
in the second half and pull away to a convincing 57 – 38 win. The girls had to dig deep
and play positively despite the physical nature of the game. Tamara was once again
top scorer with 19 points. Cindy Weller, who is only in Year 8 secured the most
rebounds with six which is a credit to her determination as she is certainly not the
tallest in the team! Tessa Kelly was relentless with her defence and forced the
opposition into making a number of errors.
This was the first time that a Blue Mountain College team has entered this tournament
and it proved to be an excellent challenge for the girls. The competition was certainly
tougher than they are used to but they worked well as a team and really showed some
determination to compete well at this level. All the girls have showed improvement
over the season and we hope to continue representing BMC at this tournament in the
future when possible. Many thanks to Vicky Weller (Assistant Coach) and Sue Stark
(Manager) for all the hard work they put into organising and managing the team.
Susie Burrows
Claybird Shooting
On Friday the 23rd August Blue Mountain College had a team of six students competing
against Catlins Area School in our annual Claybird Shoot. The weather was fantastic with little
wind and everyone enjoyed the afternoon tea before Catlins left.
Mr Ron Finlayson, Mr Allan Gunn and Mr Kevin Baxter were the coaches for the day. The Blue
Mountain College team was Harry Russell, Kaitlyn Baxter, Cameron Peat, Nathan Sanne, Kale
Hill-White, Sam Perkins.
After 3 rounds each Blue Mountain College scored 213 points to Catlins Area School 207
points.
Kale Hill-White top scored for BMC on 45 points closely followed by Year 8 pupil Harry Russell
on 43 with Kaitlyn Baxter third on 35.
Cameron and Nathan both scored 31 points with Sam Perkins on 28.
Well done to you all for a great shoot!
Student Achievements
Girls’ Rugby
Sinead Cormack has been selected in the Otago Secondary School Rugby team. Neve Veza and
Claudia Hickman also trialled for this team and are currently on standby.
Netball
The Development Netball team won the Gore New World 1st Reserve trophy and the Gold Team
won the Corry Family Trophy for Good Conduct in the Eastern Southland Competition.
Congratulations to Mrs Venz who was presented with the Coaches’ Trophy.
Rugby
Harrison Russell has been selected in the Under 13 Otago Country representative team
Elliot Hancox, Garth Devereux, Fraser Munro and Gavin Stark were nominated for the Southern
Region Rugby Awards.
Sinead Cormack won the ‘Southern Region Female Player of the Year’
Gavin Stark won the ‘Southern Region Under 18 Player of the Year’ and the ‘Southern Region
Overall Player of the Year’.
Under 18 and Under 15 Rugby Breakup presentations were made to the following players:
Under 15:
Under 18:
Best Back
Sam Perkins
Cyril Tamou
Best Forward
Fraser Munro
Elliot Hancox
Most Improved Player
Jake Bridson
Luke Vernon
Cross Country
BMC had 3 students competing at the Otago Primary Schools’ Cross Country held at Kaikorai
Valley College on Friday 6 September. Georgia Grant was placed 75 th out of 91, Jack Barrett was
36th along with Liam Criglington placed 55th out of 95 boys in the Year 7 section. Well done!
Year 8 Fundraising—Honey
Parents and Supporters of Year 8 Fundraising.
Our sincerest apologies for your late order of Honey. Unfortunately the company we
initially ordered from had a machine malfunction which meant that our order was very
late in coming. They then only provided us with half of our order and informed us after
this that they no longer produced honey. We have since had to source this honey from
elsewhere and it has been a long time in this order being filled as well. I am hoping
that we will have this Honey to you by the end of next week. This is our aim!
We are grateful for your continual support of our students as they fundraise for camp
later on this year, and hope that you will continue to encourage and support the
students of BMC despite this rather large hiccup.
Again my sincerest apologies for this mix up, and thank you for your patience.
Miss Liz Waples
Yr8 Fundraising Co-ordinator
NZQA FEES ARE DUE NOW!
Maths Tutorials
Year 11—Wednesday 3.30pm to 4.30pm
Year 12—Tuesday 7.30pm to 8.30pm in the Library
Term Planner
Sept 18 - 24
Senior Exams
September 18
Get to Go Challenge Year 9/10
September 27
End of Term 3