High School Corner

Advanced School Science Academy

Shaymas Carroll and Matt Simpson have been selected to attend the Otago University Advanced School Science Academy next year. This is a fantastic opportunity for these students to be introduced to cutting edge research by means of practical projects. The academy is held over two 5 day residential camps at the University and on-line support during the year through the “Virtual Academy”. The goal of the science camps is to introduce the students to the world of research through a range of practical projects that will excite, challenge, inspire and motivate them to excel in their final year’s schooling on their way to a career in science. The Academy is fully funded including all flights, food and accommodation and the boys should enjoy a great experience attending the OUASSA during next year.
Mr Armond, HoD Science

Junior Prizegiving
The junior prizegiving will be held on Friday 2nd December commencing at 11.30 am. Parents are asked to be seated by 11.15 am so a prompt start can be made.
Junior Graduation reports will be posted to all parents during Activities Week. All final accounts should be paid by then. Students who have paid in full for their school donation will recieve a copy of the school magazine on the last day of school - 8 December for juniors and 9 December for seniors.

Activities Week

Junior students are currently organising themselves into activities for the last week of school. With over a dozen choices from movie buffs to overnight camps and fishing there is something to interest every student. All junior students are expected to attend school during this week.

Senior Prizegiving winners.

Adrian, Natasha and Daniel after Tuesday's prizegiving.

The senior prizegiving is over for another year and with an audience of 260 parents, grandparents and supporters it was an exciting time for the top students at our school.
Adrian Pitman was awarded Dux for 2011 while Natasha Sinclair-Taikato was named Proxime Accessit.

Daniel Stieller was awarded the Roodbeen Trophy as the e best all round senior student who shows dedication and commitment to the general life of the school. The Citation follows:

             This year’s recipient has been one of the student leaders of the Relay for Life, he has been involved in school activities such as the Student Council, the Ball Committee, the Peak Committee, the 40 Hour Famine, the Variety Concert, the 2010 Stage Challenge. He has also participated in a wide variety of Interhouse sporting activities. All of these have given this young man a high profile both in and outside of the school.

            He is a conscientious young man who has a great sense of social responsibility and has proven himself to be a person who puts ‘ideas into action’. He has shown an ability to motivate and help people in such a way that any task he has undertaken has had a successful conclusion.

           He is certainly dedicated and committed to our school and has been a fine ambassador for Stratford High School and a worthy recipient of this award.

Senior Sports winners were Taylor Bailey - sports woman of the year, Hamish Walker - sportsman of the year and Zack Taitoko - SHS Sportsperson for 2011.

 

Top year 12 student was Matthew Sullivan-Brown with Kathleen Robertson named as top year 11 student.



Matthew Sullivan-Brown Top Y12 student



Kathleen Robertson Top Y11 Student

High School Corner - Prizegiving

Senior Prizegiving

The senior prizegiving on Tuesday afternoon was well attended by the SHS community. The school Kapa Haka and choir entertained the parents and students during the ceremony. Congratulations to all students who received awards, the full list will be in Peak magazine while others will be published in the paper.
The junior prizegiving will be on Friday 2nd December and all parents and caregivers are invited to attend this graduation ceremony for all junior students.

Good luck to all students who will be sitting NCEA examinations which start on Thursday 10th November. Seniors are reminded that there will be two book return days Thursday 1st December and Friday 9th December. All books and other school materials (including sports uniforms) are to be returned to the library. Any senior uniform items that are no longer wanted may be dropped in on these days in a clean, sealable condition. A price and seller’s details are needed. The second-hand uniform sale is on Thursday 26th January in the school hall and is a fundraiser for the SHS Australian rugby tour team.

P H Keenan
Principal

High School Corner

Senior Prizegiving
All parents and caregivers are invited to the senior prizegiving on Tuesday 8th November commencing at 1.00pm. We ask that parents are seated by 12.50 pm to ensure a prompt start. The prizegiving will be followed by afternoon tea for parents and prizewinners.

Board of Trustees Academic Scholarships Awarded
At the recent meeting the Board of Trustees awarded five scholarships to students who sat the scholarship examinations in August. The awardees are: Jordan Wood (St Josephs), Tessa Smith (Kaponga), Caitlin Reardon (Ngaere), Dylan Trott (Toko) and Thor Howatson (Toko). The continuation of the scholarship is dependent on academic success at each year level.

Thank you to all parents and schools who allowed students time to sit the examinations at the school.

Next Newsletter
A newsletter will be posted given to all students this week. Activity week booklets will be handed out to junior students on Friday.

P H Keenan
Principal

Term 4 Starts

Andrew Hunger
2011-2012 Student Trustee

New student trustee
Congratulations to Andrew Hunger who has been elected as the 2011 – 2012 Student Trustee for the SHS Board of Trustees. There were ten students who put themselves forward for this position so it made for an exciting election period. Andrew attended his first board meeting in October. Many thanks to Astyn Buckland who has been the current Representative.

Senior Prizegiving

All parents and caregivers are invited to the senior prizegiving on Tuesday 8th November commencing at 1.00pm. We ask that parents are seated by 12.50 pm to ensure a prompt start. The prizegiving will be followed by afternoon tea for parents and prizewinners.

Final Payments
All parents and caregivers are encouraged to pay all outstanding accounts for students. The money has been outlayed on behalf of your student for their course this year. Any money outstanding for curriculum or sports means that next year there will not be as much funding in departments as these debts will have to be covered by the MOE funding.

Board Of Trustees Strategic Plan - Community Consultation

The Board of Trustees are reviewing and finalising the strategic plan for 2012—2014. The first draft of this plan is on the school website and has been posted to parents. If you would like to comment on this please email the Board of Trustees bot@stratfordhigh.school.nz or send a letter to the board via the main office of the school.
Also on the school website are two surveys which you can complete. The first concerns the strategic plan and the second concerns the school uniform review.
Uniform Survey: https://www.surveymonkey.com/s/7CXM6VQ

Junior Parent Interviews
Junior parents will be able to meet with teachers on Thursday 27th October from 7 pm to 9pm in the school assembly hall. Booking sheets were included with the graduation reports.

Mr P Keenan, Principal

Interview evening

Interview evening and reports.
Parents and caregivers of senior students are invited to attend an interview evening on Thursday 6th October from 5 pm to 7.00 pm in the assembly hall. Interview sheets will be posted on Thursday along with the school newsletter.
The school will be posting out Graduation Report 4 to all junior students on Thursday along with the school newsletter. Parents of Junior students will have an interview evening on Thursday 27th October.

Congratulations
• Laureen Cox (Y12) competed in the TSSSA cycling champs on Sunday September 4 in Lepperton. She rode in a mixed team with NPBHS and NPGHS around a 16km course and placed 3rd in the senior girl’s individual time trial event around a 16km course.
• To Crystal Melville-Grace (Y13) who came third in the Taranaki Foodstuffs Checker of the Year competition recently.
• Taranaki Zone Chess Championships held recently with the following results for our students. James Burt 1st place Gold; Tayla Corbett 2nd place Silver, Top Girl Gold; Cameron Luckhurst 3rd place Bronze. With fourth member Rowan Meads the team won the Top team Gold medal as well. They are currently waiting on confirmation for their place in the Chess Power Interschool National Championship to be held in Auckland on October 4th.

Poutama
We were recently privileged to have Shane Jordan as a guest speaker at our Poutama assembly. A Stratford High School old boy, Shane Jordan has been chopping since he was 15 years old. He told us that he developed an interest when Bruce Reichardt from Douglas was training some young guys at school.

When he left school, Shane trained as a helicopter engineer and went to work in Taupo. He was fortunate to have a great coach and mentor who spent his days sourcing wood for Shane to chop. Shane stressed the importance of surrounding yourself with people who believe in the dreams you have for yourself. Shane cuts hundreds of training logs, spends many early mornings at the gym and late nights adjusting and perfecting his equipment. This training ensures he is physically and mentally prepared. He has kept very many people in firewood along the way.

He has competed and represented NZ in the USA, Spain, Austria and Australia. He has held numerous titles throughout the North Island and was also a member of the NZ team which set a new World record in Austria. He showed us a video of how he achieved his goal of competing in the American Stihl series. Shane told us he was planning an attempt at a New Zealand record in Inglewood in a few weeks’ time. We have since learned that he achieved his goal. In the standing block he carved close to two seconds off the previous record, set in 2005, of 18.63s. Shane's mark is 16.64s.

Shane’s advice for our students was that they can do anything they want to if they believe in themselves and set their mind to it.
P H Keenan
Principal