Avondale College will be closing early on Friday 25 February 2022 at 12.30pm. This is to enable staff to attend a PPTA Union Meeting. Please note, that all the Pavlovich and Ritchies school buses will be departing Avondale College at 12.30pm; however, the NZ Bus service to Glendene is unavailable at this time. A small number of non-union staff will be available to supervise students if required. Should your child need supervision for the afternoon please email admin@avcol.school.nz.

Year 13 Avcol fashion design student Hazel Winlove appeared on TV1's Seven Sharp programme on Tuesday after a sustainable outfit she designed was selected to be modelled on the catwalk at NZ Fashion Week in the Miromoda showcase. Sadly the event was cancelled, but they still put the news story to air. You can watch it here: https://www.tvnz.co.nz/shows/seven-sharpIndigenous fashion company takes show online after NZ Fashion Week cancellation

The Trusts Stadium in Waitakere was in full action on Sunday 20 February, with some of New Zealand's big stars of Track and Field taking part in the Sir Graham Douglas International Meet - including Avcol Alumnus, Lex Revell-Lewis. Running in the blue Auckland singlet, Lex achieved a new personal best time of 10.81s in the men's 100m race, before going on to run the permit standard 400m men's race, where he smashed his personal best time from last week, to secure a second win with 47.49s. This places him at 6th in the world rankings for now, and his time of 47.49s has also qualified him for World Athletics Junior Champs. Athletics New Zealand wrote of Lex’s performance “It was a memorable day for 17-year old Lex Revell-Lewis (Waitakere), who impressed on his home track to win race two of the 100m in a massive new PB of 10.81 (+1.5m/s). He later returned to snatch top spot in race two of the men’s 400m, destroying his previous one-lap best by more than a second to defeat national senior 800m and 400m champions – James Preston and Hamish Gill – in a time of 47.49.” We look forward to watching Lex's progress over the remaining few weeks of the New Zealand athletics season.

Avondale College was lucky enough to win a scholarship sponsored by the Round the Bays Youth Sports Fund to enter a team into the Hillary Challenge 6 Hour Adventure Race on 29 May in Rotorua. The team, which consists of four girls and four boys from Year 13 had the opportunity to attend a training weekend at the Hillary Outdoors Centre in Tongariro. They participated in several different activities, learning navigation skills, paddling in different crafts and getting to know the strengths and weaknesses of their team. They learnt how to belay with different devices and solved many different problems, strengthening their team's communication style under the guidance of one of the trained Hillary instructors. The weekend was a valuable experience for the team, which will be used as a kickstart into the training schedule to prepare for the big event in May. The Avondale College Adventure Race Team: Dan Parkinson Kohin Fulop Luca Latham Nathan Powell Namita Misherwan Shyah Hale Lily Hanlan Simran Karan

A very special ceremony was held at Government House on 28 January, for the presentation of the Sir George Elliot Tertiary Scholarships to three students - one of whom was from Avondale College. Hirimaia Eketone, who was an Avcol Deputy Prefect last year, and also the Avondale College Board of Trustees' Student Representative in 2020 and 2021, was awarded the prestigious scholarship by the Governor General, Dame Cindy Kiro. Each year the Sir George Elliot Charitable Trust awards three Sir George Elliot Tertiary Scholarships worth $25,000 towards the cost of tertiary study. Successful candidates must be able to demonstrate academic achievement, leadership in their school and wider community, and that they have overcome adverse life experiences to have attained those qualities. The scholarships are keenly contested each year. The Trust receives a large number of applications from which it short lists six candidates. The candidates who are shortlisted are all interviewed to determine the successful three. Hirimaia will be attending Auckland University, where she is enrolled in a conjoint Bachelor of Arts and Bachelor of Music degree.

Regarded as the most challenging assessment available to secondary students, New Zealand Scholarships provide recognition and monetary reward to top students in their last year of schooling. Candidates are assessed against challenging standards and are expected to demonstrate high-level critical thinking, abstraction and generalisation, and to integrate, synthesise and apply knowledge, skills, understanding, and ideas to complex situations. The results of the 2021 examinations were announced last week, and 32 NZ Scholarships in 13 different subjects were gained by Avondale College students! Of particular note is Leon Sun's achievement of an Outstanding Scholarship in Chemistry, placing him amongst the very highest of achievers in New Zealand. Also of note are three students who each achieved three Scholarships: Nico Davies in Biology, Chemistry and Physics; Aditya Tendulkar in Physics, Statistics, Calculus; and Elijah Kasmara in English, History and Classical Studies. Four students (Yoana Llenaresas, Ye Qian Shi, Deiza Talreja and Mary Wang) achieved Scholarships while still in Year 12; and one student, Luca De Biasio, achieved a Calculus Scholarship while only in Year 11! Congratulations to all our high achievers on their success! NZ SCHOLARSHIPS 2021 Riya Balia - Biology Tristram Barraclough - Physics Toby Barrett - Music Nico Davies - Biology, Chemistry, Physics Miles Davies - Classical Studies Luca De Biasio - Calculus Nuala Edmundson - Classical Studies Nishita Ganatra - Accounting Gayatri Ganesh - Physics, Calculus Brooke Gapes - Statistics Joo-Yeon Jeong - Calculus Mio Kamiya - Painting Elijah Kasmara - English, History, Classical Studies Yoana Llenaresas - Biology Anna Neumann - Painting Moi Oki - Japanese Nilam Patel - Design Tina Quach - Statistics Ye Qian Shi - Statistics Leon Sun - Chemistry (O), Physics, Calculus Deiza Talreja - Biology Aditya Tendulkar - Physics, Statistics, Calculus Mary Wang - Calculus Nico Davies - Three NZ Scholarships

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The management of a widespread COVID-19 outbreak across New Zealand is very much part of our thinking and planning as we start the 2022 school year. As we have done over the past two years, the wellbeing of our students, staff and community will always be at the heart of any decisions that we make. We are now operating under the COVID-19 Protection Framework at Red. The health measures are quite similar to those that we used in school last term, so will be familiar to many in our community. Our updated Safety Plan at CPF Red is on our website. Click here to view. The most important things that we can do to protect ourselves during a COVID-19 outbreak are: Get vaccinated. Please ask your child to log their vaccine details on our Student Register. They may also be asked to show their Vaccine Pass to some of our staff, eg Sports Department, Music Department. Follow public health guidelines Stay home if unwell and get tested Wear a surgical mask, follow good hygiene practice, prioritise ventilation, use hand sanitiser Maintain physical distancing, especially from people that you don’t usually come into contact with. The Ministry of Education are committed to maintaining face-to-face teaching and learning through 2022. However, it’s possible that some or all students may be unable to learn onsite and we will work with those students to maintain distance learning. More information about the Ministry of Education’s COVID-19 planning for schools is on their website. An important part of students being able to maximise their learning both at school and at home, is each student having a laptop so that they can connect to their classes Microsoft Teams pages. Please read the information about BYOD in the newsletter. Click here to view. Events and activities Large hui, events and gatherings, especially when indoors, continue to be one of the riskier activities we can undertake. We have therefore reviewed all our events and activities for the upcoming term to ensure we meet the health guidance for Red. At the moment we are not holding assemblies or large meetings. We ask that visitors only come on site if absolutely necessary, and as far as possible parents should make an appointment with the relevant person before coming to school. Physical Education, Performing Arts and Sport Most Physical Education, Dance and Sport activities are currently operating under Sport New Zealand guidelines. Our Music Department is also working to published guidelines, which are stringent, particularly for singing and wind instruments. The various guidelines allow for carefully managed activities to take place in school, however participation in all College Sport activities and most Performing Arts events requires students to present a My Vaccine Pass. Students will probably not be able to commit to a team or performing arts group if they do not have a Vaccine Pass. Unfortunately, spectators and audiences are not permitted at school events at CPF Red. Face coverings All staff and students must wear face coverings when at school when we are at Red. Staff are mandated to wear surgical masks. Students must wear a proper mask, which could include a surgical mask, a single use, disposable masks, or re-usable fabric masks, ideally with three layers. Masks are available for students at our College Shop. If your child has an exemption from wearing a mask please communicate this to their Dean or our School Nurse. Managing cases in our school We have good contact tracing systems in place so that if there is a confirmed case who has been at school while infectious, we can quickly identify who was a close contact of that person. We will then quickly advise those contacts of what they need to do. It is extremely unlikely that school would close fully due to COVID-19, although if case numbers amongst staff or students are high we may consider rostering students home for some days. Only if the Ministry of Health or the Ministry of Education advises to do so, would we consider completely closing school for face-to-face learning, and moving to distance learning for everyone. At Red we will keep everyone learning onsite for as long as we can. Contact details Please make sure the family contact details we have on file for you are up to date, so we can get in touch with you if needed. If you have any questions, concerns or need help in any way please contact your child’s Home Room Teacher, Class Teachers, Dean or Deputy Principal as appropriate. All of our staff contact details are on our website. Lyndy Watkinson Principal

Dear Parents and Caregivers - please see the attached letter for important information relating to a case of COVID-19 in our community.

Avondale College is delighted to announce the appointment of a new Deputy Principal, Ms Jacky Lee. Ms Lee has been Head of Junior Social Science at Avondale College for 7 years, and is also a teacher of Geography and Travel and Tourism. Last year Ms Lee stepped into the role of Acting DP in June, and her appointment was made permanent at the end of 2021. Ms Lee will oversee the areas of Sports, Co-Curricular and Taurewa Camp, as well as Year 13 at Avondale College. She says her favourite thing about the College is the students. "I enjoy the diversity they bring and learning from them as they journey through the school."

A focus on excellence and a lot of hard work has seen two Avondale College students top the world in their Cambridge exams! Justin Yang (Year 11) came first in the world in the IGCSE English exam, with a raw mark of 99%; and Seivin Kim topped the world in the IGCSE Mathematics exam, gaining 100% - while only in Year 10! It's an astonishing achievement, given that students from 140 countries and more than 4500 schools around the world take the Cambridge International qualification. Each year there are over 700,000 subject entries for Cambridge IGCSE exams alone. Factor in the additional challenges posed by Auckland's extended lockdown last year, and it becomes obvious that these are two very remarkable students indeed. Seivin, who was also named as Avondale College's Junior Dux for 2021, says she had done a lot of revision of past papers in the lead up to the two Mathematics exams, and she came out of the exam rooms feeling quietly confident. "There weren't any questions that I felt I had definitely got wrong," she says. However, she was still surprised to get the news that she had gained all possible 200 marks, along with the Top in the World result. Justin also came out of his two English exams feeling pleased with the way they had gone, but certainly didn't expect he had done well enough to take out the top position. "It felt quite surreal when I heard the news," he says. Justin puts his success down to lots of hard work and revision, and says he has been inspired by Aristotle's famous quotation about excellence: “We are what we repeatedly do. Excellence, then, is not an act, but a habit.” It's a habit that both students look forward to developing further in their studies this year. We wish them well!

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