Three Avondale College student leaders attended the World Vision Youth Conference on Monday 10 May. The global leadership event is designed to spark a passion for justice in young Kiwis, and equip them with leadership tools to create change both locally and globally. At the event they joined hundreds of other secondary school leaders from the upper North Island in learning about how to step into their leadership potential, and implement change in their schools and communities. There was a focus on deepening students' understanding some of the systemic injustices facing today's society and they also heard from inspiring guest speakers at the forefront of change in Aotearoa. "It was an inspiring and thought provoking conference, where we were able to learn tools to become better leaders and to make impactful changes in the world." - Grace Elijas, Year 13 The students are looking forward to helping to lead Avondale College's involvement in the upcoming 40 Hour Famine on 25-27 June. This year funds raised by World Vision's 40 Hour Famine will help protect children in sub-Saharan Africa from the hunger pandemic. Keep an eye on the Daily Notices for more information! https://www.worldvision.org.nz/connect/40-hour-famine/

We are so excited for alumna Maclani Michael who is heading to the USA on a full basketball scholarship to Utah State University Eastern! Congratulations, Maclani!

Don't miss our performing arts showcase on Thursday 13 May (at the end of the Teacher Only Day)! The evening will feature highlights from the performing arts, including: Performances from the Mega Schools Hip Hop Dance Crew and ensemble works from Level 1 and 2 Dance Award-winning Drama scenes from the Shakespeare Festival Acclaimed music groups, including the Avondale College Jazz Quartet (named "Best Combo" at the National Schools Jazz Competition!), the Avcol Big Band, contemporary band, Strings Ensemble, and the Avondale College Symphony Orchestra 6pm in the Avcol theatre - gold coin entry

The Hip Hop International New Zealand Mega Schools Competition took place at the Vodafone Event Centre on Friday April 24th, with 12 secondary schools competing and sharing their passion for Hip Hop Dance. The purpose of the Mega School division is to introduce young and upcoming dancers to a world standard Street and Hip-Hop dance event. HHINZ provided a platform for our dance students to perform, connect and create opportunity. The Avondale College Mega Schools Dance Crew have been rehearsing extremely hard over the past six weeks during Term 1 and throughout the school holidays. Senior Dance Leaders Winifer Peteli and Julieann Lee led a group of 29 students who performed with their hearts on their sleeve and placed 4th at the HHINZ Competition, winning the special award for "Most Promising School Award", 2021. The performance incorporates dance styles of Locking, Popping, Choreography and Litefeet. When asked "What do you want your school to be remembered for?" we immediately thought about constantly striving for excellence. The HEART values were at the core of our teamwork, and leadership which enabled the crew to we grow as a collective. Teacher in Charge - Miss Southgate

Three Avondale College students, Huruni Peiris, Nadia Sami Malik and Jerry Nguyen, participated in the Auckland Mathematical Olympiad 2021 competition last week on Saturday 8 May. The Mathematical Olympiad is an annual Mathematics competition for high school students, that takes place at the University of Auckland. Students had to sit a two-hour assessment of ten challenging questions, with all three Avcol students doing very well. Top scorers in the Auckland event have the opportunity of participating in the national competition. Mr Z Mazid, Director of Mathematics

Toby Barrett is having a pretty good year. Not only did the Year 13 Music student come top in New Zealand in his AS Music exam, his combo won 'Best Combo' at the National Youth Jazz Competition last month, and his band (the ironically-named 'Toby and the Rest') are in the process of releasing their first album! Toby's success caught the attention of Radio New Zealand's Concert programme, and Toby was invited into their Auckland studio in the holidays to record an interview with Mike Tipping for RNZ's 'Upbeat' programme. The interview was aired yesterday, and featured a couple of tracks from Toby & the Rest's new album. Listen to the interview on the RNZ website here: Toby Barrett: saxophone, shares and school successes | RNZ

The final day of Polyfest took place on the first Saturday of the school holidays, with our Samoan, Tongan and Niuean groups performing. It was the culmination of a very special few days of performance, where our students represented themselves, their cultures and Avondale College with great pride. When the results were announced, we were excited to receive the following awards: Group Awards: Samoan Group - 1st Overall (Co-ed) Delores Lesatele - 1st Place: Taupou Tongan Group - 1st: Soke & 1st: Lakalaka Niuean Group - 1st: Lologo Tapu Tuai & 3rd in the competitive Takalo. Cook Island Group - 3rd in their division African group - 2nd in their section on the Diversity Stage and also 3rd overall in the Diversity Fusion Award Speech Awards: Matelita Taumoefolau: 2nd in Tongan Speech Thurston Manukuo and Moisha Sietu both placed 2nd in the Niuean Speeches. Congratulations to ALL our performers, speakers, tutors and teachers - you were amazing. See our students featured in this month's edition of The Blockhouse Bay Beacon! Read it here

There are 56 new learner drivers on the road in Avondale, thanks to a free drivers' licencing programme run at Avondale College in the holidays! The programme was a new initiative from the Avondale College Careers Department, made possible thanks to generous sponsorship from the Chamber of Commerce and the VTNZ mobile testing unit. The students attended three days of intense classes, and then were able to sit their learners' licence. All 56 students were very excited and thankful to have this opportunity!

AT have advised us that there are changes to the Forest Hill bus service as follows: Starting from 23rd April 2021 for approximately 8 weeks there will be a full road closure in place 24/7 adjacent to 227 Forest Hill Road as advised by Fulton and Hogan. Access will be limited to residents only along Forest Hill Road between Kelly’s Road and West Coast Road. Residents from house number 228 down will be able to access driveways from the Henderson side of house number 228, while residents from house number 229 up will be able to access driveways from the Piha / West Coast Road side of house number 229. Please be advised that from the 3rd of May (1st day of Term 2) for the duration of the road closure the School Bus route 056 Forest Hill to Avondale College will depart at 07:45am from Shaw Rd outside Oratia District Primary (5951) and the School Bus route 056-Avondale College to Forest Hill will also end here in the afternoon reaching at Shaw Rd outside Oratia District Primary (5951) at 4.05pm. More information can be found on the at.govt.nz website https://at.govt.nz/bus-train-ferry/service-announcements/roadworks-affecting-public-transport/ Contact Us Get in touch if you have any questions or concerns about this work. To learn more about how we maintain roads go to our website: www.at.govt.nz/road-maintenance

On ANZAC Day on 25 April, a number of Prefects represented our College at the Avondale ANZAC Day parade, and our Head Prefects were invited to speak. The audience were very impressed by the words that Maya and Jayden spoke, and members of the Avondale RSA expressed their deep appreciation for their contribution. Thank you to the prefects who attended the event, and particularly to our Head Prefects for their speeches.

'Married at First Sight' might not seem to have an obvious connection with Shakespeare, but a hilarious performance of a MAFS-themed compilation from A Mid-Summer Night's Dream by a group of senior Avondale College Drama students has not only won the 'Best 15 Minute Scene' at the West Auckland region's SGCNZ University of Otago Sheilah Winn Shakespeare Festival last weekend - but the students (Hunter Easterbrook, Grace Elijas, Kate Perfect, Leo Taylor and Sajal Taneja) are now heading to Wellington to perform at the national festival in Wellington during Queen's Birthday weekend! This was just one of four awards won by Avondale College performers at the West Auckland festival! Our Performing Arts Academy Drama students performed a comic 15 minute scene from A Mid-Summer Night's Dream and won the award for 'Best Concept'. Year 13 Drama student Abigail Meads won 'Best Student Director' for her dramatically choreographed monologue from Richard III, performed with Molly Tate. However, that wasn't all - Abigail also won the supreme individual award: direct entry to the National Shakespeare Schools Production to be held in Wellington in October. Only 24 students nationwide are given direct entry from the regional heats; another 24 will be selected from the national festival - and from these, 24 will be chosen (Covid-permitting!) to travel to the Globe Theatre in London next year. It's an amazing opportunity, and well deserved! Our Avondale College community will have the chance to see these three scenes performed live at the upcoming "Kaleidoscope" performing arts showcase on Thursday May 13, 6:00pm, Avondale College Theatre - put it in your calendar!

Last week was Polyfest week! Over the past eight weeks, our ten groups have worked incredibly hard with their teachers, tutors, student leaders and families to prepare for the Polyfest event. Some of our groups have not performed since 2018 because of the cancellations, firstly for the Christchurch mosque attacks and then last year’s COVID lockdown. We have had a Korean group for three years now and this year they finally got to Polyfest! All of the groups put an incredible amount of effort into their performance pieces, and the teamwork, dedication and drive for excellence has been impressive. Avondale College’s HEART values have been on display every day, and not least during the competition itself. On Saturday afternoon Avondale College was the ‘talk of the town’. First of all it was announced that our Tongan group had won 1st place for both the Lakalaka and the Sōkē that they performed – with their shouts of excitement echoing around the Manukau Sports Bowl. A short time later our Samoan Group won 1st place on the Samoan Stage, successfully defending their 2018 title! I cannot recall a co-ed school simultaneously winning across both the Samoan and Tongan stages, and my sincere congratulations go to the groups for this remarkable achievement. We could not be more proud of you! - Mrs L Watkinson, Principal