Our Director of Languages, Ms Julia Crawley, retires this week after 42 years teaching, 19 of which have been at Avondale College. Ms Crawley has ably led our Languages Department where both students and colleagues have benefited from her expertise and passion for her subject, particularly in French and Spanish. Ms Crawley has organised and led a number of trips to Europe which have provided students with experiences that they will remember forever. Thank you, Julia, for the contribution that you have made to Languages and the wider school over the past 19 years. We wish you a restful retirement, with plenty of time for family, friends and walking your dog!

The academic success of our Year 9 and 10 students was celebrated at Junior Prizegiving on Tuesday 8 December. Congratulations to all students who received prizes, certificates and sports awards in recognition of their endeavour and tenacity this year! Particular congratulations to our top sporting and special award winners: Sports Awards Jamieson Cup - Outstanding Junior Sportsman: Jayden Collins & Branson Matsumoto Goold Cup - Outstanding Junior Sportswoman: Issys Tobia-Pita Everest Cup - Top All Round Junior Sportsperson: Le’Oxeayn Maiu’u Special Awards Year 9: Rodney Gaddis Memorial Shield - Carys Chacko 9CLK Year 10: Junior Gordon Cole Music Cup - Francis Whall 10MKE Endeavour Award - International Student of the Year - Anh Bui 10DYL Andree Jannif Trophy - Ruby Hall 10STH Junior Dux - Demelza Colaco 10MKE

The final round of the Athletics Auckland Secondary Schools Challenge Cup competition was held on Saturday 5 December at Mt Smart Stadium. After three rounds Avondale College was sitting precariously in second position, with Macleans College ahead by just two points. Our team knew we had to go in strongly to secure our place at the top of the table. A solid team effort was shown by our sprint group. Tremayne Redman-Gardner flew over the 110m hurdles at lightning speed with a super quick time of 14.85s, which ranks him as #1 in NZ U18 mens 110m hurdles (wind assisted). Tremayne is looking set for a solid performance at NZ Secondary Schools Nationals in this event next week. Srija Maddela ran her 100m sprint with great spirit in a group of incredibly talented U16 sprint runners. Kadin Taylor and Aryan Walanj both ran the 60m and 100m sprints. Both boys are looking strong ahead of Nationals, with Aryan running a new Personal Best time in the 60m of 7.67s, and Kadin also achieving a Personal Best time in the 100m with 11.77s – an incredible time for a 14 year old athlete. Lex Revell-Lewis ran a speedy 400m as well, winning his U18 grade, and Ethan Hardy placed 2nd in his U16 grade for the 400m. Well done, sprinters! Over at the throws circle, Mose Faaumuumu Timo placed 2nd in the U16 grade with his shot put throw of 10.92m. He is warming up nicely for next weekend! Our distance team was well covered. Aphra Balducci ran the 1500m and placed 3rd in her U16 grade. Both Kimberley May and Joanna Poland also ran the 1500m for the U18 womens group, with Kim placing 1st with a time of 4:33.06min and Joanna 4:41.57min. And to round it off, Ayub Sayid ran the 1500m in the U18 men's grade with a time of 4:20.16min. Thanks to the efforts of our 11-strong team on Saturday, we were able to secure top points for Round 4 of the Challenge Cup, and topple Macleans off their perch! St Cuthberts, Saint Kentigern College and Rangitoto College all gave a good effort, but our Avondale College team showed stronger consistency across all rounds to finally take back the Challenge Cup! Congratulations to all the athletes involved in all the rounds. We now refocus for the NZ Secondary Schools National Championships to be held in Tauranga this weekend. I am incredibly excited as a Team Manager, as our athletes have the potential to medal and take national titles. Our senior mixed 4x400m relay team is also looking poised and ready to defend their gold medal win from last year. It will be an exciting competition to watch and with all the hard work already put in place, we look forward to our athletes reaping the rewards of their efforts in Tauranga. - Judy Revell, Team Manager

Taikaka 2020, the Avondale College yearbook is a high quality 192 page book that captures the events, teams, groups, departments and activities that have happened this year at Avondale College. The cost is just $15.00. The deadline for ordering has been extended but will close soon. Don't miss out - click here to order your copy!

Friday 4 December saw the final school event for our Year 13 leavers, with almost 300 students and staff celebrating the end of the cohorts’ time at Avondale College. The night signalled both the end of some very formative years, and the start of new journeys, with most students already enrolled in further study or training for 2021. The food was great, the venue was perfect and the DJ had people on their feet almost all night. The evening happened to coincide with Mrs Donaldson’s birthday, so students enjoyed the additional celebration of their Dean’s special night as she bid an emotional farewell to the students she had known from when they were nervous Year 9 students through to the confident and talented group of Year 13’s they are today. Photos from the night will be available as soon as possible to students via their school email account.

When the call went out from the Mathematics & Statistics Department at the start of the term for any Year 10 girls interested in a beginners' programming competition, 30 keen students applied. A short logic test and a few tough decisions later, two teams of two were formed: Avondale 1 consisting of Seo-Lin Cho and Feiyang Wu, and Avondale 2 consisting of Demelza Colaco and Waimarie Ned-Senior. Unfortunately, Waimarie had to pull out shortly before the competition date, and Amanda Ruddell was able to step in, working extremely hard to catch up on her understanding of programming in Python. The girls put in tremendous number of hours preparing for the competition, alongside their studying for exams. The shutdown of the University of Auckland due to the Covid-19 case in the city meant that at the last minute, the event was run instead at Avondale College on the Tuesday, where the teams synched up with 53 other secondary school teams based at Auckland schools and universities around the country. The four girls spent Tuesday morning fine-tuning their programming skills before the two hour competition in the afternoon. Midway, Avondale 1 was placed 6th and Avondale 2 was placed 9th. The girls then had an amazing second hour to pull off a 2nd and 3rd place finish respectively! The Mathematics Department commends the hard work and endeavour of Seo-Lin, Feiyang, Demelza and Amanda - and especially congratulates Seo-Lin and Feiyang on being one of only two teams to complete the final question successfully. Finally, a huge thank you to Mr J Clark and Ms G Augustin for giving up multiple lunch times and free periods to help teach the girls their programming skills. - Mr P Boardman, Mathematics Department Avcol programmers: Seo-Lin Cho, Demelza Colaco and Amanda Ruddell. (Not pictured: Feiyang Wu)

As part of the Ministry of Education guidelines for Health Education, Boards of Trustees are required to conduct a consultation with their communities. Community consultation relates specifically to health education within a school’s curriculum. However, high quality health education works best when it is supported by whole-school promotion of wellbeing for all students. Parents, we welcome your feedback on this. Please read the Health Consultation Draft Delivery Statement and the Health Consultation Programme Overview below, then fill out the Microsoft Forms survey. Parents and caregivers are welcome to contact us for further information about the programme. Enquiries should be directed to Mr P Hita, HOD Health, or Mr J Went, Director of Health & Physical Education.

Avondale College would like to thank the heroic volunteers who spent their weekend at Taurewa Camp, painting, scraping, repairing and doing a fantastic job sprucing up the campsite. The cabins have had a facelift, with boards replaced and a full repaint. The team of volunteers included many former staff and students, along with help from the Cozzie 4x4 Club in Hamilton. A massive thank you to all who gave up their time to help - the cabins are looking fantastic! We hope to continue this relationship into the future and encourage anyone who wishes to get involved with camp to get in touch at Taurewa@avcol.school.nz

The Avondale College Performing Arts Academy put on a superb evening of entertainment last week, showcasing much of what they have been working on in their strands of Dance, Drama, Jazz and Classical Music this year. This term the Performing Arts Academy focused on creating opportunities for collaboration between strands, says TIC Mr M Robinson. "The idea was to provide students with a chance to work with other students outside of their strand, to explore new genres, where unrelated forms could come together and spark new ideas," he said. "What started out as a concept to bring a few strands together for a joint performance quickly scaled into a massive venture encompassing all the Performing Arts Academy strands. Within weeks a kind of creative magic took place, lines were scripted, music was arranged, and dances were choreographed. The project was a huge success and a testament to our talented students and their strand leaders. It was a privilege to watch the students take on leadership roles and develop new skills." Sincerest thanks go to those who have supported the Performing Arts Academy in 2020, especially the strand directors, our talented, hard-working students, and their whānau.

The Avondale College Sports Academy trial will be held on Friday the 20th of November. Students should meet in the Stadium (Gate 3, Rosebank Rd entrance) at 8.45am. The trial will conclude with students returned to the stadium to depart the school at 3.00pm. Students will perform a series of skill drills followed by small sided games. During these sessions they will be assessed on their ability, attitude and potential. Those deemed appropriate for the respective academies by the coaches in attendance will be selected. A letter will be sent home to advise if they have been accepted into the first Sports Academy intake. Trial sports: Basketball, Cricket, Football, Hockey, Netball and Rugby. Students are to bring: Appropriate sports shoes and clothing, sun hat, sun screen, equipment required for the sport, lunch, snacks and water. For more information, contact Mr James Went: j.went@avcol.school.nz

Talented middle distance and cross country runner Kimberley May in Year 13 has been awarded a full athletic scholarship to study in the USA next year! Kimberley, who is currently ranked second in New Zealand for the U18 women's 1500m, will be heading to Providence College, a prestigious private university in Providence, Rhode Island, USA. The university is in the Division 1 NCAA (National Collegiate Athletic Association) and is a popular university for talented athletes to attend. Kimberley will begin her adventure in August 2021 and says she is feeling both excited and nervous! It’s a big adjustment leaving high school and home to go halfway round the world to study, but she is super excited to see what opportunities and experiences this new chapter will bring and is looking forward to the challenge of both sporting and academic advancement. Kimberley will wear the Avcol singlet for the last time at the NZ Secondary School Athletics meet in Tauranga in December, and says she will wear it with pride and keep it in her collection of competitive gear that helped pave her way to the next level. Support from staff and pupils of Avondale College, especially Athletics Manager Judy Revell, has been greatly appreciated as it’s not always an easy path trying to juggle school work, training schedules and friends. Kimberley's family says they are grateful that Avondale has been a consistent, reliable, and safe place where she has been able to reach her goals. Avondale College wishes Kimberley all the best with her future studies and sporting achievements!

Three Avondale College students were honoured at the Whau Youth Awards held on Friday 13 November. Head Girl Olivia Mallon, Deputy Head Prefect Emily O'Callaghan and junior sportswoman Le'Oxeayn Maiu'u all received awards for their outstanding contributions to their wider Avondale community this year. Throughout this year, Head Girl Olivia Mallon has demonstrated superb leadership and commitment to student wellbeing and success, both during lockdowns and upon students’ return to school. During her time at Avondale College Olivia has represented her whanau, hapu and iwi with pride, serving as a role model for all students of how to bring together one’s own culture and new learning to achieve excellent outcomes. Olivia has consistently led with atawhai, engaging all students she meets with respect and high expectations for their success. Deputy Head Prefect Emily O'Callaghan has shown leadership at the College as a PSSP and Safe School Leader, and as a member of the Advanced Debating team. Emily showed tremendous tenacity in organising our inaugural Mental Health Awareness Week which was a significant endeavour in this interrupted year. Year 10 athlete Le'Oxeayn Maiu’u is an outstanding sportswoman who is achieving at the very highest levels across a number of different sporting codes. Among other achievements this year, Le'Oxeayn was selected for the New Zealand U18 Rugby 7's team, captained Avondale College's Junior Premier Netball team to victory in the local Western Zone competition, before going on to win the Year 10 title at the Auckland Combined Points Tournament, and was a member of the Avondale College Athletics Team. Whau Youth Awards are held in recognition of the incredible rangatahi who live, work, play, faith and study in the Whau – Blockhouse Bay, New Windsor, Green Bay, New Lynn, Avondale, Kelston. Whau Youth Award winners are kind, brave, hard-working, humble, talented, passionate and true. Avondale College congratulates our three worthy recipients of these awards.