Sunday, 29 June 2008

Social Justice

On Sunday night, Year 13 students slept in a make shift shelter in the College grounds to raise funds for CARITAS. The evening was bitterly cold, but donations of food and warm drinks from supporters kept spirits high. Thank you to the many visitors who helped and contributed to this very worthy fundraising venture.

Careers News

Verdon College has been very fortunate to have a number of students accepted for NZ Armed Forces Courses these holidays.

As well as Shane Evans-Rautahi being accepted for the Airforce, Warena Brown has been accepted to go to Devonport Naval Base for the Royal NZ Navy Adventure Challenge.

Jonathan Ryan, Sam Thurlow, Matthew Debono, Michael Tattersfield and Matthew Crooks have been selected to go to the NZ Army Careers Experience in Burnham Military Camp also.

Well done to all these students.

Kavanagh Interschool Win

On Wednesday the 25th of June, Verdon played host to the Kavanagh College interchange. With wins in all but one game, it was a resounding success. A special mention must go to the 1st XV Rugby team who had their first win since 1999.
Results
Rugby: Verdon 70 - 3 Win
Hockey: Verdon 6 - 0 Win
Soccer: Verdon 3 - 6 Loss
Senior A Netball: Verdon 30- 23 Win
10A Netball: Verdon 22 - 21 Win
9A Netball: Verdon 21 - 13 Win

Panache

Our congratulations to the members of Panache who returned this week from their Sydney trip having been awarded a silver medal at the international music festival. Pictured: Panache Choir entertaining on a Sydney harbour cruise and warming up on the steps of the Sydney Opera House.

Monday, 16 June 2008

Southland Secondary Schools Badminton

On Wednesday last week, eight of our students battled it out on the badminton courts for the Southland Secondary Schools Sport's Badminton Champs. Well done to the girls team, Lauren Morsink, Kayla Geary, Louise Moody and Amy Radka who came 5th. Well done also to the boys who came 4th, their team was Sean Adam, Logan Simpson, Charles More and Isaac Fleury. Both teams played hard and enjoyed their day. Special thanks to Sue Shaw for her organisation.

Kavanagh College Visit

Next Wednesday 25th June, Kavanagh College is scheduled to visit our school in the annual Verdon - Kavanagh College inter-school. The teams involved are the Rugby 1st XV, Boys Soccer 1st XI, Boys Hockey 1st XI, Netball Senior A, Year 10 A & Year 9 A Netball. If your child is involved please ensure you recieved a letter, $5 is required from each student involved to put towards afternoon tea. The visitors are schedualed to arrive around 10.30am. Students are to come to school as usual, dressed in school uniform, they may change for their game but must be dressed in uniform again for the afternoon tea.

  • Soccer 11.30am kick off at Verdon College
  • Hockey 11.30am start at Queens Park Hockey Turf
  • Year 9A Netball 12pm* start at Stadium Southland Velodrome
  • Year 10A Netball 1pm* start at Stadium Southland Velodrome
  • Senior A Netball 12pm* start at Stadium Southland Velodrome
  • Rugby 1pm Kickoff at Verdon College

*Please note that this has changed (19th June)

Afternoon tea is schedualed for 2.30pm at the College, please report to the office on your arrival, all parents are welcome to attend. Kavanagh College teams will depart at 3pm.

Marcellin Day

St Marcellin’s Feast Day was celebrated with Mass at St Theresa's Church last Friday. For Fr Martin, this was his first opportunity to celebrate a College Mass. Thank you to the parents and friends of the College who attended Mass to support the College and the Marist Brothers on their special day.

The Verdon Ball

The Verdon Ball was held 7 June at the Working Mens Club. This superb venue was host to our Year 12 and 13 students and partners. Stunning ball gowns and sartorial elegance were the order of the evening. It was a pleasure for staff and students to dine and dance in such convivial surroundings. Our thanks to the Ball Committee and staff who made the evening such a tremendous success.

Outstanding Achievement

Congratulations to

  • Stephanie McRae who has had her poem entitled “The Diamond” published in the Poetry.Com International Collection.

  • Zac Vermuelen and Shane Evans who have been awarded the Outward Bound ILT Scholarship. This entitles them to a 3 week outdoor course at Anakiwa in the Marlborough Sounds.

  • Vigoroso Vibrato— a.k.a. Tim Lindsay, Patrick Wilks, Cody Shuttleworth and Megan McKelvie, were highly commended for their outstanding performance at the Southland Chamber Music Contest held on 11 June.

Tuesday, 10 June 2008

Photos Online

Photos from a few more events are now online:

The "official" photos from JRock can be ordered online from the official website, using the password dance to enter the Verdon College section of the photos.

Verdon’s Gold Medallist

Jessica Hamill departed for Beijing on 28 May to compete in a competition called the “Good Luck Games”. It is a very popular event as most athletes use it as a warm up competition before the Olympics. Jess went for the experience, to see what Beijing was like, and how she would perform with the Beijing pollution, smog and heat. Her events were held at the national stadium which is known as the birds nest.

Jess competed in the shot put event receiving a Gold medal. With her throw of 7.12 metres she achieved a New Zealand record, an Oceania record, as well as recording a personal best.

With this win giving her confidence, Jess is looking forward to the Paralympics where she will compete in Shot Put, Discus and Javelin. She is training hard and is on track to record more personal bests.

When asked how she liked Beijing, she said “I liked the City, but it was dirty and very busy, but it does have very very good shopping!” Well done Jessica.

The Big Sing

On Tuesday evening,June 3rd, the two school choirs, Panache and the Verdon Singers, performed with distinction at the annual Choral Federations Big Sing Southland Regional Finals. Panache won the post 1900 section of the festival. This outstanding achievement gives the choir confidence as they prepare for their Australian Tour later in the term.

"Hemisemidemiquavers"

Congratulations to Tim Lindsay and Patrick Wilkes who as “Hemisemidemiquavers” won their section at the Gold Guitars in Gore at Queen’s Birthday weekend.

National Shakespeare Festival

A group of 12 Verdon College students—Regional winners of the annual University of Otago Sheilah Winn Festival of Shakespeare In Schools - competed in the National Festival over Queen’s Birthday weekend. The students Rosamund More, Olivia Canny, Cody Shuttleworth, Rachel Butler, Ben Cochrane, Alice McDowell, Ben Wilmot, Braydon Macdonald, Natalie Kerr, Olivia Gorton, Rebecca Abey and Jamie Macdonald - were accompanied by the director Mrs Horrell and teacher Mrs More.

Verdon College’s punk rock version of ‘A Midsummer Nights Dream’ achieved the award for Outstanding use of Music and Song in Performance. The performance was delivered with conviction and energy and had great audience appeal.

Over the long weekend festival period, apart from the competition itself, students took part in stimulating workshops. The workshops were taken by professional actors and directors in the theatre profession. Popular workshops included stage combat, contemporising Shakespeare, giving 100% to your audience and ‘playing dead’.

In addition to the Shakespeare festival, other wonderful cultural experiences included live theatre, a Greek restaurant meal and an exploration of inner city Wellington (including a visit to Te Papa Museum for some).The group were a delight to journey with and our Verdon students were excellent ambassadors of Southland.

Monday, 9 June 2008

Magnificoach!

Thanks Coach, without you there wouldn't be a game. As a coach, you help make sport happen in our community. Coaching is about sharing your knowledge and experience, about making sport fun and giving everyone a go. It's about teaching discipline, fair play and skills that will help athletes in all aspects of their lives. You will play an important role in making sure your athletes learn to enjoy sport.


When ever you are coaching sports, consider the following:
Children of all ages are interested in four things when they play sport
Action - Children like lots of action, i.e. lots of running, hitting, catching, shooting, scoring and so on.
Personal involvement - Children want to be involved in the action, not sitting on the bench or waiting in line for their turn.
Close competition and challenges matching their skills - Close scores make games exciting and lopsided scores make them boring.
Opportunities to reaffirm their friendships - This is demonstrated in the way teams are chosen and the strategies children use during games. They often develop long lasting friendships through their participation in sport.


Go online for Watties Vollunteer Coach of the Year Awards and nominate your coach.

Getting Started in Coaching

Well done to the six girls who attended the "Getting started in coaching" course held at the Stadium on Friday. It was outlined immediately that coaches are very sought after and that teams are extremely grateful to have such students who are willing to coach.
Olivia Gorton, Holly Morton, Danielle Thomas, Clare Corkery, Lauren Kelman and Rebecca Leishout represented Verdon College in a group of approximately 50 students from other Southland Secondary School. The groups were firstly introduced to a panel of well known Southland coaches including Richard Dickle from Basketball Southland, Daryl Thompson from Rugby Southland and Robyn Broughton from the Southern Steel. Each with their own words of advice, inspired the youth and later applied an afternoon of coaching exhibits. Rickie Dickle, Rosie de Goldi and Kelly Hansen applied simple drills and lesson structure to three 30min sessions in which groups rotated. Students were challenged to understand each coaches methods and delivery and take with them advise and new drills. The girls enjoyed the practical sessions, and a yummy lunch was a big bonus.

School Ball Photos


The School Ball was held on Saturday night, and was a fantastic night for our senior students. Informal photos of the event are now online in our online Photo Album.

Well Done!

A massive congratulations to Allanah Cunningham who has been working extremely hard with her extra-curricular activites, Allanah has recently qualified herself as a New Zealand Regional Netball Umpire.
"This achievement is amazing for someone so young and there is no doubt that there is plenty more to come." - Marie McMillan
Allanah's next step is to do the Netball New Zealand Theory and then the Netball New Zealand Practical, following this she has the opportunity to become a New Zealand National Netball Umpire. Allanah is a highly recommended and very well qualified sports official, great work!