The senior Geography students visited the Curio Bay area on Wednesday. They interviewed local residents about new developments, made sketches of the Petrified Forest and then explored the physical geography of the mouth of the Waikawa Estuary. Thank you to Miss Wood and Miss Youthed who organised the trip.
The student work display table has a selection of Easter crosses developed by the Year 12 Visual Arts students. The symbolism of sacrifice and hope challenges us in Holy Week as we approach Easter. Thank you to Miss Lyall and the year 12 art students for presenting their work.
The NZ Secondary Schools Triathlon Championship was held at Lake Karapiro, Cambridge on Thursday 25th March 2011.
Verdon Cycling Team at the South Island/Southland Cycling Championship held at the velodrome last Wednesday. They are a talented and hard working team and it was pleasing to see their success with both Lauren Archer and Paigan Marshall achieving medals.
23 secondary schools from around the South Island battled it out for the South Island Secondary Schools Adventure Racing Championships on Saturday 27th March on a demanding course around the high country surrounding the Central Otago town of Cromwell. The event is in its second year.
The race kicked off at 6:30am in slightly damp conditions which soon cleared as teams headed off from the Roaring Meg Power Station up into the high alpine region of Mt Pisa climbing to 1475m past check point 2 before descending into the Lowburn Valley, Race Director Bill Godsall had warned teams at the course briefing navigation choices here would be crucial and that was how it turned out.
On the next MTB orienteering leg the front teams continued battle it out. After this section teams swapped MTB for kayak to paddle across a choppy Lake Dunstan to the abseil site, the Lake got progressively choppy with every passing minute forcing the Race Director to transport the remaining teams to the abseil site by rescue boat effectively turning the event into 2 categories. 8 teams completed the kayak leg before the cancellation of kayaking and they continued their battle onto the last MTB orienteering leg, the remaining teams who had been short coursed continued to battle it out for short course honours.
The last leg had a slight reshuffle of places with most teams surprising not only themselves with their speed but the support crews and staff who gathered at the finish line in Cromwell to await there arrival.
Southern Lakes Multisport who ran the event had set a great challenge for all teams to tackle with the day going very smoothly and once more every athlete completing the course under 12 hours.
Verdon College had three teams entered and all ended up in the short course section because of the choppy lake conditions.
The Boys Results
1st Place: Verdon College 2
Micheal O'Reilly, Ben Boyle, Peter Thurlow and Dylan Coombs.
2nd Place: Verdon College 1
Shane Adcock, Patrick Stone, Gavin McLeod and Keiran Thurlow
Our younger team - Aidan O'Neill, Terry Thurlow, Robert Lindsay and Harry from SBHS - finished with style after a challenging race.
Year 9 students have enjoyed good weather at Camp Columba near Gore for their outdoor education camp and retreat. More images will be published next week. Thanks you to Miss Lyall for the work that she has put in to the organisation and delivery of this opportunity.
This week the Year 12 Biology classes headed from the laboratory to the river to put theory into practice. The stream study gave students the opportunity to gain credits in a practical situation. The sampling required getting into the river and staff report that the students took to the challenge with good grace on a cold day. Thanks you to Mr Le Breton and Mrs Clarke for organising this activity.
Mrs Dunckley's Year 7 MO technology class have been presenting the results of their design projects this week. The brief was to design gift items to give to visitors to the College as memento of their visit. Mr Olsen was invited to view the students work and was very pleased with the depth of the concepts displayed and quality of the items produced.
Southland Sharks captain Luke Martin visited the College this week. Luke passed on a number of skills to our juniors during their PE class and challenged them to get involved with sport this year.
The Music department have had ex-pupil Michael Forde undertaking the last practicum of his teacher training with Mr Menzies. Michael was a student at Verdon College from 2000 - 2004. He studied composite Music at Victoria University (2005 - 2008) receiving a 1st class honours degree. Michael is currently studying secondary teaching at Canterbury with a focus on Music, Drama and German. He was a member of NZ Secondary Student's Choir in 2003/4 and is a current member of NZ Youth Choir. We hope that Michael's term is productive and rewarding.
Brother Os is pictured viewing the latest student work being display on the entrance foyer table. Brother Os visits the College weekly and along with Fr Martin, our chaplain, is a tangible link to both parish and founding orders. Brother Os is a testament to the Marist commitment to our Presence, one of our V8 founding principles. We value the support and encouragement that the Marist Brothers give to both students and staff.
The memorial plaque for Alex Nicol was formally placed at the foot of the commemorative tree by 2009 head boy, Ben Ward. Mrs Nicol and Todd joined Mr Olsen at the brief ceremony held on Friday.
Mrs Mason's Fashion and Design class are the first to display their work in the administration area. Please take the opportunity to view the student's work when you are visiting the College or picking up students.
Year 7 students and their peer support leaders enjoyed a barbecue lunch on Wednesday. Mr Mackay, the College guidance counselor, organised the lunch to celebrate a successful month of activities and thanked all those involved in the program.
Our year 11 science students are busy setting up microbial cultures as part of their investigations of various locations around the school in an attempt to identify areas that are high in bacterial and fungal growth.
Year 11 students have been working with Southland Institute of Technology tutors to improve their study skills. The course initially looks at learning styles, and then focuses on developing strategies for improving learning for each of the styles. Students are then encouraged to develop their own study programmes based on the techniques they have learned.
