Netball Stars

Kendall McMinn, Whitney Areaiiti and Alysse Riach have been selected as part of the 14 strong netball team to represent Southland in the inaugural Lois Muir Challenge which will be held in Christchurch next month. Kendall will also trial for the New Zealand Secondary Schools team in April.

Softball - Representative Honours

The Under 15 Southland team came 2nd in the South Island tournament held in Blenhiem during Jan 2008. Grayson McCulloch, Gage Harris-Fletcher and Tauira Patterson were selected in the SI team. Ross McCulloch coaches the team.

Congratulations to Tauira Patterson who has been selected for the New Zealand Under 15 development team that will compete in Australia in June.

Athletics Results

One school record was broken in the under 12 boy’s high jump.
Kayne Duggan jumped 1.29m to break the old record of 1.25m previously held by Levi Anderson.

The final house placings were

1st Marcellin 933 points
2nd Catherine 726 points
3rd Marian 665 points
4th Dominic 590 points

Congratulations to Marcellin

Championship Winners

Yr 7 & 8 Boys Michael O’Reilly Girls Angela Buckingham

Under 14 Boys Tauira Patterson Girls Grace Dunne

Under 15 Boys Isaac Fleury Girls Katie Telfer

Senior Boys Thomas Hildebrand Girls Courtney Jones

Sports Day

The 2008 Sports Day photos are now online! Click on the photo on the right to go to the online album.

Jazz Festival

Congratulations to The Verdon Swingers Jazz Band for their highly successful performance in the Jazz Festival last night. The overall second placing was well deserved. (Wakatipu won again -- but this time only by two points!)

Our individual prize winners were:

• Best Compere -- Olivia Canny
• Best Vocalist -- Olivia Canny
• Best Bass -- Matthew Collins
• Best Saxophone -- Ben Cochrane
• Best Brass -- Lauren Irvine

Thanks to all staff and students who came and supported our group.

Marian House Day

Marian held their House Day on Wednesday. The official day is 12 September, and it is a day to celebrate the “Holy name of Mary” our Patron.

Mary always points us to God, reminding us of God's infinite goodness. She helps us to open our hearts to God's ways, wherever those may lead us. Honored under the title “Queen of Peace,” Mary encourages us to cooperate with Jesus in building a peace based on justice, a peace that respects the fundamental human rights (including religious rights) of all peoples.


We have been celebrating our house day by continuing the theme “Marian House Members Care”. The home room teachers purchased a heap of snarlers cheap from Gerry McSoriley the singing butcher. We decided to become “One World Partners” by committing to this Caritas Charity. One of the efforts supported by this charity is Wells for Africa. Senior students, Mr Smith and Mr Buxton promoted our BBQ in assembly and cooked the BBQ besides our banner and tent. Year 8 Marian boys dug a well and struck chocolate brown water at 1.3 metres. Students could barter with the well keepers for water which they could then use to get a cheaper sausage. This was to raise awareness about our adopted charity. We raised $130 this way which will cover six months of sponsorship. The well attracted much attention and the charitable message was well received with a number of students who did not want a sausage donating for the cause.

Danielle Cavey wins National Award

Danielle Cavey, a year 13 student, was short listed in the Pikihuia Awards for Maori Writers—in the ‘Best Short Story (in English or Maori) by a Secondary School Student’ category.

Danielle was awarded 1st place for her short story Lullaby—originally written for a Level 3 creative writing internal assessment.

This is an outstanding achievement considering that this is a national competition and of the 10 finalists Danielle was the only one from the South Island.

You can view photos of the event by clicking on the image to the right.