White Ribbon Ride 2019

On Saturday, the 18-strong White Ribbon crew will leave Picton on their annual South Island odyssey, travelling down the West Coast to Invercargill and back up the east coast.

Along the way, they'll stop at community and school halls to raise awareness of domestic violence. They will be at St Kevin's College Thursday 21st November at 1.20pm.

For more information, visit https://whiteribbon.org.nz/act/white-ribbon-ride/

Primary ITO Trades Academy School at St Kevin's College

SKC is fortunate to be a Primary ITO Trades Academy school. The Programme of Study aims to ensure that graduates from the two year course (Years 11 and 12) have a combination of practical skills and theoretical knowledge that will enable them to make informed choices about career options in the primary sector.

This funding ensures that all students studying Agriculture and Horticulture can benefit from a range of learning experiences including classroom based unit standards and achievement standards, industry training, farm visits and work based assessments. Health & Safety is also a key focus, as well as literacy and numeracy development.

We wish to say a huge thank you to the many people who supported our students in 2019; Primary ITO staff, AgriLearn tutors and admin, Oamaru Racecourse and Farm Manager, all the farmers and producers we have visited, particularly the Nichols of Kuriheka who have hosted us for many years. Also Hayman's Dairy and David O'Neill Contracting who both took students for work experience.

Year 10 Camp

We are pleased to report the second half of the Year 10 Camp will run as scheduled!

But still please ensure sure you pack adequate wet weather gear. A good raincoat and a decent warm change of clothes.

Here are some photos of the first group who are having a great time!

Thanks to Mr Ryan for the photos.

Gold Duke of Edinburgh for Rata McMullan and Lucy Hellewell!

We have received confirmation from National Office that Rata McMullan and Lucy Hellewell have completed their Gold Duke of Edinburgh, which will be formally presented at a ceremony next year.

Gold is the third and final level of the Award, and takes a minimum of 12 months to complete. There are three specific sections—Service, Skills and Physical Recreation plus an Adventurous Journey and a Residential Project.

The photos below show the girls on their Adventurous Journey's, Rata with the rest of the crew at Lake Ōhau, and Lucy on the way to Macetown from the Branches Station in Queenstown on Tarquin.

Rata also played the Violin for her Skills, Hockey for her Physical Recreation, did tutoring and leadership at school for her Service, and completed Outward Bound as her Residential Project.

Lucy undertook horse care and handling as her Skills, horse riding for her Physical Recreation, led a youth group for her Service, and her Residential Project was a Young Farmers Leadership Camp.

Awesome achievement girls, well done!

Principal's Comment

Kia ora Kevinians and Supporters of the College

Thank you to Staff, Students, Whanau and our wider community for your attendance and support for the graduating students and prize winners on Monday evening. As a Principal, this is one of the highlights of the role. It is an occasion for celebrating the many student success stories. I am mindful that these impressive results are the product of hard work and dedication from talented staff and I wish to formally thank them for their commitment to student achievement. We now wish the seniors every success in the NCEA external exams that begin today.

On Thursday I had the pleasure of joining our year 10 students as they participated in a Museum outreach programme. They explored historic Maori tools, musical instruments, weaving and traditional techniques, along with replica moa eggs and authentic moa bones. Thank you to Keely and Mrs Hesselin for arranging a very engaging afternoon.

Today the school will head down to the Oamaru Basilica to celebrate a Mass commemorating the 125th anniversary of the opening of the building. We wish the Parish a successful weekend of festivities marking this occasion.

May God bless you.
Ngā mihi Nui
Paul Olsen

Prime Minister’s Vocational Excellence Award

A new award was given out at Prizegiving on Monday night called the Inaugural Prime Minister’s Vocational Excellence Award, won by Henry Guerin.

Henry met the criteria by;

Gaining a Merit endorsement at NCEA Level 2, with a Vocational Award in Primary Industries. He has also passed NCEA Level 3 and won the prize for being first in Materials Technology.

Successfully participating for two years in the SKC Primary Industries Trades Academy. This involved learning practical skills such as farm vehicle driving and safety, fencing, animal handling etc Henry also undertook work experience with a fencing contractor and on a sheep and beef farm.

Completing a Diesel Automotive Level 3 Gateway Programme of study and work experience at Johnson Gluyas, Oamaru. Henry benefited from great mentoring by experienced staff and he demonstrated an excellent work ethic.

Contributing to the wider school by being a member of the First XV Rugby team and attaining an SKC Silver Service Award, as well as meeting other skills and attributes as outlined in an assessment tool.

Henry will enter the Dairy industry after school where he hopes to complete a Dairy industry Apprenticeship.

The Prize also comes with $2000 for the student to use how they wish. It may interest you to know that he has already spent this on a new chainsaw!

Well done Henry!

Year 10 Kayaking Introduction Day

Today was the Year 10 Kayaking introduction day at OIS in preparation for Year 10 Camp next week. Run by Mr Haig, this is an awesome opportunity for the students to learn basic kayaking safety and skills in a safe environment.

Thank you OIS for the use of your pool and Mr Haig for your expertise!

St Kevin's College Senior Graduation Mass & Prizegiving 2019

What a special evening at the College last night as we joined friends and family, and celebrated our Year 13 Graduates and academic, cultural and sporting excellence at St Kevin’s College for 2019.

Scholarship certificates were presented to Serena O’Brien, Ray Meech, Faraz Hussain and Rata McMullan for their success in gaining university or Polytechnic scholarships for study next year.

Our Premier Cultural Awards went to Serena O'Brien and Jonte Kydd-Law, and Sporting Blues were presented to Christian Baillie (Football), Liam Direen (Squash), Clark Ewing (Trapshooting) and Corbyn Hocken (Trapshooting).

Congratulations to all of the prizewinners and in particular Faraz Hussain who is this year's Proxime Accessit to the Dux and Rata McMullan, Dux of the College for 2019.

The Top Six Leadership Positions for 2020 were also announced:

Head Boy: Alex Houston
Head Girl: Annie Metcalfe
Deputy Head Boy: Carl Alegado
Deputy Head Girl: Emily McCoy
Deputy Head Boy Special Character: Joel Kunnethedan
Deputy Head Girl Special Character: Bethan Ardouin

To the newest batch of Old Boys and Old Girls, we wish you every blessing as you leave the Redcastle gates and venture forth to make your place in the world.

Please find a list of all the prize winners for 2019 below:

DRAMA

Most promising Actor (Felicity Irvine Memorial Trophy) -Lucila Mino Zubiri
Best Male lead in a School Production - Lewis Weatherley
Best Female Lead in a School Production - Jacinta Richardson
Outstanding performance in a school production (Juanita Ryan Drama Cup) - Jonte Kydd-Law

SCRIPTURE READING

Year 13 Scripture Reading (Teschemakers Cup) - Nicholas Plieger
Year 12 Scripture Reading (The Nora Brophy Cup) -Rogan-Joe Sloan
Year 11 Scripture Reading (The Dooley Family Cup) - Rhea Ratgali
Year 10 - Scripture Reading (The Edmund Rice Cup) -Vince Vidallon
Year 9 Scripture Reading (The Dominican Cup) - Sam McCarthy

SPEECH AWARDS

Year 9 Speech Competition (Durcan Cup) - Anika Winders
Year 10 Speech Competition (The Edmund Rice Cup) - Alexis Cuaresma
Year 10 Cambridge Speech competition - The Jackson Cup for Public Speaking and cup for Best speaker in a Junior Debate - Dev Pandya
Best speaker in Senior House Debates - Cara Anderson

SINGING AND CULTURAL AWARDS

Senior Boys Singing (Cayford Cup)- Ethan Downing
Senior Girls singing (Dorothy Cayford Cup) - Destiny Jabagat
Junior Girls singing (Johnson Cup) - Georgina McCarthy
Senior Duet (Mihaere Cup) - Serena O’Brien and Bethan Ardouin
Song in another language (SKC Cup) - Siva Katoa and Kaliopeta Katoa
Best Small group - The Magee Musketeers, Ethan Downing, Cassidhe Harrop. Laura Scobie and Sophia Linares
Best Conductor (Warwick Newton memorial Cup) - Kayleigh Gill
Best Student accompanist (Helen Mulheron Trophy) - Yi Tao Sun
Contribution to chapel Choir the Sutton award - Serena O’Brien
College Piper - Katelyn Walton
Musician of the year - Ethan Downing
Contribution to Music (Ahomana Award) - Serena O’Brien
Leading Pacifica cultural group choreographer - Veronica Kauapa
Kia Kaha Award - contribution to Kapa Haka - Jerome Misoloi

ART AWARDS

Best emerging artist - Rata McMullan
Best School Student Photographer, the Photolife Photography Award - Anna Taylor
Contribution to Art (The Plunkett Award) -Abbey Mabon

WRITING

Year 9 Writing Prize (Peters Cup) - Elenoa Asi
Year 10 Writing Prize (Newton Cup)- Zeth Rollan
Cambridge Writing Prize - Fergus McMullan
Year 11 Writing Prize (Powell Cup) - Jocelyn Fellowes
Year 12 Writing Prize (Jackson Cup) - Will Frogley and Bethan Ardouin
Year 13 Writing Prize (Evans Cup) - Cara Anderson and Joshua Gibson
Keep Family Cup - Junior Cultural Female - Anika Winders
Oamaru Musical Theatre 60th Jubilee Cup - Junior Cultural Male - Dev Pandya
Premier Cultural Award- Girls (Karen Austin Cup) - Serena O’Brien
Premier Cultural Award - Boys – (Jibi Kunnethedan Cup) - Jonte Kydd-Law

PREMIER SPORTING AWARDS

Best all round Senior Sportswoman (Margaret Breen Cup) – Hannah Cunningham
Outstanding Sportswoman (Kearney Family Cup) - Hannah Cunningham
Best all round Senior Sportsman (Donovan Cup) –Max Yanzick
Outstanding sportsman (Carrickmore Cup) -Max Yanzick
Outstanding student contribution - Annie Metcalfe

YEAR 11 AWARDS

Gregory Keith- Practical Science, Certificate of achievement Primary ITO award
Phillippa Hunter- Alternative English
River Cunningham- Physical Education
Johanna Alegado- Food and Nutrition
Elizabeth Plieger- Theatre Studies
Thomas Weir- Agricultural and Horticultural Studies
Laurinda Lowen- Mathematics
Chloe Tillard- Materials Technology and Product Design
Skyla Ludemann- Digital Technology
Harriet Heaphy - DVC, Geography
Marcus Herrera - First equal DVC
Adam Devon - First equal Music
Ethan Downing - First equal Music
Georgina Houston- Visual Arts, Religious Studies
Jocelyn Fellowes - English the Allan Cup, Business Studies, Science, History

YEAR 12 AWARDS

Laura Mather- Theatre Studies
Lena Black - First Equal in Theatre Studies
Maddison Bleach - Senior High Performance Sport
Charlie Gilbert- Agricultural and Horticultural Studies
Samuel Bridges - Digital technology
Brian Escleto- Applied English
Connor MacLeod- Physical Education
Jessie Klelland- Food and Nutrition
Emily McCoy- English
Clark Ewing - DVC, Chemistry, Physics
Jason Shieffelbein - First equal in Construction
Thomas Ballantyne - First equal in Construction
Lucila Mino Zubiri - First equal in Textiles
Nina Dickie - First equal in Textiles
Eliza Baster- Painting
Ben Cullimore- Hard Materials Product Design
Annie Metcalfe- Biology
Alissa Colina- Music
Kazsandra Cuaresma- Mathematics with Statistics, History, Geography
Timothy Jorgensen- Mathematics with Calculus
Carl Alegado- Religious Studies, Photography

YEAR 13 AWARDS

Tarras Weir- Theatre Studies, First equal in Painting
Maddison Skinner- Physical Education
Jacinta Richardson- Food and Nutrition
Sophie Fox- DVC, First equal in Painting
Lilly Hill- Textiles - The Ivy Pollard memorial prize
Ria Gagarra- Tourism
Cameron Yeoman- Digital Technology
Bridget Hunter- Maths with Statistics, Agricultural and Horticultural Science
Hannah Cunningham - First equal in Mathematics with Calculus
Briedy Johnston- Religious Studies (Dominican Cup)
Serena O’Brien- Music
Sophia Silva Netto- Photography
Henry Guerin- Materials Technology
Anna Taylor- Photography
Duncan Watt- Mathematics with Calculus
Faraz Hussain- Business, The DJ Mulheron cup for Sciences, Chemistry, Scholarship Chemistry, Physics and Calculus, University of Canterbury Level 1 Mathematics
Joshua Gibson- Biology, English, Classical Studies, History, Scholarship English
Rata McMullan- Sculpture, Physics, Scholarship Chemistry, Physics, Calculus and Sculpture, University of Canterbury Level 1 Mathematics.

SPECIAL PRIZES

Dux of College (Br MM O'Connor Plate) – Rata McMullan
Proxime Accessit to the Dux (McCone Cup) – Faraz Hussain
College Captains Teschemakers Trophy – Rata McMullan
College Captains Bill Higgins Memorial Trophy – Seth Humphries
Y13 Christian Leadership (Br C Marlow Cup) - Serena O’Brien
Y13 Christian Leadership (Br BJ Lauren Cup) - Nicholas Plieger
Ryan Moynihan Memorial Affability Award – Frano Flannery
Junior Application and Participation (Langley Cup) – April Linares
Senior Application and Participation (McCarthy Plate)- Cara Anderson
Junior General Excellence (Bill Nolan Cup) - Kachamas Mangmee
Senior General Excellence (McKechnie Cup) – Serena O’Brien
Most Outstanding Pasifika Female – Veronica Kauapa
Most Outstanding Pasifika Male - Jerome Misiloi
1st Aggregate in Year 11 – Jocelyn Fellows
1st Aggregate in Year 12 - Jointly - Emily McCoy and Clark Ewing
Champion House for Swimming and Haka Challenge Treacy
Champion House for Athletics is, Choral Festival and Academic Points: Whyte
Champion House for Reading and, Winning House Choir: Magee
Champion House for 2019 (Redcastle Cup) - Magee
Otago Polytechnic Principal's Leadership Award – Laura O’Brien
North Otago Masonic Lodges' Scholarship – Jacinta Richardson
Altrusa Margaret Crombie Memorial Tertiary Award - Briedy Johnston
Mana Pounamu Teina Award – Oshyn Gutherie
Mana Pounamu Tuakana Award – Emily McCoy
Gary Speer prize for Service to Mathematics - Jack Souness
SKC Primary ITO Trades Academy Prize - Tannah Rintoul and Sam Patterson
Vocational Pathways Prize sponsored by Repco- Callum Bishop
Prime Minister's Vocational Excellence Award - Henry Guerin
The New Zealand School of Tourism scholarship - Ria Gagarra

Totara Estate: an important piece of Oamaru and New Zealand history

On Tuesday 29th October, the ESOL department took the International and English language learningi students on a trip into the past. They went to visit Totara Estate, about a short drive south of SKC. 

First we went to the men’s quarters where we were given a cup of ‘billy tea’ (made by swagger Jerry) and a freshly baked scone with cream and jam. We were told about Totara Estate when it was a huge farm operation for the production of wool and later meat, started by British immigrants. Many men worked there, about half of them permanently and the others were casual workers called swaggers. Swaggers would walk through the countryside to find work. Often they would walk hundreds of kilometres a year, from one workplace to another, being paid only in food and shelter. It was a really hard life.

At Totara Estate they invented the transport of frozen meat to England by ship. England – then “The Motherland” - needed a lot of food and was not able to produce it. The Industrial Revolution had driven people to cities and farming was ‘out’. Food had to be brought in from everywhere in the empire; an empire so big that the sun never set on it. The invention of the steam engine led to the invention of the portable freezing of meat. That made it possible to get sheep meat to England in the three months that it took without it going rotten. A steam engine was put onto a sailing ship and the machine cooled the hold and froze the meat. It took a lot of coal to keep the machine going but it worked really well. The first frozen meat transport happened in 1882. Soon this invention was taken up in the whole of New Zealand and freezing works could be found in almost every harbour.

Swagger Jerry then took us around the estate, showing us how it had worked in those days. We saw the slaughter house, the stables, the blacksmith’s workshop and the granary. We saw how everything had to be made on the spot because there were no shops available to buy nails and screws then! We also saw pictures of the men who invented it all, of the first ship that transported it and we heard about the trips and the dangers while the ships were sailing.
To finish, we hand-fed some heritage sheep and lambs. They knew what was coming when the cans with the sheep nuts rattled!

It was a very interesting trip and thank you to Mrs. Campbell for assisting with our transport. Thank you also to the staff of Totara Estate, in their Victorian clothes, who gave us a really good time.

By Mrs Foster and Ina de Paauw-Fontein

Mana Pounamu Young Achiever's Awards

The 2019 award ceremony was held last Friday in Dunedin. 

The recipients were:

Junior: Oshyn Guthrie and Senior: Emily McCoy

Emily was also awarded a $10,000 University of Otago Scholarship as well a fully funded invitation to attend the University of Otago's "Hands-on Otago" early next year.

Our support team enjoyed the hangi after the presentations.
Thank you to Mr Harris for helping with transportation of our supporters.

River Cunningham and Lachlan Brooks selected in Otago Cricket Squads

Well done to Lachlan Brooks and River Cunningham who have both made age group Otago Cricket squads! 🏏👏

Principal's Comment

Kia ora Kevinians and Supporters of the College

This week has seen staff and students working on the final push to prepare our seniors for the upcoming NCEA Externals. Next Monday is our Graduation Mass and Prizegiving, which is an opportunity to celebrate the years achievements and farewell our student leavers. Leading up to this, at our Wednesday assembly the leavers presented a video featuring their highlights along with a set of before and after pictures taken from our archives.

I would like to formally thank the student leadership team for the efforts they have made to enhance school character this year. Our student leaders have been strong and positive role models, leading by example, with a passion for the Kevinian Spirit. It has been a pleasure working with you, both individually and as a team, thank you.

I look forward to meeting you at our Mass at 7pm on Monday evening and encourage everyone to keep their focus on examination preparation.

Tonight, I will be supporting the Mana Pounamu recipients in Dunedin and Mr Ryan is supporting the Aoraki Sports Award nominees in Timaru. We wish everyone all the very best and safe travel. We will blog the results next week.

May God bless you.
Ngā mihi Nui
Paul Olsen