Barista Coffee Art Champion Gains Further Awards part 21.pdf · Barista Coffee Art Champion Gains Further Awards ... He was involved in further Barista competitions and in 2013 his

Barista Coffee Art Champion Gains

Further Awards

At the end of his Y13 course in Catering and Hospitality Sam Low was admitted to do an

apprenticeship through Sky City and after that he went on specialising as a ‘Barista’ .

Sam took part in many competitions, the first of which was in 2009 while he was still at

school. At MIT he gained our first Gold Medal for our school during the ‘Barista Training

Competition’. He was involved in further Barista competitions and in 2013 his achievements

were:

The Meadowfresh NZ latte art competition, 1st place as NZ Latte Art Champion 2013

The ‘International Latte Art Competition’ held in Nice in 2013, where he achieved the

6th place in the world.

Sam has continued up-skilling himself and working in some of the most sought after Cafes in

Auckland. He has also judged a number of competitions and returned to the school in recent

years to assist the Food Technology Department by kindly volunteering his time in

demonstrating his skills to Hospitality students when they are preparing for the MIT ‘Barista

Training Competitions’.

This year Sam has opened his own ‘little’ café in Newmarket called ‘Bump’. This tiny café is

located in Kent St- behind the front building, nestled inside a newly renovated walkway.

Ara Lodge Annual Art Awards Evening

Cassandra Khoo received an Ara Lodge scholars arts award at the ninth annual ceremony.

Her award worth $1250 was presented at a marvellous evening in the Auckland City lodge

building. This award is one of the 25 each year presented to the top arts students in Auckland

city schools. Each student’s portfolio was on display at the function and Cassandra’s design

expertise was represented by her concept process as principal designer for this last year’s

6oth Jubilee edition of ‘Sursum’. Cassandra is now studying Graphic Design at tertiary

level.

New Zealand Scholarship Examination

Successes

The school’s record of achievement in the premier national examination continued with two

top scholar awards and 34 individual scholarships across 11 subject areas with 9 of the

scholarships being at Outstanding level.

Hannah Yang was the top scholar in Accounting and Sohail Abdulla gained the top scholar

award for Technology. Diana Ng also gained 5 scholarships two of them at outstanding level.

These students have capped a successful final year at Roskill with these excellent results.

Hannah was the Dux of the school in 2013 and Diana was Proxime Accessit. Sohail’s result

in the scholarship examination culminates a year in which he has received many accolades

for his technological innovation and application.

2013 Scholarship Results

Increase in MRGS Excellence

Endorsements for 2013 Examinations

Once again the school achieved numbers of Excellence endorsements far above those

nationally.

At Levels 1 and 3 we surpassed our 2012 results and continued the outstanding achievement

across a range of subjects that the endorsements represent. See graphs below.

Students with Excellence Endorsement at

Level 1

Students with Excellence Endorsement at

Level 2

Students with Excellence Endorsement at

Level 3

Literacy and Numeracy Results at Level 1

There was continued success with increasing rates of Year 11 students gaining Literacy and

Numeracy— well above the national average in both areas.

Year 13 University Entrance

Year 13 students gaining University Entrance have continued to be above national average.

UE rates have been maintained in spite of changes made to its

requirements.

Sohail Abdulla Wins IPENZ Award

Sohail Abdulla wins IPENZ award at Realise The Dream Event

Roskill’s already celebrated Y13 Electronics student Sohail Abdulla gained a further

accolade for his robotic window cleaner when he received an IPENZ travel award at the

Realise the Dream ceremony in Wellington last weekend. The award was presented by the

Governor General Lt Gen The Rt Hon Sir Jerry Mateparae in an event at Government

House. Sohail was one of 20 finalists, top secondary school science researchers and

technology students, who had been selected for the Realise the Dream awards. The students

spent six days hosted throughout the country by various science research organisations and

Genesis Energy the sponsors of the whole event. On Thursday 12th December they travelled

to Wellington spending time at NIWA before going on to the final ceremony on Friday. As

part of the event each of the finalist’s projects underwent a rigorous two stage judging

procedure before awards were given. Sohail’s award gives him an all expenses paid trip to

the Taiwan International Science Fair next year. His winning project is an advanced version

of his window cleaner which he has been redeveloping throughout the year. Initial issues,

among them climbing limitations and portability have been addressed in his adaptations and

he feels that his work has taken him a step closer to its development for high rise buildings.

At the ceremony the Governor General spoke of the achievements of Sohail and the other

finalists:

“This year’s finalists in the Realise the Dream Awards have achieved not because they are

talented, edu-cated and intelligent; that almost goes without saying. These young people have

succeeded because they combined their intellect, talent and education with persistence and

an unfailing determination to be the best they can be.” Sohail and his continuing work

certainly exemplify our school’s commitment to excellence and powerful learning.

Winner of Auckland City Youth Peace

Award

On November 26th, a gathering of Auckland City Councilors as well as the Peace Foundation

was held where our very own MRGS Mediator Karan Banker won the Auckland City Youth

Peace awards under 18 years category. Karan has been an outstanding Mediator for the last 3

years being a leader with International Peace week; the Secondary Schools Peace

Symposium; representing MRGS at the Auckland City Peace launch 2012 and the Dalai

Lama visit 2013. Other exciting news was that ex- Mt Roskill Mediator, Naima Ali, who

now works for the Refugee Centre won the over 18 year olds Youth Peace Award. Other

outstanding ex- MRGS Mediators were also present at the awards: Lorraine Faleni and

Jonnie Black! Naima, Lorraine and Jonnie were all in the 2008 Peace Foundation

Mediation training video which is used to train other Mediators nationally and

internationally!

Saale and Fotu Ilaua sung beautifully their inspiring peace song “A Brighter Future” to a

captive audience with everyone being suitably impressed by MRGS student talent!

A BIG thank you to all the Mediators for their dedication and commitment in making our

school community a safer, more respectful place. We are very proud of you!

Legacy of MRGS Chemistry Olympiad

Participation Continues

Six Roskill students have been invited to join next year’s Chemistry Olympiad training

group. They are: Saviduru Mohan, Victor Xie, Mark Yep, Alice Ng, Lucy Yan and

Mildred Wong. The students have been selected based on a test taken last month and they

will join a group of 60-80 students selected from across New Zealand. This is the first stage

of the qualifying process which could lead to membership in the NZ Chemistry Olympiad

team and participation in the 46th Chemistry Olympiad Competition to be held in Hanoi,

Vietnam, in July 2014.

Roskill has a fine tradition of participation and success in the Chemistry Olympiad with 8

students in the last 10 years being members of the final team representing New Zealand in the

International Contest. Most recently this year Cindy Ou gained a bronze medal for New

Zealand in Moscow.

High Achievement in Australian

Mathematics Competition

This year’s Australian Mathematics Competition saw our students receiving 14 Distinction

awards placing students in the top 15% of entrants in their year and region and a further 3

students were awarded High Distinctions placing them in the top 2% of their year and region.

This competition administered by the Australian Mathematics Trust, challenges students at all

levels to solve thirty mathematical problems in a set time. These problems get progressively

more difficult until those at the end which challenge the most gifted students.

Distinction Certificates were awarded to:

Daniel Bai

Cathy Fan

Daniel Kim

Michael Li

Pranav Shetty

Tushar Thakur

Alan Thomas

Jahnvi Trivedi

Alice Wang

Joshua Simmons

Tanaya Sonar

Kungeng Wu

Elisa Yansun

Bo Zhong

High Distinctions were Awarded to:

Josette Xu

Felix Yang

Jonathan Khoo

High Achievement in Australian National

Chemistry Quiz

Junior students from our school have maintained our tradition of high international

achievement in Chemistry by their performance in this year’s Australian National Chemistry

Quiz. Ten Roskill Grammar students received plaques placing them in the top thousand of

110,000 students internationally who entered the competition. The competition which

consists of an hour’s multiple choice test pits students from over 17 countries against

problems in Chemistry. The event is sponsored and overseen by the Royal Australian

Chemistry Institute.

MRGS Plaque Winners: Australian National Chemistry Quiz

Jonathan Khoo

Aishwarya Balasubramanian

Naman Gupta

Yansun Elisa

Deeksha Vijayakumar

Felix Yang

Juin Man

Charlotte Shirreffs

Paul Robinson

Myles James

Arts and Cultural Awards

This term saw the inaugural Arts and Cultural Awards Evening—where our artistic and

cultural co-curricular strength was celebrated. Certificates for participation and commitment

were given in Music, Dance, Drama and Kapa Haka after the audience were entertained by

the school’s Concert Band.

Colours for Polyfest, Kapa Haka, Music and the Production (Wizard of Oz) were next

presented, each accompanied by a citation reminding listeners of the work and commitment

of students throughout the year. Guest presenter singer/songwriter Michael Murray returned

to the school to present some of the special awards and entertain the packed hall with one of

his latest songs. Those present were also entertained by a specially choreographed item from

dance students Awhina and Lou and at the close of the evening a song from the Ilaua

brothers—’ The Unbreaka-blez’. To round off the special night the audience were invited to

supper and have the opportunity to chat with award winners from the range of Arts and

Cultural groups.

Arts and Cultural Evening — Special Award Winners

PFA Co-Curricular Award - Erin Steel and Samah Shazia

Raewynn Winny Award for Contribution to Music - Angela Yen

The Bryss Trophy for Leadership in Music - Saale Ilaua

Marilyn Toi trophy for Karanga - Pearl Lazaro

Whaikorero Award - Luke Edmonds

Mana Taiohi award for leadership in Kapa Haka - Jaiya Skipper

Sports Award Evening

Our sporting excellence was celebrated this term with an evening of citations and awards for

all our sporting codes. Guest presenter was Sarah Cowley' New Zealand track and field

athlete' who in 2012 competed at the Summer Olympics in the women's heptathlon event.

Sarah was introduced to the attending students, staff and parents in a question and answer

session with Sports Co-ordinator Mr Horne. Her comments gave an insight into the demands

of top level training and competition—while inspiring our own young sportsmen and women

with what rewards can be gained by commitment and goal setting. The evening ‘s accolades

began with the presentation of student coaching certificates amongst which Vignesh

Krishnamoorthy received the outstanding student coach of the year award. There then

followed the announcement of colours in all the sporting codes and the comments

accompanying these awards paid tribute to the performance and en-deavour of the school’s

students.

After this section Mr Buckley invited Sarah Cowley to the stage to present the Sports

trophies and Academy awards. In the final part of the celebration Mr. Watson announced the

winners of the evening’s top awards including the top team—this year won by the Senior

Chess team which finished 2nd in the Auckland Central Competition, 1st in the West

Auckland competition, 1st in the South Auckland competition and capped a remarkable year

with a 2nd place in the National finals. The evening was brought to a close when all attending

were invited to have dessert and mix and mingle with award winners in the hall.

Sports Evening Top Award Winners

MRGS Team of the Year - Senior Chess Team

Best All Round Sportswoman - Amelia Cooper

Best All Round Sportsman - Yashveendra Krishna

Sportswoman of The Year - Shriya Naidu

Sportsman of The Year - Karan Banker

Senior Prize Giving Acclaims Student

Achievement

Our annual Senior Prize Giving took place on October 31st and in a proud evening of

congratulations we saw over 250 prize winners grace the school stage and receive their

certificates, cups and prizes. In our two prestigious academic awards at the close of the

evening Hannah Yang received the trophy as Dux of the school and Diana Ng was

applauded as Proxime Accessit. These two young people have an outstanding academic

record: Diana has amassed 346 NCEA credits in her career with 258 at Excellence level. She

has also never failed a single standard. This performance has earned her a Grade Point

Average of 3.81 ( out of a possible top grade of 4). Hannah has gained 366 credits while at

MRGS with 316 of these at Excellence level. Her GPA stands at 3.86 making her our premier

example of Roskill attainment.

In addition to awards for achievement in school subjects, external awards and scholarships

from Tertiary institutions were also a highlight of the presentations. Unitec, and AUT

provided a number of students with fee paying scholarships for the tenure of their studies

together with mentoring provision– one of the AUT awards amounting to $15,000 in total

over three years of study. A representative from the University of Auckland also presented

eight tertiary awards to our high achieving students. Six of these Jubilee awards gave

recipients $6,000 each and two students Cindy Ou and Hannah Yang received the

prestigious University of Auckland Scholarship awards worth up to $50,000 each. Amongst

the guest presenters on the evening was the Rt. Hon. Phil Goff M.P. who presented a special

award to one of our Senior Heads of Department. Mr Gavin Parratt, Head of Commerce

received a Woolf Fisher Fellowship Award for his outstanding leadership. In its letter the

Woolf Fisher Trust notes “Mt Roskill Grammar School continues to impress us with its

excellent record of all round achievement”. Congratulations were also given to Mrs Bennett

who won the Board of Trustees staff travel award. The Prize Giving evening was testament to

the calibre of our senior students and the powerful learning of our community.

University of Auckland Entry Scholarships for 2014

Cindy Ou - The University of Auckland Scholarship

Hannah Yang - The University of Auckland Scholarship

Alan Cheng - The University of Auckland Jubilee Award

Jessica Allan - The University of Auckland Jubilee Award

Lucas Chen - The University of Auckland Jubilee Award

Diana Ng - The University of Auckland Jubilee Award

Soo-Ling Tran - The University of Auckland Jubilee Award

Sohail Abdulla - Edward Connelly Faculty of Engineering Entry Level

Undergraduate Scholarship

Wizard of Oz Receives Showdown Top

Awards

The MRGS production ‘Wizard of Oz’ nominated in 4 categories of the Showdown Auckland

secondary school production competition, gained three top prizes at the awards ceremony this

week. The prize for Best Costume Design went to our talented teachers, Ms Gillies, Ms

Meyer, Ms Shearer, Ms Hughes, Ms Scrimshaw and Ms Pringle. The prize for Best

Female in a Leading role went to our own Grace Usumaki (for her portrayal of Dorothy) and

one of the most prestigious awards, Best Director was deservedly won by Ms Gillies—the

driving force behind this year’s successful show.

All schools in Auckland can enter their performances in the Showdown contest which sends a

judging team of experienced theatre practitioners to each show entered and assesses them for

the quality of presentation and performance across 23 categories. The aim of the competition

is to encourage young performers and foster excellence in the performing arts. Through the

composition of the judging panel and the publicity generated by the competition stronger

links are built between school programmes and Auckland community theatres. The awards

were announced and presented at a sparkling Sky City event. Roskill’s success in its first year

of entry is an indication of the quality of performing arts at our school and we look forward to

future awards in the Showdown competition.

World Brain Bee Competition

MRGS Year 12 student Jiantao Shen gained third place in the International neuroscience

Brain Bee knowledge contest. In the final, held in Vienna, Jiantao competed against the top

students from 17 other countries—each selected for their premier standing in their own

countries. Jiantao qualified for this prestigious event by taking in 2012 the North Island

Brain Bee challenge and then achieving the New Zealand title. The finals of the international

competition were part of a world neurological congress and gave the students competing the

opportunity to share in events and presentations from scientists and medical experts from all

over the globe.

The competition was rigorous and close spanning two days and 7.5 hours of total contest

modules. The intense five-part competition included a neuro-anatomy laboratory exam with

real human brains, a diagnosis section using video footage of actual patients and interactive

laboratory exam evaluation, a neuro-histology test, a written quiz involving analysis of brain

scans, problem-solving of case studies, and direct question-and-answer with live judges, all

three of whom were distinguished neurologists.

The Brain Bee aims to motivate youth to learn about the human brain and inspires them to

consider careers in neuroscience, psychology, neurology and related fields.

NZ Association of Language Teachers

Trophy

The school was recently awarded the NZALT trophy for the top school in NZ in the

Language Perfect World Championships. Last year more than 100,000 students across the

world competed in the cyber-battle to become the world champion of languages, and this year

that figure reached over 200,000. This year, for the first time, students in New Zealand were

competing for the chance to win the NZALT / Language Perfect Top School in New Zealand

Trophy. Mt. Roskill students answered 1.3 million questions correctly during the 10 days of

the competition, with over 200 students involved, and as a result were the winners of the

trophy. The trophy was presented to the school at an assembly by Martin East NZALT

president who in congratulation said ; “This is an excellent achievement for Mt. Roskill, and

an excellent celebration both of the value and importance of language learning in today’s

world and of Mt. Roskill students’ levels of knowledge and expertise in languages other than

English.”

International Chemistry Olympiad success

Cindy Ou Y13 has achieved international success by winning a bronze medal in the 45th

annual Chemistry Olympiad. The event took place over the recent holiday break and Cindy

was a member of a strong New Zealand Team which as a group was awarded the bronze

medal status. The Olympiad, held this year in Moscow, brought together secondary and high

school student teams from all over the world to exhibit their expertise in Chemistry.

Cindy gained her place in the national team after taking part in selection rounds and finally a

training group here in New Zealand where the final team of three were chosen from over 30

of our country’s top Chemistry scholars.The selection is based upon performance in a

selection tests and assumes knowledge of only Year 12 (NCEA Level 2) Chemistry.

Cindy joins a long list of MRGS national team members and medal winners in this

prestigious competition. In seven of the last ten years Roskill students have gained places in

the New Zealand Chemistry Olympiad team.

Top New Zealand Scholar Award

Tom Yang MRGS Student Receives Top in Chemistry Award

At the recent Top Scholar Awards, our own student Tom Yang received his medallion as the

Top Scholarship Chemistry Student in New Zealand. He was accompanied by his family and

the Principal Greg Watson. Tom joined New Zealand’s top secondary students at the

ceremony hosted at Government House by His Excellency, Lieutenant General, The Right

Honourable, Sir Jerry Mateparae on 15 May. The awards recognised the 41 elite students who

make up the 2012 Premier Award and Top Subject Scholarship Award winners. The

Honourable Hekia Parata, Minister of Education co-presented the awards alongside His

Excellency. Both posed for photos with the Scholars and offered congratulations on their

achievements.

The Prime Minister, The Right Honourable John Key presented the Prime Minister’s Award

for academic excellence. The official presentations were followed by light refreshments and a

tour of Government House for the Scholars. New Zealand Scholarship exams enable students

to be assessed against challenging standards, and are demand-ing for the most able students

in each subject.

Language Perfect Championship Results

2013 Language Perfect World Championships Results for MRGS

Another excellent year for World Language Competition results

2013 was another amazing year for MRGS results in the Language Perfect World

Championships (LPWC) from 20-30 May. Our students of French, Japanese and Maori spent

over 3,000 hours on computers learning and earning points in various languages. Over 1.3

million questions were answered by our pupils, earning us a total of 477,000 points, putting

us in 10th place worldwide out of 1,054 schools, and 3rd overall in New Zealand. During the

competition, there were many eager pupils rushing to B10 and other computer rooms to

logon, especially before school, at interval and during lunchtime. There was always a good

supply of lollipops during these sessions.

Overall, MRGS gained 8 Elite awards (10,000+ points), 35 Gold Medal certificates (3,000+

points), 27 Silver Medal certificates (2,000+ points), 67 Bronze Medal certificates (1,000+

points) and 67 Credit certificates (500+ points). The school was 6th globally in both French

& Japanese and 2nd in New Zealand in both languages.

There were many impressive individual performances, and the “Elite” pupils are especially

worthy of praise for their effort, commitment and stamina. These 8 pupils are: Sephie Liu,

Bryan Busby, Stephen Njoto, Yong Shi Lin, Elisa Yansun, Dan Li, Nathan McDougall

and Qi Zhu.

Sephie Liu, with 31,120 points, was 1st in MRGS, 4th in the World for Japanese, and had the

15th best score out of more than 230,000 participants worldwide. WOW!! Congratulations to

all our pupils and thanks to the wonderful Language Perfect staff who do a superb job

organising such a positive and worthwhile competition and learning experience.

Feedback from our pupils during the competition included:

"wooooo this has been brilliant! Loved being able to strengthen my knowledge about

languages!”

“Oh Yeah! 50/50!”

”I…am…STUNNED at how amazing Language Perfect is. Thanks to the creators of

Language Perfect and, of course, to the teachers that first introduced it to us!”

“Language Perfect is always fun (every year)...”

“I want to continue using Language Perfect because…I love to go on Language

Perfect because it is sooo fun.”

Certificates will arrive shortly for all those who gained 500+ points. Students pay $5 for the

competition and $15 for the full year experience which includes a lot of material added to

Language Perfect by MRGS teachers for each chapter of work.

Next year’s LPWC competition dates are: 19-29 May, 2014.

Excellence Awards

On the 21st March the school held its annual Excellence Awards evening when our high

achievers in last year’s NCEA examinations were congratulated. All those who achieved an

Excellence Endorsement at NCEA Level 1, 2 or 3 were given a special certificate and badge

by our guest presenter RT Hon. Phil Goff—MP for MT Roskill. It was a proud evening as

over 250 family members joined the 140 award winning students. The event opened with a

rousing Haka Powhiri for our guest and concluded with a supper where students and families

were able to share their moment and have their picture taken with Mr Goff and the Principal

Mr Watson. Each of these students have gained 50 or more credits at Excellence level to

achieve their endorsement award. At all three levels of this qualification our results exceed

national figures and at levels 2 and 3 we achieved our best results ever. These figures are a

tribute to the powerful learning focus of our seniors and the school as a whole.

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