Sohail Abdulla Wins IPENZ Award
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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
Roskill Student Wins Gymsport NZ Medal
In a recent Junior assembly Year 9 student Madison Smith was formally congratulated for
her winning of a Bronze medal in last month’s Gymsport New Zealand National Trampoline
Championship held in Napier. She was competing on the Double Mini-trampoline against
gymnasts from all over the country. Madison qualified earlier this year for the National
Trampoline team and took part in the Australian Nationals in Sydney. At the MRGS Sports
awards she received colours for Gymnastics and Trampoline together with the award for
Senior Girls Trampolining Champion.
Frost
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. Brightsparks Awards
Once again MRGS students featured successfully in the engineering and electrical innovation Brightsparks awards. Sohail Abdulla—with his robotic window cleaner, Rohan Modak with his robotic floor sweeper and Caleb Baptista with his Shoe Station design were all finalists for the main award. After the round of final demonstrations and judging Sohail was placed 1st in the 17 yrs and above category and was presented also with the Supreme Young Inventor Award on the evening. Caleb Baptista was placed 2nd in the 13-14 years category. Sohail’s triumph follows on from his successes last year in National and International competitions when he took his robot to the International Science and Engineering Fair in Phoenix, Arizona. Senior Prize Giving This week has seen our celebration of achievement at Senior Prize giving. In a proud evening of congratulations we saw over 250 prizewinners 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. 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 ten-ure 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 8 scholarship 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. The evening was testament to the calibre of our senior students and we wish them all the very best as they embark on study leave for their external NZQA examinations. 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.
Science and Technology Fair NIWA Auckland Science and Technology Fair Congratulations to our young scientists and engineers who have put so much work into their entries for this year’s Science and Technology Fair. Our own Roskill Grammar competition produced 16 finalists with projects ranging from the ‘Effect of colour on the taste of beverages’ to ’Suspicious Solar Cells’ . In recent weeks these local finalists went through to the NIWA Auckland Fair where many deservedly received a range of awards from Highly Commended to Category Wins and Special Prizes. Five were given ‘Highly Commended : Shania Amolik with The Coca Cola Conundrum; Caleb Baptista with, ‘Shoe Station’; Ellen Bingham with ‘Is the Proof in the Pudding?’; Srishti Toora with 'Leaky Clues to Dam Design’; and Emily White with ‘Put Your Best Paw Forward’. Category Successes came from: Vidit Bawa with ‘Hydrodynamics in Action’, who gained 1st in Physics - Turbine design; Rohan Shetty with ‘What Affects Sound Quality?’ gained 2nd in Physics – Speaker enclosures and John Bayldon with ‘In Tune?’ coming 3rd in Physics – how temperature affects frequency. There were also two Special Prize winners : Juin Ma with ‘Suspicious Solar Cells’ winning the Special prize in Physics – effectiveness of solar cells; and Sarah Dun with ‘Cheesy Crater ‘ taking the Special prize for Earth and Beyond – Moon craters. All the achievements were testimony to the hard work of these students and the support and motivation of teachers and parents. Youth Parliament Representative Hannah Yang represented the Roskill constituency in this year’s Youth Parliament held in Wellington. The once-in-three-year event brings together students from all over New Zealand to take part in a parliamentary debates and gain first hand knowledge of the political
processes of the Beehive. Hannah was chosen by local MP Rt Hon Phil Goff to travel to Wellington and represent her community. During their stay in the capital the students debated in the parliamentary chamber and also took part in Select Committee hearing scenarios. AUT Japanese Speech Competition Senior student Eu Sam Tan competing recently in the Year 12 Category of this annual Japanese Speech Competition received a “Highly Commended” prize in his category. 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.” Australasian Computing Examination Two MRGS students performed at the highest level in the recent Australasian Computing Examination. Jonathan Khoo, Year 10, gained a High Distinction with 40/45 and achieving
in the Top 1% of New Zealand and the Pacific Region. Nathan McDougall, Year 11, gained a Distinction with 36/45 and achieving in the Top 5% in New Zealand and the Pacific Region. 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. Rotary Model United Nations This year, Mount Roskill Grammar School entered two teams into the Rotary Model United Nations competition at Auckland Girls Grammar School. Representing Spain and Singapore, both teams spoke admirably on several issues present in the world today, including the plight of child soldiers, financial strain in the European Union and the move towards bio-diversity
in world politics. Congratulations to Kevin Chow, Diana Qiu, Romina Seylani, Aryaman Parulkar, Ruby Allen-McKee and Taruki Gunawardana who all represented their countries and the school with poise and pride. Science Technology Challenge Success Three Year 13 ICT students took part in the Information Science Technology Challenge run by Otago University at the end of June. The competition involved students from many schools spending the day being exposed to the latest research in the Computer Science Department. They then worked to come up with an innovative ICT solution to a business problem. Our students Niha Manchineela, Archana Ravichandran and Zephaniah Young presented their ideas to the gathering and were awarded the "Peoples Choice" award voted by the audience. They received prizes for their efforts. Well done to all three students. Indian Dance Group Success The Indian Dance group participated in the recent Rokcerz competition for secondary schools dance groups. Their performance was highly appreciated and the team gained a trophy and a cheque for $300. Music News Music Creditable Performances in Competitions and the Community
Six Mount Roskill Groups performed in the recent Chamber Music Competition and our brass quartet gave a notable performance. Also Ellen and Mark Bingham - as part of a combined schools Brass Sextet which played a specially commissioned composition were singled out to win an award—The Most Engaging group - and performed again in the subsequent District Finals. In the Rockquest competition heats ‘Vertigo’ a school group, presented some great song structure and technical music playing but were unsuccessful on the night. Our chamber Music groups have also been active in our community performing for the Hillsborough Heights Retirement Village residents on 24 May where they were very well received. Later in the month a few chamber groups, an 11PFM girls' vocal group and the Ilaua Quartet performed at the Mt Roskill Library as part of NZ Music month - many favourable comments were made about the standard of these performances. Chemistry Olympiad Team Cindy Ou - Y13—Chosen to Represent New Zealand in Chemistry Olympiad Team After taking part in a squad selection process (together with two other Roskill Senior Students Victor Xie and Mark Yep) Cindy Ou has been named in the final team of four to represent New Zealand in the 45th Chemistry Olympiad in Moscow in July. Each year a group of around 30-35 secondary school students is brought together to form a Training Group, from which a team selection is made. The choice of the original training group is based upon performance in a test held at the end of October, or the beginning of November. The test assumes knowledge of only Year 12 (NCEA Level 2) Chemistry. The selection of Cindy in this year’s New Zealand team continues a tradition of MRGS national representation over the years. 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. MIT Secondary Schools Challenge On Wednesday 26 June the MIT Secondary Schools Challenge 2013 was held. We had students competing in the Barista Competition where they had to prepare and present: 2 single espressos 2 single shot lattes and 2 single shot flat whites within a certain time frame. We were delighted that Chrizelle Cabanilla (13RKLY) and Sam Chiwakul (13BTNG) were both awarded with Silver medals. Well done to both of these students. Food and Hospitality Department Brass Band Success
Recently five of our students participated in the Auckland Brass Band Association Solo & Ensemble Contest. Three of our Y11 students - Mark Bingham, David Tuitupou and Sione Longopoa, did particularly well. Between them they received three 1st placings, two second placings, and one 3rd place. 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.
International Acclaim for Roskill StudentY13 Student Sohail Abdullah achieved a 3rd place and a US$1,000 prize recently at the INTEL International Science and Engineering Fair in Phoenix Arizona. This event brought together the world’s top 1500 Technology and Science students from Science Fairs held last year in over 70 countries. A total of 900 judges all of them specialists in their own fields viewed demonstrations and project displays from each student and then awarded prizes in over 14 categories. Sohail gained his world ranking place in the Engineering Electrical and Mechanical section of the fair. The MRGS student’s project - a robotic window cleaner, (inspired originally by seeing his father laboriously having to deal with large window washing at his home ) was a highlight of the Fair. Sohail was awarded a place at the International Event together with travel and accommodation last December when his exhibit won the prestigious Ambassador’s Award at the Genesis Energy Realise the Dream awards function in Wellington. The original event in New Zealand and the final Fair in the United States celebrate the most talented secondary school science students. Sohail's Blog ICAS English Competition Last year, Mount Roskill Grammar student Jordan Holmes came first in ICAS English for ALL of New Zealand. Help us keep up our strong tradition of achievement in this international competition by enrolling to sit ICAS English today!
To enter, pay $8.50 to accounts by Wednesday, May 29th, or see your English teacher for more information. Indiking Dance Competition Earlier this term Roshan Nama competed successfully in an all males dance competition “Indiking”. He performed a contemporary Bollywood dance with back-up from his dance group ‘Indiance’. His compelling performance earned him 1st place and he was crowned ‘Indiking of 2013’; a title which his efforts thoroughly deserved. Next year he will be competing in the ‘King of Kings’ competition against other previous winners. Roshan has donated his prize money towards his Dance show and their forthcoming production in July. Hip Hop Dance Successes Three MRGS students were successful while taking part in the recent Street Dance New Zealand regional and national competitions. Louann Campos, as part of M.I.A crew placed 2nd in the varsity division (13-17yrs) in the Auckland region, and then 5th in the National comp. Mykey Davis-Hoeft and Ray Campos, as part of DZIAH Academy, placed 2nd in the national comp, which allows them to compete for NZ in the World Hip Hop Championships in August. Congratulations to all three students. These preliminary events are held yearly as part of a selection process for the World Hip Hop Competition. Chemistry Olympiad Training Squad Tim Vogel and Wenyi Yi 2008
Three Roskill Students in Chemistry Olympiad Training Squad Three Senior students, Victor Xie, Cindy Ou, and Mark Yep, have been chosen to take part in the final selection process for the New Zealand Chemistry Olympiad Team. They will join 25 other students in a squad selection process which will produce a final team of four to represent New Zealand in the 45th Chemistry Olympiad in Moscow in July. Each year a group of around 30-35 secondary school students is selected to form a Training Group. The selection is based upon performance in a selection test held at the end of October, or the beginning of November. The selection test assumes knowledge of only Year 12 (NCEA Level 2) Chemistry. The inclusion of this year’s three students continues a tradition of Roskill involvement over the years. Previous Roskill students selected for the final team:- 2011: Aaron Li (Reserve ) 2008: Tim Vogel, Wenyi Yi 2007: Chuan-Zheng Lee 2005: Daniel Chan 2004: Tony Chiu, Aritra Ray 2003: Aritra Ray 2002: Peter Lam 2000: Dony Wong Auckland Philarmonia Secondary School Scholarship Aminiasi Latu, a student at MRGS, has been awarded one of the 7 APO Scholarships this year. The student will receive a series of 8 mentoring sessions from a Philharmonia musician in preparation for performing in concert with the orchestra. The education concert by the APO is called “Kiwi Capers” and will be performed on August 28th and 29th. The sessions will start in June with Samy from Finland who is action section leader for the orchestra’s flutes. Aminiasi will be able to experience all aspects of the professional orchestra environment in the course of his mentoring and performance. 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. photos Student Wins Science and Technology Award
Sohail Abdullah, a year 12 student, was awarded the American Ambassador’s award at the Genesis Energy Realise the Dream awards function in Wellington on Friday 14th December. The award, one of those celebrating the most talented New Zealand secondary school science students, gives Sohail travel and accommodation to attend the Intel International Science Fair in Phoenix, Arizona in May 2013. Sohail was one of 20 students selected nationally by the Royal Society of New Zealand to be finalists in this prestigious event. He had designed a robot that cleans windows. The inspiration for his work was seeing his father struggling to clean windows at home and this led to his invention that he hopes may be adapted for use on high rise buildings in the future. Another Mount Roskill student, Conor King, was also selected to attend the event for his cellphone linked database, ‘blurb’, which enables your cellphone to communicate information on areas like your music preferences or shoe size to a shop that you enter. He hopes that his design will allow people to have their own choice of music played by retailers rather than random tunes. Roskill grammar was the only Auckland school to have two representatives at the award ceremony. Their work is a tribute to the strength of Electronics at the school and the support and dedication of teacher Mr. Bill Collis.
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