In March, Kristin entered a team into the inaugural New Zealand Young Scientists’ Tournament hosted at Wellington High School. The team of HeeSeo Kim, Zoe Reis and Nate Leavy, supported by Sophia Fang, Lucy Xu, Olivia Whineray-Kelly and Havana Pick had been working on the problems since late 2018.
Over the course of the weekend, Kristin climbed the rankings to make the grand final on Sunday afternoon with Auckland Grammar and a Wellington High School team. It was a very intense round of science fights. Students presented their solution to the problem while an opposition team debated with them; each team furthering their scientific understanding. Auckland Grammar won with 40.50 points, very very closely followed by Kristin in second place with 40.44 and Wellington with 39.31.
Kristin Students Invited to Elaine P. Snowden Astronomy School
Congratulations to Year 13 students Chris Brand and Finn McClellan who were offered places to attend the University of Canterbury’s Elaine P. Snowden Astronomy School during the April school holidays. Gaining an invite to this camp is highly competitive with only 20 students selected nationally from over 200 applications. Attendees spend time at both the University of Canterbury’s Ilam Campus and at Mt John Observatory in Tekapo with exclusive access to the internationally renowned astronomical instruments and research. Kristin has successfully had students selected for this camp every year and continues to build upon strong links with the University of Canterbury’s Science faculty.
Singing Stars at Kristin
2019 is going to be an exciting year of performing for senior music students Olivia Forbes (Year 13) and Alexa Harwood (Year 12). Aside from travelling to Austria, Hungary, Czech Republic and Germany with our choir Euphony during April, roles in May’s Senior School production of Chicago High School Edition, later this year both girls will be making their professional debut performing lead roles for New Zealand Opera’s production of The Turn of the Screw.
After months of receiving and reviewing audition tapes from aspiring young singers from across New Zealand, following a series of workshops and live auditions, the national opera company whittled the hopeful singers down to eight; finally making the decision to double cast the role, and choosing our very own Olivia and Alexa as the successful performers.
The Turn of the Screw is a dark, complex work by 20th century English composer Benjamin Britten, and Olivia and Alexa will be performing as paid professional cast members in both the Auckland and Wellington seasons of this opera. We are extremely proud of these two students but are also extremely grateful to their singing teacher Shelagh Richardson, who provides many of our young Kristin singers with an excellent vocal education. Both Olivia and Alexa have also opted to study Music as one of their senior subject options, Alexa in the IB and Olivia for NCEA. This commitment to performance and academic music will undoubtedly provide these students with the foundation for a successful musical future.
Kristin Student Wins AKSS Junior Boys Tennis Championship
Kristin Year 10 student Finn Burridge entered the Auckland Secondary Schools competition as the number 1 seed in the Junior Boys Grade and beat his Waiuku College opponent in the first round 9-0. Finn’s winning streak continued as he won against a Sacred Heart College opponent 6-3, 6-1 in the quarter-finals, and a Saint Kentigern’s opponent 6-0, 6-1 in the semi-finals. Finn competed against another Saint Kentigern’s player in the finals and after a convincing win 6-3, 6-3, took out the AKSS Junior Boys Tennis Championships for 2019.
In addition, Finn competed together with fellow Kristin Year 10 student Robbie King in the Junior Boys Doubles winning the first round against Kings 6-0, 6-1. The boys then faced Sacred Heart College defeating them 6-1, 6-0 which then placed them in the finals where they lost against Westlake Boys High School but walked away with a well-deserved silver medal. Well done boys!
Shakespeare Festival 2019
In April, Kristin organised and hosted the University of Otago’s Sheilah Winn Shakespeare Festival (West Auckland). Students from Kristin and seven other schools around Auckland performed five and 15-minute scenes from a wide variety of Shakespeare's plays. There were 32 scenes in the Festival, and the audience was treated to a huge range of funny, sad, powerful and thought-provoking performances. Eight Kristin groups took part, performing scenes from plays such as As You Like It, King Lear, Julius Caesar, Much Ado About Nothing, Romeo and Juliet and Twelfth Night. At the awards ceremony after the final performance, the assessors, Ben Henson and Rita Stone commented on the quality of all of the performances and performers they had seen before announcing a number of awards including the following awarded to Kristin students and staff:
Best Stage Design – Kristin School’s Julius Caesar group
Best Communication with the Audience – Isla Sangl (Year 10)
Most Promising Actor – Tim Gunn (Year 11)
Best Non-Student Director – Miss Tessa Johnston (Drama and Dance Teacher)
Even more exciting, we then learned that our five-minute Julius Caesar scene (performed by Alex Gordon, Cam Scott, Jamie Clumpas, Tim Gunn, Theo Kleiman Canizares, Kaelyn McGhie and Kester Sykes) had been chosen as the Best Five Minute Scene, and that Emma Hoseason had been chosen as the Direct Entrant to the National Shakespeare Schools Production. These extremely prestigious awards are testament to the hard work and creativity of our students, the support and encouragement of our parents and the dedication of our Drama teachers. Selected Kristin students will perform again at the National Shakespeare Festival held in Wellington over Queen's Birthday weekend and we look forward to seeing them shine again.
Kristin Students' Achievements at the North Shore Swimming Competition
In April, competing against 20 other local primary schools, our Junior School swimmers selected to attend the North Shore Swimming Competition at the Sir Owen G. Glenn National Aquatic Centre achieved some terrific personal and team results. Congratulations to Melody Xue, Eddy Gottschen, Jenny Zhang, Harrison Yin, Han Ming Shen, Mao Dong Li and Ben Sly, who achieved a first, second or third in one or more of their individual races. Kristin students also combined well in the relays to finish 1st in the Boys 9 and under Medley relay, 1st in the 9 and under Girls Medley relay, 2nd in the Boys 9 and under Freestyle relay, 2nd in the Girls 11 and under Freestyle relay and 3rd in the Girls 9 and under Freestyle relay.
