The Macleans College chess team has been crowned National Chess Champions for the second year in a row.
At the end of September the team travelled to Palmerston North to compete in the New Zealand Interschools Chess Finals.
The team members were Richard Jiang (Upham House), Jasmine Zhang (Hillary), Kevin Guan (Upham), Terry Shen (Te Kanawa) and Oliver Dai (Snell).
The tournament is the culmination of many rounds of regional play during the year and the country’s top 18 secondary school teams come together to find out which is New Zealand’s best team.
Photo supplied
As defending champions the pressure was on the Macleans College team to maintain their very high standard. However during the first half of the tournament they suffered a crushing defeat at the hands of Auckland Grammar who became the clear favourites to win the title.
Undeterred by this setback the Macleans College team maintained their composure and concentrated on securing as many points as possible. Their tenacity was rewarded during the second half of the tournament when Mount Roskill Grammar scored a surprise win over Auckland Grammar which turned the leader board on its head.
Every year since 1983 Pakuranga Rotary has hosted teams from local schools for a fiercely contested debate with the Holyoake Trophy as the prize.
Sponsored by Noel Holyoake, a past District Governor of District 9920, Pakuranga Rotary member and director of Holyoake Industries, the debate involves senior students from the three colleges in the district – Edgewater College, Pakuranga College and Saint Kentigern College with teams alternating to challenge the winner from the previous year.
Since 2018 the trophy had been held by Saint Kentigern College but the holders were hotly challenged by Pakuranga College at the recent Rotary meeting at Waipuna Convention Centre.
Teams do not receive the moot for the debate until noon on the day of the contest.
The 2019 topic had echoes of Stephen Hawking’s warning to the world in his last book-If robots don’t get us, climate change will.
The moot was “That AI presents a greater threat to mankind’s future than climate change”.
The Pakuranga College team of Khusrav Bhajiwalla, Jaxon Gear, Helen Lam and Chris Matthews (Teacher i/c) which argued for the affirmative, wove a picture of a world dominated by artificial intelligence which didn’t share human values, caused massive unemployment and anarchy and which posed a more serious threat long-term to the world than the climate change issue which was solvable.
Ben Shepherd, William Feng, Ben Fraser and Chris Hodder (Teacher i/c) representing St. Kentigern College and arguing in the negative, countered that the portrayal of the risks posed by AI was overhyped and unrealistic and that extreme weather will overwhelm us before cell phones overpower us.
This year the debate was adjudicated by Jeanette Roberts, with years of experience, Desiré Truter, acting head of English and teacher-in-charge of the debating team at Edgewater College and, for the first time, local MP Simeon Brown who is a member of Pakuranga Rotary Club.
In awarding the debate (and retention of the Holyoake Trophy) to St Kents, Simeon made reference to the quality of the debate and the passion exhibited by both teams.
There was certainly nothing artificial about the intelligence on display from our local college debating teams.
Thirteen-year-old local gymnast Bethany Hyde has made the New Zealand gymnastics team.
The Bucklands Beach Intermediate School student — and former Maraetai Beach School student – will be representing New Zealand for the first time internationally at the Steps Tour in Hawaii next year.
Bethany started gymnastics when she was 7-years-old. Her mum Kirsten said Bethany was a little uncoordinated and would trip over herself running down the corridor.
“I thought it would be great to help her balance. She now does back tucks on a beam, her balance is amazing, but she is still the kid that can trip over herself running down a corridor.”
Bethany Hyde, who attends Bucklands Beach Intermediate, in full flight.Photo supplied
Bethany is so dedicated to her sport, training at Eastern Suburbs Gymnastics Club in Glen Innes over 20 hours a week. Her passion and work ethic allow her to still manage to find time to balance school, home and gym life, said Kirsten, allowing Bethany to work towards her dream of competing for her country.
When most people will be relaxing and enjoying some time off over Christmas, Bethany will be training hard getting ready to leave for Hawaii at the beginning of January.
“With gymnastics being entirely self-funded, Bethany would welcome any sponsors to aid with her continued growth as a New Zealand athlete,” Kirsten said.
A Givealittle page has been set up to raise funds for Bethany’s trip. https://givealittle.co.nz/cause/representing-nz-at-the-gymnastics-2020-hawaii-tour
Howick Pakuranga Hockey club under 13 players, Victoria Alves Flood, Hannah Cullingworth, and Emmerson Garrett have had a fantastic season playing in the Premier A year 7/8 team who made the finals of their competition.
Left to right Tori, Hannah,Emmerson at the recent tournament. Photo supplied
Emmerson captained the team and Victoria was named Most Valuable player. The girls have been playing together for some time, and that camaraderie was rewarded when all three were named in the Auckland under 13 representative team. They were lucky enough to be coached by senior Howick Pakuranga player Sophie Richards.
Travelling with the team to Wellington for the recently concluded Collier tournament, Hannah was the top goal scorer and was named most valuable player. The team went on to make the final but were tipped out by Canterbury.
Students from four local schools are returning to normality after a once-in-a-lifetime trip to visit sister schools in China at the end of Term 3.
Twenty-seven pupils from Pigeon Mountain Primary, Wakaaranga, Hingaia Peninsula and Bucklands Beach Intermediate participated in the educational and cultural exchange, travelling to Ningbo, South Shanghai in Eastern China.
Pigeon Mountain students being welcomed to their sister school in China. Photos supplied
“Auckland has a longstanding connection to the city of Ningbo, having established a sister-city relationship in 1998. Schools in the two cities have been working together since 2013 as part of an education association. These visits are an extension of this cooperation, and provide students and teachers with the opportunity to learn alongside one another and share in cultural experiences,” says Ian Dickinson, principal of Pigeon Mountain Primary School who accompanied the students, along with three other principals and four teachers from the other schools in the travelling party.
“The students on the visit were wonderful ambassadors for their respective schools and demonstrated the values and behaviours we were hoping to see from them. They formed some wonderful relationships with their home stay families, and embraced all that the visit had to offer,” says Ian.
After collectively covering the equivalent of the 1600km length of New Zealand in training since April, 38 Pigeon Mountain Primary School runners headed to central Auckland on Sunday to complete their 2019 Auckland Kids Marathon.
Weekly after-school runs meant the children were well prepared for their final challenge a 2.2km run to Victoria Park alongside hundreds of other young participants.
Principal Ian Dickinson says he is very proud of the runners and the resilience they showed in training.
Students of Pigeon Mountain School take a break after a 2.2km dash to Victoria Park alongside hundreds of other young participants. Photo supplied
‘The children never miss a training run, often braving wintry weather after busy days at school,” he says.
‘This is the third Pigeon Mountain group to complete the event, and we hope this inspires a love of running it would be great to see these children continuing to run and perhaps compete in the full event as adults
Will it be a watery wetsuit or a soggy suit and tie?
Wakaraanga Primary School students are looking forward to seeing Principal Brent Jenkin and local MP Simeon Brown brave the Gravity Dunk Tank at this year’s Wakaaranga School Gala on Saturday, November 2 from 10 am – 2 pm.
The school is planning a special gala as principal Jenkin retires at the end of the year.
There will be carnival games, haunted house, and bargains at the toys and books room as well as yummy cultural cuisine stalls.
Principal Brent Jenkin and local MP Simeon Brown will brave the Gravity Dunk Tank at this year’s Wakaaranga School Gala on Saturday November 2. Photo supplied
Make sure to be in line to dunk Mr Jenkin, MP Brown and other lucky teachers in the Gravity Dunk Tank from 11am.
There’s also an opportunity to become Wakaaranga’s next ninja warrior on the ninja run, conquer the giant inflatables and compete with their friends at laser tag. That apart, kids can swim in a sea of balloons in the balloon room and ride giant plush animals.
Entertainment by local performers and a quickfire raffle or mystery key could win you prizes like a Samsung A70 mobile or an Augustine Kimono.
From bug hotels to edible gardens, it’s been a rewarding journey for Anchorage Park School as they recounted their journey at the Enviroschools Bronze Reflection held recently at a school event attended by Cate Jessep and Rebecca Goffin from the Auckland Council Enviroschools team.
Working towards a sustainable future has been hard work as students, staff, parents and the community have all been part of the journey.
They worked weekends, after school and lunch times to help sustain a new environment that included creating a wetland to encourage native birds and wildlife back to the area.
Interestingly, the forest area in the school houses bug hotels, native trees and an outdoor classroom for students.
Anchorage Park School eco warriors and STEM children show the assessor their bug hotel and how they attract bugs into the environment. Photo supplied
Students have spent a lot of time planning what to plant and hope to give away any excess produce to local communities in the future.
The waste-free lunches initiative is a driver in becoming a waste free school. Students have been making beeswax wraps in order to eliminate plastic wrap from their lunchboxes.
“That apart they’ve been trapping pests to prevent them killing off native birds and maintaining outdoor environment,” says Lorraine Field science leader at Anchorage Park School.
“It has been a very rewarding journey which has been led by a team of eco warriors and our STEM (science, technology, engineering and mathematics) club. Our next step is to achieve the silver award.”
Leaving was a hard decision to make for Catherine Rivers.
The St Mark’s Catholic School principal admits she still gets a little teary-eyed when she reflects on her decision to retire after leading the school for 17 years.
“Though I won’t miss the 15 hour workdays and the massive responsibility of having a vision and making so many decisions a day, I will miss the relationships I share with all the stakeholders including the students, staff, teachers, board of trustees, Parent Teacher Association and the community.”
She says a principal could make up to 60 decisions a day.
“That would include two to three major decisions a day,” says Rivers.
She believes the school is in a very good place after four to five years of consecutive outstanding Education Review Office reviews and top Catholic Special Character Reviews
“After 17 years it’s time to step down and hand over responsibility and the privilege to another. I think it is the right time for the school and me, both professionally and personally as our school has continued to flourish whether it is in the academic field, cultural, arts or sports.”
A former chairperson of the Howick Pakuranga Principals’ Association, as well as chairperson of the Auckland Catholic Primary Principal Association, the award-winning principal says that every principal faces a burn out in 20 years.
Catherine Rivers principal of St Mark’s School is looking forward to the next phase of her life. Times photo Wayne Martin
While she admits to having a conflict of emotions. “Sometimes I get all welled up and think I could have another two to three years in me.
“We have a lifestyle block in Whitford and started beekeeping. I plan to have a bigger vegetable garden and look after the lifestyle block.”
The plan is to travel in part of term one, two and three. “And in term four, I will reassess what I should do next,” she laughs.
“I have always enjoyed developing new opportunities for children and helping lead change where necessary for better outcomes for students.
“Though I don’t think I will take on another principal’s job, I may do something in the field of education at a later stage.”
On November 22 there will be a combined school, parish, family and colleagues farewell mass for Rivers who is moving onto a brand new chapter of her life.
In a classroom of Rive Block in Pakuranga College, exciting things are happening.
The creation of software for virtual reality gaming has gripped the imagination of students at Pakuranga College.
A VR game created by Yuewei Zhang, recently won the Year 13 student $1000 at the Media Design School Bright Awards, with an additional $3000 in prize money going to the College.
Organised by New Zealand’s most awarded tertiary digital design institute, the awards recognise the creative talent of high school students from across the country in a range of disciplines, including graphic design, animation, photography and game development.
This year Pakuranga College entered the Game category and took home all three awards in this group resulting in it being named the Bright Awards ‘School of the Year’.
L-r (sitting) Pakuranga College students Tyler Gamble, Yuewei Zhang, Abdul Boateng. Standing L-r(standing) Harrison Wing and Kazuyoshi Taylor. Photo supplied
Vicky Tasker, content and communications manager at Media Design School commented: “Pakuranga College should be enormously proud – we were blown away by the calibre of work (and their utter domination of the Games category) It is a really amazing reflection on the school.”
As winner Zhang prepares to move on to start engineering degree, his position as king of the school’s Game Development Club will be hotly contested by a number of younger students, most of whom took home highly commended accolades for their entries into the Bright Awards.
Charlie Smith from Pakuranga College’s Technology department who oversees the group says: “Most of these students find their way into game development through NCEA Year 9 Communications, which incorporates a one term module in game development. This introduces them to graphics animation, programming and game play (action or plot creation).”
Several of the group are already considering a career in the field, including Year 11 student Tyler Gamble, who is keen to create games that fill a gap in the current range of games available for VR says: “It’s great to be able to create a game with all of the elements I want,” he says, “instead of relying on someone else’s idea of what is fun or interesting”.
The $3000 prize money will be invested in upgrading the college’s virtual reality equipment to ensure the best possible opportunities for the creative minds of the future.
Students at Baverstock Oaks School students wore Maori headbands and white feathers on Friday, symbolising peace to commemorate the invasion of Parihaka in 1881.
Ava MacDonald enjoying herself. Photos Wayne MartinYen Dia (front) & Aaranavi Karan
Lindy Fisher illustrator of the book ‘Remember that November’, was there to read the story.
Pippins, Brownie and Ranger units in Pakuranga, supported by their adult volunteers have created a work of art that lightens up a vector transformer box located on Glenmore Road, alongside the Guiding Hall the girls use.
Unit leader Louisa Cooper says the project is a “great example of teamwork” within an organisation that has been helping girls and young women to follow their passions and learn independence, along with the opportunity to learn practical skills for the outdoors since 1928.
The project was completed over two terms, with the help of sponsors such as Resene, Bunnings Botany and PSP Ltd in East Tamaki.
The mural is made up of 72 panels that collate and seam into an image of an apple tree, making for an eye-catching addition to the east Auckland landscape.
To get involved in Guiding as a volunteer or to enrol a child, visit girlguidingnz.org.nz
Sunnyhills School students have created a fun new hide and seek game that helps promote bee care.
The students were excited to welcome beehives to their school recently.
As a GreenGold Enviroschool, the beehives form part of their efforts to help create a sustainable future.
“Did you know most of the plants we need for food rely on pollination by bees?” says Vera Akitson, a year six student.
With the bee populations declining, to promote bee care, such as not spraying pesticide, the year five and six students have created Bee Rocks.
They’ll be hiding the small stones, painted like bees and covered in messages about how to care for bees, in public spaces in a 3.2 kilometre radius around Sunnyhills School, in which their bees will fly.
Beeing environmentally aware Tavish Panjri, Aarav Sharma, Rajeev Silva, Oliver Hawkins, Leon Zhang. Photo supplied
The community is invited to search for the bee rocks. When found, they can photograph them and post to Instagram #beesrock and #sunnyhillsschoolbees.
“Please re-hide the rocks so the fun can continue,” advises Christine Daniel, the Sunnyhills Education for Sustainability teacher.
“It’d be great if everyone planted more flowers for the bees,” says Chloe Crawford, a year six student.
“Let’s all help make our suburb a more colourful and sustainable environment!”
The talent and hard work of golfer Jimmy Zheng has been recognised with the award of an academic and sporting scholarship to Duke University, one of the powerhouses of American Collegiate sport.
Zheng (Hillary House), who plays off an impressive handicap of 2.6, captained the Macleans Premier Golf Team during their victory in the 2018 NZ Secondary Schools Championship and retention of the title this year.
The team is also the Auckland 18 and 9-hole champions. He was named Macleans College Sportsman of the Year for 2019 at the recent senior prizegiving.
Jimmy Zheng in action. Photo supplied
This has been a very successful year for Zheng as he gained third place in the NZ Secondary School Championship and a number of high placings in tournaments in New Zealand, Australia and the USA.
These include second places in both the IMG Academy Junior World Championship International in California and in the American Junior Golf Association International tournament in Indiana as well as 10th place in the New Zealand Men’s Amateur Championships.
These achievements stand Jimmy in good stead for pursuing a career as a professional golfer.
Pene Frost, regional manager Pou Toko. Times photo Farida Master
One hundred years of helping vulnerable children and their families to stand up and be strong in the face of adverse childhood experiences, is a huge milestone.
Celebrating the centenary of Stand Children’s Services at the Children’s Village at Half Moon Bay were members of local service organisations including Freemasons, Probus, Rotary and Zonta who have supported Stand over the years
Over 10 decades Stand, formerly known as the Children’s Health Camp, has transformed lives of children from 7-11 who are at significant risk of harm as a consequence of the environment in which they are being raised.
Pene Frost, regional manager Pou Toko who has been with the charity for over 40 years, is an institution in her own right. She expressed her gratitude to therapeutic staff, cooks, leadership team, volunteers, coaches and tireless doctors on the occasion.
“It is 100 years of collective service to the community and I’d like to thank everyone for their kindness,” she said.
“One hundred years ago in Turakina, in the middle of a farmer’s paddock, under the shelter of army tents, 55 children experienced the very first Children’s Health Camp. It was not until 1937 that the move was made to establish permanent camps across New Zealand,” she said.
The current facility was built in 2004 from the profits of the sale of 17 acres of land that was occupied by the old Health Camp.
“Many of you will remember the penny for post, penny for health through the sale of health stamps. Unfortunately, letter writing is a past art and we no longer receive funds though post.”
Children, staff and volunteers perform a traditional waiata (song) during the powhiri to mark 100 years of Stand Children’s Services. Times photo Farida Master
Talking to the Times, Pene looked back at the time when children were at the health camp mainly due to health reasons – asthma, bad eyesight, diabetes, scabies or hair lice.
“But now they are here due to trauma caused by emotional, physical or sexual abuse,” she said.
“Children come from harmful relationships and there is a big impact of drugs, violence and disruption to family life. Sometimes a child has been witness to the dad banging the mum’s head against a wall and there are memories that won’t go away. They’ve seen their sibling end their life and it’s important to make them understand that it is not their fault. Children are emotionally, mentally and sexually scarred and it takes a much longer time to heal,” she observed.
“Sadly, children are not children anymore as there is so much pornography and violence in the media and the ability to access violence in the name of entertainment.
At Stand they not only work with children but also with families. Stand also runs the grief and loss programme called Seasons for grown-ups.
“We do parenting since the child will go back to the same family environment and sometimes parents have their own trauma history that they carry into their parenting,” pointed out Pene.
“Right from the first moment they engage with our social workers, they are treated with kindness. Children are in a safe space and we teach them how to make safe choices.
“Most children are there for a span of five weeks and then ready to make a transition. Sometimes it may take up to two years to make a difference but the stay at the village is not at one stretch. They can come back after a while.
“Our children are our treasures, and at the end of the day if our relationship has made a difference in their lives, we have all achieved greatness.”
Students from Riverhills School have been using their imaginations to create outfits out of unwanted materials for their show ‘Trashmagination’.
After months of work carefully designing and constructing extraordinary outfits, the students were excited to share their creations with friends and whanau last week.
“They worked collaboratively in groups to create their outfits and compose digital music tracks to accompany their look on the stage,” says Riverhills principal, Sarah Allen.
“It was a real team effort that required perseverance, problem solving and a ‘can-do’ attitude.”
‘Trashmagination’ was presented in three sections – diversity, nature and future.
Riverhills School trashes out fashion from unwanted material at the Trashimagination show at school. Photos supplied
Each group took inspiration from one of these themes and worked with a selection of materials in their construction.
Year 4 student Ailey Hay said that her group was motivated to make a dress out of chip packets to protect sea creatures, who eat plastics that end up in the ocean.
‘Te Fiti’ was modelled by Annabel Huang and created by her Year 0/1 classmates out of wood sacks, wallpaper, plastic cups and bottle tops. The children also made paper flowers, grass and leaves for the outfit.
As an Enviroschool, Riverhills staff and students have been focusing on reducing the waste they are sending to the landfill this year. Classes have led the introduction of a number of waste reduction initiatives over the year resulting in litter-free lunches, increased composting and worm farming, and streamlined systems for sorting waste.
‘Trashmagination’ brought the community together to celebrate the students’ success in their endeavors to be kaitiaki (guardians) of the environment.
Ormiston Primary School recently held a ‘Pop Up’ School which opened its doors to community members to ‘pop’ in and experience school as they are run today.
The students involved demonstrated learning in their usual classroom, working on a project which showed collaboration, high engagement and inquiry learning skills.
The students were given a focus question: ‘How can we strengthen our Ormiston community?’ which they investigated, leading them to explore a range of possible ideas. With support from Ormiston Pak’nSave, the students were able to survey many Ormiston community members to gain feedback, allowing them to filter down their initial ideas.
Following a week of research, discussion, emails, phone calls and feedback from the public and local MP Andrew Bayly, students consolidated their learning and created informative and high-quality proposal presentations.
Ormiston Primary opened its doors to community members to ‘pop’ in and experience school as they are run today.
To authenticate the students’ hard work, each group presented their proposal ideas to Howick Local Board member Mike Turinsky, former leader of the now-defunct United Future Party Damian Light as well as the school’s family members and teachers. The ideas included a range of family days such as a fair and music concert and a much-needed community centre.
Once the students made their presentations they received valuable feedback from Turinsky and Light which contributed to their next learning steps.
Ev Perry spent most of his 40-year teaching career at Tamaki College.
So, it’s no surprise that three different people nominated the school’s former principal to have a new street in Glen Innes named after him.
“Ev would be so proud and also feel he’s not worthy of it but thrilled to know that people thought so highly of him,” his widow Brenda Perry says.
“He wouldn’t have expected anything like having a street named after him for just doing his job, which was helping the kids.”
Ev, who died in 2015, taught at the school between 1958-59, then again from 1963-67 and was appointed deputy principal in 1970, before becoming principal in 1971.
There was something special about Tamaki that just kept drawing Ev back to the area says Brenda, who also taught at the school near the end of her career.
The late Ev Perry. Photo supplied
“Out of his 40 years teaching, he did 28 years at Tamaki.
“The people kept bringing him back to Tamaki. They welcomed us and the family.
“There was a warm feeling about the place, and he cultivated it. Everyone worked together and got on with it.”
The father-of-four coached the First XV before he became principal and was also very involved in cultural performances, says Brenda.
“He loved helping the children who didn’t have the same advantages that we had.
“He could command an audience and was very good with words.”
After Ev retired, he stayed involved with school, at one stage reconnecting through his granddaughter-in-law Tenille, who started teaching at Tamaki.
“Soana Pamaka, the current principal, used to take Ev to rugby games and he’d give pep talks to the First XV.
“Even when Ev retired, they would invite us to senior prizegiving.
“He went to prize-givings until he wasn’t well enough to go. When the First XV beat schools like Kings or Auckland Grammar, that was huge for him.”
Pakuranga’s Brenda Perry with her replica sign. Photo supplied
In 2005, the Ev Perry classroom block was unveiled.
“He was thrilled about that too,” Brenda says.
“He was really proud of the students and their successes.”
Living in Pakuranga, Ev was very much connected to the Tamaki community, often going shopping with Brenda in Panmure town centre.
“People were quite happy if we were in the street to come up and talk to us.
“Even after Ev died, one boy in particular from school would come up to me and tell me about his family.”
As for what to do with the Ev Perry Way sign, Brenda says it will sit proudly on her apartment windowsill, which overlooks a bowling green.
“All the players will be able to read it. I don’t know anyone else who has one.”
Matthew’s achievements at Elim Christian College is a mosaic of stellar performances.
That’s how maths and physics teacher Mark Mack described Mathew’s Inglis’ accomplishments as the Year 13 student was presented a certificate for the Prime Minister’s Vocational Excellence Award as well as a cash award of $2000.
At a special morning tea organised by principal of Elim Christian College Murray Burton on Friday to celebrate Matthew’s success, Burton acknowledged the 18-year-old for being intelligent as well as very hard working.
“When you invite me to your home for dinner, if you do, I want to see this special certificate framed or then it should be on the wall of your work place,” said Burton, as he congratulated Matthew for winning the Prime Minister’s award.
Matthew has gained NCEA level 1 and 2 endorsed with Excellence and was accelerated in Mathematics in previous years.
He had the opportunity to sit for the University of Auckland MAX course (mathematics acceleration and extension programme for high schools students) which he passed with an A+.
Matthew says he wants to join the Australian Air Force.
Matthew Inglis (centre) with principal Murray Burton(l-r) Campus lead Mark Mack, assistant principal Carol Pottow and Board of Trustees chair, Chris Bethwaite.
“I want to be an airline pilot. My dad was a pilot when he was just a little over my age,” he says.
An ace at game production, he’s won first place in the gaming category for developing the best game at the Bright Sparks Awards.
Matthew won cash awards for the school and himself for creating the `Trash Game’ that promotes awareness about collecting rubbish.
Another game he developed ‘Don’t Drive Drunk’ is on the iOS app store.
“It simulates the effects of drunk driving,” he says.
Matthew has been an active member of the Maker Space where students collaborate to do 3d printing, laser cutting, coding, game production and designing things.
He was acknowledged by his teachers for not only working on innovative ideas but also mentoring and helping other students in Maker Space.
Anyone who has attended Pakuranga College in the past two decades will be familiar with Kim Hillgrove. It is to this lady that thousands of students have mumbled their excuses and handed over sticky ‘late’ and ‘absence’ notes. After 21 years, it is finally time for Kim to hand in her own absence request and enjoy a well-earned retirement. The keen leisure marcher is looking forward to spending time with her three grandchildren and volunteering in her local community of Howick.
Kim Hillgrove is retiring. Photo supplied
Kim Hillgrove, who originally started work at the school as a teacher aide in the special education department, has seen several principals come and go, including Pam Stone, Bali Haque, Heather McCrae and current principal, Michael Williams. Both of her daughters have been through Pakuranga College and, during the past 21 years, she has thrown herself into life at the school, managing netball teams and scoring girl’s cricket matches.
We asked what she would miss most about working at Pakuranga College: “The students – some of them are real treasures. Oh and their funny excuses for being late.” She even keeps a book of these, which she will be taking with her into retirement. “I had a cracker today,” she says. “A boy from a rural area was late because of “problems with the cows”. I don’t think I’ve heard that one before!”
