Spotswood College

?Spotswood College celebrates a busy and successful year

At the recent Senior Prizegiving expectant senior students along with their parents and families packed the school’s hall to celebrate a great night of awards for a busy and eventful year. 

Staff wore their black formal gowns with a blaze of colour showcasing their individual academic achievements, as they were welcomed to the stage by a rousing karanga.

Principal Mark Bowden opened the ceremony by summarizing 2013 in a formal speech with some of his comments in italics below.

Spotswood College began the year encouraged by the NCEA results our students gained in 2012.  Average Level 1, 2 and 3 results for our school all increased representing a significant improvement on 2011 outcomes. 

 However, in the list of things that make me proud to be the Principal of Spotswood College, academic achievement is but a part of the interrelated attributes that contribute to developing good people, or as our vision statement says “Developing young people of good character with the skills and knowledge to contribute to our 21st Century Global Village.”

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Visual and Performing Arts at Spotswood College

Spotswood College has a vibrant and highly successful visual and performing arts programme operating in the school.

The teachers in charge give a brief overview of recent events and areas of current focus within the arts at Spotswood College.

Spotty Idol with Mr Hill

Abby Christodoulou - Spotty Idol Winner
Abby Christodoulou – Spotty Idol Winner

Spotswood College’s annual talent show, ‘Spotty Idol,’ was held on the 26th of September.

For the last nine years ‘Idol’ has showcased the abundant talent of Spotswood’s performing artists and ‘Idol’ 2013 was no exception.

The acts this year ranged from Hayley Mapley’s soulful rendition of an Amanda Palmer piano ballad to Matt Everest’s soaring Steve Vai guitar solo.

The performer crowned ‘Spotty Idol’ was Abby Christodoulou, whose beautiful voice and ability to tell a story through song really impressed the judges.

According to judge Mat Benton, Abby’s performance of Lady Antebellum’s You’re Never Alone was “outstanding”.

“She’s a natural born performer who oozes charisma. Definitely one to watch in the future,” Mr Benton said.

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Spotswood College International Focus

Spotswood College is fortunate to celebrate New Zealand’s diverse culture by welcoming international touring parties to their school as well as their own students visiting other countries.

This year is particularly busy as students and staff have been involved in various international visits with more planned for later in the year.

Principal Mark Bowden and staff involved give a brief report of some of these visits.

Spotswood College is a very diverse school and we celebrate our diversity. We believe in our vision of developing young people with good character and teaching them the skills and knowledge to contribute to the 21st century global village.

We believe that the opportunity young people have to mix and mingle with people of other cultures, languages and other world views is hugely important in developing positive and contributing 21st century citizens.

I guess I would say that one of the reasons that kiwis do so well overseas is because they are able to cope with diversity.  They are able to relate to people who are different from themselves.

We can deal with people as people which is a huge strength in having a vibrant International student department within our school.  The opportunity for our students to travel abroad contributes significantly to that set of skills required to be successful in the 21st century global village.

Mark Bowden, Spotswood College Principal

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Tech Talk NZ on Access Radio

TechTalk: Spotswood College students Jeremy Martin-Smith,18, Stefan McIntyre,17, Kyle P Banadera,17, and Jordan Smith,18, share the airwaves for their TechTalk show at Access Radio Taranaki.

A group of Spotswood College students are making the most of having Access Radio Taranaki within walking distance of the school.

Jordan Smith, Jeremy Martin-Smith, Stefan McIntyre and Kyle P Banadera host the TechTalk NZ show on Wednesday afternoons.

On the show they discuss gaming updates, tech news and game reviews, and invite listeners to call in for tech support or join the general discussion.

Jordan Smith initially started out with a five-minute slot in 2012 before taking up an opportunity to do a half hour-long show with support from his mates.

In May this year the show was extended to an hour.

Jordan said station managers Daniel and Alessandra Keighley were great teachers who left them to get on with the job.

“It’s good to have loose reins to be able to do what we want.  There are not many limitations – we are not told what we have to say as the station managers trust us not to break broadcasting standards.”

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Cross Country Day at Spotswood College

The Moturoa 8 whanau class won the prize for best dressed group at the Hapu parade at Spotswood College’s cross county day last week. Back row left to right: Breeze Patu , Quinton Wilcox, Renee Downing, Brooke Jury, Jennifer Goodall, Aimee Patu. Middle row: Linda Nicholls (whanau teacher), Matthew Tilt, Natalya Manton, Alex Clifton, Chris Maxwell and Jesse Patu. Front row : Abraham Quinton Photo by: Sharyn Smart
The Moturoa 8 whanau class won the prize for best dressed group at the Hapu parade at Spotswood College’s cross county day last week.
Back row left to right: Breeze Patu , Quinton Wilcox, Renee Downing, Brooke Jury, Jennifer Goodall, Aimee Patu. Middle row: Linda Nicholls (whanau teacher), Matthew Tilt, Natalya Manton, Alex Clifton, Chris Maxwell and Jesse Patu. Front row : Abraham Quinton
Photo by: Sharyn Smart

 

Spotswood College’s Moturoa 8 whanau class were the stars of the school’s annual cross country sports day last week.

Representing Moturoa House, they strode out in Hapu parade which preceded the competitive racing, dressed as bumble bees and won the prize for best dressed whanau class for demonstrating class unity and team work.

This year in an effort to increase participation in the event, the school introduced prizes for the best costumes in the Hapu parade.

Other winners for best dressed student in their house included Tegan McDonald and Bailey Scown for Mikotahi, Kurtis Gilmour for Paritutu, Amirah Osama for Moturoa and Taryn Clarke for Motuhahanga.

Maths and science teacher Lewis Whyte took out the prize for best dressed teacher.

In the competitive racing, Jesse Faulkner won the junior boys ahead of Levi McIntyre and Tjontae Maranga, while Lael Pool was first in the junior girls ahead of Karohanui Moke and Rebecca Spindler.

The intermediate boys race was won by Faris Petty, who was first in 2012, ahead of Jayden Monaghan who won the junior race last and Zechariah TeWaaka. In the girls, Coralee Carter-Gates, who won the Junior race in 2012, was first followed by Ksenia James and Akaysha Russell.

Kyle Cox won the senior boys ahead of Jordan TeWaaka and Callum Foley, while in the girls race Celine Klingel was first followed by Brooke Carter, who won the intermediate race last year and Libby Hufton.

Maths and geography teacher Martyn Knapton impressed staff and students alike with his third place finish overall in the boys race.

This article was published in the Taranaki MidWeek on May 22, 2013

Gold for Spotswood College Volleyball Girls

Spotswood College senior girls’ volleyball team secure gold at the National Secondary School Championships in Palmerston North. Front L to R Amber Shepherd, Magdi Grobler, Laura Anderson, Brooke Carter, Back Row – Phil Gayton (Head coach), Ashleigh Allen, Daria Kühne, Kelsey Lovegrove, Hannah Tattersall, Kaitlyn Koboski, Olivia Preston.
Spotswood College senior girls’ volleyball team secure gold at the National Secondary School Championships in Palmerston North. Front L to R Amber Shepherd, Magdi Grobler, Laura Anderson, Brooke Carter, Back Row – Phil Gayton (Head coach), Ashleigh Allen, Daria Kühne, Kelsey Lovegrove, Hannah Tattersall, Kaitlyn Koboski, Olivia Preston.

Spotswood College senior girls’ volleyball team hadn’t even practiced as a full team before heading off to the National Secondary School Championships in Palmerston North.

Despite this they won gold in division four, and placed 49th out of 85 teams at the tournament at the Arena Stadium in Palmerston North, last week.

This is the first time a Spotswood College girls’ team has ever won a gold medal at the championships and the first time the school has secured gold since the boys’ team won division II in 1997.

The girls had a rocky beginning to the competition, losing their first three matches in closely fought battles which resulted in them being graded into the division four championship.

“We had a team meeting and I told the girls I was impressed with their improvement over the games, I thought we could do well in division four and a medal was obtainable,” said head coach Phil Gayton.

Team captain Laura Anderson was also impressed with how her charges reacted to their early losses. “Our team really grew together as the week progressed.”

They won their next four games, setting up a division four final against Burnside High School B of Christchurch, who they had earlier beaten in pool play.

They took out the final 3-1 (25-10, 25-22, 17-25, 25-12)

Team member Kelsey Lovegrove said seeing how much the victory meant to Gayton was the highlight of the championship.

“One of the biggest achievements of the week was bringing tears of pride to our coach’s eyes.”

This article was published in the Taranaki MidWeek on April 3, 2013