Reports

Twenty five students undertaking the Bronze level of the Duke of Edinburgh’s Hillary Award completed their weekend journey in the Karangahake Gorge from 19-21 November.

The students dealt with heavy rain, wind and sun as they tramped through the gorge and Karangahake Mountain, accompanied by the teacher in charge of the awards programme at MAGS, Mr Andrew Belson, and teachers Ms Natalie Absolum and Ms Nadine Mackinnon.

The campsite at Dickey’s Flat was the perfect place to learn about living in the outdoors and cooking with limited facilities. The students learned how to navigate, manage their team and be safe in the outdoors.

All students were enthusiastic and tackled their respective journeys in an energetic manner. They were a credit to the school.

Mr Andrew Belson, Teacher in charge

Five Albertians and Prefect Katy MacKenzie received their Duke of Edinburgh’s Hillary Gold Awards from the Governor-General, Sir Jerry Mateparae, at a ceremony in Auckland on Saturday, 30 April.

2012 Head Girl Hayley Becht, 2014 Deputy Head Girl Alexandra Chaptynova, 2015 students Harry Duncan, Aakash Rajay amd Michael Soffe and Katy attended with their families, Headmaster Mr Patrick Drumm and the teacher in charge of the Duke of Edinburgh’s Hillary Award programme at MAGS, Mr Andy Belson. Prefect Alex Thompson has also completed her Gold Award but is currently overseas.

The Governor-General presented each student with their award and had a chat about what they had done to achieve it. In his speech, Sir Jerry said “This award recognises the efforts you have made over a lengthy period. You and your family, friends and supporters can be rightfully proud of your achievement. Participating in the Duke of Edinburgh’s Hillary Award is about more then learning valuable life skills. It is also about recognising the importance and benefits that flow from service to the community.”

Mr Belson said achieving the Gold Award was a huge achievement and demands at least a year of commitment to serving the community, meeting new challenges and working with others.

The Duke of Edinburgh’s Hillary Award scheme run through Mount Albert Grammar School continues to go from strength to strength. In addition to the 7 Gold recipents of the past few months, a further 29 students were awarded their Bronze and Silver Awards at assembly on Monday, 14 March.

The programme challenges young people to achieve goals through persistence, voluntary participation and challenge to the individual in categories of Service, Skill, Physical Activity and Adventurous Journey. Be it giving time to an organisation once a week over six months, or tramping 40km through the Waitakeres, all these students have met and overcome challenges along the way.

Recipients of the Bronze Award were: Anton Aish,Victoria Brosnahan, Catherine Butler, Cleo Chambers, Karen Geng, Liam Grozev, Lucy Harding, Brooke Harris,Nadine Hidalgo, Hannah Houghton, Sushma Kuncha, Miriam Leonhardt, Rose Malcolm, Victoria Marsh, Oliver Mathiesen, Oliver Ng, Will Newton, Tayla O’Brien, Dylan Owen, Liam Price, Farah Rahman, Shontae Roache, Eamon Sadler, Nicholas Sykes, Rachel Simpson

Recipients of the Silver Award were: Rhys Kontze, Ruby Johnston, Sanaz Samadian, Kushali Tuinder

On the weekend of March 7-9, before the cyclone struck and while the weather was still perfect, 23 students completed their Silver adventurous journey. For many of them this was the final step towards completion of their Silver Award.

The students tramped 35km up and down through the Waitakere Ranges, carrying food, tents, clothing and cooking gear. The weather was extremely warm so made for some testing times, especially on Sunday, when we started out at 9am and didn’t make camp until 6pm. Students were self-sufficient, worked together as a team and often showed good interpersonal skills. It was a great three days enjoyed by staff and students. My thanks to teacher Miss Lana Marsom for giving up her time to help out.

The weekend of March 22-23 sees more students heading to the Waitakeres – a group of Bronze students completing their award with teacher Mrs Jessica Wilson, and a group of Silver students doing their practice expedition with myself and Year 9 Girls’ Dean Miss Natalie Absolum.

Students who have completed their awards but not handed in their completed record books need to do so as soon as possible so they can be presented with their award and begin work on the next level.

Mr Andy Belson