Murray Nairn Building Officially Opened

Local MP Melissa Lee officially opened the Murray Nairn Building and was joined by members of Murray's family, grandson David Hillier, daughter Wendy Innes and her husband John.

Our new Murray Nairn Building was officially opened today, with local MP Melissa Lee doing the honours in a ceremony attended by invited guests, including members of Murray's family.
Ms Lee unveiled the plaque commemorating the official opening and was guest speaker at the event, which celebrated our third Headmaster (1954-1969).
Mr Drumm welcomed guests and paid tribute to the work of ASC Architects and project managers Southbase Construction as well as Damien Strogen, of the Ministry of Education, who have supported the project all the way.

He said Murray would have enjoyed the "Tradition and Change" elements of the new building: the focus on excellent teaching spaces while incorporating a whare wananga for Te Puna o Wairaka.
MAGS Foundation Chair Peter Thorp, who was Head Boy in 1968 during Murray's tenure, gave an insight into a headmaster who was always immaculately groomed and often clad in his academic robes and whom the students called 'Nero'.
Mr Thorp said Murray, pictured right, was a man who was ambitious for the school, whether it be in its student achievements or his drive to get rid of prefab classrooms, which was successful for a time.
He added that Murray had strong values and a sense of fairness and decency; he sought and earned the respect of students. 
The event wrapped up with a performance by the Centennial Choir before guests retired for refreshments.
The Murray Nairn Building will be the new home of the Social Sciences Department as well as housing a revamped Library and being a base for Te Puna o Wairaka. 
It will not only provide MAGS with state-of-the-art teaching facilities but also mean some prefab classrooms can be removed to claw back green space for sports fields.

Centennial Choir Selected for Finale

Congratulations to the Centennial Choir and director Terence Maskell for being selected to perform at the prestigious Big Sing Finale, which brings together the best secondary school choirs from across the country.
The Centennial Choir were one of three MAGS choirs who performed at the Big Sing Auckland Regionals last week, the others being the newly formed Melodica and our girls choir Gloriana.
The Big Sing Finale 2024 will be held at Wellington's Michael Fowler Centre from August 29-31.
The Centennial Choir also made the Finale last year and won a Gold Award as well as the Tour Time Cup for Best Performance of a piece of Choral Art Music.

Record Donations for Blood Donor Drive

Last Thursday, we held the annual Mount Albert Grammar School Blood Donor Day.
Nurse Claire Bown said, "It was great to have the NZ Blood Service here at MAGS helping our students to be part of the incredible work that they do. 
"We had an incredibly successful blood drive this year, with a total of 88 units of blood collected. This is an amazing number of donations and is the highest we have collected in our time of doing the Blood Donor Drive here at MAGS – an outstanding achievement."
She added, "To put this number into perspective, these 88 units of blood will go on to help improve 264 fellow Kiwis' lives around the country. From one blood donation (470ml) this will be split into red cells, platelets, and plasma; these are the three lives you are saving with each donation." 
The NZ Blood service have again commended our students and staff on their generosity in donating, and the impeccable behaviour observed on the day. They passed on that our students are always a pleasure to work with.
Mrs Brown said, "The tireless work of members from the Health Committee, some of whom are pictured above, with spreading the word, recruitment of donors leading up to the day as well as their help on the day itself contributed immensely to the drive’s success – thank you for all your continued hard work.
"To everyone that was able to donate, thank you. You have made a lifesaving contribution."

Stunning Images in Photo Competition

This term, our Senior Photography Leaders organised a school-wide Photography competition that ran for all of Term 2. This year's theme was "In Motion" – a challenge to capture transient moments that convey a sense of movement and dynamism. 
TIC Photography Ms Smith said, "We had lots of fantastic entries across the senior and junior categories. We were impressed with the talent shown in the variety of submissions and our leaders found the judging tough. A huge congratulations to our winners below. A selection of the top work will be on display from the end of Week 1, Term 3 in the Visual Arts Student Gallery."

Senior category:
Rose Leader 13FLE – Anguish, shown at top
Hyuk Jang 13CNL – Splash of Silence, at right
Evita Woods 12CES – Mary’s Cross

Junior category:
Rudy Keane 09HOD – Racing through childhood, below
Jacob Aldiss 09MKN – Retro Revival
Isabelle Chan 09CHN – Glow

Student Attendance Records

Parents know and understand that schools are required to maintain attendance records for students.
It is also important to know and understand that it is the Ministry of Education that sets and provides the specific guidelines and requirements, for all schools, regarding recording student attendance.
Please note the following extract outlining the requirement for documentation with regard to Medical and/or Dental appointments:

Examples of appropriate documentation may be: a copy of a text message or email appointment confirmation; an official appointment card; a medical certificate.
Thank you for your assistance to maintain accurate attendance records.

Premier Team Lists Updated

Greg Cave, our Archivist, has updated the premier sports teams lists. These now cover the years 1997 to 2023 and can be found here
The team lists for the first 75 years can be found in the 1997 school history Tradition and Change.
Mr Cave is also regularly adding photographs to the “100 Years of Photos” here