New Sculpture Blessed

Yesterday, Ōwairaka – Statue of a Cloaked Woman, created by Christine Hellyar, was formally welcomed on-site with a dawn blessing conducted by Matua Peter Walters with students from Te Puna ō Wairaka.
The work was commissioned by the women of Mt Albert in 1994. It embodies the women, both past and present, who settled in Mt Albert. The sculpture was inspired by Wairaka, the daughter of a chief who established her own pā on the maunga. The Māori name for Mt Albert is Ōwairaka, after her.

Originally installed in Mt Albert’s Alice Wylie Reserve, the 3.6m sculpture was cast on site. Hellyar used vegetation to imprint texture into a sand mould. Effectively embossing the surface before performing a live pour, where 1200kg of boiling bronze was tipped into the form. Once set, the sculpture was lifted into place by a crane. 
Sadly, in May 2022, the work was vandalised, extensively damaging the sculpture. As a result, it was removed from the reserve and placed in storage. Under the guidance of Christine Hellyar and fellow sculptor Richard Mathieson, a replacement was cast and installed. A stronger bronze and placement in a more open and well-lit space will help preserve the heritage and commemorative intent of the sculpture. 
Due to the contacts our BoT member Greg Moyle has in the art world, the sculpture was offered to MAGS and gratefully received to coincide with our commemoration of 25 years of girls at the school.
The sculpture was formally unveiled, as pictured above, by Head Prefect Khalen Quensell and Donald Ensor, the husband of Christine Hellyar. Khalen also spoke at the ceremony, expressing thanks for the arrival of the sculpture and promising that MAGS would be dutiful guardians of it.

Pasifika MP's Humble Beginnings

At Tuesday's Pasifika Assembly in the F.W. Gamble Hall, MAGS was honoured to host guest speaker Jenny Salesa, Labour MP for Panmure-Ōtāhuhu and Opposition Spokesperson for Ethnic Communities and Customs.
Mrs Saelsa has been an MP since 2014 and was our first Tongan-born Member of Parliament and Cabinet Minister.
She spoke about her upbringing in NZ when she immigrated from Tonga at age 16 with her parents, who thought NZ was "the land of milk and honey".
Her pharmacist father could only find work as an interpreter and her mother, a seamstress, worked in factories by day and did cleaning at night. 
Mrs Salesa said it took many years of sleeping in overcrowded houses before her parents could afford to rent a place of their own.
She said these trying circumstances and her parents' belief in the power of education had driven her to study law and become a lawyer after she had dropped out of school to help her mother with the cleaning work. She also worked for a time as a dishwasher and did not want that to be her life. 
While studying, she gained a scholarship that opened doors for her into the professional workforce.
Mrs Salesa told the assembly that she had taken huge motivation from people telling her she could not reach her goals, and enjoyed proving them wrong. She said if there was one thing that students could take from her speech, that was it: to chase your dreams and ignore negative opinions.
At the end of her speech, Mrs Salesa presented Pasifika Prefects Khalen Quensell and Epeli Prescott with a copy of her husband Damon's book, Island Time, a sociological overview of Pacific Islanders in Aotearoa.

E-Scooter Safety

The School is receiving increasing numbers of phone calls both from MAGS parents and members of our wider school community regarding MAGS students on e-scooters.
As always, the callers are very concerned for both the safety of students and the potential seriousness of consequences of foolish, dangerous misuse of these vehicles. We have received reports of two or more on one scooter; student riders weaving in and out of traffic; excessive speed on footpaths and near misses with vehicles.
Parents will no doubt be seeing their child/ren’s use of e-scooters via their accounts so will be aware of their use. We ask that parents discuss with them both the importance of making good decisions and of taking their own safety and the safety of others seriously.  

Shine Fundraiser

Interact’s first fundraiser this year was a great success.
They fundraised for SHINE, who help victims of domestic violence, by collecting donations in form time and through a bake sale.
The bake sale sold out very early. Alongside baked goods, there were necklaces, loom band key chains and orange lollipops provided by SHINE to sell.
Overall, Interact fundraised $1110.80, which will help make a real difference to those affected by domestic violence in our community.

Ideas Abound at Interact Conference

Last Saturday, two of our Interact leaders – Yanine de Boed and Hugo Le Cren, alongside Deputy Head Prefect Claudia Wen (all pictured below) and Interact co-TIC Lara Stünzner, had the opportunity to attend an Interact-Rotary conference held at One Tree Hill College.
Throughout the day they learned about how some of the best service groups in the city work, and were able to collaborate on ideas around social change and service with other Interact groups from seven schools in Auckland, as well as two groups from the US and American Samoa. 

After beginning the day with some “interactive” icebreaker activities to get to know each other, keynote speakers Cushla Fasavalu and Will Creedy provided inspiration for the day's mahi, speaking about their participation in service and their achievements as well as passing on key life moments that have been pivotal to their success.
This led to the main event, which saw our leaders working in groups from all the schools attending to brainstorm, design and pitch ideas for possible events to promote and fundraise towards a range of different causes. It was great to see all three MAGS students attending take pivotal leadership roles within their groups by presenting their pitches to the 140 attendees, including local Rotarians. 
Students then voted on which idea they wanted to collaborate on and develop to make the plan a reality, with our MAGS Interact president Yanine’s group taking out the honours for their Kī o Rahi Climate Change event.
Ms Stünzner said, "Our Interactors had an amazing time and found the conference really beneficial to network, find out what other Interact groups are working on, and learn more about the change they can make in our communities. They hope other students get involved and can benefit from an event like this in the future. Our thanks go to the fantastic One Tree Hill College student leaders and their TIC for conceiving, organising and executing a successful conference." 

Year 8 Info Evenings in Term 2

Mount Albert Grammar School will be holding two information evenings in Term 2 for prospective Year 9 students in 2026.
These evenings are primarily aimed at in-zone Year 8 parents and guardians, and their sons/daughters, and will be held in the F.W. Gamble Hall on Wednesday, May 7 and Tuesday, May 13, from 7pm-8pm.
To manage numbers, feeder schools have been assigned an evening to attend but if that date does not work there is no problem attending the other evening, and there is no need to RSVP.
May 7: Kowhai Intermediate School, Pasadena Intermediate School, Ponsonby Intermediate School, Wesley Intermediate School.
May 13: Auckland Normal Intermediate School, Balmoral Intermediate School.
Attendees will get: 
• A visual presentation about Mount Albert Grammar School for Year 9 students in 2026.
• Information about our enrolment procedure for the 2026 intake.
• The opportunity to find out about the academic, sporting, arts and cultural opportunities at MAGS.

Sports Update

Athletes on Form at AKSS Champs

This year, a new format was trialed by College Sport for the Auckland Secondary Schools Athletics Championships. The event was held over two days and replaced having a zonal meet prior.
The Championships took place on Tuesday and Thursday. MAGS had 52 students compete and they put up a good showing with several podium finishes.
On the first day of competition, Kendra Scally-Tu'i impressed in the Senior Girls 200m. In the heats, she broke her own school record, a College Sport meet record and an all-time New Zealand Under 17 Girls record with an impressive time of 23.74s.  She then went on to win the final with a time of 24.40s, 1.45s faster than second place. 

Nina Chalmers, pictured above, won in a close finish which included a fall at the finish line in the Senior Girls 800m. She set a school record of 2:19.64 in a good strategic race in a strong field.
Jirah Esekia recovered from two early foul throws to finish second in the Senior Boys Discus, as pictured below, with a 45.08m throw.  Benjie Fairclough finished second in the Senior Boys 200m with a time of 22.99s after qualifying fourth-fastest in the heats. 
Our hurdlers also won some medals: Eric Zhao was placed third in the Intermediate Boys 300m Hurdles in 43.56s and Ty Gonzales was second in the Senior Boys 300m Hurdles with a time of 40.16s.
In the 4 x 100m Relay, our Intermediate Girls team of Zara Bint, Ella Hill, Peggy Taylor and Carys Douglas Jones finished third.  A big thanks to Ella who filled in at short notice to ensure we had a team in this category.
On Day Two, our students continued the good form. Kendra Scally-Tu'i, pictured right, backed up her 200m effort with a win in the Senior Girls 100m with a time of 11.87s. Nina Chalmers also did the double, winning the Senior Girls 1500m in dominant fashion, with a time of 4:31.99. This broke a school record as well as a College Sport meet record. Jirah Esekia won his second medal of the meet, coming first in the Senior Boys Shot Put, throwing 16.54m.  Ty Gonzales showed his versatility with a win in the Senior Boys 110m Hurdles and the Open Boys Pole Vault.
Other students that won medals on Day Two were Maddie Earley, who finished third in the Intermediate Girls 100m final in a close finish. Peggy Taylor finished third in the Intermediate Girls 400m. Etena Gibbons-Vaiouga came second in the Junior Boys Shot Put. Christiaan Findlay was third in the Junior Boys Triple Jump. 
Assistant Director of Sport Mr Crossan said, "A special thanks goes to Mrs Revell, who was the stadium announcer on both days, and Mr Dempster, who assisted on Day Two.  Also, a special thanks goes to several students who assisted with officiating over the meet: Sasha Tobin, Yanine de Boed, Anna Horsley, Alia Potter, Hiro Tau and Ben Hori-Elliot."

Girls Excel at Volleyball Champs

Our Premier Girls and Boys Volleyball teams have put in strong performances in the regular season and at Auckland Champs this year, particularly the Girls, who finished runners-up in both competitions.
The Boys played off for 4th-6th, finishing the season with two narrow losses and ending in 6^th place.
The Girls went through the Premier season with 7/8 wins, meaning they qualified for the Premier finals 

versus Carmel College and Rangitoto College.
Game 1 of finals was a must-win to proceed through to the Final. Once the Girls settled into the game they came through with a convincing 3-0 win over Carmel. 
The girls started strong against Rangitoto College in the final, however narrowly went down in the first two sets. The third set was a massive turnaround for the girls and they won 25-15. It was a tightly contested fourth set but Rangitoto managed to pull through and take the game 3-1, leaving MAGS Premier Girls second for 2025. 
Our teams then played Auckland Champs over three days last week.
The Boys went through the tournament only dropping two games. They competed well with their final game being the Division 2 Final. The boys narrowly went down to De La Salle, finishing in second place. 
On the Girls side, on Day 1 they had two must-win games to secure the top 16 in Division 1. The girls comfortably came through both games against Onewhero and Henderson, winning 2-0 in each. 
Day 2 saw new pools formed in the top 16 against Massey, Kingsway and Long Bay, with the top two progressing to the quarter finals.

TIC Miss Kolose said, "MAGS proved dominant again on Day 2, closing out all three matches 2-0. Day 3 was finals day. Up first up they faced Howick College in the quarter finals. These matches moved into five-set matches which meant the girls needed to work that little bit harder for longer.
"Strong service and passing allowed us to pull away and the Girls took the win 3-0. Our semi-final was again versus Carmel College. MAGS started the game strong and went out with a good lead. We had a big push offensively in this game, which allowed us to pressure their ability to return. MAGS played an amazing game and took it 3-0." 
The final was played against Rangitoto College again.  The girls settled quickly and took a small lead, and were able to capitalise on a couple of Rangitoto errors and take the first set.
"The next two sets weren’t quite where we needed them and we were down 2-1. The 4th had a lot of fast, aggressive volleyball but, unfortunately, Rangitoto were able to get a small lead and maintained that, eventually taking the fourth set and winning 3-1." 
Miss Kolose added, "MAGS should be extremely proud of our Premier Girls team achieving the best results volleyball has seen at our school."
A massive highlight was three of our girls being named in the Tournament Team (as pictured below): congratulations to Emina Tiatia, Gianna Tiatia and Mali Toleafoa.