Looking and Sounding Sharp at KBB

The Mount Albert Grammar School Symphony Orchestra and Owairaka Jazz Ensemble performed at the annual KBB Music Competition this week.
Monday evening saw the Orchestra perform at the Holy Trinity Cathedral while the Jazz band played on Thursday at St Mary’s in Parnell. 
Orchestra Director Mr Mark Bingham said, “Our Symphony Orchestra played superbly on Monday evening. The Orchestra's hard work and dedication has been outstanding. From the beginning of the year they have been rehearsing twice a week at 7:30am when they could have been sleeping in – as well as sacrificing multiple lunchtimes to rehearse in their sections.
"Special thanks to our Orchestra leaders, Nora Pecher and Yvette Lou, to our tutors, Ms Edgar, Mrs Mandeno, and to Ms Cooper, who had been working with the Orchestra in preparation for their KBB performance for the first two terms.”
Nora Pecher (Year 13), pictured above right, has been selected to perform with the KBB Honours Orchestra this weekend.
HoD Music Mr Neil Watson is super-proud of all the students' hard mahi and professionalism – both on and off the stage. This year, both groups looked sharp in the new Music Department uniform shirts. 

How Industrial Action Affects MAGS Next Wednesday

Most will be aware of the PPTA industrial action planned for next Wednesday, 20 August.
MAGS does not have the staffing capability to operate a full timetable without its full staff on site but will be able to accommodate Year 9 students attending classes on that day. Years 10/11/12/13 will remain at home on Wednesday, 20 August and will be able to use this time to complete classwork online, and Years 11/12/13 can also continue to prepare for their up-and-coming examinations occurring across Week 8 and Week 9.
Please note: any school sports games, NZQA assessments and/or previously organised EOTC Curriculum Trips will go ahead as planned on the Wednesday.
A more detailed letter will be sent on Monday, 18 August, once specific planning for Wednesday, 20 August is complete.

Quiz Night Raises $2500 for UNICEF

Last Friday, the 2025 Academic Council Quiz night was held in the F.W. Gamble Hall. 
Prizes were given for the best dressed teams - The Smurfs and Paw Patrol – and the best dressed individual – Artemis.
There were eight rounds on a variety of topics, including sport and games, art, and the letter 'J'.
The teachers’ team, ‘Reigning Champions’, was knocked down to second place by 'Bin Quizzin' – Year 13 students together with Mr Walden, their mentor teacher for much of their time at school. Third place was taken by the ‘Hemisemidemigods’ made up of Year 13 and past students. 
Additionally, prizes were awarded to the winners of the popular ‘Heads or Tails’ rounds at the halfway point and at the end of the quiz. 
At the end of the night, an estimated $2500 was raised for UNICEF, a global charity that protects children’s rights and delivers life-saving support, reaching youth in over 190 countries.
Thanks to our sponsors, without whom this event would not have been possible: Canoe and Kayak, CLM Mount Albert, Game On, Gong Cha Dominion Road, Gregor Paul, re:ab, and Sock Makers.

Wearable Art National Winners

Congratulations to our 'Birkin Bombshell' designers Olivia Appleton, Emily Duke and Isla Nimmo, who have just won both the Highly Commended and the Sustainable Garment awards at the National TOI Wearable Art Competition.

In the Auckland regional round in June, the design had won awards for both Outstanding Stage Presence and Powerful Storytelling.
The national judges said of Birkin Bombshell: "This unique, handmade Birkin bag is crafted from detailed sewing patterns, giving it a fashion-forward, deconstructed aesthetic. Accented with elegant charms and a stylish scarf, it blends artisanal craftsmanship with high-end design.”
Materials used were cardboard, sewing patterns, glue, pool noodle, and fabric.
The judges added, “In our biggest year yet for TOI, with 540 entries from Tai Tokerau Northland to Invercargill, we were blown away by the boundless creativity, storytelling, and dedication poured into wearable art that filled every space to the brim."
Across the country, 695 garments were entered, with 1500 students from over 100 schools participating.

Senior Pre-requisite Exams Next Month

The Term 3 Senior Pre-requisite exams begin Tuesday, 2nd September, and run through to Friday, 12th September inclusive.  
Students are on exam leave during this time and normal lessons resume on Monday, 15th September.
Year 11, 12 and Year 13 students must only attend school to sit an examination or, with permission of a staff member, for practical exams or study purposes. At all other times they must be at home studying.
Students are not permitted to be at St Lukes Mall during the school day.
The purpose of these exams is to provide evidence required for students to gain entry into courses for 2026. Therefore, these exams should be treated with the same importance as the external examinations at the end of the year. 
In addition, they give an indication of progress to date and clear strategies for improvement before the final exams in November, and may in some extreme cases be used as derived grades for final exam results.  
You can see the timetable and exam instructions here

No Student Drop-Off Inside School Grounds

We are very proud that MAGS is a busy place most mornings due to the many staff arriving early to provide opportunities for scheduled early morning sports trainings and/or manage their time for administration and lesson preparation.  
As MAGS parents are aware, limited capacity for parking and vehicle access within the grounds,  together with health and safety considerations, means that parking and access into the grounds is restricted to MAGS staff.  
Students arriving for morning and/or afternoon trainings must be dropped off outside the school grounds. As always, thank you for your support.

Students' Passion for Musical Theatre

Last week on Thursday night in PA02, the Musical Theatre Group put on a showcase for parents and friends.
Director of Arts Co-curricular Ms Cesan said, "It was a wonderful night that showcased the passion and commitment that this group have for this performance genre, and the group presented a wonderful variety of solo, duet and ensemble items from a diverse range of musicals. All items were highly entertaining and well-rehearsed." 
The group is led by students Ma’a Pau’u, Sophie Le Grice and Isla Nimmo and has been entirely self-managed and organised, with students developing and rehearsing their own songs and working collectively on the show.
Ms Cesan added, "We are all looking forward to having more opportunities for this group in the future." 

Seeking Table Sponsors for Sports Awards

The annual Sports Awards Dinner is fast approaching, and planning for this event is well underway.
The Sports Department is seeking table sponsors from community and wider businesses. Table sponsorship comes at a cost of $500 with businesses being acknowledged in the school newsletter and on the Sports Awards Dinner programme.  
Sponsoring a table for the event enables us to provide a free ticket for our premier coaches and managers to attend, and helps to reduce the cost to our students who will be acknowledged on the night for their sports excellence. 
Enquiries to Judy Revell – Director of Sports Administration & Facilities – [email protected]

Interact Assembly Recognises Outstanding Service

Interact held its special annual assembly on Monday, with guests from the Rotary Club and various charities that Interact supports.
Auckland City Mission’s Sophia Sharpe, pictured above, spoke about the impact of our Can Drive from Term 2. Our nearly 2400 items were able to help 250 families around Auckland. She recognised our Year 12 Can Drive Committee for their excellent organisation by presenting them with certificates.
Claudia Wen, Deputy Head Girl, spoke about her experience at the World Vision Youth Conference that her and some of our other student leaders attended at the start of Term 2.
She then introduced Joel Titus, pictured above right, from World Vision, who celebrated the success of our 40 Hour Challenge fundraiser, recognising our top fundraisers and presenting two awards.
Elaine Mead and Charlie Inggs, pictured below, from the Westhaven Rotary Club, talked about the Rotary connection with Interact and presented our 13 most-involved, longest-serving Year 13 Interactors with a certificate to acknowledge their service.
After that, Allyson Harvey and Jan Tate spoke about the work of CFNZ to explain the ‘why’ behind our current fundraiser.
The assembly was well-attended with nearly 200 Interact members showing up to celebrate all we have accomplished so far this year. 
World Vision Wrap-Up
Our 40 Hour Challenge fundraiser this year involved a sausage sizzle and our much-anticipated annual Hype Day, as a reward for fantastic fundraising after the challenge weekend.
Participants were challenged to ‘disconnect’ for 40 hours. MAGS managed to smash the most recent fundraisers by raising $7516. 
At the Interact assembly, Joel Titus, World Vision’s Youth Ambassador, recognised our top five fundraisers: Lucy Isaac ($643), Isla Lambert ($452), Ruby Patel ($424), Bree Liebenow ($347), and Isaac Fraser ($338). He also presented MAGS with a silver award for fundraising over $5000 and a long-service award for being involved with this event for 30 years.
TIC MS Barlow said, "This fundraiser was ably organised by the Interact Leaders and the Prefect Executive along with the help of our amazing Service Prefects."

Cystic Fibrosis is a lifelong genetic condition that mainly affects the lungs and digestive system.
It can make everyday life really tough, so the support we raise can truly make a difference.
Right now, Interact members are going around during AMP time selling chocolate fish for $1 each, so students should keep an eye out and grab a sweet treat while supporting a great cause.
Interact will also be holding a bake sale next Thursday, August 21 during interval and lunch so students should bring some cash, treat themselves and their friends, and help support people living with Cystic Fibrosis.

Year 10 Market Days

Our Year 10 Finance and Enterprise students showcased their creativity and business acumen at Market Day, held during lunchtime yesterday and today.
Over 35 groups took part across the two days, offering a mix of sweet and savoury products that proved so popular that virtually all groups sold out.
HOF Commerce Mr Gilbert said, "The event provided an excellent opportunity for students to bring their classroom learning to life, demonstrating impressive entrepreneurship and enterprise skills in a real-world setting. With plenty of happy customers among both students and staff, Market Day was another great success in the Mount Albert Grammar calendar."

Course Selection Open for 2026 Year 10s

Course selection for Years 9s going into Year 10 in 2026 is open, and students can make their choices through SchoolPoint. 
Parents are encouraged to view option selections and support students in their choices.
Click here for a useful form with information and here for instructions about Year 10 course selection.
Students should try to complete their option selections by Friday, 5th September, if possible.

Students Support Peace Week

Peace Week for 2025 took place last week, with our Peer Mediators working very hard to create initiatives that would celebrate and acknowledge the value of Peace in Aotearoa but also acknowledging the challenges globally at this time. 
On Monday, there was a pizza fundraiser for a NZ charity, Fountain of Peace, which homes, cares for and educates Ugandan babies and children orphaned or affected by poverty.

Head of Counselling Ms Osborne said, "We managed to raise $390.00 and will be repeating this fundraiser in Week 10, enabling us to send more funds to this cause. 
Jane Laurie, Chairperson of Fountain of Peace, said "We thank the students at Mount Albert Grammar School for their recent donation to our organisation during Peace Week – this support is most appreciated as we work to make a difference and generate hope and transformation in the lives of those in our care, or who we care for, in Western Uganda."
During the week, there was also a poster competition for Year 9 and 10. There were excellent posters submitted which made the judging difficult but the winners were: Ari Billington (Year 9), pictured above left, and Philippa Boateng (Year 10), above right. The winners receive a $30 Westfield voucher and their poster will be displayed on the Library TV. The librarians also created a lovely display for the week, with this theme as its focal point. 
Ms Osborne added, "There was a wonderful guest speaker, Year 12 Yaroslav Sidorenko, pictured right, who spoke from the heart about his own lived experience of living in a country during conflict, and the impact of war on humanity. This was powerful and thought-provoking.  
"Overall, the week was devoted to the celebration of Peace and the ways we can continue to treasure it and demonstrate it in our actions."  

Reminder to Vote in BOT Elections

A reminder that voting will close at 4pm on Wednesday, September 10 for our Board of Trustees election.
The Mount Albert Grammar School Board has received a total of 37 nominations for 7 vacancies. The results will be available on September 17.
If you have any questions about the election process, please contact the Returning Officer
directly on 0800 VOTENZ (0800 868 369) or email [email protected]

A Special 1931 Albertian

The Albertian is the school magazine and is published annually. The first edition was published at the end of 1922, and the 1931 edition follows the same design.
The school has a number of copies of the 1931 Albertian but one copy is more important than the others. The original owner of this copy, pictured above, is unknown but at the back most of the members of form 6B have signed their names, along with a number of teachers.
You can read the story about this copy of the 1931 Albertian and some of the people who signed it in the 29th entry of the long-term project 'A History of the School in 100 Objects' on our website here

– Greg Cave, Archivist

Positive Approach to Mid-life Blues

TV personality and former MAGS parent Petra Bagust joins author Niki Bezzant at TAPAC, Western Springs, next Thursday (August 21 at 7.30pm) for another stop on their tour of HOT MESS – Navigating Midlife and Menopause.
The intimate evening promises "laugh-out-loud stories and real talk about midlife and menopause. Practical insights on navigating the changes with confidence".
You can buy tickets here

Sports Update

NZ Archery Representative

MAGS Archery Captain Phoebe Newcombe is one of three recurve archers who will be representing New Zealand at the World Youth Champs in Winnipeg, Canada in the coming days.
She is the only female recurve archer in the team.
Phoebe's selection follows a stellar summer season which saw her win both the target and matchplay rounds of the U18 Women's Division in the National Championships over Easter, as well as the North Island Youth Championships.  

Fencers Stand Out at Champs

At the Fencing North Secondary Schools Championships, MAGS students returned some great results. 
In the Boys Epee, Martino Caccialupi won Gold, Elijah Yarr was 5th, and Walter Scott 8th. They are pictured opposite, left to right respectively 
In the Boys Foil, Affan Sharif won Bronze, while in the Girls Epee Emi Mason was 5th.
Elijah also won the overall Auckland league gold medal for Boys Epee for 2025.

Final Round of Climbing Series

Last Sunday saw the final round of this year’s Auckland College Climbing Series held at Boulder Co.
Being MAGS' home gym, the wider squad were in attendance and this helped secure their best results yet. 
In the Junior Girls, Chloe Petrie and Maddi Vaughan were just one point apart, finishing 14^th and 15^th= respectively on the day. For the boys, Brennan Schouller secured 15 points and a complete set of grade 3s. This helped him place 38^th in the series overall, 20 places above his finish last year. Soren Bell, a bouldering specialist, attained a personal best of 27 points, a score one point away from the finals and securing him 21^st place in the series.
Over in the Seniors, Thomas Roberts attained his first grade 6, 27^th place for this round and a top 50 finish for the series in 46^th spot. Ronin Ng continued his consistent form with a 12^th place to secure 22^nd overall. 
Our most senior climbers gave everything they had to try to compete with some of Aotearoa’s elite rep climbers. Riley Hobbs hit his highest ever points score, falling just one point short of the final. This also lifted him into the top 20 for the 2025 series, finishing 19^th and setting him a top ten target for next year. For Anna Swan this round was bittersweet. As a Year 13 it marked her final appearance and while she again produced consistent climbs, she, like Soren and Riley, finished one agonising point from a finals place. Overall she attained an outstanding 10^th place for the series.
TIC Ms Hobbs said, "Anna has been an integral part of the squad, competing in every round since MAGS joined the competition in 2022 and making two finals appearances along the way. The team agree it will not be the same without her next year. It is not quite the end though as she will wear MAGS colours one more time as the squad head off to Nationals in Tournament Week." 

Present and Past Students Shine at Curling Champs

The New Zealand Junior Curling Championships were held in Dunedin last weekend. This competition is often seen as the training ground for future NZ Olympians.
Maiah Radu, in Year 12 (pictured left) and who is part of the development squad, represented Auckland as a member of the team that took bronze in the Women’s division – a great achievement for the youngest team there.
There were some other familiar faces on the podium too, though, with Albertians Jack Millar (2018-2022) the skip of the team that won silver in the Men’s division and Tahlia Petersen (2018-2022) leading her team to gold in the Women’s division.
Jack has already represented NZ at the World Junior Champs in Finland last December, and Tahlia is seen as the rising star of the women’s game and will no doubt be pulling on a Silver Fern soon.

Students Give Back to Sports

On Tuesday this week there was a winter sport field day across 10 West Auckland schools in several different sports.  
Hockey was played at North Harbour Stadium and MAGS supplied nine umpires for the day. These students are all members of our hockey academy: Pippa Allen, Emma Bell, Daisy Brinsden, Anya Dhingra, Nieve Sami, Saffron Spiller, Evan Swart, Emma Whitehead and Paige Yeoman.
Director of Hockey Mr Dempster said, "Our students demonstrated excellent hockey knowledge, umpired with confidence and were responsible and reliable. They were an integral part of making the day run smoothly. The school in charge found them to be well-mannered and polite in their interactions with them."

Three of our Netball Academy students attended the Auckland Intermediate Netball All-Zones day at Auckland Netball Centre yesterday, and helped out as umpires for the day. 
They were Pippi MacDonald, Eden Potter and Pereise Utupo-Suluape.
Director of Sport Administration & Facilities Mrs Revell said, "This was a great experience for our juniors to put into practice their umpiring skills they are working on within the netball development programme. 
"Special thanks to Eleanor Simmons, who is our MAGS Netball Umpires Developer who provided guidance for our students on the day."

Upcoming Premier Sport

Tonight, the Football Boys 1st XI play Sacred Heart at Bill McKinlay Turf at 6.00pm, while the Basketball Premier Girls play an away semi-final at St Kentigern at 7.00pm. 
Tomorrow at MAGS, a number of our junior Football and Rugby teams are playing semi-finals or finals. Check the fixtures link below and get along to support them.
On Monday, the Rugby League 1st XIII have a friendly game at home ahead of Nationals, versus Aorere College at 4pm.
On Wednesday, following their terrific 27-23 semifinal victory over Westlake Girls on Wednesday, our Netball Premiers take on Howick College in the final at 7.15pm at Auckland Netball. 
The Hockey Girls 1st XI may have a game on Thursday but the details are yet to be confirmed.

More sporting fixtures here