NEW PLYMOUTH BOYS’ HIGH SCHOOLTE KURA TAMATANE O NGAMOTU

IMPROVING THE FUTURE SINCE 1882

SEPTEMBER 2020

Newsletter

Due to the COVID situation a group of eleven internationals have had tomake a diffi cult decision with their parents on their education in 2021.The uncertainty around the border and who is allowed into New Zealandmeans to return home over the Christmas Holidays could end theireducation at New Plymouth Boys' High School, as they may not be ableto return to NZ in January.

Every one of the boys and their parents have decided they want tocomplete their education at NPBHS and will spend their Christmas awayfrom family and home. For some, it may be up to 20 months before theymeet their parents in person and spend a night in their own bed at home.Some of these boys are in Year 9 and are as young as thirteen yearsof age. It will be a challenge for parents and the boys being away fromhome for such a long time.

We are looking for families who can offer these boys some Kiwihospitality during part, or all of the Christmas vacation. If you can pleasecontact Glynda at homestay@npbhs.school.nz.

Hugh RussellDirector of International Students

Message from theHeadmaster

Kia ora koutou.

This year has produced some uniquechallenges for our community andthe school. As Term 3 draws to a conclusion, I am proud of the opportunities we have managed to provide for the boysunder diffi cult circumstances. The pinnacle of the Year 13Social calendar the School Ball took place. Pridham Live andWho’s Huia showcased our artists and performers, and the1st teams had the opportunity to play in a College gameagainst Palmerston North Boys’ in front of the school.

As Sporting Bodies decided against offering tournamentsduring winter tournament week, our Junior and Seniorteams got the opportunity to compete in Super Eighttournaments against other Boys High Schools. I thank thestaff, coaches and management, in particular Mr Davies, theDirector of Culture and Mr Bublitz, the Director of Sport, fortheir commitment to making these happen for the boys.

This newsletter reports on the opportunities provided thisterm and as you read through it, you will see it has been avery successful term for NPBHS.

At the beginning of Term 3, we also made several internalstaff appointments to strengthen our support of theacademic performance at the school. Mr Finn Peters, MrHemi Coates and Mr Felix Hartman have been appointedas Academic Deans to provide academic mentoring andmonitoring of students. We have also increased the focuson University Scholarships, at Year 13 with the appointmentof Ms Karen Morine as Scholarship co-ordinator.

For the Year 13 students, their time at NPBHS is comingto an end, and for the seniors sitting NCEA, the upcomingholidays should be used to revise for the practice exams inweek 2 of Term 4.

Enjoy the spring warmth and sunshine and we look forwardto more stability in Term 4.

Ngā mihigā mihi

Sam MooreSam MoorHeadmaster

Locked into New Zealand

Connect with us!

Upcoming Events at NPBHS19-23 Senior Practice ExamsRyder Hall

2 NovemberHostel Xmas Drinner

11 NovemberAwards Dinner - The Devon Hotel

12 NovemberSenior Prizegiving - Ryder Hall

IMPROVING THE FUTURE SINCE 1882

School Ball - “Cruise Night”

The New Plymouth Boys’ High School Ball was a great success and a night to remember for all of Year 13 and their dates. The theme of the night was ‘Cruise Ship.’ The ‘Cruise Ship’ itself was a concept where the attendees would come aboard our ball to take a well deserved ‘holiday’ from the global issues we are currently facing.

The highlight of the night was the Top 6 Dance. The Top 6 and their partners trained for eight weeks to learn and choreograph a dance. The Top 6 Dance had an incredibly electric atmosphere, in which the Top 6 and their partners performed to a professional standard.

The Ball Committee worked tirelessly on this event for four months trying to make the night perfect. The Ball Committee consisted of Brooklyn Greer-Atkins, Fletcher Ferguson, Lachlan Hanser, Kieran Deegan, Jone Rova, Kaia Ormsby, Rowan Slater, Jack Mitchell, Doug Russ, Sebastian Lauderdale-Smith, Shaun Leath, Kaya Selby and Gabriel Oliver. Thank you to these men for making the night such a success.

Thank you to our 1st XV Rugby Sponsors!

Thank you to our 1st XI Hockey Sponsor!

Pridham Live:This cultural showcase featured some incredible talent in our 100-year-old hall. Finn Hambling and Ian Wong, (Piano and violin) played a superb duet. Sean Grieve continues to impress with his songwriting and awesome voice. Hysan Shi’s haunting Chinese flute completely captivated the small live audience, in what was primarily a live stream event. Nixon Tyler, lead singer of our top-performing band, Olympus Jeopardy, produced some magic with his guitar and songwriting of his own. He is certainly one to watch. It was also fantastic to have Aidan Christini play a beautiful piece on the piano. A highlight of the evening was the theatre sports duo of Sean Grieve and Mateo Almano who produced a long-form improvisation. They had the audience in hysterics. It was an inspiring evening.

Cultural Catch Up

Who’s Huia: This year’s showcase was hosted by NPGHS and was jam-packed with

talent from both schools. Our combined Jazz and Concert bands played superbly and numerous solo artists, duos and groups inspired the live

stream audience. We’ll look forward to hosting next year’s showcase at NPBHS and hope for more opportunities for these hard-working young

musicians to perform in 2021.

Smokefreerockquest:Olympus Jeopardy made the top 20 in NZ in the band category of this competition. An incredibly talented band, they have a very bright future.

Smokefree Tangata Beats: Congratulations to Le Treal Ross for making the top 10 in NZ and the National Final. Le Treal is an incredible rapper/producer and this is only just the beginning of a very bright future in the music industry. The National Final will be streamed live after the printing of this newsletter. We wish Le Treal all the best!

FOOTNOTE:Huge congratulations to Le Treal Ross who took out top song honours at the Smokefree Tangata Beats National Finals. Well done Le Treal!

Olympus Jeopardy

Tournament Week Round Up

1st XI Football:The First XI Football travelled to Rotoruafor the Super 8 Football. In the twenty years of the tournament, NPBHS haveonly won it on two occasions. This yearthe team had limited inter-school gamesbecause of COVID but had wins againstWellington College, Francis Douglas andPalmerston North Boys’. The 1st XI alsohas been performing very well in the localMen's Premiership.

The fi rst three games of the tournamentwere pool games against Hastings Boys'(Won 2-nil), Rotorua Boys' (won 6-nil). The last match of the pool was againsta strong Hamilton Boys', and because of a better goal difference, and New Plymouth Boys' only had to draw to gothrough as top of the pool. The game sawus hit the woodwork and have one goaldisallowed. The game fi nished as a nil-nildraw and saw the school take top place inthe pool and secure a semi-fi nal againstPalmerston North Boys' in the afternoon.

The Semi-fi nal was played at an emptyRotorua International Stadium due to COVID Alert Level protocols. TheInterschool win earlier in the year hadmarked us as favourites, but the fatigue of tournament football would make ita lot closer game. The fi rst half was avery tight encounter, but New Plymouthdominated the second half, winning withan Ethan O'Halloran goal.

The fi nal was a rematch against Hamilton Boys' High School. Hamilton had beaten last year's winners Tauranga to reach thefi nal. The fi rst half was tight with NPBHShitting the bar early. Hamilton then went up the other end and scored an excellent goal. At halftime, we were 1-nil down. This was the fi rst time all the season the team had conceded fi rst and had been down at half time.

The team's character was called into question in the second half, and the boysresponded to this challenge with wave after wave of attacks. With 8 minutes to go, we equalised through a KeiranDeegan goal. Hamilton threatened little in the second half but gained a penalty in the fi nal minute of the game. Tyler Borck, the NPBHS goalkeeper, pulled off a great save to put the game into extra time.

The fi rst 10 minutes of extra time was very even with neither team creating much, taking us into the second ten minutes of extra time. With a matterof minutes to spare Kyan Jones met acorner with a thunderous header to sealthe Super 8 trophy for NPBHS for only thethird time.

2nd XI Football:Organisers called off the planned Football tournament just days beforethe scheduled start date due to COVIDrestrictions. A four-team tournament hosted by Fielding High School was independently organised to allow theboys to play.

The 2nd XI went up against three 1st XIs in this tournament and performedadmirably. The fi rst game was against Wairarapa College, who were the winnersof the Trident Secondary Schools’Tournament last year. They were far the stronger team in a game that we never really got started in, being 0-3 by half time. The second half saw our boys adapt to the speed of school football and held them to one goal. The result was a 4-nilloss.

The afternoon game was againstanother strong 1st XI in St Peters from Palmerston North. They went up 2-nilwithin the fi rst ten minutes. An improved second half could not stop a defeat which put us into the 3rd and 4th play-off.

A much-improved performance on the second day saw us almost win against Fielding High School 1st XI. If a couple of late chances had gone our way, thenvictory would have been ours. The resultwas a 2-2 all draw.

The last game of the tournament wasa rematch against St Peters. A muchimproved attacking display saw us equalise before taking control of the game and leading 3-1 at half time. Another goal for us in the second half was enough to secure a win 4-3 and3rd place. Wairarapa College were the eventual winners of the tournament.

Under 15 Rugby:The U15A Rugby team travelled to Hastings to play in the Super 8 tournament. The team was selectedfrom four different teams in our localrugby competition and due to the COVID situation, had little time playing togetherbefore the tournament.

The fi rst game was a very close win over Napier Boys’ 7-5 (halftime 0-0). ReeveNelley scored the try and Raymond Rimene with the conversion. The boysshowed great character and fought hardto get the win.

We entered our second game with a lotof confi dence knowing that a win would set us up for the top half of the draw. We had control of the game and were able to hold out a very skilful Hastings teamwho would be the eventual winners of the tournament. We had a heartbreaking last-minute loss to lose the game 17-13.

The last game of the tournament was thefi fth-sixth play-off against Tauranga Boys'College. We started well, but fell off a fewtackles and made a few mistakes thatthey capitalised on, as the fatigue of the tournament began to show. At half timewe were trailing by 2 points (10-12), and were still in the game.

An injury to our team MVP for thetournament Tana Barrowcliffe, andTauranga starting the second half withmore desire meant we ended up losing10 - 34 and fi nishing sixth place in the tournament.

Under 14 Rugby:The Under 14 rugby team played their Super 8 tournament in Palmerston North.

The team started with a 19-6 bonus-pointwin over Napier Boys' High School. Thesecond game was an unlucky 14-3 defeatto Hastings. The boys played well, butunfortunately, Hastings Boys’ took their opportunities in the second half, and wecouldn't capitalise on ours.

The third game was against a RotoruaBoys' High School team who had notconceded a point in the fi rst two gamesand had scored 67 of their own. We lostthis game 29-8 and were the only team toscore any points against them in the groupstage.

We fi nished the tournament with ahard-fought win against Palmerston North Boys’ High School in windy andwet conditions, Koby Haigh scoring thewinning try to give us a 10-8 victory and5th place in the tournament.

1st XI Hockey:1st XI Hockey had a successful week in Tauranga retaining the Super 8 Shield forthe third year in a row.

We fi nished second in our pool after a13-nil win over Gisborne, a tight 2-1 lossagainst Tauranga, and a 3-0 win overNapier. This set up a semi-fi nal against

Palmerston North. Expectations of a goodgame were high, with New Plymouthlooking to restore some pride after losing1-6 in the traditional fi xture a few weeks before.

New Plymouth jumped out to an early three-nil lead before Palmerston Northscored two goals to be down by one at half time. Two quick goals by New Plymouth saw them jump out to a 5-2lead with another two goals in the fourth quarter putting the game beyond doubt.

The fi nal was against Hastings, who weremaking their fi rst fi nals appearance. NewPlymouth led throughout, but a late goal from Hastings set up a thrilling last 2minutes of play. New Plymouth was ableto hold on to win 4-3.

1st V Basketball:The 1st V basketball travelled to Tauranga for their Super 8 tournament. The tournament started well with victories against Hastings and Hamilton. A two-point loss to Napier in the fi nal pool gamesaw the team fi nish second in their pool.This meant a tough crossover semifi nalwith Rotorua. The game was a diffi cult one for the boys, who struggled to matchthe size and physicality of the Rotorua team. The boys ran out of energy and momentum playing the worst game of their tournament in the 3rd/4th playoff.A 4th place fi nish is a good result for theboys as a top four spot has eluded theteam for fi ve years.

Junior A Basketball:Junior A Basketball had a diffi cult pool at their Super 8 Tournament in Hamilton. Aloss to Hamilton on the buzzer and a two-point loss to eventual winners Hastingssaw the team in the bottom four. Theboys then went on to beat Napier andTauranga in the bottom 4 to fi nish 5th. Any team in the boys’ pool could have won the tournament. Zavier Adam and Oscar Goodman made the tournament team.

Junior Football:With the Hillsdene tournament cancelled,the Junior Football team headed toPalmerston North for the inaugural JuniorSuper 8 Football Tournament.

The fi rst day saw us play against Hastings and Rotorua. We knew bothteams would be physical and would try to play a simple style. Although the score was only 2-0 in both the games, wedominated possession and played some very tactical football, Fergus Young with three goals, and Jackson Bigwood withone.

On the second day, we played Hamilton Boys’ High School, who at U15 level, arerevered for being one of the top teams inthe country. A very tight game that sawus on the back foot, possession-wise, butdefensively able to deal with their attack. It took a lapse of concentration on our behalf for them to score the decisive goal.

This saw us in a crossover game inthe afternoon against Tauranga Boys’ College, who was the top of the otherpool. In a game that could have been described as men vs boys, the Taurangateam, dominated us physically. Tacticallywe were more than capable of dealing with them. They had a simple threat of along throw which, when combined with some large strikers, worked well in theirfavour. Despite this, it took an unintended cross that took us by surprise to break the deadlock, and we went down 1-0.

Our fi nal game was against PalmerstonNorth, who like us, were second in their pool. The game was incredibly even, skill and size-wise. They played a similar style of football to us, and we were ableto cope with their strengths quite well. There were a few nervous moments from both sides, but at the end of 60 minutes,we were 0-0. This meant we went to penalties.

Despite us missing an early penalty, Luke Hall made a great save which put pressure on their fi nal penalty taker who put it over the bar. This meant we fi nished 3rd place, with Hamilton 2ndand Tauranga 1st. It is also important to note that we only conceded two goals all tournament, the least of any team. The tournament was incredibly successful for our U15 players, many of whom will be back for another year.

The 1st XV were fortunate to be able to play most of their traditionalfi xtures as well as a full slate of Super 8 games this season. Theteam had a nine-win three-loss record this season with notablewins over St Patrick’s College, Silverstream (McDonald Shield),Whanganui Collegiate and Palmerston North Boys’ High School(Barnes Cup) in traditional fi xtures. The team also retained theCarroll-George Trophy with our cross-town rivals Francis Douglas.

In Super 8 play the team qualifi ed 2nd at the end of round-robinplay with a fi ve win (Tauranga BC, PNBHS, Hastings BHS, RotoruaBHS and Napier BHS) and two loss (Hamilton BHS and GisborneBHS) record. This resulted in a home semi-fi nal against RotoruaBHS last weekend. Unfortunately, the team were unable toreplicate their earlier win and went down 30-28 to fi nish 3rd in theSuper 8 competition for 2020. Six of the 1st XV squad have beennamed in the Chiefs’ U18 camp, Kusitino Druna, Rowan Slater,Levi Reweti, Perry Lawrence, Jone Rova and Peter Te Kahu andJack Parker in the Crusaders’ U18 squad.

Jone Rova has also been named in the New Zealand BarbariansU18 Squad.

Thank you to the parents for their support throughout the season.Thank you to the coaches for all of their time and effort this year,starting back in February and thank you to our sponsors for thesupport they have given us this year.

Rugby Super Eight Championship

Photo: Braedyn Wallis

Photo: Braedyn Wallis

The 2020 WITT Science & Technology Fair was re-formatted to cope with the COVID pandemic alert levels. Two display categories, and the year 10 quiz, were dropped. For the fi rst time, students were able to submit their entries for observational drawing, scientifi c journalism, posters and photography online. We were very pleased with the number of entries, a total of over 600 entries across all categories (a normal fair will usually attract about 1000). All sections attracted high levels of interest, in some cases higher than in 2019. Once the alert levels eased, we were able to hold some physical events. The robotics competition was held in Ryder Hall on 27 August, and the water rockets were launched on the Gully ground on 28 August. Unfortunately, the large number of entries and prizes means that we have not yet been able to hold a physical prize-giving at alert level two.

Prizewinners from NPBHS: Sourya Banerjee: First Prize Scientifi c Journalism, Year 9Shion Boyd: Merit Observational Drawing, Year 9Shion Boyd: Third (Equal) Prize Scientifi c Journalism, Year 9Flynn Cave: Merit Advertising Poster, Year 9Jayden Clark & Joshua Duncan: First Prize Robotics Minibot Maze AutonomousJayden Clark & Joshua Duncan: First Prize Robotics MiniBot Battle RemoteJayden Clark & Joshua Duncan: First Prize Robotics MiniBot Battle AutonomousJayden Clark & Joshua Duncan: First Prize Robotics MegaBot Battle Remote Most Creative Robot BuildJayden Clark & Joshua Duncan: First Prize MegaBot Battle AutonomousHarrison Clayton-Smith: Second Prize Photographic Section, Year 11Connor Clough: First Prize Photographic Section, Year 11Liam Crowe: Second Prize Scientifi c Journalism, Year 9Liam Crowe & Cohen Coombes: Second Prize Robotics Minibot Maze Autonomous Joshua Duncan: First Prize Water Rocket Challenge SeniorNicholas Dunnet: Merit Photographic Section, Years 11Thomas Eberhard: Second Prize Photographic Section, Year 9Thomas Grieve: Merit Advertising Poster, Year 9Brayden Hills: Second Prize Observational Drawing, Year 9Isaac Johnston: Merit Photographic Section, Year 9Oliver Kemsley: Merit Photographic Section, Year 9 Tommy Li: Third Prize Advertising Poster, Year 9 Bailey McKay & Albie Isdale: First Prize Robotics MegaBot Battle RemoteLachlan Moles: Second Prize Observational Drawing, Year 12 Stirling Monk: Third Prize Observational Drawing, Year 9 Sam Parker Merit Entry: Advertising Poster, Year 9 Rylan Vesty Level: Third Prize Photographic Section, Year 9

WITT Science and Technology Fair

Practice Exam TimetableYou are required to be at your exam a minimum of 15 minutes before the exam is scheduled to begin.

Yr 9 Camps CancelledUnfortunately we have had to cancel the Year 9 camps at the end of Term 4. This was due to the uncertainty around changing Alert Levels, the Government requirements to ask parents for a donation, and the fi nancial limitations for parents. There will be a school-based programme in the last week of Term 4.