Hero photograph
 
Photo by Emma Booth

Celebration of Student Achievement

Rowan Milburn —

The Year 12 & 13 Senior Prize Giving was held at St Margaret’s Auditorium on 6th November.

This was a showcase of student achievement, as well as the talent that was on display through musical and dance items. One of the additional special awards we added in 2019 was National Honours. The purpose of this was to showcase students who have reached national level in their field of expertise. Here is a summary of the students who received one of these awards:

  • Tilly Pritchard
    • Tilly represented New Zealand at the ICF Junior World Championships for Canoe Sprint Racing in Romania this year where she came 8th in her heat in the individuals and made the semi-final in the K4.
  • Ben Ritchie and Leah Scott
    • Ben and Leah have reached the top 40 finalists of the national Play It Strange songwriting competition with their song ‘La Casa,’ which has been described as a strange play on a love song. 
  • Caitlin Brown
    • Caitlin also reached the top 40 of the national Play It Strange songwriting competition with her original song ‘Leave your Head,’ which is based on experiencing anxiety.
  • Finn Hawkesby-Browne
    • Finn excels in downhill mountain biking. His achievements include placing second overall in the National Champs and then competing in Europe representing New Zealand. His best result was 14th at Val di Sole. Finn has recently undergone shoulder surgery and we wish him all the best with his recovery.
  • Thomas Johnstone
    • Thomas excels in Fencing and came third in both Foil and Epee weapons in the National Secondary School Championships. In May, Thomas was placed third in Foil at the NZ Under 23 Competition, and a few months later he represented NZ at the Australian U17 Competition.
  • Charlotte James
    • Charlotte excels in Science, and specifically Astrophysics. She was awarded the Te Ara a Kupe Beaton Scholarship, which is awarded to five New Zealand high school students and involves personalised education and mentoring to enable them to attend top global universities.
  • Lucy Hill
    • Lucy Hill excels in the Fashion world. Lucy’s dress won the Night Life category at the Hokonui Young Designer of the Year awards. She competed in the Open section against tertiary fashion schools from throughout the country and aspiring designers from as far away as China.
  • Emma Cook
    • Emma also excels in Fashion Design. Emma won a special award at the Hokonui Young Designer Awards for her Calico design. This garment amazingly is made entirely from scraps from the Fashion workroom.
  • Liadan Dickie
    • Liadan is an excellent rock climber and has competed against New Zealand’s best young climbers at the National Indoor Boulder Series. Liadan placed 5th in the Women’s U16s and 8th in the U18s.
  • Liam Day
    • Liam excels at Korfball and as of a week or so ago has been selected to represent New Zealand in the U19 Korfball team that will travel to the Netherlands next April. This is quite incredible as Liam has only been playing the sport for two years.
  • Travis Woffenden
    • Travis has taken home the Supreme Award for Best Overall Film for the second year in a row at the School Shorts Film Awards with his stop motion short film ‘Laundry List’. Travis also won the prize for Best Director.


Tuakana Taina: Other special award winners included Liam Day, who won the Tuakana Taina for Year 12, which is a teacher-nominated award for a student that lives out the Hagley values in a special way. The Year 13 winner for the same award was Travis Woffenden.

Senior Tohu Mātauranga winner for 2019 was Elvis Nicolls. 

Academic Excellence at Year 12 was awarded to Liadan Dickie.

Adult Academic Excellence was awarded to Hang Le.

Dux for 2019 is Helena Wade-Rayment.


Congratulations to all of our students receiving awards, certificates and prizes.

Here is the link to the Senior Prize Giving photos: Senior Prize Giving

Thanks to Emma Booth who is the photographer at our school events.