Mr. Wilson reflects on the school year from a sporting and performing arts perspective.

Dear parents/caregiver

The end of the senior academic year is always a busy time for schools, but also an exciting time as we reflect on the year that has been and anticipate future endeavours of our students. Congratulations to all of the students who have been awarded prizes at the Sports, Cultural and Trades prizegivings held recently.

Reflection on our sporting year

I have been lucky enough to be able to watch and support our students in a large range of different sports this year, particularly in team events, but I think a very special and integral part of the sporting programme at Nayland College is that we support and encourage students in a huge variety of individual and out-of-school sports, holding true to our school values around ensuring learning programmes meet the needs of individuals.

Nayland College is certainly starting to make its mark across the region and country in terms of sport with volleyball, netball and basketball having particularly successful years. Participation is also increasing across the board. Wasn’t it fantastic to see Nayland College Boys Rugby jerseys on the field again!

A definite highlight for me was visiting Wellington for the Tawa sports exchange held earlier in the year. Exchanges such as this are hugely beneficial for team building, confidence, leadership and game experience. Nayland College is becoming more competitive in this event and I think you will see the gap becoming even smaller over the coming years.

Another highlight for me has been the year 9 Institute of Sport programme. This new course has been extremely successful in engaging students through a vast range of sport and performance initiatives and I look forward to seeing it develop further over the coming years. A big thank you must go to Jane Townsend (DP) and Brennan Geddes (HOLA PEH) who have put a huge amount of effort into ensuring this is an engaging and innovative learning programme.

Congratulations to the recipients of our top awards in sport for 2018:

• Brodie Seelen - Olley Cup - Best Junior all round sportsman
  
• Jessie McCarthy - Keeper Cup - Best Junior all round sportswoman
  
• Joseph Meleisea - D'Arcy Cup - Best Senior all round sportsman
  
• Ella Holmes - Monica Robinson Cup - Best all round sportswoman
  
• Aayush Kumar - Gowans Trophy - Outstanding Contribution to Sport
  
• Aimee Lewis & Cameron Dyer - Higgison Cup - Sportsmanship
  
• Senior Boys Volleyball Team - Andrew Trophy - Outstanding Senior Team Performance
  
• Junior Girls Volleyball Team - Nayland College - Outstanding Junior Team Performance
  
• Senior Boys Volleyball Team - Howat Cup - Excellence in Sport
  

Reflection on our year in the performing arts

We started our 2018 year in the arts with a magnificent performance of The Diary of Anne Frank wooing audiences with its themes of isolation, youth, fear, faith, perseverance, love and warfare.

I am sure that 2018 will be remembered as the ‘year of the choirs’ at Nayland College. In only our third year of entering the competition, all of our choirs were very successful at the Big Sing competition with Sotto Voce, Augmented and the NayCol Chorale all winning awards in this prestigious National Competition. This was followed by an incredibly successful trip to Melbourne where the students had workshops at a number of schools before both Augmented and the Naycol Chorale won prestigious ‘platinum’ awards at the Victorian Schools Music Festival. And what a coup at Wellington Airport with the students taking the opportunity to perform to Jacinda Ardern and baby Neve – making national headlines.

The Autumn Showcase at the Theatre Royal was a resounding success, with the audience commenting on the noticeable improvements of all performances from last year. In fact, one of the volunteer ushers at the concert came to see me the following day – commenting that in 50 years of working at the theatre he had never seen such a wide variety of talent and musicianship on the stage – followed, I must say, by a generous donation.

2018 saw the inaugural ‘Stage Quest’ launched at the Trafalgar Centre. The Nayland College group was outstanding, winning a production award and placing third in the competition.

The Nayland Music Trust was rebranded in 2018 as the Nayland College School of Music. Over 80 students continue to learn orchestral instruments through this programme, predominantly at Broadgreen Intermediate, Nayland Primary School, Birchwood School, Stoke School and Enner Glynn School. The Nayland College School of Music is set to grow exponentially over the coming years and will ultimately ensure that young people within the Stoke region get affordable access to quality music education from a young age.

Other highlights included our Rockquest group ‘the Recliners’ winning the regional Rockquest, the Sheila Winn Shakespeare Festival, the Concert Band growing from strength to strength, Dance and Drama Company performances, and the Vast Dance Festival was once again a great evening of entertainment.

Congratulations to the recipients of our top awards in the arts for 2018:

• Will Roddick - Spaak Cup - Most Improved Junior in Music
  
• Tacy Eyles - Eileen Appletton-Maher Cup - Outstanding Contribution to Concert Band
  
• Natania Ngawhau - Trinity College London Cup - Outstanding Contribution to Concert Band
  
• Ben Dowdle - Bruce Meikle Cup - Excellence in Music
  
• Harry Stocker & Ben Kirby - Chapman-Cohen Musical Award - Outstanding Contribution to Music
  
• Keely Arnold-Smith - De Jong Trophy - Outstanding Service to the Arts 
  
• Nejla Vallaidam - Jones Cup - Outstanding Contribution to PA - Dance
  
• Jasper Roberts - Nelson City Brass Cup - Most Improved Bass Player
  
• Thomas Wynne-Jones - Nelson Civic Choir Choral Cup - Outstanding Contribution to Choral Music
  

I look forward to celebrating more achievements over the coming weeks.

Nga mihi nui

Daniel Wilson
Principal