Kia ora, Talofa, and warm greetings to you all.

Well, what a quick fire start to term 4 it has been!

Our summer sports are well into their competitions now and have all started in good spirits. Our rowers are working extremely hard in behind the scenes under the watchful eye of Paddy Dowling and Dan Ryan! These rowers do huge hours in the gym and out on the water to perfect their technique and build aerobic capacity in order to be in tip top shape! Keep it up men!

Cricket continues to build with some excellent trips set in motion through Andrew Cavill, with our 1st squad and our Year 9's. Both travelled to the North Island and competed admirably against some tough opposition. Head of Cricket, David Hooper, was over the moon to see the Year 9 team get the victory over his old school, Wellington College!

Steph Broomhall has done a great job of continuing to create some good interest in our touch programme. Touch is a great summer sport and offers the opportunity to play in many tournaments while maintaining some great crossover skills for winter codes. Thank you Steph, for all the work you do for our boys – watch this space!

Volleyball is also up and running with competitions set to commence in coming weeks, we wish you well tomorrow in your qualifier.

Our mountain bikers are involved in a weekly Wednesday competition. Mountain biking has seen huge growth nationally and, here at kura, it is no different. There is a dedicated and enthusiastic group of young men coming through who love it! Ka Pai men, keep it up!

Well done to Chris Leader, Daniel Kahura and Hamish Barclay on coaching the 7s team to success in the regional qualifiers. They drew the final with Boys High having beaten St Bedes, Shirley and Timaru Boys. This means they will head to Tauranga on the 1st of December to compete at the National Condor Championship! Rumours are building that old boy, Sam Dickson, will provide a training opportunity against the All Black 7s team, what an experience that would be for our men!

All the best to our rugby league students heading to Auckland to work with the Warriors in their Harrold Matthews and SG ball camps. These students will spend a substantial amount of time away from home, good luck! On this note we must congratulate some award winners at last week's Canterbury secondary schools awards evening (Zonta Awards). Our 1st XIII rugby league team picked up the top award for Team of the Year, beating out some amazing results from local schools. Donte Tahuhu-Wilson was awarded the best all round Young Sportsman of the Year in more than one sporting code. And the third of the awards was to the GAS programme. In its second year it has been awarded the most innovative school sport or physical activity programme. Well done to all students and staff who have been a part of these results!

On Wednesday night, we also received recognition in the rugby space. To all our loyal volunteers, supporters and school staff, congratulations on your contribution and recognition at the Canterbury Rugby Awards as the ‘School of the Year’ for 2023.

I have attached our sports code of conduct as a reminder to students to uphold our values as they continue with their summer sport. There is also a link attached for parents with some videos regarding sport and parenting, take a look!

https://balanceisbetter.org.nz/10-golden-rules-for-youth-sport-parents/

Nga mihi nui,

Paul Burton

Chinese Banquet 2023