Senior prize-giving was held at an evening assembly on 1 December, with many families and friends in attendance. The Dux for 2011 was Head Boy, Stephen Clothier. Stephen will be attending Victoria University in 2012, where he will be working towards a BMus in composition and a BA in film.
Winner of both the Year 13 General Excellence Award and the Clark Cup for Proxime Accessit was Head Girl, Brittany Rorrison. She will also be attending Victoria University, where she will be studying law.
Academic Excellence at Year 12 was shared by Alice Hunter and Bryce Watson, while Ben Taylor won General Excellence.
In Year 11, Academic Excellence was won by Reuben Cash and General Excellence by Pien Kerckhoffs.
Sportsman of the Year was Raiden Pillay and the Sportswoman of the Year went to Aimee Fisher.
We congratulate the many students who received awards as a result of their hard work.
Family and friends were invited to the Junior Prize-giving on the morning of Tuesday 6 December.
One of the major initiatives of the Karamu Junior High leaders was to fundraise money for the Hastings Christmas Cheer Appeal. The leaders encouraged students to contribute money and, in return, the students were given a mufti-day for reaching the target of $600. In total, their efforts raised $700.
Coco Kerckhoffs and Maddie Ross were recently announced as the winners of the NZATE Short Story Writing Competition in Year 9 and 10 respectively. The competition is a national one, run by the English Teachers’ Association. The girls received certificates and cash prizes at assembly during the week. They continue the school’s wonderful run of successes in creative writing.
Brittany Rorrison and Stephen Clothier were recently honoured by the Hastings Heretaunga Lions Club in their annual Young Achievers’ Awards. Twenty young people from ten local schools were nominated for the awards, aimed at celebrating young people in a positive manner. All the nominees were invited to a mayoral reception at the Assembly Rooms, hosted and organised by the Lions, where they were given presentations. The nominees all had photographs taken by local photographer Terry Winn and the exhibition was opened during the evening. The photographs of all the Young Achievers are on display at the public library and at I-Site in Hastings.
Prize-winners in the Karamu Writing Competition received their prizes at assemblies this week. The competition is an annual event on the Karamu calendar. As usual, the standard of entries was very high and the winning entries will be published in the end-of-year school magazine.
The KHS Clay Target Shooting team of Oliver Withers (captain) James Linnell, James Fulford, Harry Smith and Angus Fulford competed with distinction in the North Island and NZ Championships in the first week of the holidays. Approximately 370 shooters from 30 schools attended. Oliver and James Fulford were selected for the HB regional team. Harry Smith qualified for the shoot-off in both the North Island and NZ Single Rise. James Linnell got into the shoot-off in both North Island and NZ single barrel. Angus Fulford(Y9) shot a personal best to get into the NZ Single Barrel shoot-off and posted very competitive scores to help the team to equal Karamu’s best placing of 4th in NZ. 
Alice Hunter, Year 12, was nominated to compete in PACANZ (Performing Arts Competitions Association of New Zealand) ILT National Young Performer Awards, in Modern Dance. Of the thousands of young dancers that enter competitions, only 50 are nominated to compete in this bi-annual event.
Karamu’s great run of writing successes at a national level continued with the news that two Karamu students had been shortlisted for the prestigious Sunday-Star Times Short Story competition. Stephen Clothier, Year 13, was shortlisted for his story Irises. The story is about a teenage girl and her restrictive relationship with her mother. Maddie Ross, Year 10, was shortlisted for her story Joshua. This story is about a boy and his dysfunctional family.
