Congratulations to all 74 students, ranging from Year 9-13, who participated in the highly successful stage challenge, held at the Opera House on June 11.

The day began at 8.30 with rehearsals and ended with an evening performance and judging. The Karamu team gave a spectacular performance, coming second equal with Taradale High School. In addition to this placing, they picked up seven excellence awards: Eastern and Central Community Trust Award of Excellence for Stage Use, Award of Excellence for Concept, 5 + a day Award of Excellence for School Initiative, Award of Excellence for Costuming Character, Award of Excellence for Choreography, Four Winds Foundation Award of Excellence for Student Achievement, Canon Award of Excellence for Visual Enhancement.

Students Strickland Young, Jessie Kupa, Ashleigh Jonasen and Ashley Blake did a fantastic job of leading, organising and encouraging the students on the day as well as months of planning, choreographing and running rehearsals. Also helping with choreography were Max Watson, Daisie Watson, Adam Ward, Madison Bowey and Maggie Boyes. Te Puawai Pirrett did a fantastic job of Artistic Design, being responsible for the set painting, character make up and the team t- shirt design A special mention to Billy Michael for organising the backstage crew and to Hannah Stroud who was the lead costumier. Thanks also to teachers Mr Hunter, Mr Blake, Mr Prebble and Ms Murphy.

The Stage Challenge competition was a very successful day and all students involved should be very proud of their performance, both on-stage and backstage.

Click here for photo.

Year 13 cellists Pien Kerckhoffs and Olivia Wilding were in the winning group of the Hawkes Bay Chamber Music competition. Olivia was also the highly commended group, “The Michi Trio.”

The winning group, "Indigo”, consisted of Pien, Olivia, a third cellist, Penny Feyter, from the Hastings Christian School and pianist Nicky Jackson, also from the Christian School. They played Requiem by David Popper.

“The Michi Trio” consisted of Olivia, clarinettist Sophie Bennet from Iona and pianist Devin Farmery from Havelock North High School. They played a Beethoven trio.

Year 11 students Ruby Levett-Young and Holly Keesing-Schermann had great success in the recent Edible Arts Competition. They won the Bay Espresso Award for Best Use of Hawkes Bay Produce and were first runners-up in the Senior Section. The girls received a substantial financial prize for their efforts.

Their creation, Kiwi Summer Time: the legend of Hineromotai and the Pohutukawa, was the result of many hundreds of hours of work by the two girls. The transforming costume began as a single pohutukawa flower made of many hundreds of dried and painted onion flowers with beeswax painted on to represent the pollen. The costume then transformed into a beautiful skirt, made of hundreds of onion skins sewed onto onion bags mounted over a chicken wire frame. The outfit was completed by a crown headpiece made of lights and onion flowers with an onion-bag veil.

The Edible Arts competition was held at the Hawkes Bay Opera House on 1 June.

The Karamu Music department began a very musical month with their annual concert at the Havelock North Community Centre. The community centre holds concerts on the first Wednesday of each month and June traditionally belongs to Karamu and traditionally, the house is full. Coro Notabile and Ultimately Vocal, the two choirs, performed along with the orchestra, symphonic band and a number of chamber music groups. An unusual feature of this year's concert was the "surround sound" choir, where the singers ringed the audience to perform.

As usual, the students and their music were very well received by a large and appreciative audience.

Mrs Beaumont took this photo of our sculpture this week as the sun was rising.

Kezia Taylor, a year 12 student, has played representative hockey for a number of years. This year she has played for the Hawkes Bay senior women and the Under-18 Hawkes Bay Girls. At Queen’s Birthday weekend she was one of two Hawkes Bay girls to be selected for a Central North Island (6 provinces) Under-18 team, which will compete in the National League over the July holidays. This is a significant sporting achievement and we wish Kezia well.

Congratulations to Mr Noble, who recently competed in a body-building competition in Christchurch, which was an international qualifier for the Southern Hemisphere Championships. He won both his class and title of overall champion. This was especially pleasing as he won the overall title against the current Masters and Overall New Zealand Champion.

As a result, he went to the Gold Coast to represent New Zealand at the Southern Hemisphere body-building competition. He was placed a close second in the Athletic Class against the reigning Athletic Class 4 and overall world champion.

Hockey is in good heart at Karamu. We have five teams. The Boys 1^st XI are currently sitting in second place in the first division after a win, a draw and a loss. At full strength this team looks very exciting and it should do well this season.  The Boys 2^nd XI are playing in the second division, which is a grade higher than last year. They have not found form yet but the experience of faster and tougher hockey will prepare them for moving into the 1^st XI. The Girls’ 1^st XI have won all of their games and are at the top of the second division. They have scored 11 goals and conceded 1. The coach is very pleased with their progress and believes they have the talent to make the finals. The Girls 2^nd XI plays in the same division. They have not won a game yet but they have played the 1^st X1 teams from Wairoa, St Josephs and the colts from Iona. These are very strong teams. Our girls are all juniors and show a lot of promise.  There are also a group of talented girls playing with the junior boys in a mixed team. This plays in the Boys 3^rd Division.  Currently, they are ranked 5^th out of the 10 teams. So this is a great start to a new concept at Karamu. 

We are looking for help with either coaching  or transporting a hockey team.  If anybody is interested, please contact Tracy Taylor through the school.

Nineteen students, Mrs Taylor, Miss Glenny and Denise Spencer have just returned from the school’s third European History Tour. This trip was a little more ambitious than the previous two as Italy was added to the itinerary. The students had a fabulous time visiting many historical sites. Highlights included guided tours through the Colosseum, The Roman Forum, The Vatican Museum, St Peter’s Basilica, Pompeii, Venice and the Louvre Museum.  There were many self-guided tours through churches, castles and famous buildings and monuments.  The group also indulged in fun activities like ice skating, shopping in Harrods and on the Champs Elysees, attending the musical ‘Wicked’, swimming in the Mediterranean Sea, eating mountains of gelato, visiting the Singapore zoos and riding rollercoasters at Universal Studios.  A number of life skills were learned on the trip. For example all students can now navigate their way around the London, Paris, Rome and Singapore subways and they have a smattering of French and Italian. It was a wonderful experience.

Several Karamu students recently competed in the Asia Wise research competition. Of those who competed, a number made it into the top ten nationwide. In the junior section Georgia Boyes, Grace Nolan, Laura Winstone, William Wilkes and Ezra Cash were in the top ten students in New Zealand. In the senior section, Coco Kerckhoffs and Ridge Nairn were placed in the top ten students in Australia and New Zealand. Well done to all those who participated in this challenge.

Eleven students from Karamu’s fledgling Chess Club attended a chess tournament held at the Hastings Sports Centre on 18 May.

The Year 9 competition was won by Levi Hawkins with five out of five wins, making him the Year 9 Hawkes Bay Secondary School Chess Champion. The Swiss draw system meant that the quality of his opposition improved with each win. Levi concedes that it was a close call, as one of his opponents had him on the back foot for much of the game before a simple error in the endgame gave Levi a chance to turn the tables.

Jonathon Carr, Year 12, competed strongly in the Open Class although he missed out on a major placing.

The club members are looking forward to the Teams’ Championship to be held in August.

On Sunday May 26, Karamu students joined 200 other Hawke’s Bay school orienteers for the Hawkes Bay School Championships at Rotoma, a farm map 30 minutes south of Hastings. The predicted rain stayed away and it was a fine and sunny day although very muddy underfoot.

Hawke’s Bay is a strong area for high school orienteering and there was a lot of tough competition across all grades.  All Karamu students ran well, but our best results were Ridge Nairn (4^th in the Intermediate Boys’ Standard grade), Toby Hunter (4^th in the Junior Boys’ Standard grade) and Liam Frost (1^st in the Junior Boys' Standard grade).

The air around the school hall was filled with the aroma of sugar as the Year 10 Business Studies class prepared for their annual market day on 21 May. Each group of students had devised a product, prepared a business plan and organised a stall at the market day, held at lunchtime for students and teachers to shop from. As usual, food stalls featured highly with delights such as candy floss, cupcakes, hot chips, smoothies, cakes and sushi on offer.

Mr Belz was delighted with the students’ efforts. Many groups spent the weekend and long hours on Monday night preparing the products to be sold at the Tuesday market in addition to the weeks of researching, preparing and organising. The top-selling stalls were the candy floss and the sushi stalls.

More pictures here...

Both the senior and junior Kapa Haka groups competed in the regional Kapa Haka competition, held at the Hawkes Bay Opera House on Friday 17 May. Both teams performed for nearly twenty minutes and included a number different elements into their routines.

Kahu Ferris was awarded second place for Male Leader in the competition. Although neither group took any major prizes, Whaea Pene and Matua Leon were very pleased with the performances, which reflected the many hours of rehearsal and the commitment of the members. They were especially pleased with the leadership of the senior students who took on responsibilities to help the group achieve its goal to have a kapahaka for students, led by students. Kahu Ferris, Rima Kurupo, Sky Peters-Prisk and Rearne Warner-Nukunuku  took leadership roles in the senior group under the guidance of Whaea Pene and Matua Leon, while Steeli Hati and Hera Kahukura ably led the junior group.

Karamu’s Year 13 community leaders were also part of the day, assisting in the running of the competition by acting as the kaimanaaki (hosts) for the event. Staff at the Opera House and Ms Torrey, Year 13 Dean, were all very pleased with their contributions.