The winning chess teams (standing from left) manager Conrad Wing, Aki Hansen (Year 9), Owen Menzies, Bryan Cooper (both Year 10), Gavith Dharmasena (Year 11), Kian Dharmasena (Year 10), (seated from left) Cayden Wang, James Anthony (both Year 9), Samuel Foote (Year 13).

Biology
Sarah Anthony, Corin Simcock, Cindy Xiong and Luke Zhu (all Year 12) were awarded a Bronze Award in the 2021/22 New Zealand International Biology Olympiad. The students now have the opportunity to compete in another examination for selection for a 10-day NZBIO camp in 2022, from which a team of five are selected to represent New Zealand at an NZBIO International competition.

Chess
At the Canterbury Interschools Chess Championships, the St Andrew’s College A team of Gavith Dharmasena (Year 11), Kian Dharmasena, Owen Menzies (both Year 10) and Samuel Foote (Year 13) played outstanding chess to take top honours, pipping Christ’s College by one point in the final round. The St Andrew’s College B team of Bryan Cooper (Year 10), Aki Hansen, Cayden Wang and James Anthony (all Year 9) won the B Division, which was particularly encouraging given three members of this team are in Year 9. Chess is a growing activity in the Preparatory School, with more than 30 students enrolled in the new Preparatory School Chess Club.

Creative Writing
The following students were recognised in the Junior Open Section at the New Zealand Poetry Society International Poetry Competition 2021:

Junior Open Section

• Isla Calder (Year 11): Runner-up, A woman carrying the simple day’s pain;
• Myken Miller (Year 10): Highly Commended, She had forgotten;
• Mia Walker (Year 11): Commended, Simulacrum.

Junior Haiku Section

• Emily Keith (Year 11): Second place, soft lights between leaves;
• Wenjin (Katie) Zhang (Year 12): Third place, white walls, messy wires;
• Emily Morgan (Year 10): Highly Commended, made from oil;
• Lorna Hart (Year 11): Highly Commended, cars speeding away;
• Addison Williams (Year 10): Commended, Nanny’s birthday.

Haiku Junior Section

• Aneel Bartlett (Year 4): Highly Commended, Midnight;
• Chloe Sha (Year 4): Commended, Winter;
• Alfred Lash (Year 3): Commended, Early Morning.

In the Lingogo Matariki Short Story Competition, Connor Ott (Year 11) and Estella Venning (Year 13) achieved special mentions from the judges.

One of our Secondary School students had their work awarded in the Schools’ Pride Week ‘Out on the Shelves’ writing competition.

A poem by Year 3 student, Alfred Lash, was selected to be published in the UK publication Poems to Solve the
Climate Crisis.

Portia Bennie (Year 11) and Matthew Butler (Year 12) both had haiku selected for publication in the New Zealand
Poetry Society Anthology.

In the Waitaha English ‘Lines for Lockdown’ poetry competition, Madison Fahey (Year 8) was runner-up in Category One and Jenna Howell (Year 10) was runner-up in Category Two. The poems will be published in Waitaha English’s first WE magazine.

Hannah Burnett (Year 10) won a Best Poem Award in the National Poetry Day 2021 ‘Noho Mai Given Words’ competition for her poem, dusk is near and no one’s ready.

Alice Burnett (Year 13) won the St Andrew’s College Secondary School Creative Writing Competition with her collection of poetry. Runners-up were Stella Venning (Year 13) and Portia Bennie (Year 11).

Future Problem Solving
Three teams and one individual from St Andrew’s College have qualified for the national finals in Future Problem Solving (FPS), with results due mid-November. The students are:

Sophie Goode (Year 13)

• Year 6: Sophie Schouten, Nika Meyn, Alexa Collis, Alyssa Geddes;
• Year 7: Honour Fraher-Richardson, Fraser Walls, George Flanagan, Anton Zhang;
• Year 8: Teresa Steiner, Charlotte Kyle, Ania Kuziel, Matthew Bluck;
• Year 8 Individual: Hannah Withers;
• Squad leader and mentor: Katie Foot (Year 8).

Maatangi Whenua Geography Competition
Against 18 teams in the regional Year 11 Maatangi Whenua Geography Competition, the St Andrew’s College team of Torin Ward, Jacob Giles and William Russell placed a respectable third, behind Christchurch Boys’ High School and Shirley Boys’ High School.

Young Enterprise
At the regional finals of the Young Enterprise competition, Rocky Treats, run by Alice Lane and Madeleine May (both Year 13), which makes rocky road, especially focusing on customers with dietary requirements, finished second overall. Phunki, a sole proprietorship run by Sophie Goode (Year 13), who makes hair scrunchies for children and bandanas and bow ties for dogs won the Regional Award for Customer Service and was awarded second place nationally for the financial section of her Annual Review.