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Centenary Year Edition Mathswell winners, Noah, Jesse, Edward, Kristian, Henry and William. Regional science winners: Kyle, Alex, Rahul and Bede. Tournament of Minds: NZ reps now see report, Page 2: Front- Cameron, Alexi, Tom, Will, Hamish, (2 nd row) Bede and Christopher. Dear Parents With only a week of Term 3 left, the boys and staff can look back upon it with a large degree of satisfaction. Once again, ‘body, mind and spirit’ have been to the fore with the academics, the arts and the sports celebrated both in quantity and quality. The academic outcomes with premier external competition wins are very, very heartening. The winter sports season finished in a flurry of activity with the highlight for the senior teams being a successful tour to the Hawke’s Bay and big wins in rugby and soccer over our traditional rivals, Scots. The arts have such important education benefits and are integral to our school holistic philosophy of promoting creativity and higher order thinking. The performing arts have featured in spectacular fashion lately with the Chilton Choir exchange, Artsplash and Dancesplash and the busy lead up to our Middle and Senior schools’ productions. As we finalise this newsletter the Middle School are putting on their production of ‘Treasure Island’ and soon we have our Year 7+8 House Productions. (photos and reports in the next newsletter) I congratulate the boys and staff on their work. There is not room in this newsletter to cover everything that has been going on but I hope you enjoy reading about some of the highlights. Wellesley College Newsletter # 9 22 September 2014

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Page 1: Principal's pen 9

Centenary Year Edition

Mathswell winners, Noah, Jesse, Edward, Kristian, Henry and William. Regional science winners: Kyle, Alex, Rahul and Bede.

Tournament of Minds: NZ reps now –see report, Page 2: Front- Cameron, Alexi, Tom, Will, Hamish, (2nd row) Bede and Christopher.

Dear Parents With only a week of Term 3 left, the boys and staff can look back upon it with a large degree of satisfaction. Once again, ‘body, mind and spirit’ have been to the fore with the academics, the arts and the sports celebrated both in quantity and quality. The academic outcomes with premier external competition wins are very, very heartening. The winter sports season finished in a flurry of activity with the highlight for the senior teams being a successful tour to the Hawke’s Bay and big wins in rugby and soccer over our traditional rivals, Scots. The arts have such important education benefits and are integral to our school holistic philosophy of promoting creativity and higher order thinking. The performing arts have featured in spectacular fashion lately with the Chilton Choir exchange, Artsplash and Dancesplash and the busy lead up to our Middle and Senior schools’ productions. As we finalise this newsletter the Middle School are putting on their production of ‘Treasure Island’ and soon we have our Year 7+8 House Productions. (photos and reports in the next newsletter) I congratulate the boys and staff on their work. There is not room in this newsletter to cover everything that has been going on but I hope you enjoy reading about some of the highlights.

Wellesley College Newsletter # 9 22 September 2014

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Mathswell

The Wellesley Mathswell Team of Jesse Richardson, Noah Adler and Edward Dunne (Problem Solving) and Kristian Kielland, Henry Chandler and William Durkin (Multi-choice) won this year’s Wellington Mathematics Association organised Mathswell Competition. It was a particularly pleasing result after Wellesley teams had come second by half a point in the previous two years. 33 schools from the Wellington area were represented in the competition, with the Wellesley team finishing with a total score of 70 points (the maximum available), in what is a ‘cauldron’ of maths! It is a very hard competition to win and the team excelled, coming first in the tough Problem Solving section, scoring 24/25, and 27/30 in the Multi-choice section. The boys in the team worked very hard preparing for this competition and can be very pleased with their meritorious result. Our Year 6 team came a meritorious 5th in their division out of 33 teams. Murray Blandford

Australian Mathematics Summary 50 boys from Mr Hampton’s, Mrs Norton’s (Y7 only) and Mr Blandford’s groups sat the testing Australian Mathematics Competition in Term 3 and the results were very pleasing. One boy, Toby Marks, achieved High Distinction (top 1%). A further 16 boys achieved Distinctions (top 15%). Those boys were: Joshua Kemp Whimp, Ethan Henry, Andrew Sutcliffe, George He, Samuel Paviour-Smith, Edward Dunne, Noah Adler, Theo Tresidder, Nicholas McDermott, Kristian Kielland, Cameron McMahon, Arie Renner, Jesse Richardson, George Lethbridge, Hugh Morrison, and Christopher Bramley. A further 29 boys achieved Credits, with thirteen of those boys within 5 marks of a Distinction. Well done boys.

Tournament of Minds This year we entered 7 teams into the TOM competition. The finals were held at Hutt Intermediate School with over 80 teams competing. All seven teams all did themselves proud and had worked very hard over the previous six weeks coming up with a solution to present to the judges. On the day we had one team finish a very close second – Kristian Keilland, Wills Griffiths, William Durkin, Josh Mallett, Max Abbot, Jacob Madigan & George Parker ; and one team win their division – Chris Bramley, Bede Brown, Tom Chisnall, Hamish Hutton, Cam O’Brien, Wills Saunders and Alexi Zangouropolous. This team will travel to Melbourne in October to represent NZ in the Australasian Finals.

Wellington Regional Science and Technology Fair Congratulations to our science entrants in this annual competition. Altogether they won 5 of the prizes all receiving some prize money. These boys won the following prizes: OPUS international Consultants Prize - Alex McKenna, The Flexural Strength of Concrete

Highly Commended - Alex McKenna, The Flexural Strength of Concrete

Wgtn Medical Research Foundation - Rahul Vijayasenan, Can Certain Foods Truly Prevent Tooth Decay

NZ Assoc. of Optomerists Kyle Foo, Two Eyes; One Image; 3D Vision

NIWA - Bede Brown, What Effect Does A Marine Reserve Have On Its Paua Population

What’s in the water? The boys have had some stunning academic results and a big influence on the individual successes whether they are reading recovery children making personal gains or winning at the national level, is allowing them to be boys.

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ICAS Science Competition

This year has once again produced very positive results for the 132 Year 4 - 8 students from Wellesley College who sat this exam. It is sat by almost half a million students from NZ, Australia and the Asia-Pacific regions. It assesses the students on a range of scientific skills including observing and measuring, interpreting data, inferring, predicting and concluding, investigating and reasoning and problem solving. We are delighted to acknowledge the achievements of 5 boys who scored exceptionally well by gaining a High Distinction, with another 27 receiving Distinction. The results are as follows: High Distinctions (top 1% nationally) were awarded to: David Lillis, Krishin Cox, Ben Stirling, Samuel Paviour-Smith, Edward Dunne. Distinctions (Above the top 10% nationally) were awarded to: Toby Marks, Ethan Henry, Ned Lutyens, Luke Sutton, Max Abbot, George He, Andrew Sutcliffe, Charles Erasmus, Nicholas McDermott, Jesse Richardson, Harry Williams, Noah Adler, William Durkin, Max Woodnorth, Hugh Morrison, Tom Adams, Hugo Lethbridge, Brunno Penney, Judd Adamson, Archie Chandler, Matthew Bevan, William Chandler, Aidan Cushman, Ethan Hodge, Gabriel Giller, Anish Hota, Joshua Langford. Another 43 students received Credit awards (top 25% and above nationally), 8 students received a Merit award (top 35% nationally) and the rest of the students gained Participation certificates. Kate Sinclair

Science As the term comes to an end, the Junior Syndicate have all finished making their periscopes. It wasn’t an easy project and the boys enjoyed the challenge of construction over a number of sessions. In the process they also learnt about submarines and life in the trenches during World War I. Robotics has continued with whole classes attending a series of sessions and developing their programming skills. The two lunchtime robotics clubs have continued to run and boys have enjoyed investigating what they can get their robot to do. Year 5 have also just started their astronomy unit and are looking forward to their visit to the Carter Observatory. This unit will continue into next term. Starting on Monday 22nd September through to 5th October, the Kiwi Conservation Club is running a Kereru Count. This is the last week of term and the first week of the holidays. It could be a fun thing to do in the first week of the break. They want to find out more about this native bird and are asking kids to help them out. Go to http://www.kererucount.org.nz/ for more information. At school we are really fortunate that we have a number of kereru visit us in the trees around the school so Year 6 are going to join in with the official count. 6L will be able to do their counting from their classroom windows! The Science Club had another really interesting session. Sophie, one of our parents, is a dentist and she came along and shared lots of gross pictures and information about teeth. The boys really enjoyed having the opportunity to ask lots of questions. We talked about all sorts of things and they learnt all about how the holes in teeth form, what happens to your skull when you have braces and what fissure sealants are. It was wonderful to have a parent come in and share their knowledge with us. At this stage, I have no parents lined up to come along to science club next term. Please do have a look at my science blog as there is a more detailed description all about it and how it works. There are lots of parents in our school community who have lots to share and I know the boys would love you to come along! http://wellesleyscienceandtechnology.blogspot.co.nz/

ICAS Spelling Competition Wellesley entered 106 boys from Year 5 to Year 8 in the ICAS Spelling Competition. Congratulations to Max Abbot who received a High Distinction certificate (top 1%). 11 students received Distinction certificates (top 10%) - congratulations to: Alexander Heine-Sheldrake, Matt Bevan, William Chandler, Nikita Dyer, George He, Ollie Hershon, Paxton Jones, Andrew Sutcliffe, William Durkin, George Lethbridge and Theo Tresidder

21 students received Credit certificates (top 30%) and 7 received Merit. Congratulations to all students who took

part.

Legacy Day The staff dressed for the occasion and the boys were met off the ferry and buses and up the drive to strict 1914 discipline. Games such as marbles, knuckle bones and leap frog were played and we all enjoyed a fabulous assembly with our guest old boys, Hugh Turnbull (100 years old) and Ken Longmore (96 years old). They enjoyed

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the boys singing, the old fashioned period assembly including a mock caning delivered by Mr Girvan and duly received by Christopher Bramley (books down pants)! Our old boys both told stories of days gone by and our centurion, Hugh Turnbull, left the boys with an inspiring message of ‘take your opportunities as they arrive’. Hugh certainly has in his 100 years traversing the globe, working in Kenya, fighting for the British Army and Air Force before having an illustrious law career culminating in his receipt of an ONZM in the 1999 Queen’s Honours List. What amazing gentlemen these two are and we wish them well.

Hugh Turnbull, 100 years old (Dux 1932), staff in period costume, old boys Ken Longmore (96), Hugh turnbull (100) and Ruth daughter of Hugh, Anne and Karen in the school office, Luke leading the game of Oranges and Lemons and Junior boys James and Matthew.

Junior School News Our Junior School has had an incredibly busy and interesting term. Over and above the one-off exciting events like Pyjama day, Wheels day and Mathletics evenings, they have been involved in a most interesting inquiry study on India. The boys have had wonderful and authentic experiences which have made the learning so powerful. These have included outstanding visiting speakers including Roshan’s mum, Sonali Vijayasenan, and Fiona Barrie (friend of the school) who spoke to the Y0/1 and 2 boys about their experiences of India. Ben’s mum, Annie Wilson, spoke about her experiences of being a doctor in India. Kahu’s dad, Tim Allan, shared his experiences working in India as a geologist. The children were able to ask pertinent questions about what it was like to live there and to experience the culture. A real highlight was their trip to Maharaja’s Restaurant in Petone. Each child delighted in learning about how the restaurant worked, the family rituals, how the meal started with prayers and an explanation on how to eat the dishes. Each child was given a naan bread, 2 mild Indian curries, rice and a potato based dish. It was so lovely to see a close-knit family working together and sharing a special moment that these children will remember as a memorable time in the Junior School. A huge thank you to Kalpana and family, Bhakti and Sam Govind, for the organisation in making this event so special. ‘Sharing our planet’ was the theme for Term 3 in the Junior School where we learnt about how the solar system has an impact on our lives. As part of the study, the Junior School visited the Carter Observatory and Te Papa on a wild, wet, windy day. The exhibits and the planetarium show ‘The tilt’ inspired many thoughtful, and reflective questions from the boys. Alison Garland

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Junior School in period costume and pose. Thomas and his classmates enjoying pyjama day. Year 1 doing the same.

Citizenship

All children in the school voted anonymously for the two boys in their class whom they respect for their integrity and caring behaviour towards their class mates. The following boys gained the most votes. Many others were very close behind. Y0 Griffin Patterson Y1 Simon Cho Y2 Hector Hewins and Thomas Biggins Y3C Theo Davies and JB Macadre

Y3G Heath Abbot and Mitchell Heberley

4C David lillis and Olly Philp 4T Samuel Gillingham and Seb Stewart 5S Finbar Mallett and Felix Rees-Moore 5P Alex Heine-Sheldrake and Krishin Cox 6L Tom Withers and Archie Treadwell 6O Mickey-Finn Reddish and Charlie O’Brien 6S Matthew Bevan and Oscar Clarke 7M Alexi Zangouropoulos and Rowan Woolloff 7N Ruaridh Ferguson and Charlie Plimmer 7/8B Lincoln Amaru , Cillian Butler and Duncan Marett 7/8T Callum Benfell and Will Saunders 8B Bede Brown and Hamish Hutton 8P Nicholas Cooke & Ben Riley

Class/Teacher Placements 2015

These will not happen until later in Term 4. First we establish the class student/teacher configuration based on what we know about our current boys, then we look at the new intake of boys. Staff make recommendations to me regarding class make-up based on the social and academic needs of each boy. Once we have established the needs profile for 2015 we allocate classes accordingly. Teachers put a lot of time and thought into the process so please trust our professional judgement on class placements. Almost without exception our decisions prove to be in the best interests of the children

Y7 Selwyn and Marlborough House Breakfast

Our Year 7 Wellington and Marlborough Parent and Son breakfast was very successful with our guest speaker (old boy Nick Ruane) speaking passionately to the boys about his experiences and challenges as a disabled triathlete. A stroke at age three left Nick paralysed down his left side but through guts and determination he took on life at full throttle. He has competed at many ironman events and at age 38 he won a silver medal in 2011 at the Long Distance World Championships in Las Vegas. (paratriathlon category) This is just one of many highlights Nick has enjoyed and he is now hoping to be part of the Rio Olympics. He is a strong advocate for the disabled community committed to promoting a ‘can do’ attitude. Nick left the boys with a strong message of anything is achievable if you set goals and give it everything you have got. We all came away full of admiration for what Nick has achieved against the odds.

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Old boy Nick Ruane speaking. Bede (House Captain for Wellington) speaking. Parents and boys enjoying the speech.

PE / Sport

The winter term has come to an end and the transition into summer sports has started. We have made a start on some of the summer programme with some athletics throwing events in PE and tennis championships well underway. The boys have enjoyed the drier fields and the freedom to play games with their mates at breaks and lunch times as well. The return fixture with Scots College was played in Week 5. The senior rugby teams were overwhelming winners last term so several stronger players were subbed at half time when the scores had mounted. It also gave the coaches a chance to let some of the 2nd XV players have a run in the top team. The hockey team had a solid victory which finished off a pleasing season. The 1st XI football team built on their previous win with a sound victory. The 2nd XI turned a draw last term into a very good victory as well. The Colts hockey and football teams won comfortably at Scots. The size of the Scots forwards provided the deciding factor in the rugby but all the squad got a run in a narrow loss.

Dougal having a shot. Half time. Nick making a break down the touchline.

Wellesley ran a Hockey tournament for Year 5/6 children in the Lower Hutt Central Zone. We had a large number of school hockey players involved. This was a great finish to the season for the boys with most not playing outside of school. Thank you to Timberly Hughes and Phil Adamson for coaching and our senior umpires. The Underwater hockey team played in another tournament on Saturday 13 September. They were without enthusiastic player Wills Griffiths with a broken arm but finished third overall. The Waterpolo competition is heating up. Since the season was shortened due to maintenance problems at Naenae Pools, the competition in now in its penultimate week. The A team is currently first equal with HIBS A and our B team is currently fourth with a match against the competition leader this week to decide final game positions for next week. The commitment of the boys to train throughout Term 2 and 3 and play on occasion two games in a night has been admirable as has been their team spirit and sportsmanship. It should be an exciting couple of weeks ahead. The eight middle and senior basketball teams have continued in their respective leagues and finish this week. The teams have improved throughout the season and have benefitted from staying together. Four teams will be carrying on next term. Thank you to the parents for supporting and coaching the teams! The Year 6 and senior tennis championships are underway and will continue next term. This is a knockout tournament played mainly at breaks and lunch times.

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Wellesley entered four teams into this year’s Wellington Primary Schools’ Table Tennis Championships held at the Empire Table Tennis Club on Friday 15 September. Competition was tough for our top two teams who were entered in the Premier Grade, with a very strong Clyde Quay team pipping Hutt Intermediate for the title. Considering the opposition, our third and fourth placing in this grade was pleasing, with most team members recording notable victories. We entered two teams in the Division 1 grade, and it was pleasing to see them come first and second. Our winning team members were William O’Connor, Joseph Hewson and Fred Schwarz. Next term is another busy one. Athletics dominates the PE programme and will run alongside the rest of the summer sports programme. A lot of work is done at school with athletics so the sports day can be kept to a manageable time frame.

Darren Houston

Arts Report

What an amazingly busy time we are having in the Performing Arts department at Wellesley! Year 6 did a wonderful job performing their dance in Artsplash Dance on Friday night. All 60 of them danced with energy and enthusiasm and wowed the crowd! They have incorporated the dance they did in the middle school’s production, ‘Treasure Island’. Year 4 and 5 boys sang their wee hearts out in the Artsplash Choir concert. They had sixteen songs to learn and they had all worked extremely hard to master this. Many students auditioned for the soloist / small group part and the following boys were successful in representing Wellesley – Felix Rees-Moore, Oscar Jackson, Tom Power, Oliver Pope and Joshua Langford. The opening section of the Artsplash concert was a selection of 4 songs from The Sound Of Music. By chance, the cast of the Sound Of Music happened to be available to come and perform two numbers on the stage for us. They have a double cast so there were quite a few Von Trapp children! We were really privileged to see them perform and I suspect there will be a few students who will want to go and see the live show as a result of this. Year 7 and 8 are putting the final touches to their House items which will be on show next Tuesday and Wednesday night. The boys have had loads of fun putting these together and promise to be most entertaining. This year their theme is 100 years of Wellesley and they have written, choreographed and performed some wonderful material. The Junior School will be showcasing some of their talent in an arts filled evening of entertainment in Term 4. The Year 7 and 8 choir had a choir exchange with Chilton St James here at Wellesley on Friday 5 th September. As always, this was a wonderful event with both choirs performing for each other as well as workshopping some pieces together. They had a shared dinner and thoroughly enjoyed the experience. The choir also performed at the Legacy Day assembly. At the Legacy Day assembly, four of the Wellesley staff performed a barbershop version of ‘Side By Side’. Ruth Hooke, Kate Sinclair, Mary-Anne Morgan and Carolyn Currington secretly rehearsed their harmonies and moves and gave a surprise performance to the school. It went down a treat.

Sacha on the break (v Scots) Alex (v Lindisfarne) Sage (v Scots)

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The arts in full swing with the Chilton and Wellesley choirs performing together, Year 6 Dancesplash practice (previous page), Sam’s (Y4T) painting (The boys had to create their own island around an animal. Eve told them about Shackleton and Elephant Island and asked them what they imagined Elephant Island looked like and to create their own animal and Island.) Thomas and Tom collaborated with their pirate ship and island and Josh, Cam, Finn and Samuel with their screen printed pirate flags. And last but not least, the Year 4+5 Artsplash choir loved their Michael Fowler Centre experience and as you can see Ryan Gray got into the swing of legacy day with the Junior boys Sam, Ollie and Blake, Luke and Aidan loved learning how to play that good old fashion game called marbles. Term 4 dates are 13 October to 12 December, with Juniors’ last day being Thursday 11 December. It is going to be a big week of Y7+8 House productions so do enjoy! Phew-one week to go and lots to do! Eve and I are heading to New York for 9 days to see our first grandchild (Clara). Can’t wait! STOP PRESS: Congratulations to Croydon House winning the Year 7 and 8 Futsal competition. Kind regards Warren Owen Principal

Centenary Year Celebrations

In the Centenary spirit, the Junior school experienced a back in time day, where the boys were pupils at boarding school - which Wellesley was some time ago - especially during the war years. They started with a boarding breakfast of porridge, toast and hot milo. Some developed a palate for the porridge - others not! Later many of the boys were read a letter from their parents or from a pen pal from another boarding school on a made up bed. Thank you to those parents who cooked and served the breakfast, wrote the letter to their son, and to those who helped read the letters to the boys. It was a very special day.

Mr Owen reads letters from home Empty plates of porridge Serving Time

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Sales for the Te Papa Centenary dinner are very strong and with limited tables of 10 remaining. I know staff have recently been asked about bookings for this and I would be disappointed for you if you were keen to attend but missed out. So can I urge you to look at the invitation above for contact and website details as we hope to close bookings at the end of September. If you are keen to be involved but need further information on who else might be attending this evening and you could join up with, please contact Margie and/or Laurel [email protected] This is my last year as Head of Wellesley and I would love the opportunity to catch up with you at this special occasion in Wellesley’s history.

Warren Owen

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PUBLIC NOTICES

Please note that notices posted in this section of the Principal’s Pen have not necessarily been vetted by Wellesley College. We therefore advise that if you are interested in any of the services advertised that you

check them out yourself.

Cricket Wellington Holiday Programme

“Cricket Wellington is again offering their fantastic holiday programmes during the term break. The

programmes cater for a range of ages (6-14) and abilities, from beginner to advanced. Located at the

Westpac Stadium, they’re very popular and competitively priced – so get in quick. For more info, email

Ivan Tissera on [email protected] or go to the Cricket Wellington Website;

www.cricketwellington.co.nz/wsc/holiday-programmes”

Spring Holiday Programme @ Waterloo School, 29 Sept – 10 Oct 2014. The Holiday Programme is open over the school holidays from 7.30

am- 6.00pm. Our quality programme offers exciting field trips, fun

games, art & craft and sport activities for primary aged children. Our experienced team

members are looking forward to meeting your child. All staff trained and police vetted.

For enquiries and/ or enrolment please ph. 234-6440 or e-mail

[email protected]. The programme is OSCAR approved. Everyone welcome .

If you are not on our database please register your interest by e-mailing us.

"Microbirth" http://microbirth.com pre

mieres on Saturday 27th September

2014 at City Gallery, Wellington

@7.30pm. It is a fundraiser event for a

Birth Centre and breastfeeding cafe

accessible to city and Hutt residents.

The Microbirth event will also feature a

panel of local experts giving their views on

the documentary which explores why

caesarean section is associated with

increased rates of asthma, Type 1 diabetes,

obesity, Crohn's disease and Coeliac

disease in those children and what might

reduce these harms in any method of

birth. Tickets can be purchased

through http://www.eventfinder.co.nz/201

4/microbirth-screening/wellington

Eastbourne Junior Cricket Registration

- Year 1-8 Junior Cricket Registration will be held on

Saturday 20th September from 1000-1200

at HW Shortt club rooms. Players can also

register at

www.sportsground.co.nz/eastbournecricket

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Miramar North School 75th Jubilee

Wellington

5-6 December 2014

Register now at:

www.mns.school.nz / 75th Jubilee

Enquiries: 04 3886 657

School Holiday Computer Classes

For ages 5 - 16. Minecraft, Create 3D Video Games, Learn to Program, Web Design,

Animations, Video Editing or Build a PC. Free transport from Petone/Upper Hutt. For further

information call Ed Brown on 499 2211 or www.grandtraining.co.nz.

ONSLOW AMATEUR ATHLETIC CLUB - Registrations open now. Fun Open Night Monday 20th October Get your children involved in weekly athletics with the Onslow Amateur Athletic Club. Suitable for 5-13 year boys and girls, club members meet every Monday night at Khandallah's Nairnville Park from 5.50 - 7.20pm. Online enrolments - www.sportsground.co.nz/onslowaac or join us on Monday 20th October to find out more.

Calling all future tennis stars; register now for

holiday tennis camps and Term 4 tennis

coaching at the Lower Hutt Tennis Club. All ages

and abilities welcome. For further information

please contact evolve tennis coaching ph 479 1386

email [email protected]