Category: Uncategorised

Exciting news! Northwood is the 14^th school in South Africa to have an e-Library up and running, which is available for all learners and staff. You are now able to take out books, anywhere and anytime at your own convenience. It’s easy, just log onto: northwoodschool.wheelers.co and follow the simple signing up instructions. There are already over  seventy books in our e-Library and new orders will be made on a termly basis. If you have any difficulties following the log on procedure, please see Mrs Beissner. She will also welcome any requests for new books that you may want to see in our Northwood e-Library.

 

Well done to all the boys who competed in the first race of the KZN Spur MTB School Series.

The first race of the series took place at Cascades Mountain Bike Park in Pietermaritzburg. The course was not as technical as last year so most of the boys had a good fast race with great results.

We had a total of 7 Northwood boys participating in the race, the largest group from any high school at the event. This is a great start to the series and we would like to invite any other learners who are interested in cycling to please speak to Mr G. Le Roux or contact him at gleroux@nwood.co.za. Learners from neighbouring primary schools are more than welcome to join.

The Northwood 1^st hockey team started their season with a hard fought victory against a competitive Thomas More team.

Thomas More started as the stronger team and played some good hockey in the opening phases of the game. Northwood had to defend for large portions of the half and only created three goal scoring chances in the first half but some brilliant goal keeping from the Thomas More keeper kept the scores level going into the break.

The second half saw Northwood come out with more confidence and they started to dominate possession and as a result began to create goal scoring opportunities. The Thomas More goal keeper was in fantastic form again and was called upon to make some crucial saves. Northwood had a goal disallowed from a penalty corner variation after the ball was judged to have been dangerous to the defender. They then hit the post late in the game and it seemed like they weren’t going to be able to break down the resolute Thomas More defence. With four minutes left in the game Captain Gregory Wright stepped up and snatched the winner with a composed finish from a short corner variation, to get Northwood the victory.

Report By

Darryn Gallagher

MIC of Hockey

1st Team Hockey Coach

Not even the pouring rain could dampen the Northwood Spirit on the evening of our Championship Gala on Tuesday 4th of March.  Thank you to all our guests and primary school visitors for attending this event, your support and involvement makes this one of the highlights our  aquatic calendar.  Thank you to all our swimmers and student supporters, you gave of your best and made us very proud!

Best performances:

U14        Junvahn Singh

U15        Trent Dungey

U16        Troy Kircher

U17        Ryan Symington

Open     Tevin du Toit

 

Best Primary Schools’ Performance:

Runner up                           James Matthews (Chelsea)

Winner                                 Vernon Nel         (Umhali)   Broke the 50m Freestyle record set by L Erwee from Chelsea in 2013

 

Junior Victor Ludorum:

Runner up                           Juvahn Singh

Winner                                 Trent Dungey    Broke the 18 year old u15 50m Butterfly record set by A Carey in 1996

 

Senior  Victor Ludorum:

Runner up                           Ryan Symington

Winner                                 Tevin du Toit      Broke the Open 200m IM record set by Craig Fowle in 2005

Well done to Bevan Willis who has been selected to surf for the South African U16 Team this weekend in the SA vs France Junior International.  They are expecting some very big swell to hit the Durban beaches and the waves are hopefully going to be good.  Bevan has also been selected as an official reserve for the 2014 South African Junior Team. The team will compete in the 2014 ISA World Junior Surfing Championships at La Fae Beach, Salinas Ecuador from April 5^th to April 13^th. We wish him the best of luck and are very proud of his achievements.

On the fourth of January Northwood hosted their Inter-house Gala with their four houses, Knights, Kings, Bishops and Crusaders. It consisted of all age groups from the U14’s to the U18’s. During the gala there was an obvious winner throughout, and that was Kings. However the “spirit” definitely went to Crusaders! Crusaders sang and motivated their team swimmers even when they were losing and it was a glorious sight to behold. At the end of the gala there was a race between the BE boys and teachers (boarding establishment) vs the day scholars. It was a very eventful race but towards the end no one was sure who had won, and there were laughs all round! Thank you to all the parents and to the staff who attended and supported our boys.

Article by:

Quentin Ward, Northwood Press Club

Photography by Luan Varela, Northwood Press Club

On Saturday 1 February, Boundary Buddy handed a cheque to our school all because businesses, both local and national, want to support Northwood!   All of these businesses now host a 5m or more boundary with their branding, on the Smith Oval.  Right through the year the boundaries will be in place and available to the sport of the season.  We would like to say a big thank you to all who sponsored Northwood through Boundary Buddy and encourage those that would like to get involved, to still do so.

Northwood established a new tradition when the school held its inaugural junior prize giving evening on Wednesday 29^th January. This event awards certificates and trophies to those pupils in grades 8 to 11 who performed excellently in their respective academic years during 2013. Certificates of merit, half colours, full colours and honours academic awards were handed out. Subject prizes and 3^rd to 1^st rankings were made public to those pupils who worked outstandingly well.

The school also used the opportunity to welcome back the old boys of the class of 2013 who excelled in their matriculation exams to gain 7 A’s last year. In mentioning their achievements, the school congratulated these superb achievers and wished them further success in their tertiary studies,

Northwood is very proud of our top achievers and trust that they will continue to flourish in 2014.

 

The Grade 12 Students of 2014 were officially welcomed into Knighthood today in a moving ceremony held in the school hall.

Mr McAvoy spoke about the process of becoming a Knight.

Our guest speaker, Mr Alan Willson, past Head boy, Knights committee member and a current member of the governing body, encouraged the students to always “Dream big” and reminded them they need to always uphold the Northwood name.

Each grade 12 student was knighted by their father/mother, Old Boy or Knights member – who pinned the Knight badge to their blazer, marking their transition from Squires to Knights.