GEOGRAPHY The Geography department has completed another disrupted, albeit successful, year of making College students more aware of their environment. This year, Josh Kim set about upholding our traditional approach as well as bringing new ideas and innovations into the curriculum for the students. Our Year 9 classes were taught in a short new trimester rotation. The boys have been taught a range of geographic skills, including map interpretation and graphing techniques. Topics have included migration and the contentious issues that inevitably accompany the movement of people; and analysing contemporary geographic issues that feature in the media, both locally and globally. During the first few weeks of each semester, the boys spent a day in Lyttelton, gathering information to construct computer- based land-use maps of the town as part of a land use research assignment – a crucial, real-world skill in demand in the community. The Year 11 Prep class at the start of the new semester curriculum was kept busy with a field trip and an introduction to rainforests around the world. When we took the boys to the West Coast to immerse them in a rainforest vegetation ecosystem, we never expected a very dry and hot couple of days doing fieldwork. The impact of Covid-19 in the middle of the year threw some of the boys a curve ball, but they adapted quickly to online learning, and this was the main form of teaching for several weeks. The new Core courses had the opportunity, when weather permitted, to kayak around Kaikoura looking at the results of the upheaval from the last major earthquake in the area. Year 12 boys – along with eight students from the Year 11 Prep course – were kept busy in Term 1 prepping background information and field surveying skills for the four-day trip to the Mt Cheeseman Forest Lodge in the Craigieburn Range. This field trip is very important in our year’s work as
Scholarship English We are delighted that the following students gained English Scholarship in 2021: George Gearry (Outstanding)
While Mr Donaldson continues in his senior management role, 2022 was his final year of service in the Department of English. Mr Donaldson’s final English class was a Year 9 group. As he is famously resistant to placing himself at the centre of attention, we leave it to exponents of this – his last ever English class – to summarise what they have appreciated and the service he has performed to scholars of English over the past 35 years. “Mr Donaldson has given us an enthusiasm for the English language, the power of words and exposed us to the best English literature and The Odyssey (even though it was long and at times hard work); hence enabling us to write longer, more complex sentences than the simple sentences we tend to speak aloud.” — Peter Beasley. “Because of your teaching style and old school work you have made us do, you've made me enjoy English a lot more and made me embrace all parts of this year's English. Be sure to know that you have made at least one person's English year feel very complete.” — Will Leach. “A kindhearted, sympathetic, knowledgeable teacher. As my first high school teacher, I thank you with
Yusef Elnahas James Griffin Isaac Heap Jeremy Kinley Don Janindu Pahalawatta
Claude Tellick Prize Winners
It is with great pride that the department acknowledges the extraordinary performance of the following students: Top students Year 9 – Josh Butler Year 10 – James Hadden Year 11 – Oscar Compton-Moen Year 12 – Lachie Short Year 13 – Oscar Gosling Tancred Prize for Literature Year 9 – Ericsson Ye Year 10 – James Hadden Year 11 – Noah Yee Year 12 – Otto Elworthy Year 13 – Isaac Heap Tom Cooper Prize for Public Speaking Year 10 – Morgan Clancy Year 11 – James Burt Year 13 – Thimeth Wijesinghe Tom Cooper Prize for Debating Oscar Compton-Moen Tom Cooper Prize for Reading George Simonsohn TR Moore Prize for English Will Law Michael O’Brien Prize for Literature Isaac Heap Denham Memorial Prize for Original Composition Junior – James Hadden Senior – Jordan Yee Major Rattray Prize for Literature
all my heart.” — Eli Clarkson “Mr Donaldson's 'no nonsense
approach' to teaching as well as the amount of quality learning he manages to squeeze out of each lesson will be among things I have enjoyed, will miss and will be a loss for classes in the future.” — Thomas Visaken “Charismatic yet classy.” — James Melhuish. With those words resonating in our ears as an injunction as we head forward into an educational landscape inhabited by AI chatbots and ever-increasing competition for young men’s attention, we take heed of Mr Donaldson’s ability to demonstrate to his scholars the value of what the subject English has to offer them. We embrace change, but we will never forget our roots in the great English literary heritage.
Joshua Peckitt Chris Waugh HoD English
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Christ’s College Canterbury
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