Auckland schools scoop national awards with winning front-page designs

Stanley Bay School pupils show off their winning effort at yesterday's prizegiving. Photo / Natalie Slade

Half of the 10 national winners in the 2011 Design a Front Page of a Newspaper are schools from Auckland.

The competition's prizegiving, at Mt Smart Stadium yesterday, honoured the teams of up to four students deemed to have the best front pages.

The annual competition, run by APN Newspapers in Education, received 194 entries this year from more than 600 students around New Zealand. The judges said the calibre of entries was "outstanding".

Teacher Stephen Grady, whose team from Stanley Bay School in Devonport won for their Stanley Bay Everyday front page, said the competition was "an amazing experience".

"Learning the skill of editing and recrafting writing in a real context is very powerful, and we have found that this skill is carried across into other written work," he said.

Mr Grady said the children - Tessa Wishart, Ewart Bower, Hannah Clarke and Angus McIntrye - responded well to deadlines.

Students in the competition -run in partnership with the Vodafone Warriors - worked to create front pages under five APN mastheads - the Herald, Northern Advocate, Bay of Plenty Times, Hawke's Bay Today and Oamaru Mail.

Each of the teams that won national honours received $1000 for their school and individual prize packs for the participating students.

Winners

Years 5 & 6: Ponsonby Primary School, Auckland
(Ruskin Swedlund, Reuben Wickstead, George Cory-Wright, Theo Gilbertson and teacher Barbara Henderson).
Hauraki Primary School, Auckland
(Livia Lauren, Sean Flower, Sharon Tang, Jaxon Ingold and teacher Elizabeth Smuts). Ponsonby Primary School, Auckland
(Levi Godwin, Tobias Mongelsdorf, George Shirtcliffe, Taylor Thorpe and teacher Barbara Henderson).
Umawera Primary School, Northland
(Chelsea Karl, Claire Graham and teacher Christine Cilmore).
Stanley Bay School, Auckland
(Tessa Wishart, Ewart Bower, Hannah Clarke, Angus McIntrye and teachers Catherine Kelsey and Stephen Grady).

Years 7 & 8: KingsGate School, Auckland
(Jackson Snook, Michael Anson, Joshua Stockwell and teacher Teresa Thomson). Omakere School, Hawkes Bay
(Danielle Pine, Ngapera Andrews and teacher Shane Foster).
Aquinas College, Tauranga
(Grace Egan and teachers Mr Banbury and Mr Cleaver).
Otumoetai Intermediate School, Tauranga
(James Hanson, Liam Salisbury, Till Brown, James Mercer and teacher Jillian Johnstone). Kakanui School, North Otago
(Katana Perkins, Patrick Ens and teacher David Atkinson).