This musical is by Lerner and Loewe (Camelot, My Fair Lady). It is set in Scotland in the 18th century, and is a wonderful mix of romance, dancing, singing and fun. Two modern day hunters are lost in the woods, and come across Brigadoon, a little town that magically appears out of the mist every hundred years for one day. During this day there is a wedding, a funeral, punch-ups, men in kilts and of course one of the men falls in love with a girl that he has to leave at the end of their day.

Year 9 student, Bryony Campbell of 954, has come second at the world finals for Future Problem Solving. She got the placing in a team of three who were competing in the middle division 'Onsite Scenario Writing' section.

Bryony entered the NZ competition last year, where as a Year 8 student at South Wellington Intermediate School, she was on of the youngest competitors in the middle division, which goes from Year 8 to Year 10.

She entered the scenario writing section, which involves being given a topic and writing a possible future scenario about it. Her topic was ‘The Counterfeit Economy’ and she focussed on the medical industry. On the day of the national finals in Auckland, she also took part on the on-site category for scenario writing over two hours. She placed first overall in both categories.

Her top placing earned her the right to enter the world finals which were held at he University of Wisconsin, USA. At the finals she was placed in a team of three with girls from Florida and Kansas and they had to write about ‘Green Living’. This team won second place in the middle division.

Wellington East has entered teams into the competition as part of the Gifted and Talented Programme and last year our senior division team came first in their category at the national finals, but decided not to enter the world finals.

The Year 10 Economics classes had their annual market days last week.  Each team had to come up with value-added products and market them around the school.  On the market day the students came up with original ideas about stall presentation and thought about sales pitches, pricing and signage. 

New trends emerged this year with friendship bracelets, scrunchies and home-made hair bows selling well and the reuse of scrap materials being a strong selling point for billboard-wallets and jean-bags.

The Wellington East Zumbathon held on Saturday was a success.  Qualified Zumba instructors donated their time to take the classes in Civic Square.  "Over $700 was raised for World Vision and a great time was had by all," said Joanna Sage, the Charity Prefect who led the Committee in organising the event. 

The four choirs at the Big Sing dominated their night, winning a total of four major prizes and a highly commended, the most total prizes of any school on the night. This is our best showing in recent memory and staff and students were ecstatic when winners were announced.

Prizes

• Best Popular Music Performance – Multi Choir for ‘Higher and Higher’
• Best Student Direction – Emily Wilby and Freya Head for Senior Choir
• Best Folk Song – Cantala for ‘Niska Banja’
• Best Romantic Song ‘ Cantala for ‘Ave Maria’
• Highly Commended New Zealand Composed Song – Cantala for ‘Meeting at Night’

One of the highlights was an eight part harmony in ‘Ave Maria’ that Cantala had been working on all year. Cantala, the new name of the Small Choir, won prizes for all three of their songs.   The other highlight was the standing ovation received by the Multi Choir after they ended the night with  rousing rendition of 'Higher and Higher'.

In the last few years we have consistenly won the Student Direction categories. Again this year we had the best showing three out of four of our choirs being fully student lead and directed.

Students ended up having a 12 hour day at the Town Hall, and staff were full of praise for the spirit, pride and impeccable behaviour of the girls.

Programme

Junior Choir – conducted by Sapeer Mayron of Year 13

• ‘Happy Together’ arranged by Sapeer Mayron

Senior Choir – conducted by Emily Wilby and Freya Head of Year 13

• ‘Pacem Blessing’ by Bach
• ‘Weep No More’ by David Childs
• ‘April In Paris’ by Kirstin McKenzie

Multi Choir – conducted by Siliga Tinilau and Kristy-Lee Tanuvasa of Year 13

• ‘Ave Maria’ by Bach and Gounod
• ‘Higher and Higher’ by Jackie Wilson
• ‘You Won’t Be Alone’ written by Kristy-Lee Tanuvasa

Cantala (Small Choir) – conducted by Brent Stewart, teacher in charge of Music

• ‘Ave Maria’ by Holst
• ‘Meeting at Night’ by Pepe Becker
• ‘Niska Banja’ a traditional song