Our Junior Seminar at Selwyn College last week was a resounding success with seventy-two students attending from Kaitaia in the North to Queenstown, Nelson and Timaru in the South.   The all-new format meant that the children stayed in their individual course groups working with the same students throughout the course.  This gave them the important opportunity of forming stronger bonds with each other whilst also ensuring that each child was able to sample a wider range of topics than normal.

We met a very motivated and enthusiastic group from Aria School in the Waikato and an equally eager group from Queenstown Primary School.   The weather was kind to us which meant that during the breaks our games team, Elroy and Patrick were able to organise impromptu soccer games to the satisfaction of eleven high energy young men and a few female onlookers.  

Russell Greenwood's short course on `Monsters & Tyrants' where the childhood and early development of both Adolf Hitler and Joseph Stalin were ruthlessly examined met with great approval - as did his `Plague & Pestilence'  workshop where the 1665 outbreak of Bubonic Plague followed by the Great Fire of London was examined, then mimed to great effect.   Elaine le Sueur's challenges met with applause and Ken Ring's own particular brand of mathematics was as popular as ever.   Paul Willis's art sessions went down very well and Nick Oram's science sessions were as popular as his eagerly awaited `New Spy School'.  

The Junior Prizewinners were:   VIVIAN XU (Hillpark Primary School, Manurewa), ASHLEIGH MURRAY (Tokoroa Intermediate School), ARTHUR CHIA (Churton Park School, Wellington), LUCAS PETERSON (Gladstone School, Mt. Albert), SAM EASTGATE-BROWN (Worser Bay School, Wellington) and AKASH DUTTA (Welcome Bay School, Tauranga).

The two Holiday Seminars Medal Winners were:  LIAM KIRKPATRICK (Home School, Queenstown) and TONI WHAREHOKA (Cockle Bay School, Howick).