25 September 2020

Ko taku reo taku ohooho, ko taku reo taku mapihi mauria

My language is my awakening; my language is the window to my soul

Ngā mihi mahana ki a koutou katoa

Our third term has now concluded and like the other two, it has not been without challenges. Normal events such as derived grade exams took place in class time rather than having the seniors on exam leave, winter tournament was held for only a few teams and a lot of our outdoor education such as the Risk Management Trip (a.k.a the Ski Trip) had to be cancelled. At a different level, not being able to hold assemblies had a bigger impact than first thought, the opportunity to be together as a school was lost.

However, we are now at COVID Level 1 and we are able to salvage some things. The Year 11 semi-formal took place at the Sky Stadium last night. It was well attended and the students had an enjoyable night out. The night before, the Kapa Haka group were able to present their performance bracket for whānau, family and friends. They lost their opportunity because the Ngā Hau e Whā Festival was cancelled and this provided an opportunity to showcase all their hard work.

The above whakatauki I felt was appropriate given we have been celebrating and participating in Mahuru Māori (a month when we are challenged to write, sing and speak in Te reo Māori) and Te Wiki o te Reo (Māori Language Week). This whakatauki is closely associated with language revitalization, a struggle that is very important in maintaining culture and we had a wide range of activities occurring in the school. These included the making of a hangi, learning new waiata, and more unusual activities such as holding lunchtime Yoga classes in Te Reo Māori.

While a lot of sport was lost during the season, many codes managed to get a competition up and running even if it was a shortened season. We were very excited that our Girls Football Team won the Premier 2 competition and won the Onslow Cup. This is a first for us in over 20 years! Well done team.

Board of Trustees Election 2021: Student Representative

We are pleased to announce that the students have elected Josh Taefu as their representative. Next year Josh will be in Year 12 and studying a mix of NCEA Level 2 and 3 subjects.

Next Term

Next term is going to be full on as we try to manage a wide range of activities in a very short space of time. To give you an indication of what lies ahead, a list is provided below. Please be mindful that many of these events will have to be managed under Alert Level 1 and will be different from previous years. We have had to make the decision that socially responsible seating will be in place; this will limit seating capacity to some extent and there will be no food or drink provided or permitted to be brought into the events.