BHS help a neighbouring school succeed in the water

On the 8th of March, Pītau-Allenvale School hosted its annual Swimming sports at Jellie Park, and the wonderful Year 12 Sports Leadership class from Burnside High School volunteered to support them in the pool. Pītau Allenvale is a school in the Waimairi-iri Kāhui Ako with students that range in age between 5 and 21. They provide specialist education for ākonga who have physical and neurodiverse learning needs.
The Burnside students eagerly awaited the arrival of students to Jellie Park. When Ed and his team arrived from Allenvale, our students were in and helping with the first exciting event of the day. The events were arranged mostly in age groups, and included laps of fast walking, flutterboarding, relays as well as more conventional strokes. The high schoolers were there to support, encourage, build confidence, cheer on, time-keep and provide competition for the excited Allenvale students.
It was so heart-warming to see the tuakana-teina (big brother) relationship that these students developed with each other over the day. It was noisy, there was chaos and excited tamariki, and the BHS team were friendly, used their initiative and helped add to the incredibly fun atmosphere that Allenvale had created. They were such wonderful role models and should be most proud of their efforts. Huge thanks to Ed Book, the kaiako at Allenvale for this opportunity (and the pizza!) and to Carla Phillips, kaiako at BHS for making this happen. Thanks so much to the outstanding Burnside role models of 12SLP. The day could not happen without your support and willingness to help our Allenvale whānau.