Houses have been neck and neck for first all year!

There have been some great House Events in Terms 2 and 3 and all the Houses have been doing a fantastic job!

It’s been impressive to see the engagement from students, especially after a bit of a rocky start to House Events due to Covid at the beginning of the year. One house competition that has been taking place all year is the WISE cards. Students are given a card that can be signed by teachers for good behaviour - they then hand completed cards to their whānau teacher. Each term the House with the most WISE cards earns points. Heads came 1st in Term 1 and 2nd in Term 2. Wilson has been consistent all year ranking 2nd in Term 1 and 1st in Term 2. MacDiarmid Year 9s have been leading the way for their house; the WISE cards have been rolling in for showing their willingness to learn and interact with respect as they go about their school day. Campbell came 3rd in Term 1 and 4th in Term 2. Edgecumbe House managed to complete over 600 WISE cards in Terms 1 and 2, special mention to 9EE who had the most WISE cards in Edgecumbe in both terms! Well done to all of the students for the incredible behaviour they have displayed throughout the year.

Term 2 saw the Houses participating in the 40 Hour Famine. The funds raised this year were to help people gain access to clean drinking water. A friendly house competition was set up to encourage students to participate in the event. Campbell House came out on top! There were two categories, most participants and highest number of donations. Campbell got both the most participants (with Ms Sayer’s 9Cc leading the charge) and earned the highest amount of donations with $1470 (the second place house donated $574.) It was a fantastic show of generosity by everyone at the school! Heads has a special mention to Jovi Taylor who raised the most money for Heads! MacDiarmid had 18 students raise over $570 dollars between them, a great effort. Edgecumbe had 31 students participating in the 40 Hour Famine which was the 2nd highest number across the houses. They managed to raise $494 which put them in 3rd place overall. Well done to those who donated their time and effort. Wilson raised $256. This was a wonderful opportunity to come together as a school and support a worthwhile cause.

Civvies Day in Term 3 was a fantastic celebration for the entire school. Students came out dressed in their house colours. Points were awarded for each student sporting obvious colour, along with two points for each teacher doing the same. There was also a competition at lunchtime to award the best dressed students and teachers - earning house points as well. 

Campbell took 1st place on Civvies Day with the most students and staff sporting their house colours - again fantastic job to Campbell House and thanks to all the staff that participated as well! Campbell’s Mr Spence took out best dressed teacher helping to move the house to the top spot! Heads student Amokura Salmon Turoa received Best Dressed overall - with a beautiful Haka performed to the judges! Heads placed 2nd. Edgecumbe continued to remain consistent and finished Civvies Day in 3rd place with 203 students and teachers wearing an item of blue clothing! MacDiarmid was well represented with lots of green wigs, sunglasses and even a couple of Ninja Turtles! Wilson earned a spot in the ‘Best Dressed’ competition with Hannah Lennox dressed as a banana! It was an absolutely amazing day with such a fun atmosphere - looking forward to having more of these in the future!

Another event in Term 3 was the Academic Quiz. With 20 tables set for the event, Houses were given the opportunity to have their own house tables with six students. MacDiarmid took the win in the Academic Quiz. A particularly fantastic achievement given the team was made up of 5 Year 9 pupils and one Year 12. Congratulations! Edgecumbe House demonstrated a strong all round knowledge and were rewarded with 2nd place, shout out to the girls involved. You did your house proud! Heads was represented by Kennedy Hosking, Maryam Habib, Nicole Agluba and Vidhita Trikha. Great effort from the Heads girls who took out 3rd place.Campbell was represented by Morgan Van Loggenberg, Sophia Hall, Nisha Moorfield, Jenna Holland, Jordan Devoy and Hannah Stevens. Despite a great effort by the team Campbell came away in fourth place. Wilson took the fifth place spot with a small team of two. The students had a great time at the event and hey, you can’t win them all!

Finally - the House Football Competition! Houses were required to provide players from each year level to participate in a tournament that ran for two weeks during lunchtime. Edgecumbe House managed to have strong numbers committed to turning up rain, hail or shine and went through the Football Tournament undefeated and came away with the win! Some awesome team football skills were on display! Special thanks to the players and Nyah Nikau and Sienna Austin for being Edgecumbe referees. With the leadership of Eve Turner and the support of Whaea Mere, Campbell ended up taking 2nd place! In the end they did not lose any of the games - but due to  tying, had fewer points than the overall winner Edgecumbe. Heads found it a fantastic competition and the girls really got into it. They had some hidden football talent and Heads placed 3rd overall. MacDiarmid had a core of enthusiastic participants in their team. Well done for representing your House with determination and great sportsmanship! Mr Smith, head of Wilson House, was the organiser of the tournament. Wilson house played enthusiastically throughout. A huge congratulations goes out to all of the students who got involved!

There will be more events to look forward to in the upcoming months. There will be a Dancefest in Term 4 for the juniors to participate in, the Amazing Race was postponed but the hope is that this will take place in Term 4 during the seniors last week. Hopefully everyone will keep their house spirit up for the remainder of the year and work on earning those house points! Great job to all the Houses!