Following the tragic event on Friday, March 15th, there has been an outpouring of support and aroha throughout Aotearoa, but especially here in our city. There have been many vigils organised by students, members of the community and the government.

On Friday, March 22nd, a selection of students including the prefect team, junior council, kapahaka and Voices with Soul members, visited the memorial site located outside the Botanical Gardens. We laid flowers and cards amongst the thousands of other beautiful messages, candles and flowers. It was very overwhelming and heartwarming to see so many tributes for not only those who passed away but for the families, first responders, and our city as a whole. On Sunday, March 24th, the prefect team also attended one of the vigils in Hagley Park where over 40,000 other people gathered to pay tribute to those who sadly lost their lives. On Friday, March 29th, there was an Official National Remembrance ceremony held at Hagley Park which a few of us also attended. Both of these memorials focused on coming together to provide support for the Muslim community and to spread messages of kindness, love and unity. It has been a tough couple of weeks for everyone but it has been amazing to see everyone come together as one, no matter what ethnicity, religion, or creed. And as a prefect team, we are working on how we can continue to provide the students with the best support moving forward in the long term.

Baking for staff:

As you will all know, on the 15th of March, our school went into lockdown shortly after the attacks had unfolded. The staff did such an amazing job keeping all of the students safe and informed during the lockdown, and we could not commend them enough for this. Therefore, we decided that on behalf of all the students we would show them how much we appreciated this with a surprise morning tea that included cake, brownies, and savouries. We also had last year's prefects, Kim and Natalie, bring in some baking as well. A big thank you once again to all the staff, for always going above and beyond for the students!

Gumboot Friday:

Having depression is like walking through the mud every day. So with the help of 'I am Hope', Mike King has recently started a campaign to provide free counselling to the rangatahi across Aotearoa. The prefect team have organised a mufti day for this Friday, April 5th. This will be a gold coin donation, and all of the money will go towards providing free counselling for those kids in need. We encourage the students who have gumboots to wear them to school to show their support. We would also encourage whānau and the rest of the community to get involved with this wonderful cause. #GUMBOOTUPNZ

Friday Sport:

We have continued to run sports every second week on a Friday. The last game we ran was indoor football. We had a great turn out of kids from each year group with a large number coming from the Year 13 cohort. We had about half of the prefects playing, and also had Mr Wilson playing. This made it an entertaining game. It was a very fun time and a great way to end the week. This week we are planning to run an activity that will coincide with Gumboot Friday. We will either do a gumboot throw or capture the gumboot.

Time has flown by so fast and there are only two weeks remaining in the term. It has been full on, but a good start to the year despite recent events. We will not let this define us as a school, city, or nation. Moving forward, we are looking forward to next term and cannot wait to see what fun activities and events will be coming up!!