2021 has been yet another successful year for Aoraki; from Athletics day to Cross Country and the O’Mathalon peoples varied and extensive talents have been showcased. Please enjoy the following reflections of Aoraki 2021

House Day

Aoraki house day 2021 was yet another successful and enjoyable day. This year we travelled to St Kilda, and flooded the dinosaur park, proving once again you are never too old to enjoy a playground. PEF enthusiastically gave his speech about the history of the land, later challenging the year 9’s to remember what he had said, in a race for lollies. Gathered in our groups we had a competition to see who could yell our house chant the loudest, leading members of the public to believe that we were part of some cult. 3/8 won this. The year 13’s ran a round robin of 8 sports that were enjoyed throughout the morning, followed by a BBQ lunch cooked by Mr Biggin, Ms McSweeney and their team. Groups enjoyed sand castle building competitions and tug of war, encouraging everyone to participate, before a lolly scramble and returning to school. Although there was some sadness about the lack of the ‘bendy bus’ this year, people really enjoyed the day and will be looking forward to the next one in 2022! Where will it be?

Athletics Day

After the postponement of LPHS’s athletics day, twice, due to Covid and being in Level 2 we finally got to have it on the 18th of March. The cool day started off with much excitement about retaining the ‘winning spot’ from 2020, the sun came out and the day was fast underway. There was much contest about who chanted the loudest but everyone knew that really it was Aoraki, yet again. We had even more fantastic participation this year from Aoraki members; it was pretty amazing to look around and see all the talented pupils trying their best and it paid off, Aoraki took out the win for the second year in a row! The great day was finished off with the teacher race where Mr Fielding made a desperate dash to the finish line to uphold Aoraki’s very successful day. We look forward to the title of the best house continuing to be upheld in the future!

Dodgeball

Term 1 Dodgeball saw another win for Aoraki! The great team effort and fierce competition saw us make it into the finals where we had a clean sweep win against Omimi. This sporting success continued on, with our win in Cross Country and outstretched the rest of the interhouse sporting activities that were presented throughout the year.

O’Mathalon

This year’s O’mathalon was one to beat; the fierce competition and awesome dedication saw the brilliant minds of Aoraki take first place overall when the combined junior and senior results came in.

Photography Competition

In a bid to create further variation of interhouse activities, the art prefects ran a photography competition. Aoraki were the runners up, with the second largest number of entries.

Alongside these successes this year, intergroup activities were tried as a way of boosting morale and fostering relationships between groups and the members within them. We managed to do a few activities such as dodgeball before covid lockdown sadly got in the way once again.

While this year has had it’s challenges, the overall enthusiasm and great house spirit has led us to yet another success. So as the year draws to a close, the head’s of house would like to thank everyone for their participation and hard work, wishing you all the best for 2022 with just as much success.