Term 1 2023

Kia ora koutou

Talofa Lava, Melo le lei, Bula Vinaka, Noa’ia, Kia Orana and a warm Pacific greetings

In our final assembly for the term this week, the student leaders and school celebrated our collective achievements over this term.

It’s important to remember that it was only a couple of years ago we were all wearing masks; learning online at home; and limited what we could do as a school community as the global pandemic swept across the world.

However, it feels like we are now slowly but surely getting back to what we know and this term has been a very positive one and in many ways set us up for major success in 2023.

In our assembly we highlighted the many teams and individuals who consistently use the school values to achieve massive accomplishments through personal courage, great effort, teamwork and commitment.

For our first acknowledgement, we celebrated the Boys Volleyball team achievements, particularly at the summer tournament in Palmerston North where they achieved a bronze medal. This was a great story as the focus was on the characteristics of a good person not simply a good win.

Following on from this, we also celebrated a number of College Sport Wellington successes this term including:

• Girls Rippa Rugby - GOLD Medal

• Volley Ball - Bronze Medal

• Handball - Gold Medal

Next we focused on the wise Samoan saying translated as 'o le ala i le pule o le tautua', the pathway to leadership is through service.

And this is true for the service of our student leaders Eva Bishop, Georgia Ellis, and Maia Leonard. These young leaders designed, organised and facilitated last week’s event ‘Mana Tangata’. This event was designed to provide opportunities for rangitahi to be able to learn about the health services around Porirua.

Providers shared that this was a professionally run and positive expo and showed the college to be a future focused and proactive school. In particular, Eva Bishop put in a massive amount of energy and organisation. Eva, had people out in the community talking about this as a template for health for the future.

Our third recognition went to a staff member who has achieved high honors recently. At the Titahi Bay Trophy night this week, Jeff was recognised for his contribution to governance where he served on the Board of Trustees for 12 years. This is a huge level of commitment to our educational community, and Jeff received an aspire badge for his service.

Our last group for the assembly was the Mana College service academy. Despite the difficulties of not having a director from the beginning of the year, this small band of merry soldiers all completed the induction course at Waiouru Military camp. Of particular notice was head student Daniel Leach who's massive commitment supported these students to complete the course.

One theme for the school this year is ‘built with mana’ which focusses on the theme of rebuilding us as a school; making us strong again for a positive future.

The backdrop of our property rebuild reinforces this, and it’s great to see the start of our rebuild getting underway.

C block is down; B block comes down next week; the gym is being redesigned currently, and new toilets and roofs go up in the break. We are building the best community asset for Western Porirua.

In the spirit of this metaphor, it takes time to build something great. You have to plan, you have to commit, and you have to be prepared to do what 95% of the population do not want to do.

Today, we see what is possible for us all in the stories of the volleyball team, in SAC, with our student leadership and with our awesome staff.

Next term will produce opportunities to shine and achieve. We will see this in our production of Moana, in our hosting and leading PolyFest, in winter sports, and most importantly in our progress and achievement in learning.

I would like to acknowledge our staff, both teachers and support staff who have worked so hard this term to support these achievements. It is particularly difficult when there is collective bargaining at this time, and sometimes feeling like ‘strikes’ are only about money. This couldn’t be further from the truth. Teachers in general are making a huge contribution to the Aotearoa we all want to live in; Teachers at Mana college are doing an exceptional job of this. It is a pleasure and privilege to lead their work.

Finally we would like to thank the huge contribution that Tupe Papali’i has made at Mana College over the past 12 years. Tupe has been an art teacher, Year level dean, polyfest tutor extraordinaire. She leaves with her family to Australia in mid May to start a new life across the ditch. We will miss her calm, chilled and very cool approach to teaching and learning.

Faafetai mo mea uma, Tupe.

No reira

Tena koutou

Tena koutou

Tena koutou katoa