On Monday 25th of March, another Pasifika student leadership summit took place in Nelson. This was run by the Nelson Marlborough West Coast Pasifika collective.

 A team made up of teachers and members from the Ministry of Education in Christchurch/Nelson/Marlborough/West Coast led the summit.

Mrs Alipia travelled to Nelson with Dr Chand and nine of our senior students from Year 12 to Year 13. They were: Fe’ao Lousiale, Pelenatita Tahavalu, Nelly Moli, Adi Narisia, Puloto Waqaituakana, Measina Raeli, Birgitta Prescott, Kyla Thorstensen and Liz Pousima. 

Our girls represented MGC with pride and many at the summit commented on how smart and proud we looked in our Pasifika Number One Uniform.  Everyone carried themselves well throughout the day.  It was definitely our school values in action.

 We got to hear from one of the five Children’s Commissioners from Mana Mokopuna; Josiah Tualamali’i. One of the key takeaways I took was that our young people are who they are meant to be and that they need to be courageous, always. This resonated with me as there are a few aspects in our MGC Learner Capabilities where we can develop our students to be brave, and they need to know how to be brave. 

Our students learned about leadership and governance which is not something we often talk about with our students. The day ended with one final game where some chairs started with four legs and ended up with three. I hope there was enough of a budget to cover those broken chairs!