Stars Mahi Tahi Days

Violet Speakman and Fenella Cooney — April 6th, 2022

Last week all of the year 9 whanau classes went to Anakiwa for our Stars Mahi Tahi days as part of our Stars program. Two Y9 students, Violet and Fenella, share a little more about the days.

Some of our highlights from the trip were building rafts, connecting better with our whanau classes and connecting with our Stars mentors. We participated in 3 different activities including rafting, rogaine and fire lighting. We learnt 2 different ways to light a fire, we learnt how to step down from being a leader and letting others have a go at taking the lead.

We learnt more about ourselves and our stars' mentors. Throughout this day we had to put all our school values into play. Manaakitanga we had to encourage and care for eachother and Kotahitanga we had to work together as a team.

Here is what some of the Year 9s thought:

Meredith: “I didn’t want to go at first but then when I went I had the best time! It was so fun meeting and making new friends with all my whānau class.”
Sophie: My favourite thing about going to mahi tahi day was doing the rafting because I got to work together with my whānau class.
Zara: We got to do activities that you can’t do in school, plus it was better being out of school for a while. I made friends I don't normally make friends with.
Bella: I got to know my whānau class and make stronger connections with each other. Good opportunity to go outside and explore outside of school. We also got to become close to our star mentors.
Chardae & Harmony: we enjoyed all of the water activities and we enjoyed getting to know our whānau class.Everything really pushed us out of our comfort zone and it helped us gain some confidence and we made friends! yay cool
Dom: I enjoyed making the fire and I had so much fun bonding with my whānau group more.

By Violet Speakman (9BURK) and Fenella Cooney (9MRDW)