DOB: 20th January 2003 Came to Merrin in: Yr 5

My favorite saying is: Being happy doesn’t mean everything is perfect. It means you’ve decided to look beyond the imperfections.

My hobbies are: Netball, Swimming, Yoga, Piano and Keyboard.

How people will remember me: People will remember me by my volume and loud singing during class.

My Merrin memories/story: When I first arrived at Merrin school in 2012 I was a very shy child, I used to hide outside Room 14 in Year 5, because I was really confused moving from Greece straight to the other side of the world! This went on for 2 or 3 weeks of my first term, but Merrin gave me the chance to get over it. Mrs D-R would stay out with me in the mornings before every lesson and tell me stories about how she stayed outside her classroom and cried like me (I don’t really know if these stories were real but they really helped). Something else that really helped me was all the amazing friends that I made, and still have and keep in touch with, very often.

It really passed very quickly, I hope I haven’t been too much of a trouble maker, but I also hope that I’ve stood out and that people will remember me or compare me and mention me during meetings or anything really! The staff is really amazing and helpful, most of the time I would say. It’s quite odd how we’re all moving on to high school now, I still feel like I’m 8!

My favorite memory from Merrin is: These several years at Merrin, there has been a lot of hilarious memories and I’m sure that this one is not the best one but I would like to share it with you all. This year, one of our most precious teachers moved on to another school, this teacher happened to be the head of sport and Saturday Netball, though this year he was not able to attend our physical activities, he was invited to the Merrin school Netball club’s dinner and as you do, he made a speech. In his speech he said, “I have a dream” and then asked, “does anyone know who said that?” a lot of children were able to answer this question but this anonymous teacher had the guts to choose Hinewai Mahanga, in which she replied, “THOMAS JAMES! HE SAID IT IN HIS SPEECH THIS YEAR!” while everyone was giggling away, the anonymous teacher nodded his head side to side and whispered, “no” in a very disappointing way.

When I grow up I think I will be: an Archaeologist