Ellesmere Speech Competition - 

Annabel Keylard (Year 7) and Madeline Laing (Year 8) represented Oaklands School at the Ellesmere Speech Competition on Monday 3rd September.

Annabel's speech topic was stop animal testing.

Madeline's speech topic was New Zealand needs to be smoke free.

It is very difficult to get up in front of an audience to speak and both Annabel and Madeline did a fabulous job. Very proud of you girls! 

Cultural Festival - 

On Tuesday night the Senior Kapa Haka performed at the Cultural Festival at Horncastle Arena. The students did a great job! Performance can be viewed here.

Denver - The Culture Festival was a really good experience because I personally enjoyed our schools performance, but also other schools because we each showed how much we love Kapa Haka. My favourite part was performing all of our songs. I enjoyed the leadership role of being Kaia for our group, I was really proud of how it went. 

Paige - I really enjoyed the Cultural Festival. It was fun because we were almost last to perform so we got to see everyone before us. I liked watching the other schools. I was nervous about mucking up the actions and poi on the stage and was so happy when it all went well. My favourite part was the light show and seeing the different outfits. 

Soulin - I think that the Cultural Festival was very fun, but it also made me a bit nervous, when I say a bit, I mean a LOT. For me, I was scared that I was going to muck up my words. I liked being able to stand in the arena with a lot of my friends. I also liked watching other schools as they performed their waiata. At the end I was relieved that I didn't muck up any of my words or actions, well actions a little bit. My favourite part was doing the haka because I would shout out the words and doing the actions without mucking up.

Jak - I was really nervous before our performance. I was worried about messing up my actions. After we performed I felt great because it was fun and didn't let my nerves get on top of me. I enjoyed the atmosphere of the Cultural Festival because everyone was happy and enjoyed being there. I also like being about to watch the others schools with their performances too. 

Amber M - The Cultural Festival was an excellent event where heaps of schools contribute to show a performance of a culture that the school represents.  Also, I liked our performances that we did and I also really enjoyed all the other schools songs, dances and waiata. 

Koru Games - 

Koru Games are coming up very quickly! The tournament dates are Tuesday 18th, Wednesday 19th and Thursday 20th September. The draws are now current on the website and can be viewed here.  There are some permission slips outstanding, please ensure these are back to school ASAP. Payment of $40 was due to the office today (Friday 7th September), please contact the office to make payment. 

Due to the weather we have missed some of our practices, as the weather clears up we are hoping to have some make up sessions to ensure we are game ready.