Kia ora te whānau o Ngāti Mako and welcome to the last newsletter entry for 2021.

Term 4 saw us farewell our year 13 students with a celebration of their time at Rangiora High School, a number of presentations, morning tea and even a musical item from Mr Anderson and Mr Murray. While it was a shame that, due to Covid restrictions, we were unable to host our usual big final House assembly, it was a great silver lining to have this more intimate celebration with the Year 13 students.

Term 4 also saw the close of the House competition. We kicked off with a new format for Public Speaking, with the Seniors and Juniors performing as part of a bigger afternoon event. It was a great event, with Sheppard keeping up our strong record in the competition, taking out the top spot. A huge thank you to our speakers Hannah Lord, Kahn Charles, Alyssa Grigor and Adam Wake, who all did a fantastic job. A special congratulations to Alyssa Grigor who took out the prize for Best Junior Public Speaker. The House Quiz wasn’t quite as successful with Ngāti Mako taking out fifth place, but our teams had a lot of fun and it was a great event. Congratulations to Rutherford House for winning the House Competition this year.

There was also a new event this term, the Year 9 Haka competition, organised by some of the 2021 Head Students. This made a great addition to the calendar and I was very proud of our Year 9 rangatahi who stepped out of their comfort zone to perform with real heart. We were the only house to have a Year 9 student lead the haka, so a big congratulations to Will Smallwood for stepping up and taking on this role. We finished in third place, with our female students scoring particularly highly. A special thanks to the peer supporters, particularly Maddy George, who taught our Year 9s, as well as our Year 10 Kapa Haka students who came to help out. Next year, this competition will be for house points so it will be exciting to see how it goes.

I will hand over to some of our outstanding Executive representatives to tell us some of their highlights of the year. Over to you Kaitlin, Ellis and Adam...

I have thoroughly enjoyed being one of the House Captains for Sheppard House this year. A highlight of my year and one of my most memorable moments would have to be our final game in Senior WinterFest which we won putting us at 4 wins, 1 loss and tying in first place with two other houses.

Kaitlin Feather - House Captain

My highlight of the year as House Captain for Sheppard has definitely been watching the house grow throughout the year and seeing everybody get involved with all the school activities. It’s also been pretty cool watching the Year 9s grow throughout the year and taking them to camp in the snow at Boyle river.

Ellis Bailey - House Captain

This year I was really lucky to be on the Sheppard Exec and to be Junior House Captain (alongside Alyssa). It was really cool to help support the house and help make Sheppard better than before! It's been a year with highs and lows, but still a good year for the Ngāti Mako!

Adam Wake - Junior House Captain

I would like to extend a massive thank you to all of Ngāti Mako for your contributions, attitude and approach to being part of Te Kura Tuarua O Rangiora. 2021 has been another interesting year but I have really impressed by the resilience and initiative of our students, and have thoroughly enjoyed working with such a talented group of students and staff.

I hope you all have a wonderful and restful break, we look forward to welcoming you back next year. To the Year 13s and other students leaving us, I wish you every success for the future.

Meri Kirihimete!

Rosie Dowling