Four of our top speech-makers recently competed in speech competitions against students from other schools in our area. We even had a winner...

The winners of our school speech competition headed off in different directions to compete against other top speech makers from local schools. Matt & Ivy competed at the Tall Poppy Competition at Omokoroa No1 School, and Rylee & Lacey competed at the West Cluster Competition at Greenpark School.

We are so proud to announce that Rylee won the West Cluster Competition! She will now head off to represent not only our school, but the whole cluster at the Bay of Plenty Competition later this month. Well done, Rylee!

Here's what our speech representatives had to say:

'It was really exciting to compete in the West Cluster Speeches. I enjoyed listening to the other student's speeches because they were all ones I hadn't heard before. I am proud of myself and look forward to competing in the Western Bay of Plenty competition.' - Rylee

'Performing at the speech competition was exciting and nerve-wrecking, and more terrifying as it came closer to my turn. Just when I thought I was going well, I forgot my speech and that was one of my most embarrassing moments of my life!' - Matt (Matt - you had everyone really engaged and after your lapse in memory you recovered really well! - Mrs Te Whaiti)

'At first I was very nervous to perform my speech, but as it got closer to my turn I was getting excited. When it was my turn I went up and began speaking. I was having so much fun. It was way better there than performing to the school. When I had finished it was a big relief, but I was also sad that it was over.' - Ivy

'I was nervous but once you got up there you felt really good about yourself. Even if you didn't get through, you tried your hardest. It's all about trying, not about winning. I would like to win next time though!' - Lacey

Well done to all four of our students. We are very proud of you! Tino pai!

Special thanks to Jill Taylor who supported these students in their final preparations.