Sophie McKeever, one of our Year 9 students, gives us her perspective on our school values and tells us how she has used them to create a positive experience in a new school.

As I'm sure most of you will agree, moving schools and going from the oldest at your intermediate to the youngest group in a 1500 student college is a big step, and something I found really scary. But what I'll share with you is a story I was told which changed my whole perspective of this big change. It helped me see the caring side of my teachers, it encouraged me to want to learn and I suppose on reflection it made me see how I can belong even when I didn't originally come from Nelson.

So in the few weeks leading up to the start of college our family went to dinner with my Mum's Aunt and Uncle. My Great Uncle that night told me the story of the two boys and the old man.

An old man is standing at the front gate of a school and a boy comes up to him. The young boy asks the old man "What is that school like?". The old man asks the boy what his last school was like. He replies "It sucked! I was given so much homework, my teachers were all mean to me and I really hated it".

The old man says to the boy "Well what you'll find here is that this school is very much the same". The next day the old man is back at the gate and another boy comes up to him. The second boy goes to the same school as the last boy and funnily enough he asks the same question the last kid had; "Excuse me, Sir. What is that school like?" the old man replies once more saying "Well what was your last school like?".  Unlike the last boy, apparently he loved his last school. He was the top in his class, his teachers never gave him too much homework and overall he really enjoyed being there. The old man once again says to this boy "Well I believe what you'll find here is that this school is very much the same".

The key thing I learnt from this is that school is what you make it to be. If you want it to be terrible, you'll make it terrible. If you want to enjoy it, you'll enjoy it!

And I wanted to enjoy being here. I wanted to make friends and I wanted to learn, so that's what I did.

I put effort into my classes; which shows the school value of learning. I deliberately put myself out there and made a bunch of friends who all demonstrate the school value of caring. Finally I wanted more than anything to feel like I belonged here, and now I feel like I do. As you can see, all three school values have already been a big part of my start here at Waimea College.

So if you haven’t yet decided which of the students at the school gate you are, now is the time for you to decide; take on the opportunities and challenges that Waimea college has to offer. Maybe you care for a new friend, maybe you learn a new skill, and by joining in you will belong too.