Term two always feels really busy and the end of it is a significant milestone as it is the midpoint of the year. In fact, for our year 12 and year 13 students, that midpoint was a few weeks ago (in terms of their time in class before NCEA exams) and I know that many of them are feeling the effects of the constant cycle of learning and assessment.
Alongside the classroom work, almost 700 students are currently participating in our range of winter sports, and this term, students have also been involved in the annual Shakespeare Society production (53 students), the tough guy/gal challenge (74 students), Rockquest heats and regional finals (21 students in total and 7 competing in two bands in finals this Saturday evening), Big Sing regionals (60+ students), the Manawatu jazz festival (21 students), aquabots (5 students), our Kapa haka rōpū standing alone this year (35 students), manu kōrero (19 students) and our first musical in a few years – Guys and Dolls (70+ students). I am aware of students who are involved in multiple activities here but this tallies to over a thousand students finding other ways to connect with other students and this is hopefully having an enriching effect on those students. The challenge is always to try to ignite similar passions for our students who aren’t participating in these other ways at the moment.
I mention the student involvement but there is also a lot of staff involvement in the above activities with Alison Hodge supporting our Shakespeare Society, our PE staff supporting the tough guy/gal challenge, Steven Huckfield and Katherine Hodge supporting Rockquest and Katherine again for the Big Sing along with Tilly Skerrett-White, Katherine and Steven again for the Manawatu jazz festival (and John Rae), John Barrow with our aquabotists, Charlene James-Meijer with our Kapahaka rōpū (along with a number of other staff helping behind the scenes), Whakamarurangi Chadwick with Manu Kōrero and Alison Hodge and Katherine Hodge (yes they are sisters) and Steven Huckfield principally with Guys and Dolls (and a number of other staff helping behind the scenes).
I have quoted this whakatauki previously but it seems apt for these activities:
Tangata ako ana i
Te kāenga, te tūranga ki
Te marae, tau ana
“A person nurtured in the community contributes strongly to society”
I also want to mention that an additional group of ten of our students (with some other young people) took the stage at the historic St James Theatre over King’s birthday long weekend to present ‘The Stranger’s Case’ as part of the 34th Shakespeare Globe Centre NZ National Festival. The piece itself is a lesser known work of Shakespeare and our students were very capably directed by our Arts coordinator, Tama Smith. The piece is a very moving, very apt piece for our times and our students under Tama’s direction, moved many who saw it, literally to tears. If you are not familiar with the work, here is a link – The Stranger’s Case. There is apparently a pencil scripted version in Shakespeare’s own handwriting that exists of this work, although historians are unable to determine if the pencil used is 2B or not 2B.
If you have visited the school recently you will know that we are nearing the completion of the renewal works on the hall that have been taking place for the latter part of last year and the first half of this year. The final fire staircase to the mezzanine floor is expected to be completed along with other finishing works before the start of the new term. The hall was originally completed in 1936 and was the largest assembly hall in the country when it was built. It has a certain majesty and a wonderful interior that artists as varied as NZSO and Shihad have used for its wonderful acoustics. The Wiggles have also made a tentative booking for later in the year!
I hope you are able to spend some quality time with your young person over the term break and we look forward to seeing everyone next term.
Ngā mihi nui
Dominic Killalea