TE REO REPORT 2011

The year began with a lot of promise, who would have known what was to come. However through all the trials of this year the strength of whanau and the wider community has shown us that we are school built on pride. We continue to see more and more Maori families choosing to send their sons to our school, and this is evident through the support from parents and students alike. St Thomas remains a force within Te Ao Maori and the level of success at Kaupapa Maori events is a tribute to the commitment shown by the students and their respective families. Our reputation for producing quality speakers has been shown this year through the success of Delane Luke who follows in his brothers' footsteps, Delane won the regional competition and by doing this took the school to the National stage. Another one of our students Jermaine Te Kawa who entered the same competition for the first time, showed his class by finishing second with a first in the impromptu. The students that attended the Nationals in Tauranga were great ambassadors for our school while they were away. As a student body it will be hard to replace our senior members who have been influential in creating and maintaining a high standard of performance and achievement.

The senior members were also well represented in the academic arena with Daniel Kahura receiving a scholarship for his academic achievements as an emerging leader. The year 13 students have been the driving force in their performance on and off the stage, this has made St Thomas a school to watch for the future. With the help of our excellent tutor Wira we have made considerable steps towards representing Canterbury on the National stage for kapa haka. We continue to see improvements in the attitude of the students and their understanding of te reo Maori and tikanga Maori. This has been influenced by our involvement in the He kakano programme which focuses on improving the achievement of Maori students. This is a positive step in the right direction for Maori students within the school, and with the strong support we receive from whanau and iwi within our community we will enable the staff and student body to become more aware and adapt to achieve greater academic success. Our focus for the coming years is to increase our attendance rate and retain our Maori students through the senior years and further improve our academic achievement among our students. I believe we will see many more emerging leaders who will follow in the footsteps of our high achieving role models by focusing on retaining and encouraging Maori students to reach their potential through hard work and determination.

Keri Campbell (Teacher)

 

NGA MANU KORERO NATIONALS

2011 a horror year, but us Maori boys did not let the quakes get to us. As this year we travelled up to Tauranga for Nga Manu Korero nationals. This journey all began as three of us Maori boys chose to compete in the regionals speech competitions here in Canterbury. This was indeed a huge success as I was lucky enough to win Rawhiti Ihaka, the junior Maori section, also our senior speaker Jermaine Te Kawa placed second in Te Korimako ,the senior English section, and our third and last speaker Tama Tukaki livened up the room and put smiles on everybody's faces.

In September a group of us Maori boys travelled up to Tauranga for the national competition. The boys were a great asset to the school and showed great STC pride and gave great honour back to the school, and without a doubt showing exceptional discipline. The boys really stood up when it was needed, and after my speech they rocked the stage with a massive haka, so thank you boys for an amazing year.

By Delane Luke