Kia Ora again everyone,

What an exciting week we are having! The town is an absolute buzz of activity with thousands of rowers coming from all over the country to take part in the Maadi Cup at Lake Ruataniwha. Of course, our incredible team of rowers are out there giving it their all. We have seen some great results from them already in their heats, I am looking forward to seeing the finals!

Twizel led the opening parade on Sunday, and it was amazing to see so many locals and students show up to help show their support for the rowing team and join in the chants; I was incredibly proud to see all the school and community spirit. The school Kapa Haka group also did a great job performing two Waiata’s and a Haka to open the week in front of thousands of rowers.

As I write this, students who performed well in High Country Athletics are competing again, this time at Aoraki Athletics in Timaru. At the same time, some of the younger students are competing at the North Otago Swimming in Oamaru. Wow, it's a busy week for sports! Also happening on Wednesday is the Mackenzie Story Tour for the junior school. And finally, on Friday this week, we will also have the defence force visiting, which is always interesting to see. 

The Student Executive team has announced that in the next two weeks, teachers and student executives will be especially looking to reward Awhinataka (Nurture) WAKA values, so hopefully, we will see lots of these values being given out over the next fortnight.

In addition, last week, the House Captains that Ariki introduced in the previous newsletter held a Māori Language Competition in House Time as a fun way to promote usage and learning of te reo Māori and also gain some more house points for the houses that did well. 

Whaowhia te kete mātauranga 

Finn McKinley,
2024 Head Student