Pride and Respect

Today was all about pride and respect.  My pride in our students and my respect for them.

33 of our students travelled to Hokitika today(6 hours round trip by bus) to perform at Te Hui Ahurei o nga Kapa Haka o te Tai Poutini 2015.  It was the first time our school has ever participated in the hui.  And only the third time our students have ever performed publicly.  Because it was their first time we had only entered them to 'perform' rather than 'compete'.

Many of them were seriously nervous, yet earned the respect of everyone in the audience.  The comments we heard from total strangers during their performance this afternoon ranged through, "their uniforms are great" to "my goodness those kids can sing beautifully" and "why on earth are they not competing?"

My respect for these kids, in stepping outside their comfort zones so radically is immeasurable.  I can only say thank you to them and hope they understand just how much today has meant to me, to their teachers and to our school.

Additional thanks to all of our staff and community members who have had input into the preparation for this event.

Check out how well they performed on the video on our facebook page here.