Term 3, Week 7

As the week starts off with the Tongan outfit/dress-traditions, our students come together as one with the celebration of Tongan language week.  Malo e lelei as they say to great each other in Tongan, with learning Tongan hymns and words, I am proud to say that our school is big on culture support. This week was a colorful and an exciting week for us students to learn more about the Tongan culture and for the Tongan students to show off their roots and celebrate them. From the performances to the happy vibes it was a memorial week to remember.

This week I was also  awarded a certificate of gaining 60+ credit for this year, meaning I am a step closer to passing my level 2 NCEA and I am working towards those merits and excellencies for an endorsement. With the small number of weeks left to accomplish my goals for this year, I am working harder than ever trying to achieve them. I am determined to not waste any more time left and make use of them. This week has really tested my work stability and how I maintain my focus from other distractions, and i able to say that the pressure of having a small number of weeks left has really impacted and improved the way I use my time.

This week I went and helped out on Saturday with the cleaning up Papakura community programme, with this event I am more aware and thankful of the things that people do for our community.  with the help of some of our year 12 students, we were present to help out on behalf of our school. I  was proud to be one of the year 12s to be able to show the community that Papakura High School is a supportive and caring school and is not all bad. Cleaning up around the community made me reflect back on how we as a school can do more to keep safe and clean not only in our school but also our Papakura community. Although it was a hard and tough job that we did, we gained lots of positive outcomes from it such as keeping our community beautiful and changing the bad perspectives of others about our school into positive perspectives.

Term3, Week 6

This week has influenced me a lot. On Monday there was a year 12 assembly, it was a talk about what roles we as future year 13's can take on as leaders in our school. During this meeting, they talked about what opportunities we took or are gonna take help us get to those roles. They encouraged us to join the kiarangatia programme, and I was interested in joining but just didn't have the courage to do so. The next day I decided to join and I am really pleased with the outcome of my decision. I observed as to what they do in this programme and became really intrigued by their purpose. This made me want to really take part in this programme next year. I really see how their help for the years 9s molds together their communication with their senior and schoolmates. I am really interested in being a big help for the year 9's and I believe that this programme provides that support the juniors need and I have always wanted to help the year 9's socialize more with their seniors and fellow schoolmates.