30th of May (2010)
Hey Peoples,
Brrr, it’s not even winter yet and it’s freezing! (winter officially starts in 2 days)!
Congratulations to everyone who participated in the school cross country, especially to those who went on to represent our school at the Tasman regionals.
Congrats to Katie T, for receiving a ‘Young Totara Award’.
Nice work guys. 
Awesome job to those who have found the time to post comments on the last discussion topic – to summarise: we could fund-raise for someone/something, maybe it could be held at the hall and it would really work if we all showed our support.
Tell us what you think – post: Yes (meaning that you think it would work and you’d come) or No (you think it wouldn’t work and you wouldn’t come).
Also who’s interested in helping organise something like this???
This week’s discussion question:
If you could change something about our school, what would you change and why?
Don’t let the flu get you this winter…
– Grace J
P.S. Calling all ice cream containers – the science department needs these with lids. They can be dropped of with Tracy (at reception). Thanks!
Ruth’s Amazing Camp Report
Hey peoples,
Ruth has written this amazing report on the leadership camp we had earlier this year and this will be published in the end of year magazine:
Leadership Camp 2o10 ~ O2O
WOW! What an amazing weekend. Arriving at Bridge Valley Camp on the 5thof February and seeing Mr Enoka without a tie was all part of the buzz. We potential leaders were split up into groups of 4-6 people and we each represented a country. Having spent part of the summer holidays preparing costumes, hats, table decorations, a unique flag, a performance about leadership and a chant, we were rearing to go although not quite knowing what to expect.
Our first challenge was a team building one, a treasure hunt with a twist. We were split up into random teams of 8 and given envelopes containing clues and lock combinations. The aim was to be the first team to gather all the clues, crack the code and open your treasure box. The first challenge was to find ‘step up’. It turned out to be written on a piece of paper on the island in the middle of the lake. We later found out that Mr Enoka had spent 2 hours screwing up 600pieces of paper of which only 8 had ‘step up’ written on them!! The other challenges included building fiendish puzzles, fishing foam letters out of the pool and using them to ‘build’ a rhyme; we had to trade, bribe and make allies in order to be the first finished, playing competitive memory, walking through a minefield blindfolded (not literally!) and best of all a humongous water fight where “strategic teams will stay dry” yet everyone got completely soaked, had a marvellous time and Mr Enokawielded the hose with childlike delight! And just guess, the code was ‘Open to Opportunities’.
The same evening we held our Olympics. We dressed up in our countries costumes, donned our hats and chanted our chants to urge the rest of our team mates to victory. But first of all let me warn you, Leadership Olympics is not at all what it seems! Every one of our team members participated in a sport. The sports had usual names but turned out to be from hiffingrubber chickens to picking up paper cups from the ground, using only your mouth and your feet being the only thing to touch the ground! All of these crazy games were immense fun but had us utterly exhausted.
Every night we finished the day by sharing with each other the skills we had gained, those that others had gained and our memories of the day.
The next day (Saturday) we met with the guidance councillors (Ms Jessop and Mrs Bowler) and the Head Students. Ms Jessop and Mrs Bowler taught us to be good mentors, how to sort out friendship issues and what to look out for around school. We chatted with Georgia, Ben, Jess and Floyd (the mint head students) about what we liked, dislikes and wanted in and around school (don’t worry, we did suggest interesting assemblies!). We all learnt heaps and were starting to become the next ‘generation’ of leaders!
The formal dinner was held on Saturday night. We decorated our tables with our countries as the theme and dressed up formally. Our form teachers were invited and we waited on them. The experience was pretty cool.
After dinner we discussed the leadership qualities of the donkey, hawk, vulture and wolf. We then decided what type of leaders we were. Some of us turned out to be honkeys and wawks!
A cool dip in the lake at 6:00am was a great refreshing start to Sunday. Despite all of the activities and challenges we still had plenty of free time to socialise, roam, make new friends and try new things.
A super special thanks to Miss Costain, Mrs Wilkin and Mrs McKenzie for making our camp so awesome and worthwhile!!
70 individuals with potential arrived at camp and 70 leaders left. Remember you don’t have to be smart or great, just Open to Opportunities!
Best wishes and happy leading!
By Ruth
Stay tuned,
– Grace
Hello All Junior Leaders!
Welcome to our very own leadership blog!
This is a place where we can voice (well, type if you want to get all technical)our opinions on stuff that is happening around (sigh… and in) the school; where we can discuss and organise stuff (eg: should there be a junior ball this year?); brainstorm and come up with solutions to problems that we come across at school and around our community, like, are there events where we can represent the junior school from Waimea College? How can we help our community? (You get the idea?)
Please check this blog weekly for info and discussion topics, your voice counts! (that includes YOU.)
Sooooo…to kick start our first ever discussion: should we have a junior ball this year? Post your opinion. Let the debate begin!
Stay tuned,
Grace J