By Paula McMecking | Posted: Tuesday June 6, 2023
It opened with an assembly with performances by the Pasifika group and Fusion.
We also hosted our guest speaker Tim Bateman who played professional rugby for 17 years including captaining the Māori All Blacks. Since retiring from sport he is now a motivational speaker, runs wellness centres, and has recently had two children’s books published. He spoke of the importance of being true to yourself and participating in things you are passionate about. He also conveyed the message of stepping outside your comfort zone to do something you enjoy without giving into your fears and worries that you won’t fit the mould. He stressed the importance of the fact you only live once and the importance of having interests outside of sport, and not letting one thing define you.
Student feedback was that Tim was ‘very interesting’, ‘was amazing to listen to’, ‘taught good lessons for life’.
On day two we hosted Koffie Fugah from Kadodo Drum and Dance NZ alongside Agbe DeSouza who shared their Ghanaian culture. The whole school were treated to a performance before Koffee and Agbe ran 4 workshops where 120 students (and some teaching staff) got inspired with African rhythms.
Feedback from students was positive – ‘it was nice to experience different styles of drumming’, ‘it was an awesome experience that I’d definitely watch/listen to again’, ‘great performance, lots of fun enjoyed by everyone’, ‘very interactive’, ‘jaw dropping’, ‘the performance was very entertaining’.
Our 3 days had artistic opportunities for the students to sign up to covering Visual, Music, Drama, Food, Literature, Technology and Dance/Movement. It was great to see so many students embracing new challenges by participating in the ‘Arts’ opportunities. We had 44 workshops on offer (Photography, Ara Cooking and Baking, Theatre Sports, Gelli Printmaking, Jewellery making, Graffiti Space Painting, Debating, Writers workshop, Mixed Martial Arts, Hand clay work, Digital Painting, Performance by Ara Christchurch Bachelor of Music students, Stop Go Motion and Timelapse videos, Wood Turning, Intro to Pasifika, Hip Hop dance, Drama League tour and clearly the most popular African Drumming workshops), over 740 sign ups, and 270 plus students involved.
I think the overall feeling was best summed up by one student's feedback on the workshops ‘it was great, I wish I chose more’.
