Rotoroa Island

Last week, some of the student leaders and students interested in the environment went on a trip to Rotoroa Island.

This island is a conservation site which is filled with native plants and wildlife.

We learnt about how to look after New Zealand; we leant about native plants, birds and explored the island.

Everyone had a fun and exciting day.

The instructors were very impressed with our behaviour and everything was amazing;the ride there on the train and boat as well as the ride back. 

We learnt about how native animals are becoming extinct due to pests who kill them or the food they eat. If we don't do something to stop this - everything native in New Zealand will be extinct.

Term 4!

Welcome to Term 4! This week the Year 8 leaders met up to begin having some serious conversations: Graduation!

Graduation will be on the evening of Tuesday December 15th.

We have four choices of possible themes for the night - we started with over 20!! By Wednesday we will have consulted with the Year 8s at GIS and will make our decision. Check back to find out what it is!!

CUPCAKE DAY!

C U P C A K E D A Y

Every year, our school participates in the annual SPCA Cupcake day. This year it will be held on Friday 21 August. The purpose of this day is to raise money in order to support the SPCA and everything they do to help protect animals against neglect and abuse. We need students to make cupcakes and bring them in on the day to sell. The Cupcake Day held by the councillors last year raised $981! This year we are aiming to get at least $1000! With the help and support of the teachers and students at this school, we can reach this goal. Get baking!

What's the latest?

Recap of last term:
Term 2 has been both chaotic and amazing for all the leaders. We started off the term with Camp Adair. We had challenge ourselves and supported everyone in our team. Our Head Boy (Cole) and our Head girl (Mere) were announced as well. Towards the end of the term, we were visited by Storm from Coca-Cola and Shona from Westpac. They talked to us about their life growing up and gave up advice on how to be a better leader. We can’t wait to see what opportunities term 3 is going to bring us.


Dream Team
As noted above, we were so lucky to have a second visit from the Sir Peter Blake Trust Dream Team. This time, Shona from Westpac came to see us and share her stories and experiences in becoming the leader she is today.

Lessons learnt from Shona:
1. Be YOU - be authentic and true to your own personality and values. You don't need to try and fit the mould, or be someone that other people want. Stick to your own beliefs and be yourself, you will go much further if you do!

2. Be TRUE - Find something! Something that you have passion and fire for! And just like the point above, be true by being you!

3. Ignore the NOISE - when you find it, stick to it. Ignore the people telling you that you can't, because you CAN.

Thanks so much for coming in Shona, you were so inspirational! Check out our awesome photos below.

Westpac Young Leader Award

Another exciting event, right at the end of Term 3 was that one of our young leaders at GIS was recognised for their hard work, positive attitude and leadership capabilities.

Westpac came in to our school assembly, and after a lovely speech from Mrs. Chalmers, they presented our Head Boy - Cole with a Young Leader Award! Well done Cole, we are so proud of you!

Now, bring on Term 3!

Dream Team 2015

As part of the Sir Peter Blake Leadership Trust, we were lucky enough to have a visit from a Dream Team leader this week.

Storm Fuimaono from Coca-Cola NZ popped in on Tuesday morning to meet with the 31 school leaders. She shared her inspiring story with us about the experiences she had growing up to where she is today. 

Lessons we learnt from Storm:
1. Put in the mahi. 
A leader does not shy away from hard work - determine what it is you want and work, work, work your way towards it! Sometimes this means thinking outside the box, or taking your own lead. Storm did this by learning the systems at Coca-cola so she could move up the ladder.

2. Check your influences.
You become who you spend your time with - for this reason, surround yourself with people that you respect, admire and people who inspire you! 

3. Find your direction.
By the time you have finished school, you might not have figured out what your path is - this is okay! Research, keep an open mind and explore your talents.

Thanks for coming and visiting us Storm!
- GIS Leaders

Even MORE leaders!

Hi everyone.

Well, we had a WICKED day at the National Young Leaders Day (NYLD) Conference yesterday - but one of our PR Councillors will fill you in about that, next week.

Today, however, we had a Leadership Assembly and boy do our councillors ROCK!

Daniel and Romeo were wonderful MC's for the assembly; Anihira, Kirstie, Cole and Tara handed out certificates; Mel filled us in about the Heart Foundation and presented them with a donation; Mere did a really inspiring speech on what it is to be a leader.

I am so proud of each of these students - well done!

At this assembly we had some exciting news:
*We announced another addition to our Student Councillor whanau: Dre (Room 1). Well done, Dre!
*We acknowledged out Kapahaka and Pasifika leaders: Glory (Room 1), Peyton (Room 1), Wytalia (Room 10), Nathan (Room 1), Kataraina (Room 20), and Justin (Room 1)
*We announced our Head Boy and Head Girl for 2015. These are Cole (Room 1) and Mere (Room 8).

Well done everyone!

Our Head Girl (Mere) and Head Boy (Cole)

New additions to our Leader whanau

- Written by Miss Wheeler

Camp!

Mud, mud and MORE mud. This is just one of the many activities that we did at Leadership Camp out at Camp Adair, Hunua.

We arrived on Thursday morning, many of us were jumping out of our seats excited about what was waiting for us beyond our village.

Activity One: Team Building
Throughout this activity, each group was challenged to complete each task with the resources supplied.

Activity Two: Initiatives
Here we had to work together as a group to problem solve through different tasks - such as the spider web, climbing wall, balancing on a unbalanced pole and balancing a seesaw plank.

Activity Three: Confidence Course
MUUUUDDDD. The three groups were challenged to do different obstacles and at the same time get REALLY MUDDDDY! While it was really disgusting, we all helped our team mates through and even the teachers got involved!

Written by- Tara

Leadership Camp

Hi everyone -

All our lovely school leaders are away at Leadership Camp this week. While they are having fun and doing some awesome activities, the students are also working hard at getting to know themselves, and each other, as leaders. Looking at their strengths and what really makes them unique as a leader.

Next week, one of our Public Relations Councillors (Tara, Mel or Daniel) will update you on their time at camp - along with some photos!

We are also in the process of selecting two more School Councillors from our whanau of leaders, as well as selecting a Head Boy and Head Girl. These will be announced at the Week 5 assembly - run by our leaders. Following this, we will update you with a complete list of our leader whanau.

Check back in with us soon!

Written by - Miss Wheeler.

What kind of leaders are we?

This week has been about getting to know each other as leaders.

On Thursday, the leaders of the school (councillors, ambassadors, Pasifika, Kapahaka, ICT, sports) met up and did some team building to see how we would do with people we don't know. The councillors lead the activities, with things like a human knot and building a human pyramid. It went really well, scores here and there, but we managed to complete the activities. 

Today, we met up again to talk about camp and really get to know the other leaders in the school. We talked to someone that we didn't know too well and found out what their role is in the school, and one interesting thing about them. Then we introduced them to the rest of the group. After this we were given random shields but when we finish they will be our leadership shields. 

Written by Daniel Hefa,

Student Councillor.

Term 2 & ANZAC Spirit

It is great to be back here at school and boy has it been quite a busy few days.

Some of the Student Councillors have been involved in preparing for the ANZAC Day Memorial which was held, at GIS, on Monday 20th April. The memorial was a great success! We even created a Field of Remembrance, with white crosses, to commemorate those who had fallen. During out memorial service, Cole and Romeo were flag bearers while Mere and Mel read some poems and Mel also sang a beautiful rendition of "Amazing Grace".

Up & Coming Events:

So another thing that the Councillors have been up to is preparing for a big event which is leadership camp, which is going to be held on May 7th - 8th at Camp Adair in Hunua. Here the Student Councillors, Class Ambassadors and other leaders from different cultural groups etc, will be put out of their comfort zone and do extreme, outdoor activities such as: the Confidence Course, team building activities, the “Giant Ladder”, the Pampa Pole, the Rambo Bridge and many more. So be looking forward to a blog update soon after to see what different activities the leaders have been up to.

Written by Mel Quitaleg.

A note from Miss Wheeler - leaders, please make sure you get your camp forms back asap! Camp is only a couple of weeks away and we have a lot of organising to do!

Ambassadors

On Friday last week we announced our class ambassadors. This is a role that many students vied for - going through role plays, applications as well as presentations to the class. After a class vote, an ambassador is selected.

This person takes on the voice of their class - they are a positive role model, complete leadership lessons and make sure the students opinions and ideas are heard at school.

I welcome the following 13 students to our leadership group!

Room 1              Justin
Room 2              Abigail
Room 3              Steffi
Room 4              Zane
Room 5              Daniel
Room 7              Nadia
Room 8              Ellen
Room 9              Jeraslav
Room 10            Aizal
Room 11            Trizon
Room 18            William
Room 20            Luke
Room 21            Lloyd  

Written by Miss Wheeler

Who are we?!

Hi!
I will be introducing all of our student council at GIS for 2015!

They are presented by class:
Room 1: Cole and Tara
Room 8: Mere, Anihira, Kirstie & Daniel.
Room 10: Mel
Room 20: Romeo

We are lucky enough to have been selected and will be glad to be filling you in on recent events and activities the student council and leaders have been doing. Events such as the ice-cream world record which happened recently and upcoming events such as our ice-cream day we are holding on Friday Week 6. 

As the PR (public relations officer) and a few others, I will be excited posting regularly on the blog! Check back soon for an introduction of the ambassadors and much more!

Written by - Romeo.