Tena Koutou Katoa Thursday 5 April 2024 — Issue 9

Selwyn Students Continue to Soar in Public Speaking

The 2024 Race Unity Speech Competition
Selwyn College has a proud history in the Race Unity Speech Competitions. In 2023, our Head Girl Esther
Sovincet progressed from the Auckland Regionals to win the National title. Her success helped inspire three of
our Year 12 students to participate this year – two of whom – Aaron Leong and Caleb Jenkins enjoyed
spectacular success. Aaron won the Auckland division of the competition and Caleb was placed second.
The theme for the 2024 speeches was ‘He Taura Tangata The Rope of Unity’ and students used this idea to
explore the very important topic of racial unity in Aotearoa. They presented a speech that encourages a better
understanding of the diverse cultures that make up this country and brought their personal perspective to their
presentations. Our students delivered highly thought-provoking speeches with Aaron and Caleb making it
through to the semi-finals.
Both boys rose to the occasion in the face of some wonderful speeches and went on to the final four. This
meant they spoke twice in one evening. As a result, they now go on to the national competition to be held in
Wellington in May.
An added bonus for the night was the ‘Selwyn touch’ - with Esther as the MC, and the Bahai community, who
are responsible for starting the event and administering it, were represented by recent Selwyn alumni, Nisi
Fifita.
Once again, a huge congratulations to Aaron and Caleb.

Left to right: Esther Sovincet, Caleb Jenkins, Aaron Leong and Nisi Fifita
 Tongan Speech Competition Polyfest 2024
For the first time ever, Selwyn College entered students in the 2024 Polyfest Speech Competitions. These
competitions are run across the different stages and give students the opportunity to present their ideas about
topics of particular concern to them and their culture. They are all the more significant because participants
speak in their own language.
This year we had three senior students presenting: Sione Tuakoi Year13, Christopher Pese Year 12, and Victoria
Tongotea Year 11.
Sione and Chris’s topic was:
Why should Pacific languages be prioritised in Aotearoa today?
KO E HĀ E ‘UHINGA ‘OKU MAHU’INGA AI ‘ETAU LEA ‘O E PASIFIKÍ ‘I AOTEAROA NÍ?
Victoria’s speech was: Our home is our first classroom for our language and culture and Identity
KO ‘API ‘A E ‘ULUAKI AKO’ANGÁ (‘I HE LEA, ‘ULUNGAANGA MO E TALA HOTO TONGÁ)
Our students presented them on stage with over thirty other students from schools across Tamaki Makaurau.
Competition was fierce and while they did not place, we are very proud of them.

Christopher Pese and Sione Tuakoi Victoria Tongotea

 Selwyn Silver Awards
It’s wonderful to see that so many of our ākonga are making the achievement of the Selwyn SILver medal for
Service, Involvement and Leadership their goal. At the last Principal’s Assembly, it was a pleasure to present the
following students with their medal and annotated certificate listing everything they have done to achieve the
required points. Congratulations to the following Year 13 students and an outstanding Year 11 student.

Essyl Albacite Adrian Aminian Brook Bradley Tineke Harawene Nicholas Haworth
Year 11

Lexiannah Huch Victoria Markham Amelia Marsh Chantiq Partridge Ella Pearson

Daniel Pluck Blair Sue Oliver Turin Audrey Van den Berg Bennett Yeo
 Te Awhi Rito Leaders
Te Awhi Rito was the name given to Aotearoa/New Zealand’s first ever Reading Ambassador - Ben Brown. Just
as that role is to champion the importance of reading for young Kiwis to help create a nation of readers, the Te
Awhi Rito leaders in each of our Houses want to encourage a school of readers.

It was a pleasure to present the badges to these 2024 Te Awhi Rito Leaders at the Principal’s Assembly:

Lily Dawson Greta Wind Caleb Jenkins Alona Kotsar

Senior Junior Senior Junior

Eli Bing Yuna Cha Parisa Deendost Aryan Deendost

Senior Junior Senior Junior

Madina Sayed Jasmine Goh Noella Kung Ruby-Rose Chang

Senior Junior Senior Junior

From Wednesday 1 May:

5 to 12 year olds will no longer travel for free on weekdays and will instead pay a
child concession (at least 40% off adult fares). They will continue to travel for free on
weekends. The child concession will apply to anyone aged 5 to 15, who has a
registered AT HOP card with their correct date of birth.
13 to 15 year olds will stop receiving the half-price child fares discount and instead
switch to paying full child fares (at least 40% off an adult fare during weekdays, and
free travel on weekends) from 1 May. The child concession will apply to anyone aged 5 to 15, who has a
registered AT HOP card with their correct date of birth.
16 to 19 year olds with a secondary student concession will stop receiving the half-price secondary fares
discount and instead switch to paying full secondary fares (at least 40% off an adult fare). Students aged 16-19
should apply for the secondary student concession to ensure they are paying the cheapest fare possible.
More information about the discounts and what you may need to do next can be found at:
AT.govt.nz/farechanges
 More Selwyn Students Enjoy a Spirit of Adventure Experience
Year 13 students Grace Loftus-Flynn and Jake Woolf recently had an amazing experience aboard the ‘Spirit of
Adventure’. They sailed from Tauranga to Auckland as a part of voyage 888. Grace describes the trip as “an
experience of a lifetime”. For instance, the sailing team had the great fortune to see dolphins, whales and
sharks multiple times. Both students enjoyed every part of the experience and agree that they learnt so much.
During the voyage, Jake was voted to lead the ship as captain for a 24-hour period by his peers, which was an
awesome achievement.
The program is advertised to be an empowering and life changing opportunity, that aims to build courage, un-
lock your potential, learn leadership, and resilience and make lifelong friends. It's fair to say both Jake and
Grace definitely agree that this happened and could not recommend a better experience.

Grace Loftus-Flynn Jake Woolf