The evening began with a high-energy performance from the Cook Islands Community Group.
The evening began with a high-energy performance from the Cook Islands Community Group.
By deputy principal Simon McGillivray
Te Puke High School students, staff, families and members of the community came together recently to celebrate and acknowledge the achievements of the school’s senior students.
The evening began with a high-energy performance from the Cook Islands Community Group and some of our Pasifika students that had the audience on the edge of their seats from the beginning.
The evening was held at The Orchard church and started by acknowledging the students who had provided outstanding service to the school throughout the year.
Service was further recognised with Teri-Ann Barker winning the Dr John Mark Memorial for Unselfish Service and Evie Gibney winning the premier award, the Rotary Cup, for service before self.
Evie also went on to win the Year 13 All Rounder Trophy for her commitment to the many aspects of the school.
The academic awards followed and the best students in each of the subjects were congratulated for their efforts, as were the students who had achieved excellence endorsements in their year-level courses.
The endorsements recognise the significant amount of work and high calibre of their assessments that some of our senior students have completed.
Guest speaker Lieutenant Chanel Wotten with principal Alan Liddle, English teacher Michael Pointon and acting assistant principal Simon Lockwood.
Our guest speaker this year was Lieutenant Chanel Wotten, of the Royal NZ Military Police, who is the area commander at the Burnham Military Camp. Chanel left school in 2017 and since then has built up a career in the NZ Defence Force that characterises our school’s core values, in particular resilience. She gave an inspiring account of her journey and proved you can do anything you want to if you are prepared to work hard.
Anika Hungerford continued the entertainment singing a beautiful solo version of Saint Ferdinand before one of the most highly anticipated announcements of the evening was made. Principal Alan Liddle named the head students for 2024 and the team will be led by head girl Libby Cooke and Isaiah Jepsen as head boy.
Finally, the premier awards were handed out and some of our students received huge boosts towards meeting their ambitions, particularly those going on to further study.
The Bob and Joy Owens Scholarship worth $15,000 over three years was won by Adam Williams. Harrison Hennell, Josiah Hungerford and Navleen Kaur all won Waikato University Te Paewai o te Rangi Scholarships to the value of $28,000 over three years, and Evie Gibney won the George and Jill Butler Scholarship to the value of $30,000 over three years.
The top academic awards were tightly contested. The Proxime Accessit Award went to Jolisa Whitehead and the Dux Award went to Cameron Paterson.
Once again the community came together to salute the efforts of our students who have worked hard and completed the extraordinary throughout the year.
Many of the awards presented were recognition of good habits that have been developed during the students’ years at Te Puke High School, it is hoped this will help set them up for life in the real world.
We wish those leaving Te Puke High School all the best for their future.
