Marsden Cross among sites Year 11 history class to visit

Bishop Andrew Hedge (second from left) talked to the Sonrise School Year 11 students before they head north next week to visit historical sites around the Bay of Islands. History teacher Nick Haslam (left) and Georgette Jenson (second from right) will be accompanying the students who are, from left Kaydin Hearn, Chloe Yuile, Pounamu Morris, Keilah Kent, Grace Masila and Tom Pinto. Picture by Rebecca Grunwell

Year 11 Students from Sonrise Christian School had a special visitor yesterday, when the Anglican Bishop of Waiapu, the Right Reverend Andrew Hedge, talked to them about the Rev Samuel Marsden.

It was part of preparations for the students’ trip to the Bay of Islands next week when they will visit the site where Samuel Marsden delivered the first Christian sermon in New Zealand, on Christmas Day 1814.

History teacher Nick Haslam will travel with the seven students, along with Georgette Jenson and Walton Sadlier.

“The students are very excited,” said Mr Haslam.  “They have been working hard, chopping wood, baking cakes, all in the aid of fundraising for the trip.”

As well as visiting the site where that first sermon was preached, which is marked by a substantial stone cross memorial, the group will visit Ruapekapeka Pa, the site of the final battle of the northern war between British troops and Māori, in 1845.  They will also visit the Waitangi Treaty grounds, and Flagstaff Hill in Russell.

Their trip away, and talk from Bishop Hedge, is helping to flesh out their study for NCEA Level 1 in the NZ history curriculum, in preparation for their November exam.

Bishop Hedge talked about the character and personality of the Reverend Samuel Marsden, saying the local chief of the time, Ruatura, developed a friendship with Marsden which resulted in Marsden being invited to deliver that first sermon.

He told the students Marsden was also a magistrate in Sydney, Australia and a keen gardener.   He encouraged and taught the cultivation of the land and visited New Zealand many times after his initial sermon.

This is the first year Sonrise Christian School has taught Year 11 history, a reflection of the school’s growth as a secondary school.

“We are having the school trip to give them a feel for what happened up there, in order to answer their exam questions more fully,” Mr Haslam said.

The group will be flying to Auckland before picking up a rental van to head north.  They are staying at Russell.