Andrew Shortcliffe: Students lead in life-changing trip

FAMILY: Hastings Intermediate students made a difference in Wayalailai Island by taking charge of their sister school and connecting with locals.

"Life changing, awesome, best experience of my life", these are some of the words used by my students to describe their nine-day trip to Wayalailai Island in Fiji.

For the past five years as principal of Hastings Intermediate I have had the privilege to take my leadership academy of 20 school prefects to our sister school on Wayalailai Island.

Wayalailai is unique as there are only 250 residents, no power supply, no phones, no cars or shops but as you can imagine it's beautiful and majestic.

It's a truly amazing school trip that provides my students with challenging opportunities to further develop their leadership roles, their self-belief, fortitude and passion for life.

The Fiji trip involves visiting two schools in Nadi before heading off by catamaran to reach our ultimate destination, Wayalailai Island.

At each school the Leadership Academy play senior students in netball, volleyball and touch rugby as well as promoting our New Zealand heritage with a 20-minute kapa haka performance.

"The sport was intense, it was so hot and they were so fit but I was really proud of the way we won netball and touch, and showed great fortitude," Renee Karaitiana said.

The main focus for the trip is to ensure we can all make a positive difference in the lives of the students, staff and schools we visit, but it's also our intention to expose our students to a uniquely challenging yet beautiful environment.

Wayalailai is isolated, has minimal infrastructure and according to my students some of the world's biggest insects and bugs!

But the people of Wayalailai welcome our school with open arms, greet our students every day with "Bulla" and a hug, and make us all feel like we are part of their island family.

So how do 12 and 13-year-old students achieve this?

On Wayalailai Island we are given the opportunity to take charge of our sister school.

For the week that we are there, our academy students step up to the challenge by teaching lessons, competing in sports and leading school assemblies, while I lead staff professional development and community activities.

The setting is picture perfect; palm trees and crystal-clear blue waters. And it's in this environment that our academy students demonstrate their leadership traits of passion, fortitude, adaptability and service by teaching Te Reo, literacy, PE and kapa haka daily to the 50 students at the school.

"Teaching was difficult, it was hot and there wasn't much shelter. But I'm happy to say the Leadership Academy continues to inspire others and make greater connections," said Parris Petera.

This year, like always, our academy students made great connections with the people of Wayalailai, people they now call family and it was no surprise that sadness filled our hearts when we left. Yet we leave with the knowledge that we made a difference. Namara School has now adopted our Virtues programme, our student expectations and other suggested student programmes.

As a school and community we can take pride in our young leaders' work, here and overseas. As their principal I'm immensely proud of their conduct, their achievements and their contribution to Wayalailai.

In closing, I will leave you with the words of our head girl, Gabby Gray: "Honestly, the best experience of my life! We went there to make a difference in the lives of the people on the island, and we left happy in the knowledge that we achieved this goal, but sad that we left our Wayalailai family behind.

"Like all the past prefects, I call them family and can't wait to go back!"

Andrew Shortcliffe is principal of Hastings Intermediate School.