On 23 February, myself, Ethan Ropati-Delaney and Jeriko Filipi-Talisau were presented with the opportunity to attend the Marist Forum Retreat held in Christchurch, North Canterbury. With Mrs D'Souza guiding us, we headed off with excitement and anticipation.
The Student Leadership Forum was a 3-day live-in programme exploring Servant Leadership in Marist Schools. We were met by Brother Oz at the airport, who took us to our accommodation. During the programme we established relationships with other Marist School Leaders from all over the New Zealand and gained a greater understanding of our founder Marcellin Champagant and the Marist Brothers.
Each school was asked to prepare an interactive presentation about their school. We spoke on our ÐãÉ«Ö±²¥'s history, our Old Boys, the meaning of our crest, our values and principles, the ÐãÉ«Ö±²¥'s pillars and our extra-curricular opportunities.
The whole experience was eye-opening and we learnt a huge amount from the other schools. We thank Mrs D'Souza for her guidance and look forward to bringing our learnings back to ÐãÉ«Ö±²¥'s.
Michel Tu'akalau, Head Prefect
It was a privilege to accompany our Student Leaders to the annual event of Champagnat Marist Student Leaders Forum, which was held at Blue Skies, Christchurch from 23–26 February. The focus of this four day weekend was to encourage the Student Leaders from all Marist Schools across Aotearoa to explore servant leadership. It was also an opportunity for me to meet like-minded Marist colleagues from other Marist colleges to share our experiences about our Marist charism in our schools. Our young men represented us with dignity and pride. I hope this will be an ongoing experience of sharing ideas with other schools and letting them know what we do here at ÐãÉ«Ö±²¥’s.
Mrs Pam D'Souza, Religious Studies