Week 2 Term 1 - Totara House: 2022 Review + Goals for 2023 (February 6 - 10)

Totara House Leadership Team @ Senior Prizegiving 2022

2022 was an awesome year for Totara House. The Totara House family for 2022 consisted of Mr Gutry (9TGu), Mr Niko (9TNi), Ms Paketama (10TPt), Ms Tuitupou and Mrs Rani (11TTt), Mr Koch (11TKh), Ms Ferguson (12TFn), Mr Booker (13TBk) and Mr Daniels (13TDs). The mentorship team was supported by our Totara House Academic Mentors Ms Kolo, Mr Milford and Mr Singh. Our Totara House Student Leadership team - who lead our house throughout 2022 - are Miracle Heta (House Captain), Siale Pulupaki (House Captain), David Betham, Maletina Niko, Lisia Pauu, Falakika Tuakivakatau and Lisia Pauu.

 
1 Corinthians 18 says “As it is, however, God put every different part in the body just as he wanted it to be” later in it reads in verse 26 - 27 “If one part of the body sufferers, all the other parts suffer with it; if one part is praised, all the other parts share its happiness. All of you are Christ’s body, and each one is a part of it.” I believe that the Totara House - although made up of different parts - our mentorship team, academic mentorship team, student leadership team and the student body itself - each part plays a vital role in the house. Each part brings a certain quality and value that contributes to the house as whole. 2022 was a year where each part of the Totara House whanau all worked together to support each other whether it was through getting to know our new Year 9 students or through participating in the various house events, each part of the Totara House whanau came together and made it happen. As the Whanau Dean, I am incredibly grateful, humbled and proud of the team that I get to work alongside. From the mentors to the student leaders, I am very thankful to work alongside a team who are committed to ensuring that whatever Totara House did was a success. Here is the overview of some of the successes for Totara House 2022:

Totara House 2022

Totara House Whanau Assemblies - every Friday in M1 + M2

Totara House Mentorship + Student Leadership Meetings - Wednesdays (fortnightly)

Inter House Sevens Competition - 1st Place

Samoan Language Week

International Language Week - 2nd Place

Matariki - 1st Place

Tongan Language Week - 1st Place

Te Wiki o Te Reo Maori Language Week - 2nd Place

Niuean Language Week - 1st Place

Totara House - Cultural House 2022 + Overall House 2022

TOTARA HOUSE: VALUES REVIEW 2022

In my role as a House Dean, I understand that the spirit and overall dynamic of the house is a reflection on how I lead it. I have taken the same approach from how I lead Totara House in 2021 in that the main driver for the House is our values, things that are important to us and this is the sole focus. This year the House Leaders and I spoke to all of the students during the mentoring sessions (Monday morning) and visited other students during class time, to gauge with them and see what they wanted Totara House to represent. The leaders led the discussion and shared what they wanted the House to represent and the students (for the most part) were interested and engaged because they could relate more to the House Leaders. The focus question this year was the same question that we posed to the students in 2021, which was 'What do you want Totara House to represent?'

Once the feedback was completed, the leaders and I reviewed the student voice. We looked for common values across each class and then found some common themes that the students shared in the discussion. It did not take long for us to identify the values that the students wanted their House to represent. It was clear throughout the feedback that the common values that were echoed from Year 9 to Year 13 were Respect, Family and Resilience. So in honoring what was shared from our students, we revealed our 2022 Totara House Values to the students at an assembly in Term 2.

Totara House Assembly 2022

Respect is defined as “a feeling of deep admiration for someone elicited by their abilities, qualities or achievements.” With this value, we wanted to make sure that our students understood that respect is something that we needed to build together. As a house we spent a lot of time together - whether it was during whanau assemblies or rehearsing for a performance - we wanted to make sure that whenever we were together that the students understood their place in the space. The students knew that whenever we came together, that there is always ‘one voice’ and that they will need to listen respectfully. When we came together to learn about other cultures (especially during Te Wiki o Te Reo Maori Language Week) we wanted the students to take it as an opportunity to learn about another culture in the hope that it will give them more grounding in who they are. It is definitely a journey - learning and exploring the concept of ‘respect’ - but it is one that we enjoyed and one that our akonga felt comfortable because it was modeled to them through their mentors and student leaders.

Totara House Year 9s @ Activity Week 2022

Family is defined as “a group of one or more parents and their children living together as a unit.” Our students are really drawn to working as a collective, team bonding and getting to know their peers. Our leaders identified that the students in Totara House were really to ‘bond’ as a family. They used the House events as an opportunity to try and reach as many students as possible and get them to participate. Through participation, the leaders hoped to use this as a platform to build relationships with their students and to make the students (especially the Junior school students) feel included and part of the family. I believe that this value was a key part to the success of Totara House in 2022. In almost every House event, Totara House was represented well with the majority of the House taking part. The students felt really good about being part of something, working towards something - all in the spirit of togetherness and family. At the end of Term 4, the Year 9 and Year 10 students in Totara House understood that although they may not have wanted to join or take part, they understood that it was more than ‘participation’ but it was about building team spirit and a family-like bond. I hope to build on this with Totara House 2023.

Totara House @ Matariki Week 2022

Resilience is defined as “the capacity to withstand or to recover quickly from difficulties; toughness.” The student leaders resonated with this value. Many of our senior students especially in Year 12 and Year 13 connected with this value. The senior students expressed that they felt they had to learn and exercise resilience especially in navigating through NCEA in a pandemic. The leadership team shared their thoughts on resilience during our house assemblies and used their platform to share words of encouragement to the students. The mentors and I enjoyed hearing the young people share their journey, their take on resilience and what they have learnt. It is a powerful moment when students can speak words of life to their peers, it comes from a place that other students can relate to. I hope to continue with this and new leadership for 2023.

TOTARA HOUSE GOALS 2023

We were unable to explore our goals for 2023 at the end of last year, but I am looking forward to spending the first few weeks of Term 1 going through this with the team. It is important for us to discuss our goals and what our ‘finish line’ is for 2023, so that we can understand and know what we are working towards. I have outlined some goals below - things that we can focus on and work on throughout the year. This will be discussed with the team as we get into Term 1.

• New House Values 2023 - I hope to work with our new leadership for 2023 and to see what they think our House Values should be. It would be a good idea to also collaborate with our student body to get their input as it is something that we have done over the last two years.
• Participation - Continue to encourage our students to participate in the House events and activities. There is something special when we come together and I would like to continue this with our students.
• Monitor student achievement/progress - I would like to see our mentorship team and academic mentor work together to track and support our students (across year 9 to year 13) with their learning and achievement. That is our core job and I would like to see our students feel confident in where they are and where they want to go academically.

I am looking forward to working with the team this year and to see what is in store for our House. As we start a new year, we can go into 2023 grateful for what we achieved as a House. But let us not get comfortable with it. We must not get comfortable with what we did last year but strive to be better, do better and to try our best in everything that we do - as individuals in our own learning and also as a house, as a family.