We celebrated Cook Island Language Week last week in the library and one of our Student Librarians, Christian Fa'aui, from the island of Manihiki, belonging to the Ngāti Puti tribe, spoke in assembly about the importance of cherishing Cook Island language and culture. Christian stated 'the majority of the Cook Islands population (over 60,000) reside in New Zealand, yet only 12% are able to speak their mother tongue. Fewer than 11% of NZ-born Niueans can speak Niuean, 11% of NZ-born Fijians can speak Fijian, and only 12% of NZ-born Tongans under 15 speak the language. These statistics are a clear call to action!' Thank you Christian for sharing your wisdom and inspiring our students.

We were very honoured to host an Olympic Ambassador, Richie Patterson, on Tuesday 6 August at lunch break, attended by over 80 students and staff.Richie spoke about the Olympic values of excellence, friendship and respect in his presentation and emphasised the importance of resilience. 

Feedback was overwhelmingly positive about the event, and a number of students said Richie helped reinforce some of our school Marist values.

Weightlifter Richie Patterson, 3 x Olympian (Beijing 2008, London 2012, Rio 2016)4 x Commonwealth Games representative (Melbourne 2006, Delhi 2010, Glasgow 2014, Gold Coast 2018) Commonwealth Champion (Glasgow 2014) 

'I get to share my story and hope to inspire the next generation to be the best version of themselves.'

Richie Patterson