As we approach the end of another remarkable year, I want to express my heartfelt gratitude to each and every one of you for your unwavering dedication and commitment to our school community.

This year has presented its unique challenges, but through collective efforts, we have overcome obstacles, celebrated achievements, and grown together as a resilient and united whanau. Our students' successes, the hard work of our staff, and the support from parents have all contributed to the vibrant tapestry that is Aurora College.

As we usher in the holiday season, I want to extend warm wishes to you and your loved ones. May this festive season bring you joy, peace, and the opportunity to create lasting memories with family and friends.

Thank you for your continuous support, collaboration, and passion for education. It is truly an honour to lead such an extraordinary community.

Merry Christmas and Happy Holidays to you all! May the new year be filled with prosperity, good health, and even greater achievements for Aurora College.

Ngā mihi

Craig Taylor

Tumuaki/Principal

Thank you to everyone who came along to our Aurora College Sports Prize Giving. Congratulations to all the prize recipients including our Top Sports awards winners for this year.

Junior Male: Tremayne Oti

Junior Female: Manaiya Leishman

Senior Male: Memphis Ryan

Senior Female: Maepare Tuhakariana

{See the full prize list in the news articles at the end of this newsletter))

Our awesome hoodie prototypes from our Senior Fabrics class, most students gained 6 level one NCEA credits, loads of planning, designing, testing and evaluative skills involved also. 

Ngā mihi, Mrs Sexton

Waka Ama has had a successful year with our Team numbers growing.  We competed at the Ki Uta Ki Tai Waka Ama competition in Te Anau over Labour weekend.  Our J16s came 3rd and our J19s came 4th!  We are also proud to announce that our team were awarded the ‘Senior Team of the Year’ at the Aurora College Sports Awards.  Massive shout out to Ngā Kete for continuing to provide this amazing opportunity for our students.  Bring on 2024!!!

Raranga ~ Weaving

At the end of Week 5 we held our final weaving workshop of the year.  Students had the opportunity to dye the taonga they wove during the year.  They had a range of putiputi (flowers), kono (4-cornered baskets) and konae (2-cornered baskets).  This was an exciting experience to watch taonga take on a new form with the vibrant colours and the students just loved it.  Some were busy planning who they might give their taonga to as Christmas gifts.  It was great to have Mrs Suddaby from Te Wharekura O Arowhenua join us, as well as Ms B’Divine and Ms Atkins.

What a journey 2023 has been for the staff and students of Aurora College in our goal to minimise our waste.  At the start of the year our Board of Trustees signed a pledge with Para Kore with the aim to reduce our waste by 50%.  We are tracking well to achieve this goal.  From our 1-day Waste Audit completed in May we were throwing around 70kg of food waste into the skip bin daily.  With our Carbon Cycle compost bins installed around the same time, we have been able to redirect all of these food scraps to be composted on-site.  This food waste has been rotated through the 4 bins and we have recently used our first batch of compost to grow our potatoes in the garden.  Circular Economy in action!

Establishing how to get the food scraps to the compost bins has been a process of trial and error.  From collecting scraps from the classrooms, to putting bins out to be collected, to finally classes bringing their scraps straight to the bins.  The Year 7 and 8s have done an incredible job in leading the running of these bins, even creating our own mulch when possible.  The Year 9, 10s and Service Academy have helped with the muscle when it has been time to rotate the bins.  We recently ran a competition between all of the Year 7 - 10 Homebase classes to see who could get their food scraps to the compost bins promptly, without any rubbish in them, as well as getting their paper bins and left-over fruit out for collection.  The engagement from all classes was incredible, however the overall winners were Whaea Gena’s class - Congratulations!!  

Our next biggest contribution to our rubbish was paper, in particular, our food packaging which cannot be recycled due to food contamination.  We had hoped to add this to our compost bins, however we were producing too much. Jo Rhodes our amazing chef for school lunches has lead the initiative to introduce reusable packaging.  These will contribute massively to reducing this paper waste.  

As far as collecting recyclable paper from the classrooms, a bin stocktake revealed that not all classes had paper bins, let alone proper rubbish bins.  We decided that we needed a consistent system across all our classrooms so it was not confusing for students.  Thanks to Crest Clean we were able to get stickers and posters for free!  Our awesome Envirocouncil have put all the new bins together and distributed them to all our Year 7-10 classrooms.  The bins collected from the Junior school have been redistributed to our senior classrooms, with posters put up in all the classrooms and shared spaces.

So, overall, what an incredible effort Aurora College for doing your part in minimising our impact on the Earth.  Hopefully students and staff alike have felt empowered knowing that through doing small actions, collectively we can make a massive difference.  

‘He waka eke noa - We're all in this together'    

Last Friday all Year 10 students attended the Southern Institute of Technology for a Taster Day. The day provided the students with practical activities and information in a chosen area of learning at SIT. Students were fully engaged in their classes for the day; focusing on practical activities and skills needed for their career pathway. The classes were - automotive, carpentry, animation, game design, filmmaking, sports, hairdressing, beauty, and cooking. A big congratulations to our Year 10 students for their efforts and the amazing attitude that they all displayed for the day! Thank you to the tutors at SIT, who provided such an engaging and informative day.