Head students Tauhara 2027 Michael Hancock, Sophie Harrington, Matthew Carroll, Charlie Manunui.
While many might find a head student selection process a bit of a trial, Tauhara College 2027 head girl Sophie Harrington says the experience wasn’t too harrowing.
By Chris Marshall
“I haven’t really done anything like that before, so it was actually pretty cool. I enjoyed it.”
Along with their male counterparts, head boy Matthew Carroll and deputy Michael Hancock, the four made videos of themselves to be screened to the student body during whānau time as part of the process.
Charlie admits she found this was worse than a one-off performance to a jam-packed hall.
“I had so many takes because… it needs to be perfect.”
With all four involved in dance or various sports, they see themselves as already interacting well with other students from across the year levels.
While recognising they are part of a head student continuum and tradition, Matthew says they’d like to find new ways of doing things.
“We’ll definitely try to build on this year and just make sure we’re doing something unique… Just to make sure we do get remembered for something new.”
While all still have another year at school, they are already pondering the year beyond that with sport study or the defence forces possibilities for Matthew and Michael, sport science or teaching in the mix for Sophie, and fashion marketing a current thought for Charlie.
“I’m still kind of undecided at this… but we have a really great support system at Tauhara College, so next year, I think, will be a lot of looking around and seeing what is on offer.
“I don’t want to just go to university for the sake of it. I want to actually find something that would be useful and good for me.”
Back to their roles next year, Sophie feels, creating experiences for all will be important.
“Sometimes the minority groups miss out, but we’re really going to make an effort to include them and provide them with something that they want to come to school for.”
Charlie: “Making sure everybody has the opportunity to get involved and giving everyone a reason to show up at school. Because it’s not always that easy.”
Michael: “Making sure that student voice is heard because some people want different things.
Talking to those groups can help give us positive outcomes.”
Departing slightly from his fellow leaders, Matthew admitted a desire to ‘bring back the biff’ instil more passion into the school’s interhouse rivalry.
“I want to make the waka competitions a little bigger. I feel like next year will be my chance.”
A desire not lost on Michael: “My dad used to say the reason people turned up to school was to have the waka competition.”