Bill McLaren Writing

On a great lovely Friday afternoon, the sun was out and I got changed into my rugby gear. I hopped into my Dad’s work van and drove to Colin Maiden Park at Glen Innes. Today was a big day for me as I had a chance to be the captain of my rugby team this year.

When we arrived to our destination I ran to join with my team, while they were walking to the changing room. We got changed into our warm up clothes/gear and our coach led us to where will be warming up. It was almost 11:45 and our finals were about to begin so my coach started us with a peaceful prayer, when our prayer was done our coach said his last word to us before we exit the changing room, “Boys look at each others, now look at your East jersey, you're going out there to represent our side and most importantly our family.” I led my team and leaded them as a captain to field 10 (Main field). When we arrived to the field we were surrounded by a massive crowd over 60 supporters. I was very excited because my family were there by my side supporting me.The whistle blew, all the supporters were cheering louder than a lion, my team kept communicating and were listening with the ref during the game.

Ruck still continue on our 25 meters on the right side and we still handled to keep the ball on our side, once it came to the 7th phrase of the ruck I quickly picked the ball up and sprinted my hardest and fended the 2 players that were in front of me and off I went, I ran and kept running till I past the goal post. Then I gently placed the ball on the ground under the goal post and was very proud of myself, sideline supporters were cheering “Cheehoo.” Half an hour later it was halftime, score was 10 - 3 to us and at the end, full time score was 21 - 15 and we were so happy because it was our third year in a row we defended of championship title.

Straight after full time everyone walked to prize giving outside Varsity Club. West stood up first and received their silver medal for coming second on leader board, we stood up after them and received our gold medal. My coach had his final thoughts before he gave us Player Of The Tournament trophy and the tournament cup, Player Of The Tournament trophy was given to me and the tournament cup was giving to our team for winning the Bill McLaren Tournament.

Year 8's Retreat

At retreat with the Year 8’s I had a lot of fun and learn a lot. I'm not a leader but I can act like a leader to the younger students. We did fun activities and we also had a nice, special food for dinner & for our breakfast.

Our first activity was so hard because it was difficult for us to find the clues. They hid the paper clue in a great hiding spot, but when we found our second clue our brain finally woke up and knew where the clue hiding spots were. One was hanging on the clipboard, another one was hiding behind a sign and the last clue was hidden under a St Antonio statue.

At night after dinner, when all of us were tired around 8:45 we were inside the room with Mr. Coakley. He showed us a video from #KID PRESIDENT on YouTube. He is one funny kid I will always remember. Once it hit 9:15 we went back to our rooms and off to sleep.

Next morning, I got woken up by Seuati. All of us went back down stairs and walked quietly inside the Chapel room. We prayed for 15 minutes and then went to have our breakfast. After breakfast bell rang, so all of us went back to the first room. We done another activity building our own Ark boats. Our other next activity was the hardest activity I've ever done, J.T and I had to find a missing leaf that was hard for us to find so we asked Brother for help. We found the missing plant across the car park and brought back one spear plant.

After our whole activity, we had a long rest waiting for our church priest to come over and start our last mass for his 16 years of being a priest.

Today's Duffy Assembly (Book week)

Today we had our Duffy Assembly in the school hall. My whole school wore amazing costumes from the books we enjoy reading. My character I picked from the book was from Harry Potter, I was Hagrid, he is a tall chubby man and is very good covering up for people.

Inside the hall our special Duffy visitor was Josephine Bartley. We all stood up and sang our national anthem before we started. After that Alecia told Room 1 if they could stand up and introduce who are there characters and what book are they from. We went from Room 1 to Room 7. When it was our turn, my group were the first one to introduce ourself, so Samantha told the audience that we are from the Harry Potter book.

When we finished telling the audience who we are, Mr. Coakley and our Duffy Visitor Josephine Bartley went up and handed over the Duffy books to the classes from St. Pius.

Later Alecia asked Mr. Coakley if he could come up and give the Honours badge to the two students. The two student that were chosen were Kalo and Faleaka, congratulations to them both for earning that Honours badge for 2016.

Trip to the Marae

Last Tuesday we had a special trip to the Marae. It was a lovely sunday our whole school started walking down to Ruapotaka Marae, our feet were ready and fit to walk.

When the whole school got there we all waited outside the building. The Powhiri had begun. Ana-lei replied back in Maori to the Maori lady that was singing Haere mai out loud. We started following Ana-lei because she was in front. Powhiri welcoming done, we took off our shoes and got inside the Awhina Tangata.

Inside the Awhina Tangata we sang He Honore and another Maori song. I was one of the 5 people that had to go up and Hongi with the 6 other Marae members. I had the confidence to go up and Hongi with the 6 of them. Later on, once everything was done I went to get the lunch box with the boys to give it to the classes.

So after that we had our 2 last activities before we head off to school. Room 1 and my class stayed inside the hall and Room 5, 3 and 4 went to the Awhina Tangata room to do a fun Maori song. We done this exciting activity for half an hour, then changed over to the Awhina Tangata room.

My favourite part during the trip is going up with the 4 other brave boys because it was my first time in my whole life doing the Hongi.

Trip to the Cathedral

Last Friday, the first of July was a special trip day. Saint Pius X whole school went on a trip to Saint Patrick’s Cathedral in Auckland city. We all gathered together, walked down to the bus. We went to the Cathedral because this year, is the year of Mercy.

When the bus driver dropped us off to city, we all got outside with excitement. We walked up the Cathedral and were shocked because it was some of our students first time seeing a tall building church with their own eyes. We entered the door of mercy that had been blessed from our Bishop Patrick. The inside of the Cathedral church looked so creative, amazing and beautiful, I really loved looking at it.

Father Larry started the mass, introductory Rite, Liturgy of the word, Gospel reading and the ending prayer. When Mass was ended my whole school tooked a lovely photo with Father Larry inside the Cathedral. Father Larry took us on a special tour around the church. Before we exit out of the church we sang a short beautiful song called “Merciful like the father.” After that we exit the church we walked down to the hall and had our afternoon snack.

I felt very hungry after mass and it was great visiting the Cathedral on the year of Mercy.