Two Year 9 students have been treated to a day of mentorship and manaakitanga on their journey to the Ngā Manu Kōrero competition
On Friday 12th of May, Leo Hill and Mikae Hape were fortunate to attend the Ngā Manu Kōrero workshop that was run by Te Pae Mahuri (The Dunedin Māori Youth Council).
The students spent the day at the University of Otago in the company of past judges and winners of the national competition. They were taught about how to structure a speech and how best to present it. Then they were given individual help to develop what they have created so far.
Leo Hill said the following about the day "They helped with structuring my speech and better ways to relate my speech to the audience and find more topics to speak about. The food was awesome and everyone there was insanely nice, They also help show how I can present myself if I was presenting to an audience. Sunny was crazy cool and Komene did a sweet job of running the whole thing"
Mikae Hape thought "I really enjoyed how they said look at how you speak it...It's not all about how good or bad the speech is, it's how you present it. I would say to people that would love to do Ngā Manu Kōrero but don't know how or what to do to definitely to go and learn from people before who have done it and me and Leo learnt a lot from it as well"
Leo and Mikae will first compete in the school competition round to be the school representative for regionals for the Junior English section next week. Regionals will be held in Dunedin on Thursday and Friday the 15-16th of June. Nationals this year are also in Dunedin and will be a major event for all students taking te reo. The National Manu Kōrero Event will be held at the Edgar Centre over the final week of Term 3.
We wish our students all the best in their preparation for the competition and give thanks to Te Pae Mahuri and the event organisers for providing such rich learning opportunities for our rangatahi. Ngā mihi nui ki a koutou katoa!
Follow the link to see a video on Tahu News from the day.