During School there was the Olympics Paris 2024, Mr Bell had told us how we did it before for London, we had to do it for fitness and to participate for the mission. My class and Room 6 were also going to participate and it was really exciting, we started it in Term 2 Week 2. It hasn’t started yet so we had to wait for a few days, then on the next Monday we had started, we had no idea. We ran laps but walked sometimes (Maybe the whole entire time) but I still got a decent amount of laps, We had a meter long ruler and had to find the length and width of the top court so we could find the meters and times our laps, we found it was 92 meters.

Room 6 had started a bit late but they still got a lot of laps done, each day I either got less laps or more (Maybe because I was walking) We reached out First destination which was Marseilles, we had to find more about Marseilles and do facts. We then reached Lyon and still had to find more facts about it. It was taking a long long time , to reach each other destination, we then reached Chateau De Versailles, Paris La Defense Arena, Stade De France, Le Quesnoy and we finally reached the last destination the EIFFEL TOWER, We were all happy.

Last week Mr Bell announced that there was going to be a Ki O Rahi tournament. We were excited, joyous and nervous. Mr Bell told us everything about it, and gave us forms for our parents to sign but there was a big problem, there was no one to drive us there so Mr Bell was asking any of us if our parents could drop us. We had four games for the whole day. 

He spent a few days asking any parents. We were really lucky because Mari’s mum was able to drop us there. Some people didn’t want to go, but some people changed their minds, he told us what to bring and we had heaps and heaps of practice. Apparently one of my old teachers said to let our class go and  Mr Bell was thinking about it, there he made a choice: the whole of Room 7 were going (It was maniac in there!) people were screaming and everything. Mrs Agnew had to tell the news to her students because they were really looking forward to it. It was 2 days before the game and we had our last game with Room 8. After the game Mr Bell said we had won from 1 point, we were so happy because we could never beat them, they were too good. 

The Event was located in Point England Reserve. Coming through the gate I saw my friends waiting for me in their PE clothes, as soon as they saw me they were confused and shocked. They kept asking if I was going or not because they didn’t believe me at all. I saw Mr Bell under the canopy. My friends said to tell Mr Bell that I wasn’t going, but Mr Bell said to come along, my friends were so happy. I changed into my PE clothes and waited under the canopy, we were waiting and waiting for everyone to come. Mr Bell said that he was going to say prayers there. We left at 9:00 getting ready. We had to go into lines of girls and boys, Marri took all the girls and one boy, Mr Bell and Mrs Yumul took the rest. 

We were the first ones to arrive so we were looking for a spot under a tree. All of the teachers soon arrived, we waited for them to get their things out of the car, while we were unpacking we met Glen Innes School. We were playing around while Mr Bell was with the other teachers talking to the Point England School manager and the other teachers, while we were waiting we were playing So Malako and Concentration but the boys didn’t want to play because it was too girly. We saw schools lining up and confused and Mr Bell told us to line up. Point England School were singing and saying the prayers, after all of that was finished we went to our first game which was on field 1 and we played there for the whole entire time! 

The first game we were playing against was Sylvia Park Blue. They looked really tough, we were really nervous and shy because we were scared of ripping their tags off. We chose the first four girls and boys. The boys are Sylvia and the girls were way too fast but it was still amazing to play. They were really good, and nice but at the end Sylvia Park won and said “Good Game” to all of them. We put our tags back at the Tupu and we had to watch the other teams play and learn what our mistakes were because we weren’t really passing the ball, had heaps of gaps, bunching up together so the other team could pass the ball to someone farther away and score. It was almost time for our other game. 

There was another game, we were playing against Glen Taylor Stars, There’s a bit of drama with Glen Taylor, we already knew how good they are and how fast they are. This was going to be challenging. We had to do rock paper scissors to see what team is which, we were Ki Oma (What we had to do was touch the Pou and go into Te Pawera or we could score by hitting the Tupu) In the first round it was hard and confusing because they were trying to let the Goal keepers touch the Tepu. I like Taniwha better than Ki Oma, but at the end Glen Taylor still won, we had a good game and we had a long break.

We said our Karakia and ate our lunches, Marri’s mum and Mr Bell brought heaps of fruit and the mandarins were really really delicious. Everyone was playing around, I was playing with some of my friends with an orange throwing it to each other and if they dropped it they would be out, and the rest of the people were hitting the tree and pranking one of the boys. Then all of a sudden we saw Miss Bullot, we were all surprised but we knew she would come because that’s what she said when we were about to leave. Miss Bullot watched us play and got some people in trouble for breaking the tree. The break was a very long break, and it was a bit hot but not that much. People were chasing each other and it was hilarious because the girls were chasing the boys with insects they found because they were annoying us and that’s what they were scared of. We had our next game in a few minutes and Miss Bullot was going to watch us play. 

We went back to field one to play against Tamaki Ikale, Tamaki is known for being tough and rough, it was nerve racking, we remembered we were friends with this one girl and she moved to Tamaki so we asked if they knew her and they did! It was surprising. They said she didn’t come because she didn’t want to play but we really wanted to meet her but it was all right.  We chose the first starting 8 and started the game (We were Ki Oma again!) It was really exciting because the principal was also watching! (She was always supporting us!) Tamaki were fast and good at catching, their coach was screaming at them saying to close the gaps and watch where they were going to throw the ball. As soon as we were Taniwha I was ready to go play, it was kinda easy to rip their tags off, Mr Bell kept telling us to stop bunching up and intersect. I waited for the Tamaki students to come where I was and intersect and rip their tags, they were all trying to step us which was not fooling but for some of us. Tamaki was a bit hard to beat but we won which was great! We all shook hands with the opposite side. Miss Bullot talked to us and gave some advice and gave shoutouts  to people who were really good. 

We waited for a few minutes before our final game. (It was sad) We were playing against Panama Road, they looked fast. This time we had a different ref (The ref we had was part of Panama School), we played rock paper scissors and we could choose which team we wanted, but we still picked Ki Oma. It was actually easy being Ki Oma, but I loved being Taniwha. It was so easy to rip their tags, but there was this one guy because he had his tags hiding under his shirt. It wasn’t good at all, it was so confusing. I just had so much energy, but Panama were kinda rude because they were swearing at us because we kept ripping their tags, I was on a roll! I couldn’t feel my hands. All my hands could do was just rip the tags that was all. Marri’s dad came and she had saved up all of her energy and managed to score! We were screaming so loud (It was just AMAZING!!). This game was probably the best game ever! I loved it so much, we won and we were so happy. We packed up, put everything in the car and went back to do Karakia, again we lined up and the Tamaki School’s teacher said Karakia. 

While in Marri’s car it was amazing, Marri started playing songs and we were singing really loud. We were talking with Marri’s mum and she’s a positive, caring and loving person. We were a bit too distracted by the song, she kept telling us that Marri and her sons were the DJ for her school. It was amazing when Marii put Shalala (Vengaboys) we were singing our hearts out! But the boys were making fun of us because we sounded like a strangling cat (It did though) 

When we arrived at school the boys said that we were first place! It was funny because they actually believed it. We opened our class and relaxed for a bit because it was almost the end of the day. I wish we could do this again because it was amazing we could make friends with other schools too!

We have been doing Road to Paris for the Commonwealth games. We started last week on Monday, Room 6 and 7 have been running laps around the court, we measured the court with meters stick, the court was 92 meters , while we were about to reach 100km we have already been learning the city, the churches, the food and the languages in France. Yesterday afternoon we started talking about Marseille, after we were all done we had to write 10 facts about Marseille. On a morning we had reached over 100km and we were all excited, yesterday we had to write 10 facts about Marseille France, we were all joyful. Marseille

On a Thursday morning when the bell rang we went back to class and the boys were playing Ludo with Mr Bell, while the boys were playing Mr Bell wrote on the board Mainfreight “What I Like About School”.

We were all confused, Mr Bell said we were going to draw a picture for the Mainfreight Calendar for next year. I was feeling excited, Mr Bell said we had to go and grab our scrapbooks and do our design on what we were going to do. I knew exactly what I was going to do, I was going to do what I did last year because I knew it was going to  be hard to think for another one. The boys continued playing Ludo with Mr Bell while we were doing our design for it, I kept switching on my design because I forgot what I did.

The  next day some people started drawing on the  A3 paper, we had to put our first name, last name, age , room and our school name. Almost half of the class were drawing the classroom and Mr Bell said how about we could be creative like sports, cybersmart and etc, only  2 people have done their calendar but I am still working on mine (Almost done). I cant wait to finish mine and see what Its going to look like. I wouldn’t really want to be on the calendar but I would still be happy.