In this series of articles, we find out about our student leaders, their background, roles and ambitions. Today we feature our Kororareka House Prefects, Hannah Ralph-Smith and Sam O’Neill.
At the end of last year, Hannah Ralph-Smith and Sam O’Neill were chosen to be the 2019 Kororareka House Prefects. While they both agree that they want Kororareka to win the House Cup this year, they would also like to build up the house spirit. In previous years, Kororareka has won the House Cup many times. Their most recent victory was last year.
This year, Sam is taking Biology, Chemistry, Statistics, PE Studies, and English. He also plays club hockey and is thinking of playing rugby for the school.
One of Sam’s individual goals for the year is to get a rank score of 280-250, which he says would allow him to choose almost any course at University. He also says that he wants to focus more on his studies and less on sport. He wants to fit sport around school, instead of school around sport. Sam believes that what makes Kororareka so successful is the students, who volunteer for all the one-day tournaments and always give everything their very best effort.
Sam states that, “Obviously I want to win the overall house competition. But I also want to help make the houses more of a key element in the school, rather than a minor thought in the back of people’s minds that only is important for athletics day, and then is forgotten.”
Hannah is taking English, Drama, Business studies, PE studies, and Photography. She plays and umpires netball. She used to coach, however, she is not coaching this year because she wants to focus on her school work.
She says that she would like to successfully balance her school work with netball and her role as House Prefect. Hannah says that throughout her school years at Sancta Maria College, she always wanted to be a house captain. She remembers being in Year 7 and thinking that the House Prefect was the coolest job. Hannah believes that so far this year, participation has been a major key to Kororareka’s success.
Hannah says “Of course I want Kororareka to win, but I would also like to build up the house spirit and make Kororareka the house that everyone wants to belong to and that people are proud to be in.”
Sarah McCormick
