Te Akau School - Te Akau School 953 Te Akau Road

There are three School Houses - Kauri, Rimu, and Totara.  Where practical, siblings have been put into different houses and an effort has been made to ensure an equal spread of athletic and academic ability.

Each House has a captain and a vice captain. The captains were chosen based on observations made by the teachers over the previous years, with a focus on who would make leadership material. We were looking for children who would be responsible role models that the younger children could approach. The three captains are also our School Leaders and take on some responsibilities in the school (eg. supervising lunch eating time). If there is an event in which our school needs to be represented by one child or a small group then the captains will fulfil that role.

There are three ways houses can earn points. First of all, we run in-class points tallys. Once a child has 100 points, they receive a Chance Card which not only enters them into a draw to win prizes, but also earns points for their house.
Secondly, there are a wide range of events in which children collect points for their Houses. These include whole school sports events such as Swimming Sports, Cross Country, and Athletics as well as regular smaller events. These smaller events may be in the form of quizzes, spelling bees, and other challenges which may be of a more fun nature. And thirdly, a lot of house points are added during morning tea and lunchtime while staff on duty witness positive behaviour and award this with chance cards. These are added up weekly and added to the house points tally.

The house with the most points at the end of the year is the Champion House, who receive the coveted House Shield.

Kauri house had taken the shield 2 years in a row, 2012 & 2013, with Totara blowing them out of the water in 2014, and then keeping the shield for three years. In 2017 Kauri won the shield back and in 2018 Totara took the shield again and held onto it through 2019 and 2020. When will it be Rimu's turn?