Youngsters from Ōhaupō School have taken out the top places in all four age-group categories in the Te Awamutu Rotary Club’s 2020 Children’s Essay Competition.
Overall, they accounted for seven of the 13 placegetters in the entire competition, proving they have the ‘write’ stuff by a country mile and out-penning their peers from schools falling within the club’s catchment area.
The annual competition has been going for about 20 years, started by local Rotarian Peter Robertson. It is open to youngsters from schools around the area – roughly covering Ōhaupō to Korakonui, Kawhia to Pukeauta – and to home-schoolers.
“We had over 100 entries this year, an increase on last year,” Peter said. “We are extremely grateful to Paper Plus who donated all the book voucher prizes.”
Ōhaupō School principal Sue McLocklan thanked Te Awamutu Rotary Club for the opportunity and PaperPlus for the prizes, and said the school was proud to win each age group and to have other placegetters as well.
“It hasn’t been an easy year, with children having to learn through Zoom and phone calls during weeks of lockdown, so we are doubly proud of such results. To have top writers right through the school is indeed validation of the effort we put into teaching and learning writing and other areas of literacy.”
She said the fact other placegetter schools also did well would serve Waipā well in the future.
Ōhaupō School’s seven placegetters in this year’s Te Awamutu Rotary Club Children’s Essay Competition. They are, from left, Ekam Kaur Minhas, Emily Cribb, Lara Hollinshead, Kate Davenport, Pokaia Heke, Jaxon Buik and Israel De Vries.
The competition winners and their schools, in the following categories, were: 5-6 year olds, 1st Emily Cribb (Ōhaupō), 2nd Israel De Vries (Ōhaupō), 3rd Niamh Hinchcliffe (Te Awamutu Primary); 7-8 year olds, 1st Lara Hollinshead (Ōhaupō), 2nd Kate Davenport (Ōhaupō), 3rd Sophie Perry (Pekerau); 9-10 year olds, 1st Pokaia Heke (Ōhaupō), 2ndequal Natalee Gower (Korakonui) and Bayley Kerr (Hauturu); and 11 years and over, 1st Ekam Kaur Minhas (Ōhaupō), 2nd Arwen Millward (Pirongia), 3rd equal, Faith Still (Te Awamutu Intermediate) and Jaxon Buik (Ōhaupō).
