First Editorial

Hello and welcome readers to the first issue of ‘The Roar’ student blog for 2010. It is my honour this year to be the editor along with Laurelin.

Some readers may recognise me from my past entries in ‘The Roar’, most notably the food reviews (This just goes to show it is, in fact, possible to eat your way to the top).

For my first editorial (ever) I want to speak about the opportunities that MAGS as a school provides for its students. Whilst more cynical readers may instantly raise their eyebrows and mutter something along the lines of “yeah right” the amount of activities one can get involved in here at the school actually quite amazing.

Whether it is sporting, academic, cultural or artistic the wide arrange of opportunities really are outstanding.

We have possibly one of the greatest choices in Auckland schools when it comes to playing a sport, whether it is one of the more conventional sports such as football or rugby to the more austere such as underwater hockey.

If the sports do not hold your interest, then there are a multitude of academic activities for those aimed towards the intellectual pursuits. For those with strengths in language we have debating, creative writing clubs, even this blog you are now reading. Or there are other areas where academic minded students can excel in such as the Brain Bee Challenge.

When it comes to cultural and artistic areas MAGS has only gone from strength to strength every year I have been here. It is possible to learn a huge variety of musical instruments in the music rooms or sing with one of the many choirs the school offers.

If you are more interested in acting we have many drama productions and rehearsals that take place throughout the year as well as having activities such as Kapa Haka where we see brilliant displays of cultural pride.

But this is not all the school offers. There are numerous leadership programmes where we have the opportunity to display our organisational skills; groups such as the Duke of Edinburgh programme or the model UN, which sit along-side such groups as Amnesty International and SADD.

So what is my point in all this (apart from trying to get approval form senior management)? It is to get involved, take any opportunity and give it a go. Speaking from experience I know how daunting it can be to try something new (in my first year here I did almost no extracurricular activities) but I gave it a go and have had huge amounts of fun, learnt new skills and made new friends. I’ve been to Christchurch with the MAGS underwater hockey team, learnt a lot about how the brain works in the Brain Bee Challenge and have become quite proficient at speaking with the debating team. So go on give it a go, you might just enjoy it …

Luke Wilson

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