The junior category winners featured Te Wharekura o Ngati Rongomai student Te Kaiamo Okeroa Rogers, for junior Maori; and Rotorua Girls' High School student Georgia Stiles, for junior English.
All four speakers will represent the Te Arawa region at the Nga Manu Korero Secondary Schools National Competition Final in Nelson on September 18 to 20.
The competition aims to develop the skills and confidence of Maori students in spoken English and Maori.
Senior Maori winner Tairoa said there were eight students in his category who were all required to produce a prepared and impromptu speech in fluent te reo.
"The competition is particularly good for when you grow up and have to speak on the marae."
Tairoa said his 12-minute prepared speech titled 'I'm sitting on the verandah at home just thinking about ...' went well but the impromptu speech was a bit harder.
"If you have a structure you are all good but if you go in blind it is much harder."
He said this was his third year in the Nga Manu Korero competition but the first time he had qualified for the national final.
Nga Manu Korero Te Arawa region committee member Renata Curtis has helped organise the competition in Rotorua for more than 10 years and said there was a lot of mana attached to the competition.
"To go to the nationals is very prestigious and you become well known throughout the country if you win one of the sections, you are tagged."
She said in recent years students from the Te Arawa region had won national titles in senior Maori, junior Maori and senior English.
