The new house names take their cue from the environment.
The new house names take their cue from the environment.
At the beginning of the year, Te Awamutu College embarked on a process to rename the four school houses to better reflect the school and community.
Principal Tony Membery says new names have been selected after a thoughtful and thorough process.
This involved the gathering of 36 submissions by variousmeans, a working-party recommendation of six options, voting by students, staff and parents/caregivers, and analysis and discussion of the result by the board and the school's senior leadership team.
The new names, which will be adopted from next year, are Kōwhai, Pounamu, Pōhutakawa and Kikorangi - replacing Selwyn, Melrose, Cameron and Gorst.
The new names reflect the natural environment and the house colours.
Kōwhai - the iconic New Zealand native tree with yellow flowers; pounamu - the greenstone, which is a symbol of strength and status; pōhutakawa - New Zealand's own Christmas tree with the stunning display of red flowers; kikorangi - the deep blue of our sky.
