Harrison Matthews has already found new confidence since becoming Te Puke High School head boy.

Head girl Bella Ngawhika said her desire to be head student began in year 9.

Matthews and Ngawhika officially began in their roles at the start of term 1, but have been preparing since they were announced as the successful candidates at last year’s senior prizegiving.

Students must put their names forward, and Matthews said he was looking to get out of his comfort zone.

“Before I started drama, one of our classes, I was quite a shy person. I didn’t like talking really, so I just wanted to push my limits.”

He recalled late last year talking to a large group of students.

“I was shaking.”

He has been working on gaining confidence, pushing his limits and at the start of term 1 he addressed a full school hall.

“I wasn’t shaking – I was ready. I think it’s just been a really incredible, the transformation, and how I went from not being able to speak in front of 20 or more people to being able to speak in front of the whole school.”

Goals and aspirations

Ngawhika has a desire to carry on with what past head girls have achieved and said she liked to spice things up.

“When I was in year 9, I was watching Ellen Emerson – she was head girl when we were year 9 – and I was, like ‘I so want to be just like her’. Now I’ve lived that dream.”

She wants to use her position to push other Māori and Pasifka students into leadership roles.

“Especially Maori don’t look at these roles as something they can accomplish, so that’s something I want to flip the narrative on.”Both have been at the school since year 9.

Matthews was a student ambassador at Te Puke Intermediate School, a house captain at Paengaroa Primary School and is a leader at Te Puke Scouts.

Ngawhika’s pre-high school education was at Pongakawa School.

In year 12, she was the student representative on the Te Puke High School Board of Trustees.

“It was pretty massive. I wasn’t really planning on going for it, it just happened like [becoming] head girl.

“But I was able to do a lot of work behind the scenes, working with the board [on things like] getting the uniform reviewed.”

She said she’s a straight shooter who took the student voice straight to the board.

Ngawhika has also been a leader on the school’s cultural committee and has led the school’s enviro committee since 2023.

“Kapa haka is very important to me and if wasn’t head girl I would have been the leader, but I didn’t want to put too much on myself.”

Studies and past times

Aside from her cultural interests, Ngawhika’s study focused on the non-mainstream sciences, like ag science and horticulture, as well as Te Reo Māori.

Matthews described himself as a school all-rounder.

“I’m decent at everything and good at a few things.”

He enjoyed playing badminton and football and mountain biking.

“I’m pretty involved throughout the school and I’m on a couple of committees. I love to be as active as possible and try to participate in everything it has to offer.”

That is something he wanted to pass on to the rest of the school

“The school puts on all these awesome events each year and I think participation is my number one thing and I really want to show to other students of the school that participation is really important. Just coming and being a part of something really helps the whole school get to that mind-set that we are all a team.

“The more engaged students are, the better time they are going to have. If you are having fun in school it’s a lot easier to learn.”

Other goals were to pass on concerns of younger students and to help make improvements at the school.

“As head student our role to be leaders for the juniors, and the year 12s as well, showing them they can access this kind of leadership and that there’s no barriers, you just need to put your mind to it,” said Ngawhika.

There is also an obligation to check on other student leaders and given them direction and, said Matthews, “keeping the raft afloat”.

“Last year we spoke to Te Ranga School student council and I let the year 8s know I was going to be here and now they are year 9s and I’ve had them come up to me, they recognise me,” said Ngawhika.

“I thought that was pretty special as they’ve already made the connection after the massive leap from primary to high school.”

The head students will run the school’s ANZAC commemoration and will also speak at the Te Puke’s civic commemoration.

They also lead the student executive council.