Under the Bridge | A Year Inside Papakura High School

[Music] [Laughter] everyone says all this bad stuff about pub grub like when you tell someone that they're not worth anything they start to believe it [Music] when I first came I wasn't really a good place second yes those coolers sold in other students fighting assaulting teachers I think I was just trying to bestow on that I wasn't not an ongoing school and I always want to go to school because I was hard to believe you know kind of like I didn't have a place there like what why am I here am I supposed to begin the impact of poverty on the education of the young people here is quite significant that the most important thing for the kids here is that there are teachers boogulah every day come here and give them a sense of hope that education is going to be the leave up that's going to actually give them a future and could be my life [Music] [Music] [Music] it's rumoured vows we're gonna shut down Saturday why because I think our school is great like I know that we had fights and sauces just saw like you tell me the worst things about the school and I still don't care like they'll just drive me to like change that you can tell me to the school but this is home for me hey all right different in ages Helen I think yesterday if I'd been on Maya's own we're on the wrong side of the train tracks supposed to be on that side and the train tracks are literally right there so it's like it's not really fit but yeah so mum was like had they gonna have to get a bit for height I've been have any friends I didn't know anyone there I didn't have a group to go to like I do now and it was it was tough because I didn't have someone to go to and say hey this happening to me yeah and I couldn't do that because I was afraid you know when I first started like I was packed packed and then once once my years like in eleven to twelve to thirteen that's when basically on other things or community I think heard us hard then the students are the student capacity started going down and now nothing yeah nothing here just basically goes UK yelling you probably hear yourself from equaling until approximately twelve months ago the school was going to be completely rebuilt the Ministry of Education decided that the plan to rebuild would not go ahead there are sections of our school community who believe that it was really a signal the public or high school was going to close the number of young people who leave the public or community every morning to go to be educated elsewhere is something that I find really disappointing and in a sense the Papakura community doesn't have the confidence that Papakura is a good place to be educated [Applause] [Music] voices is a celebration of the culture the coiler female leader the vahana [Applause] daughter should be given about arm as a passion for kavacha that's one that's one of my main things I love like a profession with myself my own personal goal is just to try life couple crow host grew up desperate and to change the community's perception of what our school actually paint everybody thank you [Music] don't muck around when you get there you're on the phone don't go to meet your friends and get out you're very chipper you're they're your enemies until you finish their speech you just need a switch on now Hapkido for our t1 which is or the best monomakh ah I've always wanted to do that okay [Music] before hops on the stage Oh like crying out on a wire ball is really really emotional just putting on my anger there are like the build up a build up another year for my anger on their stage and transformer also awesome just upon in stage of all my group friends family that's why I was a bit emotional because my dad he doesn't usually come to my stuff but to see my brother my sister my uncle from my family that's really cool then gave my friends and other girls outside yeah so famous I think people make us feel like being young and being someone as kind of mundane and like not really useful in the world [Music] how diverse Haskell was is kind of like shrugged off with with the Rosses kind of embracing it and it's nice for us to see that because he's not Polly I think you and I we've white that is why and where Polly and we just like we're not used to people being so interested in our culture I think most principles they start off here they go straight to like like being strict and we setting rules but where's miss a lot but he's trying to go relationships but I just want to share one we appreciate all the different quarters at our school he really just absolutely I'm here for the kids in support them and everything that they want to do I hope that you can understand a little bit of my comment and thank you to have must be now for token me was my speech so with a guru fun ideas for the subtle will provide a windy side by her I knew that there were particular challenges in the South Auckland schools and I knew that there was some issues related to student achievement here and so those things where issues that I found quite attractive in some ways in terms of the challenge of coming here and working in the school it is cool to see from getting wrong star language you Jesus and he always comes out every week these musical five which app and I would like to call to protect to that youthful net for that wonderful performance you provided a welcome succeed ascent of the student of modern origin and when you add the 25% or of the Suffolk art or the thinked to that figure you've got a very strong Polynesian flavor within the school and it's very important that our Maori community really engages with our school because if Maori students as an SAE are engaged positively in class then we know that the rest of the school will follow suit I will of the richest firm in the world but my dad has always provided for us I don't know any students who black gone through that hole sleeping in garages or sink in your own car but I do know that it is the round people grudges because mum and dad we've driven around just alike and our food and stuff so I dunno it's a reality in our town we also have in the Papakura community a level of dysfunction involved gangs as involves domestic violence but those deficits vectors and themselves can be used as an excuse for young people failing to achieve its goal so is it nice and dry and it's not filling it up is what we have to do next so a little restaurant name their kids are so humble and they will never ask for a handout you know it's shameful and those sorts of things and so in the long run it of excess because they're not in a uniform they won't come to school if they don't have one if they are hungry and those sorts of things things you know you can say goodbye to the learning sometimes because the mines elsewhere those who grow up in a situation of privilege find it very difficult to grasp where what our world looks like but our kids grow up with a worldview that is so narrow and so limited it's really quite scary and so education has got to compensate for it you [Music] my friends say I'm loud now going eccentric just over-the-top sometime just I'm very creative is all I always always told myself it's like lacking drama stuff but when I actually got hands-on with it in class that's when I was like this is something that I want to do I want to continue his teachers just couldn't even deal with his behavior but he's really smart really talented kid so then we persevered and I think he really found her past when he got into drama for her and that was a really big change and he was able to channel all their energy into something really positive I saw some kind of need to be there it was kind of like therapy no way ladies and gentlemen boys and girls people of all ages but gags Doug but mice and squirrels Oh a just not to grow this cheeky little fluffy tail Coons and a lot of my big tent she's a small circle that you know really does see each other as a family instead of just a class we definitely family it's been through a lot together it's very open and safe yeah like I would be you know count into the minutes to get to drama I'm not getting validity more I haven't been bullied for a while now probably about three or four years but when I said to the kids 39 they have bully problems they always had they said they would have and I always told them that I'm here if you need me to talk to you where vina I feel like I'm more a supervisor now looking over the people that I set out help [Music] oh yeah as many of you know Jamie and I spent a lot of time apart it was the hardest time in my life my parents split up when I was young and I went away with my dad then I went to my mum been shifting around a lot I remember the day clearly your mom told me that she was pregnant both of my lunch breaks at work leading an airman salad now when I was only 19 you're a grown man now he's going to make your life and enjoy it be dependent you want to be I Love You Man well people think they have creatures limited the Auckland it's not I'm going to do design I'm going to practice my art and get better at what I want to do when I leave school and I'm constantly being giving opportunities I do obsessing about the school I dream a lot about the school often when I wake up in the morning a pakora high school is the very first thought I Sutton beard with my espresso and I think about to say was born bred and pop of color I was born people cut a maternity unit or whatever an hour stays under the bridge okay robotex parade route 40 to 60 odd if we wanted to join a game because I was on a phase we're all surrounded by a lot of it and yet they sort of influenced me to be like them but they'll hold me into like a tough guy we're gonna do is I think some manly people really inside I'm like ah of Tilly be a little koala my cuddly airs yeah welcome was a fight after a party I didn't get arrested but I got taken in from the cops my mom was breaking down she said don't be like my father like go to jail and all that like she was scared cuz that's what my days to do and unit they sort of encouraged me not to be part of gangs in on it just cuz I saw my mom break down hello how about you go oh yeah we just hold now a new jumble ready cause I'm a gang I'll probably be on drugs be selling drugs the unemployed on something down that road I really want to be like sports a personal or social worker or PE teacher Tomica nice chords it's a place where you're safe I think just being in the right class with the right teacher and the very good help so that either was will use this year we were at Google for this year and each year they changed I think you forget to again go here's our expectation um ensuring those expectations excuse in English you might suppose by geeks embassy they always used to be like maybe something 99 but that all you to be slacking off they were other reasons um ahem start kidding to check to the lock keeps our family's path ahead if they're like too much wounds and all everybody and wants a smoothie I'll just go in bed late and waking up an exploding ladies my goals I asked school City the same cause one enjoy non-degree Nene hello schools awake and better business here have a like little toomai defect roll the thing that I look forward to the most is my interaction with the code head own voice oh look the waterworks how many months it was a month one month when I arrived at the beginning of the year I've seen that there was an enormous amount of pessimism about the future of the skull very good jobs here I focus on the fact that I felt that the most important thing I need to do this year is to give people a sense of hope so you know exactly what you have here oh wow that's awesome very imprison very boy today [Music] when money is a struggle at home like obviously it's going to make like teenagers once you're old enough to go out and get a job to help out you want to pitch it at home because you like you hate your situation kind of thing for a lot of families and public currents you're expected to mature faster and so like all you're taught is being a mum or going to get a job my family tree frog leaf yeah I think that's how I kind of gained interest in it I've always paid for pebble for height like I've never really had the time to go play for clubs so the same of your line and got to noon we consume are ugly and I guess I got recognized as well tomorrow's be the start of the year one of my goals was to make that count CC and one of the guys came up to me after my game he's like invited me to go to one of the training those other work or caddies training and I kind of just like to set aside to focus on work because my grandpa flicks and passed away last year so we're just trying to hide our faith of all my family from like Australia and the South Islands go back to positive arena and my Fedders want to make sure our entire family is part of it I wear period never I said of me but I just feel like this light signature that my family always got first before like the deeds of myself [Music] [Applause] I'm not a first-time principal who's having a go there is a plan and and I am very confident about what I'm doing too many young Maori have been leaving school with nothing but can't be that young Maori are not intelligent it can't be that they are not equal in terms of their brainpower is non money it has to be sectors within the education system that contribute to their sense of failure and so that's why I've said that in public at a high school the most important thing is for Fano to walk through the gates of the school and to get a sense that the school values who they are please I really want people to believe that our school that's amazing yeah I just want it to carry on I just don't want anyone to forget this place or and what we're capable of in a big term applications for the sign up for you currently MIT in aut and still looking for someone as a prefect like you have these expectations and yeah but below it just a but but the teachers that encouraged me to just get going dig up up try avoid a girlfriend the next month I don't really have like as my family this one's really supportive I get up again Emily doesn't really do anything for school work and then come closer to the end of the year she was on my case to get my studies exams all she actually made me do my English exam this year I told you I wasn't going cuz I didn't study for it but she just taught me some stuff I'm like one period tonight exam to mix the next hour and then I did it you know okay [Music] the scholarship that our perfo was the Moorish Ward scholarship Oh entry into the Monaco trade-off technology we are being studying Bachelor sport and Rec and science that's off I get the scholarship but I just for essentially to the current fee I'm very confident that I'll get it but it's just a long long way if I don't get the scholarship I probably just work to pull my debt and you help them of the house keep calling yeah I was one of the keeper because these works are half work we can talk about your max and we're at with your goal for next year so just remind me what my goals are what well seeing is social weekend would you consider moving away from home not if you can have like that yeah or like I just don't want to go to campus here I was there on you yeah fair enough so I suggest go see mrs. Paulus and get some ideas of the specific courses cheek whether you've got the right subject class yeah all that kind of stuff are we talking to our careers teacher I'd often my in another office even after school to see like what scholarships available and unlike heavily rely on scholarships like I don't want to bring the burden back to my parents or my apartment student loans I mean I guess that's always the options but for now since I do have the opportunity to take hold of scholarships and I might as well even like before I decide to get a you I don't want to go to any universities at all I might take me away from home I think this we know would ground me bitter University and you don't have to think about a full-time like you come home and relax and then go back to school and deal there [Music] stated first and drummer generally I must the teachers the most especially mrs. M she taught me that I don't let anyone keep me down and I follow my passion she had that connection with us that we actually would listen to it maybe I'm a chocolate exhausted from it I found a place to move out to and my mum was very upset about it she doesn't want me to leave the house but she feels like it's my decision I want to do it all in the door and I want to do is I'm going to do it yes I could just go straight to University but it would be better for me to have more money behind myself because I don't want to be struggling while I'm studying and say like hey you know I've got the hard yards now I was like let's make the highlight of it easier and this vest means I have to wait a whole year for you and University that's why not do it we tell you on the cultural left IP is windy sunny [Applause] reflecting back on his father Big Ear I remember I wanted like one award and so I was just kind of looking forward to it I was really expecting anything else so when there wasn't so much to be rewarded for like the roles that I've taken part for it was more so like to remind me that the Lord has enough sounds like we need more leaders kind of thing yeah stay humble everyone keeps on looking at all the poor people on days it's like oh you know right he's China just smile be proud of myself I was good I'm doing alongside Wendy cause every time I caught up Wendy would always be next to me and yo we was going to year we did it we made it seem repel each other [Music] it's emotional like you know your walk through those gates every morning and every afternoon with your friends and kinda like the way I imagine it it's just flashbacks of the entire five years I've been there and it's like impacting I wanted to go to university to be like a social worker at the side of it and it's because of like our social predicament in our school if one labels our schools like at risk and so I wanted to kind of help our students say you go to a school in central Auckland flowing you don't think about beneficiary worker because you don't have social issues in your area I actually have a first out of all my siblings a gay University was a huge achievement my daddy was better than chopping up he'd said he's gonna want to want me to do what he did mr. loss is all about the cuts he just sees a bright future where people can sustain a healthy education and he just sees a lot of potential in the school so why not think the thing I don't have to apologize for public or a high school there are certainly areas that we need to improve on it feels like a sense in which Papakura isn't good enough and yet I firmly believe Papakura is good enough and I would love to see the people who live in Papakura back their own community is a good place to be if my vice is the potential that we hold while we honed they don't know either the pretty smart gilas chance for love we are we [Music] what you see on TV coming to God just [Music] society and what you see on TV come to her again [Music]

Channel: nzherald.co.nz

Views: 260,272

Rating: 4.9094467 out of 5

Keywords: NZ Herald, nzherald.co.nz, nz documentaries, new zealand documentaries, short docs, short films, nz news, kiwi news, new zealand news, nz school, new zealand school, nz high school, new zealand high school, auckland high school, auckland college, papakura school, papakura college, papakura high school, school documentary, high school documentary, college documentary, new zealand schooling, auckland schooling

Id: ioriR5_WRGc

Length: 30min 9sec (1809 seconds)

Published: Wed Oct 04 2017