This year, the Year 9 and 10 accelerate classes were involved in the SVA (Student Volunteer Army) project. We teamed up to do something that would positively contribute to the community. We spent Term 3 in our roles such as Planners, Storytellers and Finance Officers, planning and discussing how, when, and where we were going to do it.

Two members of the Upper Hutt City Council came in and had a talk to us about what needed to be done, and what would benefit the community the most. After hours of emailing, contacting and planning, we decided to clean up and beautify the Hikurangi Street drainage creek behind our school.

Half of us got big rubbish bags and cleaned up every single piece of rubbish we saw on the grass banks or in the creek. The other half painted over graffiti down the alleyways, on the fences by the creek, and the bridge going over the creek as well. The end result ended up looking so much better and cleaner and we could really see the improvement.