by Sr MURIEL KIVELL, RNDM
St Joseph’s Māori Girls’ College in Napier is celebrating winning the O’Shea Shield, a competition going back over 70 years among the Catholic secondary schools in the Wellington archdiocese and Palmerston North diocese. This currently involves 17 secondary schools.
Colleges take turnabout hosting this competition. As this was cancelled for Chanel College, Masterton, because of Covid-19 in 2020, Chanel and Bishop Viard Colleges were the 2021 co-hosts at Bishop Viard College, Porirua.
Using Scripture quotes and current issues, the host school sets (within the agreed competition guidelines) topics for the various competition elements: (for example) Speeches: Junior, Senior, Impromptu and Prepared; Oratory; Debating; Religious Questions; Drama; Scripture Reading.
The host college arranges for appropriate adjudicators for each element of the competition, with marks out of 100 being moved into a range from 1–6, to ensure a just comparison among College results. The range grade (1–6) for each element result becomes each college’s mark for that element.
St Joseph’s Māori Girls’ College received cups for first in Scripture (both English and Te Reo Māori) and first in the positive section of Debating.
Cardinal John Dew, in posting on his facebook page about the success by St Joseph’s, noted that this was the first win by the college in the O’Shea Shield competition in 46 years.
The standard was high in all categories, as the total results showed.
Three colleges shared second place: St John’s College, Hastings, Sacred Heart Girls’ College, New Plymouth, and St Patrick’s College, Wellington.
Next year, in 2022, St Joseph’s Māori Girls’ College will host the O’Shea Shield competition. This is usually held in Term 2.
Reader Interactions