School mana hooks AA and ex AB

Birchwood School’s inclusion focus, encouraging participation, and strong community values has scored it a sponsorship throw-in by the country’s “most trusted” insurer.

The AA Insurance Big Little Sponsorship looks for two primary school nominees to win one of two $10,000 grants for its sporting potential to gain momentum.

Birchwood was declared the winning South Island side by AA Insurance representatives, campaign ambassador and All Black legend, Keven Mealamu, and Eden Park chief executive, Nick Sautner.

Kawerau South School in the Bay of Plenty was the North Island winner.

AA Insurance says of the record-breaking 5,500 nominations, Birchwood’s focus on inclusion, strong community values, and encouraging its 230 students to participate in sport no matter their ability, resonated with the judges.

Principal Camilla Brotherton says for the school to win big and have a former All Black join in the school’s celebrations on 10 May, was a “really lovely surprise”.

“We just didn’t think it would ever happen to us… the kids were just absolutely thrilled and so was the community. We advertised [the reveal] as a top secret with a special assembly and a special guest… $10,000 is going to be amazing for our little school,” she says.

“The Birchwood School [PTA] nominated us, they wrote some really lovely things about how we are focused on being inclusive, supporting our children to learn and grow through their academics but also through what we do in the environment and in sport.”

Camilla says the nomination kicked off following a fundraiser by students Myah Burnett, Sophie Bloom and Hailey Swart for new football goals on the school field.

“They made about $1600 from bake sales over a few weeks… but it’s not inexpensive equipment, and so the PTA thought it was a great opportunity to reach out and see if we’re lucky, and we were,” she says.

“We’ve got some soccer-mad kids, and they will be thrilled when [the new football goals] get here in a few weeks to replace the ones that had a long life.”

Camilla says the remaining funds from the $10,000 grant will enable the school to tackle other sporting resources and opportunities.

“We’re actually going to ask the kids and the teachers to put a wish list together, and we’ll tick off some of those things that will make the biggest difference,” she says.

Camilla says an embroidered All Black jersey with the message, Birchwood Big Little Winners, was gifted at the big reveal, freebies, kai and music were offloaded, and Keven led the charge with rugby tips for the aspiring All Blacks.

“Because Keven has cauliflower ears after being in the front row of the scrums for many years, they were very intrigued, they had some questions about his cauliflower ears,” she says.

“They could tell that he was an All Black because he still looks like an All Black. The parents were also very excited to meet an All Black and have photos with him.”