Kiwileles win K-Factor contest
Waipāhīhī School ukulele group wins national contest
Waipāhīhī-a-Tia School’s ukulele group is celebrating success after winning a national competition. The school group, called the Waipāhīhī Kiwileles, made its competitive debut at the online K-Factor competition this year.
To compete, the group recorded the Bob Marley song Three Little Birds, chosen from the national Kiwilele songbook, and submitted it for judging.
The judges were blown away by the group’s talents.
“What wonderful, talented ukulele players! Good timing with the strumming and fabulous to have some students adding that extra flair playing the Tablature and drums. Great singing too,” the judges said.
The competition was held by New Zealand Ukulele Trust, which provides ukuleles, song banks and teacher training to encourage music education through ukulele playing in schools.
The trust also runs competitions like K-Factor for the roughly 3000 children who participate each year.
This is the second year that Waipāhīhī School has taken part in the wider Kiwileles programme, but the first time entering the K-Factor competition.
Waipāhīhī-a-Tia teacher Monique Vossen, a music specialist, is the tutor of the Kiwileles group.
She said students have shown great excitement and dedication to learning the ukulele and preparing for the competition.
Her own commitment to music education sees her teaching three ukulele sessions a week for students at different stages across school Years 1 to 6.
She said the students love learning the instrument, and the enthusiasm among them was infectious.
“The older students often come to the other sessions to help teach the younger students.
“Students regularly get ukuleles out of our band room to practise and many practise at home. They are all making incredible progress and thoroughly enjoy it.”
As well as taking the Bill Sevesi Performance Trophy for the win, the group also received a $300 KBB Music voucher.
Monique said the news they had won, which came by email, caused a lot of excitement at school.
“We’d been waiting on the email and were so excited to discover we were the national K-Factor winners. The Waipāhīhī Kiwileles were absolutely stoked and excited to share their success with their peers and teachers.”
Their winnings would be used to purchase new equipment for the school’s band room, with the group looking forward to deciding how they will put it to good use.