Students at Tauranga Girls' College donned a colourful addition to their standard uniform today – sporting bright red socks to celebrate Sir Peter Blake Trust Leadership Week.

Red socks and badges were sold at the school today for Red Sock Day, along with a bake sale offering red-themed food.

Tauranga Girls' College students show of their red socks today.

TGC executive council secretary Loren McCarthy says the Sir Peter Blake Trust promotes leadership and environmental awareness among young people – a subject the college takes seriously.

'It is important to me to be able to give back to the trust.

'There have been students involved in the Sir Peter Blake Trust before, but I think this is the first year we have done an event for it.”

The executive council's 16 members spent the morning visiting classes, selling socks and educating students on the trust.

Loren says they had a great response, particularly from the junior students, and sold out of socks (50 pairs).
She says the day was mainly about raising awareness of the trust and getting the junior students involved in leadership.

'We are hoping to be able to encourage people to apply for the forum next year and keep that tradition going.”

Sir Peter Blake Trust Leadership Week was marked across Tauranga this week.

Tahatai Primary School students Alex Johnson and Jessica Tucker with Matt Cowley.

In Papamoa, Year 7 and 8 students at Tahatai Primary School welcomed Matt Cowley, a candidate for Tauranga City Council and member of the Sir Peter Blake Trust's ‘Dream Team', into their classrooms on Tuesday.

Matt won the Young Read Woudberg Tauranga Employee of the Year award in October 2012.

He is part of a 300-strong team of New Zealanders speaking to classrooms throughout the country in a bid to inspire young Kiwis to ‘dare, dream, and do' – the theme of this year's leadership week.

Tahatai Primary School teacher Justine Taylor says the Matt provided an amazing opportunity for the children to hear a leader who is carrying on Peter's legacy of mobilising the next generation of young leaders.

Matt says the highlight of his talk on Tuesday was seeing the students use chalk on the netball court to identify their dreams for making positive changes in their community.

'The students came up with simple and fun ways to make positive changes to their friends, their family, and New Zealand.”

Justine says the students relished the opportunity to get outside and find ways to make their community a better place.

'The students dreams ranged from helping elderly have fun, becoming CEO of Air New Zealand, and stopping domestic violence.

'The students asked Matt lots of questions, including how to deal with the challenges that leaders face, his scariest moments, and the benefits of getting others to help your fulfil your dream.”

The Sir Peter Blake Trust Leadership Week began on Monday and concludes today with Red Sock Day.