AGGREGATE & QUARRY ASSOCIATION
Rock our Future school competition
2026 Competition
🎉 Congratulations to the winners of our 2026 Rock our Future school competition!
🏆Year 5 – Te Koromiko Swannanoa School
Students: Arlo Gray, Ferguson Clark, Hunter Downes, Jaxon Berry, Jayden Newlands, Kobi Lingard, Leo Clark, Theo Philips and Thom Fogarty.
🏆Year 6 – Ōpaki School
Students: Amara Allamand, Bodhi Field, Brooks Dew, Corban Roberts, Eoin Duranton, Harvey Smith, Indie Huxtable, Isla Southey, Jimmy White, Jorja Tohiariki, Lilly Waugh, Maddie Maxwell, Ollie Pearce, Paxton Pedersen, Remi Maggio, Sophie Miller, Stella Vivian-Greer, Tyson Lenihan and Vega Pienaar.
🏆Year 7 – Argyll East School
Students: Charlie McCormick, Sam Gregory, George Slavin and Knox Wakelin.
🏆Year 8 – Rotorua Intermediate School
Students: Kaonui Dewes, Ranvir Gahlan and Sunesh Bala.
We were incredibly impressed by the quality, creativity and effort demonstrated across all entries. The standard was exceptionally high, making it no easy task for our judges to select the winners. 28 schools entered the competition, submitting more than 100 entries!
This year, we were also pleased to award a special Honourable Mention Award to Millie Burridge from Boulcott School for the enthusiasm, creativity and initiative shown in her video entry.
The Rock our Future school competition invites Years 5-8 students from primary and intermediate schools in New Zealand to discover how quarries help build and support their communities. Through this project, students learn about the essential role quarrying plays in building New Zealand’s communities while raising awareness of the diverse and rewarding career opportunities available in the extractives sector. A big thank you to all the students, teachers, and schools who took part. A special thank you to the quarries that participated in the project and helped make this year competition such a success. For an overview and understanding of the criteria for this year, you can read the competition details below.
📋Overview
Your school could win up to $4,000 with this exciting project for years 5-8, as well as either a $100 Prezzy Card for the individual winning students in each year, or a $200 Prezzy Card per winning group per year. Link it to your social sciences, technology, science, or writing/arts learning. Aggregate (crushed rock, gravel and sand) makes up the bulk of products we quarry in New Zealand. Students are encouraged to visit a local quarry and ask lots of questions to help with their projects.
🌍 What is this competition about?
Quarries play an important role in building and supporting our communities – they provide aggregate that is used for things like roads, buildings, and other infrastructure we use every day. The purpose of this competition is to help students understand what quarries are and why we need them.
🎯 Brief
All entries must:
- Explain what a quarry is
- Explain why we have quarries
- Explain what aggregate is used for (e.g. roads, buildings, infrastructure etc.)
- Include at least two sustainability practices used by quarries
🎨 How students can present their entry
Students may choose ONE of the following:
- Digital presentation (slides)
- Video or animation
- Poster
- Essay or written report
📋Competition details
- Projects need to be sent to us by the end of Term 3, Friday 25th September 2026. Please complete the entry form for your school and return it to [email protected].
- Judging will take place in October with winners announced in November 2026.
- Prizes:
- 4 x prizes of $1,000 to the school of each winning entry (1 winner per year group)
- 4 x prizes of $100 Prezzy Cards for each of the individual winning students, or $200 for a winning team (1 winner per year group)
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2025 Competition
The Brief: To demonstrate the lifecycle of a quarry, including what to do with the land at the rehabilitation stage of the lifecycle – bonus points were for sustainable rehabilitation ideas. Students had the option to present their ideas through a digital presentation, video, poster, a model, essay or written report.
Lifecycle of a quarry:
- Identify where the rock and/or sand is and test it is suitable, environmental and cultural studies conducted
- Consent and approval for operations – get permission from the council to extract the material
- Opening the pit in stages, putting in place environmental and safety measures
- Site is active, extraction of quarried material happens in stages
- Rehabilitate the site for future long-term use
Criteria
The project had to include:
- The lifecycle of a quarry
- Demonstrate basic understanding of what quarrying is and why it’s important in New Zealand
- Submission types (choose one):
-
- A 2–3 minute video or animation
- A digital slideshow (e.g. PowerPoint, Google Slides)
- A written report (max 500 words)
- A poster or infographic (digital / scanned / posted)
- A model with an explanation (photos and a short write-up)
-
THE WINNERS
Schools from Auckland to Queenstown were among the winners in the AQA’s Rock our Future school competition for years 5-8 in 2025. The winners from Karāpiro School were, Levi Hughes, Eli Johnson and Aria MacCallaugh with their movie, and Ronya Epp and Alice Daly with their video and model.
The Year 7 winners were Summer Clarke, Alice Foggiato Pacheco and Maiya Hansen from KingsView School with their presentation.
Year 8 winners were Sienna Dinsdale and Pixie Lovegrove from Waiuku School with their presentation.
2024 Competition
The Brief: This year’s brief was for each student to write a poem exploring aggregate in New Zealand highlighting benefits, an explanation of what it is, and what it’s used for.
The poem had to include the following:
Where does aggregate come from
What is aggregate
Why we need aggregate in everyday life
THE WINNERS
Schools from Wellington to Christchurch were among the winners in the AQA’s Rock our Future school competition for years 5-8 in 2024. The Year 5 winner was Louis Goodman from North East Valley Normal School, Dunedin, and the Year 6 winner was Emily Williams from Boultcott School, Lower Hutt, Wellington.
The Year 7 winner was Chester Densem and Year 8 winner was Elenor Eleanor from North Loburn School in Loburn.
2023 Competition
The Brief: This year’s brief was for students to show three everyday uses of aggregate along with an explanation. They were encouraged to visit a local quarry and design a poster.
THE WINNERS
Schools from Northland to Otago were among the winners in the AQA’s Rock our Future school competition for years 5-8 in 2023. The Year 5 winner was Odin Apiata (left) from Ohaeawai Primary School, Northland, and the Year 6 winner was Ally Aikten (right) from Mornington School, Dunedin.
The Year 7 winner was Ana Kaufana from Oamaru Intermediate, and pictured below the Year 8 winner was Anika Beren from Springbank School in Northland.
Read all about their entries here.
2022 Competition
The Brief: Students were encouraged to visit a local quarry and design a poster of an activity at the quarry, why the quarry is needed, and the benefits the quarry provides to the community.
THE WINNERS
Year 5 & 6 winners below from Owairoa Primary School, Auckland
Year 7 & 8 winners below from Lee Stream School, Otago:
Read all about their entries here.
2021 Competition
The brief was: Students were encouraged to visit a local quarry and write an essay of no more than 500 words describing their experience at the quarry and what they learnt during the visit.
THE WINNERS
Year 5 & 6 winners were from Puni School, Auckland, and a Year 8 winner from Oamaru Intermediate. There were no Year 7 entries this year.
Read all about their entries here.
2020 Competition
Students were to design a final use for a quarry that has finished extracting rock.
The brief was: You have been hired by a quarrying company called Big Rock Solutions. The company has completed extracting rock from its quarry and now wants to turn the quarry into an asset for the community. They want the land to be useful, and whatever it is turned into to be sustainable, environmentally sensitive and add value to the local community. Neighbours and others in the community need to be considered in whatever final use is designed for the site.
THE WINNERS
Two schools from the Waikato and Manawatū took away the prizes.
Read all about their entries here.
2019 Competition
The brief was: students had been hired by a quarrying company currently exploring the problem of what to do when energy produced by diesel and coal (both non-sustainable energy sources) runs out. The students were to design a solution for the production of aggregate, including crushing plant, and mobile vehicles such as loaders, excavators etc. for the 21st Century.
THE WINNERS
Two groups of boys from Fitzroy School in New Plymouth have taken out the prizes and were awarded by CEO Wayne Scott and MP Jonathan Young on Friday Oct 25th.
Read all about their entries here.
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AFFILIATED ORGANISATIONS
ABOUT QUARRYING IN NEW ZEALAND
USING AGGREGATE
Aggregates are the most consumed bulk product in the world after water. New Zealand uses 9-10 tonnes of aggregate every year for each adult and child.
BUILDING NZ
To build an average house, you need about 250 tonnes of aggregate - for use in concrete, asphalt, mortar and building products.
OUR COMMUNITY
The quarry industry is committed to working alongside local communities and follows stringent planning, environmental and operating conditions.