Principal’s Update
Kia ora Waitetuna Whaanau, well what a week 3 it has been. Our thoughts go out to everyone affected by this devastating event. The cyclone has certainly battered many areas and even though we got off relatively unscathed at school it is a huge event that will continue to affect our country for a long time. I hope your families around the country are managing. My family and friends in the Hawkes Bay have had some scary moments but they are safe and are now about just trying to get on with the clean up. And we do just get on and manage as best we can in these times. Juggling of these weather events and the inevitable issues from the road diversions in place can take a toll so if there is anything I can do to help please let me know.
I was reading an article about strategies that grow resilient schools and students and resilience is something we have had to have plenty of over the last few years. A key to building and maintaining this is communicating with each other and having shared values that underpin our school vision and our direction as a school. As a school we strive for this. We want everyone to have a consistent and positive experience. How we celebrate and connect is an essential part of this. Of course we were unable to be open on Tuesday but getting back into routine is the best thing for students.
I would like to thank the staff for their support this week as I battled a virus (not Covid) and for their mahi in cleaning up our school after the cyclone.
We appreciate the unique age and needs of our students at year 7 and 8. We are proud of what we offer our Senior Room students and the opportunities our year 7 and 8 students have. They have started tech again for this year on a Thursday morning. The stu- dents are doing Food Technology for 12-13 weeks and will then get to work with Wood and extend their skills with digital technology.
Other exciting opportunities in our Senior Room include second languages and career education. These are actually expectations from the ministry but each school implements these in range of ways. Each year this looks different for us. This year we are hoping that the online learning school (VLN—Virtual Learning Network) will provide us with 5 taster lessons of Korean which could lead into 10 more lessons if there is student interest. We are also hoping to use local community member’s second languages knowledge to give our students other tasters so they can see what an exciting world we live in, full of wonderful cultures.
Career education is another important aspect of the Senior Room learning as it opens student’s eyes to the amazing opportunities there are. There is no pressure to ‘choose’ but it gives children a chance to see the many and varied directions their career can take. We want students to see it as exciting. Subject choice at high school does play a role in some career directions but children need to know that they have time and should take time to choose a direction that really interests them. I look forward to reconnecting next week.
I hope you get a chance to rest over the weekend. Ngaa mihi Amanda
Online Safety Hub
Being safe online is a responsibility we take very seriously . We support students with essential teaching around this and also have a wide range of different measures in place to keep students safe. This is a site created by one of our monitoring services which gives you a range of supports and ideas too—Check it out— https://waitetuna.onlinesafetyhub.nz/
Dates for Term 1
Tech at RAS starts for Year 7-8—16th Feb
Cricket sessions in school starts—20th Feb
Board meeting—21st Feb—5.30pm
Get-Set-Go day—Year 3 and 4—24th Feb
Paid Union Meeting—27th Feb—school open for supervision from 12.40pm—pick up children if possible
Assembly—Friday week 5—3rd March
Senior Room—Pirongia Lodge trip—6th March
School swimming sports—13th March
Junior Room camp—school overnighter—16th/17th March
Interschool Swimming—20th March
Science Roadshow—Senior Room—22nd March
Assembly—Friday—week 8—24th March
Tryathlon—27th March—TBC
School Photos—Tues—28th March
Interschool Softball tournament—31st March
Last day Term 1—Thursday 6th April
Good Friday—Friday 7th April
Waitetuna Way
Well done Minnie & Joel for showing confidence, being brave enough to take risks. To believe in yourself. And develop resilience to bounce back from difficulties.
Together we are growing the seeds of success
Na too manaaki, na tooku manaaki, ka puaawai mai nga kaakano