Highlights from this week and heads up for the weeks ahead...our first rehearsal, ePro8 success, being a learner and student led conferences.

Kia ora e te whānau

And just like that Week 1 is over and August is almost upon us. I hope you all had a nice winter break. I seemed to strike the balance of time away and time at home. It was lovely to see my family and enjoy some warm Hawke's Bay weather (and enjoy a meatball - its a southern cheese roll kinda thing)!

There was a real buzz in the air on day one, positivity was high as we kicked off our production work. Students went to their chosen group and began working on the skills and knowledge they will need to build sets, make costumes, gather props,do makeup, promote, advertise and perform. Yes its definitely a school wide deep learning dive. Shrek the Musical Jr will be on stage in the last week of term. I was with the cast for their first read through of the script and I must say the casting of the dynamic duo of Shrek and Donkey is proving to be gold! They have us laughing already. 

Shrek: Ogres are like onions.
Donkey: They stink?
Shrek: Yes. No.
Donkey: Oh, they make you cry.
Shrek: No.
Donkey: Oh, you leave em out in the sun, they get all brown, start sproutin’ little white hairs.
Shrek: No. Layers. Onions have layers. Ogres have layers. Onions have layers. You get it? We both have layers.
Donkey: Oh, you both have layers. Oh. You know, not everybody like onions.

I want to give a big shout out to the two teams who competed in the ePro8 heats at Casebrook Intermediate this week. The Odd Ones Out, made up of Anahera, Brooklyn, Toutouwai and Anisha with The Robot Badgers made up of Perez, Atlantis, Ava and Evie. The Odd Ones Out won the heat and will now go to compete at the Semi Finals in Week 3. The whole Hāpua team are to be commended for the incredible amount of learning they did during school wide ePro8 week at the end of last term. Their skills of critical thinking, creativity, communication and collaboration were put to the test with huge success.

Whaea Bridget, Whaea Nicole and I started our Te Ahu o Te Reo classes this week. For the next 14 weeks we will be attending a Te Reo Maori class. Nicole is going to a Level 3 class on Wednesday afternoon and Bridget and I are doing Level 2. So if you see us leaving school pretty promptly thats why - our classes start at 3.45 and go to 6.45.

I will be continuing my passion for learning next week by attending the NZ Principal's Federation Conference in Rotorua with 700 other principals from around NZ. The conference theme is Power, Passion, Pace. I will be back on site on Thursday afternoon.

Next week our students are ready to share their learning with you at Student Led Conferences on Wednesday and Thursday. This is a great opportunity for you to see their learning in our new Pr1me Maths programme as well as opportunities to see examples of students learning in literacy. Matua Adam and Whaea Glenys will also be available to help any families who have been able to access our HERO digital reporting platform and check in on curriculum progress and current achievement levels.

I hope you have a fun weekend ahead. And I will see you at Assembly at the end of next week.

Ngā mihi nui

Donna