Kia ora e te whānau,

It has been a busy and exciting couple of weeks at school, with lots of things going on. All hubs have been out of school this week on inquiry trips, making use of fantastic local resources such as Wellington Museum and Capital E. Our gymnastics sessions have also been ongoing this week, with all ākonga having had their first three gym sessions. It is wonderful to see our hall finally being used again for PE and movement, and it’s great to have the space to do this.

We are also seeing the hall being put to good use by our performance kapa haka group on Wednesdays. We have 106 ākonga in our performance group across the school, and they are in the final stages of preparing for the St Brigid’s Kapa Haka Festival on Saturday 16th September. They are sounding amazing, and having our hall as a space where they come together and practice is fantastic.

Our hall will get yet further use next week as we have Tāonga Tākaro join us for two days of Māori traditional games. All ākonga across the school will spend time with this group, learning a range of traditional games. We were originally hoping to do this as part of the lead up to Matariki this year, but we wanted to ensure we had access to the hall in case of poor weather, so held off until we knew we would have our hall available.

Alongside this, I would like to celebrate all of our kaiako who have been involved with additional learning in te reo Māori this year. The Ministry of Education offers a range of free te reo Māori programmes available for school staff, and this year eleven of our kaiako have been on a learning programme outside of school to increase their te reo knowledge. The Takatū course that most of our staff have taken is just coming to an end for the year, although we still have some mahi kāinga (homework) to complete! The learning has been invaluable, and it is great to hear the increase in te reo being used on a daily basis across the school, as kaiamahi (staff members) become more confident and knowledgeable in their use of reo. Schools receive a small payment for each kaimahi who participates in a Ministry-run course, and this money has been used to fund Tāonga Tākaro coming into school to run the traditional games with our tamariki.

Finally, I have spoken with several parents over the last couple of weeks who have talked about finding it difficult to chat with their child about how their day at school went. We’ve all been there with whānau, where you ask them how their day was and they just say “fine” or “boring”. If you ask a follow up question about what they did at school, you may get “stuff” or “nothing” as a reply. It can be hard for children to answer really broad questions such as ‘how was your day?’, especially if they haven’t yet decompressed from the day. Giving them time to relax from the day and wind down, and asking more specific and light hearted questions may yield more information about how your child is feeling and how their day went. Here are some questions that may get them talking a bit more freely, although there is a huge range of great questions or conversation starters. 

- Tell me about the best part of your day.

- What was the hardest thing you had to do today?

- Tell me about something you read in school today.

- Which kids were sitting near you at lunch eating time today?

- What was the most interesting thing someone said to you today?

- Who did you like talking to the most?

- Did you get any compliments today? Did you give any compliments today?

- What made you smile today?

- What was something funny that happened?

- What was something that surprised you today?

- What was the easiest thing you did today?

- What was the most fun today?

- When did you feel most bored?

- When did you feel most wriggly today?

- Who brought the best brain break snack today?

- Is there anything from your day that you want some help with?

- Was anything annoying?

- Who did you play with today?

- Who was kind to you today? Who were you kind to today?

However you choose to spend your time, enjoy your weekend with whānau and friends. Hei tērā wiki, see you next week.

Ngā mihi, 

Urs Cunningham