23 September 2022

Kia ora koutou BSDA school community

God is good - All the time! All the time - God is good! We have lots to praise God for this awesome term, it has been eventful, fun, authentic and quick. Our spiritual theme for this term has been focused on NBA - Never Be Afraid. We continue to build on connecting our school vision "Transforming lifelong learners as we seek God together" by strengthening our learning programmes/activities/events and interactions with one another so that this learning is visible for all, we transform our communities as agents of change and develop collective efficacy. 

As a school we use 'te whare tapa whā' framework as a guiding framework to ensure that we are strengthening the 4 pillars of our Hauora (wellbeing) and being intentional with our school-wide programmes so that our ākonga (students/learners) are experiencing and adding to their toolkit various ways to keep these pillars balanced.

As an illustration, we had incorporated 2 house challenge events where our houses rotated around stations to gain points. This activity covered all FOUR pillars in the framework. Another example is we have incorporated sport play this term where our classes learn the fundamentals of a particular sport such as Basketball or Tag for a 30min session each week with our sport coordinator. In the lead up to our termly week of worship we run student engagement programmes that include mentoring, choir, music lessons and bible studies (we even offer advance bible studies too). All these programmes are purposefully implemented to positively impact students outcomes and engagement. Our philosophy is to educate the whole learner.

SCHOOL BOARD UPDATE

We had our very first school board meeting on Tuesday 13 September via zoom since the new triennial began. Congratulations to Mr Tafa Fidow who has been elected as the Balmoral SDA school board's PRESIDING MEMBER (Board chair).  Our Proprietor Appointees are: Pr Vitalii and Ventoy. Our Parent Representatives are: Christine and Irene. Our Staff Representative is: Benetta. Our Board secretary is: Helaine.

RECAP OVER THE LAST 3 WEEKS

Week 7 (5/9/22 - 9/9/22)

We celebrated Tongan Language Week. Our teaching staff shared aspects of the Tongan culture throughout the week and we also flew the Tongan Flag on the school flagpole. At the end of the week we let the tamariki sample 'OTAI' that included some yummy tropical fruits and our growing Tongan community wore clothing that represented the kingdom of Tonga. Our senior ākonga went on an excursion to participate in 'photo chop' art workshop in Pakuranga and we also held a fundraiser for 'Wig Day Wednesday' and raised $64.50. This has been donated to the Child Cancer Foundation.

Week 8 (12/9/22 - 16/9/22)

We celebrated Te Reo Maori Language Week. We also held a House Challenge Event on the Wednesday where our 4 houses had to rotate around 4 stations participating in Maori games, songs, dance and training. Our winning house with the most points were the GREEN WOLVES that is captained by Freya.

Week 9 (19/9/22 - 23/9/22)

This is another checkpoint week where our ākonga reflect over their learning goals and targets. We had 2 sport tournaments take place where we took a selected group of senior ākonga for the SDA Basketball tournament where our Year 7/8 team placed 2nd and our Year 5/6 placed 4th. We also took a selected group of Year 5 ākonga to participate in the Auckland Christian Schools Cross Country event. Our male representative placed 5th overall and our two female representatives placed 16th and 17th overall. Well done to all our tamariki giving it a go. We have been preparing for our community church event that will take place tomorrow at Royal Oak SDA church. All our tamariki are playing a part in this special programme. We are looking forward to seeing our BSDA school community in attendance as our ākonga share Jesus through worship.

SCHOOL CALENDAR

As of 23/9/22, take note of Week 10 events and our term 4 dates.

Regularly visit our school website www.balmoralsda.school.nz and school Facebook to keep updated with our school events.

Ngā mihi

Mrs Mary Brown

Tumuaki/Principal