Tena koutou nga whanau, nga mihi nui ki a koutou katoa. 

Diamond Harbour School has been a hive of activity this week. We are all on track for the Twilight Fair and are looking forward to a fabulous evening. Make sure you are hungry when you come along as there is a scrumptious range of food for sale. 

Preparation for events such as this are a valuable opportunity for children to contextualise their learning - multiplication and division facts have real purpose when used in a ‘real world’ context. Understandings about proportion are used when scaling up a recipe to cater for a large quantity and basic facts are used when calculating how many small pieces a large piece of dough needs to be divided into to create the correct number of bread rolls.  

It was a real pleasure today to attend the New Zealand Opera’s performance. This was a hugely enjoyable experience for adults and students alike. We are fortunate to have these opportunities to experience the diversity of The Arts.  Also today I received a warm welcome from students during the Pōwhiri. Thank you Niki for your organisation and thank you to those who spoke so kindly. It is fabulous to hear our young people speak and perform with such confidence.

Last Friday I attended New Zealand’s first Positive Education conference. There is a strong movement from the Ministry of Education and the Educational Review Office (more often known as ERO) to recognise the importance of wellbeing, both with regard to enabling our young people to achieve their goals, and to act as a protective factor against mild and moderate mental health concerns. I presented on my experiences as an educator during 2016 when I worked with Dr Lucy Hone, and a range of teachers, on wellbeing and character strengths in the classroom.

Wellbeing includes the acronym ‘PERMA’. This incorporates five key aspects  - Positive emotions, Engagement, Relationships, Meaning and Accomplishment - that enable us to flourish. These are present in the Diamond Harbour School values and by ensuring we use these as a strong foundation for our lives, both in and out of school, we will flourish, both as individuals, and as part of our community. As said in the New Zealand Curriculum, it is important we enable students to - “contribute to the wellbeing of New Zealand - social, cultural, economic and environmental.”

If you haven’t had a chance to participate in Term 1 policy review, please check the last newsletter as this contains all the details necessary for you to provide feedback.

Enjoy the rest of the week and we look forward to seeing you all at the Diamond Harbour School Twilight Fair.

Ngā mihi nui,

Jill