Pai tū, Pai hinga, Nāwai rā, Ka oti
Meagan Kelly - October 25, 2022
Term Four is always a bit of a blur, with school staff thinking a lot about wrapping up all of our projects and goals despite still having a quarter of the year left to go. Kaiako are already framing up their end of year reports; the Board is already thinking about our strategic goals for 2023; and I am knee deep in draft budgets, staffing and class structure.
Then there are all of the school events! In the first week of term, we hosted a maths workshop (more about this below) and some senior students and I attended the opera at the Isaac Theatre Royal. In the second week, there was the Netsafe Oneline Safety workshop at St Martins School, a Board meeting and a whānau Māori and Pacifica hui; we had Antarctica NZ onsite giving VR tours and information; Food for Thought visited Pīwakawaka for their first nutrition session and we held our whole school athletics on Thursday.
And, as this is being published, the Pikelets are tramping out of Woolshed Creek at Mt Somers!
There are lots of things on the calendar, so take note and plan to join us when you can.
School Donations
Ka mihi nui ki a koutou | acknowledgements to those who paid part or all of their school donation this year. I know that times are tough at the moment and we truly appreciate the support. Your school donation helps us ensure access to high quality teaching and learning, and current resources here at school.
Our Operational Grant for 2023 has come in around $166k. While regular teacher salaries are paid centrally, the ops grant needs to include all staffing (learning assistants, office managers, relief teachers), any property maintenance (lawn mowing, grounds keeping), device leases, language provision, things like the photocopier and updated reading books, staff training and development, first aid courses... Rates, electricity, and repairs... to name a few of our budget items!
Netsafe's Online Safety Workshop
Last week, I attended this workshop at St Martins School. It was great to see a gaggle of Governors Bay whānau there! Paula from Netsafe was really engaging with lots of real world stories and ideas for keeping our kids safe online.
What really stuck out for me was "the discrepancy between the amount of time we spend online vs the amount of time we talk about being online." Paula shared this analogy: We kit our kids up with a helmet and knee pads, check that all the components are working on their bike, and hold the seat until they can balance on their own - and yet we let them use our phones without teaching them what to do if they see something that scares them or makes them uncomfortable. She talked about hearing parents almost boast about kids knowing "intuitively" how to use a device and navigate around the internet. Danger! Danger!
You can download the parent toolkit here.
Paula also reminded us about the internet filters available for free from the Ministry of Education. You can Switch on Safety here to help keep our tamariki safe online.
The stats about children seeing porn - on purpose or not - are sobering:
In 2018, a New Zealand study found 75% of boys and 58% of girls had watched pornography and 25% of boys aged 17 years old watched regularly. 71% of young people in New Zealand have discovered pornography by accident and 25% of those who have watched pornography were exposed at 12 years or younger. (Retrieved on 26.10.22 from Health Navigator)
If you're up for a heartfelt and hard hitting TEDx talk about the research into and impact of porn (and why we need to talk to our young people about it), watch Jo Robertson's talk here.
Jo Robertson is also involved in The Light Project. "The project was set up in response to the changing online porn landscape and the absence of any information, support or resources for young people in Aotearoa. The project aims to help equip youth, their whānau and communities to build porn literacy and positively navigate the new porn landscape."