Kia ora whānau

It has been a very busy and successful Term 3. My thanks to our wonderful staff, students and you, our community, for your support with the many school events we have had this term.

On the evening of 28 August, a number of us attended the annual Cantamath competition. It was a particularly exciting and nerve wracking time as our Year 7 and our Year 8 teams worked so hard with very challenging maths questions. In the final result our Year 7 team came second in the Year 7 competition and our Year 8 team won the Year 8 competition. We are so proud of all our students for their determination and persistence and of course their amazing maths ability. Huge thanks to their teacher, Rachel Bates, for her outstanding and inspiring teaching and preparation of our students for this incredibly challenging competition. Having outstanding ability in maths is only part of being so successful in this competition. Our students worked so well as a team under extreme pressure and just kept going. Well done to everyone involved and those who supported the teams.

The AIMS Games squad, made up of two team events and several individual competitors, were also extremely successful up in Tauranga in week 8. You will see an outline of their achievements in the newsletter. Congratulations to all the students in the girls’ hockey team for winning gold. None of this would be possible without the dedication and commitment from Tim Evers, our sports coordinator and basketball coach, Alex Seales, the hockey coach, Paula Doré and Jane Newton. Thank you to all the parents and supporters of our students along the journey to get to Tauranga and at the actual event.

Our Kapa haka did us proud at the Tūhono competition last Friday night. Our students won the Puti Trophy for the choral section of the competition and were second overall. Well done indeed to Chrissy Calder, Sonny and Tui our tutors for all their hardwork and belief in our students. We are very proud of all our students who were involved.

Thank you to Cathy Mundy, our ESOL coordinator, for organising a delicious shared cultural lunch for our students and families. Our cultural diversity adds a very special and rich dimension to our Heaton community and it was great to have this opportunity to celebrate this together.

It has been wonderful to see so many of our whānau at the Celebrations of Learning that have been held over the last two weeks. Again, there has been lots of hard work from our students and teachers.

There is an article from the PTA in this newsletter. We need more members so that the fundraising and other activities planned by them go ahead. The members of the PTA play a very important role in our Heaton community. They not only fundraise to help us to provide resources and opportunities for our students that we would not be able to provide, they are also a group of people I often consult or seek feedback about aspects of the school. There are only two short meetings to attend each term. The input from the PTA is very much appreciated in our school so please consider being a part of this team. It is a fun group and a great way to get to know others and contribute to our school.

I look forward to seeing you all in Term 4 after a very relaxing break.

Ngā mihi

Andrea Knight, Principal