Kia ora whānau

As you read this newsletter, like all our newsletters, you will see that our students participate and compete in a very wide range of events. It is one of the great things about being an intermediate school. When I comment on some of these events in my part of the newsletter, I know I am only touching the surface. Thank you so much to all our fantastic teachers and parents who go the extra mile to provide these wonderful opportunities for our students.

Congratulations to the waterpolo team who played incredibly well in the B Grade Canterbury Championships and finished with a much deserved second place. Very special thanks to Mandy Anderson and Jess Aitken for all their wonderful support.

Congratulations also to the Heaton Jump Jam team who competed at the Nationals in Auckland last weekend. The team performed for the school at our last assembly and were amazing. I know they worked very, very hard with their routine and they looked spectacular as well. Thank you very much to Jenny Halligan and her team of parents for all their time and organisation.

I thoroughly enjoyed another amazing Christchurch Music Festival. Our students were very well represented in various special groups, the mass choir and one was an MC. Thank you very much to Janiene Hill and Richard Oswin for the preparation that was needed in order to achieve such wonderful performances.

A first for us this year, instigated and organised by our teacher Boss Phanpho, was the Global Cardboard Challenge. I have never seen so many creative and imaginative models all made from cardboard. What a wonderful way to demonstrate the principles of sustainability in a real life and fun context. It was also great to see so many parents coming to have a look.

Parents/whānau/families are always very welcome at any of our school events. Check the calendar and newsletter for details about what is coming up.

Recently Jason Naidoo and I attended a day long seminar in Auckland on Student Well Being. The necessity for our young people to develop the skills and attitudes needed to become resilient individuals has never been greater. The more resilient a person is, the more he or she can cope and bounce back from setbacks and the challenges that life throws at all of us from time to time. Like many schools now, we are focused on supporting, in many different ways, the embedding of resilience skills and attitudes. Some examples that we know are important are: having a high attendance rate at school, feeling a sense of belonging and being valued in their class as individuals and in the wider school, participating in a range of extracurricular activities, having positive and supportive relationships with friends, constructively managing conflict and having a voice in their learning. 

Nga mihi

Andrea Knight, Principal