Kia ora whānau

Welcome back everyone and a special welcome to our new families/whānau. It was great to meet so many new parents/whānau to our school on our “meet the teacher” afternoon and at the morning tea on the first day back. Thank you very much to the PTA for organising this opportunity for us to start to make connections with each other- delicious food too!

Thank you so much to Kane Crossan who spoke on behalf of the manuhiri at our Mihi Whakatau. It was awesome to see so many families/whānau participating in this very special and moving welcome to our school.

We are coming to the end of our second week back at school for 2019. It has been a very good start. Our Year 7 and Year 8 students demonstrated that they understand what it means to be a Heaton student at our first whole school assembly by listening and participating in a considerate and respectful way.

The transition from Year 6 to Year 7 and a new school for many students is straightforward. On the first day, new students feel a combination of anxiety and excitement but they quickly develop a sense of belonging and make new friends. Others take a bit longer and need more support from us all. If your child is expressing concerns about school please talk to their class teacher as the first port of call. Our teachers are doing many things to support and develop that sense of belonging for each of our students but appreciate feedback if there are concerns. The Fun Morning, we had last Friday is a school wide event to support a sense of belonging. Thank you to Tim Evers and all our teachers for the organisation of this popular morning.

I am very pleased to welcome 3 new teachers to our team this year: Helen Schulte, Year 7 teacher Room 3; Alex Seales, Year 7 teacher Room 21 and Aine Elliott our ICT co-lead teacher. We are excited to have you join us and look forward to getting to know you all.

Ngā mihi

Andrea Knight, Principal