Talofa lava! Firstly I hope you are all safe and well during this lock down. Here is an update and some announcements.

Home Learning
As I mentioned in my email to you last week, it is a stressful time for many and then having to think about how your children are learning can add to that stress. It might be heartening to know that many of my colleagues have been working hard from home to ensure that our students have plenty of work to access from home. I hope this is helping and that your children are able to access the work.
Also good to note that the work set up is there to facilitate students learning at home, please remind them not to panic or be overwhelmed with getting it all done.

Student Support
If you would like to talk to Miss Kavanagh during the school closure, please email her at kg@hornby.school.nz. Let Miss K know some times that you are available. Miss K will then send you a Google Calendar Invite for the time that she is free to work with you. You will then have a video session on Google Meet. As I mentioned above, this can be a stressful time for many, we just hope that students are able to talk to someone during this time.

Prefect Message and Positive Ways To Connect
Many of you will have seen the awesome work from our prefect team. Their message last week was a timely reminder for our students to stay connected in a positive way. This is just another awesome display of the aroha and heart this school has for all of our members.
I am working on positive ways our students and community can stay connected, keep watching our schools facebook page as details come out about a "Hornby's Got Talent Lock Down Edition".

Stepping Down as Kāhui Dean
Next I would like to announce that I have officially finished as Kāhui Dean of Riroriro. When I agreed to take up the position of Kāhui Dean it was in an interim role for Term 1 this year. It has been an amazing experience. Despite deaning for the past 5 years, I have never worked with Year 7/8 students. This has been one of the highlights of this term. Another highlight is working with staff I have not worked with before and I have come to know so many wonderful students. One of the best moments of the term was to see Riroriro dominate on athletics day, it was such a great day to be part of. With all that said, I would like to announce to you that Katie Tozer will take over as Kāhui Dean for Riroriro. Katie has been great to work with, her genuine care for our students learning and well being is amazing to see. I know she is very keen to take on this role and I look forward to seeing her take this next step in her career. 

So thank you for your support to all the families, and to all whom I had the pleasure to meet. A massive thank you to Whāea Jo, Mr Stock, Mrs Allan-Fletcher, Ms Tozer and Ms Bremner for all their amazing work as Wānanga Advisers. I know they will continue their amazing work to make Wānanga as impactful as possible.

To all the great students in Riroriro whom I have had the pleasure of getting to know this term, thank you all for your Commitment, Achievement, Respect, and Resilience. You have made this term for me, kept me on my toes, made me smile and given me a lot of joy. I am still around so please come and say hi and let me know how it is all going! I will now pass on to Ms Tozer to introduce herself as she starts her new role. Thank you.

Kia ora koutou,

My name is Katie Tozer and I am stepping into the role of Riroriro Kāhui Dean from the start of Term Two. 2020 is my sixth year at Te Huruhuru Ao O Horomaka and I absolutely love teaching here! It has been an exciting year so far with our new wānanga groups, hurumanu classes, and such exciting events. When we return, I look forward to getting to know more of our wonderful rangatahi and continuing to build strong partnerships with all whānau.

Take care and see you all soon!

Ngā mihi,Katie Tozer.