Kia ora e te whānau

Today the teachers took part in professional development in mathematics with Rob Proffitt-White. Rob comes highly recommended across NewZealand and Australia in his approach to helping students learn maths. We are very excited to be benefitting from his knowledge this year. Rob commented to us several times about how our teaching methods are already ahead of many other schools because of our knowledge in 'Developing Mathematical Inquiry Communities' (DMIC) already. We have been using DMIC as an approach for the past 6 years here at Hornby Primary.

Hello Hornby at the weekend was a wonderful opportunity for so many of our tamariki to showcase their Kapahaka, Bollywood and Pasifika expertise. They all performed so well. Didn't they make us proud? Thank you to the wonderful teachers who helped them be so polished in their performances.

This week, a group of 8 tamariki contributed their thoughts to a think tank about a new local skatepark. It was great for some of our local children to be able to contribute to the planning.

Gymnastics lessons continued this week. The children are enjoying the challenges.

Monday of this week was the final touch game for the season. I went to watch and was once again impressed by the team work and good sports personship of our touch team. A big thanks to Whaea Chloe for organising and coaching this team.

This week we had our Duffy Hero assembly. The children were most impressed with the author, Dahlia Malaeulu. "Dahlia Malaeulu is a Samoan New Zealander with connections to the villages of Sinamoga and Vaivase tai in Samoa. She is an award-winning author, publisher and creator of Mila’s Books – Pasifika children’s books that help tamaiti to be seen, heard and valued as Pasifika." (Read NZ Te Pou Muramura)

Dahlia was thrilled that she was thanked in Samoan by two of our students.

Yesterday was Whānau House Day. The children and staff dressed up in their whānau colours. Each year level had a 'best dressed' winner.

The children have been collecting their tohu for showing our school values. The tohu box is full and next week each team is going to Mega Air in Hornby as a celebration of contributing towards achieving something together.

Thank you for looking after our children's safety by not parking in the staff or visitor car parks. There has been a huge improvement. The park behind the library/swimming pool is only a couple of minutes away, you are encouraged to use that.

At last week's board meeting, our longstanding and incredibly supportive presiding member (chairperson), Brent Heslop, stood down as PM. Brent will continue to support the Board until the elections in September. Brent has been a promoter of the school and supporter of the principal for many years. I have certainly appreciated his calm manner, knowledge about the school and his availability. Thank you Brent for all of your contributions to Hornby Primary. Your service has run deep and wide for this community. Tracey Marsh steps up as Presiding Member until the elections. We welcome Nick Welsh who has been seconded to the board.

We have engaged the company Schooled to manage our board elections. More information to follow.

Have a wonderful weekend.

Maire