It is hard to believe we are halfway through 2020! It has been an interesting Term 2 for the school with Covid-19 lockdown changing the way our school operates. However, both staff, parents and students adapted extremely well to this new ‘bubble’ environment, considering it was new to us all. Thanks for your patience and support during this time.

We welcome Haidee Tiffen as the new Kauri Dean whilst Sarah Nicholas is on maternity leave. Congratulations to Sarah on the birth of her beautiful baby son, Jasper.

We would like to congratulate the new House leaders for 2020. They are Katelin Nelson for Rimu, Katie Reeve for Kauri, Sasha Kerrigan for Totara and Justin Meyers for Matai.

Along with the Head Students and a number of staff and student volunteers, we have begun running a Breakfast Club for everyone in A1 from 8am-8.45am every school day. We have already seen a lot of support from students, parents and Satisfy Food Rescue with supplying foods for these breakfasts. A big thanks to them for their support. We are hoping that this continues to grow throughout the year to support our students to have a positive start to the day. We are hoping that all students will make the most of this wonderful opportunity.

The House Captains had some exciting plans in the making for some new house challenges. Unfortunately, due to some restrictions, the challenges have been run on a smaller scale. Rimu and Matai House Captains organised a ‘guess the teacher baby photo’ competition in tutor time. We had a whopping 23 baby photo entries. The results were extremely close and they were as follows: 1st-Rimu, 2nd-Matai, 3rd-Kauri, 4th-Totara. Well done to Rimu for taking out the first House Challenge for the year.

June 26th brings our second house challenge during Tutor time. A quiz developed by the Kauri and Totara House leaders will be run, with the questions covering most curriculum areas. Results will be shared with staff and students during the final week of the term.

Next term brings us back to full-scale challenges. Something exciting that the school can look forward to, competing as a whole community after a period of ‘bubbles’ and ‘new normals’.

We look forward to the planning and competition these challenges bring between the houses.