E te whānau, tēnā koutou katoa,

What a fantastic past week at KNS.

A huge thank you Naomi Lane and Belinda Robins for their amazing work with last week’s, KNS Spring Pop-up Gala 2022. They worked tirelessly in the months leading up to the gala; I am very appreciative of their leadership, can-do attitude, commitment and good-humour in the face of the ‘occasional challenge’.

I had the privilege of attending and speaking at the Team Totara, Year 7 & 8, hui this morning. The hui started with a video of the Black Ferns’ haka following Saturday’s World Cup victory. We talked about how this group had transformed themselves through hard work, putting the team first and being prepared to take a risk in the last minute of the final.

I also spoke to Team Totara, about how proud I am of them and the wonderful role models they are. Two recent examples of this have been the Year 0 to Year 3 athletics yesterday and 'He Kaitiaki Tātou', last Friday. It is wonderful to see our older tamariki being so supportive of our younger ones. “At KNS we have a Tuakana/Teina approach – our older tamariki support and āwhina our younger tamariki.”

Another feature of the hui was the large number of our oldest students receiving awards across a range of national and international academic competitions and locally in the arts and sport. I always leave these hui with a sense that our children have a huge range of opportunities and that they are very well set up for college both, academically and as people with a strong set of values and a social conscience.

Thank you also to the parents/caregivers, who are supporting at this week’s Year 5 & 6 camps. We would be unable to offer these opportunities to our tamariki without your help. Judging by the smiling faces as the children boarded the buses, they are very grateful too.

A reminder to come along to Kathryn Burkett’s workshop on Wednesday 23 November, from 7.00pm to 8.30pm. Kathryn’s workshop will focus on ‘Building Resilience and Managing Anxiety – how to support children through change’, further details in this newsletter.

As always if you need any support or have any questions, please contact one of the Senior Leadership Team (SLT):

• Conrad Kelly ckelly@kns.school.nz
• James Appleton jappleton@kns.school.nz
• Phil McIntosh pmcintosh@kns.school.nz

Whakataukī o te wiki

• Ko te kairapu, ko ia te kite. He who seeks will find.

A thought to share with your children:

• “Practice isn’t the thing you do once you’re good. It’s the thing you do that makes you good.” (Malcolm Gladwell)

Ngā Mihi

Conrad Kelly

Principal