Kia ora tātou, Talofa lava

We have had a few celebration weeks of late and, after a tumultuous year, it has been good to come together to celebrate some special occasions as a community. We have had two language rich weeks in Te Wiki o te Reo Māori, followed by Tongan Language Week last week. On both occasions we celebrated these weeks through dance, song and a wonderful cultural meal at lunchtime on the Friday. Thank you so much to the parents and whanau who spent time preparing the meals and bringing them into school – it was truly appreciated.

Today is Mercy Day – a day remembering the founding of the Mercy Order whose sisters were an enormous part of Catholic education in New Zealand for many years. And this week is also Mental Health Awareness Week. Every Wednesday morning for 45 minutes before school, our staff engage in professional development. Yesterday, we were fortunate to have Adrienne Buckingham from the NZ Institute of Wellbeing and Resilience speak to the staff about our own wellbeing. It is the old story of the oxygen mask – if we don’t have our own wellbeing sorted as adults first, we are not going to be able to fully support the young people around us who rely on us.

It is good to be back at Level 1 and have the ability to bring back in some of our calendared events. The Year 7&8s have competed in a netball and rugby festival this week – with supporters present for a change! – and they came home with some very good placings. We have our Dunedin Co-ed sports tournament today and tomorrow we are pleased to be able to carry on with our school swimming sports. We are also calendaring a new date for Kavanagh Day in term 4; along with the wonderful weather in the last few days, this is a very satisfying way to finish the term. We look forward to following the successes of the Boys’ and Girls’ Senior A Basketball teams as they compete in the South Island Invitational Tournament in Christchurch during the holidays. This is a pleasing opportunity after the national tournament, and the opportunity for the girls to defend their national title, was cancelled.

I wish all our staff, students and their families a couple of weeks of quieter time with plenty of rest and family time and ‘recharging of the batteries’ ready for an exciting and busy term four.

Ngā manaakitanga

Theme for 2020: ‘Ahakoa he iti he pounamu’

(Do the little things well)