Welcome back everyone after our second lockdown of the year. I can honestly say that we are all thrilled to be back at Konini working with your children - long may that last!

In the last newsletter I sent out before we moved to Alert Level 3 I shared a pretty impressive list of all the exciting things your children can take part in at Konini. Many of these activities take part during break times.

The staff and I all recognise the importance of ensuring all our learners have plenty of time to play freely with friends and classmates and are always looking at ways to enhance the free play opportunities we can offer. One way we do this is by not saying no (well, in most cases) when some of the learners approach staff with an initiative or a request. Some examples of pupil driven initiatives include; 

• The Lunch Time Harry Potter Club
• Beyblade Club
• Yu-Gi-Oh Club
• Drawing Club

Some of these clubs started off with a hiss and a roar before the wave of enthusiasm passes. Sometimes they start up again. The way we look at student driven initiatives is to encourage enthusiasm and assist with planning. When a learner approaches a member of staff with an idea, we listen, we encourage and we give them some guidelines to go away and think about. If they are really keen and display a bit of initiative and perseverance we meet up with the pupils again to formulate some ground rules. This helps to iron out potential problems before the club starts. Here's an example of the latest request for a pupil initiated club at Konini.

Like I mentioned earlier - we try not to say no. Good on you Valentine and Kobe for initiating the first kid driven play initiative of the year. I now have requests for a scooter club. Watch this space.

Ngā manaakitanga

Andrew