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Principal’s Message

Sue Cattell —

Kia ora koutou katoa. We often talk about the many opportunities our children receive, opportunities that are many and varied. One such amazing opportunity happened last weekend for our dance group who performed with the Auckland Symphony Orchestra at the Bruce Mason Centre for the Last Night of the Proms. From the dancing, to their appearance, to the way they smiled and were fully engaged, to their manners and respectfulness backstage, I was so proud to be there and know they were from Milford School.

This week I have also had emails from others, both involved, and in the audience, to congratulate the school. Thank you to these twelve girls, Maria, Xanthe, Katelyn, Esther, Lily, Addison, Georgia, Olive, Arden, Louisa, McKenzie and Piper, and to Ms Paula Snowball and Ms Eugenie Middleton for all their hard work to bring the group to this outstanding standard.

We are just finishing the second week of our four-week trial of Play, Eat, Learn – the new lunchtime routine. We will continue this until the end of the term and will then make a decision, based on feedback from all stakeholders (teachers, students, parents and whanau), as to whether this is our new normal or not. If you have any feedback, please email your child’s teacher, or one of the Deputy Principals (Sara Baker or Nicola Hewitt).

We have been trialling Linewize in our school, which is a multi-layered system that tracks what our students are doing online while they are using their school email address, whether this be at home or elsewhere. We have now committed to this programme as it is imperative that we know what our young people are being exposed to or accessing. Linewize has three parts – the individual student, the classroom and home. As I mentioned, we have started with the classroom and individual aspects, and will hold a community meeting early in Term 3 to explain how you can use this at home to keep your children safe online. Technology is an amazing tool, however our children do need to be safe.

Speaking of next term, I have been lucky enough to have been awarded a Ministry of Education Sabbatical for next term. This means that I have all of Term 3 away from school inquiring into an area of educational leadership, while our Deputy Principals lead the school in my absence. This is a very exciting opportunity for me, although I know I will miss the daily interactions I have with the students, staff and parents.

A reminder that there is no whole-school assembly today, and that next Friday, Friday 2 July, is a teacher only day, so please make sure you have made arrangements for your child to be cared for that day. I also hope you have booked your parent/teacher/student meetings that will be held on Wednesday 7 July. School sessions finish at 12.30pm that day so meetings can start from 1pm, so please also ensure your child is picked up at that time (or you have arranged for them to go to SKIDS). A letter explaining the meetings and containing the booking information is here.

Have a lovely weekend!

Ngā manaakitanga

Sue Cattell

Principal