A huge thank you to those of you who came to the Meet the Teacher evening on Wednesday. We have a fantastic turn out, and I am sure it wasn’t just the lure of a glass of wine upon arrival! Thank you to the FOMS (Friends of Milford School) who supplied the wine and greeted you at the door.

It you missed the introduction in the hall, I have linked my talk here.

I am sure you will have heard about the excitement of the opening of our new senior (Years 3-6) playground this week. I was out there as the children excitedly ran to it in droves. It looks great, and has some challenging parts that children have commented are really fun. When you see the children on it, it is obvious how much it develops strength and agility. Thank you to the Board and the FOMS (formerly PTA) for coming together to give us this playground which I know will be well used for years to come.

As part of our well-being focus we are very excited that we have been selected to be one of four schools that the Tanya Dalton Foundation is working with to bring The Resilience Project to NZ. This project is in over 500 Australian schools as well as throughout Australian Cricket, Netball, Soccer, NRL and AFL teams. It focuses on the teaching of GEM - Gratitude, Empathy and Mindfulness. The Resilience Project’s founder, Hugh van Cuylenburg is coming to NZ to launch this with the four schools (Belmont Primary, Forrest Hill Primary, TNIS and us) during the first week of March. To hear more about this project, I strongly encourage you to attend the parent information evening which will be held at TNIS on Thursday 4 March at 7pm. It is for parents from all four schools. Having heard Hugh speak, he is dynamic and certainly worth attending. Hugh will hold presentations to the staff and also the students during that week.

We have a Te Reo tutor who comes to our school, Matua Maru, who works with our Year 3,4 and 6 classes. He is now also offering after-school Te Reo classes at our school for parents. He says, “As parents of our school many of you would be aware that we have a Te Reo Tuatahi māori language tutor who comes into the school on Thursdays to teach te reo māori. In our efforts to promote the normalisation and revitilisation of te reo māori we would like to extend an opportunity for parents to learn alongside their tamariki by taking part in our the after-school programme – Te Reo Whānau. The after-school programme would be on Thursday and start at 3.15pm sharp. This will allow parents that are keen to participate time to collect their child/children and make their way to the designated classroom. These lessons will be 45 minutes long 3.15pm – 4pm. Your children are welcome to attend with you.Last year this programme was trialled in a few primary schools and has proved to be very successful. The lessons are designed as a starting point - an introduction to learning te reo māori. You will be learning everything your child is learning at school (and more....) which means that you and your child can practice te reo māori in the home! The cost is $10 per week for the 8 weeks of Term 1, starting next Thursday, 20 February. This $80 will need to be paid in advance at the school office.” This is a great opportunity!

Today is our Mufti day, raising funds for our Australian primary schools affected by the bushfires. Thank you to all who have given so generously tor this appeal.

Today is also the first of our year-level assemblies for the year, and you are all welcome to attend. It starts at 2.15pm in the school hall and today is led by the Year 6 team.

Have a lovely weekend everyone!

Ngā mihi

Sue Cattell

Principal