Kia ora koutou katoa. What a great day the Shore to Shore event was! Thank you to those who entered and helped us to be in the top 3 schools for entries. A Sports Distributor order form is on its way to school for us to choose free sports equipment! A huge thank you to Kylie Frost-Mackay and her family who set up and manned the Milford tent. While there were no sausages this year, the ice-blocks went down a treat. The event is being run at its usual time next year (March/April) so there is time to train for those competitive people. A massive congratulations to Joseph Hemphill who ran the 5.7km course, coming second in a time of 24.27! Awesome time Joseph!!

On Wednesday and Thursday this week the Year 6 students had two really fun EOTC days on the field with activities from Big Foot. These included rock climbing, orienteering, pancake making, and other activities. The children had a great time and it was instigated by the Year 6 teachers as a way of giving them something outdoors-based as their camp was canceled earlier in the year. A big thank you to the team, Bev Boyd, Sophie Magaraggia, Scott Polkinghorne, and Jessica Han, for all the organising and effort that went into this.

On Tuesday night I was at a fundraising evening with Nigel Latta (at WBHS) about anxiety and stress, particularly in our children. Nigel had some great messages (as you would expect) and one of the big ones was: Don’t let your children watch the news EVER!! His point was that the TV news is full of doom and gloom, is sensationalised, and doesn’t give hope. He actually said no one should watch the news ever, but as adults, we can deal with the messages better. His other messages were directly in line with The Resilience Project work we are doing. He said practicing mindfulness was crucial for all of us, as is exercise (even just a walk), sleep, good food, and connecting with others. Another key message was that while we can’t choose what happens to us, we can choose how we respond. I think this is really crucial to understand in these uncertain Covid-19 times when lockdowns and alert level changes can occur at any time. We can’t choose when these happen, but we can choose to respond with kindness, understanding of how others are feeling (empathy), and optimism (hope).

A big congratulations to our Year 3 and 4 gymnastics team who competed on Wednesday and won the North Harbour competition!

Next Friday we are not having a whole school assembly as is usual, as we are being treated to a Year 6 show in the morning. The school will be the audience, along with Year 6 parents who are also invited, as our students present this hour-long show. It will be so good to see their talents on the stage!

As this newsletter comes to you, we are awaiting an announcement on any change to the current alert levels. As we have done previously, we will let you know if this happens and what it means for our school.

Have a lovely weekend everyone!

Ngā manaakitanga

Sue Cattell

Principal