Encouraging and supporting our students to achieve. This week has seen the adventures of Year 5 at the Long Bay MERC camp on Monday and Tuesday. It has been both an opportunity for fun and learning, and for facing new and scary things for the students, parents and teachers.

I was so proud of our Milford School students as they took on new challenges such as staying away from home overnight, and participating in activities such as abseiling. Several of our students found the abseiling a little overwhelming, but with the whole Year 5 group cheering and supporting them from the bottom, they conquered their fears and abseiled down to their friends! It is heartening to see our group being so caring and helping each other when needed.

The two Learner Profile attributes of being a risk-taker and being caring will help our children throughout their lives.

Our ten Learner Profile attributes are:

• Knowledgeable

• Inquirer

• Communicator

• balanced

• Caring

• Reflective

• Risk-taker

• Thinker

• Principled

• Open-minded

It's great to talk about these attributes at home with your children and to help them identify opportunities to experience them in real life. Here's a great article about risk-taking for children in outdoor environments.

Congratulations to the Year 5 teachers, Grace Campbell, John Smallfield, Selina McDonald, and Scott Polkinghorne, for such a successful camp!

Our Tumuaki, Lucy Naylor has been in Wellington this week in her role as Vice President of the Auckland Primary Principals Association, advocating for our Auckland schools in terms of funding, property, and many other aspects of school needs; Speaking with the Minister of Education, CEO of the Education Review Office, the Acting Secretary of Education, the Director of Workforce, and the Director of Infrastructure. Working in a school gives Lucy and the APPA up-to-date experience and knowledge of the needs of schools, students, and communities, and they have a hugely important role in the future of education. We thank Lucy for working for our school and schools throughout Auckland.

After today, we have only five weeks until the end of Term, and what an action-packed five weeks they will be! 2024 has been a fantastic year for Milford School with more settled weather, opportunities for growth and development, and lots of learning. We are looking forward to celebrating our Year 6 students as they ready themselves for new schools in 2025, and today's non-uniform day is assisting us with that. The Year 6 team is fully involved in preparing for PYP Exhibition, with lots of student agency and research going on.

Have a lovely weekend and see you all next week.