Kia ora koutou to all our school families and friends

This is an exciting time of the year with our Ski trip, sports finals, Polyfest preparation, Winter Sports Week and many other activities taking place. We applaud the parents and extended families who get the students (and themselves) out and about to sports fixtures, including coaching, umpiring, refereeing and supporting. Equally exciting are our cultural activities and here again, meal schedules, transport, costuming, instruments and tuition, calendar juggling and advice from family and extended family are vitally important in making these events happen.

School activities are extremely important for student wellbeing and in fact are shown to increase achievement performance in academic work. Being involved in school and community activities is good for physical health, good for mental health, good for time management and great for developing social skills. Being in teams and groups increases connection with school and keeps young people fit and busy, preparing them for contributing and participating in their adult lives. It also creates connection across year levels which fosters tuakana-teina relationships and support for the young person. On Monday I attended the final of the B Hockey Team and was so impressed by the team culture and good sportsmanship displayed by players, supporters and coaches alike.

In 2023 it will be a requirement to be involved in one Summer and one Winter activity and this will be checked in whānau class and mentoring and followed up by deans. There is a data pattern at school that shows that students not involved in school activities are showing higher referrals, lower academic achievement, less connection and more involvement in borderline activities, both outside school. Get amongst the 32 sports, nearly 20 cultural activities and other groups and clubs that meet at lunchtime or before and after school. Your school donation supports all of these activities in our school, so thank you for contributing in this way. There is still time to pay this to the school office for 2022 and information is contained in this newsletter. Many students are also involved in sports outside of school such as Surf Lifesaving and Weightlifting and this also fosters community links and we like to celebrate these successes of our students in school as well.

Equally important are service activities and these include the Student Volunteer Army Programme, the Global Leadership Programme and the Hilary Award. We will be promoting these programmes in the coming months. This week of special note in the sports and arts fields are Catherine Lund’s much anticipated Australian cross-country race in Adelaide and 2021 graduate Gabi Summerfield’s receipt of the prestigious SixSixty Music Scholarship at the University of Otago. We look forward to following your progress in these fields.

Thank you for your continuing support of school activities that results in well-rounded, high achieving, well-organised and well-balanced young people, who go out into the world prepared to participate and contribute.

Nāu te rourou, nāku te rourou, ka ora ai te iwi

With your food basket and my food basket the people will thrive

This whakatauki talks to community, to collaboration and a strengths-based approach. It acknowledges that everybody has something to offer, a piece of the puzzle, and by working together we can all flourish.