Kia ora koutou

Happy Chinese New Year and this year is the year of the Fire Horse! This week we celebrated the multi-cultural and international life of the school, introducing our new International Students at assembly and enjoying a Chinese Lion Dance by Jennifer Coultas and Jacqueline Liu. The cultural knowledge, perspectives and insights which come to us from around the Globe enrich our lives and add to our own understanding of the World.  

Well done to all of our Year 9s and accompanying staff who attended camp this week at Tirohanga. I was fortunate to spend the day out there on sunny Wednesday and walk to the bivouac making site, witness the Peer Support activities and talk with our new students. They are impressing me greatly with demonstrating our school values of respect, positivity and integrity.

It was also wonderful to welcome our Pacific students and extended families on Monday evening. Our evening was supported by catering from the Pacfic Health Science Academy. The message was clear that our Pacific students have powerful futures and opportunities in front of them and the home-school partnership is key to this.

This week we look forward to seeing parents of Years 10-13 for our Student Learning Conferences on Thursday. Attendance is at the forefront of these conversations and lays the best foundation for achievement and success. Students’ attendance must be above 90% for them to have the educational outcomes that they deserve. 

At this point in the middle of the term please ensure students have the basic routines in place, including fresh air, exercise, good nutrition and sleep, adequate hydration, homework, social media and digital self-regulation and forward planning. When these things are in place students feel secure and motivated in their studies. 

"In the long-run (and often in the short-run), your willpower will never beat your environment. The more disciplined your environment is, the less disciplined you need to be. Don't swim upstream."

James Clear - Atomic Habits

Ngā mihi nui