Kia ora koutou

Our thoughts are with friends and family in the North Island as they recover from tumultuous events this week.

At assembly this week I gave this speech, unpacking our school values. Please discuss and reinforce the school values at home so that students are clear about their importance.

We are a PB4L school. At our school, Kia Whakaute - Respect - is at the heart of everything we do. We look after each and every student, teacher and staff member and recognise the strengths that every person brings to this school. All people - no matter how different to ourselves, no matter how annoying their mannerisms, no matter what their background, deserves respect and has something to offer in this school. Every person deserves to have their mana upheld, to have a safe and inclusive place to learn, to be considered, understood and included.

Kia Pono - Integrity - means doing the right thing. It means following the school behaviour expectations, it means wearing your blazer, it means following the phone guidelines - and may I congratulate the junior school in particular for your wonderful start with our phone free junior school policy - and it means listening to and learning from your teachers.

Positivity - Kia Hihiri - is about embracing your school culture, your school spirit and acting as kaitiaki of this school for the people who have gone before you - and those that will follow. It means getting up and going to school when you feel overwhelmed or anxious, it means giving everything on the sports field, it means going out of your comfort zone to join a choir or production, it means smiling and saying Hiya, Hey - or whatever version of that you use - in the corridor.

What PB4L really means is that we focus on learning and in order to do the learning, classrooms must be settled and orderly, free of disruption or discord. It means developing strategies for getting through the less engaging or repetitive necessary learning and to look ahead at the long term plan, rather than focussing on the current moment. Lift your head high in your learning. Stand proud in your school and when you represent your school in town, go forward confidently. Believe in yourself. You will indeed succeed if you embrace the PB4L values here at school.

In the wonderful tradition of PB4L I will now read the ‘Bucket Story’.

Have You Filled a Bucket Today?