From the 8th - 10th of July, our Head of Department of PE, Health and Outdoor Education, Emma Don attended the national PENZ, NZHEA and EONZ conference, hosted by Queen Margaret College in Wellington.

Emma led a professional development workshop on her Feel Good Friday initiative she runs in Friday staff briefing, supporting our teaching and support staff with wellbeing and giving them the tools to develop wellbeing in their classrooms. Feel Good Friday is Emma's way of sharing the latest information, updates, initiatives and classroom resources in relation to Wellbeing. It was lovely to have a variety of primary, secondary and tertiary colleagues attend this professional development session. All attendees were actively sharing and contributing what their schools do to work on and further develop staff wellbeing. A number of North Island schools were in attendance so we could share resources and discuss what works well for our educational settings and what could be improved. Emma shared a number of the activities she has utilised with staff, with the aim that each person in attendance could take something away to use in their own schools to enhance wellbeing. From the conference, it is clearly evident that many schools are actively working on staff and student wellbeing but in numerous different ways, some schools are nailing it and some schools are still finding their way. It is heartening to see we are well on the way here at Oxford. It was also a fantastic opportunity to attend many different professional learning workshops and hear a number of keynote speakers, one highlight being the chief censor and what he had to say about the media in New Zealand and the work he does keeping our young people safe from digital harm. This conference is a chance to build on our PE, Health and Outdoor Education teaching and learning programmes here at school as we look into the future. A huge thanks to NZHEA - New Zealand Health Education Association for the sponsorship to attend conference.

‘Kia atawhai, no te mea, kei te whawhai nga tangata katoa, e tutaki ana koe.’ 

Be kind, for everybody you meet is fighting a hard battle.