Lydiard House News

Wow, suddenly it is the middle of the year! Where did Term 2 go? This term has been extremely busy with a number of events, disruptions and trips for many of our students. Lydiard House students have participated in the traditional Senior and Junior Winterfest inter-house sports competitions. Due to the laying fields being out of action for upgrades we changed the competition to mixed Netball which was taken to enthusiastically by our students. We competed very well in all games and they were played in great spirits. We ended up 3rd equal for the seniors and 5th for the juniors. While this wasn’t the level of results we were after we were competitive throughout. Our student leadership group were keen to change our House assemblies into something more fun and we ran a “catch the marshmallow” and class Dodgeball competitions.

Term 3 will see a change in focus for House competitions away from sporting events to cultural endeavors and Fundraising events. Lydiard House will again support the Blind Foundation Guide Dog Services charity by fundraising on July 26th. We will be holding an Eating Competition and seeking to raise money toward training a guide dog as has been traditional for Lydiard House since 2007. House choir competition will take place on August 16th and many of our students will put in weeks of practice before this. Public Speaking competitions and general knowledge quiz’s will also take pace in Term 3.

Term 3 is always a busy one for teaching and learning too. The school examinations will be starting on the week commencing Monday 16th September [Week 9]. The seniors also will be having a busy term with their internal assessments. It’s really important that the students seek to have a balance in their lives leading up to these events. Student well-being is all about feeling good and being able to function well. Too often I have been hearing stories of students “burning the candle at both ends” and having to stay up till midnight [or later] for internal assessments that have had ample class time to work on them. In order to present their best work it is important that students plan their time in order to meet school deadlines as well as ‘have a life’ outside of school.

I am leaving Rangiora High School at the end of this term and I have very mixed feelings about moving on to a new adventure and leaving our Lydiard family. We are moving to take up a 2 year teaching contract at the International school of Yangon in Myanmar. I am delighted to announce that Miss Kaylee Dawson, currently Form Teacher of one of our Lydiard Year 11 classes will be taking over the Head of House position in Term 3. Kaylee will be an excellent Head of House and we are lucky to have her leading our Lydiard whanau. I would like to thank our student group, especially the leadership executive, for their support and efforts over the last year and a half. I look forward to keeping in contact and seeing the achievements of Lydiard House into the future.

Regards,

Ian Johnson