Nau mai haere mai, nau mai hoki mai. Welcome to or welcome back to the Physical Education faculty.

PE and Health is compulsory for all Year 9 and 10 students and an optional subject in Years 11-13. PE is a PRACTICAL subject, therefore, students need to ensure that they have a change of PE gear to protect their school uniform from discolouration and to ensure that they are able to participate fully in the lesson. 

 Therefore, our PE uniform is the navy blue shirt and shorts and we would appreciate that whānau have purchased the uniform if your daughter is taking PE, Sport Leader or Sports Performance.  

Well done to 10 AKO (picture above) who are showing us how it is done.

This year, we welcome to the team Whaea Lisa (lduff@rghs.school.nz), Whaea Stacey (sbirch@rghs.school.nz) and Whaea Sophie (swilliams@rghs.school.nz), who are joining us to teach Junior PE and Health. Together with Mrs Northey (jnorthey@rghs.school.nz), Miss Ewert (jewert@rghs.school.nz), Ms Atutahi (pjennings@rghs.school.nz), Mrs Beamish (cbeamish@rghs.school.nz) and myself, Mrs Katu (ckatu@rghs.school.nz) we are the Physical Education faculty with our Sports Co-ordinator Mrs Holt (cholt@rghs.school.nz). 

 Please feel free to email us if there are any issues regarding your daughter/ward that we should be aware of - in particular, illnesses or injuries that may prevent her from participating.

We were disappointed to learn of some theft from the ARENA pertaining to students' belongings. These are and have always been our Faculty procedures for getting changed. This is the procedure across our faculty, so please ensure you are familiar with it and that you follow it no matter which teacher you have.

PE FACULTY PROCEDURES

1. Line up and wait outside for your teacher

2. You will have 5 minutes to get changed.
3. Put your phone in your bag, then place your shoes/uniform also in your bag, zip it up
4. Place bag into your locker
5. Your teacher will wait in the foyer and will lock after 5 mins
6. Any items that wont fit in the lockers - take to the location of where you are working eg. field or Arena

If you are late to class - follow steps 1-3 but then take your bag with you to the area where your class is working

NEVER LEAVE YOUR BAG IN THE CHANGEROOMS

Do this every time you have PE, even if you have a reliever.

We look forward to sharing what we are up to as the term progresses. We have a number of Education Outside the Classroom (EOTC) opportunities coming up and it is crucial that your daughter attends school to ensure that she prepares for the activity and that she attends the activity so that she can pass the associated assessment. Parents will be notified ahead of time of any trips.

Finally, we would like to remind students that with this hot weather we are experiencing, it is beneficial to your health and well-being if you have a water bottle on you to sip on during the day. Energy drinks do nothing to improve your health and well-being and are probably doing more damage. So remember, water is best - EVERYTIME.

Mates and Dates - Year 12

All Year 12’s will be participating in the Mates and Dates 5 week course during Period 4 on Wednesdays starting 10th March. Mates and Dates is an ACC school-based healthy relationships programme developed to help prevent unsafe dating and sexual violence.

Mates & Dates is about all kinds of relationships - including friends, family and whānau.

The programme teaches students how to:

· have healthy relationships built on respect, equality, and consent. This includes communication skills, problem solving and decision-making skills.

· exercise their rights and responsibilities related to consent and safety.

· be critical of ideas in the media about equality, gender, body image and sexualisation.

· identify inappropriate and abusive behaviours.

· access help from trusted adults and professionals in their community. Help seeking is for more than just abuse.

· safely intervene in situations that could lead to harm.

Mates & Dates is a strengths-based programme that believes all young people are able act with respect towards their mates, dates, and family in all interactions.

The programme taught in each year group throughout the year will be appropriate for that age group. It will be taught by specialist sexual violence prevention programme facilitators over five one-hour sessions. Mates & Dates is not a sex education programme but will include materials and discussions about what is relationship violence and the issues that young people face in today’s environment. This includes consent, dating, relationships, identity, attraction, pornography, alcohol and or drug use. The programme takes a harm minimization approach by openly discussing topics so young people are empowered with information to make safe choices.

The year 12 programme, which starts specifically covers the following content areas.

• Session 1 – What is a healthy relationship, your values and how do you end relationships respectfully. Support services and the importance of reaching out for support are talked about in every session.
• Session 2- Consent and what this means in everyday life as well as sexual relationships. This includes discussion around the law and sexual interactions. Explore what impact the media can have upon consent; reality versus fake, as well as the impact that pornography can have upon ideas of consent and healthy relationships.
• Session 3- Gender, identity, and sexuality. Critically explore ideas that may be portrayed in the media about equality, gender, body image, consent and what a healthy relationship is.
• Session 4 – Keeping safe and the impacts of violence (both sexual and non-sexual). Focus on staying safe online and online grooming. How to support a friend?
• Session 5 – The bystander effect. Focuses on how you can keep you and your mates safe and what you can do if you see something happening that is not ok

Please do not hesitate to contact Carolyn Katu (ckatu@rghs.school.nz) if you have any questions.

Nga mihi mahana

Carolyn Katu

HOF