KORERO FROM MEL

This week has marked a massive milestone for our school, as we took possession and moved into our new building. This building, and the outside walkways, have been a work in progress for nearly four years now. Having the extra space is going to make a world of difference to our learners, their learning and our teachers. Our spaces were named and blessed by mana whenua, Ngāti Wairere.

Taking ownership of the new spaces connects well to my final SOAR message in this week’s assemblies. R is for showing Respect to our people and our places. We can all be doing a better job of looking after our spaces, picking up rubbish and litter in particular. We should be appreciating our beautiful new indoor and outdoor spaces.

R is also about being kind and inclusive of others. Our students are at the stage of the year where most of them have settled into their friendship groups and we’re seeing some conflict emerge. Our young people may not appreciate or like all of the people around them and that’s okay, but that is no excuse to not be kind and respectful to everyone around them. Whether they like a person or not, whether they have had some conflict with them or not - we expect them to be kind and to be respectful. This includes stopping the name calling, stopping the put downs and stopping the stirring of gossip and drama.

We would also like to see this extend into the community on the way to and from school. We have been contacted by concerned people in the community, Te Kete Aronui (the new library) and by businesses around and including Woolworths about a small number of our students behaving poorly, or being inconsiderate to members of the public after school. We would appreciate you having a discussion with your child about whether they frequent Rototuna Village and/or Te Kete Aronui and its playground and the types of behaviours we should and shouldn’t see in them. The behaviours described include students congregating in the doorway of Woolworths; preventing people from entering and exiting, riding their scooters in store, riding bikes and scooters along the front of Woolworths at speed (across the entrance), being rude and pushing in front of people and verbally abusing staff and members of the public. We know our students are generally well mannered and hope that they make more of an effort to better represent you as their whānau and our school when they are out in the community at the end of the day. We will be sharing a similar message with the student body in the next few days, as well as having a staff presence at the shops.

On a completely different final note, if you haven’t already, please sign up for the Colour Run Fun Run to support our athletes heading to AIMS Games and Tournament Week. I have offered myself up to be ‘coloured’ if we reach our fundraising goal! Students can select prizes from raising as little at $10, so there is plenty of incentive!