KORERO FROM MIRANDA

Kia ora Rototuna e te Whānau,

This is our last newsletter for Term 2. We have had a big term, completing learning and assessments from the first half of the year, moving into Semester 2 programmes and looking for opportunities to acknowledge and celebrate our young people's personal and academic success. Thank you all for the continued support and encouragement you give to your students and to our school.

As we move into the middle of the year and into the colder months, sometimes learning can seem harder- especially when we are challenged to learn something new, or to do something different. Our initial response can be to put up roadblocks as we tell ourselves, “it will take too long, it is too hard, or the old way works.”

By shifting our focus from identifying the challenges to identifying the benefits we can increase our aspiration to do initially unappealing things. By helping our young people to identify how they will personally benefit from mastering something new, we can help to reduce barriers and increase motivation to learn.

As you read on in this newsletter we share some of the challenges our students have embraced that deepen and connect their learning to our local and global communities: EPro8, the Model United Nations, and 100 Locals pitches in Puna Wānanga.

I hope you all enjoy the term two holidays with your families and celebrating Matariki together

Ngā mihi,

Miranda