He mihi mahana kia koutou katoa - Warm greetings to all.

A huge thank you to all the staff at Somerfield Te Kura Wairepo who played their part during the seven weeks of Alert Level 3 and 4 to support our tamariki.  I'd especially like to thank our admin and learning support who showed their hidden talents. You saw many of their ideas on the workspaces. Thank you to the amazing teaching staff who really worked hard to help us connect and map the wellbeing and learning of our tamariki. I enjoyed many of the daily Youtube and workspaces ideas.

We were all really taken with some of the work our tamariki produced. We've shared snippets but are looking at the best way to archive and share with you while maintaining privacy.

Thanks to our Board of Trustees for their ongoing support and thank you to you, our whanau. I know there were testing times for some but we appreciate the support - the messages and cake especially!!

And special congratulations to our tamariki who have shown their resilience and independence this week coming to school.

The smooth return to school for most our tamariki is a testament to the collaboration between whanau, school and our tamariki. We appreciate you preparing them as transitioning back to school after seven weeks has the potential to be tricky for some. In fact, due to the partnership it was a very seamless, enjoyable process for the majority. The focus has been on reestablishing routines and structures, re-connecting with teachers and friends, showing gratitude, as well as creative and physical learning activities. We know from research on post traumatic events that this is the best way to integrate our tamariki back to school.

We are working hard on gratitude and you can help us. Often parents ask their children at the end of the day - "What did you do today?" and get the reply - "nothing".  I assure you this is not true!  Our teams are taking time at the end of the day to spend some time with the children showing gratitude. There is neuroscience that supports the notion that Gratitude, thanking others, thanking ourselves, Mother Nature or the Almighty for some –  gratitude in any form, can enlighten the mind and make us feel happier. It has a healing effect on us.  As wellbeing is the foundation to learning we want to do anything that benefits it! Just google it to see what I mean!

So I suggest a repositioning of your language at the end of the day to support tamariki.  Instead of "what did you do today?" here are some new questions you might like to try.

Tell me about the best part of your day.

What were you grateful for today?

Show me what you learned today.

What is something that challenged you?

How did someone fill your bucket today? Whose bucket did you fill?

What books did you read today?

What creative activity did you do today?

These sorts of question accentuate the positive instead of complaints and negativity. Strangely enough negativity is actually easier to do but gratitude questions are more important for wellbeing. They just take a bit of practice!! Good luck!!

“Enjoy the little things. For one day you may look back and realize they were the big things.” – Robert Brault

Thank you to Space 16 for providing the art work for this article.