He mihi mahana ki a koutou katoa - Warm greetings to all.

Tomorrow is Pink Shirt Day. This day is about working together to stop bullying by celebrating diversity and promoting kindness and inclusiveness.

It’s about creating a community where all people feel safe, valued and respected, regardless of gender identity, sexual orientation, age, ability, religion or cultural background.

At Somerfield Te Kura Wairepo we work hard to be inclusive and respect the diversity of our community. Sadly, at times, the world outside the school influences how some of our tamariki behave towards each other.  Although most our tamariki are too young for social media platforms and many programmes and movies, their play and interactions can reflect these and not in a positive way.  Access to the digital world and its pitfalls has been exacerbated by the pandemic with lockdowns giving many children more access to digital devices, and at times unsupervised, while whānau grapple with working from home. We are not in lockdown and now it is time to put back some controls. Recently, I have dealt with an online bullying incident that came from a home device, nothing to do with school, but was targeted at one of our whānau. In this case the police were contacted.

Our staff work hard each day to reinforce the need to be respectful towards one another and on the whole, our tamariki are.  But at times we feel the forces beyond the school impact us and they are far more powerful, influential and anything but respectful.

Tomorrow is time to take stock and reflect on how we treat one another and respect the diversity of who we are at Somerfield Te Kura Wairepo. 

It is also a time to remind us about what bullying is and isn't. Sometimes tamariki behave poorly, make mistakes and in the moment treat others disrespectfully but it isn't always bullying. Not acceptable, but not bullying.

What is bullying?
It isn’t uncommon to hear someone say something insensitive or mean to someone else. Although these comments or actions are not okay, bullying has some specific features that make it much more serious and harmful.
• Bullying is deliberate – harming another person intentionally
• Bullying involves a misuse of power in a relationship
• Bullying is usually not a one-off – it is repeated, or has the potential to be repeated over time
• Bullying involves behaviour that can cause harm – it is NOT a normal part of growing up and should not be tolerated.

We encourage our school community to wear pink tomorrow and stand up for inclusion and diversity.

On another note, we are fortunate that Christ's College’s Health and Wellbeing Programmes are being offered to the Community.  An up and coming event is being live streamed tonight at 7pm. This session is on mindfulness and presented by Dr Nick Penney. See the details in the community news.