Nau Mai Haere Mai, we started the week with a wonderful assembly celebrating te wiki o te reo Maori. We sung and prayed in Te Reo, and Mrs Leo’o led us in a fun game which had the boys speaking Te Reo.

The chosen theme for 2020 is again 'Kia Kaha te Reo Māori’.

‘Kia Kaha’ is well understood in New Zealand English with its meaning of ‘be strong’. We often talk about languages as if they are people – talking about language health, strength and revitalisation. So when we say ‘Kia Kaha te Reo Māori’ we’re saying - ‘Let’s make the Māori language strong'. I have enjoyed the large numbers of boys who have greeted and farewelled me this week using Te Reo. The challenge is to encourage our students and staff to make this our “everyday” rather than a designated week each year. I see in our tamariki the future of Te Reo and pride in speaking Te Reo.

Next week, we celebrate Mental Health week. Our students have prepared an assembly to raise awareness for mental health and wellbeing. We are having a mufti day on Tuesday and will finish the week with a fun run to raise funds for a variety of charities related to improving mental health in our community.

Our senior students are working very hard as the end of the year is fast approaching and are working diligently towards their academic goals. Next week our staff will be reporting their predicted grades, which will give our families and students a good snapshot of how close our students are to achieving their goals.

Our Year 9 students have had a wonderful week reflecting on their faith as part of their retreats with Catholic Youth Team. It has been great observing our boys in this environment.

A large number of whole school events are planned for Term 4. We will make a decision on these happening at the start of Term 4 based on what alert level we may find ourselves in. We would need to be at Level 1 to complete our whole school activities in the format we have enjoyed in previous years.