A week of tragedy, as we lost a recent former student, and also pride with our junior semi formal, international guests and leading students. Plus more new teachers for next year.

Kia ora koutou

This has been a tough week for many of our students who knew Keyana Smith-Beazley. Many of us will remember Keyana and her characterful time at DHS. I think of her like an aunty or big sister to many of the younger rangatahi and she often helped us to deal with various issues. Sharn Nu’u, our local Community Board member and parent of the school, organised a small memorial at school which was well supported by our staff and kapa haka. Going forward, we will continue to support safer driving initiatives for young rural people.

I’ve also had the absolute privilege of interviewing students for the Hickman Trust scholarship, hearing about their exciting future plans, and of interviewing candidates for next year’s Head Student roles. We have such an incredible range of talents and personalities in our school community.

We welcomed Kagoshima school from Japan with a mihi whakatau and it was moving to hear their reply waiata sung in te reo Māori. What amazing respect and preparation (and lovely voices). Our students and theirs then spontaneously played games and talked about each others’ cultures. This is the beauty of international students - I know many of ours are itching to travel overseas.

Our junior Semi-Formal was a loud and proud blast of fun for many of our year 9 and 10 students. It was great to see them so well dressed, happy and having fun with dancing and singing (and taking photos of course). Our very cool seniors helped run the night as well as key staff, most notably Mrs Emily McNabb (who was Miss Emily Dawson last term ;)

I’m pleased to announce two more great teachers joining us next year: experienced teacher Mrs Amelia McKnight, currently at Lemonwood Grove school in Chch, and newly graduated teacher Ms Amelia Jarvis-Hall who brings experience as a teacher aide and deep learning with a Masters degree in educational and developmental psychology.

If you haven’t yet, please sign up an adult from your family for our parent/whānau evening on the topic of keeping our kids safe online with filmmaker and author Rob Cope. Register here- Our Kids Online

Ngā manaakitanga (with kindness/respect)

Andy England

Key dates:

See https://darfield.school.nz/calendar/