Tēnā koutou kātoa

It’s good to be back with a busy school and all those smiling faces (mostly smiling faces!)

Nau mai, welcome to Deputy Principal Jared Peacock and nau mai hoki mai welcome back to Guidance Counsellor Jayne Mallinder.

We have several nominations in this year's Selwyn Awards and there is a People's Choice category. As Malvern doesn't have the highest population in Selwyn we need the highest proportion of our population to vote so please click the link here (https://www.selwynawards.co.nz/peoples-choice-award) and look out for the names below (and former student Vaughan Smart). Voting Closes Sunday 23rd at 12pm:

Young Achievers

Isla McPherson
Lily Payton
Anna Roberts

Sports Leadership

Pip Deans

Ryan Booth is currently in Korea representing New Zealand in the shooting junior world championship.

Our staff are fully focussed on helping our students to catch up on learning lost through sickness and strikes. All I ask of you is to keep the urgency going within your families - ensure that students appreciate the value of learning and don’t allow anyone to give up. Stress and overload isn’t healthy either and we are looking to adapt our programmes to student needs. My thanks to all the teachers who offered extra help during the last holidays.

As everyone knows, we have adapted our cellphone procedures to a basic “in bags and away from the start to the end of the day”. We’ve seen more students talking to each other, playing and interacting positively. We have, unfortunately, also seen an increase in some students trying to go to toilets to use phones: addiction is a real problem and I’m realistic that we won’t overcome that with a simple rule change. It will take concerted support from school and parents. It’s been nice to hear your messages of support and we do believe we are on the right track.

Mauri ora ki a koutou (good wishes to all)

Andy England

Key dates:

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

U15 Rugby Fundraiser